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The son also rises |
Desi families like to provide well for their children. Parents give their kids money, cars, businesses … and now it seems that some even help procure girls for their darling little boys. That’s right – having Salman Rushdie as your father helps you score chicks. While this isn’t a huge surprise (Duh!), I was made a bit queasy by the way the famous family discussed the matter.
First there is Rushdie, fils, talking about his dad:
Zafar Rushdie, 27, often accompanies his father on nights out because the pair are usually swamped by attractive girls keen to impress the literary genius. He says, “Most people who go to a party with their parents try to run away from them. Not me. If I want to meet girls, I just stand near him. “All the beautiful women want to talk to Dad, so I stand close and bask in the sunlight. Beauty loves brains…” [Link]
Then there is Rushdie, pere, engaging in mutual admiration:
“Every time I see a picture of him in the paper, he has four girls around him, so I think he’s not doing badly,” the author tells the paper. “He’s absurdly charming – lethally, disgustingly charming. He has it like a weapon…” [Link]
A weapon, huh? Really, we don’t need to hear about your son’s Louisville Slugger. Just tell the researchers and leave us out of it.
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p>Lastly, step-mom and fourth wife Padma also agrees that Zafar, a mere 9 years younger, is a stud:
… actress Padma Lakshmi, 36, is equally complimentary of Zafar, talking him up as a red-hot ladies man who can’t be resisted. [Link]
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p>
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p>In addition, Salman says, his son is a “red-hot ladies man who can’t be resisted.” [Link]
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p>I know the family that pimps together stays together, but can’t the Rushdies save the meddling in their Zafar’s sex life until he’s ready to get married, like decent people? Or is this just a further extension of the same principle – they’ll help puttarRushdie find his wife, his girlfriends, and even his short term flings.
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p>Please understand that my reaction isn’t one of pure prudishness – we are firmly pro-groupie here are Sepia Mutiny. We just believe that groupies should be earned, not inherited.
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p>Oh and Zafar, a piece of advice from a humble blogger. While this is a great story (below), I think you want to avoid talking about the “loss of your childhood innocence” at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists – somebody might get the wrong idea.
“The fatwa was fun for me at first. I was 9, and I came home one day to find police in the house,” Zafar told the paper. “It was really cool to be around these big guys with guns. But I soon found out enough to realize there was a big deal going on, and it wasn’t good . . . I’d answer the phone and this voice would say: ‘We’ve got your number. We know where you are and we’re going to come and kill you’ . . . I lost my childhood innocence early…” [Link]
See also: The NYPost’s Page Six: THE RUSHDIES: BABE MAGNETS?, Rushdie & Sons
This has all the great elements of a Greek tragedy. McNast.
Really how is this different than our own mothers and fathers pimping us to the next best “boy” & “girl” at a party or wedding? I don’t really see any “ewww” factor there.
Barmaid called it.
(And why does Salman look like “Mr Bean as Blackadder” in that picture? The look of sheer concentration. Is he thinking up a cunning stunt?)
Ewwwwwww !!!!
Amen to that !!
But don’t you think the scenario is similar in million other Desi families, where the parents do play a important role in procuring their sons & daughters with the better or worse halves ? It is another thing that those Desi dads are not the ones girls would want to impress so they aren’t much help in providing their son with a share (of girls) from their own 😉
JoAT–
I think it has more to do with the “hey son, here’s a chick who wants to bone me, you take her…” factor
Greek Tragedy
If my step-mom was Padma Lakshmi and only 7 years older…the oedipus complex would take over…prolly go insane. As for usin your dad to get ass, hell yea, use everything you got. He’s sure as hell not goin to get ass based on his looks.
Inherit Groupies: eh, don’t really know this works, but i do know that if you have either money or power you can have plenty of groupies…Zafar isn’t inheriting anything but the name, the name inherits the power and the groupies. Just call them hoes, not groupies, they’re just there for one thing, spending money and ass…
Um, for whatever it’s worth, Ennis, you misquoted the article, attributing a remark actually made by Dad to Stepmom by replacing the first half of the sentence with ellipses. The real sentence reads:
“Salman [SUBJECT OF THIS SENTENCE], who lives in Manhattan with his fourth wife, topless model and actress Padma Lakshmi, 36 [VERY LONG PARENTHETICAL], is equally complimentary of Zafar, talking him up as a red-hot ladies man who can’t be resisted [PREDICATE].”
Excuse my obnoxious and possibly unnecessary grammar lesson, but yes, it’s Salman who talks up Zafar as a red-hot ladies man who can’t be resisted. I know I’m splitting hairs here and the mistake in this case was probably inadvertent (although this sentence-taken-out-of-context thing is a common crime elsewhere) but there are lots of other accusations of which Padma is probably more deserving 🙂 .
I think it is the choice of words.
Even if my mom (and yes she does try) is pimping me, she would not be quoted with those words. If it were one of his friends or even his sister or brother I would not have a problem with it, but his parents ?
Like ennis says
or donated.
” but there are lots of other accusations of which Padma is probably more deserving 🙂 “
That’s QUITE weird, using your dad and his reputation as your main source of game. It’s twisted and strange and wrong on many, many levels.
Brownelf – thank you. The misquotation was based on a misunderstanding on my part. This is what comes of blogging in the middle of the workday, while I was multi-tasking with my day job 🙁 I’ve corrected it now.
That makes it a lot less icky, and also removes some of the Greek tragedy angle.
brown people don’t do incest. for the record. itz a white thang….
I really don’t see it that way. My mother when she used to teach surgery would have a gaggle of interns around her all the time and she would try her damdest best to pimp me and dare I say lie thru her teeth about me on so many levels. It was humorous and embarrasing all at once but I think this is similar.
Fathers and sons have different relationships than mothers and daughters. Not the same thing.
Really? Because I’ve been running into/discovering a large number of people in Karachi who’re married to their first cousins, and that’s pretty damn’ incestuous in my world.
Tell me about it. Especially since on SM my dad is more responsible for squashing my game.
Paging Dr. Phil’s douchebag son to the white courtesy phone…
I think you should fear the wrath of Salman more than the intern.
And how did those sauteed sprouts come out, Pritha? @=)
When desi families try to “help” their children find partners, it’s in part b/c they’re concerned and in part because of the whole “marry the family not just the person” thing. However, when your father is helping you get casual girls … that’s a different situation.
what’s with the cliches? this isn’t against ennis personally, but i feel like i’ve read ten different desi-related stories/posts in the past couple of days and they have all started with, “Desi parents do this…desis do this…blah blah blah.” can we stop with the cliches? i mean, really, even if they are meant to be ironic, can we stop with the same ol shit? sorry if i sound frustrated but this kind of writing is lazy…
salman’s son’s chin is enormous and not cute.
my point being…no, not all desi parents provide for their kids. shocking, i know.
I think most of us guys would do the same thing, whether we the son or the dad…especially if we were the son. Do you expect the junior Rushdie to turn down opportunities with hot women just because of the ewwwww factor? Now of course, it is a dad’s responsibility to teach good values and good behavior, respect for women and all that (ideally taught when the kid is much younger than 27), but if your dad himself is a party boy, and that’s what you’ve learned from him (which is basically teaching by example), then why wouldn’t you indulge yourself and take what you could get?
There is (usually) a difference between medical interns who have to be there and groupies, isn’t there?
I mean the article definitely makes it sound like these women are just hanging around the Rushdies because they’re into the “famous author” thing. Not because they have to be there for training.
“All the beautiful women want to talk to Dad…”
The ‘beautiful women’ need to get contacts or glasses, just look at Salman! I will never understand how women can overlook something like that just because he’s considered to be intelligent and/or rich and/or famous. We all know it would never work if the genders were reversed.
More to the point I suppose, I think the way the son and dad are talking is disgusting – they seem to believe feeling up random women is just a big game. If that’s how they want to live their lives it’s up to them but to me it does not matter what this guy writes I cannot respect or admire him because of his behaviour.
On the other hand, if you are into famous authors, the oh so reliable HT hints that Salman Rushdie might be available soon:
My understanding is that Salman and Padma are on the rocks.
Yeah that’s definitely ewwww factor. I wouldn’t want my mom or dad’s leftovers.
But look at it in context – these girls are falling over them because they’re famous – I’m pretty sure the girls are just playing games as well, so I don’t see anything wrong with the Rushdie men doing the same.
I think Ennis making the correction makes my point invalid. But seriously, if the mom had said something like that, it would have been weirder.
Lakshmi’s dress is fugly. It looks like a sack of aloos – vaddey vaddey Solanum tuberosum.
One cannot hope to comprehend, one can only hope to benefit.
I’m sure the bragging is done in both directions. Nookie pro quo.
I don’t think you want to have lived four marriages and a fatwa, but that’s quite independent of the quality of his work.
At least his son acknowledges that his 4-time married Dad may not be the best person to get relationship advice from.
I agree – so long as they’re not coloured contacts! For the record, I don’t think I would be attracted to him. But you know what I notice? That there’s a lot of finger pointing at these women for being gold-diggers, etc. I see very little criticism of the man for desiring something on a superficial level, whether he believes it or not. Start rant:
You know, I was initially very surprised when the illustrious Mr. Rushdie expressed interest in a model. Don’t get me wrong: I think she’s incredibly attractive; amazing face, body, hair, skin. I just expected a good writer to be more in tune with himself, and to be able to differentiate between infatuation and love, need and want, etc, etc. I don’t know anything about this couple, so I can’t say if it’s real or not. However, I do doubt that it was her mind that he was initially attracted to, whether he later fell in love with HER later, or not, I dunno. I’m not going to pass judgement, though I admit, I do have my suspicions. I also get suspicous when he associates her being intelligent with having travelled the world and speaking x number of languages, and wrting a cook-book. I don’t know if she’s the intellectual he claims she is, but you’ve gotta admit that’s such a pretentious assessment of intelligence: that’s more a function of having the money to travel the world (I’m not going to touch the cook-book). It really gets on my nerves when backpackers assume they are more worldly than everyone else because they smoked pot in Holland: NEWSFLASH: you don’t learn anything from mindlessly wandering the globe, people! I once dated a guy who had to announce to everyone that I played classical guitar and violin, as some kind of reflection on himself, that he only dates talented, cultured types. It was really annoying. Bah!
I have some impossibly attractive female friends, and from watching their interactions with people, they do garner quite a bit of obsessive, infatuated types, many of which are normally intelligent, rational dudes. Sometimes, they get comments like, “I think I am falling in love with you” (and not in the temporary, I want to get in your pants kind of way) after only a couple of weeks of dating, and sometimes not even dating at all. Some even get premature wedding proposals, etc. Once, we tested a theory out; Girl X was talking to Guy Y about politics, most of which was purposely false, innacurate and even a humorous depiction of current events. Guy Y was enthralled and automatically persumed she knew what she was talking about. He even said something to the effect of “You’re so beautiful AND so insightful!” HA! It was quite hilarious. It’s like some guys want to believe the person they are interested in is also this wonderfulsupernicegenius – which isn’t an anomaly, but they definitely fill in the blanks – it ain’t love, dudes, it ain’t love. People do generally perceive attractive people to be more intelligent/trustworthy as is… I’m not saying you won’t genuinely fall in love with an inside-out beautiful girl, but you betta recognize the difference between infatuation and loving someone for who they are. And I’m not talking about playboy type guys either; like I said, these are guys that fancy themselves notverysuperficial, etc. There, got that off my mind.
BWA HA HA!!!
Abhi, I know you’re kidding, but honestly, I think your Dad actually helps your game. He seems pretty cool, level-headed and open-minded, which is a reflection of how he probably raised you (right). Not that some people don’t overcome their crazy-ass upbringings, but I find that’s a rarity.
Ennis: no problem. Sorry if that was totally obnoxious and schoolmarmish and kudos to you and the other bloggers for keeping this up along with your day jobs.
Sin: isn’t it fairly common among numerous South Asian communities to marry first cousins, with certain restrictions? For example, I’m Tamil Brahmin and traditionally you were allowed to marry your mother’s brother’s kid or your father’s sister’s kid — but not your mother’s sister’s kid or your father’s brother’s kid. In other words, you were allowed to marry a first cousin as long as your parents were siblings of different sexes. This is less common now because people actually, er, leave home and meet other people, but it’s still permitted. If it’s common in Tamil Nadu and common (?) in Karachi I suspect it goes on elsewhere on the subcontinent as well?
Watchtell: honestly, this website is about Desi stuff and — whether or not you agree with the particular generalizations being made in a given post — surely you have to concede that you can’t write about Desi stuff without making some generalizations about Desis, just as you can’t write about dogs without making some generalizations about dogs, or about French pastries without making some generalizations about French pastries?
Ajeet: 1) of course it doesn’t work if you reverse the genders. Of course men (watch out, Watchtell, I’m going to make a HUGE generalization here, so avert your eyes if you have to 🙂 ) are more attracted to looks than personality and women and more attracted to personality than looks. I’m sure some of the evolutionary biologists here will be able to do a better job of explaining why that is (yes? Come on, someone, tell us how and why “women can overlook something like that”?), but the assertion itself is not a revelation, and, like all generalizations, contains some truth. 2) No one’s asking you to respect Rushdie the way you’d respect a friend, man. Talent has nothing to do with morality, and should not be confused with it. Good art doesn’t always come from good people, but it still deserves respect as art — there have been so many great writers/composers/artists/all-round geniuses who were assholes or worse that if you condemned yourself not to enjoying their work just because they didn’t conform to your moral standards, yours would be a joyless existence indeed.
Unfortunately, I have been programmed to value accuracy over wildly incorrect snark. Sorry to get it wrong the first time.
I was wondering when Manish would make an appearance on this thread!
i’m always surprised how high up “humor” registers whenever there’s a poll of women asking what they find attractive in men. rushdie understands this:
Hitch explains.
feminists are annoyed.
metric interesting viewpoint.
I think for me it isn’t about men wanting to believe that the woman they are with is smart when really they are with someone stupid but beautiful. The romantic in me believes and has seen and experienced enough to know that most men (attractive, unattractive, smart, dumb, short, tall, fat, skinny…) want a woman that makes them feel like they are a million bucks worth. He wants someone that makes him feel good and makes him look at himself in the mirror and see the man he wants to be because that is what the woman he’s with makes him feel like.
Even if it’s superficial it makes you feel good about yourself and it plays in to the theory of egostroking that men require more than women. And if the woman happens to be attractive and hot, hotter than he’d normal get then that’s icing on the cake. It corroborates the notion that he’s hot and attractive, how else would this hot and attractive woman want him?
No matter how smart we all have basic requirements from the opposite sex that have nothing to do with them admiring our mind. 🙂
brown people don’t do incest. for the record. itz a white thang….
Say what?!
Razib, tell me this is you being a provocateur.
I have been working with abused kids for four years now and they come in every color in the rainbow. It is most certainly not just a white thing. Every year I volunteer several hundred hours with foster children/group home children who have been physically and sexually abused. Only three out of forty this year were white.
This story is such bullsh#$. There are no hot women in the world, who know who the hell Rushdie is. He is not that famous. Hot women know who Brad Pitt is not the guy who wrote a book about a sad clown or something like that.
And I know there are some hot women who know who he is, but there are no groupies for authors. You go to a club with a guy that looks like Ruchdie and then brag about this blob being your father, your just asking to be left alone.
metric: amen
i think ur wrong shallowthinker. rushdie’s married to a model and sartre was famous for having groupies. mailer landed monroe and i could go on. but don’t worry, there’s plenty of talent left over for shallowthinking brad pitt lookalikes like you.
Manju:
Not saying this just to argue against your generalization, but I can go on oath and say that the funniest person I ever met was female (sorry guys, she’s engaged).
I beg to differ. I have seen Rushdie in action. In fact after watching Shashi Tharoor in action at an event recently it was obvious women were literally throwing themselves at him trying to talk to him. And Shashi is fairly dashing and quite flirty too but I assure you male authors get a lot of attention.
male authors are hot — i was attracted to hubby b/c of his writing
intersting. u can buy her a gift here. 😉
let me change my comment: authors are insanely hot
Authors are not hot. Honestly, anyone ever get a funny feeling in the naught area looking at Rushdie?
Way ahead of you!
Go to a Hanif Kureishi reading and you’ll reconsider.
He is getting some so let him enjoy…sometimes wingman ends up on top