By a StaffWriter
A
rchna Becker, owner and
founder of Bhojanic, an
Atlanta, Georgia-based
eatery, was recently given the
National Restaurant Association
award. Becker, who was one of
the eight awardees honored
nationwide, arrived in the U.S.
from India at the age of 11.
She began her career three
years later in the restaurant
industry as a drive-thru worker
at a quick service restaurant.
She continued to work vari-
ous industry jobs for another
decade before pursuing a career
as a business executive.
Becker soon realized her pas-
sion was in cooking, opening a
catering business in the early 90s
and a full-service restaurant a
few years later. Today, Becker
continues to give back to her
community, by serving on the
Georgia Restaurant Association
Board.
She has employed more than
two dozen Bhutanese refugees
and has an intense training pro-
gram to help them learn English
and facilitate their transition to
the U.S.
Becker received the PepsiCo
Foodservice’s Faces of Diversity
Award, which honors diverse
members of the industry who
have achieved success in the
face of adversity, and who
embody the American Dream.
According to a report in The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Becker opened her second
Bhojanic location in the Shops
Around Lenox a little more than
a month ago. The first thing that
distinguished Bhojanic when it
opened some eight years ago,
with a selection of small plate
“Indian tapas” designed for sam-
pling and sharing.
“The main thing I hated was
that you had to buy a lot of large
portions,” Becker was quoted as
saying of more typical Indian
restaurants of the time. “You
either ate at a nasty buffet or you
ended up buying $200 worth of
food and eating it all week.”
Bhojanic’s mostly Northern
Indian, Punjabi-style cuisine
comes from Becker’s homeland
and is cooked homestyle, with-
out butter or cream. The kitchen
sources local and seasonal ingre-
dients, and freshly roasted spices
are ground daily.
Archna Becker Receives National Restaurant Association Award
By a StaffWriter
n Indian-American
basketball player has
picked up his second
all-region award of the
postseason, this time
from the National Association of
Basketball Coaches (NABC).
Gokul Natesan landed on the
NABC’s All-South Central
Second Team after the Colorado
School of Mines guard had a
standout 2015-16 season to lead
the Orediggers to the NCAA
Tournament. The NABC awards
are selected and voted on by the
member coaches in National
Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) Division II.
Natesan was also a First-
Team D2CCA All-Region pick
earlier this month, according to
a press release from the school.
The D2CCA stands for the
Division II Conference
Commissioners Association.
This is just the latest in a
series of honors for the 6 ft 5
inch, 190 lb Natesan this season.
His other recent honors include
RMAC Defensive Player of the
Year and First-Team All-RMAC
(Rocky Mountain Athletics
Conference). The junior aver-
aged 20.7 points, 3.6 rebounds,
3.4 assists, and 2.1 steals per
game to lead Mines (24-8) to the
RMAC Tournament title game
and an NCAA Tournament
appearance. He was a member
of the RMAC Shootout All-
Tournament Team.
He’s an achiever off the court
as well. Natesan’s classroom per-
formance earned him First-
Team Academic All-America and
RMAC Academic Player of the
Year and First-Team Academic
All-RMAC honors.
Brought up in Santa Clara,
California, Natesan attended
Cupertino High School.
He had chalked up many
wins and honors while still in
high school.
Natesan’s detailed game per-
formance on the Colorado
School of Mines website tracks
his achievements year by year
since high school. He spent the
2012-13 season at La Jolla Prep
Basketball Academy in San
Diego, California, where he aver-
aged 15.5 points per game and
put in a stellar performance get-
ting recognition as an MVP,
earning selections to various
teams.
Natesan averaged 18.0
points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.2
steals per game while making 75
3-point baskets as a junior.
He kept up his grades, mak-
ing it to the academic honor roll
all four years, and was a mem-
ber of the National Honor
Society and French Honor
Society and was named the 2012
Cal-Hi Sports CCSWinter
Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In 2013-2014, Natesan was
named RMAC Freshman of the
Year. In 2014-2015, he scored a
season-high 25 three times, and
crossed 20 points seven times.
In 2015-16, he was part of the
team recognized as a CoSIDA
First-Team Academic All-
American, a prestigious recogni-
tion given to teams composed of
most outstanding student-ath-
letes, which is administered by
College Sports Information
Directors of America (CoSIDA).
News India Times
April 8, 2016
8
Community
– that’s all you need to know
A
Rising Basketball Star Earns Recognition FromNational Coaches Organization
By a StaffWriter
T
exas Governor Greg
Abbott recently appoint-
ed Arun Agarwal, CEO of
Nextt, a Dallas-based home
textile manufacturing compa-
ny, to the state’s Product
Development and Small
Business Incubator Board for a
three-year-term.
This is the first time an
Indian-American has been
bestowed this honor in the
state's history. The PDSBI is a
revolving loan program,
administered by the office of
the governor, and overseen by
a nine-member board
appointed by the governor.
The PDSBI Fund provides
financial aid for the develop-
ment, production and com-
mercialization of new or
improved products and to fos-
ter the growth of small busi-
nesses in Texas.
“It is such a huge honor for
me to serve on one of the gov-
ernor’s boards,” said Agarwal.
“As global business owners, it
is our responsibility and civic
duty to help other local small
businesses survive and thrive
in this global economy, and I
am excited to do my part.”
Nextt is a $500 million rev-
enue, privately-held company
that provides textiles to all of
the major U. S. retailers,
including Dillard’s, Belk, Wal-
Mart and Kohl’s. Nextt also has
a robust portfolio of leading
celebrity brands such as
Beautyrest, Ellen Tracy, Jessica
McClintock and Royal Sateen.
The company was recently
awarded the patent for “alpha
cotton,” a luxurious fabric that
will make sheets 30 to 40 per-
cent cheaper than 100 percent
cotton.
Agarwal was honored as
“NRI of the Year” by TIMES
NOW and ICICI Bank in 2015,
and was selected as a 2014
Minority Business Leader by
the Dallas Business Journal
while Agarwal’s company was
ranked 17th in the 2014 Dallas
100 list of fastest- growing
companies selected by the
Caruth Institute for
Entrepreneurship of SMU.
Arun Agarwal Named To Texas Small Business Board
