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February 28, 2005

Preity Zinta defies reaper of grim

Bollywood actress Preity Zinta writes about a pair of year-end brushes with death in a column for BBC News. Her first experience came during a concert and dance show entitled “Temptation 2004” in Colombo, Sri Lanka:

I am waiting in the left wing for my finale. The music is pulsing through the audience, and the pyrotechnics are lighting up the inky black night.

Suddenly I see a man in the front row flying to his left. Then I see Shah Rukh looking to his right and left. Then I see the dancers disappear.

What is happening?

I stepped on the stage and leaned over. I saw a pool of blood in the front rows. The security men grab us from behind and ask us to leave.

A bomb has exploded in the front rows - two people are dead, more than a dozen injured. The concert has come to a bloody end.

A mere two weeks later, Zinta is vacationing in Phuket, Thailand for Christmas:

...suddenly, there is someone banging on the door. Loudly.

I open the door sleepily to see my friend panting outside. “There’s been a tidal wave. We must run!”, he shouts.

I pick up my handbag and run along with him. I step outside the villa and there’s water all around.

What is happening?

I have slept through the tsunami that has killed nearly 6,000 people on Thailand’s coast, mostly in Phuket.

I have slept as two killer waves forced the hotel to evacuate guests from the island.

On the road to my friend’s place, I see the havoc wreaked by the killer waves.

Phuket resembles a war zone. The road is full of debris. There are bodies lying everywhere.

Zinta survives the ordeal, and is in relatively good health. She calls her mother to tell her that she’s safe, and then decides to do her part for the rescue and relief effort:

I ended up spending eight more days on the devastated island, and saw survivors picking up the pieces.

I saw rescue work picking up speed. I find a German kick boxer in the neighbourhood, and I begin taking lessons.

Unfortunately for Zinta, the relief effort already had an adequate supply of kick boxers on-hand (just in case Jean-Claude Van Damme tries to pull something). Unable to contribute, she elected to spend the rest of her holiday overcoming a childhood-rooted fear of water. Zinta chose to forgo traditional methods such as therapy or swimming lessons, and did it like they would in the old days...if your last name was Onassis:

I go out into the deep sea off the Thai coast and spend four nights in a yacht near Similan island close to Burma.

All my life I have dreaded water.

I almost drowned twice when I was younger. I tried to take swimming lessons, but I barely swim now.

The tsunami should have made me stay away from the water forever. But I have I decided to try and overcome this fear.

This is the third in a small series of first-person perspectives written by Zinta for BBC News. Her prior columns address Indian society’s treatment of women, and a preview of Bollywood in 2004.

apul at 09:49 PM in Film, News · 2 comments · Direct link


"Cruz"ing for babes

Since we have been having a rather contentious debate about the state of poverty in Calcutta, and whether those Kids with Cameras have been exploited, I found it relevant to throw in this little bit of celebrity gossip. Zana Briski isn’t the only woman looking out for Calcutta’s children. From Hollywood.com:

Penelope Cruz plans to follow in Angelina Jolie’s footsteps by adopting an orphan baby.

The 30-year-old Spanish beauty wants to mother one of India’s homeless children after becoming deeply attached to the country following her work with Mother Teresa’s missionaries in Calcutta four years ago.

Jolie adopted baby Maddox after a visit to a Cambodian orphanage in 2001 and plans to welcome more children into her family.

Cruz says, “I love babies. I’ve wanted to be a mother since I was a little girl.

“I’ve been to India a few times and seen a level of misery I’d only seen on the news.

abhi at 05:30 PM in News · 11 comments · Direct link


‘Love’-ing and leaving

I went to the the first South Asian American art exhibit at a major museum that I’ve ever heard of:

I saw a queer Rani of Jhansi, she of the Mutiny, lying dead in snow. I saw a six-yard sari made of Coca-Cola bottlecaps, silver with an orange border. I saw a wall of crimson medicine bottles called ‘Blame’: blame a minority, you’ll feel better in the morning…

I saw a book of memory by a Malayalee daughter, Annu Matthew, who must’ve loved her daddy like Anna loved hers. Her father had died young of smoking. She collaged her childhood snaps into new photos, painting her own Pygmalion paternis. Then she surrounded her false memories with tobacco strewn on cigarette paper like ashes…

I ran into Kal Penn and asked him how he’ll play a super-henchman. ‘Dude, I haven’t even seen the script yet,’ he said. But he remembered the Harold hungama. Boy, did he ever. He was in celeb-out-for-groceries attire, a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes; he’s taller and thinner than he looks on screen…

Outside the museum, Shea Stadium and the World’s Fair site were wintry carcasses. The Unisphere, its fountains drained, hung without an Atlas. I stood below the Indian plate, staring up at the stainless-steel underbelly of America.

Continue reading >>

Previous post here.

manish at 03:07 AM in Art · 10 comments · Direct link


Hey, hey, ho, ho, oregano has got to go

Earlier we told you about the piping hot pizzas-for-visas scandal in Kannada, that frozen tundra up north which supplies the U.S. with totally non-white-bread talent like Sarah McLachlan and Matthew Perry. Ok, and Shania, I’ll give you that. A desi had publicly accused a Canadian minister of expediting immigration in exchange for free campaign pizza. That’s revenge served cold, eh.

Well, some riotgrrls up in the Great White North held a pro-immigrant protest addressed to the replacement minister. In an astonishingly clever innovation, they raised protest turnout by combining the two things grad students love most in the whole wide world:

  1. Stickin’ it to the Man, and
  2. Pizza

As Hominder would say, ‘Mmm… pizza.’

The ‘No Justice, No Pizza’ protest came just in thyme, but its salty language was peppered with cheesy slogans that left a bad taste in your mouth. We’d rather be nuked and quartered than stoop to unsavories just to satiate the pun-dits. And that’s my $3.25 on the subject.

manish at 12:54 AM in Humor, Politics · Add comment · Direct link


 

February 27, 2005

“Brothels” nabs Oscar; “Terrorist” comes up short

“Born Into Brothels” picked up the Academy Award for documentary feature, and filmmakers Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski were on-hand to accept the award. In case you missed it, here’s a Quicktime video of the presentation, and acceptance speech (2.3 MB, 2:20 mins.).

Ashvin Kumar’s “The Little Terrorist” lost out to “Wasp” in the category of live action short. Here’s a brief clip of the presentation, where you can briefly spot Kumar (900 KB, 50 sec.). Spain’s “The Sea Inside” took home the award for foreign language film, beating out South Africa’s “Yesterday,” which was produced by Anant Singh.

Previous posts: The award for the most sepia film goes to..., The Little Terrorist, “Born Into Brothels” earns Oscar nom, & Kids with cameras

apul at 08:53 PM in Film · 38 comments · Direct link


Not for the faint of heart...

a_192_1_1.gifImagine this. You're 22 & living back in da homeland. You were supposed to get married 4 yrs ago but your bride walked off on you for drinking too much. Tarnished for life, there seems to be no hope for your sexual frustration. Solution? Well, I suppose here's one --

AHMEDABAD: In a shocking incident, a 22-year-old youth of Ahmedabad district castrated himself earlier this week to do away with the root cause of his sexual frustration! Bachu Mafabhai, a resident of Sadatpura in Detroj town, chopped off his penis with a sharp blade on Tuesday morning, which according to his own confession, was to get rid himself of the root cause of his unfulfilled sexual desires that were making life miserable for him.

"I could not sleep for nights on end, I would just keep tossing and turning in bed," Bachu, who had a broken wedding engagement four years ago, told TNN.

Good god almighty.

Local doctors managed to restore the spring in his step, as it were, and have an suggestion for our frustrated hero -

"...This fellow could have resorted to masturbation..." Dr Malodiya said.

vinod at 08:29 PM in News · 17 comments · 1 reader linked · Direct link


The award for the most sepia film goes to ...

This morning, I had a vision of a meta-awards ceremony, one that honored all things brown at the Oscars. Although the Oscars aren't until later tonight, desis are lousy at keeping secrets (what's the last successful desi surprise party you went to?), so I'll let you know what was inside the brown envelope:

See also previous SepiaMutiny posts on The Little Terrorist, Born into Brothels, and Gowariker and the Oscars .

ennis at 01:37 PM in Film · 2 comments · Direct link


Hillary Clinton meets with India’s top brass

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) travelled to India this week and met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss a wide range of issues integral to U.S.-India ties. From The Times of India:

Clinton, who was accompanied by US Ambassador David Mulford, met the Prime Minister at his 7, Race Course Road residence.

“It was a nice meeting and both enjoyed it,” said an aide to the Prime Minister.

“They discussed healthcare, education, India-US relations and South Asia. It was a wide-ranging discussion,” the aide said.

Clinton also held talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi:

During her an hour-long one-to-one meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the latter’s 10 Janpath residence, Clinton discussed at length about the socio-economic issues of both countries.

“Both the leaders assessed the growth of India-US ties from Clinton’s time and how far it progressed.

“They have also reviewed the socio-economic situation prevailing in the country,” sources said.

She rounded out her trip with an appearance at the India Today Conclave, where she shared a table with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

Overall, the trip appeared to be a success, and Clinton resisted the urge to make any culturally insensitive remarks. You’ll recall that at a fundraiser in January of last year, she introduced a quote from Mohandas Gandhi by saying, “He ran a gas station down in St. Louis.” Following uproar from the Indian community, Clinton apologized, and said her remarks were “a lame attempt at humor.” Indians observed this time that Clinton was making a lame attempt to hide her ambition for the White House.

The Times of India: Hillary Clinton meets Manmohan, Sonia

apul at 01:26 PM in News, Politics · Comments · Direct link


“This Moment” viewable online

A Windows Media version of Leena Pendharkar’s short film, “This Moment,” is downloadable over at Cinequest Online (via Hollywood Masala). You can watch the film in its entirety by registering with the site, which is free. The 15-minute film stars Purva Bedi (“American Desi”) and Danny Wooten. From the film’s official web site:

Can love really conqueror all? Uma Balachandran, a 20-something Indian American woman is at a unique crossroads: faced with a romantic, sunrise proposal from her African American boyfriend John Ray, her instinct is to say yes. But she’s haunted by her father’s wishes for her to marry the perfect Indian man. What’s worse, Uma’s old flame of 4 years, the all-American Troy Black, wants Uma back so badly, he’s planning to storm in on Uma and John and break up their sunrise tryst. But an unlikely stranger alters his destiny. Does love really conquer anything? Maybe. Maybe not. Set in front of the rising sun behind the beautiful backdrop of San Francisco, A Moment is about choices. (15 minutes, Super 16 mm)

Unfortunately, Cinequest disdains cross-platfrom compatibility, so the film only plays on Windows Media Player 9 for Windows 98/2000/XP. I won’t be able to watch it on my trusty Mac, so you’ll have to guide me with your reviews.

apul at 03:58 AM in Film · 28 comments · Direct link


“Baby 81” visits U.S.

Abilass Jeyarajah, a four-month-old Sri Lankan boy who was separated from his parents by December’s tsunami, will travel to the U.S. on Sunday as a guest of a morning news show.

First known to the world as “Baby 81,” Abilass was recently reunited with his birth parents after DNA tests confirmed their paternity. He was claimed by as many as eight other couples. From Reuters:

“Abilass is taking us to America,” his father Murugupillai told Reuters on Thursday on his way to obtain passports for the trip.

The excited father said he had never been out of the country and the baby had brought him and his wife Jenita luck. They are due to fly out on Sunday courtesy of an American television network, reportedly ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

There’s no word yet on who will conduct the interview, but co-hosts Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer shouldn’t have any trouble with precocious Abilass. They’ve both interviewed the president, so they have plenty of experience with someone who doesn’t read newspapers, has trouble swallowing food, and is largely incoherent.

ABC’s “Good Morning America” airs on weekday mornings at 7 a.m., and the interview is slated for Wednesday, March 2.

Reuters/Yahoo!: Tsunami baby goes to America

apul at 02:58 AM in News, TV · Comments · Direct link


 

February 26, 2005

American Desi Financing

am_desi.jpgInteresting stats on the $$$ behind the flick "American Desi" -

The budget for "[American] Desi" was roughly $200,000 and was released in 2001 on a limited basis -- in about 40 U.S. art house movie theaters.

The film earned about $1 million in U.S. ticket sales. Overseas receipts took in another $1 million in the United Kingdom and India.

"All of the investors (families included) were able to get their capital back, plus the agreed 25 percent," said Pandya.

...Pandya said a sequel for "American Desi" is in the works. Most of the investors who funded the first film are already committed to the second project.

Casting suggestions anyone?

vinod at 10:08 AM in Film · 12 comments · Direct link


 

February 25, 2005

Nelly Furtado’s desi connection

The Record, a music mag out of Bombay, ran an interesting interview with Nelly Furtado:

My daughter Nevis [with her DJ, Lil Jazz] is actually a quarter East Indian so I have family there now…

… I grew up with a lot of Asian and Indian friends speaking Punjabi and Hindi. And I grew up watching a lot of bhangra, Bollywood, religious music and we even had it on television on Saturdays. Actually sometimes while I would clean hotel rooms… my friends invited me to sing at their Indian cultural festival when I was about 18 years old, and my friend’s father said I should sing in Hindi, and I really liked it. I learnt Kabhi Kabhi and I really like Lata Mangeshkar and of course Asha Bhosle who I did a little collaboration with…

I’ve already done Indian remixes in the past. In particular I had an ‘I’m Like A Bird’ remix… And Josh (the Indian band who did the remix), are Canadian — they’re from Montreal actually… It has a lot of hip hop energy to it.

Heck, with that surname she could’ve been Goan :) Here’s a previous post on the Josh remix of ‘Powerless’ (thanks, Sajit).

manish at 12:54 PM in Music · 16 comments · Direct link


Feeling testy

Yes, Azim Premji will ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange today (via SAJA). Yes, he’s the world’s second-richest desi and the chairman of Wipro, India’s third-largest software outsourcing firm.

But will he succumb to Street superstition and pull an Aladdin on the bull’s magic lamps? There’s a reason why they’re so shiny, ya know.

I can’t imagine that fondling a water buffalo’s stocking stuffers would be an Indian billionaire’s favorite activity. It would be better for business if he provided the same service to a highly-placed government babu.

manish at 02:05 AM in Business, Humor · 7 comments · Direct link


 

February 24, 2005

Stop me if you've heard this one before ...

With increased freedom in Afghanistan (at least for men, at least around Kabul) comes the natural consequence of freedom: stand-up comedy.

At a recent impromptu performance, Mubariz wraps on a long black turban - a favorite Taliban accessory - and twists his face into a scowl. He grabs a Kalashnikov to complete the look.

Then he screams at the men to go to the mosque, physically prodding them with his rifle. He grabs one long-haired man and berates him for letting his locks grow - a Taliban pet peeve. His imitation is so precise that the audience can't stop laughing.

Other topics of humor include "the radio call-in show where people dedicated songs by mullahs (minus the music, of course)" and that old favorite of comedians everywhere - armpit shaving. Except in this case, the subject is the Taliban's spot checks to make sure that men were shaving their armpits. [In accordance with the Taliban's interpretation of islamic law, hair had to be short, beards long, mustaches short, and armpits and pubes recently shaved or plucked]

And of course, everybody likes slapstick:

one of the most popular shows on Tolo TV, a private cable station in Kabul, is "Lahza Ha," (Moments). It's the Afghan equivalent of Candid Camera, where pranksters stop Kabulis on the street and con them with gags. The show is so well liked that some Afghans pray early so they don't miss it, and jokes are rehashed the next day.

Although comedy has a long tradition in Afghanistan ("comedy in Afghanistan thrived from the 1800s until the 1960s") one comedian tells the reporter that he takes his inspiration from more contemporary figures, namely "Mr. Bean, Jackie Chan, and Charlie Chaplin."

Source: In Afghanistan, comedians joke their way to civic renewal

ennis at 10:50 PM in Arts and Entertainment · 11 comments · 1 reader linked · Direct link


Sticks and Stones

News Flash! Salman Rushdie has found religion, and vows to fight to protect Lakshmi's honor! The Lakshmi in question, of course, is his wife, Padma Lakshmi, the model/actress/food show hostess/etc extraordinaire.

The whole thing started when Guy Trebay called Padma a "semicelebrated hustler" in his description of Padma's appearance at NYC's fashion week: laxmi.jpg

This former model, cooking show host and celebrity spouse has seemed to appear at all places and all times during Fashion Week, like an avatar of the Hindu goddess whose name she bears. In the superpopulated Hindu pantheon, Lakshmi is the domestic deity representing wealth and the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm. One of the cool things about the goddess Lakshmi is her unabashed relationship to prosperity. In the current fashion pantheon Ms. Lakshmi similarly stands for a love of money and commodity

Salman did not take kindly to this portrayal of his wife, even though the article actually takes pains to paint her in a positive light compared with some of the lower rungs of the fashion food chain. According to the New York Metro, Salman threatened to personally enforce the penalty for blasphemy:
"Witnesses say Rushdie walked up to Trebay at a National Arts Club event three days later and said, “If you ever write mean things about my wife again, I’ll come after you with a baseball bat."

The metro goes on to twit Rushdie for being a hypocrite:
Of course, many found it ironic that Rushdie was threatening a writer with bodily harm for something he’d published. He didn’t return messages, and Trebay refused to comment. But a fellow attendee would: “She’s an ambitious person with a lot of hustle. I would think by celebrity standards she’s fair game. Have you seen her Website?”
Rushdie also refuses to comment on reports that he is taking lessons from Sean Penn on how to handle paparazzi.

Note: Ms. Lakshmi wishes her public to know that she is not a "Import/Export/Indenting/Steam Coal/Lignite Agent" and would never have a website that read "Abous us" in the left hand column.

ennis at 09:20 PM in Arts and Entertainment · 26 comments · Direct link


Other similarities between mutineers and rappers

We both love desi take-out. Of course, some of us hoof it over to Curry in a Hurry, while others use a whirligig:

Rapper Snoop Dogg paid $5,700 for Indian take-out to be flown to his
London after-show party via private helicopter. The rap star ordered the food from The Four Pillars Indian restaurant in Buckinghamshire, England for his Friday night gig at London's Hammersmith Carling Apollo.

We told you earlier about Beyonce's 4,000 pound curry (that's pounds sterling) but did you know that Tom Cruise has food flown from his favorite desi restaurant in the UK when he's on location? Nor is this just a red carpet privilege, it's available to the merely obscenely wealthy as well.
Millionaire businessman Baljit Singh surprised staff at Kalam’s Raj Indian takeaway in Brook Road, Shirley,UK, by ordering 35 dishes over the internet and asking for it to be delivered to where he was staying – Ocean Five Hotel, Miami Beach.

Mr Singh placed his order and paid for it to be flown from Biggin Hill airport to Heathrow by helicopter and from Heathrow to Miami by plane, a journey costing almost £800.The food cost £589, but Mr Singh was given a 10 per cent discount for spending more than £10.

The food was specially prepared, packed and flown to Miami. Mr Malik accompanied the delivery and was on hand to reheat and serve it when it reached the hotel. Speaking after his return, he said: “He was very pleased with it and seemed a really normal man. He even gave us a £200 tip!”

And I thought it was bad enough that my aunties would fedex fresh sabzi and roti, packed in dry ice, to their kids. And doesn't anybody realize that there is good desi food in Canada? In the US even? Nah ...

ennis at 08:50 PM in Food · 2 comments · Direct link


Pushing the Crossover

Rediff.com reports that Mira Nair has cast Bollywood star Tabu to play the role of Ashima in her filming of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake. The film which is currently in pre-production, and scheduled to be completed in 2006, also stars SM favorite Kal Penn as the main protagonist Gogol Ganguli, described by Nair as the "fastest rising Indian American star this side of the ocean." Nair is reportedly in talks with Kate Hudson to play Gogol's (Kal Penn's) American interest. Hudson incidentally will be playing the lead in Gurinder Chadha's next blockbuster I Dream of Jeannie.

Nair said her version of the Namesake would stay

"fairly close to the book. I have made only two changes. One change is that Ashima [the protagonist] is a singer in my film because I want to use music. I love to create soundtracks for my films. Another change – to keep the budget in check – is that I have changed the Cambridge Massachusetts location in the book to New York."
After The Namesake, Nair is scheduled to start on Gangsta M.D., the Hollywood version of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Bollywood hit, Munnabhai MBBS. Chris Tucker has apparently been tagged by Nair to play Sanjay Dutt's role, although he has not yet committed to the film. I wonder if Nair will add some Bollywood Flair to this one. I can see it now, Tucker and some Bollywood hottie breaking out into an impromptu Hip-Hop meets Bollywood/Bhangra song-and-dance number.

More here and here on Nair's projects.


sajit at 08:42 PM in Arts and Entertainment · 8 comments · Direct link


Bloggers Delight

Slate Magazine carries what I am sure will one day be seen as THE seminal article, on the comparison between Rappers and Bloggers. Oh yes my friends, it turns out we are cut of the same mold: abhirapper.jpg

P. Diddy gargles Cristal as his yacht sails from San Tropez to Ibiza. Atrios stares at his computer screen and ponders the effect of “increased central bank diversification out of dollar holdings.” Nelly takes in the NBA All-Star Game from the first row while gabbing on a cell phone made out of a giant shoe. InstaPundit digests the latest developments in the Dartmouth board of trustees race and takes note of an update to C-SPAN’s early morning schedule. What, do I need to draw you a Venn diagram? Rappers and bloggers they’re the same!

Those of you obsessed with external appearances may think I’m kidding. What, you ask, could those champagne-swilling, “bitch”-shouting rappers have in common with those Jolt-pounding, “read the whole thing”-writing bloggers?

For starters, both groups share a love of loose-fitting, pajama-style apparel. Still not satisfied? Bloggers and rappers are equally obsessed with social networking. Every rapper rolls with his entourage; every blogger rolls with his blog roll. Women can’t win an audience in either profession without raunching it up like Lil’ Kim or Wonkette.

Oooooh. I think despite the fact that it is only February, this could be the article of the year!

Great quotes are sprinkled throughout this article. Here is a sampler of the most egregious:

Essentially, blogging is sampling plus a new riff. Political bloggers take a story in the news, rip out a few chunks, and type out a few comments. Rap songs use the same recipe: Dig through a crate of records, slice out a high hat and a bass line, and lay a new vocal track on top. Of course, the molecular structure of dead-tree journalism and classic rock is filthy with other people’s research and other people’s chord progressions. But in newspaper writing and rock music, the end goal is the appearance of originality, to make the product look seamless by hiding your many small thefts. For rappers and bloggers, each theft is worth celebrating, another loose item to slap onto the collage.

Rap music and blogging are populist, low-cost-of-entry communication forms that reward self-obsessed types who love writing in first person. Maybe that’s why both won so many converts so quickly. If you want to become MC I’m Good at Rapping, all you have to do is rustle up a microphone and a sampler. If you want to blog as AngryVeganCatholicGOPMom, bring a computer, an Internet connection, a working knowledge of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, and a whole lot of spare time.
I resent that. I am not self-obsessed. I am going to write about how offended I am on my own blog. Have you guys visited my own blog lately?
But rappers’ and bloggers’ self-importance also has something to do with the supremely annoying righteousness that rides along with those who believe they’re overturned the archaic forms of expression favored by The Man that is, whitey and/or the mainstream media. Ninety percent of rap lyrics are self-congratulatory rhymes about how great the rapper is at rapping, the towering difficulties of succeeding in the rap game, or the lameness of wanksta rivals. Blogging is a circle jerk that never stops circling: links to posts by other bloggers, following links to newspaper stories about bloggers, following wonderment at the corruptions and complacency of old-fashioned, credentialed journalism.

Sure, there are a few differences between the blogosphere and the blingosphere. Although bloggers have a certain buzz about them these days, they’ll never be cool the way rappers are cool. The blogger lifestyle is dangerous-staying up all night and eating Cheetos will eventually kill you-but not sexy dangerous. Rappers can afford to be more conspicuous with their triumphalism because selling millions of records is more financially rewarding than getting millions of hits. But if that blog ad gravy train ever comes in, I guarantee you that Josh Marshall will pick up his mail in a gold-plated tank and Nick Denton will put a hit on any linkmonger who looks at him cross-eyed.

That right there was the silver bullet in the article. I am dangerous, but not “SEXY” dangerous? A quick glance at the desi blogosphere proves this article correct with an example of the synergy between these two forms of art. Check out Reihan Salam’s blog:

This next one is an autobiographical rap about my day thus far:
“Went to Veselka
for blintzes,”
He winces,
“This is sweeter than I expected,”
But I did not reject it
Had some pineapple,
Dipple-dapple
It cleansed my palette…

abhi at 04:20 PM in Blog · 6 comments · Direct link


Doggz fizzle tha Dirty South is hot

South Indian bitches are in demand because they are "flexible, vegetarian, have excellent personalities and are low maintenance” that's why Europeans and Asians sweat them. I would be remiss if I neglected to tell you that dogs and puppies from the dirty dirty are sought after, too. ;)

While Indians long to keep European breeds of dogs, many Westerners, especially the French, Germans and Greeks, as well as people in Singapore and Malaysia, prefer to get a South Indian pedigree dog, native to this town, according to two owners of a kennel here.
Ashok Kumar and Surendra Babu, owners of a kennel and who specialise in South Indian breeds, say they are unable to meet the demand for Rajapalayam dogs, also known as Paleiyakarans or Poligars. "Every month we get orders for 50 pairs, each costing Rs 4,500, from Indians and Westerners. But we are unable to meet the demand. We can supply only 20 pairs" they told a reporter.

As is common with any popular canine breed, idiots with dollar signs for pupils are involved; indiscriminate breeding and inbreeding are ubiquitous and dangerous to the breed's survival.

Rajapayalams were originally bred to kill boars. The surge in interest in this rare type of dog is affecting other lines as well:

The Kennels also have the chippiparai breed, a hound used to kill pigs which destroy fields.
Apart from the Rajapalayam dogs, people of Shencottah near here are now reviving the genuine 'Shencottah' dogs, a rare breed, with the help of doctors, says Raviram, a kennel owner.

I should thank my zealously jealous dog, Jhansi ki Rani, for sending in this tip via a very special mad astronaut. No worries, girl. This South Indian bitch flips the script. Europeans can have their boar hounds, I'm all about my German Shepherd. :)

:+:

Special thanks to "Gizoogle" for solving my title-related writer's block.

anna at 03:21 PM in Humor · 14 comments · Direct link


Oprah “floored” by spelling nerd

Yesterday’s episode of Oprah Winfrey’s syndicated television show covered miracles and other oddities caught on video. During the second half of the show, she ran footage of Akshay Buddiga’s performance at the 2004 Scripps Spelling Bee.

Buddiga became late night talk show fodder after he fainted on-stage when asked to spell “alopecoid.” He subsequently got up, spelled it correctly, and went on to capture second place in the competition.

This is an old story, and by now, you’ve probably seen it. In case you haven’t, or long for Oprah’s commentary on the matter, here’s a Quicktime video of the segment (1.5 MB, 1:30 mins.).

apul at 01:18 PM in TV · 2 comments · Direct link


Smashing icons

Spiderman isn’t the only heeero taking a Bombay local to browntown. Two veteran comic book artists have launched a new comic called Vimanarama about a British Muslim from the tinderbox formerly known as Bradford (via Desi Flavor).

The fashionably-tousled Ali is slouching toward his inevitable arranged marriage, but his retro-hip persona perks up considerably when he finds that bride-to-be Sofia is a babe. Meanwhile, toddler Imran accidentally unleashes the Forces of Darkness, and not just in his diaper; it’s up to jolly Ali to save the world. It’s all very soapy, if not so very Lollywood.

Never letting cultural accuracy get in the way of the almighty pound, the artists are watering down the Muslim angle:

Although his research into the religion was extensive, the author says this won’t be evident in the comic, as all concepts have been translated to be accessible by all audiences. So ‘Allah’ is referred to in the text as God and ‘Hajj’ as pilgrimage… “Islam frowns on representational art and I’d imagine that for some sects comics are possibly the most blasphemous art form imaginable”, the Glaswegian told Newsarama.

Translation: I’ll take one hit comic, hold the hitman — make my just desserts fatwa-free. The comic fuses religions with a title from Hindu mythology and a lotus-and-multiple-arms motif on the first issue’s cover. The arms evoke Doc Oc, The Matrix and Japanese tentacle porn (or so I’m told), and the beetle-browed protagonist has a Gorillaz scowl. It’s a masala comic — they’ve outdone Lahore.

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; and let’s not forget the comic book-inspired, unintentionally hilarious Lollywood effort International Gorillay.

manish at 03:40 AM in Comics, Religion · 1 comment · Direct link


"Little India" sign rejected

The Artesia, CA City Council has decided to reject a proposed highway sign designating the area “Little India.” India West reports (The full story appears in the print edition of India-West.):

The Artesia City Council has rejected the wording of “Little India” for a sign to be placed on the 91 Freeway’s Pioneer Blvd. off-ramp in favor of a more generic sign that reads “Artesia International and Cultural Shopping District.” In the third and final townhall meeting on the issue of what wording should appear on the “Little India” sign, which late last year was approved by the California legislature, the Artesia City Council voted four to one to adopt a compromise offered by Mayor Sally Flowers.

Roughly half of the 90 speakers who turned out to voice their opinion during the Jan. 25 meeting at the Albert O. Little Community Center here favored a sign that simply read “Welcome to Artesia.” Those from the local Indian American community wanted “Little India,” as originally proposed in state Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez’ ACR-67 legislation.

Indians get shafted again. Bermundez wasn’t happy:

When Bermudez heard of the alternative name for the “Little India” sign, “I expected nothing less than the racism that has been demonstrated by the city council and the mayor,” he commented to India-West.

Looking at one of the original concepts for the sign I am left wondering what they could possibly have done to make it more acceptable?

littleindia.jpg

abhi at 01:34 AM in News · 19 comments · Direct link


 

February 23, 2005

How can a flag "blow" on the Moon?

The question that is the title of this entry, along with several other equally frustrating questions, was left on my answering machine one night a few years back, by about a dozen friends. Such is life when you work for the supposed authority on such matters. All of them had watched a Fox Television Special earlier that night which purported that men had never actually been to the Moon, and that it was all a hoax. “Did you know?” they asked. With each message my anger increased. Not at my friends but at the system that allows such idiocy to reach genuinely thirsty minds. I get NASA related emails sent by various friends to my inbox all the time. I almost always have already heard the news, but it still makes me feel good to know that people care. Earlier this week Manish sent me some blogworthy news that I hadn’t heard.

A 17-year-old village boy has topped NASA’s International Scientist Discovery (ISD) exam, sparking a wave of jubilation across his tiny hamlet of Narhai in Uttar Pradesh.

Saurabh Singh, a senior secondary student, has bettered President APJ Abdul Kalam who finished seventh when he sat for the examinations in 1960.

Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist of the ill-fated Columbia space shuttle and the first Indian woman in space, had stood 21st in the 1988 exams.

After achieving the rare feat, Singh said he always dreamt to explore the outer space.

“I had always dreamt of going on a mission on a space craft. I knew about ISD as I was preparing for IIT-JEE. If this form would not have come I would have been giving my entrance for II-TJEE,” Singh said.

I was embarrassed by this email for two reasons. First, I HADN’T heard this news. Space enthusiast that I am, how could I have missed it? Even more embarrassing however is the fact that I had never heard of the supposed, “NASA’s International Scientist Discovery (ISD) exam.”

Yesterday Ennis forwarded me another blogworthy article from the BBC that cleared things up:

The Indian prime minister has cancelled a meeting with a village boy who was reported to have won an international examination organised by Nasa.

It had been widely reported that 17-year-old Saurabh Singh had beaten 200,000 students in the examination.

The reports said President APJ Kalam had passed the same test.

However, Mr Kalam’s office has denied that he had ever taken the exam. NASA officials say they are unaware of any such exam.

Where the f*ck is FOX when you need them? A NASA official subsequently issued the following statement as reported by Rediff news:

There is, they say, no such examination, that they are aware of.

“I have been with NASA for 32 years, and I have never heard of any such programme conducted by NASA,” a NASA official said, when approached for details about the exam. “Are you sure you got your facts right?”

The exam, this reporter informed him citing Indian media sources, has been taken in the past by A P J Abdul Kalam, India’s President, and by the late Kalpana Chawla, the NASA astronaut who perished in the Columbia disaster two years ago.

No, the official reiterated — at NASA, there is no awareness of any such test.

The worst part is this boy’s mom probably put his exam on the fridge and bragged to all her neighbors about it. As far as the answer to the question asked in the title…well I will keep you wondering.

Also see “Where in the World is Hira Manek?”

abhi at 10:30 PM in Science and Technology · 3 comments · Direct link


Portuguesa flips the ‘Bird’

Desi iPod parody: hot

Nelly Furtado bhangra remix: hot

iPod parody with remix: priceless!

Watch this kick-ass video (via Badmash).

Update: By the way, Furtado dances bhangra and sings in Hindi:

Furtado, a second generation Portuguese-Canadian, grew up in Toronto and Victoria, British Columbia. She was inundated with different cultures. One weekend, she would join friends in Latin dance; the next at an Indian bhangra party; the next celebrating the Chinese New Year.

DJ John von Seggern also did a Nelly vs. Asha Bhosle remix of ‘I’m Like a Bird.’ Some odd remixes are described here, including Enrique Iglesias vs. Asha and Barry White done Bollystyle.

Best of the Best college dance competition (bhangra, raas and fusion), April 2, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Manhattan; details TBA

manish at 10:11 PM in Dance, Music, TV · 30 comments · Direct link


Verizon billboards say the darndest things

Verizon: A small jar of chutney costs more than a 10-minute call to New Delhi.     Verizon: A ticket to a Bollywood movie costs more than a 20-minute call to New Delhi.

Spotted the billboards pictured above while driving around in Culver City, Calif. Their location is peculiar, because the area doesn’t have a lot of South Asians, as far as I know. The first one is located near an exit for the 10, which is a prime spot. You’ll find the second one when driving east on Venice Blvd., but it is easy to miss. There might be more out there, so if you spot one, please photograph it, and send it our way.

apul at 09:00 PM in Business, Photos · 6 comments · Direct link


‘Disappeared’ in ‘Fatal Love’

‘Disappeared in America,’ a multimedia installation about American Muslims detained in the post-9/11 dragnet, is opening at the Queens Museum of Art this Sunday. A friend of mine has a short film playing at the installation, whose title sounds like a reference to Pinochet’s Chile. Suketu Mehta and Meena Alexander will read at the opening reception, which also features a discussion with artist Shahzia Sikander, refreshments and a DJ.

Since 9/11, approximately 3,000 American Muslim men have been detained in a security dragnet. To date, none have been prosecuted on terrorism charges. The majority of those detained were from the invisible underclass of cities like New York. They are the recent immigrants who drive our taxis, deliver our food, clean our restaurant tables, and sell fruit, coffee, and newspapers…

Already invisible in New York, after detention, they have become “ghost prisoners.”  In this, there are eerie parallels to… the 1919 detention of 10,000 immigrants after anarchists bombed the Attorney General’s home; the 1941 internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans… and the HUAC Black-listing under Senator Joseph McCarthy.

DISAPPEARED IN AMERICA is a walk-through installation that uses video, soundscapes, photos, objects, and the audience’s interactions to humanize the faces of the “disappeared.”

The installation is part of a major desi art double-header at the Queens Museum. One show is ‘Fatal Love: South Asian American Art Now,’ the other is ‘Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India,’ in conjunction with the Asia Society. Very worth checking out.

Fatal Love features contemporary photographic, print, video, web-based and installation works by 28 emerging and established American artists of South Asian descent… because of tumultuous political state of the subcontinent, diaspora artists are again considering the ways in which the legacy of South Asia’s Independence and partition is manifest both in the local (US) communities and “back home.”
Opening reception on Sunday 2/27: 3pm, artist discussion, readings, refreshments; 4:30, dance performances, ghazals, DJ; free shuttle leaves Asia Society (725 Park/70th) at 2:30pm; or take 7 train to Willets Point/Shea Stadium and follow the yellow signs; show runs until 6/5

manish at 12:57 PM in Art, Film · 2 comments · Direct link


Manchu and Mehta: Two for the tube

Actress Lakshmi Manchu appeared on last Monday’s episode of “Las Vegas,” (via Hollywood Masala):

Her character (“Sarasvati Kumar”), who is a recurring guest, became the the love interest for none other than Sylvester Stallone!

“Las Vegas” airs on NBC on Mondays at 9 p.m.

Actor Ajay Mehta makes a guest turn on this week’s episode of “Without a Trace,” which on its own, is quite an enjoyable show. It’s the perfect way to top off a night of slothing it up with “The O.C.” and “The Apprentice.”

“Without a Trace” airs on CBS on Thursdays at 10 p.m.

apul at 01:59 AM in TV · 4 comments · Direct link


Gentlewomen, start your Jimmy Choos

I’ve run across a few friends in the big city recently with dreams of writing a desi Sex and the City, something about our lives rather than visas, spices and weddings. As utterly compelling as immigrant stories are, they’ve been done, and done well; it’s odd to me that The Namesake and Brick Lane are about their authors’ parents. There’s a different story waiting to be written about impressionists who cross seas with ease, The Talented Mr. Ripley minus the creepy criminality.

Meera Syal’s novel Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee is like that. It’s one of the two prosaic, non-literary novels I’ve most closely identified with. (The other is Love, Stars and All That by Kirin Narayan.) I’ve exchanged breathless words about this book with perfect strangers. Like hip-hop lit, it wasn’t the craftsmanship of the work I responded to, it was the familiarity; Syal was writing people I already knew.

As is usual in cultural matters, the UK is our Paris Hilton: those sods have not only done it, they’ve even filmed it, and soon they’ll post it on seedy sites all over the Internet. Syal has now filmed her novel as a miniseries which is airing on BBC1, the main Beeb channel, the first week of April (via Desi Flavor). It’s set in Ilford, an East London suburb which is the cultural equivalent of New Jersey.

… [Meera Syal] was “pleased” that a drama featuring three Asian women characters in lead roles was getting primetime positioning on Britain’s most popular channel. That she said was “a real breakthrough.”

Ayesha Dharker, the temptress in Bombay Dreams on Broadway, plays the simple, lovelorn protagonist, Chila. The ravishing Laila Rouass (Bombay Dreams London) plays her friend Tania, an idealized vixen who’s stepped outside the bounds and bonds of Asian-ness. Syal herself plays the author’s voice, the progressive lawyer Sunita who’s stuck in an unfulfilling marriage to her college sweetheart.

This is a female bonding story; the peripheral male characters are played by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Raza Jaffrey (Bombay Dreams London), Ahsen Bhatti and comedian Inder Manocha. Other members of the cast include Indira Joshi (The Kumars), Lalita Ahmed (Bhaji on the Beach) and Rani Singh.

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4

manish at 01:48 AM in Literature, TV · 15 comments · Direct link


 

February 22, 2005

The N word

I was at the amazing barbershop around the corner from my apartment the other day getting a haircut. I love my barbershop. It is an old school “barrio” barbershop with a spinning pole outside and men grunting inside as they speak in a mixture of Spanish and English. They spend an obscene amount of time on each haircut. It makes me feel very special. Anyways, as I am sitting in the chair this young Hispanic guy waiting to get a haircut, strikes up a conversation with the young black gentleman in the chair next to mine. They started by talking about neighborhood chicks that they have or have wanted to bleep, then moved on to gossiping about prominent members in the local gangs. “Yeah I know T-Lo. He’s mellowed since he been out of the joint.” I was loving this conversation. Then it got educational all of a sudden. The Hispanic guy felt the need to unburden himself by telling this black man, whom he had just met, that he had used the word “N—ga” recently while he was watching a football game with his best friend (who was black). “I think I may have offended him cause he hasn’t been the same. I’m not racist you know. Its just that many of my friends are black people who be saying N—ga this, N—ga that all the time, and being in that environment it just came out. I hope he wasn’t offended.” The poignancy of the situation struck me. This guy was asking for absolution from a black man, whom as I mentioned he had just met, for the guilt he felt over using a word that didn’t “belong” to him, in front of another black man. This made me think of my own experiences. I have never been able to grow accustomed to the N-Word being used by South Asians as it increasingly is (free registration required for Feb 14th article):

You can see it on television, where comedian Chris Rock makes the word a staple of his routines.

And it’s obvious in local schools, where students of all races concede the word - when used in the right context - is a playful way to talk with your close friends.

“I just grew up hearing it from my friends,” said Zibi Zarghese of Englewood, a student at Rutgers-Newark and a 1999 graduate of Dwight Morrow High School.

Even though Zarghese is Indian, he feels comfortable using the word with his close friends who are black. He even uses the word with his white friends.

“I was accepted in using it. I only used it with my friends,” he said.

But it can cause problems. Zarghese recalled an incident in high school where he used the word with one of his friends and someone else overheard it and started giving him grief.

He learned there are rules. Use it only with and around friends. Always say the word as if it ends in an “a,” never with the harder sounding “er.” Saying it with an “er” is always offensive, no matter what the context. And never use it in front of parents, Zarghese said.

South Asians have never really taken ownership of an ethnic slur. Certainly we stereotype and say Gujus are cheap and Punjabis are crazy and like to fight, but I don’t hear us greet each other with a “what’s up my sand n—ga?” or a “how’s it hangin’ towel head?” Yet I do occasionally hear South Asians say “what’s up my n—ga?” What’s up with that? Shouldn’t we get our own word? Or do we even need a word? Its not just South Asians either, as hiphopmusic.com describes:

Last night at one of my DVD shopping spots in Chinatown they were playing some surprisingly funky cantonese pop.. not really funky by American standards but you could tell they were trying their best to work it, and had landed in a mysterious realm halfway between Timbaland and Air Supply.

I appreciated the effort, and was nodding my head approvingly the singer started making a little speech in english.. I didn’t catch everything he said, but I was damn sure bewildered when he ended his rap with a triumphant “..and you better recognize! Niggaaaaas!!”

Then they launched into the chorus: “This is the outroooo… For all you chickens and hoes….. This is the outroooo.. for all you chickens and hoooes..”

That’s almost as bad as Geeksta Rap. This happened to be something I was thinking about while getting my haircut so I thought I’d put it out there to see if anyone wants to opine.

abhi at 03:56 PM in Issues · 36 comments · Direct link


Geeksta rap takes aim at technically averse

Throughout the years, there have been countless attempts by educators and parents to glamorize the academic pursuits of science and technology. Whether it was financial incentives, or catchy tunes on PBS children’s programs, for many, the battle usually ends in bitter defeat. What they should be doing is speaking to kids in a language that they understand -- rap and hip-hop.

At least that’s Rajeev Bajaj’s theory, and the 39-year-old engineer from Fremont, Calif. is putting his ideas into motion. From the San Jose Mercury News:

Bajaj recently spent $15,000 of his own money forming an independent record label and hiring musicians to perform four rap and hip-hop songs he wrote in praise of the engineering profession. He hopes his debut album, “Geek Rhythms,” will convince America that engineers indeed are cool.

Sure, that sounds about right. A rap album entitled “Geek Rhythms” from a chemical engineer in his late thirties can’t possibly fail to make that point.

Hopefully, a friend or family member will sit him down and introduce him to the term “irony.” After all, his lyrics are brimming with it:

I pack more heat in a computer chip than any man
there is more than most can handle
the trick is to protect the circuit and conduct the heat
without causing to short circuit

You pack more heat in a computer chip than any man? That’s quite a claim, and will surely do nothing to end all the senseless gang violence erupting between Intel and AMD engineers on the tree-lined streets of Mountain View. Still, his underlying motive is shared by others:

“Trying to put a different face on engineering is very important,” said Leann Yoder, executive director of the Junior Engineering Technical Society.

“I just wish it wasn’t this face”

Ultimately, Bajaj has plenty of personal incentive to see his delusion become a reality:

Being brainy was nothing to be embarrassed about when Bajaj was growing up in India. He said it wasn’t until he immigrated to the United States in the ’90s to earn his master’s and doctorate degrees in chemical engineering that he “found out that engineers are geeks and social misfits.”

He didn’t really care. His wife and two young daughters adored him. Priyanka, now age 7, drew him pictures of all the things she wanted to build: space buses and shrink-ray guns like the one in the movie “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” That’s when it hit him.

“I started to deal with the fact that my kids were going to go to school here,” said Bajaj, chief executive of SemiQuest, a Fremont start-up that’s designing a new way to polish silicon wafers.

“I want their ambition or their desire to not get filtered by the high school experience of what the biases are. I would like them to feel cool about whatever they’re doing.”

Little does he realize that when his daughters enter high school, they’ll feel cool by telling their friends that rapping Bajaj is really just a crazy uncle from India. They can make father proud by saying that he suffers from mercury poisoning. How else will they be able to explain these lyrics:

I am an Engineer
Respect my mind
I made D.C from A.C been trying since B.C

I am an Engineer
Respect my mind
I made the refrigerator to make your ice freeze better

I am an Engineer
Respect my mind
I made the airplane, car and motorcycle

I am an Engineer
Respect my mind
So bow down when u see me down town

I’ll defintely bow down, but only to avoid eye contact. It’s just that, see, it would be awkward for us to run into each other downtown, and share insincere pleasantries. Especially after I called you delusional. I’m sure you understand.

Following a spade of mainstream press reports, Bajaj’s album climbed from 231,392 to 5,716 on Amazon.com’s sales charts. And all joking aside, it’s a noble effort, with good intentions, and it would be great to see it succeed. In fact, I know a few folks that I’m going to buy this for. It would be the most passive-aggresive way to get them to stop talking to me.

San Jose Mercury News: Geeksta rap (free registration required)
Day to Day/NPR: Geeksta rap brings education to music

apul at 02:40 PM in Music, Science and Technology · 10 comments · Direct link


Is your computer vegetarian?

To y’all 220 million vegetarian desis: Is your favorite Asian restaurant’s idea of vegetarian food ‘yes, it has veggies too’? Do you marvel at how many ways some insidious bastards work meat into veggie dishes (pepperoni in pasta salad, rice cooked in chicken stock)? Are you sick of throwing away soup you bought without parsing the ingredients like a copy editor? Bored of restaurant menus that read meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, sprig of parsley?

Soon, you may also have to check whether your PC is made from animal products. Researchers are turning chicken feathers into computer motherboards:

To turn feathers into a usable product, they are first plucked from the birds at chicken-processing plants and then the hot, wet feathers are immediately hauled to Emery’s plant. There the “undesirable parts” like chicken heads, feet, windpipes and fecal matter are sorted out from the truckload of feathers. “They’re not a nice sight, to put it mildly…”

… Emery converts the feather fiber into keratin mats that resemble paper towels. They are then placed into a mold, layered on top of one another and infused with a soybean resin that hardens and forms the composite. The material is then put through the circuit-printing process to become a circuit board.

This gives new meaning to the expression ‘my new machine really screams.’ Ironically, the same people who think Gandhi, Jim Morrison and John Lennon drinking their own urine is disgusting, think eating cows fed chicken poop is perfectly ok.

But things are looking up for those who steer clear of digestive recycling: instead of ordering mu shu, you can now order Moo Shoes.

manish at 12:28 PM in Food, Tech · 7 comments · 1 reader linked · Direct link


Desi Dish's Secret Ingredient

An interesting brouhaha brewing 'cross the pond -

Britain's food industry finds Indian chilli too hot to handle

LONDON: Questions are being raised on Britain's food industry regulations after products containing a cancer-causing dye flooded supermarket shelves.

Chilli powder, allegedly containing the illegal food dye Sudan 1, on being imported to the UK from India in September 2002, was traded between more than six different companies, allowing it to spread rapidly with little chance for regulators to monitor its safety, according to a report in The Times.


"Sudan 1" - what a fantastically sinister moniker.

vinod at 10:15 AM in Health and Medicine · 1 comment · Direct link


Pinky-swear we'll be friends forever...


Greetings, SM-readers.

I wanted to update y'all on FRIENDSTER, specifically SM's presence on the Dadaji/Appachen of all Social Networking programs. You see, within days, we will have our 100th friendster. As any good social networking whore knows, reaching that hallowed point when your "number" is in the triple-digits is quite a warm, fuzzy feeling (not to be confused with that warm, burning feeling you had the day after SASA).

Since I often assign importance to completely meaningless events, I can't wait to know which one of you will be the hundredth notch above our virtual bedpost. ;)

To drop in another useless metaphor, it reminds me of back in the day, when supermarkets would shower down confetti and balloons on their one-millionth visitor before giving them nifty prizes. Except you're not getting any prizes...unless you're counting the enlightened feeling you have after your daily dose of Mutiny.

So to recap: no confetti. No balloons. No cool prizes. No point to this post whatsoever. Just add us and get it over with; then I'll get to focus on more weighty issues-- like whether Bugs Bunny really needs to be updated for the spoiled brats of the twenty-first century.

anna at 08:21 AM in Humor · 3 comments · Direct link


Brothers in arms

The U.S. may sell Patriot II missile defense systems to India, and Pakistan is anxious (via the Acorn):

A US defence team began briefing Indian officials in New Delhi on Monday on the Patriot missiles. In Washington’s diplomatic circles the visit is seen as a prelude to the sale… “If the Patriots are delivered to India, it will seriously imbalance Pakistan’s strategic capabilities and can trigger an arms race in the Subcontinent,” said the South Asian defence expert… India will be the sixth country with which Washington has shared this technology after Israel, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. [Dawn]

Why do I get the feeling that the big kids are selling switchblades to the little ones?

Thanks to the support from China and North Korea, Pakistan now enjoys a huge lead over India on the development and deployment of missiles… It is to plug this missile gap that India has been focusing on possible cooperation with Israel and the United States on missile defence, with emphasis on proven systems like the Arrow and the Patriot. [Indian Express]

manish at 03:14 AM in Military · 13 comments · Direct link


Jet chases away the Blues

An Indian airline is now worth more than American Airlines and United Airlines combined. Jet Airways’ IPO on the Bombay stock exchange last Friday was like a hipster concert: sold out in ten minutes and 50% oversubscribed (via Varnam and Winds of Change). The ~$400M IPO (~$1.2B in buying power) values the company at ~$2.2B at a price-to-earnings multiple of 21.5. That’s a higher valuation than NASDAQ darling JetBlue ($1.9B), American Airlines ($1.5B), Delta ($653M) and the bankrupt United ($142M), but lower than Southwest ($11B).

Meanwhile, the airline with ridiculously attentive service just got clearance to fly New York to Bombay starting in April. The route stops in Brussels, which is my nominee for having the most useless currency left over after a layover, the Belgian franc. Also thanks to the open skies agreement, state carrier Air-India can now fly out of San Francisco.

It’s not clear whether Jet’s bought the JFK landing slots yet, but I’m so looking forward to flying Jet again. And if they ever launch a discount airline, they can nick the sobriquets of the American carriers, calling it Tedwinder or Gana. Like United’s discount cousin, they could chop off the first part of their name and just call it T; or, since they’re a transport company, maybe even T Mobile.

With desis’ legendary respect for intellectual property, it might even fly ;)

Previous post on Jet Airways here.

manish at 02:13 AM in Business · 11 comments · 1 reader linked · Direct link


Would you turn down a quarter million dollars?

Here are two stories of anti-Sikh discrimination which I seem to have missed over the past couple of years (disclaimer: the attorney in both lawsuits is a friend). In ‘03, a software executive sued Delta Airlines after a flight attendant told passengers he was a potential terrorist:

Thomas began to harass [Hansdip] Bindra after he stood to retrieve a magazine. He contends that the attendant, who is white, told him that “here in America we have rules” and that “because of the situation in the Middle East, you have to keep a low profile.” Bindra, a native of India, said other passengers on the flight later told him that Thomas had warned them that “the man up front with the turban” might be “trouble” and that with no justification, she told them: “When I give you a signal, come help subdue him.”… Bindra said he and about a half-dozen other passengers on the flight filed written complaints about Thomas with the airline, but that none received a reply. [NJ Star-Ledger]

In ‘02, a turbaned Burger King franchise owner sued Fleet Bank for refusing a quarter million dollar deposit before 9/11. Interestingly, the New Jersey teller ordered to reject the customer is also desi:

… [Inderjeet Singh] Chowdhary contacted the branch over the phone after the bank advertised an attractive interest rate… for [a] certificate of deposit. Chowdhary said he spoke to a bank employee, Jaya Balasubramanian… On the appointed day, July 30 of [2001], Chowdhary claims to have visited the bank with all the documents he was required to produce. While Balasubramanian was processing the his application, Alicia E. Eagleston, the branch manager and a defendant in the case, called Balasubramanian aside. “When she returned, she looked visibly upset, and said I would not be permitted to open the account,” Chowdhary told News India-Times. He also claimed that Eagleston said, “We look at the customer and decide.” [News India-Times]

I’m sure Balasubramanian was thinking either a) ‘That’s cold, making me discriminate against a fellow desi’ or b) ‘There goes my commission.’

Fleet Bank was also accused of terminating Muslims’ accounts after 9/11 without cause. The bank settled with Chowdhary in ‘03 and pledged not to discriminate against Sikhs.

Previous posts on anti-Sikh discrimination: 1, 2, 3; and discrimination by airlines and cops.

manish at 12:56 AM in Issues, Religion · 6 comments · Direct link


 

February 21, 2005

Photos tell the Bollywood story

The February issue of National Geographic Magazine has a comprehensive feature about Bollywood by “Maximum City” author Suketu Mehta. While he offers readers a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the hit film “Veer-Zaara,” the true gem of this package is a narrated photo essay by William Albert Allard. The magazine also delves into the Indian film industry’s less-than-stellar counterpart in Pakistan, dubbed Lollywood.

National Geographic Magazine: Photo Essay (requires Flash), Lollywood, Feature Article

apul at 06:09 PM in Film · 5 comments · 2 readers linked · Direct link


Bollywood copycats exposed

Watching Bollywood films can often strike you with a maddening case of deja vu. You think you’ve seen the movie before, but you just can’t identify the what, when and where of your suspicion. Enter Bollycat (via Nirali Magazine), a new web site started by a team of students at SUNY Rockland, which aims to link Bollywood films to their Hollywood “inspirations.”

“It’s wrong to even use the word inspiration here,” said web site creator Haydur Agha in a press release. “It’s really stealing someone else’s creation and molding it to fit the Indian taste without ever officially mentioning or paying for the rights to the original content. And it’s not fair to the fans either.”

The site invites visitors to submit their own listings, and currently cites more than 100 such cases of plagarism: “Shree 420,” a story about a young man’s self-destructive journey to the top, allegedly derives its source from Orson Welle’s classic “Citizen Kane.” My personal favorite, “Dil Chahta Hai,” might have taken its story of post-college estrangement and reunification from “St. Elmo’s Fire,” and “Reality Bites.” I submitted my own Bollycat — last year’s “Kal Ho Naa Ho,” a NRI-flavored tale about an ill-fated love triangle, clearly took its cues from adult megahit “Three-Way Betty IV: Dildo’s Revenge.” Go ahead, try to prove me wrong.

apul at 04:46 PM in Film · 6 comments · Direct link


 

February 20, 2005

Party Like We're in Bombay

The New York Times, it seems has found out what many of us children of Indian immigrants have known for sometime, that Bombay or Mumbai, or whatever you want to call it, can compete with any city when it comes to nightlife, that Bombay is a great place to visit without your parents and with your "cool" cousins, and that Bombay is really, really expensive, even when you convert rupees to dollars.

The NYT recently published an interesting piece in their travel section discussing Bombay nightlife, including an informative and expensive "If you go" section as well.

The model-turned-actress Amrita Arora was there, along with her sister, Malaika Arora Khan, the spicy sex symbol of Bollywood. Nearby, the prodigal founder of Hotmail, Sabeer Bhatia, was holding court with several pretty young things in hip-hugging jeans and stiletto heels. Then all heads turned when the television personality Kamal Sidhu sauntered past the proverbial velvet rope, blowing kisses in all directions. "Everyone looks like they're somebody," said Jaimal Odedra, 40, a fashion designer from New York, as he scanned the candle-lighted terrace. "The scene is so Los Angeles." Sure, there was valet parking, movie stars and plenty of over-the-shoulder gazing. But Mumbai (the official name for Bombay since 1995) is a megalopolis so grimy and congested that it makes the mean streets of Compton look like Beverly Hills. The air reeks of sewage and burning trash, cows roam the streets at will, and half of the city's 18 million people live in mud-caked slums. And unlike the other filmmaking capital, it is also a city where night life was virtually nonexistent a decade ago.
I do like the article, but I am not sure that nightlife was nonexistent a decade ago. Bombay has been the film and financial capital of India for over 25 years, and where stars and wealth collide, so does partying (go ahead and say it with that Indian accent, you know you want to --"pahteeing")

You can read the full article here.

sajit at 11:24 PM in Arts and Entertainment · 14 comments · Direct link


Sexy girls and...mice

A couple of SM tipsters (thanks Francis and Sachin) call our attention to the cover of New Scientist Magazine:

newscientist.jpg

I’m digging the colors. There are about 20 detailed articles about science in India. I am not about to summarize them, I am just pointing them out to you science geeks (as I raise my fist in solidarity). What I do want to point out however is the following picture:

newscientistgirls.jpg

What the f*ck? I mean I guess it is just as ludicrous to subscribe to motorcycle or car magazines that drape sexy girls over the goods, but “mice?” Maybe I am not a red-blooded enough guy but this picture just doesn’t boot my hardrive. Come to think of it though I could use an optical mouse on my laptop. Damn subliminal advertising!

abhi at 01:53 PM in Science and Technology · 4 comments · Direct link


Best Friend or Henchman?

In a recent interview about her upcoming film Namesake, Mira Nair mentioned the following about her lead actor Kal Penn:

…after meeting him I felt that he was just the right man for the job. He is the fastest rising Indian American star. His film Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle is a big hit out here and all the 13-year-olds in America know and love him. The Namesake will be his first dramatic role. He is an extraordinary actor. He has just signed on as Superman’s best friend in the new movie called Superman Returns.

What? Oh my gosh, that is so cool. An Indian guy as Superman’s best friend instead of as a terrorist? Wait. It can’t be. Ign.com cures me of my delusions:

Penn confirmed that he will portray one of Lex Luthor’s henchmen (one of a handful seen in the film). Penn – who has been friends with the new Man of Steel, Brandon Routh, for about four years – admitted that he will only be reading the script for the first time this week and that he has yet to meet Kevin Spacey but is excited to work with him. A fan of director Bryan Singer’s films, Penn added that he is scheduled to go to Australia closer to the summer to film his scenes. His stint on Superman will last about two months.

Okay. THAT I can believe.

abhi at 02:08 AM in Film · 3 comments · 1 reader linked · Direct link


 

February 19, 2005

The Passion of Bobby Jindal-Part II

As promised, here is a pointer to the follow-up of the story of the religious transformation of Bobby Jindal as reported by Francis C. Assisi and Elizabeth Pothen of Indolink.com:

Not yet out of High School, Jindal acknowledges that it was “a time of constant prayer and struggle” as he anticipated the ultimate confrontation with his parents. It came, rather unexpectedly, when he was recovering from a serious car accident and his mother wanted to know “which God” he had thanked for his safety.

Jindal explains: “I had resolved not to lie when faced with such direct questioning and admitted my Christian faith. I had prepared myself for the worst. I knew my parents had every right to end their financial support or kick me out of their house. I realized the consequences of my decision and was ready to face these hardships. I had decided the freedom to worship Christ was more important than the material comforts provided by my parents, including the privilege to attend Brown that fall. I even made plans to attend a local university and had arranged housing as well as a job to support myself.”

But Jindal, who had secured his financial position with a generous academic merit scholarship, was not as prepared for the emotional battles. He was also careful not to lie to them. As he rightly asks: “Is any faith worth having if it motivates its adherents to deception, especially between parents and children?”

I’ll let you read the rest of the article for yourselves with one exception. The following was my favorite quote:

Jindal’s “search for truth” continued even though several members of the clergy advised him that in certain instances deception could be justified.

abhi at 11:21 PM in Religion · 17 comments · Direct link


Will Modi have a hotel to stay at?

The Institute on Religion and Public Policy, a Washington-based group for religious freedom, is petitioning the State Department to deny Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s entry to the US to speak at the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) Convention. Garavi Gujarat reports:

The proposed Modi visit comes on the back of an invitation extended to him by the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA). The decision has also divided the organization, with some members arguing that it was a bad move to invite such a controversial figure in the first place. AAHOA, which is dominated by Gujaratis, represents around 60 per cent of the budget and mid-sized hotels in the US.

According to M P Rama, AAHOA`s vice-chairman, the organization had invited Modi from a business perspective, given his interest in inviting foreign investment and interest among AAHOA members in investing in Gujarat.

‘When we invite a speaker we don`t go by political or religious affiliation. We look at how our members might benefit. Most of our members, perhaps up to 95 per cent are Gujaratis and they would like to hear first hand from the chief minister whether the state will offer us red tape or red carpet,” Rama said.

However, some AAHOA members, who did not want to go on record, expressed reservations about the invitation to Modi. One member pointed out that AAHOA was born out of a sense of discrimination Asian hoteliers faced in the United States. The organization should not do anything to dilute its mission statement, he said.

I love Rama’s honesty. “We look at how our members might benefit.” Still, it’s in instances such as this where I wish that higher ideals would win out. For those unfamiliar, the chief minister has been blasted by many groups for his role in Hindu/Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat.

In terms of petitioning the State Department, The Hindustan Times and several others detail the following:

In a letter addressed to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the IRPP argues that Modi should be denied a visa in accordance with the US’s International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. It charges him with “repeated engagement in particularly severe violations of religious freedom”.

“Secretary Rice, we ask that you do not allow this egregious violator the privilege of entering the United States,” says the letter written by IRPP’s director of programmes Benjamin Thomas. It says in case Modi already holds a US visa, his entry into the country should be “barred”.

The letter speaks of Modi’s “campaign of extremism targeting religious minorities in Gujarat”, particularly the “orchestrated attacks” of 2002.

As for me, I plan to forward this on to all my Patel friends and have them pressure the AAHOA to rescind the invite. Incidentally, other speakers include Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, MSNBCs Hardball host Chris Mathews and conservative commentator Dinesh DSouza.

abhi at 10:31 PM in News · 25 comments · Direct link


 

February 18, 2005

Why I love aerobics

aerobics.jpg Any guys that go to the gym as regularly as I do can attest to the fact that the aerobics room is always beyond reach. You CAN’T go in and participate because then the muscle bound guys outside won’t ever look you in the eyes again. You also have to purchase an extremely unflattering spandex outfit to enter. And yet… you long to be part of a place with such a favorable girl-to-guy ratio. You would be like a lion running free through a savannah of gazelles. Is there no hope? The San Jose Mercury News gives me hope:

Jane Fonda in a leotard and leg warmers super-charged the aerobics field in the 1980s.

Now, some unlikely candidates have arrived to lay claim to the throne the Hollywood icon abandoned almost 25 years ago. Two California sisters, Sheila and Sarina Jain, whose family hails from Rajasthan, India, are billing themselves as the “Indian Jane Fondas.”

Sheila, 28, of San Francisco, teaches around the Bay Area. Sarina, 29, moved to New York City to strike it big. Together, they are changing the international aerobics landscape with a pioneering and patented Indian aerobic dance routine, called Masala Bhangra Workout. Their fourth exercise DVD has just been released, and they recently have signed a contract for international distribution.

Masala means “spicy” in Hindi. Bhangra is a traditional harvest dance from northern India. Together, the popular routine is helping introduce Indian culture through exercise, and enticing those from the subcontinent to put down the greasy samosas and skip to the right, hop, hop, hop. Circle to the left, circle to the right. Knees up. Knees up.

The Jain sisters’ exercise routine is not for the faint of heart. And it’s certainly not for the uncoordinated. In some ways, it’s all about the head. It must constantly bob, side to side, to the beat of an Indian dhol drum.

“Just go to an Indian party and shake your head. You’ll look sooooo cool,” Jain shouted recently to a crowd of about 150 sweaty aerobicizers at her popular University of California-Berkeley session.

I personally suck at Bhangra so I hope they start these classes down in LA. Every time I am at a Bhangra party I don’t look cool. I start saying “doorknob, light-bulb, doorknob, light-bulb,” really loud as girls look at me strangely. A friend once taught me that the best way to do Bhangra is to pretend you are turning a doorknob with one hand and screwing in a light-bulb with the other. What do you want from me? I am Guju. Although I suck at garba too.

There are a handful