ARTESIA: Representatives from several ethnic weeklies along with some well-known members of Indo-American community got together on April 9 to celebrate the launch of 'Square Pegs, Round Holes' penned by Jaswant Singh Sachdev, M.D. of Phoenix, Arizona.

Dr Sachdev and his wife flew in for the ceremony that was held at Ashoka Restaurant located at Pioneer Blvd. in Artesia, California. Present among the gathering were prominent Indian community members including Rajen Anand, a past Executive Director of Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion in Washington DC, S Inder Singh, President GOPIO International (Global Organization of People of Indian Origin), Dr Jasbir Singh Mann, a reputed orthopedic surgeon cum-writer, Dr Manmohinder Singh Hayreh, a long time friend of the author and prominent

Eye-Surgeon; Dr Surinderpal Singh Dang, class fellow and prominent cardiologist in Orange county and S Gurdeep Singh Malik, a prominent businessman, community activist cum-social worker and a committed Sevadaar of the community. The role of Master of Ceremony was ably handled by Pritam Singh M.A., a Real Estate Broker in the Valley and a childhood friend of Dr Sachdev.

He introduced the author and thanked him on his excellent work about hitherto untouched, yet important social issues relating to Diaspora. In addition, the owners of Sirspeedy-Tustin, Jagjit Singh and Gurmeet Singh Bains, S. Mohinderpal Singh Gandhi, the owner of medical laboratory in Orange County, S Surinderpal Singh of Corona and S Gurdayal Singh owner of Jyot Financial Services as well as several other businessmen and friends of the author took their precious time to facilitate Dr Sachdev. Dr Sachdev informed the audience that this book is a collection of some of his essays that he penned over several years.

The book takes the reader deep into the minds of South Asian Diaspora members in exploring their socio-cultural attitudes, behaviors and life styles. Wendy Ring, in the book introduction had written, "It helps immigrants in integrating them in their new homelands, providing ideas and insight about adapting to an adopted country while maintaining one's culture.

The material in "Square Pegs, Round Holes likewise shows each of us how to merge East and West respectfully, peacefully, and harmoniously, no matter where one was born or where one lives now. In other words, how one goes about fitting a square peg in a round hole.

Truly speaking, 'Square Pegs, Round Holes' should answer many questions not only from immigrants but also from native-born". The book consists of 252 pages and is divided into 38 chapters, each chapter dealing with an altogether a different issue. The topics in this collection are ever-refreshing, current, pertaining not only to the cross-cultural dilemma of South-Asian Diaspora but also to the Western culture as seen through the eye of an Easterner.

The readers, on either end, will find enough useful information to understand the ingrained cultural assets as well as deficiencies of the South-Asian immigrants, all stated in a bold yet, in a delicately balanced way.

On being asked about a VIP for the function to launch the book, Dr Sachdev responded that all the esteemed guests and friends who took time of their busy schedule to attend the event are VIPs in his eyes and thus requested to collectively launch the book.This book has been published by Horizon Unlimited LLC of Phoenix, Arizona and printed by Sirspeedy Printers,Tustin, California.