Author Archives: A N N A

Join in and sing: “Sri Lanka Matha…”

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Sri Lanka Coat of Arms.PNG

On this day, in 1948, Sri Lanka declared independence from the United Kingdom (thanks, retorts). Oh, happy day.

Last night, in the bunker, while under the influence of very healthy snacks and very unhealthy beer at our Super Bowl Parrrty, our fearless leader Abhi spontaneously declared (read: shouted) that in order to honor the resplendent land, we’d hold host guest blogger Sugi hostage for another month.

Send thank you notes via our tip line– I know you’re already mentally composing one, because I’m giddy about Sugi, too. Let’s continue the party with something a few of you think cannot be done– let’s have a positive thread about Sri Lanka, free of acrimony and flames. What do you wish people knew about or associated with the pearl of the Indian Ocean? 🙂 Continue reading →

Soul Tap’s Nivla and P.Oberoi– Crashing the Superbowl

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So…I meant to have this post up last week, but I have pneumonia and my life has come to a screeching halt after one damning chest x-ray. Despite such extenuating circumstances, I feel terrible about the delay, because the video embedded above, for New Yorkers Soul Tap featuring Nivla and P. Oberoi’s “Be Easy (Koi Naa)” is part of a contest sponsored by Doritos called “Crash the Superbowl“, for which voting ends either tomorrow or tonight (I’ve read both dates, so just vote asap).

I’m slightly comforted by the fact that the grassroots outreach on behalf of this South Asian American quartet has been solid, so you probably didn’t need SM to tell you about them (though you may have read about them on our news tab). I’m massively tickled by the fact that Nivla peppers rap with Malayalam phrases like I do my posts, though he is not as consumed with the word “kundi”. Despite that minor shortcoming, when he’s flowin “edi penne…ingota va “, I’m goin’, “HELL YES!”.

Barest of details about the group that is fighting off two Texans for a shot at an Interscope record deal plus sixty-seconds of prime-eyeball time for their video, during the biggest bowl of ’em all: Continue reading →

Suspect in Duke Murder Case Arrested

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I just received an email from Jay about the latest development in the murder of Abhijit Mahato, a DBD PhD student at Duke University:

Durham police say a late-night chase into Wake County on Tuesday led to the arrest of four people responsible for at least one recent armed robbery near the Duke University campus, one of whom is now charged with murder in connection with a previous robbery.
The arrests of William Dozia Smith, 20, Stephen Lavance Oates Jr., 19, and two juveniles, both 14, may bring investigators a step closer to solving some of the more than 70 robberies that have been committed since Jan. 1. The spate of robberies — many preying on Hispanics and often involving handguns — prompted Durham CrimeStoppers on Wednesday to increase its reward offer to $5,000 for information leading to arrests.
Smith, Oates and the two juveniles were charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony fleeing to elude. They are accused of robbing a couple at gunpoint at an apartment on Lambeth Circle late Sunday and may be suspects in other, similar armed robberies including a second incident just hours prior at the Poplar West Apartments, also near the Duke campus.
Oates was later charged with murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in the Friday slaying of Abhijit Mahato at his apartment at 1600 Anderson Street, Apt. C-2, police said in a news release tonight. And he was also charged with robbery and simple assault related to a Nov. 19 armed robbery at the Bennett Pointe Grill on Hillsborough Road. [News&Observer]

After reading over 300 comments on the original thread about this tragedy, I know that many of you were especially moved by this story; we’ll do our best to keep you informed.

For those of you near Duke, a funeral service will be held this Sunday morning, at 10:30 a.m., by The Hindu Society of North Carolina. ABD, DBD, bespectacled or not, I think the one thing we can all agree to do is to keep Abhijit and his family in our thoughts and prayers. Continue reading →

Scrabulous: Dead App Scrabbling

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I’ve mentioned it before, but for those of you who weren’t aware, I’m addicted to Scrabulous, the Facebook application which allows me to play multiple games of Scrabble with several of you at the same time, and at our leisure.

Scrabulous is so fabulous, I ditched Friendster and MySpaz out of my desire for it; I had no need for such retrograde networks, not when Facebook was so superior– and the whole basis for its superiority is this stellar timesuck. If you read the message boards on the “official” Save Scrabulous group or under news articles about the game, I’m not the only one who has embraced Facebook out of my nerdier impulses, nor am I the only one who is twitching in a corner, rocking back-and-forth over this:

The saga of Scrabulous is nearing an end…[link]

I can’t bear to contemplate it. Better I edify you as to why this tragedy is occurring. Hasbro is not pleased that their game is suddenly so popular, not when they have no part in the fun. Never mind that they were stupid for not sensing the untapped desire of millions of word-nerds for protracted online Scrabbling, they’re using words like “licensing” and “stealing” to rain on our vocabulary-littered parade.

A flurry of behind the scenes deal-making has been going on between Hasbro, Scrabulous, and Electronic Arts, which has the license in the U.S. to the online version of the game. Hasbro is trying to get Scrabulous to sell itself for a song to Electronic Arts, or else shut down completely by the end of the day today. [link]

The Calcutta-based brothers behind the awesomeness, software developers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla are trying to find a way…

Scrabulous has been trying to shop itself to other buyers as well, but its legal liability is scaring away any potential white knights. Unless it gets some sort of reprieve or agrees to sell to Electronic Arts, Scrabulous will be no more, despite the more than 46,000 Facebook members who have joined the “Save Scrabulous” group. What choice does it have, really, but to sell? [link]

Lest you think this is a tiny sort of tempest, consider these numbers:

Scrabulous was started in 2006 as a standalone site operated by a pair of 20-something Calcutta, India-based brothers, Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, but the game exploded when they created a Facebook application that currently boasts 2.3 million active users and soon became the workplace productivity drain du jour. It’s currently the ninth most popular application on the site. [link]

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DC: Subcontinental Drift 2008- January 28

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1355204385_205b65bc91.jpg Straight Outta Compton my inbox, an invitation to the first Subcontinental Drift of 2008. This event/collective is one of my favorite things about living in DC. Come find out why for yourself:

2007 sure brought some of the district’s talents out of the basement and into the spotlight. It was nothing less than inspiring to witness the expressive potential of our collective South Asian community.
Subcontinental Drift is excited to be back with the first open mic night of 2008 on Monday, January 28th at 7pm. Come bless us in this new year with your art, your thoughts, your ideas, your presence. The mic will be open from 7-9 pm (to sign up for a spot, shoot an email with your name and performance genre to subdriftdc@gmail.com). And stay for the after party with some chill beats and groovin’.
Where?
Bohemian Caverns, at the corner of 11th and U. We’ll be upstairs. www.bohemiancaverns.com
When?
Doors open at 6:30pm.
More info?
myspace.com/subcontinentaldrift or email subdriftdc@gmail.com

I never go out on Mondays or Tuesdays because those are my most challenging (read: no lunch) days at work, but I’m about to do some serious juggling in order to attend this– THAT’S how amazing Subcontinental Drift is. It is worth the stress and exhaustion. 😉 If you are in DC, please come out so that you, too, can babble beatifically about all the awesomeness. And if you are not in DC, remember that it is a new year; resolve to start something similar where you are. Abhi did it fabulously in Houston, so can you. Everyone deserves to drift. Continue reading →

Another DBD PhD Student Murdered

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Mahato.JPG On Friday night, a doctoral student in the engineering program at Duke University was shot to death in his off-campus apartment (thanks, Zuni123). The parallels of this tragic crime to the LSU murders cannot be ignored; like then, our tip line is the conduit for confusion and frustration over another senseless murder. Via The Raleigh Chronicle:

The victim has been identified as Abhijit Mahato, age 29, a Ph.D. engineering candidate who was from India and was studying in the United States, Duke University officials said on Saturday afternoon.
“He was found by friends who came by the apartment to check on him Friday night,” said Kammie Michaels of the Durham Police Department. Mahato was pronounced dead on the scene when police arrived, say police.
Durham Police said they do not yet have a motive for the shooting. Their investigation is continuing…
Mahato, originally from Tatangar, India, was studying for an engineering doctorate degree focused on computational mechanics at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. He was in his second year in the program, says the school.
Larry Moneta, Duke’s vice president for student affairs, said the university has begun “reaching out” to Mahato’s friends and to his family in India, as well as to Indian and other international students on campus. It is offering counseling services and has begun considering appropriate ways of commemorating Mahato’s life.

One way they didn’t commemorate it was by finding it a happy opportunity to test a school safety feature.

Here’s how the victim’s adviser, Tod Laursen described him:

“He made friends very easily and always had a smile on his face,” Laursen said through Duke University. “Our research team was particularly close to Abhijit. He was very well read in both poetry and literature, and enjoyed conversation with others about what they were reading.”

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“Distressed Desi Disputatiously Decries Dragooned Digit in Derriere”

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Fust things fust: I did not come up with the title of this post; DJ Drrrty Poonjabi did when he added this story to our news tab. Talk about dedication– he got a TypeKey account just so he could submit this! His efforts were appreciated by all, in fact, one of you voted for the tip just because of all those “D”s. Since whimsy seems to be in the air right now and I like to give the mutineers what they want, I’m borrowing that wacky title. Capiche? As for the actual story:

A visit to a hospital for a bump to the head turned into a big pain in the posterior for a Brooklyn construction worker.
Brian Persaud ended up in handcuffs and under arrest when he loudly protested that doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell didn’t need to give him a rectal exam after a piece of wood clocked him on the forehead. [NYDN]

The injury/invasion actually occurred back in 2003. Speaking of threes, what does this mean:

Medical records state Persaud was “alert and oriented times three” when he was taken to the hospital’s emergency room… [NYDN]
According to a lawsuit he later filed, Mr. Persaud was then told that he needed an immediate rectal examination to determine whether he had a spinal-cord injury. He adamantly objected to the procedure, he said, but was held down as he begged, “Please don’t do that.” [NYTCityRoom]

Everyone’s favorite line of the story, which will be on away messages, premium super-pokes and tacky, homophobic bumper stickers, soon:

The revelation about the rectal exam set off Persaud, who smacked a doctor during a struggle and yelled, “Where I came from, you don’t put anything in someone’s a——!” [NYDN]

Yes, and that’s why prostate cancer doesn’t get diagnosed, but hey, your kundi hymen is intact and that’s all that matters right?

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Drunk Women in Juhu: “What were they expecting?”

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shame on them.jpg Soon after New Year’s Eve, we began receiving tips about a dreadful incident in Bombay involving two young couples who were on vacation (Thanks, Rahul and many others):

A mob of 70-80 men groped and molested two young women for some 15 minutes on a busy main street in Mumbai’s glamour district Juhu early on New Year’s Day.
An identical incident had shamed India’s safest city exactly a year ago — a girl was molested by New Year’s eve revellers at the Gateway of India. That incident was captured on film by a popular Mumbai tabloid; Tuesday morning’s horror was shot by two Hindustan Times lensmen who happened to be on the spot.
The women — one in a black dress, the other in a jeans and top — emerged from the JW Marriott with two male friends around 1.45 am, and began walking towards Juhu beach close by.
A mob of about 40 got after them and began teasing the women. One of the women swore loudly at the hooligans.
But the mob, now 70-80 strong, wouldn’t let go. They trapped the women near a vehicle and a tree, and pounced on them. A man in a white shirt tore off the black dress. Another, in a blue shirt, led the assault. As the women fell on the ground, dozens of men jumped on them. [HT]

The story and the wide-spread, collective anger it inspired grew considerably when the Police Inspector tasked with the case expressed himself in a regrettably insensitive way:

The comments of the Mumbai police commissioner, DN Jadhav further enraged the people: “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Keep your wives at home if you want them safe. This kind of small things can happen anywhere”. [meri]

Excellent. Two women who were brutalized deserved it because they were out and about, instead of in the kitchen. While a few Mumbaikars agreed with that unfortunate view, others certainly did not:

Arjun Ghai, executive with an MNC says, “The act was shameful but the attitude of the police in this regard is even worse. If MF Hussain puts up his paintings or a Hollywood star kisses a Bollywood actress, the Shiv Sainiks come to life, but what about such cases? It is the people of our great nation who need to be blamed. I am sure those who were involved in this gruesome act had sisters and wives sitting at home. Did they think about them even for an instance? No wonder we are living among vultures ready to pounce on the flesh of vulnerable women at the drop of a hat.”
Mira Sud, boutique owner opines, “I heard someone say that the girls might have been drunk or led the guys on. This is absolutely crazy. In a nation like ours where we worship Sita and Laxmi, people tend to lose their moral sense at times. Claiming that a woman might have been drunk is no reason or excuse. What about those instances where the men get drunk and pounce on women? Nobody blames them. In this male-dominated society of ours, we tend to blame the female gender without even considering the situation.”[meri]

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Return of the Papaya!

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Papaya!.jpg

Yay for reader Pallavi, who alerted me to this life-altering news: Sanjaya is back! How’s THAT for some Friday fluff? Via Page Six(sixsix):

No this isn’t a game of: “one of these things is not like the other.” PageSix.com has learned that Sanjaya Malakar and his sister Shyamali are in talks to headline their own variety TV series called The Sanjaya and Shyamali Show! The program plans to showcase a special blend of singing, dancing, comedy and, naturally, their lush manes of hair.

I am glad Shyamali is part of this project. I didn’t really see much of her because she was eliminated from AI and then her brother became this cultural sensation. It’ll be interesting to get to know her better, so that people are aware of more than her occupation.

Sanjaya, who was spotted outside The Groundlings Theater on Melrose Ave over the weekend, was actually at the comedy mecca to cast improv actors for the show, his manager Suzy Sachs tells PageSix.com. “He has a huge following and a background in musical theater,” she says, adding that the duo is currently in negotiations with MTV and plans to film a pilot in early spring.

The Groundlings = teh awesome. Peep their alums and see for yourself, if you haven’t heard of them.

But it gets better Fan-jaya’s! The formerly faux-hawked wonder, who is either the most loved or loathed contestant in the history of American Idol depending on your opinion…

We interrupt this blockquote to declare, loved! Loved! Loved!

…is also prepping to release his first CD. “He’s in rehearsals for a new album,” Sachs tells PageSix.com. Sanjaya is studying with famous vocal coach Seth Riggs (who has worked with artists like Kelly Clarkson, Faith Hill, Ray Charles and Ricky Martin) and is heading into the studio this weekend to begin laying down some preliminary tracks. “He did very well,” Riggs tells PageSix.com of their sessions. “I wish I could have done what he’s doing at 18-years-old.”

In her email to me, Pallavi asked:

Is this the 1st potential live variety show in America featuring Indian-Americans?

I don’t know mutineers, is it? 🙂 Oh, I must prepare! I’ll need puns, and anecdotes and wacky terms of endearment, oh my. This is Sanjaya we’re discussing! That screen-filling smile. That highly-ductile, malleable hair. That bizarre ability to only make one pale, pigtailed-girl cry uncontrollably for the camera…it’s all so…bloggable. Continue reading →

Dhaliwal: “We didn’t do nothing” to Tatiana the Tiger

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Dhaliwals at funeral.jpg Of course you didn’t. And witnesses will confirm that you were politely observing the animals at the San Francisco Zoo while thoughtfully considering their majesty– but more on that later. Finally, the parents of mauling victim Carlos Sousa received the phone call they pleaded for:

One of two young men who survived the Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo that killed their 17-year-old friend told the teen’s mother that they had not taunted the big cat, the mother said today.
“He said, ‘We didn’t do nothing. We were just normal kids at the zoo,’ ” Marilza Sousa said after talking with her son’s friend Paul Dhaliwal, 19, of San Jose.
“That’s what happened, just dancing, talking, laughing like normal kids,” said Sousa, whose son Carlos Sousa Jr. was killed by the Siberian tiger. “I believe him.”
…The brothers have so far refused to speak publicly about the incident. Sousa said Paul Dhaliwal had told her he has remained silent because he is still tormented by the incident, not because his attorney has told him not to talk. [sfgate]

Both brothers attended Sousa’s funeral, which is what their friend’s grieving parents hoped for.

But there’s still more to this story and it contradicts the recounting of events provided by the Dhaliwal brothers. A witness came forward, to describe what the boys were doing that day at the zoo:

Jennifer Miller, who was at the zoo with her husband and two children that ill-fated Christmas afternoon, said she saw four young men at the big-cat grottos – and three of them were teasing the lions a short time before the tiger’s bloody rampage that killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr.
“The boys, especially the older one, were roaring at them. He was taunting them,” the San Francisco woman said. “They were trying to get that lion’s attention. … The lion was bristling, so I just said, ‘Come on, let’s get out of here’ because my kids were disturbed by it.”
…Her family was looking at the lions when the young men stopped beside them at the big-cat grottos – five outdoor exhibits attached to the Lion House. The young men started roaring at the lions and acting “boisterous” to get their attention, said Miller, who added that she watched the four for five minutes or so a little after 4 p.m. “It was why we left,” she said. “Their behavior was disturbing. They kept doing it.”
Sousa refrained from such tactics, Miller said. “He wasn’t roaring. He wasn’t taunting them,” she recalled. “He kept looking at me apologetically like, ‘I’m sorry, I know we are being stupid.’ “ [sfgate]

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