MTV Desi has posted a dilatory yet strangely hypnotic video clip of their launch. The fetching Niharika Desai speaks a single line in an Amrikan accent.
0:04: Hard Kaur raps ‘Glassy‘
1:07: Psychedelic Bollywood tabla clip (can you ID the movie?)
2:53: Talvin Singh beat-boxes a tabla tal
3:00: Skinny uncle type says, ‘the boogie-voogie blaster’
3:04: Niharika yells, ‘We’re live!’
3:05: Eerie, screaming glasses man
3:11: A clip from Indian Cowboy, I think
3:31: Running sadhu, naked and in ashes
4:01: Bhangra troupe dances under the Williamsburg Bridge to the MTV theme (reverse fusion, cheeky!)
4:31: Tim Kash says, ‘Our first video of the night’
4:35: Clip of Karmacy’s ‘Blood Brothers’
4:39: M.I.A. massacres the word ‘desi’ (says ‘dessy’ instead of ‘they-see’)
Interspersed are some random Green Day and Madonna filler clips.
As Abhi posted earlier, you can also watch Rabbi’s ‘Bulla Ki Jana’ video. It has a beautiful, washed-out humanist palette and wiggly English supertitles in black marker on clear plastic.
The images would be postcard-trite in a Red Cross ad. But with the handsome Sufi Sikh dressed all in white, the track comes across as spiritual, a folk bhajan with a bass track and synth. It feels less snarky than earnest, less ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ (Buggles) than ‘Fragile’ (Sting).
The video begins with sunrise and ends at sunset; it’s a tour of Indian landmarks (Gateway of India; Marine Drive; Churchgate Station; Harimandir Sahib; Hawa Mahal; the giant Shiva statue in Murdeshwar, Karnataka; Khajuraho; the Charminar in Hyderabad — thanks, Ashvin; painted elephants in Rajasthan; a desert plant that evokes The Joshua Tree; an arrack shop for authenticity 
) and places of worship (a temple tank, a gurdwara, qawwals in a masjid). The lyrics (‘I know not who I am’) are a subtle reference to second-gen culture clash. This is pop manipulativeness with a light touch — kudos to the director.
If any of the links don’t work for you, just go to the main video page.
YAAAYYYYYYYY…more Rabbi here!!! WAHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! manvi and I adore this video(though some of our reasons differ just a tad ;))…just wondering if his tere bin video has come out yet. I’ve heard talk of him doing one, and a new album, but have not seen either. 9Also gotta know about the new album so I can get Manvi his b-day present!)
Manvi’s already got it, love. He’s been a good boy, so his birthday came early his year…. 😉
I thought it was ‘dessy’ too, but then again i’ve probably only said the word twice in my life
anyone know if this channel’s coming to canada?
i don’t know about rabbi’s tere bin .. but the jugni video is out.
Being a Brit, MIA says it the British way, which ticks me off more than you could imagine. DESSY. Yo big up and welcome to DESSY BEATS. Get your DESSY GROOVE on. Time for some DESSY RIDDIMS. Etc.
As far as I can understand, the stateside version is more akin to the correct pronounciation.
My friend’s nonbrown BF expected mad props when he referred to us as …. “daisy.”
I guess the uncontrollable laughter was a bit of a buzzkill.
Manvi’s already got it, love. He’s been a good boy, so his birthday came early his year…. 😉
Yes, I know…he gets a daily gift every night from me! However, I must say…you’re starting get on our nerves….we really must get you a blow up doll to occupy your time! 😉
i don’t know about rabbi’s tere bin .. but the jugni video is out.
yep, i have a video file copy of jugni. i have a friend who’s told me tere bin hasn’t been out, but i’m not sure. i have heard it was supposed to be coming out months ago..hhmm…..
Hey, ‘Mistress’, Pattie’s husband Manvinder has NO mistress, stop frontin’ Yo! Come clean, right we know you wouldn’t really want a guy anyway! But ‘sall cool, as long as you leave off, they’re going to be celebrating 4 years this year. And I KNOW Manvi keeps his eyes and other parts to himself and his WIFE, PATTIE because we’re hanging out togetha when Pattie’s not ’round.
This must be the one you be ‘wit… http://images.interscope.com/9924/the%20freak.jpg now, put on your glasses, dude and leave Pattie and manvi alone they’re the most devoted couple I know, and far more devoted than you. The only way you can get away with saying anything to Pattie is if you’re a guy. Then it’s all cool.
thanks, ginni…i owe you one. you rock…..
ginni and pattie-
you don’t get it. the mistress thing is a JOKE. whoever the “mistress” is, they’re rightly making fun of pattie’s bizarre and herb-like practice of letting everyone know whose wife she is. we don’t give a shit whom she married.
the mistress is starting to get on YOUR nerves, pattie? poor girl, welcome to the fucking club, since you get on MINE.
as if that weren’t bad enough, pattie’s comments add no value to anything. i would’ve held my tongue if she were contributing something to the party, but she’s not.
the “mistress” device was a “wink” and “nudge” that was kind; apparently it was also over your heads. go back to high school, where having your friends affirm how “together” you are with your man is standard practice. be gone, please.
apparently, hell hath no fury like a pair of women with no sense of humor.
Ginni knows you aren’t Manvi’s mistress said:
hi pattie!
Y’know, you folks could have been a bit kinder to me. Let’s put it this way. I’m still learning – and even manvi teases me about how some of my ways are, but I DO love him, and if it’s gets on your nerves, I’ll stop mentioning him so much. Just please be kinder about it, and maybe you can help me seem less ‘herbally and bizarre’. But I do love reading the articles, and find you guys fun. And a great group. You guys rock anyway.
“apparently, hell hath no fury like a pair of women with no sense of humor.”
hell hath no fury like a woman who loves her man too much, and one woman who doesn’t know how to joke like some others. Ginni isn’t a woamn though…he’s male.
PS- heheeee…Gini + Pattie…I think that was in a past life…wink wink nudge nudge…
And we do find ourselves utterly bemused that you would care to bore us with every last detail of your relationship. And tie Manvi in to whatever the topic, whatever the post, whatever the thread. We hope you’ll find self-awareness someday anyway….wink wink, nudge nudge.
And we do find ourselves utterly bemused that you would care to bore us with every last detail of your relationship. And tie Manvi in to whatever the topic, whatever the post, whatever the thread. We hope you’ll find self-awareness someday anyway….wink wink, nudge nudge.
well, fine, I won’t tie him into any more posts, and i rthank for the cruely put, but useful lesson.
PS- you could have just deleted what you didn’t feel right instead of…well..what it has become.
I can’t be the only one thinking it:
what the hell bakwaas is going on here? I thought this was Sepia Mutiny not Jatinder Springer…
DD,
you pipped me to the wtf comment ….i mean who the pcuk (punjabi connection, UK) is Manvinder Singh?
Why should I care?
JATINDER! JATINDER! JATINDER!
you pipped me to the wtf comment ….i mean who the pcuk (punjabi connection, UK) is Manvinder Singh?
Why should I care?
Actually, you shouldn’t care. I accidently made a habit of mentioning my hubby a few times, and soemone made a terrible joke out of it. It turns out to be a bunch of nonsense.
Now, folks, please…can we move on?
moving on…
Ummmm, I’ve said ‘dessy’ too. It comes out more naturally to sress both syllables equally, as though it were a sinhalese word. Which it’s not. I know. But, uh, there you have it.
If it’s still being used strictly to mean ‘Indian,’ then fine. I’ll say ‘daysi’ and stop referring to myself as one. But if it is, as I thought, used to refer to South Asians in general, then it’s fair game to borrow, corrupt, and pronounce how it would be in non-Indian languages, wouldn’t it?*
*Absofrikkinlutely no desire to play identity politics of any sort here. Just asking.
moving on…
Ummmm, I’ve said ‘dessy’ too. It comes out more naturally to sress both syllables equally, as though it were a sinhalese word. Which it’s not. I know. But, uh, there you have it.
I’ve been saying it ‘deh-zee’…what is the ‘correct’ way to pronounce it?
I generally prefer to pronounce words the way they are enunciated by speakers of the language the word belongs to. I am not certain of it, but if I am not mistaken ‘desi’ probably has a Hindi (maybe Urdu) connection(Someone in the know can (in)validate it). If so I’d say pronounce it as ‘daysee’. I suppose just the pronunciation of the word shouldn’t be reason for it to change what it stands for.
Desi means “Countryman” in Hindi and other Indian languages. Wikipedia’s Desi link
Desh= (our) land i= of the land
I’m no cunning linguist, but I suppose the closest transliteration is day-see, as already mentioned. It’s not strictly correct as the ‘d’ is a softer sound than an English ‘d’, almost closer to a ‘th’.
It’s the same word as found in Bangladesh. Bangla-Desh. Deshi is the Bengali pronounciation. An Iraqi friend was very upset to hear this as his favourite derogatory word for Bangladeshis was ‘Deshis’. He despaired “So I’ve just been calling them ‘landies’?”
A good transliteration would by they-see.
More to the point about the post, did anyone notice
3:56 : (cue people bending down in prayer) Punjab by Karunesh
That has got to be my favourite Buddha Bar track.
If we’re going to notice M.I.A’s mispronunciation of ‘desi’, i think we should mention that the announcer guy also mispronounces the word. It’s ‘they-see’ not ‘day-see’ (as Bong Breaker explains above).
Also: nice review of the Bulla Ki Jana video, Manish. Well described.
It’s the Charminar in Hyderabad ? (Built by the Nizam of H’bad — southern cousins of the mughals).
Thanks, Ashvin.
What, no love Apache Indian in the opening segment? ‘Arranged Marriage’ was the jam back in the day.
Not that anybody cares, but i just found out that the Charminar was built not by the Nizams, but the sultan of Golconda in 1591 — pre-Nizam rulers of H’bad.
thanks for the pronouncation tips!
“Desh” is pronounded “daysh”, right? So isn’t “desi” pronounced “dayshi”? Or has hanging around with too many Bengali people confused me? (And to make matters worse, apparently the “desh” in Bangladesh is pronounced “desh”.)
No, desi isn’t the same as deshi, it’s a simplified offshoot.
nirahika is hot and i love rabbi shergill
and leave pattie alone, what’s it to you who she mentions?
nirahika reminds me of one my friends! she seems cool.
raju, you’re awesome. rabbi is the best thing since sliced bread…mm..no, wait…better. i just wish he’d get more exposure, because he’s really got talent, and the music industry needs his inspiration.
Yeah, leave Patty alone. Anybody who makes posters that say “I love a man in a turban” is OK in my book!
Her name is Niharika…
omg…Ennis, you caught my posters?! (I have an entire line of stuff there – ma hoping to extend it to many various subjects. You’re OK in my book too!
http://www.zazzle.com/contributors/products/gallery/browse_results.asp?cid=238872650734185530
I hope I don’t get laughed at for this, but I created these things because I got sick and tired of seing how people treat others when they choose not learn about them. I was hoping that this would be one small way to at least spread the word and encouarge acceptance with people. I plan to have other things thatn just Sikh, but thought that was an appropriate starting point. I sound corney sometimes, and a bit trippy to some, but I am just sick of seeing people treat each other with ignorance, and evryone whining they can’t do anything about it. I would like to do much more than just sell tshirts and posters to help people learn to be more understanding. Anyhoo, thank you!
and sorry, manish, I was feeling lazy and just copied and pasted her name. 😉