Who said desi accents weren’t sexy? One in particular will keep me glued to the TV every Monday night, starting next Monday on the NBC sci-fi drama Heroes.
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Desi-licious |
The most heated debate [by critics] centers on “Heroes,” NBC’s bold new drama about everyday people who discover they have extraordinary powers (one can teleport, another can fly, a third is impervious to bodily injury) and ultimately band together to fight evil. (Think “X-Men” meets “Lost.”) Our panelists are deeply divided on this show — they either love it or seem to be disillusioned with the genre. [link]
Looks like with this show, NBC will be finally be able to tap into the ‘sci-fi drama for Gen X’ market that had been previously cornered by the soon to be defunct WB. As for my new television crush with the delicious desi accent — it is Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays the Indian geneticist turned New York cabbie Mohinder Suresh.
A tenured genetics professor at the the University of Madras. His father Chandra was also a professor until he disappeared from India and the accredited academic world years ago after raving about a “global event’ that would change mankind. He thought his answers would be in New York… Chandra was murdered. Mohinder moves to New York to find out why his father was killed. [link]
Boys, you can have your Lakshmi-the-cooking-show-host because us girls will have Ramamurthy-the-geneticist- professor-who-will-solve-the-mystery. The Heroes site has delicious videos online to be sure to get you addicted well in advances of the Sept. 25th premiere. If you are a fan of the intrigue that was behind Lost (first season), or a comic book geek for superhuman abilities, then this show is sure to be your cup of chai. Join me in my new Monday night obsession, as I’m sure other female mutineers across the nation will be sure to do, in a swoon worthy weekly television event.
vivek
Machiavellian: characterized by subtle or unscrupulous cunning, deception, expediency, or dishonesty
…which is why I admired it so much.
What does that mean, “blut”?
Never mind, I just figured out it probably means “blood”.
brown bunz of steel. y do chix like buttz?
razib –
your shoes are untied
Gotcha, but mmmmmeh… I think that definition’s too loose. Political power-mongering has to figure into the equation at the very least.
Hairy_d,
It was bedtime for me when you posted that link so I missed it. Not having seen it I’m not sure whether to thank you or, as implied by your quick retreat on that one, give you two tight slaps…
Rasudha,
We at Kavi Eye apologize for not offering the disclaimer that our data is drawn mostly from southwesterly side of the subcontinent. While we still stand by our Mohanlal statements, we do recognize that this may be less of a theory and more of a conjecture. However, we are also under the impression that outside of the scientific community, such references are often referred to as a joke. 😉
(Aaanyhow, I do agree about the countryside samples, though it’s not JUST the teenagers (I’m not lookin to get thrown in Tihar jail!) and I’d say extremely attractive ESPECIALLY when they are dark. It contributes to the chiseled look…)
Vivek,
Kavi Eye Field Research Fellowship recipients are an elite team at the vanguard of global Y chromosomal research and development. Kodaikanal applicants must be willing to regularly make declarations such as “The mundu is not meant to be hiked up to hot pant height!”, “Easy on the Brylcream, macaca!” and “Why are you staring? Am I a television?”. All fellows are offered full room and board in guesthouses featuring Lovely, Homely or Aroma in their name. Fluency with terms such as ‘good name’, ‘cent percent’, ‘tell me’ and ‘only’ is preferable but not required at the time of application.
Kavita,
I believe I meet all above criteria, having hiked up my mundu but never at or above hot pant height, and being not only familiar with utilisation of the term ‘good name,’ but also the ‘sweet name’ and the ‘native place.’
Seriously though, I’m planning to spend some time in Kerala on my upcoming vacation, and I’d like to know what’s good in the south (I’ve seen Cochin and Alappuzha, but haven’t been south of Kollam) – can you e-mail me (address linked above)?
I would be as good looking as this dude if- I was 2 inches taller and I looked different 🙂
BidiSmoker…cool pics. Hope you get lucky 🙂
Isnt it funny how the way you tell a indian that they are good looking is to say they dont look Indian?
Person#1: You know you look Italian, are you Italian?
Indian: Ahh no actually I am Indian.
Person#1: No really, you look good. You dont even look Indian.
Indian#1: Thanks.
I’m actually not familiar with this concept at all.
This happened to me in SE Asia in a cab. cabbie: There are two types of Indian-white Indian and Black Indian? You are white Indian but the people here are black Indian. me: There are 1 billion Indians. All types-fat, thin, tall, short etc etc. cabbie: You are a white Indian so you are upper caste? me: yeah just drive.I gotta get to a meeting.
After watching the first episode online, I doubt the show will make it past the first season. Well produced, but a bit too derivative and “been there, seen that” feel to it.
Holy sh*t, that was funny! Although, I haven’t heard ‘cent percent’ before.
I finally saw the episode of the amazing race with the desi couple. Those put-on accents were as fake as a valley girl’s boobs. I loved the way they kept shouting “America, speak English” at all the Chinese when asking for directions. Not to mention they came in 11th. Sucks to be them I guess.
Moral of the story. If you have a Bhavnagar accent-stick to it. Don’t try to make it worse by adding a Jersey twang!
shallow thinker… too funny…my brother gets that all the time…
girl who is selling diwali gala tickets: why are you coming to the show.. you aren’t indian.. brother tabouli: i’m indian… girl: you don’t look it..you look greek…
first team out: the muslims second team out: the hindus…
conspiracy? 🙂
although vipuls gushing over arti made me vomit… thank god they are out..
chick pea, If Weepul and Arty had stayed on the show, then I would have felt it’s a conspiracy by the manufacturers’of barf bags. 2 million barf bags would have been used every show night. That’s a disgusting thought. Ewww.
Oh don’t get me started on that. I literally wanted to throw something at my gori colleague when she told me, “Aishwarya Rai is so beautiful. She must be at least part European.” translation: she looks nothing like the rest you ugly brown people.
Yeah, I get that “you don’t look like you’re from there” stuff all the time. Seriously. There was this guy at the bus-stop the other night, who was all “Where’re you from?”, and when I told him, lost his shit; he was all “No fucking way! You can’t be!! You’re WAY better looking than those guys.”
Oddly enough, when I offered him a quick feel behind the bushes, he turned me down. Don’t dish if you’re not going to play!
OOhhhh! I hear you! Winter finds me in the ligher shades and that’s when I start getting comments like this. So frustrating!
Hey now, lets not use Taz the way Pardesi Gori uses her black boyfriend… although, in all fairnes, Taz and I would have every intention of using you to get to the Sendhil look-alikes in your family if we were your dates. I wonder what the big deal would be about bringing a Bihari Hindu girl as your date.
One day, I went to the shoe cobbler and the old italian guy behind the counter asked if I was italian. I said, “no I’m indian, but we’re all pisons.”
The next day, I went to pick up my shoes and his son-in-law was behind the counter. He looked completely indian, not even a bit italian. I asked if he was indian, he said w/ an italian accent; “no I’m italian.” Then he turned around and he was wearing a yarmulke.
sweet tale manju.
“One day, I went to the shoe cobbler and the old italian guy behind the counter asked if I was italian.”
Shoe Cobbler? Are you from 18th century England by any chance?
desidawg… i swear i needed compazine or zofran for the nausea Vipul caused…
and to be honest.. vipul was an eyesore…compared to mr. sendhil… dreamy dreamy….
and why the hell could the host of amazing race NOT pronounce their names? they weren’t difficult like ramaswamichandramukhi or something.. jeesus.. if he pronounced my name wrong.. i would’ve let him have it… oh well i guess that is why they don’t put a firecracker like me on the show.. 😉
Yeah, I saw him in TV Guide last week, and was like- WOW WOW WOW!!! By the way, he’s not the ONLY desi on that show…
Adrian Pasdar is half-desi b/c his dad is Pakistani. He’s VERY HOT as well, and married to Natalie Maines from The Dixie Chicks.
How funny and ironic that along this thread of desis looking Italian that what kind of a character does Adrian Pasdar play? That’s right the NYC Italian politician. He’s ok kinda cute… But my heart goes out to Sendhil first, and second to Milo.
Since some are on the “Stat Trek” track…
Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) was the doc on “Deep Space Nine” (which I watched for a while). He’s NOT desi, but Brit and Algerian. The doc was very funny and always pursuing women, so no stereotype there! He’s a really good actor w/ Brit accent (always a plus). Most recently, he was in “Syriana.” His uncle is Malcolm McDowell (very well-known in UK and in US as a sci-fi/villaineous actor).
Adrian Pasdar has played WASP guys for most of his career- businessmen, professors, detectives, etc. But yes, he does have eyes that are very dark (I guess casting agents would call that “exotic.”) I guess he’s second best now to me! Sigh….
Oh don’t get me started on that. I literally wanted to throw something at my gori colleague when she told me, “Aishwarya Rai is so beautiful. She must be at least part European.” translation: she looks nothing like the rest you ugly brown people.
Uh oh! Don’t get mad at a clueless Bangladeshi gal but I thought the same thing when I first saw Ash (about ten years ago). I had very little experience w/ Indians as a teenager!
I’ve gotten Mexican, Brazilian, Peruvian, Sicilian. I don’t think it has anything to do with people thinking Indians are ugly (would y’all get over your defensiveness, already). It has to do with certain stupid notions of how Indians dress and behave. I lived in Europe awhile, and got it the most over there, from people who think Indian women wear ten-foot long braids and always wear sarees.
An aside: Now that we have essentially tamed the demon of colorism, could we also tame its first cousin, the disingenous ‘we’re the ones who look latin – you know’ line of conversation? All that fake blather about how frustrating it is, yadda yadda. Gimme a break. I don’t look remotely Latin and I’ve always been told I’m good looking, sometimes when I’m pimply and greasy and scowling too. And some people, I know, tell me I’m good-looking just cause – gasp – they think all Indians are.
Emma, hate to burst your bubble, but according to IMDB:
“Father is Homayoon Pasdar, who was born in Iran and worked as a surgeon near Philadelphia.”
there is lots of variation in 1.3 billion people. there is lots of subjectivity in how people perceive you based on contextual clues as well as their own personal experience.
siddig el fadl is half sudanese btw, not algerian.
This Adrian Pasdar guy looks like he suffers from acromegaly. It looks like he has to many bones in his face.
“brown guys are hot”
-my gf
there are more out there guys 🙂 expand your horizons.
Me (to hot Russian girl): Gavriye pa russki? Da? Harsho!
Hot Stupid Russian Girl: Oh, you speak Russian? Where are you from?
Me: My parents are from India. I moved here from DC about a year ago.
Hot Stupid Russian Girl: Wow, really? You don’t look Indian at all.
Me: I’m not. I said my parents are from India. I didn’t say I was from India.
Hot Stupid Russian Girl: Oh. Well, where are you from?
Me: Azerbaijan. But I’m also half Italian.
Hot Stupid Russian Girl: Where in Italy are you from?
Me: Hoo boy.
Well, in all fairness to her, if your parents are from India you can’t blame her for thinking you’re Indian, too.
I get the usual are you “Persian, Spanish, Italian or Mexican” almost every day. And recently somebody on the phone thought I was russian…with my first name spelled as “Abhinav”.
We are “cool” desis and I hope/think the media would be changing it shortly and hope “Heroes” stays afloat..:)
Years ago, I used to sell T-shirts outside fenway park in Boston. One day I was accosted by a racist townie (a subclass of working class bostonians who are known for having never left the boston area…good will hunting touched on it).
First he called me an f-ing Guini…I said “no, I’m not italian” Then he called me a sand nigger…”no, not arab” Then he called me a spic…”i’m not spanish”
Then he gave up. I don’t think he knew what an indian was. There weren’t many of us around those parts back then.
Then he called me a spic…”i’m not spanish”
And then he called you a Tamil Brahmin Iyer.
He was excellent in Indian Ink.
Manish – are you having problems with emails sent through your website? I’ve sent several with questions…but no replies. 🙁
He’s really cute. OK, let me say it, he kind of looks “exotic”. That means “hot” in my book.
You know, like he could be the Prince exiled from his homeland and taking refuge in the desert, when a young maiden (myself) happens to come along with a golden urn of water drawn from the Oasis under the palm tree, next to which she has pitched her bedouin tent.
Pyar! Ishq! Mohabbat!
Pardesi Gori,
South India is a very very long way from any deserts frequented by Bedouins…..
So is USA (though Arizona is here). I’m just clarifying the “exotic” comment. Coz when I think of “exotic”, I think of that fantasy of mine.
Exotic looking men could pass for a number of various ethnic backgrounds. As could exotic looking women. I think that’s what makes them “exotic”. Like a half-italian, half-puerto rican American friend of mine. Whichever country she goes to, people think she’s from there, including India. Indians were always coming up to her asking, “are you Indian?” or, “what are you?” or, “where are you from?”. She’s way more gorgeous than Aiswarya and she sports black hair and black eyes. She looks quite Arabian to me. And it’s true what one female commenter said above, many Arab men are HOT!!!! (looking).
Maybe living in a desert (read, Arizona) is not such a bad thing. Where are the tents pitched?..:).
“….There was this guy at the bus-stop the other night, who was all “Where’re you from?”, and when I told him, lost his shit; he was all “No fucking way! You can’t be!! You’re WAY better looking than those guys.” Oddly enough, when I offered him a quick feel behind the bushes, he turned me down.”
I have just wiped away tears of laughter while scrolling down through still more amusing comments. Thank you and other posters for the laughs. I think several of the commenters on sepiamutiny are some of the most INTENTIONALLY funny of any of the ethnic blogs. In fact, ethnic blogs are not noted for funny. I mean you can laugh at yourselves while laughing at everybody else, and still be smart about it with a lot of cross cultural references that pull the observations together. A little off subject…please people, why the maccaca stuff, already? I recall the reason for it, but still, when I see it, my first thought is why are they talking about Paul McCartney? He’s the only one I know who gets called Macca.