Monthly Archives: August 2006

Reminder: DC Meetup THIS Saturday!

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118028639_0cfa3f4a10_m.jpg Who told the clock to spin away time so quickly? One minute I’m grabbing Nina Paley‘s kundi in Central Park while grinning shamelessly for the Parsirazzi, the next thing I know, we’re less than three days from the SECOND chocolate city meetup, ever!

We haven’t solidified exactly when we will meet at Amma’s wegetarian or if we will do so pre- or post-debauchery, but that’s what this post’s comment section is for, so hop to it, my little brown bunnies. 😉 I can’t remember which of you I’ve spoken to about this, but so far most conversations include the words: drinking, Sequoia, afternoon, waterfront, summer, drinking and “great lighting”. We can all meet at 6pm, toast the mutiny, take pictures and then stroll up to Amma’s by 8pm, where we will eat like panthis and take even more pictures.

So, RSVP below if you are up to joining me, our favorite Barmaid, duologist Sriram and his sister (I think Saturday is her birthday!), Mayur, Kenyandesi and yes, potentially YO DAD in Georgetown for some vada, masala dosa and peppery rasam. Mmmm, South Indian food (that picture is of the actual receipt from the first DC meetup!): you, too, can have plenty but I need to know how many to reserve a table for, so holla. SOON. Last time, we had a mutinously good time– I think you’d regret it if you didn’t hang out with us on Saturday. No pressure, or anything. 😉 Continue reading →

Salutations from the Third Coast!

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Given my affinity for South Asia, monkeys and South Asian monkeys, it is an honor to gain guest access to the ND bunker. I must say – seeing lutefisk placed on the same shelf as mango chutney warms this former Upper Midwesterner’s heart.

Employment ushered me to the other end of the Mississippi. With a choice between Houston and New Orleans, I opted for the city with the most interesting cultural dynamics in the United States. A mélange of European and Afro-Caribbean, New Orleans is 70% non-white, poor in wealth, rich in customs and conventions, and a lot more than the drunken-tourist section of Bourbon Street.

As you know, it has been 359 days since Category-3 Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Buras, LA and laid waste to Slidell, LA and lovely beach towns along the coast of western Mississippi. Whole beachfront streets and homes in Waveland and Bay St. Louis were torn off their foundations by the whipping winds of an unusually angry hurricane.

Thankfully, New Orleans was spared that fate. However, our long-suffering and neglected canal levees could not handle the 25-foot and higher storm surges and the unthinkable happened – the levees broke flooding 80% of this city. Friends who stayed behind were forced to act as rescue workers and witness things no American in the 21st century should. Trapped in their homes for more than five days without food, water, medication and rescue, approximately 1400 New Orleanians, mostly the elderly and little children, perished. Demolition workers find carcasses to this day.

What does this have to do with desi or Sepia Mutiny?
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An Adopting Mother Confronts the Complexion Gap

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A few weeks ago we discussed a new kind of camp for Indian children adopted by white American parents. Today, via a tip on the news tab, I came across an article on Alternet by a Jewish New Yorker who adopted an Indian baby as a single mother, and was somewhat taken aback by the darkness of her child’s skin:

The first photo I received of [Redacted] showed her with fair skin. I was surprised, because from what my adoption agency told me, the child assigned to me would be much darker. After I got over that surprise, I had another: I felt relief. Suddenly — guiltily — it was a comfort to know that she would not look so different from me, and even more important, that her light skin would save her from a lifetime of prejudice. But ah, the magic of flashbulbs. A few months later I received several more photos and gaped at them in shock. The baby was much, much darker. (link)

[Redacted] has, initially, a lot of anxiety to deal with about the gap between her skin tone and that of her adopted daughter (read the whole article for examples: the kicker is the diaper change). She gets over it, but is still often surprised by the fact that no one in her social circle — including her Indian and Black friends — is as dark as her daughter:

Very soon, my daughter will have a lot to process. She’s adopted, she’s the child of a single mother, she’s an Indian Jew by conversion. We spent the summer with my father in upstate New York, and she was nearly always the darkest child in music class, gymnastics and day care. In New York City, even Blacks and Indians in [Redacted]’s and my social circle are lighter than she. Over and over I see how light skin equals privilege. Now that I have become [Redacted]’s mother, I realize: We need darker friends. (link)

I’m sure there will be some folks who will be offended that [Redacted] is publicly stating some of these things she says in this article. I personally am not: she’s expressing the shock she felt along with her embarrassment about that shock, and describing how she got past it. Yes, her initial reaction to her baby’s skin tone betrays “racism,” but it looks to me like she’s recognized and dealt with it.

Still, I wonder what people think about the solution she outlines: “We need darker friends.” Is it really damaging to a child (the baby has grown up some now) not to be around anyone who physically resembles her? And wouldn’t it be slightly strange to seek out “friends” on this basis?

[Oh, and one more thing: the Times recently had an interesting article on the growing number of cross-racial adoptions in the U.S.] Continue reading →

Guest Blogger: Maitri from New Orleans

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On Tuesday it will be one year since Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Spike Lee’s HBO documentary “When the Levees Broke” and Tulane historian Douglas Brinkley’s book, The Great Deluge have recently appeared. Both are extraordinary, and if you vote or pay taxes in the United States, you owe it to yourself to watch and read what collectively we allowed to happen.

If you are stirred to learn more, one of your next ports of call should be the website of Maitri Venkat-Ramani, New Orleans resident and citizen journalist extraordinaire. If you have a lot of work today, you may want to delay checking out her site as you are likely to spend hours rummaging the archives and following links to the testimonials, fact compilations, photo sets, commentaries and other resources that she and her fellow New Orleans citizen-journalists have developed for the past 359 days.

A few days ago, in a reflective mood, the sister wrote this:

A displaced resident of New Orleans and a loud civic voice, I had no stomach for superficial news and what Christiane Amanpour describes well as “happy-camper war-and-disaster-zone travelogue.” I was confused and frustrated from not knowing what was going on with the city, so I pacified myself by stepping in as a reporter and turning VatulBlog into a bullhorn in the NOLA PA system network. This was my catharsis and each time I received an encouraging comment, letter or phone call from an anonymous émigré, it reminded me that I was not alone, others were suffering a lot more and I had to keep writing.

My blog was a single candle. Soon, I found other candles like WetBankGuide, GulfSails and Gentilly Girl and the shining beacon that is Think New Orleans, which shares a lot of my own standards on knowledge work, information, content, archival and sharing. The fire caught from there. Writing about New Orleans over and above their jobs, not as their jobs – the woes, the recovery, the administrative blunders from the federal government on down and our own exploration of identity and the nature of self in a city hit by an unnatural disaster – all of the NOLA blogs linked to from my site share that conscience and that personal touch. A greater free, searchable, linked repository of news, data, research and a somewhat coherent set of thoughts on the re-discovery of ourselves.

She went on to offer this very sweet shout-out:

It was also through this blog that I found Sepia Mutiny, the vibrant and thoughtful salve to that within me which is Indian, Kuwaiti, American and everything in between.

Maitri, the honor is ours, and we are thrilled that you will be sharing for the next month, at this of all times, your perspectives with Sepia Mutiny readers.

Ladies and gentlemen, all the way from New Orleans, Louisiana, put your hands together and make some noise for one strong sister, Maitri Venkat-Ramani. Continue reading →

AIDS ’06

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Last week Toronto played host to the 16th International AIDS conference, a biennial summit that brings together HIV professionals, philanthropists, politicians, artists, writers and victims from all walks of life. It was a week of solidarity, hope and action through future thought for the 30, 000 participants representing the close to 40 million living with the infection/disease today and those 25 million who have died as a result of it. The theme for AIDS 06 was “Time to Deliver”, they should have added a “Now” at the end of that…

Two news items relating to the twin weapons of prevention and cure require mention here while at least two G-8 governments require a duo of tight slaps.

First up, courtesy of a great post on Pass the Roti (Thanks, Ennis!) we have details of a Bangladeshi group ‘Durjoy Nari Shangha’ having to close down sex-worker aid and education centers in Dhaka in order to keep in accord with US funding conditions:

The sex workers collective — its name translates roughly as “organization of women who are hard to repress” — had 20 drop-in centers before December, offering sex and literacy education as well as moral support, toilets and a place to wash and rest for up to 5,000 women. It closed them after signing what aid groups call the “prostitution loyalty oath” that requires groups receiving USAID funding to have a policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. The group now has just four centers, geared to children and children’s rights. Bagum said that before the centers closed, the group sold 73,000 condoms a month. That has fallen to 30,000, even though health experts agree that condoms are the best way of stopping the spread of AIDS.[Link]

Continue reading →

Save Her Life

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nirali3.jpg

That precious, happy little girl you see above is Nirali. She has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (Thanks, bean). According to the following,

Despite overall improvements in outcome, the prognosis for patients…is poor. Their estimated event-free survival (EFS) is only about 30%. [link]

her life is very much at stake, so the way I titled this post isn’t sensational or an exaggeration of any kind. After losing an Uncle to Leukemia two years ago and having an even closer family member go to the hospital this week because of the looming possibility of cancer, Nirali’s story makes me want to weep.

She needs a bone marrow transplant.

She needs that transplant from someone who is brown.

There aren’t anywhere near enough desis in the National Marrow Program database.

We have no excuse for this.

I am terrified of needles, I’ve said this many times. I avoid flu shots, because I find them so traumatic, but even I sacked up and then felt like the biggest baby for being afraid of the “typing” process which put me in the database of potential donors. Apparently, they’ve even taken care of THAT obstacle; now you can just get your cheek swabbed and that is enough.

Look here for a desi-centric list of opportunities to join the database, nationwide. Go. Give a tiny part of your physical self. And then pray, if you are inclined to do so, that we follow-up this post with some joyful news. Continue reading →

You call this a party?

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May I vent? On Sunday I went to the India Day celebration in New York. It was my first one since moving here, after years in a smaller city where there wasn’t much commemoration. Riding the subway downtown I was quite excited. I was also upset that I didn’t have a camera. I wanted to document the event for the mutineers to share in the party. I was annoyed that I’d have to find someone else’s blog or Flickr page to show you images of the day.

So I get down to 28th Street and start walking south on Madison Avenue. The street is empty. That’s OK, I can see the party a couple of blocks ahead. It looks small… but compact, right? Besides, it must spill out onto the side streets that I can’t see from here.

Aha! Here we go. Booths, stands, displays. I’m ready to get my culture on. I’m hoping for musicians, arts organizations, political groups of all stripes, regional and ethnic groups, maybe some cool vendors…

And what do I get?

  • Shaadi.com

  • BharatMatrimony

  • State Bank of India

  • Direct TV

  • Satellite TV channel #1

  • Satellite TV channel #2

  • Insurance agency

  • Another bank

… and that’s about it.

I mean, this was pathetic. Pathetic! India Day, commemoration of 59 years of Independence and all that, aunties walking around in tricolor saris, kids with face paint, and almost every single organized presence is hawking middle-class consumer services.

The exception was a bone marrow drive, but even that was being promoted by brothers from a desi fraternity. I’m not hating, especially not on bone marrow drives, but the frat-boy flavor certainly didn’t bring any cultural diversity to the event.

Yeah, there was a stage with performances. Just one stage, and the little I saw was, eh… just OK.

And yeah, I missed the parade. I’d been told to watch for the floats. Well, here’s a brother who took pictures: Corporate flatbeds rolling by empty sidewalks. A few Republican politicians.

The most flavor at the entire event was the Hare Krishnas.

Is it always this way? Continue reading →

Snake Boat Races in Kerala

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Every year on the second Saturday in August, the town of Allapuzha (or Allepey), Kerala — the “Venice of the East” — hosts the Nehru Trophy Boat Race. Aranmullavallamkali.jpg The boats used in the comptetition are traditional “snake boats” or “Chundan Vallam”. The boats have as many as 120 oarsmen, and have a large hood in the rear that rises twenty feet in the air, which resembles a cobra’s head. I’m not quite sure what the function of this hood is from a “boat science” perspective, but these boat races are both ancient and highly ritualized, and I get the feeling no one is thinking about a fiberglass redesign. Anyway, the snake boats look pretty cool; see more snake boat images.

allapuzha boat race.jpg For the first time this year, a team of 10 foreign women of various nationalities came from Dubai to participate in the women’s race. The foreign team was led by a British woman named Julie Amer, who describes herself as an “adventure tourist.” The team from Dubai worked together with 25 local Allapuzha women — and their boat came in first in the women’s race.

Two thoughts: 1) It’s cool that the women race in Saris (or are they Mundus?). 2) I love the umbrella; I wonder if it’s only for the women’s boats?

The winner in the men’s competition, for the third year in a row, was the “Payippad Boat Club.” Threepeat! The “Jesus Boat Club” came in second in its first appearance, according to the Hindu.

About 300,000 people went to Allapuzha to watch the race this year. Among them were about 5000 foreigners. Continue reading →

LTTE Arms Buyers Arrested in U.S.; Intense conflict in Sri Lanka

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Thirteen LTTE supporters have been arrested in various parts of the U.S., after some of them attempted to buy arms from a U.S. agent (thanks, tipsters). sri lanka bombs.jpg Others were involved in a bribery plot to have the LTTE removed from the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. One person (the liasion between the group of 13 and the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka) is still being sought.

Sense any irony here? In case not, let me spell it out: if you’re trying to buy bombs to use in terrorist attacks, it may be difficult to “convince” the State Department that you’re not a terrorist organization.

Another thought: this is the first time I can remember that LTTE supporters have been arrested in the U.S. for involvement in terrorism.

The government in Sri Lanka is by no means innocent in the current conflict. It has, to begin with, bombed the Tamil-controlled areas of Sri Lanka pretty aggressively. The LTTE claims one of the recent targets was a home for orphaned girls, and that sixty of the schoolgirls living there were killed, and another sixty wounded. (The LTTE claims have not been confirmed by any neutral observers, so it might not be true. The Sri Lankan government claims the site was an LTTE military facility.) And a Swedish negotiator has criticized the Sri Lankan government for starting military action against the LTTE too soon after negotiations over water ran into trouble three weeks ago. The same negotiator argues that the dispute over water was both overblown and on the brink of being resolved at the time the government started its artillery assault.

But the LTTE has also delivered a number of bombs to Colombo this summer, the worst of which being a June 15 bombing that killed 64 people (civilians). And there have been many others, including a bombing this week that killed seven and injured many more in Colombo. And thus far, it is the LTTE that has resisted returning to the table to resume talks; according to this report, the government has made it clear that it wants talks to get underway again as soon as possible.

The folks at What is Really Going On? point out that the number of dead in Sri Lanka this summer — 800+ — equals or exceeds the number of people killed in the recent Israel-Hezbollah conflict. The site is not a neutral one, but the point they make is valid. Despite the large number of deaths, the news about the conflict has been effectively absent from the U.S. media (and, for that matter, from the internet). Continue reading →

Mutiny-Wallah. The Sequel.

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Aaaaaand I’m back! What, you thought they could keep me away from the bunker forever?

It has been a few months since my gig as Mutiny-Wallah has been up, and I have since been in the real world sitting at cubicles writing humdrum policy reports, all the while dreaming of the happy days with the monkeys in the Sepia Mutiny bunker. Boy, did I miss those monkeys.Boy, did I miss those monkeys. When to my surprise, a couple of nights ago while planning my revolution, I was suddenly blindfolded and kidnapped. I was whisked away from Los Angeles on an autorickshaw (we were supposed to fly Jet Blue, but you know…) and when the blindfold was taken off a couple of hours ago, I found myself once again in the Sepia Mutiny bunkers. Yay!

How long will I be a mutiny-wallah this time around? They keep things hushed around me, but rumor has it it will last through November 7th. That is right, Election Day. You see kids, for those of you living under rocks, or not in this nation, we are at the beginning of a heightened election season, for the midterm elections. Here at Sepia, we’ve already brought you an interview with Raj Bakhta and of course, there was the whole Macaca Mutiny. In anticipation for the upcoming stories surrounding the 2006 elections, I have been brought on to assist you on this path. Think of me as the desi George Stephanopoulos, or the Anderson Cooper of the mutiny. I plan on bringing you investigative Election 2006 coverage, hard hitting interviews with political candidates, and keep you educated with the latest issues that will help in casting your ballot on November 7th. Of course, knowing the work that I love to do, you didn’t think you’d get away without a little voter registration, voter education and get-out-the vote, did you?

This is my 9th year working an election, and I know that there must be plenty of you out there working it too. Are you a desi running for office? Let me know. Registering voters? Campaigning on a ballot initiative? Writing a report about the South Asian Vote? Need to know where to register, where your poll is? Let me help and be devoted to getting you the best South Asian American blog Election 2006 coverage. And now, let the real mutiny begin- again.

Continue reading →