Monthly Archives: March 2005

This woman’s worth.

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From mobile ultrasound units that determine if a baby needs to be extinguished to bribery for keeping them, India now offers it all;

Families having a single girl child in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh will be given 100,000 rupees ($2,300) in an attempt to boost the female population…
…The state government says it is concerned at the falling female-to-male ratio – in 2001 it was 943 to 1,000.

The only-child receives the money as soon as she turns 20. In addition to that payola, from ages 14-17 (9th through 12th grade), a yearly grant of Rs. 1,250 will be available for the girl’s educational expenses. If either parent passes away, Rs. 50,000 is provided immediately. See? Attractive!

To ensure that the girl is a couple’s ONLY child, both parents must be sterilised;

…both parents would have to undergo operations certified and verified by government hospitals to qualify for the scheme.

Oh, and what’s a scheme without some PR?

The Andhra Pradesh government says it is also planning a major publicity campaign to promote female children.
It has named the rising Indian tennis star and local girl, Sania Mirza, as the “ambassador of the girl child of Andhra Pradesh”.

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I’d pay more if it meant no commercials before the flick.

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I’ll never bitch about spending Rs. 435 at the Sony Metreon ever again;

According to the cinema index from market researcher Screen Digest, tickets in India cost an average of 19 cents which means moviegoers here have to work for just 16 minutes to earn enough to buy a ticket, reports BBC.
In India, workers earn an average of 70 cents an hour, whereas, across the globe, the average working time needed to pay for cinema admission is 57 minutes.
Cheapest countries for cinema tickets, according to the survey, are: 1. India – 16 minutes’ wages 2. US – 24 minutes’ wages 3. China – 26 minutes’ wages 4. Luxembourg – 28 minutes’ wages 5. Ireland – 30 minutes’ wages

The most expensive countries? Well, I wouldn’t worry your pretty heads. Four out of the five are Eastern European nations that are rather Orthodox places. The fifth? Thailand, where nothing is orthodox. 😉

via Rediff. Continue reading →

“Suicide Girl” to die for

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Alternative community/pin-up site Suicide Girls features a blog and photo collection from a U.K.-based desi named “India” (NSFW). She’s an aspiring mathematician, and daydreams about numbers:

FANTASY: to solve one of the clay institutes seven prize math problems (http://www.claymath.org/millennium/)…

First Navi Rawat, and now “India.” When did math become the new black? One thing’s for sure — she shouldn’t have any trouble finding an algorithmically-inclined South Asian suitor. Oh, and for the record, I was on Suicide Girls in order to read a scintillating interview with the always-hilarious David Cross.

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Matthews plays Hardball with the AAHOA

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Following up on my earlier post about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to speak at the conference of the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) meeting in Fort Lauderdale, FL, tipster Anuj G. alerts us to the fact that Chris Matthews of Hardball has canceled his speaking commitment after being pressured by Muslim groups. The New York Sun reports:

A prominent talk show host has canceled a speech to a conference of Indian-American hoteliers after coming under pressure from Muslim organizations and human-rights groups, who said another speaker invited to the meeting has a record of condoning anti-Muslim violence.

The host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Chris Matthews, announced yesterday that he would not appear as planned on March 24 at the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“Due to a scheduling conflict, Chris Matthews has canceled this appearance,” an MSNBC spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, said. He would not elaborate on the nature of the conflict.

In recent days, Muslim activists and others flooded the network with calls, letters, and e-mail urging Mr. Matthews to distance himself from the group. An Indian official billed as the “chief guest” at the meeting, Narendra Modi, has been accused of tolerating anti-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat, where he is chief minister.

The president of the Indian Muslim Council-USA, Dr. Ashwini Rao of New York, said he does not credit the official explanation for Mr. Matthews’s action. “Most likely, that’s not correct, because we’ve been talking to him for the last week and a half, at least, and they’ve never said it’s a scheduling conflict,” Dr. Rao said. “I was hoping he’d take a more moral stance.”

There is another interesting twist to this story however. Apparently the way the press found out that Matthews was backing out was via a PENTAGON mailing list. What the heck does the Pentagon have to do with Matthews and Modi?

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Who else has warm fuzzies?

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A Muslim Lawyer who “claims she has been meeting Lord Shiva off and on in her dreams for the past six years” has built a Hindu temple for the “libertarian” deity;

Noor Fatima, who laid the foundation for the Shiva Temple, claimed that Shiva had visited her in her dream, prompting her to build the temple. Although Fatima’s faith strictly prohibits idol worship, she decided to build the temple out of respect and tolerance for Hinduism.

The paradigm of secular harmony started her project in Varanasi with a mere five thousand rupees, but others pitched in to make her dream come true.

The temple opened a few days ago (March 5) for Maha Shivratri.

P.S. Thanks Pooja, for the tip 🙂 Continue reading →

The Filmigame

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My friend Atul R. at HBS emails me about a recent alumnus from his program coming up with the hottest game since Star Wars-opoly: The Filmigame filmigame.jpg

THE FILMIGAME is a fun and exciting experience for all Bollywood Movie Lovers. With over 1200 trivia questions on your favorite Movies, Stars, Songs, Dances, Dialogues and Movie Clips. THE FILMIGAME is packed full of fun for everyone.

Play THE FILMIGAME, the first ever Trivia Game on DVD!

The Best of Bollywood comes right to your living room! Watch your favorite movie moments from blockbusters like KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM and KAL HO NAA HO to all time favorites like NAMAK HALAAL and SHARAABI!

See how much you know with over 1,200 questions on your favorite Movies, Stars, Songs, Singers and Dances – All on DVD!

Challenge your friends and family to a night of unforgettable fun and entertainment!

This sucks actually. I am super competetive. If any cute girl invites me over for game night to play this thing, I will totally lose. I know jack about Bollywood films. Hmmmm. Maybe I could use it as a tutorial instead. They should totally market it that way.

THE FILMIGAME has been designed and developed by two dynamic Asian women based in the US, Sunaina Anand and Prita Uppal. Their main goal as UNAMEDIA is to bring people the most innovative and creative, culturally targeted entertainment. They aim to do this through advanced gaming and entertainment techniques, such as THE FILMIGAME.

Both Sunaina and Prita feel very passionate about this new game and are confident that it will be a hit with movie lovers all around the world. Ms Anand says: “We are developing cultural connections between people in a fun, entertaining and unique way. Our goal is to help people understand and enjoy Indian culture and traditions. And we believe THE FILMIGAME is a giant step in that direction.”

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SF Asian American Film Festival – Mar 10-20

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left_3.jpg A quick shout-out for Bay Area / Cali mutineers – the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival starts tomorrow, Thursday, Mar 10 and extends until Mar 20.
left_4.jpg They’ll be playing 16 Desi flicks including –

I’ll be representin’ SM with a crew of friends who are coming up from LA. The socializing promises to continue late into the evening 😉 Continue reading →

Chutney Lady

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The Gray Lady discovers chaat. Next, they’ll be telling their readers about this great new thing called roti 🙂 But then the piece goes all sensual on you:

The contrasts are, as one fan said, “a steeplechase for your mouth,” with different sensations galloping by faster than you can track them… Chaats can be made with almost anything crispy: … fresh ginger, mung bean sprouts and spice-dusted toasted lentils. Chaat masala usually includes amchoor, a tangy powder made from green mangoes, mint, cumin and pomegranate, but it must always include kala namak, a black salt with a pleasant whiff of sulfur… “In India a guy might have a Mercedes and live in a house on a hill, but he still puts on his slippers and goes to eat chaat…”

A fine tribute to pani puri… by Ganghadar Gopal Gadgil… “In that state of beatitude the Maharashtrians stop being surly, the Marwaris look at the millions of stars without being reminded of their own millions, the Sindhis admire the horizon without any intention of selling it, the Gujaratis speculate on the moon instead of the scrips they should have sold, the North Indians dream of things other than Hindi as the official language of the United Nations, and even the Parsi ladies stop nagging their husbands.”

Be still my gurgling stomach. And, more importantly, the story tells you where to get your fix, though Dimple’s been open for years:

… two popular, top-quality chaat specialists have opened in Midtown Manhattan: Dimple Fast Food and Sukhadia’s Sweets. Manhattan has lately been seized by a craze for Indian snacks, with upscale new places like Spice Market, Bombay Talkie, Von Singh’s, Devi, Lassi and Babu all claiming Indian street food as an inspiration…

… Chowpatty Foods [of Iselin, NJ]… has just imported a chaat cart from India in the red-and-white color scheme of the Chowpatty chaat wallahs… a traditional chaat wallah sits surrounded by his mounds of dry ingredients… and his own mix of jal-jeera, the “firewater” that is used to fill the habit-forming pani puri.

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3

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Was Lord Shiva a Libertarian?

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Tipster Suresh V. points us to this post on Instapundit. Within the post, an ill-informed commenter compares Lord Shiva’s destructive tendencies to those of whack-jobs like Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot. Before we could set the record straight by posting a critique on this site, an Instapundit reader named Srikanth Bellalacheruvu did so in a rather unusual manner:

Shiva is not simply a “destroyer”, and if he was, Indians wouldn’t worship him. They have several million Gods to choose from – it’s a free market out there.

Shiva is, to be accurate, the “Renewer”. Shiva destroys a world when it is beyond all hope of reform, in order to allow creative energies to build a better world. His anger is that of a righteousness, not that of hatred.

And Vishnu is not a “creator”. To be accurate, he “maintains order” in world that already exists.

If we were to use business terminology, Shiva’s rage would be “gales of creative destruction” and Vishnu would be a brilliant CEO adding to shareholder value.

If this analogy holds then that means Vinod is going to Heaven and I’m going to Hell.

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