Monthly Archives: July 2007

All Hail the Amby

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Pimp My Desi Ride

Mutineer Panyananda points us at an LAT article titled “India’s Ugly Icon of the Road” which pays homage to the humble Hindustan Motors Ambassador –

…describe the most famous car strutting along India’s roads today, think of some of the qualities associated with hot automotive design….Sleek. Sporty. Sexy. Fast.

Now throw them out….None of those words applies to the Ambassador.

And in the Amby, we find a microcosm of Indian economic history –

TRACE the car’s journey through the last half-century and you can chart the rise of India’s post-colonial ruling class, its flirtation with socialism and its recent economic boom that has the world abuzz.

…As I journeyed all over India,” wrote Singh, who died in 1999, “I came to understand that if one thing can be singled out to stand for the past 50 years of India and its closed economy, now open and moving into the new millennium, it has to be the Ambassador.”

As they say, sometimes a dog’s so ugly, it’s actually cute and perhaps when a car is & remains this backwards, it’s easy to wax nostalgic. Whatever the case, the humble Ambassador turns 50 this year and given the transience of modern life, it’s hard not to take notice…

You can’t be desi and have spent anytime in da homeland without being able to relate to stories like this – “…police in north India once stopped an Ambassador with 27 people on board” Continue reading →

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Salman and Padma Escape Stupor, Separate

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back on the market.jpg

Sometimes, breaking news is so significant, it demands that I waste my lunchtime on it. This is not that kind of news story (thanks, Anon + Rose). Via Yahoo!:

British author Salman Rushdie and his wife Padma Lakshmi, host of TV show “Top Chef,” are getting divorced, his spokeswoman said on Monday, just two weeks after he was awarded a controversial knighthood.

Fourth time? Not a charm, it turns out.

He married Lakshmi, a former model born in 1970 in India, in 2004. She was his fourth wife and the couple had no children.

It’s not him, it’s her:

“Salman Rushdie has agreed to divorce his wife, Padma Lakshmi, because of her desire to end their marriage,” spokeswoman Jin Auh said in a statement on his behalf.

I don’t think it was just the British, who did:

When the Indian-born Rushdie started his romance with the model more than 20 years his junior, the British tabloids made much of their differences in age and intellectual stature.
But Rushdie always defended his wife.

Am I the only one who finds “not supposed to be permitted to be” awkward?

“Anyone who’s met Padma knows she’s as intelligent as they come,” he told The Times of London in a 2005 interview. “But, you know, it’s not supposed to be permitted to be gorgeous and really smart and also very nice.”

Okay, snark aside, I do remember feeling a bit sorry for him. Or at least wincing on his behalf. Once.

“It feels very odd to see newspaper articles saying ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Why Do Beautiful Women Love Ugly Men?”‘ he said in the interview. “But at this stage, I’m kind of resigned to it at — as you say — pushing 60.”

While a few of you howled that these two were your top pick for the “One of these things is not like the other/THEY FREAKING DON’T BELONG TOGETHER”-prize, I still say that TomKat deserves THAT dishonor. Yes, more than AbhiShwarya, even. Back to reading Maximum City, if you’re not industriously doing something else. 😉 Continue reading →

A better way to see Gujarat

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A friend of mine from here in Texas recently handed me a copy of the Gujarat guidebook she’s edited and published after living there for some time (and with the additional help of some paid local writers). Since my family is originally from Gujarat I’ve never even considered the need for getting my hands on a guidebook before each visit there. After skimming through nearly 400 pages rich in history and photography I think I’ll be taking this along on my next trip to the motherland. Think “Lonely Planet on steroids”:

A grill would have totally completed this cover picture.

Five thousand years of civilization

Savor the history and romance, colors and textures, rhythms and dance of a land where time have never stood still.

From the rocky heights of the Sahyadri Mountains across to the salt flats of the Desert of Kachchh, Gujarat has something for everyone. Wander through remains of ancient Indus Valley civilizations; venture to meet the lions of Gir Forest; soak in the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi; dance on the streets for nine nights of Navratri. Enjoy an unparalleled ethos of hospitality. Experience vibrant crafts, exquisite architecture, rich wildlife reserves, colorful festivals and eclectic traditions. Join five millennia of seafarers, merchants and settlers from around the globe and come explore Gujarat. [Link]

What the hell. Gujarat has lions? I wonder why my dad has failed to ever mention this salient fact to me (but I’m sure he’ll comment on it and give me an earful down below). I remember going all the way to the northern part of India on a tiger safari but had no idea that there were lions right there in Gujarat. I think part of the problem is that to me Gujarat is just Ahmedabad, and if someone asks me what you do there I’d say “ummmmm…CG Road, Gandhi Ashram, and Siddi Sayid.” I love eating Amul cheese sandwiches when I am in India but I didn’t know I could take a tour of the Amul plant and watch it get made. It’s probably similar to going wine tasting in Napa (but cheese sandwiches are better than wine). The guidebook also taught me a little about the village (Sarkhej) that my grandparents lived in and where my parents partially grew up. I’ve been there but either didn’t know, or couldn’t remember, the significance of the place until I read here about the complex that the village was built around:

Sarkhej Roaza is a mosque, tomb, and royal complex dedicated to the memory of Salikh Ahmed Khattu Ganj Baksh, the spiritual advisor of Ahmed Shah…The Roza was a retreat for successive rulers, each adding a garden or pavilion. Sarkej is another excellent example of a structure that combines Hindu and Islamic design.

Continue reading →