We’ve got a new inductee for the Exotica Hall of Shame. This Chicago Sun-Times review of a new Chicago pop opera called Sita Ram is out to set some kind of density record for exotica-spew on Desilandia (thanks, WGIIA):
Adding to the spicy flavor are Scott C. Neale’s brilliantly colored street signs of India, Mara Blumenfeld’s curry-tinted costumes (many imported from India), Chris Binder’s deft lighting, plus shadow puppets and exotic instruments. There are moments when it feels like you are watching a traveling troupe that has set up shop in the center of an Indian village, and you half expect a cow or water buffalo to wander through. [Link]
I see that Jai Uttal is involved in this project. Say no more.
“Sita Ram” is the creation of director-writer David Kersnar and Grammy-nominated composer and co-lyricist Jai Uttal… [Link]
Hedy Weiss, you are dead to me 
Huh…WTF?
What color might that be?
The colour of haldi stains ?
Wow, I should go stain all my suits and lehngas with haldi so I can be cool too.
Yea me brown man.. wearing curry coloring clothing and having bringing rope tricks to this country. Me have 3 cows in home village and 4 snakes on my neck. Be scarce or I cast a spell on ya.
chequered with dried mango paste and polka-dots from neem oil.
Must be something new. Even during my last visit I hardly saw street signs.
M. Nam
OT: has anyone ever noticed that haldi stains on a countertop, when attacked with certain spray cleaners (like fantastik) sometimes turn blood red? In my apartment in NY my roommate had a bottle of fantastik, and every now and then I would use it when I ran out of mine to clean up the kitchen, and man, it was scary. At home I use 7th generation, and there’s no problem, and I’ve never felt like buying other cleansers to do the experiment more carefully, but I figured you people might know.
Turmeric turns strong red brown in a ‘basic’ solution… (basic as in acid, neutral and base –> chemistry 101)
Tell me more about the aesthetic transgressions of Jai Uttal. I’ve never heard of him…
It also turns light yellow in an acidic medium… hence the nice color of lemon rice…(to be eaten before curd rice, of course) -> southie veggie cooking 101
OT: has anyone ever noticed that haldi stains on a countertop, when attacked with certain spray cleaners (like fantastik) sometimes turn blood red? In my apartment in NY my roommate had a bottle of fantastik, and every now and then I would use it when I ran out of mine to clean up the kitchen, and man, it was scary. At home I use 7th generation, and there’s no problem, and I’ve never felt like buying other cleansers to do the experiment more carefully, but I figured you people might know.
OMG………that is TOO funny. but too true. It also turns light yellow in an acidic medium… hence the nice color of lemon rice…(to be eaten before curd rice, of course) -> southie veggie cooking 101
mmm…sure right when i’m contemplating what to make for dinner, and i have everone ask when we eat. lol…..
Pure exotica… Chicago is hell. We’re in bad shape.
ok…about jai uttal….i have to ask the dumb question of the moment number 65432757570….
is this one of those people who take on an indian name because they think it’s cool, and then think they’re like god’s gift to india just because they hear words like ‘kirtan’ and ‘yoga’, etc. and then think they’re gonna be some real cool hippy/hippie dude with this stuff…or does he have any credo? because i’m about to laugh my bum off…bless him for his interest, but then again, he also makes me think of steve urkel and his love of polkas. it’s just not a cool image. and i love my polkas as much a si do my bhangra, and they coexist happily in my little world, but…well..you get the idea…
By the power of Lola Kutty… Puliyogarai and the creators of Yellow Food
All this talk about yellow food is making me hungry. If I were into advertising for the MTR brand, I would have an old lady prepare puliyogarai with lots of turmeric and play the song “Yellow” in the background.
And then the fire alarm goes off because of smoke and my neighbour will complain about the smell.
ookk……..
The Share Guide: With the Pagan Love Orchestra, the group of musicians you work with, it seems you have drawn together musicians with a similar goal. They must all like chanting or they wouldn’t be interested?
Jai: Exactly. There are many different musicians that work with me at the kirtans also.
I’m officialy scared. The PAGAN LOVE ORCHESTRA????????????
W-T-F is “curry-tinted” ?!!!! which curry? what is “curry”?
In defense of Jai Uttal: all I know about him is what I’ve heard of his music on my internet-music-service-of-choice. He’s got some nice-sounding rock-adaptations of Bhajans (atleast I think that’s what it is); I don’t know what it means but it sounds pretty good to my ears.
I believe good things can come from orientalist/naive/exotifying explorations of other cultures and musical styles. I’m thinking of Delibes’ Lakme duet or Zeppelin’s Kashmir for example.
i’d still give him a listen…just not take him too seriosuly. 😉
Sorry, OT:
Question for the chemistry freaks – why is it that when you get a haldi stain on say a white t-shirt, no amount of washing detergent/powder/soap can get it off, HOWEVER if you dry it in the blistering hot sunshine, the stain (which was present when wet) miraculously disappears when dry! I note that this does not happen if you hang said t-shirt to dry in the shade. I am 100% convinced it is some sort of wizardry & that turmeric has some magical powers.
Does the word “curry” exist in any South Asian language? What is the etymology of this stupid word?
Manish, the highlighting in your quotatation says it all. This article makes no attempt to hide its Orientalism.
This is exactly the motivation behind the play. People have these romantic notions of cows and buffaloes strolling past them in rustic and exotic surroundings: ripe enough to lay the setting for “I am-so-angelina-united-nations-jolie” drama, thanks to the much sensationalized “good-samaritans-falling-in-love” movies. Pick any of the movies set in Africa, you get the picture.
And by the way, don’t even get me started on the fusion fappery churned out by the musicians who think that since they have met for over naan and tandoori chicken, they might as well collaborate and make music. This music is made for the dingleberries at Grammy awards shows. You put the CD into the tray and remove it less than 60 seconds. Fusion simply does not work. All the nonsense about East+West khichidi Kitsch is “Freddie Got Fingered” bad.
In Bangla the word ‘torcurry’ means dishes with a lot of gravy, while ‘bhaji’ means a dish that has been fried and is somewhat dry. The other one is ‘bhoona’ I think, and it means something in the middle, i.e it started off with lots of gravy but then excessively heated so it becomes like a paste.
The word curry demands a thread just to clarify the various connotations. It is huge. Curry, is borderline euphemism for anything Indian. It most likely is a coin termed by a wannabe indophile to differentiate himself/herself from the garden variety crowd. If you want to sound creative but not give the impression that you have no freakin clue as to what something means in an Indian context, add the word curry to it. It is as simple as that.
For example:
[] To prove you support multiculturalism, simply use curry 4 times in the article. [] To prove Indians are accepted in UK, show pictures of boards that start with curry and chutney.
This whole curry nonsense is packaged and marketed in the UK. I don’t see the curry angle in the US though.
By the way before people get all literary and James-Liptonish, “curry-tinted” makes no sense. The guy is a charlatan.
In Bangla the word ‘torcurry’ means dishes with a lot of gravy, while ‘bhaji’ means a dish that has been fried and is somewhat dry. The other one is ‘bhoona’ I think, and it means something in the middle, i.e it started off with lots of gravy but then excessively heated so it becomes like a paste.
Torkari means it was cooked in a tarka, stir fried, as it were, and then a very little water added, no relation of “curry” I’m happy to assert. Bhaji is batter- or crumb-fried.
That’s not the case in Bangla. Bhaji means stir-fried. There is another word for batter/crumb fried but it escapes me at the moment. I’ll have to consult with my elders.
Love it 🙂 Don’t forget the baby adoptions. Heroically saving Third World babies is almost as good as shopping.
I suppose the only other derivation might be from the word “karhi” which I understand is a besan-flour based gravy (corrections welcome!)? Is this the same as torcurry? Apart from that..of course that not what we call desi food rolls eyes..
Jai Uttal is good. As good as Krishna Das. Almost as much fun as Wah! But then I love this whole genre of rock n roll bhajans. Jai Uttal has done some very nice stuff under the Buddha Bar label as well.
In Bangla, ‘torcurry’ means literally ‘your curry’. It’s true, look it up.
I believe the word “curry” is derived from “kari leaf”, also known as “curry leaf,” a common ingredient in S. Indian cuisine.
By this reasoning, “curry-tinted” = green. But I doubt that’s what the author meant.
I don’t particularly dislike Uttal, he just does water-thin, lite rock bhajans. It’s for the easy listening world music demographic. When you first hear his pop bhajans, you think, ‘Wow, Peter Gabriel-esque,’ but as the songs wear on, there’s no punch, no payoff. You’re already at the interesting premise of bhajan meets rock, the twin ecstasies of religious revival and rock ‘n roll, now do something with it, man. He’s the Muzak of mild mysticism.
What the Anglosphere calls ‘curry,’ and what it really means…
flygirl:
That’s the thing that really gets me about this highly unsuitable label for such a diverse range of food. Besan-flour based dishes? Sounds nice!
PropaMc:
Only if you have warped pronunciation 😉 (there is a diff between thor (rhyming with floor) curry and torkari). Actually, I just remembered, in Dhaka there are a lot of men who carry baskets full of veges door to door and yell ‘aye torkari! torkari!’ so I guess it is also a synonym for ‘shobji’/vegetables. ugh. I give up.
I was trying to be funny, but since this is causing you grief here’s the entry from the Bengali-English dictionary:
torkari (n.): kitchen vegetables, garden stuff; vegetable curry. torkari bagan: a kitchen garden.
Aren’t all bhajans like that though? That is, aren’t you subjecting him to a tougher standard b/c he’s white?
To help a bit- in hindi tarkari = green vegetables. So i’d guess torkari means the same in bangla too.
Dhonnobad madam/sir – Your clarification of this mind-baffling issue will allow me to enjoy the upcoming weekend.
(P.S: I was being sarcastic too)
Nina: I was also under the impression that “curry” and “kari leaf” (“karivepilla” in malayalam) had something to do with each other. But a more proficient malayalam-speaker than myself tells me that they don’t. “Kari” means burned and “vepilla” means leaf (i think). The idea is that the function of the karivapilla is to be burnt during cooking and then thrown away.
But I do believe that today in Tamilnadu “curry” is used as a generic term for various kinds of dishes with gravy : Kai(vegetable)-curry, Mottai(egg)-curry, Erichi(meat)-curry. Help me out tamil and malayalam speakers… So while curry as a generic term grates on the ears of hindi-speakers, it doesn’t sound so bad to tamil speakers. These commenters at 3QD agree.
But “curry-tinted” ? That makes no sense at all..
Jesus Krishna, the exact opposite. Aren’t all kirtans weak and unintense?
Boy, get thee to a Hindu revival.
i do love manish’s pin the tail on the orientalist posts…or, throw daggers at the ori- well, you get the idea.
and I second #38. what have you been listening to?!…
Thanks. No surprise to see that this discussion has already been had, so I won’t drag it on.
But for those who might still be interested, this may be a useful article: Reading Communities and Culinary Communities: The Gastropoetics of the South Asian Diaspora. It’s a PDF, and if you don’t want to read the whole thing, the bit about curry is on the 4th page (474).
“Gastropoetics” is my new favorite word 🙂
Thanks, Shruti. I’m letting mom know she does gastropoetry.
gastropoetry? nice. i also like geoculinary
Jesus Krishna, the exact opposite. Aren’t all kirtans weak and unintense?
Boy, get thee to a Hindu revival.
Heh. I had a random Jai Uttal CD in my posession b/c someone left it in my car once. I remember thinking he had a few nice hooks and touches, but was nothing special. the pagan love orchestra name annoyed me. he’s rather more enamored of his own voice than he ought to be.
I will say that the real point of bhajans has nothing to do with the music, and the best recordings are often quite thin at first glance. . .some of my favorite recordings are personal ones involving nothing more than a handheld tape recorder, some kartals, a drum, and a seemingly scratchy voice–but they’re worth their weight in rubies to me.
That said there are some damn fine non-desi bhajan singers out there, with astonishingly rich voices that smoothly flow from honey to thunder and back again. One of the best ones I know this side of the pacific is neither desi nor white, but African-American.
OT again: Parikshit you are my hero! That is so interesting. Of course, now I’ve totally lost myself in cyberhypercavicunicucunctatalinkus learning that turmeric’s active ingreding cumerin is a phenol, and that phenols are pH indicators b/c the hydrogen ion changes their configuration. What I can’t figure out for the life of is what exactly is changing in their structure so they change color. Are we talking absorption and transmission/reflection? fluorescent emission? what’s changing to change the frequency? someobody who knows about spectroscopy and organic molecules rescue me please!
Curry, in non-Brahmin Tamil, means meat. Curry, in Brahmin Tamil, means fried veggies. Fried veggies in non-Brahmin Tamil is poriyal (meaning fry). Does anyone know of any exceptions to this?
I have to politely disagree. Two notable examples:
Agreed! I’d add Midival Punditz and Afro Celt Sound System (not brown…but still great music)
I know Jai Uttal personally. We met in India at an ashram and that was the first time for me to see his total devotion to his Guru via his music. We later met a few years later at his home in Berkely where I got to see his passion and devotion to music from close quarters. Haven’t seen him for sometime now, he’s been quite busy doing music tours all the time.
an amazon.com reader comments on jai uttal:
wtf is the lower beriatic world? and are there water buffaloes there?
umm, did anyone else see this one?
OF COURSE HE GETS SUBJECTED TO A “TOUGHER STANDARD” BECAUSE HE’S A CURRY-AND-KRISHNA-LOVING INDO-FETISH-HAVING WHITE BOY!!! Not like this is the first time any of us have seen this… please. Our culture(s) is(are) constantly appropriated and regurgitated, sometimes back to us but usually to the white world, by white “artists” who are more or less co-optation specialists. This is old news. I’d like to see some more tough standards and less passive acceptance of this trend… and it’s more than just an irritation, it’s a microcosm of colonization. Our shit is stolen and a white person profits, and then we crowd around him trying to protect him. This is not a natural cultural exchange, the likes of which has always occurred between communities in contact. There’s no sharing happening; it’s one-way.
It may be tasteless (and taste is subjective) and/or offensive, but it is “natural” and such things have in fact “always occurred between communities in contact.” The intermingling of artistic traditions isn’t always a fluffybunny mutual-respect everyone’s-economically-and-socially-equal oppression-does-not-exist thing. In fact it almost never is.