Across America, I expect sports columnists to be remarking on how the crown has been passed from a black man to a brown man in what used to be the white man’s sport (largely because the only way you could get on the court if your skin was darker than manilla was by caddying). But why talk about the transition from black to brown? Why not say that a browner black man was overtaken by a blacker brown man? Or that the yellow man lost to the brown man? Continue reading
Monthly Archives: September 2004
Dude, where’s my ransom?
As Vinod has posted, the Iraqi insurgents who took Indian truck drivers hostage were tokin’ the desert weed with their nonsensical Dr. Evil demands. And here I was thinking the coalition of the willing could fit on a 3x5 index card:
This shadowy group of kidnappers demanded that Indian troops immediately leave Iraq and stop assisting US forces… it was pointed out to the kidnappers that India had no troops in Iraq and was indeed vehemently opposed to the US invasion… The group maintained that the war had killed 250 women and children in Falluja and demanded the Indian [not U.S.] government pay compensation to the bereaved families.
Given their familiarity with underworld financing and general lack of recent employment, aging Bollywood stars jumped into the fray:
[The mediator] Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaimi has a passion for Bollywood… He has three wives and 12 children. He smokes cigars… if big Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Asha Parekh and Dharmendra made a personal call to him pleading for the release of the three hostages, the three, in his words, “would be released today itself”.
The imprisoned drivers were more than willing to do their own stunts:
[T]he [Iraqi] guards are hopelessly trained. At the first sound of gunfire they usually run away… “My Iraqi security was pathetic. I shouted at him that if you cannot fire your gun yourself, teach me how to do it.”
GC – How Asians Became White
Frequent SM commentor Godless Capitalist / “GC” posts over @ GNXP – How the Asians became White.
I first noticed this effect 10 years ago, at a party where a friend of mine commented that the guests were all white. I responded by mentioning about a dozen Asians; oh, she said, that’s right, but you know what I mean. At a recent UCLA conference I attended, two speakers complained that everyone on the panel was white, without even realizing that one of the speakers was ethnically Chinese, and another was an Asian Indian with skin darker than that of many American blacks…
If true, it would leave many an aspiring desi race/ethnic activist unemployed….
Sepia Mutiny, the film
A new Bollywood film about the Sepoy Mutiny is nearing completion. The Rising, a patriotic screed that’s the love child of Lagaan and 1942: A Love Story, stars Aamir Khan, the ubiquitous Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukherjee and Amisha Patel. It focuses on Mangal Pandey, the original militant vegetarian who sparked the rebellion. And nothing says ‘freedom fighter’ like a big, honkin’ moustache (vegetable wax only, please). Director Ketan Mehta hopes the film is subversive, not preachy:
“We have seen our history from the British perspective. Now let us see it from the Indian perspective…”
I have to admit the Brits are good sports about it, shelling out shillings for Lagaan and those adorable cricket-playing natives. But what about the odd appearance of Prince Ears at the film’s ceremonial kickoff? Chuck, just a hint: you were on the other side. Khan wiggled uncomfortably:
“This film is not against the Queen’s rule, but the East India Company, which ruled India then.”
A nuanced, sensitive position on war. Well, ok then. Mehta also did the art film Mirch Masala with Shabana Azmi and the film Sardar on the iron-willed annexer of Indian kingdoms, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. A.R. Rehman, who did the music for Lagaan, is scoring the film, to be titled Mangal Pandey for the Indian market.
Numerous villagers who all claim to be Pandey’s descendants are up in arms over a smooching scene in the film, the irony of which is left as an exercise for the reader. We at Sepia Mutiny are just chapped over being kissed off by their casting department for said scene, despite our obvious lip-locking skills.
Life after the Olympics
How does a new Olympic silver medal winner celebrate? Mohini Bhardwaj is tattooing the five rings to her wrists and exchanging rings of a different color by getting engaged. It’s a far cry from surviving on PowerBars:
“… [A]fter practice, I’ll grab all the pennies and go to the Coinstar and get like $12 off the Coinstar and be so excited that I could buy some soy milk and cereal…” [The coach] became aware of Bhardwaj’s fun-loving side in 1997, she said, when Bhardwaj stayed out late with the members of the Russian team at the world championships in Switzerland. She partied too much and studied too little, once coming to the coach in tears, proud that she had finally earned a B in a class. “Her peak of being a rebel was probably in the late 90’s, so it really wasn’t her time,” Kondos Field said. “This time, she did it for herself…”
By the way, that multi-culti paragon The New York Times thinks a desi with a nose ring is ‘walking on the wild side’:
She has walked on the balance beam and walked on the wild side; she still has a subtle piece of jewelry pierced into the left side of her nose.
Early this afternoon
I listened carefully for the usual remark, and wondered what it would be. My mind flashed forward to a scene of myself, explaining to a judge why I had decided to wastefully pelt these kids with my precious produce. I was also wondering, in another part of my mind, whether I would miss my peaches or beets more, and which ones would be more accurate to throw. I wished I had picked up some overripe tomatoes just a few minutes before, to make sauce with and to express myself more precisely with. With the anniversary of 9-11 approaching, I really didn’t feel like smiling and turning the other cheek at a threat, an accusation of terrorism, or my favorite phrase (which I haven’t heard here yet), “Sand Nigger.”
The chatter from the boat dimmed as they noticed me, and I tensed slightly. Finally one of them yelled, “Nice Beard!”
“Thanks!” I responded. “I grew it myself!”
Excerpts above; the full version is available at my home blog.
Austen gunfight
Keira Knightley, whose breakout role came in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham, is going head-to-head with her former mentor as they both film Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It’s a Brit vs. British Asian showdown separated only by angle and time.
As Sajit has posted, Chadha’s version, Bride and Prejudice, is an unapologetically Bollywood interpretation starring Aishwarya Rai that debuts this year. Knightley’s version comes out in ’05, a traditional version with mostly British actors set in yesteryear London.
Chadha recently released the full trailer for her version, a light-hearted romantic comedy co-starring Martin Henderson, Namrata Shirodkar, Anupam Kher, Naveen Andrews, Indira Varma and Ashanti. Check out the bit where Henderson describes bhangra (‘screw in a lightbulb with one hand and pet the dog with the other.’)
Throw in the Mr. D’Arcy character from Bridget Jones’ Diary, he of the ugly jumper, and never-married miss Jane is gettin’ some lowe. And she’s not the only one. Considering all the desi shout-outs scampering through Vanity Fair, and the desi re-imaginings of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the English are in for some hot, back-door reverse colonialism action.
Uberoi overpowered by Venus Williams
Following up on Anna’s post, Shikha Uberoi lost her second-round U.S. Open match to Venus Williams yesterday, 7-5, 6-1, after sprinting to a 4-1 lead in the first set. The match was hard-fought:
Shikha Uberoi of Boca Raton won a lot of new fans with her super-aggressive play against Venus Williams in the second round.. Her coach, Rick Macci, tutored the Williams sisters for four years…
As fellow Palm Beach County players, Uberoi and Williams are acquaintances. On 9/11, their local airport was in lockdown, so Williams gave Uberoi and her sister Neha a limo ride home. A grateful Uberoi invited Williams in for some home-cooked bhindi:
Shikha invited her to dine with the family. ‘‘And guess what: she agreed. She loved Indian food, bhindi masala particularly, so we called Mom and asked her to make that.’’
Despite having shared bhindi, a near-sacred bond in Punjabi culture equalled only by sharing makhi di roti and sarson da saag, Williams had to take down her young rival at tournament time. All’s fair in love and tennis.
Uberoi is a cousin of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi.
It’s not the color of your money, it’s what’s in your pants that counts
From the Beeb:
Angry eunuchs in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are protesting against a state-run insurance company which they allege has refused to issue an insurance policy to a eunuch.
[snip]
A spokesman for the Life Insurance Corporation at their headquarters in Bombay (Mumbai) has denied that eunuchs will not be sold insurance.
But a senior official who requested anonymity told the BBC that, according to the company rules, only men or women can apply for insurance.
He said that, going strictly by the rules, applications from eunuchs are normally rejected.
I can just picture some desi bureaucrat looking at the boxes labeled “M/F Check ONE” and stamping denied across the form. Somebody please smack said bureaucrat silly, then send him to Bombay Dreams for re-education?
Pop Culture’s Appropriation of Hindu Icons
I don’t necessarily think the appropriation by popular culture of Hindu icons is always offensive. Any deity on a toilet seat, sure that is offensive, a deity on a t-shirt…I don’t think so.
Anyway, Time Magazine (Asia) recently published an interesting story on Pop culture’s appropriation of Hindu icons and how “the faithful” is up in arms about it. The article is essentially a listing of some of the more recent examples of this, including Roberto Cavalli’s ingenious Holy Bikini and undergarments which made a stir earler this summer, and were subsequently removed from the famed British department store, Harrods.
It’s been five years since the spirituality-seeking Madonna, dressed in a sari and adorned with a tilaka marking on her forehead, sang a self-composed Sanskrit song at the MTV awards before a backdrop of Hindu god images—simultaneously raising the West’s awareness of Hinduism and incurring the ire of the religion’s faith police. Things Indian have only gotten trendier since. But as Madonna discovered, cashing in on Hinduism can be a mixed blessing.
To read the full article, click here.