Monthly Archives: July 2010

Q&A with Fair and Kind’s Anand Subramanian

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fair and kind.jpg

Remember during the third season of NBC’s The Office where Michael Scott and the gang went to a Diwali celebration with Kelly Kapoor and her family?

Kelly’s dad: How long have you been married to the cheerleader?

Michael Scott: Oh, she’s not a cheerleader. She thought this was a
costume party. Um, no, we’re not married…yet.

Kelly’s mom: She is very fair.

Michael Scott: She is very fair. Very fair and very kind.

That scene served as inspiration for brother-sister dream pop-duo Anand Subramanian and his sister, Arthi Meera (as Taz blogged last fall). When the two moved to L.A. in 2007 to make music, they chose Fair and Kind as their group name. Recently, I interviewed Anand via email for MTV Iggy and thought I’d share an excerpt with you Sepia folks – first because we’ve blogged about them before and second since the two will be performing at UNIFICATION 2010, in August, an event I’m working on in collaboration with BROWNSTAR and hope to see you many of you attend. Continue reading →

A Part, Yet Apart; For All of Our Paattis.

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Six years ago, I helped four others create this space for us; I am immensely grateful that I was gifted with such an opportunity. It has, without a doubt, changed my life.

When Abhi dreamed up the concept of a group blog for the American children of immigrants from South Asia, there was nothing else quite like Sepia Mutiny, anywhere. We didn’t have a virtual adda to discuss politics, prose or polemic. We were born in this amazing country because of the epic struggles and sacrifices of our courageous parents; yet no matter what we ate, wore, read or said, we were often considered “apart”, not “a part” of our own culture and country.

You younger types have it so much easier than the first wave of post-1965-era babies did. 🙂 We didn’t have the internet (not until college, and even then, it was IRC and Pine!) and many of us went to schools which didn’t have massive “Indian Associations” or inclusive “South Asian Student” orgs. A non-trivial number of us grew up in homogenous areas, around people who neither knew nor understood anything about what we ate or how we worshipped (and why we weren’t allowed to go to Prom). For every kid who graduated from a diverse place like Mission San Jose, in Fremont, I feel like I’ve met ten who were the only brown kid at their school. That was often a lonely, challenging experience.

Was it the end of the world? No. We survived. Many of us thrived. But many of us also sport faint scars from the digs, disses, and yes, even the depression which was summoned by difference.

Do people who are hyper-recent immigrants to America also feel lonely and face challenges? Yes. But with all due respect, none of this was created for you because we are not you; we could never fully understand or do justice to what it is like to be you. You are welcome here and you are respected here, but please, keep our intentions in mind. Lower your expectations accordingly. 🙂

My favorite Sepia Mutiny posts, the moments which I cherish, the conversations that I adore– those occur rarely, and always when we examine our identity, because we are unique, damn it, and we deserve to evaluate and make sense of that. My Mother is fond of saying that her children are the lost ones, and thankfully, we will be the only ones. That by the time we have kids of our own? Those future grandchildren of hers? They will be fine. Grounded. Accepted. Taken for granted. 100% American in a way that was denied to us. Then she grows quiet, doleful.

“I am sorry that my choices meant that you would hurt.” Continue reading →

Liz Phair Takes a Trip to Bollywood

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Oh, Liz Phair. Has it really come to this?

Seventeen years after the release of her debut Exile in Guyville– an album Blender considered the 35th best indie rock album of all time– Phair is back with a new album called Funstyle.

“Bollywood”, the album’s lead single, is downright bizarre. Phair raps about the close-mindedness of the music industry over a tabla and sitar-driven track. Sample lyric: “Let me tell you how it’s done here in Hollywood/Maybe you was thinking you was in the Bollywood.” Ugh. Hopefully a music video featuring Phair dancing around in a lengha isn’t inevitable.

You can listen to the song below. (Warning: it’s a bit painful.):

(Via Vanity Fair, EW) Continue reading →

How Much, Baby, Do We Really Need?

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Jyotsana’s comments on Amardeep’s post last week reminded me of my favorite Kannadasan song

Chorus
பால் இருக்கும் பழம் இருக்கும் பசி இருக்காது paal irukkum pazham irukkum pasi irukkaathu
பஞ்சணையில் காற்று வரும் தூக்கம் வராது panchaNaiyil kaaRRu varum thookkam varaathu
  
Verse #1
நாலு வகை குணம் இருக்கும் ஆசை விடாது naalu vakai guNam irukkum aasai viDaathu
நடக்க வரும் கால்களுக்கும் துணிவிருக்காது naDakka varum kaalkaLukkum thuNivirukkaathu
  
Verse #2
கட்டவிழ்ந்த கண் இரண்டும் உங்களைத் தேடும் – பாதி kaTTavizhntha kaN iraNDum unkaLaith thEDum – paathi
கனவு வந்து மறுபடியும் கண்களை மூடும் kanavu vanthu maRupaDiyum kaNkaLai mooDum
பட்டு நிலா வான் வெளியில் காவியம் பாடும் – கொண்ட paTTu nilaa vaan veLiyil kaaviyam paaDum – koNDa
பள்ளியறைப் பெண் மனதில் போர்க்களம் ஆகும் paLLiyaRaip peN manathil pOrkkaLam aakum
  
Verse #3
காதலுக்குச் சாதி இல்லை மதமும் இல்லையே kaathalukku chaathi illai mathamum illaiyE
கண்கள் பேசும் வார்த்தையிலே பேதம் இல்லையே kaNkaL pEsum vaarththaiyilE bEtham illaiyE
வேதமெல்லாம் காதலையே மறுப்பதில்லையே – அது vEthamellaam kaathalaiyE maRuppathillaiyE – athu
மேகம் செய்த உருவம்போல மறைவதில்லையே mEkam seytha uruvampOla maRaivathillaiyE

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auntie netta Returns

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I first saw Nimmi Harasgama on a plane. I don’t know what year it was. I think I must have been either on the way to Sri Lanka or on the way back; I was exhausted, but when I discovered a captivating Sinhala film, I didn’t want to sleep–I wanted to watch. I was particularly compelled by one of the film’s storylines, which featured a young woman desperate to find her missing husband. The actress had a striking face and delivered a sad and memorable performance. It was perhaps the first Sri Lankan film I had ever seen–indeed, because I found it in progress, I did not even get to see the whole thing. Still, I was transfixed, and impressed.

The dark feel of the film stayed with me for years. Then, in late 2008, a friend sent me a link to a Sri Lankan comedienne doing an auntie character I found hilarious. One of my favorite lines from the first video: “I’m calling from abroad–yes, that’s why I’m wearing a hat, and everything–you can’t see, no?” (At about 20 seconds in.)

When the friend mentioned that the actress had also appeared in the Sri Lankan film “Akasa Kusum,” I did a bit of Googling, and thought that without her auntie getup, she looked familiar. Had she been in the film I’d seen on the plane? I read the descriptions of the rest of the films in her IMDB history and realized that on that flight, I’d watched bits of “Ira Madiyama / August Sun”. She had played the young woman desperate to find her missing husband. And that luminous actress was ALSO auntie netta. Now I was intrigued.

Through the friend, I called the actress up for a chat and she told me a little bit about how she’d come up with auntie netta, and also that she was thinking of maybe developing the character into a stage show. I last posted about her right before that show, auntie netta’s Holiday from Asylum and promised a follow-up that would include a q&a with her.

This interview with Nimmi Harasgama, the award-winning London-based actress behind both of those performances, references that first conversation, so I’ll preface the q&a with some of the background I learned then… and will follow with another post including the more recent exchange. Continue reading →

#Untrendy Topics: Modern Hindi Poetry

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I’ve been doing some research on Indian writers from the 1930s-1960s for a long-term scholarly project, and in the process I’ve been learning a bit about Hindi and Urdu writers I didn’t know about earlier. In Hindi in particular, I’ve been interested in the “New Poetry” (Nayi Kavita) Movement, with a small group of experimental writers adapting the western, free verse style to Hindi. (I may talk about some other topics later in the summer if there is interest.)

For a little background on Hindi literature in the 20th century, you might start with Wikipedia; it’s not bad. The New Poetry movement came out of a general flowering of Hindi poetry from the early 20th century, a style of poetry known as Chhayavad (Shadowism). Mahadevi Verma is one of the best known writers in this style; another notable figure is Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan’s father (and actually quite a good poet).

For me, the Chhayavad poetry sounds a little too pretty (“precious,” as they say in Creative Writing class), though I must admit that part of the problem is that I simply don’t have the Hindi vocabulary to be able to keep up with the language the Chhayavad poets tend to use. I prefer what came after, especially the New Poetry movement. The “New Poetry” style roughly resembles the modernism of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Hilda Doolittle in English literature. The language is stripped down and conversational, rather than lyrical. Some poets, like Kedarnath Singh, focus intently on conveying, with a kind of crystalline minimalism, pure images. Others are somewhat more conventional.

Below the fold, I’ll give some examples of a few favorite poems from the “New Poetry” movement, with several poems in both transliterated Hindi and English. [UPDATE: Look in the comments for three poems directly in Devanagari] Continue reading →

An outrage for an outrage makes the whole world go deaf

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There is a particularly troublesome side-effect I have seen develop over the years as the internet has become an ever more powerful and effective tool in galvanizing and giving voice to the voiceless (in addition to amplifying the voice of those who already had a platform). I, and a few of the original bloggers and readers of SM, have had the chance to experience how the signal-to-noise ratio on our threads have worsened with time. There is much more reaction and much less reflection. I agree, my statement is laced with some nostalgia and my perception surely skewed with the passage of time. You will doubtless find examples of contrary evidence, but I feel it is true nonetheless. I also sense a generational rift growing wider. It is so much easier for people to be outraged nowadays, as compared to just a few years ago. And why not? We have so many tools at our disposal by which to express this outrage. And none require any thinking whatsoever. When op-ed columns were the only means to highlight an unreported issue, you had to carefully craft your message and had time to reflect on your claims and conclusions. By contrast, our websites/blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts all allow us to be outraged and share our outrage with others in an instant. Groupthink is also encouraged, since many of these platforms come with ready-made friend networks. If my 10 friends are outraged by something then I should be too or I will be the outlier and ostracized. I will be tagged misguided. Or worse. De-friended.

But what bothers me so much more than the frequency of our outrage is WHAT we get outraged about and what we conveniently ignore because it is too difficult to tackle or takes more energy than a mouse click. What bothers me is this new breed of lazy internet armchair activists.

Back in February of 2006 , I wrote a long post in defense of the Danish cartoon of the prophet with a bomb in his turban. I believe in free speech and oppose all censorship, as long as it does not actively incite violence against a group. Poking fun at a religion is all good. Yelling fire in a crowded movie theater is not. What happened on the radio in Rwanda before the genocide there was an obscene violation of free speech. Cartoonists, radio shock jocks, satirists, Borat, Glenn Beck, and others all have a right to say whatever they want just as we have the right to be upset about it and write their producer, station owner, etc. But when we do take that step we better understand exactly what it is that we find objectionable and why. We should be able to clearly and concisely articulate it and balance it with our other priorities and concerns. I am not saying don’t get mad about your local asshole shock jock. I did so here (same EXACT topic as Stein’s, but decidely different context and intent). I am just saying that every time you get outraged, you lose just a bit more of your effectiveness unless you are totally on top of your game. Look at what has happened to Jesse Jackson. One time civil rights leader, now a punchline. Look at what has happened to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). One time defender of animals now simply known as a promoter of gorgeous naked women. Look at what happened to the Tea Party. From grass roots revolution against the excess of government a year ago…to angry old xenophobic white people afraid of change. The lesson is that you pick and choose your battles wisely and understand and communicate your outrage in a cogent, unassailable and proportionate manner.

Continue reading →