Friends, mutineers, countrymen, lend me your ears. There is something that has been bothering all of us here at our North Dakota headquarters for quite some time now. We talk about it often in hushed tones. It is the extreme dearth of fresh new desi bloggers out there. We are ever vigilant and constantly searching for freakishly interesting and smart bloggers to be pulled into the Mutiny and to blog tirelessly for you. We can’t keep doing this forever on our own, especially since many of us are going through transitions in our busy lives. To be perfectly honest, I think that when the time comes we will suddenly and viciously pull the plug on SM. It will be just after the moment we feel that we’ve got no blog left to give and nobody else is capable of picking up the keyboard to mutiny forward. If you like spending time on this website then don’t say we didn’t warn you. I sometimes wonder, if we never existed would more of you be blogging now? Must we burn Rome to save Rome?
So what am I asking? Some of you need to start blogging and do so with a purpose. Almost all of the guests we’ve had were bloggers even before SM was created. Where’s the new blood? We aren’t looking for suggestions like, “Hey what about so-and-so? Why don’t you ask them to guest.” Please don’t use the comments following this post for that. We wouldn’t be worth the ink on our blog unless we were also good scouts. We scout bloggers, sometimes for months, before inviting them to guest for you. Most often we find them by the content of their blogs, especially if they consistently leave interesting comments on SM or expounding on something they read here first. We are scouting several of you right now as a matter of fact.
As you may have noticed SM is very secretive (as all good mutinies must be to survive infancy), but for the first time ever I am revealing the basic requirements we look for in new bloggers (besides being desi). No surprise here:
1) Must be North American or have lived in North America for a significant amount of time.
2) Has a fabulous voice (voice = great writing + interesting perspective) and can cover a wide variety of topics (not just a small range of topics that they know really well). With a little research and a little snark they should be at ease writing about the policies of the International Monetary Fund or Diwali Barbie in under 90 minutes.
3) Have experience with blogging or internet publishing. We are too busy to teach people how to publish something on the web and how to use basic html tags. If you’ve run your own blog for a while then all this should be easy. Thus, if you aren’t already a blogger then you probably won’t be a good fit until you become one, even if you just won the Booker (just kidding Kiran…call me).
4) Be a fearless and passionate writer, not someone who worries how they “sound.”
Now maybe you are thinking to yourself, “Hey! I’m a blogger and I meet all those criteria, why haven’t they approached me?” Please don’t take it personally. You might be a great blogger/writer but we also look at other things like how much time we think you have, how well your tone complements ours, and several other intangibles. We love to see diversity in our guest bloggers but we’ll never invite someone just for the sake of being diverse.
Just today I got this email:
Hi!
I’m a South Asian American born and raised in the U.S. (my parents are from Pakistan), and right now I’m a senior in high school. I was wondering if I could write for this blog. I’ve been following it for a year and half now, and I am absolutely enamored by it! I’ve noticed though that there aren’t any Pakistani voices, so I thought I could contribute to that. K, hope to hear from you guys soon! Thanks!
You know, we’d love to have a Pakistani American and especially a young one write in this space. I’d personally (not speaking for my co-bloggers) like to invite guests that are 18-30. Perhaps some of them are hating grad school as much as I was when I started blogging. If you think you got something to say then start saying it and we’ll find you. We’re always watching.
Don’t make us burn this blog down to save the spirit of the Mutiny.
JoAT – too bad he doesn’t still live in your neck of the woods else you could go smack him for us.
…with her bellna.
I’ve known Sin for a few years and I have to say something about him and “those like him”– I went to GW, which has a large number of international students and that’s whom I hung out with, the entire time I was there. These were people from Dubai, Bangkok, London, Dhaka, Geneva, Delhi and Lahore and they really weren’t that different from the rest of us, except for the fact that they could also speak knowledgably about a totally different culture/country (or three). Most of them went to “American schools” or boarding schools or whatever and a lot of them (for some reason, the ones from Bangkok and Dubai) didn’t even have accents.
Sin’s got all of that and then-some. I’ve never felt like I was talking to someone first-gen or someone from Pakistan. We dish about the same places in the Morg, West End, Dupont Circle and Georgetown, reference the same pop culture items and otherwise enjoy the exact same relationship I know with my so-called “American” second-gen friends.
So where is this oppressive and ominous “disconnect”? He might be currently living in Pakistan (after D.C., New York and most recently, London), but don’t pigeon-hole his experiences so readily or absolutely. Is Manish less American (and therefore, relevant) b/c he’s enjoying mischief in Mumbai? No. In a weird yet very true way, Sin is more of a Pakistani American than my friends who were born here, to Pakistani parents. Shades of grey, people…shades of grey.
No belans for chicks 🙂 just stupid boys… I’ve done my share of agony aunty columns. I used to run an incognito column once upon a lifetime whereby I indulged in my fantasy of being a shrink to all those crazy people with crazy problems. Those who can’t do it themselves, teach others! I also tried a hand at a He said/She said column with Hari Srinivasan, alas we didn’t have a different viewpoint…we agreed! Hehehe
Uh…Ithaca may be gorges, but it ain’t anywhere near NYC. 😉
I didn’t mean to pigeon-hole. His Pakistani residence was actually a tangential note in my point about his queerness. But your point is valid, and – now that I think about it – a very interesting and important one, considering the cosmopolitanism of people in urban and international cities. (Still, as my beef with cosmopolitanism obligates me to point out, not everyone that lives in the not-West, not-First World lives like Sin… he’s pretty privileged in many ways – but I digress.) I mentioned the “disconnect” as a result of the Pakistani residence because I’m always afraid of projecting my own young American, 1.5 gen experience onto someone who I have no idea is anything like me. So perhaps what I should have said was: “Sin’s residence in Pakistan may cause a “disconnect” from American 20-somethings…”
Awww shucks, I though NY was NY. Trust me, it’s much closer than my current locale in the perineum of America – just ask KenyanDesi…who incidentally happens to be MIA at the moment…
BidiSmoker,
There are plenty of people from those backgrounds on SM too, including myself.
I’ve been visiting SM for over a year and that’s certainly news to me. I also think that you underestimate the education and professional background of the Mutineers, as indicated by your recent comment on Filmiholic’s website about the Mutineers’ real-world professions being “unimpressive”. I believe this statement is particularly false in the case of Abhi.
BidiSmoker, considering your racism towards white people (and, incidentally, lighter-skinned South Asians), I’d say that in this aspect you’re unfortunately about as “mainstream” as it gets in terms of some of the more negative aspects of desi culture.
Do you have any idea how many doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc read and comment on this site? 🙂 Lawyers and engineers, especially…we’ve got TONS of those. Some of the founding bloggers even majored in those subjects/worked in those professions.
How so? Is there really such a backlash against all this here? Do other people feel this way?
We are the original disparagers of mainstream desi culture, my friend. 😀
No, I was wrong in how I phrased that. Where I was coming from with that comment was the idea that sexuality is fluid and gender can be deconstructed and reconstructed – that kinda makes us all queer. pause Nevermind, my logic needs quite a bit of explaining and this thread is neither the place, nor do I have the time right now (as I have to go fail a quiz in 30 mins).
A big “oh no” on my part, but based on the conversations I have with my friends (a totally biased and non-random sample, I admit), I think it could be interesting to look at this and how norms may be changing in the desi-love’osphere. I don’t know, I’m also the girl who consistently teases her best friend about how her [friend’s] parents are going to put her biodata on shaadi.com when she’s not looking.
Maybe I have missed something, but is it so necessary to jump on BidiSmoker? Actually, what I like about the mutiny is that there is a diversity of perspectives. I will be honest, as someone who oftentimes feels like she is on the “fringes” of the desi/American community (by politics, identities, etc.), I much prefer getting a variety of viewpoints than to hear the same mainstream drone. If I needed that, I would go to an Indus event 🙂
Also, as a 23-year-old who shares even less in common with Sin on the superficial identity tip, I’m really excited to read his posts. Not to tokenize, but again, I appreciate having the opportunity to listen to voices from communities who are traditionally silenced and ignored by the “mainstream” voices of the desi community. Not that Sin needs anyone to defend his right to write on SM, but nonetheless, I think there’s a lot of value in engaging with folks you might not normally talk to. Horizon-broadening, if you will.
What Jai is referring to:
The last ten words of this…diatribe…are the most important.
Thanks for your support, MD.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Charmingly naive. Oh to be 23 again and know everything 😉
Shruti, no worries darling. You’re exquisitely sensitive and kind. I should’ve indicated that my comment wasn’t just directed to you.
Anna,
This is the exact logic behind my suggestion of having a couple of (or at least one) non-desi bloggers on SM, either as “guest bloggers” or as permanent Mutineers.
You know we’ve already had this over on Pickled Politics for a while, so you know that it works very well and has the suitable positive effect. Diversity, seeing other people’s perspectives, broadening of minds, countering racist ideas amongst desis, etc etc.
No thank you! You are just another self absorbed average kid who thinks he is sooo “different” than anyone else. Please spare us how much “real world” experience you have in “real life” and how many mainstream professionals you seem to know. Most of us here ARE mainstream professionals. Is that such a big deal these days?
Please enlighten us then. If you obviouly loath those here, obviously can’t find anything to agree with them on here and wish they were like the ones you hang out with in real life shouldn’t that information be sufficiently directional to you? This constant tantrum throwing is childish at best. Grow up.
The weirdest thing about this logic is the idea that the fact that gays are a minority means a “gay voice” would be of ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST to anyone else.
That’s pretty ridiculous.
As for the lack of yuppie voices on SM, I actually think that’s a benefit. I get to hear enough about what Rich Doctor Cousin is doing at home. If people have chosen not to rebel, and have just stuck around and done whatever they’re expected to do but are happy, that’s cool. But it’s not particularly interesting to me. I know the Expected Desi Lifestyle Trajectory too well already. And, for that matter, I know the lifestyle of the people who try to 100% reject Desi culture too well also. The freaks and geeks who try to hold on to BOTH their Indian (Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Afghan) -ness and their American-ness at the same time are the ones who really pique my interest.
But that’s just me.
yeah, yeah, yeah…i put it on the next meeting agenda.
They spend their time as business leaders, legal sharks and physicians
How do you know I am not a legal shark in between the times I am not commenting or getting outraged by some comment or refreshing the SM page?
Me too. Aculturation into a new hyphenated cultural ethnic identity – both, instead of either/or.
As with absolutegcs, I wonder what blog people are reading.
For those of you other than BidiSmoker, I’m quite proud of the professional accomplishments of the mutineers, each and every one of them, judged both according to my standards and his.
It’s funny how quickly people pass judgments on SM without doing the simple task of enumerating and counting on their fingers.
p.s. for the record, there have been younger guest bloggers, but I’ll bet nobody even thought their voice sounded any different from that of our oldest guest blogger.
I just laughed because I realized that even though he was requesting “representation”, Bidismoker is single-handedly making the greatest argument EVER against twenty-something bloggers, specifically those who are in their early-20s. But please, don’t listen to me– my point of view and contributions mean less because I’m a slacker who went to public school, which is why I have twenty hours a week to spend on SM.
That’s two of us! If I can do my job in 20 hours a week and still get paid for 40 obviously public school had it’s advantages 🙂
I can’t imagine a more diverse group between a NASA employee, a radio personality, a professor, tech business enterprenuer, a goddess and others! So I restate…sometimes it helps to get the head out of the ass!
Don’t blow my cover please, Bidi Smoker doesn’t know that I’m a goddess 😉
The fact that Abhi can pull this technical jargon out of his ass is pretty impressive… Speaking as a former bunk mate to the mutineers, their careers are pretty impressive, as well as their connection to side projects in the community outside their career… come on Bidi, show these people the respect they deserve- and stop giving 20-somethings a bad rap.
And at 23? I was well on the way to starting a national non-profit. But that’s just me.
who’s the radio personality?
Neha is really Don Imus. Oh, and Siddhartha does do something on the radio as well …
Siddhartha, who could drop the H-bomb twice but isn’t Massengill enough to do so.
doh, I should’ve made the connection regarding Siddhartha. Speaking of Neha, is she on sabbatical from SM?
ANNA, you know all the Mallu boys were hollerin at you at both Nina’s and Sibil’s wedding. Trust me all them mallu boys got mad love for you ;c)
The problem is that most of the articulate, intelligent Indian-American leaders have better things to do than inhabit the blogosphere, so our representation is left to the types at Sepia Mutiny and here.
If I were ever asked to show an outsider the desi face of America, I’d proudly direct them to SM than introduce them to one of the articulate, intelligent professional types I might know. Initially, after spending sometime here on SM, I was actually left incredulous ( the emphasis is needed ). I had never come across such smart and hip desis before. Actually let me be specific: these are some of the smartest Americans/Britishers. My benchmark is the articulate, intelligent company I keep. This is certainly true for all bloggers here and most commenters. I have also been to several blogs, the good mainstream ones, and I have seldom come across such breadth and depth of posts and comments as what SM carries. What surprises me more is the near absence of shallow comments here. This site just doesn’t seem to attract the wrong kind of people.
AMfD, you need a blog stat!
And thanks and backatcha, Desitude.
Oh, that’s a really good excuse, BidiSmoker! 🙂 But really, consider AMfD’s comment quoted above…perhaps at least some of the commenters are so brilliant that they are able to do superlative, high-powered work while simultaneously following SM throughout the day…blows your mind, doesn’t it? But my reading of your comments is greatly informed by the following:
That’s not necessarily true, especially if you look at blogging as a form of written communication. How many savvy, articulate, intelligent desi writers do you find? Not enough, but they’re there. Especially if you start drawing in the larger (non north-American) diaspora, you’ll find really amazing and fun things from folks in the UK, east Africa, the Caribbean, etc.
Also, I think there is a generational and income gap around blogging – people who have grown up with computer access tend to be more comfortable with using online media as a resource. That tends to bias blogging inherently towards the yuppie professional types, or towards those whose parents were the yuppie professional types who came in on tech/ed visas after the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Also, people, for my selfish peace of mind – let’s not be too harsh on 23-year-olds 🙂
And an aside: Could we for a moment remember that not everyone who identifies as desi is Indian-American? I know that is int he SM FAQ or whatnot, but please, people, (in my opinion) there is a lot more to the idea of being desi than being Indian, or Indian-American, for that matter!
BidiSmoker,
I know you like baiting people about racial issues but trust me, it ain’t gonna work with me. Your racist track record, particularly in relation to white people, is already well documented here on SM.
And I’ve seen the photos you’ve posted of yourself on previous occasions to support the claims about you allegedly looking like Akshay Kumar. You are certainly not “light-skinned”, at least not in the stereotypical north Indian sense of the term. So let’s not bend the truth too much in order to defend yourself, shall we ?
Nice attempt at backtracking in the second paragraph, by the way. If you feel as though you’re an underachiever in your life (at this point in time, anyway) compared to your other family members — and for the record, I very much doubt you’re the only commenter here from a “medical family” (my own father’s a doctor too, for example) — then it’s not right for you to take out your guilt and frustration on other people, or indeed automatically assume that “most” other commenters on SM are from similar professional backgrounds as yourself.
The best thing you could do to rectify the damage would be to apologise to the Mutineers for your remarks on Filmiholic’s blog, and to Filmiholic herself for posting such diatribes on her website.
oai painch*, are you dissing your bhappaji this side of the 42nd parallel?! – stroking the mootchaa –
You are certainly not “light-skinned”, at least not in the stereotypical north Indian sense of the term. So let’s not bend the truth too much in order to defend yourself, shall we ?
LOL!
Say Bidismoker, did you by chance ever have a blog called “Countrydriver?”
Heh? Intern, speak English – or even Engrish – just don’t put WMD and douching liquids in the same sentence without explaining yourself.
BTW, somebody with the techie skillz please help a desi out and contact Siddhartha so that he can get his website back up and running. I’m being forced to resort to Putumayo for my “World Music” needs. I feel like a freakin’ bobo – it’s kinda embarrassing…
H-bomb = Harvard. Dropping it excessively makes one a douchebag. See: Urban Dictionary
srsly…
strangely, if you abbreviate Bidi-Smoker’s handle, it would be BS. Appropriately enough.
BidiSmoker!! sorry to pile-on, especialy after your kinda/sorta apology; but you basicly bent over and asked for it. i knew u had a streak of indian nationalism in u but i never took u for a conservative uncleji. so it’s ok to be a physician, but not a college prof; it’s ok to be an ibanker, but not work for a start-up; it’s ok to be a lawyer, but not a brilliant harvard educated freelancer.
glad i never told you i’m a professional foot-model.
Now THAT made me laugh out loud for the first time since I saw Borat last week. Hilarious.
.
To his credit, he did own his excessively harsh words:
So, keep that in mind as you tar and feather him.
glad i never told you i’m a professional foot-model.
Can I paint you toe-nails?
oai painch*, are you dissing your bhappaji this side of the 42nd parallel?! – stroking the mootchaa
Absolutely not. You are one of the finest here. Americans was supposed to be all inclusive. Brits was just a rushed nod to Jai Singh whom otherwise I might have caused affront.
Well, I’m both an engineer and a lawyer, and I treat both of those professions with a certain amount of derision — at least the same level of derision with which I treat all/most careers. I agree with others who’ve said that they don’t really see the derision of which you speak. (As an aside, since when has becoming a lawyer been a normal “desi career choice”? Seriously — I’m involved in South Asian legal stuff mostly because we’re such a minority in the profession.) I also don’t deny I’m anything but a yuppie, although maybe I don’t think of that term in the pejorative way that some do.
You know, despite the fact that I sometimes have an overinflated sense of my own intelligence, I never think that the SM posts are lacking in smarts. Quite the opposite, in fact — I wouldn’t frequent SM otherwise, notwithstanding some of the distracting pics that are posted from time to time. (And I certainly don’t think the SM posts lack for articulateness — are you kidding me?? I aspire to write as well as the SM bloggers.)
General comment, btw, echoing some of the comments made by others. I think a lot of people are overestimating the differences between different “groups.” I was talking to a Mutineer recently who is in many ways “more desi” than I am despite the fact that she’s lived in the US all her life while I spent more than a decade growing up back in the desh. The same goes with age differences — some seem to be confusing the general with the specific. Sure, maybe a room full of 30+ yo people is more likely to see more “I’m-freaking-out-because-I’m-not-married” conversations than a room full of 22-28 yos, but all that matters for SM’s purposes is how an individual blogger thinks, whatever his/her age. Individuals just aren’t so easy to compartmentalize.
bidi – yaar… – you really stepped in it, didntcha? regardless of the truth in your opinion (what’s a successful person after all?), it was an extremely rude comment, and directed to people who have at least a decade on you. i bring up the age because surely that’s a hindu, indian thing – to respect older people unconditionally – at least where i come from it isnt unusual for guys to call older men bhaiya or bhai even in casual conversation and maintain propriety even when expressing dissent. i dont know of anyone else’s profession but siddarth and amardeep – and there’s much they give to society. your comment was very unseemly and I would be extremely hurt if targeted like that.
an unconditional apology would be appropriate.
Thank you, Jai! Not only was I personally offended (my folks are blue collared – my mom is a TEAMSTER for god’s sake) but the research of the community posted here show how diverse our community actually is.
If you have issues on being in an unfulfilling career as a ‘writer’ when you have a priveleged advocacy leaning family that supports you – then do something about it. You of all people have the lucky option to have that freedom to do something. That’s something I didn’t have.
That’s because the pictures youve taken, show you as a horribly deviant,(wearing revealing tops, outside of the kitchen, making your lips a little too luscious by cosmetic add ons) strong desi woman – absolutely BENT on putting us weak men in our place.
All that might fly for a white girl, because white guys are well, you know more accepting of modern things and all.