Monthly Archives: November 2005

Sweaterhead confusion

Posted on by

In the post below, Manish introduces us to young actor Neil Patil. I went through the images he has posted on IMDb, and was dismayed to find the photo below of Patil with what looks like a sweater tied around his head.

Let’s deconstruct this image, shall we? Photos on IMDb are carefully selected for the consumption of casting agents. It is unlikely that this is simply a snapshot of Patil clowning around with his buddies that got accidentally posted; it is one of only five photos deliberately chosen for display.

Why would he want to show this to casting agents? I’m trying to be as sympathetic to his aims as possible, but the only thing I can think of is that he wants to show people both that he’s willing to wear any type of silly headgear and that he’s capable of looking debonair doing so.

I have a lot of sympathy for young desi actors. The American film industry is a hard one to break into, and he’s just starting out. Nor am I offended by the picture – he’s not claiming to be a Sikh or anything else. He’s just a guy with a sweater around his head.

I’m simply confused. As somebody who has been called “raghead” more times than I can count, I don’t understand why he would want to put this picture up. Black actors don’t put up minstrel photos in their IMDb profiles, why would Patil choose to portray himself in this way?

p.s. Also – what’s up with the whip?

Continue reading →

Come on, Naureen

Posted on by

In Wedding Crashers, actress Naureen Zaim plays the credulous babe on the other end of this exchange:

Hindu woman: French Foreign Legion?
John Beckwith: Yeah, we lost a lot of good men out there. [Link]

She soon falls into bed, bouncy and topless, with Owen Wilson. Like Yasmeen Ghauri and Rhona Mitra, she’s part desi, part white:

I am originally from Chicago. I am half Pakistani, and 1/4 Irish, and 1/4 German. [Link]

She has an advanced degree in glass blowing, like mine in home ec and underwater basket weaving:

I blew glass at University of Illinois, and actually received a degree in it. [Link]

After teaching the The Republic by Plato at an Ivy League university, she shoots a TV show: model boxing.

· · · · ·

Also from Wedding Crashers, actor Neil Patil’s resume shows Hollywood offers desis lots of ground-breaking, non-stereotypical roles without accents:

  • Terrorist
  • Cabbie
  • Limo driver
  • Valet
  • Indian wedding groom
  • Exchange student
  • Waiter

So here we’ve got Hollywood’s gender-specific treatment of desis neatly encapsulated in a single movie. Desi women are cast as random babes, men as servants and terrorists. It’s tribal: kill the men, fuck the women. About the only role I remember where the desi guy was neither mocked nor feared was Kal Penn’s in the little-seen A Lot Like Love.

Continue reading →

Are We Doing Enough?

Posted on by

I know we mutineers have been pushing Quake relief and donations for helping manage the response to the the various disasters that have struck around the world this year. It is just hard to imagine, that in a little over a month (December 26), it will be a year since the Indian Ocean tsunami, what seems like the first tragedy in a cycle of monstrous natural diasters hit. Hopefully the South Asian Quake will be the last we’ll see from mother nature for a LONG time.

What’s making me pontificate you ask? Well, my friend Roshan Loungani, founder of desivision (I did want to, at some point, properly blog this interesting on-line Desi television channel) pointed me to a short film (free subscription required) desivision is hosting by Rohit Gupta. The five-minute plus montage, accompanied by Nitin Sawhney’s classic Homelands, has some poignant images from the South Asian Earthquake and makes clear the need for continued international assistance.

Even if you don’t intend or cannot donate, please check out the video. Perhaps it will change your mind. Continue reading →

Am I becoming a prude?

Posted on by

Over the tip line we got word from runyolarun about an organization up in Toronto that is promoting itself with a new set of agency posters:

“The Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention is a community-based, non-profit, charitable organization committed to providing health promotion, support, education and advocacy in a non-discriminatory manner for those who identify as South Asian living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.”

ASAAP is a Toronto based AIDS service organization. It was founded in 1989 as a result of the voluntary efforts of members of Khush (a social group for South Asian gays and lesbians that has since closed down), in a community response to a request for support for a South Asian couple infected with HIV/AIDS who died in isolation, unable to access services in their own language. Our catchment area is greater Toronto and all the surrounding suburbs/towns. Our services include preventative education, support to South Asians infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS, outreach, and advocacy. Services are available in Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Bengali. You may need to call ahead to arrange assistance in South Asian languages.

Seems like they do great work. I realize that I am about to possibly get myself labeled as a prude with the following comments (which I assure you is not true), but I’m just not that into their new posters. In my opinion AIDS education has always been difficult because too many people continue to associate AIDS with homosexuality or otherwise “deviant” behavior. In truth, as we all know, AIDS can affect anyone, and an important part in trying to educate people about the disease should be to reach out to populations who think they are above risk. With that in mind I feel like these posters are a bit too racy. I can’t help but feel that many people will think, “Oh, I’m not like the people in those posters (even the one of the straight couple). This doesn’t concern me.” To be specific, the first poster, which seems to be that of an orgy, has several buzz words on it which include “Slip n’ Slide,” and the poster of the Lesbian couple includes the single word, “fist.” Are orgies popular in South Asian communities in Canada (if so I am leaving Jesusland tomorrow)? Also was it necessary to use a clichéd Come/Cum pun on the poster of the straight couple? Am I just getting old? Do most of you like these posters?

Continue reading →

My Thais

Posted on by

The Thai clothing retailer Jaspal, which the NYT calls ‘Thailand’s Gap,’ is currently running a big ad campaign with OC actress Mischa Barton. It’s one of those cushy, overseas-only gigs so ably flèched by Bill Murray, who shilled Suntory whiskey in Lost in Translation. The company’s name implies its founder is Sikh. It’s probably another incarnation of India and Thailand’s long history of mixing:

The Thai alphabet is based on Mon (Burmese), Khmer (Cambodia) and South Indian scripts, and the language has many Sanskrit words… It is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power… [Link]

The Thai language is liberally sprinkled with words from Pali and Sanskrit (the classical languages, respectively, of Theravada Buddhism and Indian Hinduism). [Link]

Thailand, which is 95% Buddhist, seems tolerant of minority religions, with Hindu shrines as good luck charms in downtown Bangkok (thanks, Mark IV):

Ramakien statue at Wat Phra Kaew temple

“This temple [in Chiang Mai] is one of the biggest in Thailand. We also have one big Sikh gurudwara here which is 120 years old. The same devotees go to both the gurudwara and the temple. On Tuesday, for our weekly satsang, you will find a large number of Thai devotees here…” I spoke with one Thai devotee here, Anuma, who said she was a “Buddhist Hindu” and a devotee of Mother Durga…

… the Sri Mariamman temple [in Bangkok]… was built by South Indians who migrated from the Thanjavur District in Tamil Nadu to Thailand about 150 years ago. It was the first Hindu temple built by the immigrant Indian community… “The reason why so many Thai people are visiting the Mariamman temple is that She is considered to be the Goddess of Protection. During World War II, when a lot of places here were destroyed in the Japanese occupation, the temple remained absolutely safe.” [Link]

Continue reading →

Recycled fashion (bags, not heads)

Posted on by

Here’s the latest in socially conscious accessories:

Ragbags are fashionable products made from recycled plastic bags collected by ‘ragpickers’ in the slums of New Delhi. Plastic rags are collected, washed, dried and separated by colour. The plastic bags then go into a machine, which presses them into thicker and more durable sheets. No dyes or inks are required. It takes about 60 plastic bags to make one sheet. The sheets are then cut, lined with cloth and stitched or moulded into the various products. [Link]

The collection includes shoulder bags, backpacks, shopping bags, organizers (large and small) and wallets. The shoulder bags come in a variety of different color schemes including “Pakistan” and “India”, neither of which matches either country’s flag.

Most of the stores carrying these goods are in the Netherlands, but Americans can purchase them in Brooklyn and Mendocino, or they can go online. Check the shop locator for an outlet near you.

Continue reading →

The economics of the Indian Wedding Industry

Posted on by

Once upon a time, US dollars went a long way in India. Even weddings, long expensive in local terms, could be staged far more cheaply in India than in the US. Not any more. The wedding planners have arrived, and everybody wants a big extravaganza:

India’s burgeoning middle class – now 300 million strong – are turning weddings into showcases of their growing disposable incomes and newfound appetites for the goodies of the global marketplace.

The largesse has spawned an $11 billion wedding industry, growing at 25 percent annually and beginning to rival the US industry valued at $50 billion.

The minimum budget for a wedding ceremony is $34,000, say wedding planners, while the upper-middle and rich classes are known to spend upward of $2 million. (The average American wedding costs $26,327.) This doesn’t include cash and valuables given as part of a dowry. [Link]

The latest fad is to stage the whole shebang on pontoons, putting family and friends on a veritable flotilla of flaunted wealth

If you consider the fact that India’s middle class are those considered to be earning “$4,545 to $23,000 a year”, weddings are priced comparably to an Ivy League education in the US. To “help out” banks are offering specialized wedding loans (at high rates, I’m sure):

GE Money India has introduced an “auspicious” personal loan, a quick and easy loan exclusively for weddings. [Link]
Continue reading →

Pipe dream

Posted on by

Serendipity is a pretty lame romantic comedy that’s a staple of cable reruns, where I had the misfortune of running into it this morning. Like Bollywood, it peddles soft-headed romantic fatalism in a one-joke script.

It does, however, do a very funny New Age parody. John Corbett (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) hams it up as Lars, a self-absorbed New Age musician. This schmuck in a silk kurta plays an instrument ubiquitous at Indian weddings while his hype men play tabla and sitar.

As Lars watches the cheesy, Yanni-like music video his record label put together, he complains, ‘You can’t fight off an army of bloodthirsty Vikings with a shehnai. It’s illogical.’

This little fudge cake of brilliance is probably the only shehnai joke in Hollywood history, and definitely the only one involving Vikings.

Continue reading →

Why You Think the Net Was Born

Posted on by

Thanks to Manish and the rest of the Sepia Mutineers for welcoming me to guest-blog here.

There’s a new Bollywood film out carrying the same name as one from the early ’80s. However, while the old movie was directed by Shyam Benegal and is a modern take on the Mahbharata, the new one is a Mahesh Bhatt production, directed by Mohit Suri, about the international pornography trade. The 2005 version of Kalyug follows the idea of an age of decline, but focuses on sexual degeneracy specifically. At least in the (intentionally?) punningly titled article “Kalyug exposes porn trade,” the movie is entirely negative about this industry. Says Bhatt,

I got the idea of making Kalyug after reading the India Today article on a honeymooning couple, whose lovemaking scenes were recorded in a hotel and distributed throughout the world. People all over the world want to see reality sex, not fictional sex. Human trafficking has become big business everywhere; it’s the third largest international crime after drugs and the arms trade. Desi Indian women and porn sites are a huge craze abroad. That’s why victims of natural disasters like famines and earthquakes are sold for these pornographic rackets. They are drugged, brutalised and blackmailed into joining the flesh trade.

Continue reading →

Guest blogger: PG

Posted on by

Please join me in welcoming our next guest blogger, PG of Half the Sins and the De Novo group blog. The law groupies here at SM have been atwitter over her smart vivisection of political critters and policy wonkery for some time. From time to time, she also applies her prodigious talents to pawning exotica indien:

I don’t think there will be anything for the next generation of Indian kids to unify around, unless we go through a collective midlife crisis and decide to impose the same expectations on our offspring that our parents put on us.

So far today, I’ve been wished a happy Diwali by a white person and my mom, and my white Property professor was wearing a punjabi dress- style top in class. I was intending to celebrate it properly, but then I realized I was having a bit of iron deficiency, so I ate a hamburger. [Link]

Last night as we were waiting to get into the Lido, a Vegas-style club in Paris’s otherwise elegant Champs Elysees district, I kept pretending that we were going to a strip joint and quoting Chris Rock jokes about how no one would want to eat the food. “Titties and tater tots don’t mix!..”

… then come out the girls with the boobie verison of a punjabi dress/ salwar kameez. By boobie version, I mean that it looked about right, the loose pants and all, except the top didn’t cover their tits. Which was what most of the costumes in this show were like, but you don’t expect to see the same outfit that your mama can wear exposing boobs. That just ain’t right.

But that was only a little appetizer… Shiva with tits was a showgirl wearing a big headdress that looked like the traditional representation of many-armed Shiva, except Shiva doesn’t have tits, on account of Shiva is a MAN.

It wasn’t enough to have Shiva with titties. Nope, then we had to have half a dozen Ganeshas in ass-pants and no shirts. These were the showboys wearing elephant masks, complete with trunk. They came out on a stage set done up to look like a temple. A TEMPLE! Complete with gold paint. They also trotted out a big fake plastic elephant for one of the showgirls to ride…

Did I mention the giant fake lotus blossom that came out of the floor?… [Link]

Welcome, PG!

Continue reading →