Top Ten Desis of 2009

As we welcome a new decade, ABCDlady brings you the final “Top Ten Desi” list of the '00s. Our 2009 list includes philanthropists, innovators, and activists from the United States and beyond, highlighting the diverse contributions of the South Asian diaspora. If you have difficulty making your new year’s resolutions, imagine how hard it must be for our honorees—it’s hard to imagine how they could top their accomplishments of 2009!

Amitabha Sadangi, CEO, International Development Enterprises
An uncommon hero, Amitabha Sadangi, 47, is best known for turning his back on wealth and fortune to work on irrigation and poverty in India—and he has seen great success. Sadangi understands poverty firsthand, having grown up in the economically depressed state of Orissa. Young Sadangi sold newspapers and later worked as an accountant to support his education, including a postgraduate degree in labor and social welfare and a law degree. He currently serves as CEO of International Development Enterprises (IDE), a non-profit organization in India that turns small farms in India into big businesses. Rather than giving charity, Sadangi’s organization gives farmers the tools they need for sustainable agriculture. By providing irrigation systems to them for as low as $1.00, Sadangi has helped more than 400,000 families among India’s rural poor double their income. This year, Sadangi was recognized for his efforts in social entrepreneurship at the Global Philanthropy Forum.

Amitabha Sadangi

A.R. Rahman

A.R. Rahman, Musician
Last year, we celebrated the cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire on their Academy Award-winning film. At the Oscars in 2009, 43-year-old A.R. Rahman, one of the most accomplished musicians in Indian music history, received special notice for his work on the film, earning awards for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song. And Rahman is kicking butt for his music scores on other films too. This year, he won Best Music Director for Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na and Best Background Score for Jodhaa Akbar at the Filmfare awards. The Indian Film Academy recognized Rahman as Music Director of the Decade.

Babar Ali, Student and Professor
Described as the “youngest headmaster in the world” by BBC News, Babar Ali, 16, began an education program to teach children from his village in West Bengal—in his own backyard. The first member of his family to receive formal education, Ali himself travels six kilometers to attend his own school. However, he is one of just a few hundred students whose parents can afford to send him to school, while thousands of children are unable to attend. Concerned about this disparity in educational access, Ali turns from student to professor at 4:00 PM each afternoon, when more than 800 children arrive in his backyard, ready to learn from him. Ali plans lessons based on what he has learned at school, believing it’s his duty to educate the children of his village and help India build a better future.

Kavita Ramdas, CEO, Global Fund for Women
This year, we recognize human rights activist Kavita Ramdas, 47, for her contributions to women’s rights. Ramdas, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, the largest non-profit organization funding women’s human rights, has increased the organization’s grants to $8 million a year and has tripled the number of countries in which the Global Fund for Women awards grants. Ramdas believes that powerful change will result from investment in women. For her deep personal commitment to her work, she received the 2009 Haridas and Bina Chaudhuri Award for Distinguished Service from the California Institute of Integral Studies, which recognized her promotion of female empowerment across the world.

Atul Gawande, Physician
Brooklyn-born Atul Gawande, 44, wears many hats as an endocrine surgeon, medical journalist, Harvard professor, bestselling author and father of three. A vocal member of the American medical community, Gawande has been named one of the 20 most influential South Asians by Newsweek and is a MacArthur Fellow. Known for his hard-hitting mainstream press medical articles that don’t pull any punches, Gawande made waves this year with his article “The Cost Conundrum,” published in The New Yorker. Gawande revealed that residents of a small Texas town spend more per person on healthcare than anywhere else in America but that the “conundrum” is that greater spending does not improve the quality of care. This article is required reading for armchair pundits and politicos alike—President Obama required his staffers to read it. Also, check out Gawande’s most recent book, The Checklist Manifesto, published December 2009. This examination of the hated to-do list is one of Amazon’s Best Books of the Month for December.

Kavita Ramdas

President Obama and Kal Penn

Kal Penn, Actor and Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement
While we all know Kal Penn, 32, from his roles in the Harold and Kumar franchise, The Namesake and House, we think it’s pretty cool that he turned his attention to politics and agreed to serve as the associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement for the Obama administration. In this position, Penn leverages his ethnic credentials and his entertainment resume, serving as a liaison to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities as well as arts and entertainment groups. Having campaigned extensively for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election season, Penn’s position fulfills a lifelong passion for arts and public service.

Kavya Shivashankar, Champion, Scripps National Spelling Bee
South Asian spelling bee winners have become the stuff of clichés, but we nonetheless congratulate Kavya Shivashankar, winner of the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Shivashankar placed in the top ten in 2008 before winning this year. Can you spell “Laodicean”? Have you even heard of the word “Laodicean”? Shivashankar has—she spelled the word correctly in the final round, taking the trophy. (BTW, “Laodicean” means “of or relating to Laodecia”—wherever that is—or “indifferent in matters of religion.” Break that one out at your next cocktail party!)

Jay Sean, Musician
Baby, are you down, down down down down, doooooooooooown? If you haven’t had Jay Sean’s triple-platinum hit “Down” stuck in your head at some point this year, then you just aren’t paying attention! Kamaljeet Singh Jhooti, 26, best known by stage name Jay Sean, was born to Punjabi Sikh immigrant parents in England and has been well known in England’s Asian Underground music scene since the early 2000s. Jay Sean hit the North American music scene radar this year with “Down” featuring Lil Wayne and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart—the first South Asian solo artist to do so. We expect to hear more from Jay Sean, even if the sky is falling down.

Maneesh Agrawala and L. Mahadevan, 2009 MacArthur Fellows
South Asians are no strangers to the MacArthur Foundation Fellows list—also known as the “Genius Award.” Each year, MacArthur Fellowships are awarded to 20-40 U.S. citizens or residents who, according to the foundation, “show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work.” These are not awards for past achievement but investment in potential. Maneesh Agrawala, 37, and L. Mahadevan, 44, are among this year’s winners. Agrawala, a computer vision technologist and associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, studies visual interfaces that enhance users’ ability to synthesize and comprehend large quantities of complex digital information. Agrawala’s research holds new possibilities for transforming how we use, synthesize and comprehend the ever-increasing volume of digital information we encounter. Mahadevan, an applied mathematician and De Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics at Harvard, examines principles underlying complex systems to address questions such as how flags flutter and how skin wrinkles.

Jay Sean

Sonal Shah

Sonal Shah, Director of White House Office of Social Innovation
A dedicated public servant, Sonal Shah, 41, was appointed director of the White House Office of Social Innovation, which coordinates governmental efforts to fund non-profit organizations and social entrepreneurs. Shah’s appointment was not without controversy due to her previous role as national coordinator for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the international arm of India’s right-wing political party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. But Shah’s career has demonstrated her dedication to secular politics, through her co-founding of Indicorps, a non-religious, non-profit organization that recruits young South Asians from outside of India to volunteer for Indian non-governmental organizations.

Nisha Chhabra and works for Merritt Group Inc. as a communications professional. She is also pursuing a master's degree in journalism from Georgetown University. She currently lives in Arlington, VA. Nisha can be reached at nisha.chhabra@gmail.com.

Roopika Risam is Managing Editor of ABCDlady and a Ph.D. student at Emory University.