To counterbalance my earlier post, I decided to blog about something more fluffy today. Reader Pauravi emailed this link to the bunker with the following message:
So finally, there is a calendar us South Asian women can feast our eyes on :). Enough of the gawking at scantily clad women, check this out!
I was swamped at work on Friday so I had one of the monkeys take a look to give me his expert opinion:
The calendar is SO worth a looksie…I went through all 50 men and honestly I don’t have any drool left yet.
So what exactly is this calendar, you ask? Asiana Magazine — a UK lifestyle and bridal magazine for Asian women — has a feature on the “ultimate 50 single Asian men in Britain.” Each man’s photo comes complete with an interview and biodata such as age, profession, car that he drives, and salary range. (Am I the only one who finds the last two kind of tacky?)
I’m all for the objectification of beautiful brown men (such as this one, this one, and this one). But in this publication, I found the interviews much more entertaining than the photos. Take, for example, the priceless interview with Rehan Bhatt:
Age: 28 Drives: Lotus & BMW Biggest turn-off: Women that judge a man by the car he drives. Your ex would describe you asÂ… The greatest real dream she ever had. She actually said that! Pulling outfit? IÂ’m not that vain but jeans, crisp shirt and my pink g-string never fails! Most outrageous thing youÂ’ve ever done: I got randomly attacked once so I chinned the guy, only the guy turned out to be a butch lesbian.
Translation: I want a woman to like me for me. But in case any of you are wondering, I drive a BMW. I’ve also beaten up a woman. Call me. 
Aman Chohan, however, was much more self-deprecating:
Your ex would describe you asÂ… an arsehole. Other than that, itÂ’ll all be good things. Teen heartthrob: Tia from Sister Sister. What are the chances she reads Asiana? Hook me up!
My favorite profile is that of Aash Aneel:
Worst quality: I forget things. Like any bad qualities I may have, for instance. How many times have you said I love you? After a few too many drinks, sure, but then you only have to count if you get arrested. Most outrageous thing youÂ’ve ever done: Danced with a Christmas tree I found on the streets. I may have said I love you to the tree but there was no awkward moment the next day.
He’s cute and he has a sense of humor. My kind of guy.
Take a look at the publication yourself. The photos are tasteful and safe for work. And the interviews will make you smirk.
i can’t decide what’s worse?
or the fact that the questions these men answer are for the most part superficial like that ‘salary range’ question.
now THIS is my idea of online dating. Though our male mutineers could some of those blokes to shame, much thanks for the afternoon eye candy, Naina. We’ll wait for the US based glossies to follow suit.
Its ok, dude. Women have an equal right to be superficial. 😉
What’s superficial about salary range? I mean how is it more superficial than looks?
sakshi, Kurma
i’m not saying one is more superficial than the other. they’re equally. i’m simply putting both this project and desiclub.com’s south asian bikini calendar in the same category. if one is acceptable, then so should be the other.
Heh. Nothing like a little male objectification to get the week off to a good start! 🙂
um. yes. so anyone up for moving to the UK and snagging some bachelors with me?
A pinup boy. Personally I could care less how much money he makes or what he drives or for that matter whether he has a sense of humor or considers himself an ‘arsehole’. Not like I’m looking to marry any of em. Why not just give me a bunch of hot pictures I can drool at and inject my own fantasies on how I want him to be? The superficial application of “biodatas” is worse than tacky. It’s insulting my horny intelligence.
shlok,
I’m not advocating we gawk at these men instead of the women; it was just a tongue and cheek comment. I shared this bit of info with sepia, because I thought it would be fun for the women to see some hot South Asian men, and I was also interested in seeing where the debate would take us regarding the double standards some people seem to hold.
Ah, the inexorable march towards Sepia Destiny.
thanks naina… that was a timely distraction!
love it.
we’re all intelligent women, so we’re not going to put these lads up on a pedestal or anything. but it’s nice to look at an array of good looking desi men once in a while…
Sorry Naina, but yourself and said true monkeys in dat dere cage weren’t really picking. Judging by the looks I would have to go with : Gurmit Samra (who then had to spoil it with “Favourite thing about women: Elegance, patience and the kind of emotional strength us mere mortal men can only worship” – pleeaaassee…) Inder Sanghera (who then had to spoil it with “Secret romance weapon: Treat her like a lady”) I stopped around #25. JOAT, how did any of these guys even tickle your horny intelligence? they uniformly(stats of two) seem to think that treating women like their mothers is gonna lead somewhere. now mr. crumb, thats something else.:-)
thank you naina! that was 50 clicks of scrumptious. and just imagine, they also have that whole cute british accent thing going for them!!!
now…we need an umreekan counterpart. south asian american women’s magazines are you hearing me?!
Couldn’t help noticing – but are all the Southie men in London married?
Naina, thanks for the Sunday afternoon diversion.
Bibi Magazine, a Houston-based South Asian women’s magazine, puts together a similar feature.
Perfect skin on a guy really bugs me…. I need some scruff, some dirt, slight leathering from a lifetime of being manly… Am I alone on this?
At first, I was thinking “where are all the desi doctors and engineers”? And then it hit me…so not the point. So I just drooled the rest of the way through.
Espressa….I hear ya…I love me an man w/ some durrt!
double standards? what double standards? we all objectify, though perhaps to varying degrees. From my quick glance through the profiles, the majority of the guys seemed on the “lighter” shade of things. What…no posts by the men or women about the inaccurate representation of desis with too few Southies shown?
@No Desh I already did! Though I daresay I wasnt thinking in terms of skin colour then…
thank you pooja!
My whole point was please spare me their thoughts, stats and other mundane crap I don’t care for. Just give me pictures and some topless ones please! And since I’m older I stopped when I got to my first 23 year old which was I think 3 or 5 deep. Please can we have some men and not boys.
Are we seriously going to go there again? I don’t think I can take it again in such a short span of time. And from what I saw there were brown men, easily distinguishable by their varying shades of brown including chocolate. Light, makeup and very obvious retouching work can make anyone look “light”.
as you stated, I didn’t think you were going for the skin color angle.
No, we don’t have to go there. But I did find it funny that on the last post about the female bikini calendar, many people were up in arms over the skin tones/unfair representation, whereas that has been minimal on the male calendar.
That should’ve read “male piece”
wow. sexual objectification has become like free markets. everyones doing it. my work here at sepia is almost done.
no desh, regarding the unfair representation, i was struck by how none of the turbanned sikh males in the “hot 50” had their full facial hair. a sort of demasculation of the sikh male ideal to me, but the classic “pretty boy” look, i suppose. but i’m not the editor! but ya, you’re right, not many guys with a “darker” look either.
this type of objectification of males is flippant, but, with your example of the bikini calendar, we saw women in a state of un-dress, without any other substance to themselves. if we get equivalent types of objectification, i think we can have a more substantive debate on the merits/demerits of comparative objectification.
and anyways, when i was clicking through, i wasn’t LOOKING at the GUYS, i was checking out what kind of car they drove. :p
Only the absolute dregs of British Asian society appear in this. I would never, EVER be caught dead in it.
Apart from last year.
(Was that subtle or what? And no, I’m not scanning it in. My Mum’s laminated the page and hung it above our front door with neon lights around it. Probably.)
And why not? You can’t dangle that (no pun intended) and then not do it!!
bong breaker,
Seriously? You have got to scan it in. MUST.
Didn’t like the Bibi Men, since they all had to be famous. Asiana at least took time out to troll the streets of Southall for sexyness.
I dunno’ about their sense of humor Naina, but you sure have a great one :).
“IÂ’m all for the objectification of beautiful brown men”. — ROFL
The biggest pretty boy orgy, ever. Sigh. Where have all the cowboys gone?
Naina this is awesome! I’ve been calling for hot boys on sepia for years! Maybe my “Topless Turbanned Hotties” (TM) calendar will finally find some traction (Ennis?)
To be fair, though, there haven’t been as many posts on hot desi chicks since Manish left. Hmm.
BB I won’t believe it until I see it. So, you know, get scanning…
BongBreaker, are you sure it was last year and you’re not actually Kamran Saha, trainee surgeon?
Ugh. Why do all those dudes look like narcissists? Aren’t there any hot Indian rugged guys they could have used in their calendar? Or some kind self-deprecating programmer? Why do the dudes that are featured all have to be such gross snobs?
I thought the mean age would be something like late twenties to early thirties…not early twenties…
Are brown women seriously into teenage-looking 22-year olds which shaped eyebrows with cuts through them?
Yeah I thought that was pretty twisted myself. Most of them are too into themselves to notice anyone else much less a woman and so many had no problem coming across as assholes and confident assholes to boot.
Me too. Where are the grown men that don’t say dumb shit if you must make me read shit they have to say?
NO not this one. Give me a hairy Bob Vila type any day. I can make him metrosexual if I want to. Most of these boys look like they’d compete with the woman over mirror time.
ahh, the “scar”? I believe that’s for an added “bad boy” effect. Narcissism is an amazing thing, yaar?
We’re smirking more than ogling, John.
Their answers read a bit like generic aphorisms or just self-congratulatory pats on the back (i.e. YouÂ’d take a girl on a first date toÂ… Heaven, where else? Hahahaha!). I can’t tell whether they are joking or not– if they’re joking, I think they’ve got a great sense of humor. If they’re not, maybe a bit delusional then, but either way it cracks me up=)
seriously, though, it works… as soon as I started anal-retentively scultping my facial hair, the ms. started paying a whole lot more attention to me. the ones who know…. know.
If attention=horror….then, sure.
Aiyo cicatrix, if his face can afford it, let him get sideburns (but keep the face shaved). z0mg! I love sideburns on desi guys… sigh my TA… hai bhagwan, I’m going to faint.
Are the fellow-mutineers getting too critical? Maybe the “best looking people at capitol hill” had generated same comments?
Hey! Where are the men w/ sherwanis!? I LOOOOVE those outfits! As for the juvenile comments they made… ROFLMAO
YUMMY!!!
13, 14 and 26 are pretty cute – I’m a sucker for a guy who says he likes to cook…and is proud of taking public transport.
The guys who say “I can be arrogant or cocky” like they’re proud of it are just eww. And what is with the pencil-line-thin beards, ewwwwwww. There seem to be a fair number who look like they should be dating each other, a bit tooo pretty.
I thought the mix of skintones was much wider than it would have been for…say, Indian women celebs. I personally find darker men more attractive, so that’s right up my alley.
I must say I’m pleasantly surprised by the overall hottie quotient.
overly groomed, and too many clothes (must have equal parity with bikini calendar to be fair)
Ladies, don’t cry, but these features tend to be stitch-ups featuring the editor’s friends. I had 3 friends on the list one year, 2 of whom have fiancees and another who was in a relationship. I’ve only met two of the guys on this year’s list, but both of them have girlfriends. They only define “bachelor” as “not actually legally married.” 😉 So I imagine Bong Breaker will finally make the list next year, to peals of laughter from his SO… 😉