Monthly Archives: August 2008

The power of email squatters

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The recent issue of The New Yorker had a cute story, that I can totally relate to, about one particular G-Mail address account created four years ago:

On July 27, 2004, a friend invited Guru Raj to create a Google e-mail account. A recent graduate of the University of Virginia, Raj, then twenty-one, was watching the Democratic National Convention on a television in his parents’ basement, in Norcross, Georgia. The beta version of Gmail–available by invitation only–was less than four months old at the time, and largely unproved, but Raj’s U.V.A. e-mail account was set to expire in a few weeks, so he decided to give Gmail a try.

At first, Raj tried to create an address using his own name, but, remarkably, both gururaj @ gmail.com and rajguru @ gmail.com were already taken. So he tried the name of the young senator from Illinois who was giving the Democratic keynote address on TV. To his surprise, it worked, and, moments later, barackobama@gmail.com was quietly born. “I’m not some cute little Indian boy who grew up in America with political aspirations,” Raj, the first in his family to be born an American citizen, said recently. “I just thought it would be kind of funny to create an e-mail address based on a random senator whose name no one could spell…”

Over the next four years, as Gmail became the third most popular Webmail provider in the U.S. and Obama became a serious contender for the next President of the United States, Raj used the account for his personal e-mail. In the fall of 2006, he received, for the first time, a message intended for the Senator. By February, 2007, when Obama formally announced his candidacy, Raj was daily receiving dozens of misdirected notes from all over the world.[Link]

I found this anecdote rather funny because on my (now-defunct) personal blog I wrote of encountering the same problem. Back when G-Mail first came out I snapped up three addresses. Two of them were quite obscure but the third one was the equivalent of “smith @ gmail.com.” Needless to say, over the years I have received all kinds of random emails from people who intended their message for someone(s) else. For example, I get at least two marriage-related biodata emails (complete with pictures) each week. I also get lots of people following up on a job interviews or medical results. A lot of these emails come from India. I am always faced with a choice: do I help destiny along by informing the sender of the error or by remaining silent? I randomly go either way (I know, this is probably evil and megalomaniacal).

Raj, who now works for a software consulting company in Washington, D.C., never replied to these, or to any other e-mails meant for Obama, not even to tell an excited would-be pen pal that he is not, in fact, the Democrats’ presumptive Presidential nominee. “It just became an interesting portal into Americana,” he said. “From the beginning, I had no intention of manipulating anyone.” .[Link]

Yes! See, Raj gets it. Its just like being the postal worker whose job it is to open all the mail addressed to Santa Claus. Nobody expects him to fulfill the expectations of every letter (or even a few letters), but at least someone can bear witness (even if they are biodata packages).

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You call THAT an Indian accent?

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Mindy Kaling, who writes for and acts on the NBC show The Office, recently revealed to David Letterman a secret that many Indian Americans guard very closely. Not all of us are good at imitating an Indian accent just because our parents are Indian [via Defamer]:

That’s right, we may not do Indian accents well…but no other ethnic group should be able to point that out without an indignant tongue-lashing back

If you want to skip the rest of the interview then start at 1:30 min mark. I can really sympathize with Mindy. When I try to do an Indian accent I sound slightly Scottish. Its just sad.

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Commander Selvam of Atlanta: What Do You Think?

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[UPDATE: After arresting Commander Selvam last fall, the police have decided drop charges against him, for lack of evidence. See Atlanta Journal Constitution]

Reader MacWalla sent us a tip to this story, which ran on a local Fox affiliate in Atlanta:

It’s about an Atlanta based swami named Selvam Sidhar, also called Dr. Commander Selvam (though his real name is apparently Annamalai?), whom the reporter finds to be a fraud. There’s also a second part I would strongly recommend here, where the reporters went undercover to book a “beer bash and barbecue” in the Temple’s main hall, and Commander Selvam readily agreed to have meat and alcohol served on the premises. After the Fox reporters called the next day to “out” themselves, big banners reading “Hindus Only Allowed — No Trespassing” went up around the temple.

Some of the footage they use, showing his house (heavily mortgaged), and his car, isn’t by itself an issue for me. If anything, the $900,000 mortgage on the house suggests he doesn’t actually have as much money in the bank as might be expected. Is this exposé overblown at times?

Finally, the reporter responsible for the recent story on Fox Atlanta, Randy Travis, has a blog post up, with 179 comments on the story.

[UPDATE: After arresting Commander Selvam last fall, the police have decided drop charges against him, for lack of evidence. See Atlanta Journal Constitution] Continue reading →

South Asian Youth Political Involvement

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Hey everyone, nice to meet you and thanks for Abhi’s kind introduction. For the next few weeks, I’ll be aiming to give an 18-year old desi perspective on politics, news, and general issues I think are important to my generation. In the lead up to the DNC, I’ll obviously be talking about youth involvement in politics, but there are many general interest issues that concern young desis and I’d appreciate your input for and on subjects – email anytime at ravi [at] sepiamutiny dot com.

Youth political interest in this election is certainly as high as it has been in a long while, and the rise of Barack Obama and presidency of George Bush have significantly contributed to this undeniable trend.

As I set out to confirm historic levels of young desi involvement in American politics, I met with a significant amount of trouble, as specific statistics on South Asian involvement are very hard to find (let me know if you find any!) However, CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement), has done some interesting research on Asian American trends, and the results were interesting. A close examination of the CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) “Civic Engagement Among Minority Youth” survey (a PDF link), shows promising trends in the area of political participation –

  • 15-25 year-old Asian-Americans have the highest rate of volunteerism for political candidates and groups of any ethnic group in the U.S.
  • 15-25 year-old Asian-Americans have the highest rates of signing email petitions, boycotting and contacting officials of U.S. ethnic groups
  • In 2006, 71.5% of young Asian-Americans reported a belief that “Government should do more to solve Problems,” the highest rate of youths of any ethnic group, as well as the highest confidence in government regulation of business

These are impressive statistics, and my personal experience has shown that South Asian youth involvement has grown far more this election year. The Obama campaign, in particular, has inspired young desis (including myself) to volunteer, campaign, opine, and raise awareness about the importance of this year’s election. His story, as the son of an immigrant father from Kenya who has risen to be Senator and now Democratic Nominee, could be the story of an Indian-American candidate at some time in the future.

Another campaign, however, had also generated considerable enthusiasm from young South Asians, and that was libertarian Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. Youth who are tired of reckless foreign intervention and misguided government spending have turned to Paul’s staunchly principled libertarian campaign as an ideal of what a true principled politician, and America, could stand for. The campaign had an Indian-American at the forefront of its grassroots effort:

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Weddings: A Happy Ending, NYT Style

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Another Desi couple has a story about their courtship and wedding in the New York Times’ “Weddings and Celebrations” section. Congratulations to Dr. Anu Lala and Dr. Arvind Trindade:

lala trindade wedding.jpg

The Desi weddings they are interested in are usually the ones that have a hint of drama. In this case, the groom is a Goan Christian, while the bride is a Hindu from a devout family:

Briefly, she had thought that Dr. Trindade, whose family is from the state of Goa in India, a former Portugese colony, might be the “Hindu dude” she had always imagined marrying. “We liked each other from the get-go,” she said. “We clicked. But when I found out he was not Hindu, but in fact Christian, I thought, ‘Well, it’s over.’ ”

Dr. Lala, who often adds quotes from her favorite Hindu philosophers and poets at the bottom of her e-mail messages, said she feared that her parents would disapprove and she did not want to disappoint them.

“Anu is full of life, a great sense of humor, very versatile and duty-conscious,” said Harish Alwani, a cousin of Dr. Lala’s. “She’s a family person. Her parents are her world.” (link)

They had some challenges along the way, but in the end their respective parents came around and supported them. The reporter gets a little extra-gushy when describing the actual wedding ceremony at Tavern on the Green in Central Park (great choice of venue, I must say):

On July 19, the couple were married in front of 150 guests in Central Park at Tavern on the Green in a ceremony that combined Christian and Hindu traditions. Everything in the room — from the crystal chandeliers, to the embroidered purses and shoes — glittered and sparkled like the eyes of people in love. The bride was carried into the room on an ornate sedan chair, seated serenely on a pillow, wearing a red sari and bangles.

The event began with a Christian ceremony, with the Rev. David J. Robb, a minister of the United Church of Christ, officiating.

Then the couple sat down cross-legged with Bhawani Mukherjee, who began the Hindu part of the wedding by building a small fire and chanting prayers as the couple threw flower petals and rice into the flames.

At one point, the couple stood and walked on seven fabric lily pads arranged on the floor, hopping from pad to pad as if they were crossing a pond together and reciting one vow per pad.(link)

(That last detail about the lily pads might be just a little too cute, isn’t it?)

It’s wedding season, and I imagine some readers have probably been going from place to place, watching friends and family tie the knot. Does anyone have any interesting wedding stories from the summer to share, including — but not limited to — inventive cross-cultural/cross-religious arrangements?

(One caution: while Trindade & Lala openly agreed to publicize their romance, we don’t want to invade anybody’s privacy, so please try and make sure it’s safe to share your story publicly. Thanks.) Continue reading →

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Robert Kaplan: ISI vs. Karzai, India

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There’s an interesting think-piece in The Atlantic by Robert D. Kaplan, exploring some of the possible reasons for the ISI’s involvement (recently reinforced by American intelligence reports) in the recent Indian embassy bombing in Kabul, as well as an assassination attempt on Hamid Karzai.

Kaplan begins with a historical overview, which I won’t recount (but do read the whole article). What seems like the key argument is the following:

The Karzai government has openly and brazenly strengthened its ties with India, and allowed Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat, and Mazar-e-Sharif. It has kept alive the possibility of inviting India to help train the new Afghan army, and to help in dam construction in the northeastern Afghan province of Kunar, abutting Pakistan. All this has driven the ISI wild with fear and anger.

[…] In the mind of the ISI, India uses its new consulates in Afghanistan to back rebels in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan, whose capital, Quetta, is only a few hours’ drive from Kandahar. When India talks of building dams in Kunar, the ISI thinks that India wants to help Afghanistan steal Pakistan’s water. Karzai’s open alliance with India is nearly a casus belli for the ISI. So elements of the ISI have responded in kind; they likely helped in the recent assassination attempt against the Afghan president.(link)

Though Kaplan depends a bit too much on the projection of probable motives and regional alignments (rather than actual utterances from the parties involved), the schematic he describes seems convincing to me.

He also offers a “takeaway” for American readers, namely, you can’t just throw troops and money at Afghanistan, and expect to win:

In the midst of all this, both Bush and Barack Obama talk simplistically about sending more American troops to Afghanistan. The India-Pakistan rivalry is just one of several political problems in the region that negate the benefit of more troops. As in the past in both Afghanistan and Iraq, we are in danger of conceiving of war in narrow military terms alone, and thus getting the politics wrong.

In the first place, we need vigorous shuttle diplomacy between Kabul, Islamabad, and New Delhi to address India’s and Pakistan’s fears about Afghanistan. Only by assuaging the ISI’s fears, while allowing India its rightful place in Kabul, can we get more cooperation from Pakistan in our fight against Islamic extremism. (link)

Thoughts? I like the flavor of this explanation for two reasons. First, while Kaplan’s take does not by any means make the ISI more likeable, in general it makes more sense to see an organization like the ISI as operating on the basis of rational, if short-term, self-interest, not as a mindless agent of violence. Second, it downplays the issue of local religious fundamentalism, which is of course exploited by the ISI, but not the underlying cause for its actions. Pure religious fundamentalism might lead someone to blow up a marketplace full of people. But what motivates someone to blow up an embassy is obviously something much more pointedly political.

Also: see an earlier post relating to the ISI here. Continue reading →

Indifferent? Or…uh…mellow?

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pretty padma looks like my cousin here.jpgI get an email from Salon daily; with over 2,690 pieces of unread mail* in my beleaguered GMail account, I’m likely to open these newsletter-y missives approximately twice a week. Those two instances hardly ever coincide with Sunday’s “I like to watch”-edition, but I was feeling peevish while waiting for the laaaast loooooad of laundry to dry at 2:30 am, so I thought, “why not peek…it might mention my beloved ‘Mad Men‘, which was the best show ever until season two started and kind of weirded me out, man.”

Right.

So I’m skimming “Critics’ Picks”, and I see no shout-outs to AMC’s finest, but my finely-honed browndar immediately zooms in on the following blurb, about Bravo’s tatti-est reality show:

Jaclyn Smith on “Shear Genius”
“Shear Genius” (Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EDT) may be the weakest of Bravo’s professional reality competitions — the contestants are almost uniformly uninteresting, and the hairstyles they create are almost uniformly ugly. Even so, its host, former “Charlie’s Angels” star Jaclyn Smith, stands out as a kinder, gentler alternative to Bravo spokesmodels Heidi Klum and Padma Lakshmi. For some crazy reason, Smith has great wells of compassion for these bad people with their bad hairstyles. When she informs a hairstylist that it’s his or her “final cut” at the end of each episode, Smith’s eyes invariably well up with tears and her voice wavers as she carefully chooses a few comforting words as a send-off. Forget Klum’s curt “auf Wiedersehen” and Lakshmi’s indifferent “Pack your knives and go” — Smith’s tearful goodbyes seem to remind us, “What could be more human than empathizing with the untalented?” — Heather Havrilesky

Whoaaaa, there HH. I know that all girls are supposed to lose their minds over Charlie’s Angels (the inspiration for a million mediocre facebook pictures) and Grease (I will never understand the obsession with that film or its annoying-as-soulja boy-soundtrack), but are we giving the gorgeous Jaclyn a bit too much credit? Let’s not so soon forget or forgive that unfortunate casual line she released years ago– there’s a reason why so many pairs of elastic-waist pants give “mom jeans” a run for fug and part of that responsibility lies with the otherwise glamorous Jaclyn Smith.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with Heidi. If anything, far too much is right with that woman. She has squeezed three babies out of that ridiculous body and she has the cutest, most impish smile. As for pulchritudinous Padma, girl, she ain’t indifferent or cold…she’s HIGH. The Mutiny could’ve told you that, last year:

According to a source who worked on the set of Top Chef, the ex-model turned trophy wife turned hostess Padma Lakshmi allegedly enjoys smoking pot on set, giving a whole new meaning to the term “Quickfire Challenge” — see, cause she’s allegedly lighting up a joint instead of a stove! Anyway. Exactly how often this happened is disputed, though we were assured it was allegedly “fairly regularly…” [BWE]

That explains the sloooow, slightly slurred speech and her gracious, always-ready appetite to try potentially smack-nasty food– it also provides an explanation for why she doesn’t share Ms. Smith’s penchant for saltwater…she’s happy! Continue reading →

Guest Blogger: Ravi

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As of this weekend we have invited yet another guest blogger into the fold of our secret world blogging headquarters in North Dakota. The twist this time is that our new blogger is only 18 years old, making him even younger than our over-worked intern (the intern was not happy about this). Here is the email we received from Ravi. It had a rather interesting proposition in it:

My name is Ravi M and I’m a graduating high school student from Lake Forest High School and I’ll be attending Harvard this fall. I’m an avid reader of your blog, and will be attending the DNC in a few weeks as a member of the Junior State of America’s 2008 Election Symposia, a non-profit, non-partisan civic education program. I’m writing because I’d like to offer my services/be considered to be a guest student correspondent for your blog during the DNC…This could give your blog an opportunity to showcase the viewpoints of a younger generation, and the trend in increasing political activism and awareness amongst my generation of Indian-Americans during this election year. I have experience as Editor-in-Chief of my school newspaper, and have won Scholastic Regional and National Awards for my journalism. In addition, I have served as the governor of the Junior State of America, a student-run debating organization, for the past two years, as well as Debate Team Captain the previous year, giving me a deep understanding of politics and the perspectives of our younger generation….

So now we will have two SM bloggers reporting from the convention n Denver in just a few weeks. Hmmm, maybe I can be the voice of the grizzled old cynic and Ravi can report with wide-eyed optimism. In any case, please join me in welcoming Ravi to SM.

Note: If any of our South Asian American readers has access to the Republican National Convention and would like to blog for SM from there then please email me: abhi [at] sepiamutiny dot com.

Continue reading →

The Rat People

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Utterly tragic and cant-peel-my-eyes-away fascinating. A Breitbart story + video tells the tale of Pakistan’s “Rat People” born with a sad heriditary disorder, Microcephaly –

Outside a Muslim shrine in this dusty Pakistani city, a “rat woman” with a tiny head sits on a filthy mattress and takes money from worshippers who cling to an ancient fertility rite.

Nadia, 25, is one of hundreds of young microcephalics — people born with small skulls and protruding noses and ears because of a genetic mutation — who can be found on the streets of Gujrat, in central Punjab province.

…According to local legend, infertile women who pray at Shah Daula’s shrine will be granted children, but at a terrible price. The first child will be born microcephalic and must be given to the shrine, or else any further children will have the same deformity.

…”The myth of the chuhas [rat people] has been exploited by beggar mafias and religious groups,” said Nasiruddaula, a former science professor in his 70s.

“They roam the villages and if the real chuha is born they give them some money and they take them,” he said.

How did the cluster show up here? Well, consanguinity plays a huge role – Continue reading →

Brief Music Review: “Singh is Kinng”

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snoop dogg turban askshay kumar.jpg

I’ve occasionally groused about how bad I think a lot of Bollywood music is today, so it seems only fair to say a little about a soundtrack I actually like, Singh is Kinng. I picked up the CD in New Jersey recently, along with Dr. Zeus’s “Welcome 2 Da Club,” a CD I would also recommend, for those who like hip hop mixed with bollywood hits.

First, I should admit that after Googling the film’s title quickly, I still can’t quite figure out why there are two n’s in “Kinng.” (Does anyone know? Is it some astrology/numerology thing?)

The standout track is of course the title, with the O.G. westside signature synth sound, and a contribution of a rap from Snoop Dogg. Alongside Wyclef Jean (who had some great lines in his contribution to DJ Rekha’s “Basement Bhangra Anthem”), American hip hop suddenly seems to have gotten a lot more interested in directly participating in Indian pop music (not just via remix or sampling anymore). My favorite lines from Snoop are the following:

Ferraris, Bugattis, and Maseratis
Snoop D O double G, the life of the party
Lay back, stay back, i’m in the Maybach
This aint James Brown, but it’s the big payback
Watch me zoom by, make it boom by
What up to all the ladies hanging out in Mumbai
Cheese make dollars, east west masala
Singh is the king, so you all have to follow

(Not that there is anything that exciting to rapping about expensive cars. But I do like the way he pronounces “Moombai.”)

The British Bhangra/remix group RDB produced the album (and they appeared alongside Akshay Kumar at the IIFA awards a few weeks ago); this is by far their biggest mainstream Indian release — good for them. Tigerstyle (whose “Nachna Onda Nei” was used in a recent dance number on “Britain’s Got Talent”) are also involved with some solid remix tracks on the album. It’s also cool to see Hard Kaur in action again in Bas Ek Kinng, though once again it seems like it’s all about the punchy way she uses her voice — there’s not much going on in the lyrics.

Finally, Daler Mehndi is solid with “Bhootni Ke,” a catchy wedding number. I always like it when DM gets to really work the power in his voice.

Not that every track is memorable. If you’re buying tracks off of ITunes, I would recommend tracks 1-4, and the Daler Mehndi track (#10). Continue reading →