Seen atop a NYC cab: ‘Hum vahan vyavsaya ke liye jaathe hain,’ ‘we go there for business’ (thanks, skk).
I love the non-translation. It’s like the out-joke in Lost in Translation when the enfant terrible director rants at length in Japanese:
Ms. Kawasaki: He want you to turn and look in camera. Okay?
Bob (Bill Murray): Is that all he said? [Link]
On the other hand, they skipped the obvious alliteration: ‘Don’t dilly-dally, Delhi daily.’
Q: So how does a terrorist make money these days to fund his activities?
A: Porn. BBC News reports (thanks for the tip Srinath):
Rebels in India’s north-eastern state of Tripura are making pornographic films to raise money for their separatist campaign, officials say.
The information has come from surrendered guerrillas of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), according to police.
They say the rebels are forcing captured tribal women, and some men, to take part in the films.
The films are then dubbed to be sold in India and neighbouring countries.
Come on. It’s one thing if porn is between “willing” participants, but to force helpless tribal people into it, and then dubbing over their voices is just sick!
“We get a lot more money , much above our normal rates, to process these films and deliver a sleek final product.“We know the insurgents are behind these films. When we process their raw stock, we can see boys standing around with automatic rifles and revolvers pulling in girls but we are supposed to cut all that out and just concentrate on the sex,” the owner said.
“It is very good money and we don’t think it is right to question the insurgents anyway,” he said.
Check out D’Arcy, a Brit indie pop group with an ’80s fashion fixation (obligatory M.I.A. reference via AiM):
[The band was] founded three years ago by Ashish Dharsi, the band’s vocalist and rhythm guitarist, and Tristan Evans, who plays lead guitar… “When I started as a solo singer songwriter a friend was designing a flyer and wrote my name on it as D’Arcy instead of Dharsi thinking that’s how it was spelt. I liked it and we have stuck with it and it’s attracting a lot of support, particularly from our Irish fans.” [Link]
Well, of course that’s what you get when you pronounce your pukka desi name in that posh Brit accent 
Ashish makes a much more interesting Dharsi than Martin Henderson.
Listen here (MP3).
Since flawless scores on the SAT are no biggie ‘round this blog— btw, you all make me sick with your disgusting perfection– I thought I’d give you a REAL test to tussle with…
Erstwhile guest blogger Amardeep once crafted something similar to have us all put up or shut up regarding our mastery of brown music. I had a blast with the good Professor’s exam, so much so that fellow Mutineer Manish accused me of cheating. Hater. 😉
No need to cheat on my little timesuck; obviously all of your Reading Comp skills are stellar if you made 800s back in high school. This quiz covers information from posts written in the last week. Have at it, SM-heads. And if you like it, I might do it to you again. 😀 Continue reading
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. The Independent reports:
The ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir has produced an unexpected beneficiary – the world’s largest goat.
The markhor, a mountain goat that stands almost 6ft tall at the shoulder and can weigh 17 stone, was thought to be extinct in Indian-held Kashmir. But a recent joint survey by Indian wildlife organisations and the Indian army found 35 small herds – 155 goats – thriving near the Line of Control.
As recently as 1970 there were 25,000 on the Indian side, but by 1997 they had been driven to near extinction. The main cause was the conflict.
The Indian Express goes into more detail:
”It is really encouraging that we still have a sizeable Markhor population here. The present peace situation is conducive for wildlife. Regular cross-border firing and shelling was a serious threat. But the habitation was improving even before the ceasefire was announced in late 2003. We declared protected areas and were hopeful that the Markhor population would improve,” J&K Chief Wildlife Warden CM Seth told The Indian Express.J&K Principal Chief Conservator of Forests SD Swatantra also lauded the Army for its role.
”Army personnel have been sensitive to the environmental concerns. Border thaw during the last two years has helped the animals a lot. Earlier, constant presence of the troops minimised poaching and human interference. Now in the absence of conflict, the habitat is improving fast,” he said.
What a noble animal. A part of me has always wished that humans too had horns. A lot of petty arguments could be settled by simply locking horns for a few moments…or impalement. Plus girls would immediately know that you were packing.
A pariah agiary is rushing new pledges in Bombay (via Arzan):
On Khordad Sal, Prophet Zarathustra’s birthday, a group of Parsis quietly inaugurated a new ”universal agiary” or Fire Temple in a Colaba apartment. It was for the first time in the community’s history a temple was thrown open to non-Parsis. Almost a hundred people, both Parsis and non-Parsis, turned up for the agiary’s jashan and the humbandagi–traditional prayers recited strictly for and by Parsis. And supporting the move were script writer Sooni Taraporevala and Smita Godrej Crishna, sister of industrialist Jamshyd Godrej…The prophet encouraged conversion, but Parsi women who marry outside the fold are pariahs, debarred from fire temples, from converting their families. But dwindling numbers–the census recorded 69,601 at last count–have prompted progressive Parsis to adopt a more practical approach…
Already, half a dozen Parsi priests have started offering clandestine ritual services at Navjots, marriages and funerals for a sizeable number of ostracised clients. Now the Wadias hope the new agiary will voice the unspoken aspirations of 40 per cent of Parsis who married outside the clan. [Link]
The Parsi religion seems to be missing the key meme of those which spread widely, a liberal conversion process. The elders are displeased:
He explains that an agiary can only be consecrated by the highest echelons of the clergy, after three weeks of rituals. ”Needless to say, a group of renegade priests officiating in a cult movement certainly don’t qualify.” [Link]
Former McKinsey chief Rajat Gupta interviews the man in the perenially blue turban in the McKinsey Quarterly (registration required). 
I bet he pronounces the name right. It’s two free-marketers talking to each other, the benefit of having an economist occupying 7 Race Course Road.
Singh says his top priority isn’t high tech or special export zones, it’s electrifying villages. He’s talking about the basic heavy lifting of a long-delayed national bootstrap:
We have, for the next four to five years, a very ambitious plan to expand… the availability of electricity to all of our villages…When I look at countries like South Korea, all children who are of secondary-school-going age are in school; our children drop out even before they complete primary school… we are making, for the first time, the most determined effort to ensure that all our children… in the next four or five years have the benefit of minimum primary schooling.
Beyond upgrading airports, his administration is also spending on ports and railroads:
We are working with the Japanese government to draw up a program in which the freight corridors between Mumbai-Delhi, Mumbai-Chennai, and Delhi-Kolkata can be modernized. Our estimate is that that will cost about 25 thousand crore of rupees [$5.7 billion], and that’s our high priority as far as the railway system is concerned… We also are now in the process of modernizing our seaports.
The Indian government’s policy naming schemes are an odd hangover cocktail of faceless socialist, stymied bureaucrat and shudh Hindi or Sanskrit:
The Common Minimum Program, which is the benchmark for us to assess where we want to go, talks about the navratnas. These navratnas are companies essentially in the oil sectors, the power sectors, which are doing really well…
Being a Sepia Mutiny blogger there is one thing I feel guilty about. With this post I am going to try and absolve myself of some of that guilt. It pertains to our blog roll. You know, that list of blogs we have links to in the right hand column of our page. Many of you who are bloggers ask us all the time to add your site to our roll. Our policy is explained in our FAQ:
Q: Can you please add my blog to the sidebar?
A: Send us your Web address, and we’ll take a look. We add the blogs we love, are addicted to and read daily.
We honestly aren’t trying to be blog snobs, it’s just that we feel in order that our readers take us seriously we only include blogs that at least one of us regularly reads and can personally vouch for. It’s like the mob. If we vouch for a site that we really don’t know, then we leave ourselves open to being shot by our co-bloggers. It’s all very Donnie-Brascoesque here in mutinous North Dakota. The best way I find new blogs is when one of you leave a very interesting comment and I click on the link to your name.
I just wanted to give a shot out to some blogs that I am starting to read, and others that belong to dedicated SM tipsters/commenters that may have some promise.
(1) Chocolate & Gold Coins, Michael Higgins- Any blog with the word “chocolate” in the name is a winner. He also sends us good tips.
(2) Punjabi Boy– Really, need I say more?
(3) Currylingus– I think that is my favorite blog name EVER. Neha makes me laugh any time I visit her site. And she’s cute.
Fresh bagels, Starbucks™ coffee, foot massages…??? Turbanhead must’ve had the all-access pass to the North Dakota headquarters. All I see are grey socks and an ant farm. And all I got were a gaddawful hangover and some suspicious bruising.
I am truly honored by the invite to blog. ItÂ’s my first time, so please be gentle.
Since fashion-lovers responded so warmly to my sartorially-obsessed MIA review, I thought IÂ’d start things off with the news that Ashish Soni is presenting a collection at New York Fashion Week next month. The first Indian to be invited to do so.
Soni, like all designers, needs money to buy fabric, stitch up samples and hire those lissome young things to stalk a runway. Our man in Delhi, however, seems a bit more enterprising than most when it comes to getting his show on the road:
At an informal press briefing today, Soni announced that his show in New York would be jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Textiles, the Ministry of Tourism and Air-India. And what’s more, all this, as part of the Incredible India campaign. The total sponsorship package would amount to ‘‘around $200,000’’, informed the designer.
We haven’t tapped the huge potential that we hold in the field of textiles,’’ explained Tourism Minister Renuka Chowdhury at the press briefing. ‘‘So when Ashish approached us with his blueprint which would help showcase Indian textiles abroad, we decided to make him an ambassador for the Incredible India campaign,’’ she said.
Exactly how would this help tourism? ‘‘Well, the huge international media presence will ensure that the world gets to see a younger, contemporary and more vibrant side to India,’’ she reasoned. [link]
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 
), Cicatrix was given a set of keys to “the bunker.” Also, just a fair warning. Anyone that calls her “aunty” will be banned. Please join me in welcoming her [clap clap clap].