Via Arun at Pseudo Secular Leftist Cabal SAJA, news of the Houston Zoo’s online poll to name the handsome critter pictured here, a baby elephant whose birth weight was a prodigious 384 lbs. Here are the choices, with the explanation for each name as provided by the zoo:
* Colossus (HeÂ’s big!)
* Guinness (Because he’s a record holder – the largest baby elephant birth on record)
* Sundar (In Hindu/India it means “attractive.”)
* Janu (In Hindu/India it means “soul” or “life force.”)
* Mac (Did we say heÂ’s big? Like the truck!)
Now I have some concerns here. First of all, are we sure this is not an African elephant? The zoo does not clarify this point. Otherwise he should be named something cool in African, not in Hindu/Indian. Secondly, even if he is an Asian elephant, how do we know he is not South Asian? Or desi? After all, he is second-generation or at least 1.5. And why is SAJA taking up this cause, anyway? Is it because they don’t like Hindus? Are they ashamed of India? And if the baby was born at 354 lbs, how big are his saffron balls?
Many important issues of representation and identity here affecting both humans and pachyderms. I call on Abhi to investigate this matter as an urgent priority as soon as he opens the Sepia Mutiny Houston bureau.
UPDATE: The zoo has corrected its terminology from Hindu to Hindi. Another glorious people’s victory! The bandh is called off!
Elephants and other wild criters belong in the wild. Not in Fuc*%$g zoos or circuses, for that matter.
LOL!
Oh my goodnessssssssss he is cuteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…I say Sundar because he is. Overanalyzing be damned! He’s brown and we should bring him into our “fold”!
Oh look at his foofy hair! He is so cute!
I will love him and hug him and call him George!
Look at the size of his trunk…he has to be desi 😉
I vote for ‘Janu’. There are more cool Hindi songs with “Janu” or “Jaan” in them.
Incidentally, I’m annoyed they describe the language as “Hindu/India.” Hello? HINDI.
their website says they have an asian elephant breeding program, and since this one’s father is named thai, i assume he’s an asian cutie. perhaps he’s truly a pan-asian product. i go for sundar or mac (very bollywood) out of these limited choices.
I wouldn’t be so sure…
First we need to find out if it is African or Indian! If it is Indian and male then we should call him Raj. Widely used and easy to pronounce, bonus points that it means king, but oh so unoriginal.. I can come up with some African names to, if he is african….maybe he is like me…
indian elephants have a single lip to the trunk. african ones have two lips – this photo suggests two lips… so i am not sure of little buddy’s origins. but he looks like such a nice guy, he has to be indian. he looks my grandma actually (i know she’s smiling somewhere).
kritic.. i’ve seen indian zoos and they are horrid. zoos this side of the world are very different – assist conservation and educate the masses. and i am aware of at least one animal orphanage in kenya to house the babies of animals who’ve been shot by poachers. these animals would die but for human intervention.
The Colbert Report has its own eagle, they should give SM the elephant, Sepia Janu it is.
How about “Ganesh?”
And Amardeep…THANK YOU for saying that. I was about to hurl my monitor out the window. “Hindu/India?” WTF? They’re wrong with both options.
he’s DUMBO 🙂
Ouch Siddhartha you gotta stand up for your brown brothers man!
I say name him Gannu (short for Ganesh or Ganapati)…and a play on sugarcane “ganna” and to keep in tradition of name cute kids Munnu Chunnu Binnu Tinnu etc etc
Hey, if it’s in the Times of India, it must be true…
apparently mother’s name is shanthi and father’s name is thai. thai may have come from a circus-type act after the owner passed away.
This is one of my huge pet peeves. HINDI.
Hindu – religion, people who live on the other side of Indus, whatever.
Hindi – THE LANGUAGE!!!!
Although for many, it is an easy mistake to make.
Hairy_D :
Zoos are immoral, anywhwerre.
If we really are so concerned, an inherently better option would be, to house the animals in reservations(a la national parks) . We, at least in North America, surely don’t lack for availabe land, million of uninhabited acreage in Montana, Wyoming, or North Dakota, where as you are aware, the keepers of this blog, which I love, already houses their working Monkeys.
Most likely and in highest probability the sample in the survey were mostly non-Hindu males, hence low performance levels. We have increased capacity with swelling saffron pride now, as well as Bangalore out-sourcing, and are more like muscular Brazilian men wearing thongs, oil glistening off their bodies, than Pakistanis or Bangldeshis (also becoming terrorist state) these days – very sexy. Or so my ex-wife said.
Anyway, the elephant trunk is the only thing comparable to the assertive symbolic manhood of saffron men these days. If you notice, no haathi has a Christian or Muslim name, because they can bear no comparison with elephant trunk, or are more like this, than this (Saffron)
Hail
TarzanMogambo!I speak American as good as I speak Hindu and Indian.
ugh.
actually, GujuDude, I propose you make t-shirts that state the definitions of Hindu v. Hindi. I’m so sick of explaining it, I’d rather just wear the shirt and save my breath… Or Osman– where’s Osman, of the Macaca T-shirt brigade?
Not all Indian zoos are “horrid”. Check out this one: the hyderabad zoo You might want to turn off the sound on your computer…the music, I will admit, is horrid. The animals in this zoo are housed in large enclosures, not cages, there is (or used to be at least) a lion safari where you drive through in a jeep and see the lions, but can’t get close to them. I would say, as zoos go, this is a pretty darn nice one. They had progressive ideas about zoos decades ago.
kritic, this article addresses some of what you say and the complex problem of elephants in non-native habitats.
Maybe Ramu in honor of a past Bollywood pachyderm ?
I want one. I wish I was a land owner.
sorry for the blanket statement desishiksha… my memory of an indian zoo is from a bad visit to bengaloru zoo – i remember seeing some bear and baboons covered with sores and some youth tormenting a peacock. i am sure exceptions exist.
kritic – unfortunately it is not possible to monitor large tracts of land or manage climate control for the tropical species in the outdoors – the few places that do so in the US, essentially use these as gaming ranges so that urban hunters can go over and shoot the deer. i find zoos to be the better option. do you have kids? try looking at a chimpanzee or a gorilla in a zoo through their eyes, as opposed to a picture in the book. their joy may make you change your mind, even if i cant. Part of the joy of visiting a zoo is seeing the excitement of urban youth who would never know what’s outside the concrete enclaves otherwise.
where i live, there is a greenspace (like central park in ny) with yak, bison, capybaras, turkeys, fallow deer in separate enclosures … nothing special – but i feel this improves societal health to have readily accessibly participatory communal activities.
I agree with what hairy_d says…and maybe some of those urban youth will develop an interest in conservation and it will at least affect the way the vote even if they don’t become the next Steve Irwin. I don’t like the idea of animals in captivity but I think in the long run it helps with public opinion in favor of conservation and protecting endangered species. Also some zoos are the only repository for endangered animals that would otherwise dwindle away into extinction, and they have programs for reintroducing them into the wild. Circuses, on the other hand, are a different story…
joys of children nothwithstanding, zoos should be a last resort or only act as a safety net for many animals. yes they educate children, but concrete enclosures are not joy for most large animals just as they aren’t for little children, and we should be concerned about their joy first. most animals, especially larger ones, in urban zoos or enclosures simply do not have the space needed to live rich, fulfilling lives. conservation parks, preferably in climates similar to the animal’s native habitat, are the way to go in this imperfect world.
this portrayal is a disconnect with modern zoos. pls come by the torontozoo and review the mission statement, acreage. i agree with you that disney-ification of animals is wrong. i also know of the polar bear who died in toronto zoo because of a west nile virus infection. but it isnt such a heartless place like you’re making it out to be.
Love that kid. I vote for Janu. In honour of my x-large cousin. His Punjabi wife calls him Janu. Will try to send pics. Of the baby elephant, I mean.
hairy-d, i wasn’t making out all zoos to be intolerant places or heartless. far from it. i am familiar with the good work many of them do and have visited many – good, bad and awful. i merely said that in a perfect world, animals would be able to live in their native habitats but, since that is impossible, zoos have evolved and are evolving into the role of safeguarder instead of the old “look and see show”. however, many in conservation biology agree, it’s now time to think bigger and for zoos to evolve again or split their roles – keep the urban setting for only certain animals for whom it can still guarantee a quality of life that is reasonable, and either support – in regions of the world where it is still possible – properly planned and managed conservation parks that keep ecosystems and contiguous zones intact or try and create those to the best of their ability here in the United States/West, especially for larger range animals. i know some zoos are already involved in projects like this. many zoos can collaborate and try to set up one or two conservation parks that can support these life forms in a manner more appropriate to what they are used to. every urban zoo doesn’t need to have a plethora of large range animals.
Gujudude (#17),
I’m right there with ya, bro.
Somebody said zoos educate the masses. I am not so sure I want to be educated by someone who thinks “HINDU” is a language. I seriously need a break. Its for moments like this I like to wear my “Gave up speaking hindu, now I speak only hindi” T-shirt. found here http://snipurl.com/112lr
I’m a Punjabi wife who calls her husband Jaanu =) But he’s a Large, not an x-large.
WGIIA – I agree with your point below.
and i agree with the point below as well that debate is needed and evolution is good.
Now we are talking… An elephant with identity crisis 🙂
17 / 32
Educate the masses: Interactive Marketing (Website Corrections) (713)533-6500/ interactivemarketing@houstonzoo.org
It is true, the Hindoo elephant is noble and gentle but ferocious when provoked.
Read about the devastating impact of Human-Elephant Conflict in the NYT, and see how anthropomorphizing elephants helps us understand them better. It’s an amazing feature article.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this new study. It was all over the news yesterday:
My point? Now that we know elephants are self-aware why don’t we let them choose their own identities?
I guess what I don’t get with the whole Hindu/India bit is that obviously someone desi within the organization suggested the names and offered the explaination. I mean someone didn’t pull those names out of their ass. And for all them edumacated scientific folks WTF why hasn’t anyone corrected them yet??????????????
Yeah totally adorable. Three elephants at the Bronx Zoo, Happy, Maxine & I forget the other name. They touched the mark that was made on their foreheads while looking at themselves in the mirror. I need to point out that they were FEMALE so probably smarter by default 🙂 but I wonder if they looked at themselves in the mirror and wondered “does my ass look big” like the rest of womankind does.
“but I wonder if they looked at themselves in the mirror and wondered “does my ass look big” like the rest of womankind does.”
funny!
I was wondering why did the above hasnt been mentioned so far.
Ok, for those who may not be aware, a lot of 1st gen Indians couples and in Indian metros couple use “jaanu” the way couple use “honey” in the US.
I recently overheard one of the vice-presidents (3 advanced degreees) of my organization recently explain to a third party the meaning of a word in “Indian”. It’s a very common misconception that there’s one Indian language even among the edumacted. I don’t know the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin, but I know there’s at least two dialects of Chinese. we all have huge gaps in our knowledge, but it’s a weird mistake. I’ve never seen any major media outlet refer to THE Indian language, so people are making an assumption, which is understable in the sense that no other country has such a panoply of tongues.
Looks like they fixed it to read Hindi/India on the zoo site, like they wanted to give the name of the country for a language that wouldn’t be intuitive (ie German, Italian).
well i sure hope the desi women ask themselves – ‘i hope my ass looks big in this’, because that’s a good thing – at least to these desi eyes – one reason i rarely find asian girls attractive – because of the flat butt thing – and same for the desi girls with at least two generations of ‘education’ – all the desk-sitting gets the butts flattened out. now – my dream would be some barefooted, splayed toed wenche who cooks on a wood fire and squats on her haunches to scrub the floor with a stiff-bristled brush – thos glutes and the deltoids would pack some heft – you should see some of those peasant types on the flights to canada – even in the shalwar – you know they pack some heft.
actually i would velcome if the vimmen of SM would link pics here asking for my opinion on ‘does my butt look big in this?’ I think i can make the time.
Sorry if someone said this already:
Q: Oh, you’re from India, do you speak Hindu? A: Yes, I speak Muslim, Christian, and Jew as well.
Try it, it’s great!
Oh shit you are right. Good for them!
Hairy_D I know you are being funny but somehow I’m not in the mood for that humor. Women have enough body image shit to deal with in this world. Yeah I left my funny bone home today, after I beat the shit ouf the last guy who who only judged women as sex things.
I won’t speak for the rest, but that’s what I do. If something makes my butt look small it’s gone. 😉