Author Archives: manish

Bombay Talkie opens in Manhattan

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Bombay Talkie, a new chaat-plus-entrees place that sounds like an upscale version of Kati Roll Co., opened recently in Chelsea. It shares its name with the novel by Ameena Meer. The NYT says:

The menu plays with the conceit of Indian street food, and so appetizers are listed as “street bites.” Entrees appear under the heading “from the roadside.” Side dishes are from, well, the “curbside…” Bombay Talkie is in many ways a neighborhood joint in an especially pretty dress, designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen…

… then of course there are the cocktails, which, I’m told, take their names from Bollywood movies… What are the temperature, tinge and taste of “unrequited love”? It is cold but not frigid, transparent but vaguely green, and extremely potent, thanks to modest measures of lime juice and saffron syrup in a sea of Bombay Sapphire gin.

The place has a dark sense of humor:

Brunch has a theme they’re calling The Return of the Raj: teas, tea sandwiches, pancakes, hams, fresh preserves….if not trickle pie.

Kati Roll Co., a tiny, long-time Greenwich Village favorite, has a rotating selection of classic Bollywood posters on the wall. And speaking of the designer, I haven’t figured out yet why the Dutch are so into desi kitsch. I’m not complaining.

Bombay Talkie, 189 Ninth Ave. between 21st & 22nd St., (212) 242-1900

Twee, innit?

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Chila from Wolverhampton and Mr. Kiss My Chuddies got hitched in a small, private ceremony on Jan. 21 (thanks, Punjabi Boy). Coverage here, here and here.

[Goodness Gracious Me] started as a one-off stage show called Peter Sellers Is Dead… designed to indicate that the days of white actors blacking up to play Asians were over. [BBC]

The newlyweds are currently working on the movie version of another of Miss Syal’s novels, Life Isn’t All Ha Ha, Hee Hee. [ThisIsLondon]

A Mushie memoir

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Ever mindful of his legacy, the current dictator of Pakistan is ordering a soppy political memoir ghost-written about how he looked deep into the eyes of Dubya and saw a man he could do business with:

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan is writing a political memoir, focusing on the war on terrorism and his relationship with the Bush administration as a key ally. The memoir is to be published by Simon & Schuster and will probably appear in bookstores next fall…

No word on whether it’ll bear any resemblance to Shame, Salman Rushdie’s jagged satire of Pakistani politics with a paper-thin fictional veneer to protect the guilty. Here’s what it will cover:

“He’s going to cover the war on terror from Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s up to the hunt for Osama bin Laden…”

Mr. Musharraf, writer’s block doesn’t last three and a half years. How about penning the ending to that story?

‘The Kumars’ video clips

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Video clips for The Kumars at No. 42 have now been posted. I liked the sketch format of Goodness Gracious Me better, but the interviews generate an interesting tension: being in character means you don’t have to lob softballs like Leno. Sanjeev Bhaskar’s running gag is to wear the most outlandish outfit possible. And Meera Syal’s granny character is just wicked:

To Helena Bonham Carter: In this country you are seen as the epitome of elegance and good manners. But I personally was very, very happy to see you in Fight Club playing a right old slut. Did you enjoy it?

To a female fashion consultant: Can I just say thank you on behalf of my grandson. That’s the first physical contact he’s had with a woman since he went to the doctor.

To an interior designer: If you want to do an Indian theme party properly, you have to put plastic over your sofas, lots of Tupperware in your fridge and preferably concrete over your entire garden.

I loved the Tom Jones and Helena Bonham Carter interviews. Check out the clips.

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Posted in TV

Little deuce coup

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The Nepali king, who came to power when his nephew offed his family with an Uzi, has placed the prime minister under house arrest, shut down the phone system and Internet routers and put soldiers in TV stations to censor the news. Flights to Kathmandu were forced to turn back in midair during the coup.

“The king is taking the country back to the Dark Ages,” Shovakar Parajuli, leader of the opposition Congress Party, told the Associated Press news agency. [BBC]

Yawn… your coup is so 19th century, dahling. Why not do it in style? Poison your opponent, pretend it was a gas leak or jab him with a sharp umbrella.

Thou shalt not kill

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Forget Babri Masjid — temple officials are shooting each other in a struggle over wealthy temple trusts in Ayodhya:

The rivalry spilled over after a meeting on January 31, when the two rival chief priests came to blows, prompting their associates to draw out double-barrel guns and fire… Earlier, in 2001, Nrityagopal had survived a bomb attack in the ongoing dispute over the trust… Gripped by a sense of insecurity, officials of temple trusts are rushing for gun licences… At least 350 Ayodhya residents, most of them temple-trust heads, have acquired licensed arms. The town has over 1,500 such trusts… Most key temple trusts have also installed their private army of securitymen…

Murder is but the least of their talents:

The temple town was further sullied when police in Lucknow said they were looking for another mahant [temple official], Shyam Shukla alias Shyam Maharaj, in the abduction of a Kanpur industrialist and two of his associates… “The mahant needed money. He asked us to abduct Ravinder Kedia. We kept him in Bahraich till we obtained ransom…”

Gandhi didn’t wear Armani

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A Telecom Italia ad uses the image and words of Mahatma Gandhi to shill mobile phones (via the Acorn). The ad, directed by Spike Lee, took first place in the Epica European advertising awards.

The ad reminds me of the Apple campaign which used Gandhi and his spinning wheel to sell Macs. Or, as Salon put it:

Gandhi was no pitchman

[He represented] the idea that… by renunciation you conquer. So it is bizarre to use him to sell products. When he died, all his belongings — toothbrush, Bhagavad Gita, loincloth — fit inside a couple of shoe boxes… he even tried to fight against the religious brands — his prayers each night came not just from the Hindu scriptures, but from the Gospels, from the Koran. He was assassinated by a fanatic Hindu precisely for his lack of brand loyalty… Gandhi, in other words, was the chief spokesman against the consumer mentality since Christ…

I wonder whether Gandhi’s heirs authorized the ad, or whether he’s enough of a public figure that his image is in the public domain.

Watch the ad.

Update: Here’s a previous post about Gandhi being used to sell pizza.

Zakaria returns to ‘The Daily Show’

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Our favorite phoren polisee pundit Fareed Zakaria returned to The Daily Show with elegant, desi prep school accent in tow. He gave a surprisingly (for host Jon Stewart) content-filled interview about the Iraqi election, and Stewart let him run with it.

Zakaria gave Dubya plaudits for an inspirational election, lauded the Iraqi Shi’a for their restrained conduct to date, cautioned that much hard work remains and slammed the president for poor execution.

Watch the clip.

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Fastest Indian in the world?

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Narain Karthikeyan is on the verge of becoming the first Indian on the Formula One circuit. The agreement with the Jordan Formula One team is expected to be signed over the next two days (thanks, Sapna):

Karthikeyan, 28, was the first Indian to drive a Formula One car and last year raced for Red Bull in the World Series by Nissan. He was offered an F1 drive by Minardi in 2003 but was unable to raise the funds required to secure the offer.

His new employer is looking to Karthikeyan to rescue its burned buns from the oven:

The struggling Jordan Formula One team announced yesterday it would be taken over by Midland Group, owned by Russian-born businessman Alex Shnaider… Jordan finished ninth out of the 10 Formula One teams in 2004 and hit serious problems after Ford, who supplied the team’s Cosworth engines, announced in September they were withdrawing from the sport. 

Karthikeyan was the first Indian to win the Formula Asia championship and won two races in last year’s Nissan World Series. He’s sponsored by Tata and Bharat Petroleum. Homeboy needs some sharper paint, this is the country that invented day-glo salwars. I’m diggin’ the helmet, bro — a spinning wheel, how apropos.

‘Fastest Indian in the world,’ I think not. Ever seen Abhi in a room full of females? It’s like feeding time at the dolphin tank 🙂 But I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Karthikeyan is played by Tom Cruise and marries Ashley Judd.

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UK flees NHS for BLR

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More on how islands of quality are proliferating in India — the Guardian covers British medical tourism (via Political Animal):

Last year some 150,000 foreigners visited India for treatment, with the number rising by 15% a year… Naresh Trehan, who earned $2m… a year as a heart surgeon in Manhattan… said that his hospital in Delhi completed 4,200 heart operations last year. “That is more than anyone else in the world. The death rate for coronary bypass patients… is well below the first-world averages… Nobody questions the capability of an Indian doctor, because there isn’t a big hospital in the United States or Britain where there isn’t an Indian doctor working…”

“Everyone’s been really great here. I have been in the NHS and gone private in Britain in the past, but I can say that the care and facilities in India are easily comparable,” says Mr Marshall, sitting in hospital-blue pyjamas. “I’d have no problem coming again…”

As in most of India, the well-off live very comfortably after walling off the world outside:

“When I was in the car coming from the airport we got stuck in really heavy traffic… I thought, ‘Oh hell, I’ve made a mistake.’ ” But once in his airconditioned room [in Bangalore], with cable television and a personalised nursing service, the 73-year-old says that his stay has been “pretty relaxing. I go for a walk in the morning when it is cool but really I don’t have to deal with what’s outside”.

But high-end private hospitals far outstrip public ones in quality of care:

“The poor in India have no access to healthcare… We have doctors but they are busy treating the rich in India… For years we have been providing doctors to the western world. Now they are coming back and serving foreign patients at home.”

The island effect is natural, the public sector usually lags the private. But the disparity can become a flashpoint in the long run.

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