Author Archives: siddhartha

The rewards of perseverance

Posted on by

The last time we met Saqib and Susan Ali of Maryland was when Anna blogged a long Washington Post feature on the couple’s experience bringing to term a baby that they knew had no chance of surviving outside the womb. Deciding how to proceed after learning of their baby’s condition, and enduring all that followed, was a trial beyond the imagination of most of us. And yet they made it through.

Here is part of the article’s presentation of the couple:

The two were as opposite as could be. Saqib is tall, olive-skinned and athletic. Susan is tiny, fair-skinned and delicate. Saqib is Muslim, the son of immigrants born in India. Susan was raised in a conservative Christian family from a small town in Pennsylvania. He’s a door-knocking community activist who hopes to run for public office someday; she’s soft-spoken and cherishes her privacy.

Well, not only did Saqib and Susan make it through, but they are pursuing their dreams. Saqib Ali is running for the Maryland House of Delegates (the state legislature). And in his capacity as a candidate, he had this experience a few days ago:

A demonstrator sat down Saturday near the home of a Muslim candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates with a hand-lettered sign bearing a crude denunciation of Islam.

The sign was apparently aimed at Saqib Ali, a Gaithersburg resident who is running in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary for a seat in House District 39.

The demonstrator, who wore a T-shirt reading “This mind is an Allah-free zone,” planted himself near the house in the Quince Orchard Estates development that Ali also uses as a campaign office. Ali, a software engineer who is challenging three incumbents, said he went out into his small cul-de-sac to look at the man but said nothing to him.

“I knew he was there to bait me,” Ali said.

According to Ali, the man began saying, “‘You are a terrorist … You guys are violent extremists.'”

The campaign blog has photos of this individual sitting in front of Ali’s house. He also displays a handwritten sign that says “Islam Sucks.”

Here’s how the man, identified as nearby resident Timothy Truett, explained his actions:

An Associated Press account said Truett, 46, of Montgomery Village, called the demonstration “basically an experiment.”

“I had heard that Muslims were generally intolerant of views other than their own, and so I thought I would put it to the test,” the AP quoted him as saying. “I wanted to see what would happen.”

Sadiq was born in 1975 and works in software; surely lots of our readers can relate to that part. What’s less usual is that he had the courage to marry outside his community, the patience and love to get through personal tragedy, and the call to service to run for local political office. His reward is to get this fool sitting in front of his house calling him a terrorist. No wonder so few good people run for office. Continue reading →

Bhangra Epiphany on the Triboro Bridge

Posted on by

That’s just one of the memories and opinions that DJ Rekha, tireless queen of the NYC desi dance scene, shares in an interview out today in the Village Voice. Aside from the Voice’s Tricia Romano asking a question about Bollywood “blowing up” in an interview that she says was conducted on the day of the Bombay bombings, it’s a nice bit of back-and-forth; Romano more than redeems herself by designating Rekha “one of the city’s true treasures.”

One reason I wanted to post this was to give Rekha props for her straightforward and democratic opinions about nightlife:

Basement Bhangra’s stayed in one place; it hasn’t really moved around.

Well, I fortunately have a really good relationship with SOB’s. I’ve been preempted once, by Celia Cruz, which I gladly gave up my night for. But outside of that, clubland sucks. It’s hard to get a space where the venue gets what you’re doing musically. Now it’s like, if you don’t have a bottle crowd . . . I mean, I could have a bottle crowd, but I don’t want to. I don’t want those pricks at my place. I don’t want anyone who’s dumb enough to buy a bottle at my party. Can you quote me on that?

I’ll even blog you on that, sister Rekha! She’s also got a comment on the desi integration into American cultural life that you might find interesting:

The success of it all used to be more surprising, the whole success of Indian-ness as a cultural phenomena, everything from Deepak Chopra to yoga to this music. It’s not a spike. It’s more integrated, in subtle ways. Like before it would be a big deal if you saw anything Indian anywhere. And now, it’s like, ‘Oh, big deal. They’re playing some lounge track in a bar.’ Or ‘Big deal, there’s an Indian character on that reality show,’ America’s Next Top Model or whatever. It’s not as much of a shock. I think that just means that we’re here to stay.

Continue reading →

Death commuted to life without parole for Balbir’s killer

Posted on by

Yesterday the state supreme court in Arizona commuted to life without parole the death sentence of Frank Roque, the man who killed gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodi after 9/11 because he thought he was Muslim (thanks Atul for the news tip):

The high court unanimously agreed that Frank Silva Roque’s mental illness and low IQ were mitigating factors and should have resulted in the lesser sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.

“We have such a doubt in this case, and therefore conclude that the death penalty should not be imposed,” Vice Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch wrote. “Because of the serious nature of Roque’s crimes, however, we conclude that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his natural life and never be released.”

A gracious reaction from the victim’s family:

“As long as he is away from society and our family, it’s fine,” said his brother, Rana Singh Sodhi, though he questioned the high court’s assertion that Roque is mentally ill.

“I don’t think mentally ill people can make those (deliberate decisions about) targets,” he said.

Not much to add here, but the news — a victory for justice, since the conviction was upheld, and (in my opinion) for humanity, since another life won’t be unnecessarily taken — seems significant enough to disseminate. Here’s Ennis’s post on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of Balbir Singh Sodhi’s death, last September. Continue reading →

On Pakistan’s Independence Day

Posted on by

Today, August 14, Pakistan marks the anniversary of its independence. Over the weekend the Pakistani diaspora celebrated, although this report from Devon Street in Chicago suggests the party was a muted and anguished one.

This morning, I took a tour of the Pakistani blogosphere and found it, as usual, disappointing. A few bloggers offered bombastic statements of national pride. Others commented on the party preparations, or lack thereof. There don’t seem to be that many Pakistani bloggers to begin with, nor Pakistani-American bloggers for that matter (a fact that we deplore here at the Mutiny), so I wasn’t really expecting anything in particular; even so, the paucity of offerings, in both quantity and quality, struck me as symptomatic of, well, something.

We get a lot of anti-Pakistan mudslinging here on the comment threads, and though we try to keep up with and get rid of the most egregious and bigoted statements, the best way Pakistan’s image could improve would be through a flood of free, contentious, provocative, educative speech by Pakistanis and their friends. The Web is only one venue, of course, and it is obviously biased toward those with access to computers and the Internet, but to not make better use of such a ready resource is really a shame.

So it’s with pleasure that I introduce you, on this Pakistan Independence Day, to Watandost, the weblog of Hassan Abbas, a Pakistani former government official and writer who now lives in Boston. It’s a one-stop shop for news stories and web links that will be of interest to anyone who wishes for a democratic and peaceful Pakistan within a democratic and peaceful South Asia.

Abbas doesn’t write original content at his blog: he posts useful stories and lets them do the talking. However, he is the author of a book that I wish I’d heard of earlier. It’s called PakistanÂ’s Drift Into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and AmericaÂ’s War on Terror, and here is part of the review in the Boston Globe by Farah Stockman: Continue reading →

You can check out anytime you like…

Posted on by

From today’s New York Times, this lede:

SHE was Glinda in a sari. Early that morning, she had glided ethereally across the courtyard with her fellow healing goddesses, their feet bare, their flowing white garb edged in gold. The bird trills reverberated off the palace walls.

“Please sit,” she said prayerfully. Soon, thick warm sesame oil infused with medicinal herbs began to permeate my meager muslin thong. She breathed heavily, karate-chopping the oil with the edges of her hands. She gently pummeled me with poultices, hot bundles of herbs resembling bouquets garnis. In the background, I heard oil sizzling. I felt a strange compulsion to go fry myself in a wok.

Pummel me with poultices! Stay me with flagons! Gag me with a spoon! What on Lord Krishna’s blue earth is going on here?

It’s just San Francisco-based writer Patricia Leigh Brown receiving treatment, for research purposes, at the Kalari Kovilakom Palace for Ayurveda in the hills of Palakkam, Kerala, where “ayurvedists — longevity-seekers who are already deeply into the present moment — come … to detoxify and purify with ayurvedic doctors, the new yogis, for whom mind, body and spirit have been fused for more than 3,000 years.”

Exempted from the resort’s two-week minimum stay rule, Brown was able to pick and choose her treatments, avoiding the “stamina-challenging sequence of enemas” and secretly brewing Peet’s Coffee in her room.

The article is long, and not entirely as ridiculous as would appear from the opening. By the end, in fact, some interesting cultural analysis has crept in. En route, however, you get lines like “My spine was a cobra unfurling,” and the apparition in Brown’s mind, during treatment, of a vision of Dick Cheney. Surely that can’t be therapeutic. Continue reading →

Music: Meet Imaad Wasif

Posted on by

imaad.jpgYesterday on the radio I had the pleasure of interviewing a young desi brother by the name of Imaad Wasif. He’s a guitarist and singer who is currently touring as an additional band member (and occasional opener) for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and who released his first, self-titled solo album in April. Although Imaad can rock out with the best of them, his own music is of the introspective, quiet kind, a little minimalist, a little gothic, maybe a little fey at times. Listening to the album before the interview, I really enjoyed the first half, and found the second half a little slow and less compelling. Perhaps it would have benefited from a bit more time in the Nashville studio than the week-and-a-day session that the promotional materials boast about.

Having said that, I really enjoyed Imaad’s in-studio performance: he played one song from the album, “Out in the Black,” and a new song called, if I remember right, “Spell on Me.” He’s got a great touch and a lot of sincerity. Another interesting aspect was that he came in with his guitar and an electronic drone machine called a Raagini. It’s an Indian-made box that generates a drone in the manner of a tampura. He showed me the different settings before the show and it would have been cool if we’d had more time to talk about it on the air.

Imaad is another hyper-diasporic desi — his parents come from Bombay and Hyderabad but he was born in Vancouver and grew up mainly in Palm Desert, California. There’s nothing particularly desi to his trajectory as a musician. Yet at the same time, he credits as an influence the old Indian records from his father’s collection that got damaged in a flood, so that the labels all peeled off, leaving him to listen to the vinyl without knowing who was playing; and also, here he is with this Raagini machine, weaving the very Indian drone into his live performance, even though he hasn’t — yet — used it in recordings. Hybridity: it operates in mysterious, wonderful ways.

For those who enjoy introspective indie rock, or those simply looking to hear some new sounds, check this brother out. You can hear/download our conversation and his live performance here (scroll down second segment). Continue reading →

Desi pilot sues JetBlue

Posted on by

Tipster Adnan alerts us to the case filed this week in Manhattan State Supreme Court by Pakistani-American pilot Faisal Baig against JetBlue, which revoked his hiring the eve of his start date:

Baig said he asked for an explanation and was told JetBlue considered him “a security risk.”

“I asked if it’s my name or my religion,” said Baig, who had been a pilot for Independence Air for nearly six years, beginning in 2000, before applying to JetBlue in January. “The woman on the phone said she didn’t want to go into it, but basically she said yes.”

“I was shocked,” said Baig, who was not born in this country but came here with his family when he was 7 years old and is a U.S. citizen. “I was devastated. I don’t know how to describe it to you. Her words more or less told me I wasn’t an American.”

Jenny Dervin, a JetBlue spokeswoman, confirmed that the airline had been advised the lawsuit was filed but said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Now this suit was just filed, so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about its merit. But I thought I might take a look at the reactions on the popular right-wing site Free Republic, just to check in on the state of the discourse. Here’s a sample: Continue reading →

Posted in Law

Mantra: “Exploit, Degrade, Profit”

Posted on by

Los Angeles Times reporter Claire Hoffman has a must-read article this weekend in that paper’s West magazine on Joe Francis, who may be the most repulsive individual in America. He is the founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” soft-porn franchise, advertisements for which have been polluting cable television for nearly ten years. Those who, like me, believe that this sort of barely-legal exploitation is a lot more dangerous than is hard-core porn will find here a cornucopia of material to bolster their view. The way that Francis and his crew prey on drunken 18-year-olds and induce them to debase themselves on camera (there’s even a $1,000 bonus for recruiters who get a girl to bare herself right after midnight on her 18th birthday) is vile beyond belief. What goes on in the crew bus is even worse. Francis clearly hates women: whenever he has to deal with a woman on a professional basis he becomes vulgar and threatening, as the reporter learned when he pinned her to a car and nearly twisted her arm off, and later when he called her a c**t and threatened to kill her. This is the kind of article that a paper runs only after its lawyers have pored over every comma. Even Defamer, the LA Gawker franchise, calls the piece “jaw-dropping.”

So what’s the desi angle? Well, the farther I read the more I got riled up that Francis’s company is called Mantra Entertainment. Now I’m a writer and I believe in playing with words, and I don’t think any word is ever absolutely off-limits. But come on, this is disgusting. Mantra?

A mantra is a religious syllable or poem, typically from the Sanskrit language. … They are primarily used as spiritual conduits, words or vibrations that instill one-pointed concentration in the devotee. … They are intended to deliver the mind from illusion and material inclinations.

I’m sorry, calling your porn and degradation company Mantra just ain’t right. After searching a little for other business misuses of common Indian spiritual terms, I found that mantra is by far the most-abused. Sure, there’s a Karma Digital Corporation, at least one Karma Entertainment, a Nirvana Corporation that builds real estate in Costa Rica, a Nirvana memorial park in Malaysia, a Juggernaut Entertainment (oh no, not again) in Chicago, the Ashram Galactica Grand Hotel at the annual Burning Man festival, and of course the sinister Dharma Corporation of the TV series Lost. But mantra is on a whole ‘nother level:

What is it about this word that has spawned so much commercial use? Am I over-reacting when it makes me feel queasy? And what other egregious (or amusing) uses of desi cultural terminology have you run across in the business world? Continue reading →

Judge finds for prosecution in Operation Meth Merchant

Posted on by

The prosecution has just scored a major victory in Operation Meth Merchant (previous SM post here):

U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy refused Wednesday to toss out cases against dozens of South Asian merchants accused in the methamphetamine sting, rejecting the American Civil Liberties Union’s argument that police intentionally targeted South Asian merchants while ignoring white-owned stores.

As a reminder, here are the key objections the ACLU raised about this operation:

* Operation Meth Merchant resulted in the arrest of 49 people, 44 of whom are South Asian, and 33 of whom have the last name Patel.

* Operation Meth Merchant targeted 24 stores for investigation, 23 of which are owned by South Asians. This, despite the fact that approximately 80 percent of area stores are owned by whites or other ethnic groups, according to the ACLUÂ’s investigation.

* The officials directing Operation Meth Merchant had evidence that at least 16 white-owned stores in the area sold products used to manufacture methamphetamine, and yet failed to investigate any of them. These stores include Avaco, Bell’s Smokeshop, Bi-Lo, Breezy Top, Citgo Quikmart, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Food Lion, Fred’s, Home Depot, Jerrell’s Food Mart, Lowe’s, Sam’s Club, and Wal-mart.

* The officials directing Operation Meth Merchant have failed to disclose the existence of any evidence against the vast majority of the 23 South-Asian-owned stores prior to targeting them for investigation.

The ACLU’s summary sheet is here. The motion for dismissal with details of the argument is here.

The judge saw it differently:

His 38-page ruling noted that the defense lacks even basic evidence showing discrimination, citing a magistrate judge’s earlier order that said allowing the group a chance to dig through more evidence would be authorizing a “fishing expedition.”

… And he echoed a previous ruling that “simply pointing out that most of the individual defendants are of Indian national origin is insufficient.”

The ruling is here (August 3, second item). The crux seems to be that according to the judge, the defense presented no evidence that the non-Indian-run stores above sold the items in question (e.g. cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine) in the specific knowledge that buyers intended to use them to make meth. In the sting on Indian-run stores, the buyers made statements about “cooking” that referred to meth. The defense argues that this does not mean the sellers understood the reference. In any case, since there was no sting on the non-Indian-run stores, how would one get the evidence either way? To me this still looks like a clear case of selective prosecution on an ethnic basis, but perhaps legal minds can pore over the documents and give us their more considered views. Continue reading →

Posted in Law

The Paris Principle

Posted on by

I grew up in Paris. Many years later, this experience continues to earn me oohs and ahs: It must have been so… exotic! Cool! Parisian! I never know what to say in response. I mean, all I did was grow up. I rode the Metro and went to the movies a lot. I had long school days and lots of homework. After high school I came to the US, and for better or for worse have stayed here ever since.

It seems that by leaving so soon I missed all the fun:

IN “Weekend in Paris” Molly Clearwater, a 21-year-old British secretary with long blond hair and gorgeous breasts, impulsively sheds her dull life in London and heads to Paris, where she finds “a dizzying carousel ride of passion, excitement and self-discovery.”

In “Paris Hangover” Lauren Klein, a 34-year-old New Yorker with long blond hair and gorgeous breasts, abandons her glamorous job as a fashion consultant, gives up her TriBeCa triplex and plunges “into the mysterious world of Gallic men.”

And in “Salaam, Paris,” a Bollywood version of the story, Tayana Shah, a sheltered 19-year-old Indian Muslim with long legs and gorgeous breasts, arrives in Paris to meet the man to whom she is betrothed, becomes a supermodel and finds true love.

Since all these stories are clearly based on common real-life experiences, I am left to conclude that had I stayed in Paris, I too could have become a mysterious Gallic man, my life’s work devoted to the emotional liberation of perfect-chested beauties from multiple continents. I suppose it would have made a worthy career, but hey, so is blogging. Life is about choices.

salaamparis.jpgStill, I wanted to learn more about Miss Shah. Who is the literary mastermind who brought this creature to life? Why, it’s old friend Kavita Daswani, whose prior oeuvre includes The Village Bride of Beverly Hills and For Matrimonial Purposes, of which one SM regular’s concise review follows:

I’ve read For Matrimonial Purposes. (don’t ask)…vomit!

Now I don’t mind a little chick-lit. I unabashedly enjoyed the original Bridget Jones. Salaam, Paris intrigues me, if only to see the treatment of the city of my youth, even if it bears as much relation to the actual Paris as my current ghetto surroundings do to Carrie and Miranda’s New York City.

Desi reviewer Reeta Sinha gives Salaam, Paris the business, however:

Kavita Daswani seems to know a bit about stereotypes. Her first book, For Matrimonial Purposes, was full of them and things havenÂ’t changed much with this, her third and most recent work. If anything, the storyline provides room to expand, adding stereotypes about Muslim women to the usual desi chick-lit mix of arranged marriages, overbearing parents and the promise of glitz, glamour and happiness as soon as you leave India. …

ItÂ’s hard being a virgin, teetotaler supermodel, flitting between New York, the Caribbean and Paris, pretending to be hooked up with a rock star and being mauled by her handlers. ItÂ’s even worse when in between raking in fame and money, all you want to do is see your grandfather. … AllÂ’s well that ends well, of course. A fairy godmother in the form of an aunt helps Tanaya reconcile with her dying (of course), grandfather and Prince Charming does finally show up and they live happily ever after, in Paris (of course). …

Every imaginable cliché about Muslims and western perceptions has been thrown in, sadly, quite casually. So, you have references to RushdieÂ’s fatwa, four wives (Tanaya clarifies that sheÂ’s an Indian Muslim, not an Arab), she explains sheÂ’s not the “terrorist kind” when asked if sheÂ’s Muslim…

In conclusion, Sinha says:

But, then this is a beach-read. A fantasy. No bearing to the real world or real people whatsoever.

Or, as Entertainment Weekly puts it (via Amazon):

The culture-clash dilemmas ring heartbreakingly true.

Continue reading →