Monthly Archives: January 2005

Bombay Dreams, Heading to Bombay

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The Indian Express is reporting that everyone’s favorite Bollywood inspired Broadway musical will be heading to the city that named it, Bombay. The show, which did a lot better in the UK, than it did in New York, will be heading to Bombay before heading to China and Hong Kong.

A.R. Rahman, the genius behind some amazing Bollywood soundtracks and the music for Bombay Dreams, sounded a bit annoyed by the response his show received in the States, suggesting that we Americans aren’t as able to think outside of our culture.

‘‘Americans are always talking about their own culture, so they can never be at the receiving-end and accept something from outside,’’ he said, adding that the musical moved to America at the wrong time. ‘‘This was the time when Americans felt that Indians were stealing their jobs, though I’m not at all disappointed.’’

I wonder if Star and Buc Wild saw Bombay Dreams? Continue reading →

An Englishman in New Delhi

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I don’t drink coffee, I drink tea, my dear… Sting is giving a concert at Delhi’s Nehru Stadium on Feb. 6th. Be still my beating heart.

On the occasion of his concert, a special Limited tour Edition of his latest album Sacred Love , which contains his rare singles, is being put together. The single, Sacred Love also has an Indian touch since it features Anoushka Shankar on the sitar.

With Sting’s long-standing interest in yoga (he owns a studio in New York) and professed mastery of tantric sex, it’s surprising he doesn’t play India more often. Maybe his Englishness gets in the way.

“… I mentioned to Bob [Geldof] I could make love for eight hours. What I didn’t say was that this included four hours of begging and then dinner and a movie.”

Please don’t label this the highlight of his career:

Sting’s career hit a real high note in ’94, when he, together with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, performed All For Love for the film, The Three Musketeers… [ToI]

What a repugnant thought. Sting, like Bono, is that rarest of birds, a thinking rocker with fractal lyrics that unfold. I spent many delicious hours on a bus through the USSR listening to ‘Russians’ and ‘Fortress Around Your Heart.’ U2’s ‘Vertigo’ has bite, but they’ve both been putting out geriatric stuff lately which makes the young’uns look askance when you admit to being a fan. Plus there’s the whole megagroup thing, hipster ammo; screw it, I sometimes drink Starbucks.

EU considers banning the swastika

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The BBC reports on the European Union being urged to ban the swastika after Prince Harry got caught last week brandishing one on his arm:

The EU has been urged to ban the swastika because of its Nazi associations with hate and racism. But the symbol was around long before Adolf Hitler. The swastika is a cross with its arms bent at right angles to either the right or left. In geometric terms, it is known as an irregular icosagon or 20-sided polygon.

The word is derived from the Sanskrit “svastika” and means “good to be”. In Indo-European culture it was a mark made on people or objects to give them good luck.

It has been around for thousands of years, particularly as a Hindu symbol in the holy texts, to mean luck, Brahma or samsara (rebirth). It can be clockwise or anti-clockwise and the way it points in all four directions suggests stability. Sometimes it features a dot between each arm.

Continue reading →

A still life: the family of fruit

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Shashwati tells a railroad tale:

The last time I was on a train in India was a few years ago, traveling from Baroda to New Delhi, in an unreserved “Ladies” compartment. It was terribly crowded, and I had to share my berth with a rather plump housewife from Karol Bagh…  It turned out she came from a family of fruit merchants, and told us proudly, “My son has married into Apples, my daughter has gone to the Bananas, and we are thinking of a Guava family for the youngest son.”

… Squashed in a corner was a skinny, quiet woman… The woman came from a village in Karnataka… and had been abandoned by her only son and daughter in law. She was going to Delhi in the hope of… perhaps working as a domestic.

The next morning, the plump fruit merchant’s wife, after loudly cursing the world… gave the woman a generous amount of money so that she could fend for herself till she got on her feet. Then the merchants wife farted loudly and left with the youngest son (promised to the Guava family)…

I actually do know a desi fellow who ‘married’ into a family of Apples.

Shock Jocks better recognize…

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The world is paying attention.

From the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal:

Expletives Undeleted: An Indian call center gets a rude introduction to American vulgarity. Friday, January 14, 2005 12:01 a.m. A nasty radio-show phone prank directed at a call center in India is the latest proof that abusive language is the last resort of the impotent. Something to remember when any of us is confronted on the low road to incivility. The call in question was played Dec. 15 on Philadelphia’s WUSL-FM, which bills itself as “Bangin’ Hip-Hop and R&B” Power 99. Morning DJ Star, aka Troi Torain, dialed the number of a company advertising a hair-beading device for kids and was connected to a lady at an ordering service in India. After ranting rudely about outsourcing, the DJ turned on the operator, calling her a “dirty rat-catcher” and a “bitch” before threatening to “come out there and choke the eff out of you.” Just another day for the lead host of the syndicated “Star and Buc Wild” show, who promotes himself as “The Hater.” But when a station employee posted the recording on WUSL’s Web site this month, it spread like wildfire among Indians around the world. On sites like Turbanhead and SepiaMutiny, people got their first taste of American shock-jockery, and were appalled.

Continue reading →

Bollywood Hearthob Vivek Oberoi Throws Down a Challenge

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“For all those who talk about publicity, come here, get your hands dirty. Sleep four hours every night, walk around in the daily sun, run around in this fear of epidemics, come and do it, put your life at risk here. Then we’ll talk.” [CSM]

According to the Christian Science Monitor, Bollywood pretty boy Vivek Oberoi has left Bombay for Devanampattinam where he is taking a hands on approach to Tsunami relief. Instead of simply writing a check, or sending relief supplies south, he’s in the effected area, going house to house, handing out supplies. Continue reading →

Open skies and Air India

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India and the U.S. finally drafted an open skies agreement. This means $700 airfares, more direct flights, more flights from smaller airports, and more flights from U.S. carriers, so you don’t always have to fly via Lufthansa, KLM, Singapore or Air India. The agreement eliminates all kinds of crufty protectionism dating back to the national carrier-dominated era of air travel: Air India is not currently allowed to fly to both Los Angeles and San Francisco, for example, and only three carriers are allowed direct flights; all others have to route via a third country. India’s domestic air travel is surging 20% a year, international at nearly the same rate. The agreement will probably be signed next month.

(Note to the savvy: Turkish Airlines from NYC to Delhi is beautiful and inexpensive; you fly in nearly a straight line, plus you get to see gorgeous Istanbul and the palaces and mosques of the Ottoman Empire.)

While we’re modernizing air travel, will someone please update Air India’s hokey, ill-conceived jet paint? The tagline in goofy Curlz script reminds me of the shabby Indian restaurant in Where’s the Party Yaar? (‘When you can’t afford the Palace, come to the Place!’)

The Mughal arches surrounding the windows are cute, but ‘antique’ is the last thing you want to associate with an airplane from a developing country. Think modernist. Think Virgin Atlantic. Maybe use the stylized Air India centaur . Graphics department — futtafut!

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Bridal Beer

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I usually don’t post refs to other blogs until they’ve been around for a while and generated a good body of consistently high quality material. But the premise behind this blog is just too interesting for Sepia Mutiny to ignore –

When I was a child, I imagined death as being a collective experience. As the lion roared for one last time and the monsoon clouds ripped their chests for the last July shower, we would suddenly drop to the ground, hands extended, toungues out. Dead. As a young adult, death seems too trivial an encounter. What casts shadows of fear is life. Especially if you are on the verge of an impending engagement with a guy you don’t particularly want to kiss-and never have. (Assuming you are a woman. Or a man.) He was “26 yrs computer professional, Brahmin, 5′ 10”, Ivy-educated looking for family values working girl bride of reputed North Indian family, no dowry, willing to settle in US”. Soon he will father my children and be the financer of my groceries. We will share toothpaste and possibly memories. In an arranged marriage, the premise is that you kiss a frog on the first night(and for the first time)- to convert him into a notional prince. Which reminds me of a video about illegal activities between a woman and two frogs. Can I bring my ex-boyfriend’s porn collection as dowry? I stole them when we broke up and I’m too sentimental to E-bay away those romantic Tuesday nights.

Follow BridalBeer as she navigates from the ex-boyfriend in NYC into an arranged marriage in India. Continue reading →

Punjabi in political Pizzagate

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The Canadian immigration minister resigned yesterday, accused of offering asylum to a desi pizzeria owner in exchange for feeding her campaign staff. Harjit Singh of Toronto, a devout Mennonite convert, is also an alleged credit card forger subject to deportation. He says the minister, Judy Sgro, approached him for free food for her campaign volunteers last year in exchange for blocking his deportation, then reversed herself when word leaked out. Sgro denies all.

As scandals go, anchovies-for-asylum is so very… Canadian. No worries, we’ve got your back. Sgro was also accused of fast-tracking a Romanian stripper’s visa. Canadian women aren’t flocking to high-paying pole positions any more, so an exotic dancer visa is now an automatic ticket into Canada.

So while we’re bringing over Romanian quants for Wall Street, Canada’s importing Romanian strippers for Queen Street. Gee, I just noticed I bleed maple red 😉

Sleeping with the enemy

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Indian and Pakistani soldiers living together? Must be a Bollywood film, no? From the Indo-Asian News Service:

A contingent of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel being sent to join the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo will serve alongside Pakistani soldiers.

IAF officials said the contingent, comprising 285 personnel and six Mi-17 transport helicopters and four Mi-35 helicopter gunships, would be deployed at Bukavu to provide cover to Pakistan infantry troops.

It is a region that rebel forces recently captured.

“Our forces will live and operate with the Pakistani peacekeepers at Bukavu,” an IAF official told IANS.

Will it become the begining of a beautiful friendship, or a rumble in the jungle? Regardless, I doubt their behavior could be any worse than that of the UN troops already there. Continue reading →