Author Archives: siddhartha

Deep in the heart of Desi

Posted on by

We at the Mutiny don’t talk as much as we should about the desi presence in the central United States. If you’ve wandered through the heartland you know that desis are everywhere, principally thanks to the hotel business. And then of course there are the major cities like Houston, Dallas or Denver where I know we have plenty of readers.

Indian corporations are ahead of us in this regard, as witnessed by the following item from Alabama. Now, for a few years the Deep South has been a hub for foreign investment. There’s an enormous Nissan plant in Jackson, Miss., and a Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Ala., that have created thousands of jobs. Part of what draws these firms is the abundance of cheap skilled labor marooned by the manufacturing recession, as well as the anti-union laws. Still, anyone who’s spent time in the South knows that foreign investment has wrought some powerful economic and cultural changes.

But Indian firms? Well, ITC Infotech has just committed to open its third US location in Birmingham, where it hopes to ramp up to $100m in annual business. And Alabama authorities hope this will start a flood of Indian investment:

ITC is the first company to announce plans to locate in the state since the establishment of the Alabama-India Business Partnership, a group set up to stimulate economic activity and investment. More are expected follow.

Automotive parts maker Span Industries has indicated it wants to come to Birmingham, as has another Indian auto parts manufacturer and a biotechnology firm, said Anil Agarwal, president of AK-Global Solutions Inc. and founder of the Alabama India Business Partnership.

“In the next five to 10 years, we will be doing the same thing we are doing for the Indian companies as we are doing for the Japanese and Korean companies today,” Agarwal said…

I’m all in favor of this sort of investment. But one thing that always amuses me in these stories is the special type of boosterism that they breed, in which the investment origin and destination are touted as perfect partners because they match up so well culturally:

Not only does Birmingham offer a geographical hub on which to build a solid Southeastern presence, Agarwal says, but culturally the two communities share several common denominators.

For instance, Agarwal says, both Alabama and India have strong agricultural backgrounds that transitioned to a manufacturing base and only relatively recently have begun to shift into research in areas such as biomedical science and biotechnology.

“They also both have very traditional family values,” making India and Alabama compatible business partners, Agarwal says.

Meaning vaat exactly, Agarwal-saheb? I know some families down South that are anything but traditional. And those Baptist churches every twenty yards don’t leave much room for masjids and mandirs. What the regions really share is humidity, verandas, and big ol’ flying cockroaches. I trust Agarwal-uncle wasn’t trying to allude to something more sinister — Old times there are not forgotten — and instead look forward to a growing desi role in the cosmopolitan revitalization of the South. Continue reading →

Indo-Pak Coalition

Posted on by

Take a deep breath. This is not a political post. It’s another post about music.

Indo-Pak Coalition is a current trio project that includes Rudresh Mahanthappa on saxophone, Rez Abbasi on guitar, and Dan Weiss on tabla. It’s just one of a number of fascinating, adventurous collaborations taking place on the creative-music scene these days. Along with his longtime collaborator, fellow-desi and piano genius Vijay Iyer, Rudresh is a regular on this scene and his work, whether in straight-ahead jazz or cross-genre collaborations, never fails to fascinate. He’s got a wonderful tone and attack that place him in the Coltrane legacy, and he’s done very thoughtful work that injects classical Indian concepts and themes into forward-looking contemporary jazz. Read more about him here, and about Pakistani-American guitarist Abbasi here.

Indo-Pak’s new suite “Apti” premieres tomorrow night, 5/31, at Joe’s Pub in NYC, and I encourage local Mutineers to join me there.

About the new project, Rudresh says this:

Mahanthappa is excited about his upcoming gig with the Indo-Pak Coalition: “It has this weird twist to it because, okay, you have this trio and the two brown guys are playing western instruments and the white guy’s playing an Indian instrument! [laughs] So it’s kind of funny and it’s interesting because Dan is an amazing drummer, but he’s also Samir Chatterjee’s most prized student; he’s a really monstrous tabla player, but he came out playing the tabla after playing drumset. And here we [Mahanthappa and Abbasi] are: we play these western instruments. So our perspectives are very different. It’s been really great to work with that group because we can talk about everything in very Indian terms—whether it’s Karnatic or Hindustani or whatever—and then we can turn around and talk about it in totally Western terms.”

This promises to be a great show. I hope to see you there! Continue reading →

Today’s NYC Meet-Up – LAST MINUTE

Posted on by

Apparently, contrary to their assurances Leela Lounge is shut today after all. Thanks to Anna’s effort and Pooja’s counsel, we are moving to: La Lanterna café, 129 MacDougal St., corner of West 3rd.

This is just a couple blocks from our original location, where hopefully one of us will have the presence of mind to leave a note… 🙂

Note: La Lanterna has a garden so if you don’t see folks inside, make sure to check back there. See y’all at 5:00 pm (plus inflation)!

Peace and hair grease! Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized

Fussballweltmeisterschaft-Alert: Abdul Ghafoor Reminisces

Posted on by

abdulghafoor.jpgAs promised, during this World Cup season I’ll be serving up some desified football-related posts for that arse. Today, my bhai Davy hips me to this fascinating AFP story on “Pakistan’s Black Pelé,” Abdul Ghafoor. Apparently, he was the leading light of Pakistani football in the 1960s, a midfielder on what was a reasonably strong national team:

The midfielder was part of Pakistan’s setup when it was a credible footballing nation, grinding its way into Asia’s top 10 with players in demand from league clubs in India.

Ghafoor played in Dhaka in the 1960s and later represented Mohammedan Sporting in the Calcutta league in India.

It was in Dhaka, which became the capital of Bangladesh in 1971, where he met his wife Sabiha, who also has a penchant for football.

“My husband has been a football hero in Pakistan. There was a time when we couldn’t go out because hundreds of people would gather outside and want to see their Pelé,” said Sabiha …

In a strange new-world-order twist, Ghafoor’s son Ghani is in prison in Pakistan on terrorism charges that his father vehemently denies:

Ghani, who played football for domestic teams, was arrested in early 2004 from his home in Karachi in a crackdown against extremists and remains under lock and key.

The employee of a state-owned bank was accused of planning terrorist acts and is awaiting trial at a Karachi prison.

“My son’s only fault was that he grew a beard and he played football,” claimed Ghafoor.

With Pakistani and for that matter all subcontinental football mired in mediocrity, Abdul Ghafoor is left to reminisce about the old days and root for every Third Worlder’s default team, Brazil:

Ghafoor now stays away from football grounds but avidly stays in touch with the English Premiership and Brazilian soccer.

“Now I just watch Brazil and remember our good old days,” he said.

I tried to get some background on Abdul Ghafoor and his glory days, but found next to nothing. So here’s a call to historians, football fans, or any uncles or aunties who might have memories of Abdul Ghafoor, or more generally, sub-continental football in the 1960s. Continue reading →

Fear of a Brown Magnate

Posted on by

Mittal-steel.jpgA big current international business story is the attempted takeover of Arcelor, a Luxembourg-based steel manufacturer, by London-based, desi-owned Mittal Steel, the voraciously successful family business of Lakshmi Mittal. Arcelor is itself the result of a merger of European steel firms, a logical consolidation in its day since steel is a sunset industry in Western Europe and many firms enjoyed protections of state ownership or subsidies that EU rules no longer permit. However, European politicians have retained a bit of a proprietary cultural interest, as it were, in firms like Arcelor, since even without state ownership they possess a sort of vestigial patriotic value as “national champions,” and they still employ a fair number of people, if far fewer than before, in depressed industrial areas.

Well, ever since Mittal made his first overtures to Arcelor shareholders (which Manish blogged here in January), followed by a formal takeover bid once he got permission from competitive authorities, Arcelor has done everything possible to wriggle away from its suitor. Fair enough – that’s what companies threatened by hostile takeovers do, especially when it becomes clear that their management don’t enter into the buyer’s plans for the future. But with investment analysts lining up in favor of the Mittal bid, there’s also been, of course, speculation that even though Mittal is a London-based, London-quoted firm, it may just be a little too brown for the comfort of the European industrial bourgeoisie.

All this could be dismissed as reading-ethnicity-into-everything, and to some extent probably is. (Though…) Still, itÂ’s remarkable to see that this week the board of Arcelor found themselves rushing into the arms of what is known in business lingo as an, ahem, white knight, in the form of a Russian firm of the new-oligarch variety. The merger deal with Severstal is framed as a purchase by ArcelorÂ… except that it is funded by an increase in ArcelorÂ’s capital via investment by Alexei Mordachov, SeverstalÂ’s 38-year-old chairman. By funding ArcelorÂ’s purchase of his firm, Mordachov takes a 32 percent interest in the merged firm, which would become the worldÂ’s largest steel producer, ahead of Mittal.

The London business writers are having a field day with this one. “The putrid stink of hypocrisy hangs in the air,” says The Observer‘s Richard Wachman, noting that Arcelor, having criticized Mittal for non-transparency in past business dealings, has found its savior in the land where opaqueness and favoritism are essential components of business success. And The IndependentÂ’s business columnist Jeremy Warner cold lays down the card:

Is it cos I’s brown? The Arcelor board appears so appaled at the prospect of takeover by the Indian-born steel magnate, Lakshmi Mittal, that it will do almost anything to avoid his clutches – right down to surrendering control to the Kremlin. Okay, so I’m exaggerating to make the point, but only a little.

Continue reading →

Our Influentials

Posted on by

During the Kaava debacle last month, and whatever you made of the whole story, one of the secondary plot lines had to do with the high-end college-prep tutoring business, which has always been around but has apparently now expanded to the extent that anxious parents will fork over up to $30,000 to make sure that their offspring gets into that place that starts with an H, or maybe that other place that starts with a Y. If you recall, we learned that KaavyaÂ’s parents bought for her the services of a firm called IvyWise, and its founder, Katherine Cohen, was repeatedly quoted at the crest of the scandal defending her former client, and thereby, one infers, her own integrity and that of her firm.

Now, from New York magazine’s recent annual compilation of “The Influentials” – the two-hundred-odd most influential people in the city, in that magazine’s judgment, we learn thar the person considered the father of this whole hyper-prep industry is desi. Here is Arun Alagappan’s citation in the mag:

Arun Alagappan Founder, Advantage Testing, Inc. Like it or not, high-end, one-on-one academic tutoring is a fixture of contemporary New York, and Alagappan is the father of the business. Twenty years ago, Alagappan, a Princeton philosophy major and Harvard Law grad, left the white-shoe law firm Sullivan and Cromwell to found Advantage Testing, a boutique tutoring service for college-bound high-school kids. Today, Alagappan and 100 fellow tutors work with up to 2,000 kids each year in subjects ranging from core academics and essay writing to SAT prep. Despite law-partner rates (Alagappan charges $685 for a 50-minute hour, although staff tutors charge less), a yearÂ’s wait is not uncommon for AlagappanÂ’s services. Alagappan insists he doesnÂ’t track test scores; regardless, Advantage has inspired dozens of high-priced imitators, and, for better or worse, transformed the precollege landscape.

Alagappan has a remarkably low-key public identity: Googling produces not much more than a sampler of stories from various years in the past two decades, where the only interesting change is the rising dollar cost of an hour of his services. Advantage Testing doesnÂ’t have an active website, just a phone number. I guess they have plenty of business on the word-of-mouth circuit, and they donÂ’t really need publicity.

The other desi that New York magazine saw fit to include in its “Influentials” was labor activist Saru Jayaraman, whom Manish blogged about here a long time ago. HereÂ’s the commendation: Continue reading →

Highway 106 Revisited

Posted on by

Upon departing this earth for the higher cosmic plane, the late Yogi Bhajan, leader of the Happy, Holy, Healthy Organization (3HO), left not only his spiritual legacy but also a range of holy business endeavors such as Akal Security and the Yogi Tea line. The YogiÂ’s contribution to our holistic well-being now receives its due recognition from the authorities of the secular realm, to the elation of the Indian press, always on the lookout for such triumphs:

In a rare gesture, the New Mexico State Transportation Commission has renamed a state highway — Highway 106 — as ‘Yogi Bhajan Memorial Highway’ in memory of the late Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji. An Indian-American, he was known to his followers as Yogi Bhajan.

State Highway 106! One imagines, perhaps, a shimmering strip of tarmac stretching into the pristine New Mexico wilderness, amid a cascade of desert wildflowers, lightning storms illuminating the majestic silhouette of the Sangre de Cristo mountainsÂ… A place of peace and insight, as befits the YogiÂ’s life work and the wisdom of the counsel he afforded the leaders of the land:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson in his remarks on the occasion said: “Yogiji was not only a spiritual leader, but was a business and social leader as well. And he kept a hand in politics too. I know many of the elected officials here today often sought his counsel in professional and personal matters, as I did many times…”

Continue reading →

The Great Brown Hope

Posted on by

vikash.jpg I don’t know about you, but my attention next month will turn to Germany, host of this year’s football – yeah, yeah, soccer – World Cup. The 32-team tournament kicks off June 9 with Germany vs. Costa Rica; the final is a month later. To succeed Brazil as world champions, the bookies favor the Brazilians themselves, at 9/4. Argentina and Germany follow at 7/1. Asia’s four entries get little respect: Japan and Korea are at 150/1, Iran at 250/1, and should Saudi Arabia win it all, you’d pocket 500 times your bet.

Oh. You were looking for a desi angle?

Well, there barely is one – no thanks to the South Asian teams, which lived down to their reputation as doormats in the Asia qualifying rounds. India got a 6-0 spanking from Japan and lost 5-1 to Oman. At least it had one win, against Singapore; the same cannot be said of Sri Lanka or the Maldives, which finished last in their groups. Pakistan didn’t even make the group stage, falling by a total 6-0 in a playoff against Kyrgyzstan.

Yet despite this abysmal performance, you can be sure that TV screens across South Asia will be bursting with football. And fans seeking a tiny taste of sepia glory will be rooting at least in part for France, which fields the competitionÂ’s only desi. Standing a mighty 5Â’6” and weighing in at 140 lbs., midfielder Vikash Dhorasoo is our Great Brown Hope. Continue reading →

Witch hunts

Posted on by

Witch hunts remain a persistent scourge in rural parts of Jharkand state and adjoining areas of Chhatisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal. Periodically there are reports of a woman accused of causing misfortunes through black magic. Once accused, a woman faces hideous treatment, banishment and possibly death:

Recalling the trauma she faced, Ramani narrates: ‘I was tortured and forced to eat human excreta just because I was branded a witch by the ojhas (witch doctors).’ (Â…)

Vaisakhi, in her 50s, had also been brutally beaten up by a villager, who branded her a witch.

There are scores of women who have been branded witch by villagers and tortured. Many were killed, sometimes by beheading or dismembering their limbs.

Many like Ramani Devi are forced to drink urine or consume human excreta. Some are ostracised and thrown out of their villages. [Link]

These occurrences are most common in adivasi (or “tribal”) communities; but they have also been reported in non-adivasi settings. The victim may be a vulnerable woman, such as a widow, or one who has made herself inconvenient to the village power structure by asserting an economic or political right:

In Bijli village in Raipur district of Madhya Pradesh, a Dalit woman, Lata Sahu, contested against a backward-caste woman in the panchayat elections. Lata was prone to epileptic attacks. The Yadavs and Patels, who belong to the land-owning castes, got Lata’s sister-in-law to condemn her as a tonahi (witch). Lata was stripped of her clothes and paraded in the village.

In another case, in Tarra village in Raipur district, a woman was hacked to death after being branded a witch by her brother-in-law after she sought a right over her deceased husband’s land. In yet another case, in Gaandi village in Angara Block in Ranchi, two Dalit widows were tortured, resulting in the death of one of them, who was 75 years old. It began with the death of two children due to malaria and jaundice in September. An exorcist told the father of the children, Mahavir Baitha, that the two widows, Jeetan Devi and Dubhan Devi, were responsible for the deaths. In front of the son, the mother was tonsured, beaten, paraded and burnt. Earthen pitchers were broken on the heads of the two widows. [Link]

Continue reading →

Alas. Poor Ricky

Posted on by

AmericaÂ’s most celebrated practitioner of ayurveda has fallen afoul of his employer again. Ricky Williams, running back for the Miami Dolphins, has been suspended for a year following a violation of the NFLÂ’s drug policy. To many fans this is a same-old-story: Williams only recently returned from a previous supension, and the court of sports talk radio has found him guilty of self-indulgence, narcissism, and letting down the team.

WhatÂ’s different this time, however, is that the suspension is not for marijuana (“according to a source” — the league won’t give details). Williams was a known pothead at the University of Texas, with the New Orleans Saints (where he alienated teammates and press with his reclusive behavior, before getting treatment for social anxiety disorder), and during his first stint with the Dolphins. It didn’t stop him from barreling through D-lines, and for a moment in Miami he looked on track to become one of the sportÂ’s greats.

But the weed habit finally got him kicked out, and during his year off he hung out in Australia, India, and eventually studied at the California College of Ayurveda in (yes) Grass Valley. Ricky returned to the league not just clean but cleansed – vegetarian, versed in yoga and ayurveda, wearing only white, and apparently pot-free. (He was in India studying yoga when the offending test results came in.)

So if it wasnÂ’t pot, what was it? The buzz is that an ayurvedic herbal supplement may have gotten him busted this time. In 2004 Abhi blogged that these supplements may not be all that pure. Perhaps Ricky should have chosen this supplier:

Continue reading →