Washington D.C. is all a twitter this weekend, anxiously awaiting the multitude of inauguration balls to be thrown in honor of Obama’s swearing in ceremony (which is a mere afterthought). Everyone I talk to is just ready to get their party on. At least two Mutineers (Ennis and Anna) will be on hand. There is an unspoken competition underway as to who will throw the biggest and best ball. The Huffinton Post for example has been bragging non-stop about lining up Sting, Sheryl Crow, and other big names. It turns out that there is even a Sikh Ball you can hang at:
When a Barack Obama campaign volunteer offered to help Gulshan Gachoke attend the Sikh Inaugural Ball in Washington, her response was: What is an inaugural ball?
Although it has been more than 30 years since Gachoke and her husband left their village in India’s Punjab province for Northern California — and 18 years since she became a U.S. citizen — the 63-year-old speaks halting English, doesn’t know how to use the Internet and almost never ventures beyond her Fremont neighborhood’s Indian shops, lest someone mistake her for a Muslim and insult her.
But after a volunteer, Reena Johar, who shares Gachoke’s Sikh religion, explained that the ball will be the first-ever inaugural gala sponsored by Indian Americans, Gachoke eagerly signed on. [Link]
<
p>Hmmmm, I wonder if she will get mistaken for a Muslim and be insulted on her way to the ball. WaPo better follow up on this. It seems like Gachoke was able to work up the courage to go because she too believes that Obama counts as a desi:
But more than anything, she was drawn by the sense that she shared something fundamental in common with the young man whose skin color was so close to her own that Gachoke initially thought he might be Indian.
“He is one of us, you know,” she said. “He feels the pain.” [Link]
<
p>After attending the chaos that was the DNC I am going to watch the events of these next several days on television and not worry about finding a place to pee. For those of you in DC, the tickets to the ball may be a bit pricey, but how many times in your life do you get a chance to be treated like a Maharajah?
THE “MAHARAJAH” PACKAGE
Product : Maharajah | Maharajah VIP Ticket | Price/Unit : 250.00 USD
$250 per person VIP Level (from 7 p.m. onward, includes no waiting, sit-down reception, complimentary tickets to open bar, passed hors d’oeuvres, butler service from 7-8 p.m., a sumptuous and a Very Presidential Buffet Dinner, entertainment, gift bag, and a commemorative gift to mark this historic occasion) [Link]
<
p>I wonder if there will be any surprise speakers at the ball? It says the following will be “felicitated” but not if they will actually be present. I don’t know why but that verb just sounds dirty to me:
Among those to be felicitated on the occasion are Sonal Shah, who serves on the 15-member Presidential Transition Team; Nick Rathod, National Outreach Director of South Asians for Obama and one of its founding members; and Arti Rai, a professor of patent law at the Duke University and a classmate of Obama at Harvard Law School. [Link]
So who among you will be at this ball? We want pictures and details. Also, talk to Anna about the possibility of twittering from there. Some of you may have found bigger balls to attend. If so, we want the low down (via the tip line) on any desi-related stories from them as well. Many of us would like to live vicariously through you. Have a ball!
Not having won the lottery, I will either be watching it from some bar, an Obama party at a club or lounge (of which there are, like, a TON), or somewhere really fun and cool. Who knew this was gonna turn out to be the party of the year? I think it’s going to outrank the Superbowl in both viewers and fanfare!
On this general topic, this piece in the New Yorker was pretty damn funny!
“armed female Libyan élite paramilitary bodyguards for duration of event” takes the cake for funniest thing (on so many levels) that I’ve read in years!!
and 4 years of darkness begins….
$250 tix..hmm, thought the economy was in recession etc.etc.
Black, White, Desi!
Obama is a mini United Nations.
i’ll be at the inauguration, official tix scored via my senator… yay! also going to the illinois state inaugural gala monday night! can’t WAIT! taking the train into dc from philly in a few hours!
One thing that I noticed about the Sikhs, is that they always seem to feel underrepresented. By the amount of their rhetoric, a Westerner would probably think that 33% of India is compromised of Sikhs, when in fact, the figure is more like 2%. Also, Sikhs tend to not view themselves as Indians, and apparently, they don’t view themselves as being “desi”. Even this Sikh Inaugural Ball has the headline “Sikhs and Desis Celebrate Obama.” Wait a minute…so Sikhs are exclusive to Desis now?
It’s only apparent in your fevered, strange, silly and bizarre understanding of the universe, Mahesh.
English mustn’t be your first language, which is cool. Because the quote: “Sikhs and Desis Celebrate Obama” implies that Sikhs are exclusive to Desis. Perhaps the person who wrote this quote had a first language that was not English, and this is highly probable.
THE “MAHARAJAH†PACKAGE Product : Maharajah | Maharajah VIP Ticket | Price/Unit : 250.00 USD
$250 per person VIP Level (from 7 p.m. onward, includes no waiting, sit-down reception, complimentary tickets to open bar, passed hors d’oeuvres, butler service from 7-8 p.m., a sumptuous and a Very Presidential Buffet Dinner, entertainment, gift bag, and a commemorative gift to mark this historic occasion) [Link]
I bought myself the Dalit package for $15.
You get to be the free bulter provided in the “Maharajah package”
🙂
i was at my local (in TO) convenience store to buy the saturday paper. the lady behind the till, of korean origin, said in what’s a definite stretch of her abilities in english, “see!… tuesday.” pointing to a news report on obama’s
ascensioncoronationinauguration ceremony.i shook my head and pointed to the story on BMO raising line of credit rates by 1%. I dont think she was interested. i went – as they say on the double x side of the divide – le sigh.
Yeah, like I really believe that’s the reason this Auntie doesn’t leave her desi comfort zone. Sure.
I know your not supposed to respond to trolls, but ahhhhhhhh screw it.
Hey boston, I dont know if you know this but Sikhism isnt a ethnicity. If they want Sikhs to be there who are not Indian or what ever then the 2 terms have to be exclusive
Yeah, well, the white race is undergoing a genocide, according to you. Save them and don’t worry about Auntie, unless you think she’s involved in the genocide of white people you worry about.
So do you have a red chillis stuck up your nostrils about Sikhs because they don’t consider themsevles desi (a fevered, strange, idiotic and bizarre understanding of the universe, Mahesh), or because they throw a ball and do so inculsively by stressing that even though it may have been initiated by and meant to represent Sikhs they also want to include all desis in their celebration?
Which is it that causes chilli inflamation in your dripping nostrils? Let us know, superhero.
Will SM ladies going for the ball wear this
Oops I meant this thong
15 · ShallowThinker said
Satsriakal dufus,
Sikhism isn’t an ethnicity? Then you are in denial, and you should read at a computer terminal of your cubicle about British Sikhs calling for a separate ethnic designation in the UK. You’re in denial for some reason as you seem to have a hard time admitting that Sikhism is an ethnic-based religion, and almost all Sikhs are Punjabis (but not all Punjabis are Sikhs).
That the British Sikhs are calling for a separate ethnic designation is indicative that they view themselves as being ethnically different than non-Sikhs, which is fine, because they are different. In fact, conspicuously different. They even want to have their own Inaugural Ball which is for “Sikhs and Desis.”
Maybe this is due to their lack of mastery of the English language. I’ve noticed that they use the term “Punjabi” and “Sikh” interchangeably. I have many Sikh friends, and when asking about a person’s ethnic background would ask “is he Hindu or Punjabi?”
21 · boston_mahesh said
This is true. A little known part of their history is that they wanted to call themselves something based on how totally awesome they were, and ended up misspelling “sick”.
Gulshan Gachoke is in pretty good shape at 63!
Thongs can cause acute discomfort for big balls.
Although it has been more than 30 years since Gachoke and her husband left their village in India’s Punjab province for Northern California — and 18 years since she became a U.S. citizen — the 63-year-old speaks halting English, doesn’t know how to use the Internet and almost never ventures beyond her Fremont neighborhood’s Indian shops, lest someone mistake her for a Muslim and insult her.
A 60 something punjabi women who is a sikh and speaks halting English and has been in the US about 30 years and live in Northern California. Kind reminds of about half dozen women I know as my aunts. Yet somehow my aunts leave there neighborhood every once in while. I’m so lucky to have aunts with such courage.
I’m currently watching the ending of the inaugral concert. Did y’all see Barack and Michelle give Kal Penn a really fond hugs? Wolf Blitzer is all like, “Obviously, Michelle Obama knows that individual very well from how she’s speaking to him. I don’t know who that is.” Oh, Blitzer!
Ditto. Assuming it is a recent picture.
19 · Priya said
And can they blog about it with pictures later?
28 · Digital Cabinet said
Sure but that depends on whether they have the right boyfriends/spouses/date for the party.
Typical kool-aid drinker and consumer of the MSM. Pathetic.
There’s no way the woman in the photo is 63 years old. It’s either Gulshan when she was young or they made a mistake and put someone else’s photo there. You can tell by the tautness of her neck and arm skin. The woman in the photo is no older than 40.
There’s more at play than just fear of “insults” here. At least I would hope so. I mean, living almost in purdah (behind the desi curtain) all because you are afraid of a little name calling??? Anything is possible.
However I will qoute a fave of mine and chalk up Gulshan’s self-restricting behaviour to training. It’s the only thing that makes sense, given the context.
Carter G. Woodson, from The Miseducation of the Negro
But more than anything, she was drawn by the sense that she shared something fundamental in common with the young man whose skin color was so close to her own that Gachoke initially thought he might be Indian.
“He is one of us, you know,†she said. “He feels the pain.†[Link]
So Gachoke is saying that Obama is one of us by the color of his skin. After all didn’t Martin Luther King say something about judging a person by there character and not the color of there skin.
boston_mahesh,
A few brief points:
The majority of Sikhs are desi. Not all Sikhs are desi, particularly not in the U.S. This is not an incongruous statement. Think Venn Diagrams.
Sikhs may compose a relatively small proportion of the total population of India, but this is not the case among Sikhs in the U.S., particularly not in regions where they are hyper-concentrated (e.g., New Jersey, New York, California). Issues of representation and inclusion come up because, I think it is safe to argue, practicing Sikhs tend to be disproportionately harmed by seemingly “neutral” legislation around attire. What do you believe is the “fair coverage” of a minority community? There % of the population?
The British classification of “ethnicity,” for legal purposes, is a completely different designation from how we think of race and ethnicity in the United States. It is tied to resources and protection under UK civil rights laws, and it exists in part because the British, historically, did not include religion as a vector for civil rights protection. It is an artifact of the region. That said, I don’t think most Sikhs identify Sikhi as an ethnic marker, but some identify with a concept of “nation.” I think the rallying identity is religious, however, not anything else. There are unique issues which Sikhs face as a feature of their faith in the West that are different from the issues desis might face. Consequently, there are unique areas for organizing and advocacy which Sikhs may share as a religious community, but may not share along other community markers or lines.
Sikhi is not a physical/political identity
Its about reading the baani in the ambrosial hours of the morning.Doing sewa at the Gurdwara. Listening to kirtan
Its about living in “andar tey bahaar” rehat maryada , with all 5 ks.
its about being modest, humble and being a fierce man of war when there is hukam.
its about treating this life as temporal.its about ultimately listening to “naad, anahaad” and perceiving “pekhan bismaad “
its about realising that this life has preset amount of food and breaths set aside for you….come what may.