Monthly Archives: September 2006

A Non-Encounter With Salman Rushdie

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Amitava Kumar is currently at Vassar College, and Salman Rushdie was recently scheduled to be a guest speaker. Amitava, as an accomplished critic and essayist, was suggested by the college to introduce Rushdie, but Rushdie vetoed it [see update below]:

Salman Rushdie came to Vassar College earlier this week to deliver a lecture for the Class of 2010–but he made it clear to the organizers that he would cancel if I was involved in his visit. I had earlier been asked to introduce him, and then, well, I was disinvited. Mr Rushdie and I have never met, although I have heard him speak several times. I presume his dislike of me has to do with essays like these that I have written about him in the past. (link)

The essay Amitava links to is a long, partly sunny and partly sour critique of Rushdie, ending with a review of Shalimar the Clown. I think Amitava’s best criticism is probably the following: Continue reading →

I Really Shouldn’t Blog This, But…

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The “little superstar’s” moves are actually pretty tight (he’s a little person, not a child). Rajnikanth is there, and according to some of the Youtube commentors, there is some discussion of whether he should be smoking cigarettes or not. Oh, and the hip hop/ electro track is by MC Miker G & DJ Sven (“Holiday Rap”). I have no idea what movie it is (Rajnikanth has been in hundreds)… though I suspect someone out there might know. Continue reading →

You, Too, Can Take Your Brownian Crisis To Prime-Time

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As luck would have it, while at the frigid ND bunker and prancing around in nothing but her tropical New Orleanian wear, your intrepid guest blogger caught a cold and was forcibly isolated from the other monkeys and community computer for a week. Eeek achoo eeek! Hey, the New Orleanian cold front of 75 degrees and 80% humidity just hit yesterday, and this macaca yearns for a mint julep on her sunny porch.

anchal_joseph.jpg

While mired in the hurricane-force sneezes and sea of wadded-up tissue paper, cable TV overcame me and I fell prey to such eye-searers as As The World Turns, Dr. Phil and America’s Next Top Model. Dear Supreme Geek Council, please do not oust me from your favor for this transgression. Your humble servant was merely … ummmm … getting to know the enemy … yeah, that’s it.

Anchal Joseph of Homestead, FL wishes to go beyond model immigrant; she wants to be a supermodel. This 19-year-old sports flawless dark skin, ass-length hair, blue-tinted contacts and a desire to show her people that dark women can walk that catwalk, too. With tears threatening to evict her fake baby blues, Ms. Anchal informed Tyra Banks, Jay Manuel (a planet in the neighboring galaxy is missing its weirdo) and J. Alexander (and I do not quote), “Where I come from, light skin and light eyes are preferable to dark skin and eyes. I want to show them that I am just as beautiful.” Fair enough. So, why the blue contacts? If you want to win on your looks, where is the need for the prop? Then again, Anchal is the only one out of 36 who doesn’t transform into a vavoom covergirl when adorned with that other crutch – lots of makeup. She looks pretty much her beautiful same. (Aside: Check out this definition for anchal)

Conversely, the only personal features I find appealing are my brown skin and black eyes. My hips could use several circumlocutions of the block and 5’4″ isn’t anything to write Elle about. This isn’t to say that my extended family has risen above the inanity of Anchal’s experiences; in fact, I’ve been on the receiving end of such remarks for 12 more years than her. My dark skin has never bothered me, even when met with reproachful stares from the kuppai that populates my end of the South. To each her own pathology or just another plea for Reality-TVTM attention?

Speaking of this past week’s TV, was it the NyQuil crooning or did a segment of Chaiyya Chaiyya open a scene of the Smith premiere? Continue reading →

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“The Devil Is In The House”

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Here in New York the UN General Assembly is in session, and even from the relative safety of my garret in Harlem, it’s impossible to avoid the Sturm und Drang as world leaders, their critics and sycophants perambulate around the city, block avenues for protests or motorcades, and pop up in the media. On Wednesday Shashi Tharoor, undersecretary-general of the UN on leave and India’s candidate for the top spot, was on WNYC commenting the speeches; his is such a mellifluous, Britishized diplomatic voice that I was lulled into paying no attention at all, so I can’t tell you what he had to say. You can listen here. All I know is that Kofi Annan’s voice is a hard act to follow, but if the criterion is cosmopolitan polish, Brother Shashi got it goin’ on.

There’s interesting stuff happening at the UN this month but you won’t hear about it: like every other conference, the UN meetings are ones where the real action — private discussions between enemies, mediation of civil wars, horse-trading of all sorts — takes place in the hallways and back rooms, not in the auditorium. So we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Hugo Chavez, the irrepressible president of Venezuela, for livening things up yesterday when he stepped to the podium and said this:

The devil is right at home. The devil — the devil, himself, is right in the house.

And the devil came here yesterday.

Yesterday, the devil came here. Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.

Now, I have no interest in getting into a discussion of the relative merits or flaws of Messrs. Bush and Chavez; last night I went to a show where a singer called politicians “all lyin’ sacks of shit” and, armed with my graduate training in political science, I can’t say I disagree. But as literature, as television, as performance, as art, this is really fantastic material. Continue reading →

Life in the Stone Age wasn’t easy

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This Sunday evening CBS’s 60 Minutes has what is promising to be an explosive interview with President Pervez Musharraf. Check out the tidbit they have leaked early:

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan tells Steve Kroft that after 9/11, the U.S. threatened to bomb his country if it didn’t help America’s war on terrorism.

Kroft’s interview with the Pakistani leader, in which he also discusses his embarrassment over his country’s nuclear secrets getting into the hands of other nations, will be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Musharraf says the threat came from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was delivered to Musharraf’s intelligence director.

“The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,’ ” recalls Musharraf. It was insulting, he says. “I think it was a very rude remark.” But he reacted to it in a responsible way, he tells Kroft. “One has to think and take actions in the interests of the nation, and that’s what I did…” [Link]

Geez. That Armitage seems to have a big mouth. I’m sure we all figured that Pakistan was strong-armed into turning on the Taliban (as well they should have been), but hearing that such stark language was used is almost as surprising as hearing Musharraf admit it. I’m not sure how this will go over with some in the home crowd. Musharraf also admits to his most embarrassing moment as President:

“(Tenet) took his briefcase out, passed me some papers. It was a centrifuge design with all its numbers and signatures of Pakistan. It was the most embarrassing moment,” Musharraf reveals. He learned then, he says, that not only were blueprints being given to Iran and North Korea, but the centrifuges themselves — the crucial technology needed to enrich uranium to weapons grade — were being passed to them. “(Khan) gave them centrifuge designs. He gave them centrifuge parts. He gave them centrifuges.”

Despite the fact that the military was guarding Khan’s nuclear facilities and the total amount of secret material sent from the lab was more than 18 tons, Musharraf denies anyone in the government or military had to know. [Link]

Incidentally, Mr. Musharraf is stateside right now and just attended a conference with the likes of Bill Clinton and Laura Bush.

Continue reading →

The Transporter

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Recently Taz wrote about a “dreamy” new he-ro on television that in reality is just an act-or. Via our News Tab I’d like you all to focus your attention instead on a real hero. The Hill profiles Mohinder Singh, “The most trusted cabbie of Capitol Hill.” He is mild-mannered, works in the shadows, and always gets the job done.

Rule #1. Never change the deal. Transportation is a precise business.

Unlike some cab drivers in Washington, Mohinder Singh is not easily riled. No matter if passengers rob him. No matter if they swear at him in a drunken stupor.

“I never fight with a customer,” he says, through a thick Indian accent. “There’s no use to fighting. If someone says, ‘You son of a bitch,’ I say ‘Thank you.’ You cannot make me mad easily…” [Link]

Bruce Banner could learn a thing or two about anger management from Mohinder.

But Singh, 56, clean-cut in a white oxford shirt and khakis, is no typical cabbie. [Link]

Of course! Would I have bothered writing a post about him if that is all he was?

In the past several years, however, Singh has hit a stride, accumulating a famous D.C. clientele that takes him to the homes of some of Washington’s political elite who include Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean (better known to Singh as “Mr. Howard,”) former Texas Gov. Ann Richards and Reps. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.)…

Singh says he accumulated his clientele accidentally. One day he picked up a woman from Southeast who needed to be driven to American University. She told him how hard it was for her to get a cab. So he gave her his number, and for seven to eight months he drove her whenever she called.

“I didn’t know who she was,” he says, explaining that he later found out that she worked for the DNC. The next thing he knew, word traveled fast and Dean’s people came calling. [Link]

Let the record show that Ennis suggested that I title this post “Driving Mr. DNC.” Continue reading →

Mixed Messages, Part II: Living the Mix

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Early this month, we ran the first instalment of a conversation that DesiDancer and I are holding on the mixed-race experience: being half-desi in relation to desi cultures and communities, and being of mixed race in America today. In the first instalment, titled “Gettin’ Down with the Brown,” we discussed our relationship to desi-ness — the terms of our engagement with our South Asian cultural background, and the issues we’ve encountered in the process.

Today, in “Living the Mix,” we discuss the role of mixed-race identity in general, and mixed-desiness in particular, in shaping our experiences in American society. And as promised, the conversation reflects our take on the many fascinating comments and private messages that we received after the first post. And that’s where we begin:

Siddhartha: So, it’s been a couple of weeks since we posted our first Mixed Messages item. What did you think about the responses?

DesiDancer: I donÂ’t know what I expected, but I was really pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of honest and emotional comments, both on and off-thread.

Siddhartha: So was I. There were some themes that I expected, others less so. It seemed that lots of non-mixed folks shared quite a few of the experiences and concerns.

DesiDancer: I guess the assumption I had made from our previous conversation — that feeling somewhat outside the desi community, while being “in” it — was symptomatic to being mixed. Yet I think a lot of non-mixed people echoed the same sentiment. I never really gave it much thought, but I was interested to make that discovery as the thread evolved. Things like how we’re perceived in different situations, how things like “but you don’t look Indian” can be backhanded compliments, how people mentioned feeling uncomfortable in “desi” gatherings… I realized that it’s not just a mixed issue, and I think it raised some good similarities that maybe we’ve never explored, individually or as a Mutiny.

Siddhartha: And it may have been interesting as well in reverse: i.e., that some non-mixed folks realized that they have these same issues in common with mixed people. I was really touched by the commenter who said it inspired him to get in touch with his mixed cousins whom he had previously sort of neglected. Continue reading →

The Aunt Jemima Problem

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Here’s the problem in a nutshell. If you’re a CEO of an iconic brand, do you modernize the branding of your product if it is associated with a country’s racist history? If so, how do you do this without either losing brand recognition or whitewashing the past?

The original label

In 1885, Camp Coffee started producing a liquid coffee and chickory concentrate. They marketed the product by associating it with the coffee that kept Imperial soldiers fueled in the mornings:

To ensure Victorian consumers got the message that they were drinking the same treacly caffeine concentrate designed to fortify soldiers subduing the colonies, the kilted Gordon Highlander was shown being brought his drink by a Sikh manservant. [Link]

Of course, times change. The sun went down on the British empire, dusky Britons moved in and took over the cornershops. They weren’t quite as fond of this label as Victorian customers were.

So, in the 1980s, a compromise was reached:

In the 1980s, the label was moved to the back and later the Sikh bearer’s tray was removed but he remained standing. [Link]

This new label was a bit bizarre. It had the Sikh servant with his fist up, like he was about to punch the Scottish officer in his face.

The newest label

For some reason, after taking away his tray, they didn’t think to have him relax his hands at all. [picture after the fold, or click on the link].

Of course, this didn’t last either. Brown people being uppity like they are, they wanted yet more:

Recently, several Asian shopkeepers threatened to stop putting the liquid coffee and chicory concentrate on their shelves unless the label was changed. After such threats and pressure from race equality groups, the manufacturers have had the scene radically redrawn to show the two men sitting side by side. [Link]

So the label was finally changed to the anachronistic image of the officer and his batman sitting down for coffee together. While this might be a useful image for today’s multicultral UK, it’s absurd to imagine that it might have happened back in the day. Continue reading →

Geniuses! Get Yer Desi Geniuses Herrre!

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Atul Gawande and Shahzia Sikander are among the 25 recipients of this year’s MacArthur Foundation grants, announced yesterday. The MacArthurs, widely known as “genius grants,” give the winners $500,000 over five years, with no strings attached. You don’t apply for a MacArthur; it just turns up. It’s really a beautiful thing.

Two other things of beauty: First, the fact that the MacArthur committee makes brilliant choices that reflect a whole range of human endeavor, and isn’t afraid to reward young “geniuses” — many recipients are in their 30s. And second, the style of the foundation’s epigrammatic citations, which are concise and finely crafted:

Atul Gawande: Surgeon/Author applying a critical eye and fresh perspective to modern surgical practice, articulating its realities, complexities, and challenges, in the interest of improving outcomes and saving lives.

Shahzia Sikander: Painter merging the traditional South Asian art of miniature painting with contemporary forms and styles to create visually compelling, resonant works on multiple scales and in a dazzling array of media.

The full list of winners is here. Gawande, 40, is a surgeon, an innovator in surgery ethics and technique, a staff writer for the New Yorker, and a columnist for the New England Journal of Medicine. Oh, and he’s also the author of the best-seller Complications, which Amardeep blogged about here. Sikander, 37, is a New York-based painter who trained in the art of miniatures at the National College of Art in Lahore and re-imagines the form in work that extends into digital media. Congratulations to the full crop of this year’s Geniuses and massive props to Atul and Shahzia! Continue reading →

Secularizing the last officially Hindu country

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With democratization in Nepal comes secularization. Nepal has been a Hindu monarchy for close to 250 years:

Since it was unified by King Prithvi Narayan Shah in 1768, Nepal has been ruled by a Hindu dynasty. Its kings have bound themselves into a litany of Hindu rituals. [Link]

This man has no connection to the protests, I just liked his photo.

However, soon it will be neither if the Nepalese parliament has its way. These changes have more than mere symbolic significance – they affect the balance of power within the country. For example, control of the military will no longer be reserved for Hindus:
the army – hitherto ruled by top Hindu castes – will now be “inclusive and national” in character. [Link]

Official broadcasts will have to be more even handed between faiths:

the state broadcaster gives … [Buddhism] 10 minutes a week compared with three-and-a-half hours for Hinduism. [Link]

And more non-Hindu houses of worship will be built:

Pastor KB Rokaya heads a church which meets in a private flat because churches are not allowed to register with the authorities. [Link]

However, not everybody is pleased with these changes. The head of Shiv Sena Nepal said, at a recent rally:

“Nepal is a Hindu country,” he says. “It is the playground of God and a very holy country. If Nepal is not a Hindu kingdom then there is no Nepal. We are entering into a holy war,” [Link]

One of the demonstrators at this rally promises worse:

“In secularism it will be very difficult for … [religious minorities]. The churches will be destroyed, the mosques will be destroyed. The people who are very much [of a] religious mind, they will spontaneously blow up these churches and mosques. The fight between the religious communities… is not going to stop. It has been ignited…” [Link]

At this point, it is too early to tell if this is the usual windbaggery by people resistant to change. There have only been a few dozen protestors at these rallies thus far. The question is whether his movement will pick up steam or lose wind or further mix metaphors as time goes on.

Continue reading →

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