According to Sky ShowBiz, Liz Hurley it seems is planning an elaborate Indian wedding to marry long-time boyfriend Arun Nayar. But who is giving her away?
…a close pal of the posh beauty told the paper: “Liz wants Hugh [Way too attractive ex-boyfriend Hugh Grant] to give her away because they remain really close friends.”
Oh, hellls no. Ain’t no ex-boyfriend gonna give away my future wife to me. What is Arun thinking? Grow a set dude. This reminds me of Kill Bill vol. II.
Half-Brown apprentice Raj earns a spot next to Vikram Chatwal with this NYPost Page Six blurb – New York Post Online Edition: gossip
November 10, 2004 — RECENTLY fired “Apprentice” Raj Bhakta might be better suited for a role on “The Player.” The would-be lothario distinguished himself last week by hitting on Donald Trump’s assistant, Robin Himmel, while he was waiting for the elevator to take him from the building after his dismissal. However, Himmel may be the only one Bhakta struck out with, as three of his fellow castmates have fallen prey to his charms, a source shared — including Stacy Rotner and Jennifer Crisafulli, who have “at least made out” with Bhakta.
SuperJagjit provides his own tribute to Raj here.
Madhoo posts w/ images of the long rumored, ancient, Indo-Sri Lanka land bridge (mentioned in the Ramayana) – Dancing with Dogs: NASA images of the bridge between India and Sri Lanka –
NASA images of the bridge between India and Sri Lanka We blogged about this a long time ago, but couldn’t find the images – these are the actual images here –
Tyler Cowen, still in India, reports on an, uh, exceptional property of the Ganges – Marginal Revolution: The River Ganga
All along the Ganga [Ganges], the major problem of waste disposal has defied the best efforts of the Ganga Action Plan set up in 1986 to solve it. The diversion and treatment of raw sewage in the seven main cities was planned. In Varanasi however, the 17th century sewers, the inadequate capacity of the sewage works, the increased waterflow during the monsoons and the erratic electricity supply (essential for pumping) have all remained problems. In addition, although most Hindus are cremated, an estimated 45,000 uncremated or partially [sic] cremated bodies are put in the Ganga each year. A breed of scavenger turtles which dispose of rotting flesh was introduced down river but the turtles disappeared. Surprisingly, although the Ganga may be one of the world’s most polluted rivers…scientists had discovered the river’s exceptional property in the last century. The cholera microbe did not survive 3 hrs in Ganga water whereas in distilled water it survived 24 hrs!
The transport minister of India’s northern state of Bihar has been fined for travelling on an express train without a ticket. Awadh Bihari Choudhry and his security guard were both fined 250 rupees ($5.50) after being caught on Monday. Mr Choudhry is a member of the political party led by the federal railways minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav. Director of public relations for the federal railways, MY Siddiqui, told the BBC: “Ticketless travelling and paying less are two areas our minister is very keen to focus on. And the results are already showing.” “The increase in fines from 50 rupees to 250 rupees this July is proving to be a deterrent,” he said. India’s railway network is among the world’s largest, carrying more than 13m passengers a day. [source: BBC]
For some reason, I found this hillarious. Hoist on his own master’s petard, eh? If I was drinking lassi, it would have come out of my nose! [Insert gratuitous train pun here]
Vikram Chatwal may be the closest thing us ABCD’s have to a certified Desi Rock Star (right down to the de rigeuer photo op w/ a Hilton sister). Gawker’s got a tracker link on him just to keep up with his gossip (thanks Super Jagjit!) and the NY Observer recently saw fit to run a feature length article on his exploits –
Vikram Chatwal is not your usual rich Manhattan playboy. For starters, he has never cut his hair and he wears a turban, in keeping with his Sikh heritage. And while he does all that other playboy stuff?dating fashion models, tooling around town in an Aston Martin, running up an $11,500 bar tab in a nightclub, hanging out with Bill Clinton?he strikes many Manhattan night-crawlers as having something extra, something “spiritual”, if you will. Mr. Chatwal will tell you he plans to be the first Sikh billionaire. His father says: “Why not? This is New York City; he?s just 31 years old; he?s got a base to start with. The problem right now is, he?s only spending 30 percent of his time towards business. The day he starts spending 70 percent of his time, within two or three years he?ll make it.” …Mr. Chatwal gets some good-natured ribbing from his family about his penchant for nightlife. Earlier this month, he attended Puff Daddy?s birthday party in Morocco, flying with the birthday boy on a 767 lent by the King of Morocco.
Of course, one of the cool things about being a rocker is the ability to make totally non-PC observations about the different women you’ve, uh, experienced –
I knew he?d dated lots of women; I asked what his favorite nationality was.
“none of that would matter without Aishwarya Rai. As Lalita Bakshi, the latest and by far the most glamorous incarnation of Jane Austen’s tartly independent Elizabeth Bennet, Ms. Rai doesn’t just carry the picture. She also saves it from its occasional leaps into the taste void, as when she tosses off the lyric, “I just wanna man who’ll give me some back/ Who’ll talk to me and not to my rack!” with such deadpan aplomb that you almost don’t wince. But she’s more than just a knock-down, drop-dead gorgeous face. She’s even more than a talented singer, graceful dancer and vibrantly confident actress in at least two languages.
I haven’t seen the film yet, I am going to tomorrow, but Durbin’s description sounds so good, I don’t know if I have the heart to tell her that Rai doesn’t sing. I especially don’t want to tell her, b/c Durbin seems to think Rai’s performance is Oscar worthy. She proclaims that Ash’s performance in Bride and Prejudice is one of “five performances no one should miss. Especially not Academy voters.”
Also in the the Sunday Times is a review-ish type piece by Polly Shulman entitled “Dear Reader, Elizabeth Has Returned. And She’s Wearing a Sari.” Shulman does an actual comparison of Bride with the original Pride, including a comparison of dialogues. Shulman writes,
The provincial Indian setting offers a dowry of matchmaking mothers, colorful scenery and extravagant song-and-dance numbers that can seem captivating or vulgar, depending on your level of pride and prejudice. Perhaps because in an interracial, cross-cultural romance those traits can come uncomfortably close to racism, the “Bride and Prejudice” script plays down its title attitude. Here, Darcy is less snobby than misunderstood. For example, he refuses to dance with Lalita (Aishwarya Rai), the Elizabeth character, not because “she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me,” as Darcy tells Bingley in the novel, but because he hasn’t mastered the drawstring on his Indian kurta-pajama suit, and his pants are falling down.
Not really into Bombay Dreams? Well if you live in New York you may be in luck. Sakharam Binder is being staged by The Play Company. From Villagevoice.com:
How often do New York theatergoers get a chance to see a premier work from a major Indian dramatist, staged with the collaboration of the writer himself? Almost never. Vijay Tendulkar’s Sakharam Binder was written and first performed in 1974 and hardly qualifies as a new play. Thirty years after setting Indian censors aflame, it makes its New York debut in a spare, lucid, and altogether thrilling production from the Play Company. At a time when the airheaded confection Bombay Dreams passes for subcontinental theater, Sakharam Binder not only feels vital, but painfully necessary.
Sounds interesting, but I don’t know the story really. What’s it about?
Sakharam is a fortyish bookbinder who offers lodging to cast-off women in exchange for housekeeping favors and the occasional fuck. The drama focuses on two of his concubines—the introverted and ultra-religious Laxmi (Anna George) and the arrogant and slutty Champa (Sarita Choudhury). Their sequential stories are told in highly diagrammatic fashion—Laxmi brings out the Fagin-ish slave master in Sakharam while the insatiable Champa reduces him to a lovelorn puppy.
Oohhh. Saucy.
Update: I had missed the fact that Sepia Mutiny has already covered this story in more detail here.
Aljazeerah has an article on Jindal being elected to Congress, that is just like every other article written about him in the past week except for two things that caught my eye:
Born, raised and schooled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a young Piyush adopted the name “Bobby” at the age of four, after a likeable character from the TV serial “The Brady Brunch.”
Is this true? I find that very amusing. The other assertion Aljazeerah makes is the following:
Political supporters say he is the Republican PartyÂ’s equal to Barack Obama, the newly elected Democratic African-American senator (of Kenyan origin) from Illinois who is the toast of the AmericaÂ’s center-left political junkies.
If that were true I would be hearing calls for Jindal to run for President. Never going to happen since he is so right wing. Oh wait…nevermind.
The eagerly anticipated show “Nevermind Nirvana” from NBC has gone through some shakeups. Not only has Kal Penn been replaced as the lead, but the show has been re-named “Nearly Nirvana,” and is still hoping to be a midseason replacement on some network. From Zap2it.com:
As any good Hindu knows, Nirvana (or moksha) is something worth fighting for. After all, it’s not everyday that you get to reunite with Brahman and free your soul from the continuous cycle of rebirths. Of course, the possible NBC comedy “Nearly Nirvana” appears to have several more rebirths still to come. After NBC didn’t pick up “Nevermind Nirvana” for the fall season, the show underwent a name change and dropped lead actor Kal Penn (“Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle”). Now, with its fresh title and a new star in place, “Nirvana” is ready to move forward with a second pilot, even if NBC may not be interested anymore.
According to the industry trades, “Nearly Nirvana” writer and producer Ajay Sahgal has stepped in as star, just before the second pilot was ready to shoot with Arj Barker in the lead.
David Schwimmer from Friends is one of the producers of this show about a young Indian American man, his white girlfriend and his traditional parents. I think he is a doctor too, if I remember right. Its too bad it is this difficult to find a market for a show about Indians on television here. I bet its easier in Canada, which is looking more attractive every day.