18-year-old tennis terror Sania Mirza just beat her second-round U.S. Open opponent, Italian Maria Elena Camerin, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 (thanks, Sania Fan). Her next draw is 21-year-old Marion Bartoli of France (via desiFans). Mirza won her first round against Mashona Washington of Houston.
The 18-year-old from Hyderabad defeated Italy’s Elena Camerin 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in a roller-coaster of a match and with France’s Marion Bartoli to follow, she will harbour genuine hopes of reaching the last 16 and a likely encounter with top seed Maria Sharapova.
But she will need to fully recover physically from what was a punishing second round tie if is she is to better her breakthrough third round performance at this year’s Australian Open where she eventually lost to Serena Williams. [Link]
Now ranked 42nd in the world, Mirza is the first Indian woman to win a match at the U.S. Open. She’s got lots of power, but in her last two matches committed plenty of worrisome unforced errors.
The doubles events have produced some interesting desi pairings:
Injuries notwithstanding, Sania Mirza has opted to play in the women’s doubles, partnering Australia’s Bryanne Stewart, at the US Open… Sania has a strained abdominal muscle and is also troubled by bleeding toes…
In the mixed doubles, Leander Paes joins hands with Martina Navratilova, in what could be the 48-year-old legend’s last US Open. Paes and Martina [are] seeded seventh… Mahesh Bhupathi will pair up with Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova…Paes and Bhupathi are playing with their regular partners Nenad Zemonjic of Serbia and Montenegro and Martin Damm of the Czech Republic respectively in the men’s doubles. [Link]




employment guarantee through Parliament:






Rediff.com is reporting







A moment of silence:

The Empire State Building is lit green and white this weekend in honor of Pakistan’s independence. Manhattan’s parade starts at 12:30 pm today and goes down Madison Ave. from 41st to 26th Sts.



There is at least one group (above all others) that values the comparative “calm” that has recently settled over the LOC in Kashmir, as India/Pakistan relations have thawed. The mighty Markhor.
A pariah agiary is rushing new pledges in Bombay (via 
Last night we had a MOAP (Mother of all Parties) at our North Dakota world headquarters. We had just finished hazing the heck out of the newest blogger at SM. After she chugged the 10 beers laid out before her and received two taps with the ceremonial paddle (courtesy of me 

Michael H. of 

Remember that ongoing battle between Sikh employees and the NY Metropolitan Transport Authority [see 







The 






Express India 



Over in the tech world, 





The only thing of interest that I learned 
The Village Voice tries to make everything it likes into something sexy, cool, and happening.
Sonny Mehta

I've been following the discussion of an episode of The Ramayana 



Yahoo India has the story





May’s issue of the journal Tissue Engineering featured 




Bollywood Confidential
The Village Bride of Beverly Hills
















