Monthly Archives: May 2009

2 Desi Events in SF

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Hey Mutineers – sorry I’ve been MIA the past few weeks but I’m back home for the immediate future and have a few posts queued up

First, TONIGHT, the SF Giants are hosting Indian Heritage night as they battle the Washington Nationals. Now I have no idea what the connecting line is between the two and even if it’s just a marketing gimmick, it’s still sorta cool. As a bonus, bring a group and you get a saffron-colored “SF Giants” Hindi T-shirt. .

“The evening will proudly reflect the culture and the people of this heritage night, all while enjoying AT&T Park and your SF Giants. Come out for this evening game against the Washington Nationals as we celebrate the Bay Area Indian residents and their families.”

Second – Ultrabrown’s Manish Vij & I have combined forces with a few other friends, and are dialing in long time mutineer DJ Drrrty Poonjabi to bring down the house this Saturday night –

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It’s Not Goodbye, It’s Iggy

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Dearest SepiaReaders,

I know, it’s been too long. It’s not you, it’s me. This is going to be difficult to tell you, so, um, I hope we can still stay friends…

MTV came calling and I said yes.

I promise that the big huge website and shiny shiny videos had nothing to do with it! It’s not what you think! I’m with a quirky offshoot called MTV Iggy, a website that features interesting videos like this one about Chinlone – the art/dance/sport from Myanmar:

Cool, huh? I’d never heard of it either.

So they asked me to be the site’s Editor (of written things, not video. Would you trust me with anything technical?) and I’ve been rushing through the site, dusting and straightening in anticipating of your visit. (By this I mean I tidied the homepage and threw everything else in the closet.)

Iggy has original music, freewheeling interviews with heavyweights like Fareed Zakaria, celebs like Abhishek Bachchan (seriously, it does!) and John Cho (the new Captain Sulu, but always the Harold to our boy Kumar), a social change initiative to raise awareness about Kashmir, and in the near future, articles, reviews, written interviews and much more.

So please stop by and check it out. Don’t hold back your opinions (as if you ever would!) and tell me what you like, hate, love, loathe, etc. The site is still constantly changing and your feedback would be invaluable. I will still post on Sepia, of course, even about non-Iggy things! But I wanted you to know of this, because even though I have this new boyfriend, you will always be my first love. Continue reading →

The Unsinkable Boat

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It is Mother’s Day. I was and am extraordinarily mothered; my family is full of remarkable women who love their children fiercely.

I love them back, especially my own mother, who among a great many other lessons, taught me to read. Last week, I read this in The New York Times (italics mine):

An 8-month-old baby, Kuberan, survived only because his mother somehow managed to breast-feed him until just hours before she died….

Early on April 21, [Sivadasa Jagadeeswaran] stepped into the boat with his wife and their two sons. Their eldest, age 4, was among the first to die. They threw the child into the sea. Then, his wife’s father died. Her two brothers jumped overboard, lured by the twinkling lights of what may have been a fishing trawler. His wife held on until the last day. She complained of thirst, but vomited when he gave her seawater. Soon, she was gone.

This afternoon, a single father to an only child, he cooed softly to the baby on the hospital bed. He gave him a bottle of milk. He checked to make sure his diapers weren’t wet. The baby giggled, oblivious to the misery around him.

I am not writing now to dissect the gruesome cadaver of this war. That has been done, and is being done, and will be done. The situation in Sri Lanka is complicated—so complicated. I am writing here because this family’s suffering, and its mother’s love, is not.

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Review & Interview: “Family Planning,” by Karan Mahajan

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When you’re visibly pregnant and riding the NYC subway with a book titled “Family Planning” in hand, you’re bound to draw stares and curious gazes. Such was my experience earlier this month as I traveled on the downtown 1 with 25 year old Karan Mahajan’s laughter-inducing yet tender first novel in hand. In this Brooklyn-based, New Delhi-born author’s debut work (HarperPerennial, 2008) set in contemporary New Delhi, family life, politics, adolescent love, and prime time soap operas intertwine in entertaining and unexpectedly moving ways. mahajancover.jpg

At the heart of this story is the chaotic household of Rakesh Ahuja, a hard of hearing, America returned engineer who holds a prestigious position as New Delhi’s Minister of Urban Development. Apart from the bureaucratic and political challenges that face him at work (he’s in charge of a laborious flyover construction project and part of a political party that sponsors intolerable bills such as the Diversity of the Motherland Act which calls for the compulsory registration of all Muslims “for reasons of diversity and national security”), Rakesh is beset by his own personal dramas at home.

The father of 13 children (and one more en route), he must deal with the trauma of having had his teenage son Arjun walk in on him having sex with his wife in the baby nursery. Understandably, Arjun asks, “Papa, I don’t understand–why do you and Mama keep having babies?”

While he has to figure out a way to explain himself to his son (“Obviously, Mr. Ahuja couldn’t tell his son that he was only attracted to Mrs. Ahuja when she was pregnant” reads the first line of the novel), this is not the only secret Mr. Ahuja has been keeping from his son, master babysitter and eldest of 12 younger siblings and darling of his mother, Mrs. Ahuja, an unattractive woman whose days are spent changing diapers, managing her vast household, knitting, and recovering from the loss of her favorite TV character Mohan Bedi from Zee-TV soap opera, “The Vengeful Daughter-in-Law.” There’s also the bit of information about Rakesh’s first wife, Arjun’s mother, who suffered a tragic death and who continues to haunt his unhappy existence. Meanwhile there’s Arjun, an awkward teen so madly in love with Aarti, a Catholic school beauty who rides the morning bus with him that he’ll do anything to get her attention–even start a rock band with a bunch of classmates.

Yes, there’s a great deal happening in Mahajan’s novel; many competing heartbreaks and dramas. And yet, as a reader, I was pulled in just as much by Mahajan’s observant and sensitive eye as I was by his ability to create satirical scenarios that reflect some of the complexities and paradoxes of social and political life in today’s India.

Read the rest of this review and a Q&A with Mahajan, whose sense of humor is as refreshing in the interview format as it is in his prose, below the fold. Continue reading →

In vino, marketing

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For wine makers and distributors, India is virgin terrain ripe for the plucking (to mix metaphors). Although wine arrived with the Persians around two millenia ago, wine drinking was never popular or widespread. What little wine production there was got crushed by the phylloxera epidemic of the late 1800s, and hit further hurdles at Independence when many states went dry. The constitution of India itself used to state that “one of the government’s aims was the total prohibition of alcohol” [wiki]

Fast forward to the present, when wine drinking is being pitched heavily to the urban intelligencia, especially younger women:

Bhagwat is single and lives in Bangalore. On a recent trip to her parents’ home in the conservative Chhattisgarh in central India, she sipped wine while her father drank scotch and soda. Her mother, she recounts, looked on silently. “Wine is the only drink I can have without offending the family elders,” she said. [link]

Wine drinking is still at fairly low levels compared to Europe or the US, with average consumption under a bottle a year and large areas of the country where wine isn’t drunk at all [link], although it is increasing at around 20% a year.

Right now there are around 40 wineries in India with around 3,000 acres under cultivation. My advice to them? Invest more in marketing and less in “quality”: wine drinkers are highly suggestible and the “wine experience” is all hype. Why should they listen to a non-drinker? Because I have science on my side:

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Like Tina Fey. But Brown.

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Mindy Kaling.jpg Mindy Kaling could quite possibly be the next brown Tina Fey.

Under terms of the two-year, seven-figure deal, Kaling will continue to write for and appear on “The Office” next season while simultaneously developing a comedy in which she would also star.

Much like “30 Rock” star-exec producer Fey, Kaling is known for both her writing and acting skills. Behind the scenes, Kaling is a co-exec producer on “The Office,” having written notable episodes including “The Dundies,” “Diwali” and this season’s “Golden Ticket.”

In kicking around different development ideas, Kaling said she’s drawn to workplace comedies but is also interested in buddy shows in the vein of “Flight of the Conchords.”[variety]

Buddy show, huh?

Hi Mindy. Let me introduce myself. My name is Taz. I have great comic timing and we could get into fun twitter/blogger hijinx together. We’re born a week apart from each other. We are both brown. My Indian accent sucks too. We could do a Diwali meets Eid show. The only thing that sets us apart is about seven figures. But I’m sure we can work something out in that arena. 😉 Call me! I’ll be following you on twitter in the meantime! Continue reading →

Sexy Slide Sharing

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Sexiest CEO.jpg Playboy just published the latest greatest list – America’s Sexiest CEOs. And a brown chick made the list.

[I]n a top 10 that includes several CEO’s in more traditionally Playboy-friendly industries such as lingerie and adult films, one of its most intriguing picks is Slideshare head Rashmi Sinha. (Slideshare is the world’s largest presentation sharing website and has been hailed as the “YouTube of Powerpoint presentations.”)…

She holds a Ph.D. in cognitive neuropsychology from Brown, she’s running an online media company that is blowing away its competitors and consistently scoring high marks among users and tech reviewers…[disgrasian]

Of course she holds a Ph.D. in cognitive neuropsychology, of course she does. Only a South Asian can pull off Ph.D. in something smart and pull off reppin’ a Playboy list at the same time. Talk about overachiever. I wonder what Savita Bhabi has to say about that… Continue reading →

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

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I’ve been fascinated with the politics of hair, especially since the days of living in the hood of L.A. and having to drive by signs that said, “100% Indian Hair” on a regular basis. I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that women of color were exploiting other women of color. And of course we all now know the story of where that hair comes from…But what about for those that are obsessed with plucking hair, keeping it natural, or not cutting it at all?

“Hair” Documentary from Will Ellis on Vimeo.

I like how in the doc Sonny Singh of The Sikh Coalition talks about how his turban is a symbol of fighting against tyranny. Additionally, Sonny recently blogged about the Northeast Turban and Personality Competition where young people strut with turban tied high.

To have hair or to not have hair. To chop it, dye it, fake it, or to liberty spike it. It’s all political, in one way or another. What does hair mean to you? Continue reading →

Wake Up, It’s King Khan

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Today, I received the video below in my inbox along with this message — “Canadian desi fronted old school r&b-detroit rock. He’s like a mix between fela/prince/ and someone’s cool 70’s desi uncle (not mine unfortunately) sigh…” My interest was piqued. I watched. Then decided you should too.

Oddly, the video reminds me of some of the yellowed photos of the 1970s from my father’s photo albums (minus all the haram activities). King Khan seems like quite the trip. He and the Shrines are touring right now at a hipster spot near you. Who’s with me? Continue reading →

South Asian Summit: Me Too!

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Last weekend at least 200 people congregated on D.C. to workshop around South Asian American issues and social justice.

With the nation confronting urgent issues such as the economic downturn and reform of the immigration system, more than 200 individuals, including representatives from 33 organizations in 17 states, gathered for the 2009 South Asian Summit to amplify local voices and experiences at the national level. The Summit, co-sponsored by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and the South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA) of American University Washington College of Law, was held from April 24th-April 26th in Washington, DC.

“The 2009 National South Asian Summit created a space for organizations, community members and activists to reconnect with each other and strengthen networks and strategies that will enable us to continue our work to support social change movements,” said Deepa Iyer, Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together. [SAALT]

It was personally a great experience. I’ve been working as an organizer for 11 years now and in the South Asian community for six of those years, and I think this was the first time where I saw social justice activism merge with the South Asian American community in a strategic, efficient, and meaningful manner at the national level. I know Abhi’s experience was slightly different than mine, and I think we approached the space in different manners. I approached it as a lifetime organizer – many of the people in the room were people I had organized with back in my SAAVY days. The Summit provided space for a continuing dialogue on the evolution of South Asian social justice in America.

But don’t just take my word for it. Listen to Naila and Rahul.

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