Author Archives: Abhi

About Abhi

Abhi lives in Los Angeles and works to put things into space.

Of abominable practices and licentious lives…

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I wanted to point out that we here at Sepia Mutiny, have a long and rich tradition of not simply bringing to you daily gossip and rumors, and of stirring up trouble, but of also bringing you a little South Asian history from time to time. We’d secretly like to stay respectable so that you aren’t ashamed to talk about us around the water cooler, and can use us to impress that cute girl or guy you are into, with your newfound knowledge. Thus I point you to an enlightening story about St. Francis Xavier in Time Magazine’s Asia edition. This month an estimated 2 million people will shuffle past Xavier’s tomb in the state of Goa to pay their respects. That is a pilgrimage that is second only to the Haj in numbers. These bunch of pious peripatetics may cramp the style of those, who like many of our friends, are going to Goa this New Year’s Eve to party.
So what did Xavier first think of the Goan’s?

A great number of them were adventurers of all sorts who left behind them in Europe even the semblance of outward morality [and] who had become utterly corrupted by temptations [and] vices. [They] made no pretense of desisting from their most abominable practices [and] led the most licentious lives.
—Henry James Coleridge,
The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier

Wow. Almost 500 years later that still seems to be an accurate description of some of our friends that are going to Goa. Xavier it seems, was loved by many yet his behavior might definitely be called abhorrent in many ways today. Such is usually the case with religious figures. Continue reading →

The latest Census data: Disparity among the Asian population

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The Los Angeles Times [registration required] publishes and in-depth article on census data released Wednesday, about the Asian American community. The full 24 page report can be found at the Census Bureau’s website and is titled, “We the People: Asians in the United States.”

From the LA times article:

Indian Americans have surged forward as the most successful Asian minority in the United States, reporting top levels of income, education, professional job status and English-language ability, even though three-fourths were foreign-born, according to U.S. census data released Wednesday.

The striking success of Asian Americans who trace their heritage to India contrasted with data showing struggles among Cambodian, Laotian and Hmong immigrants. Those three groups reported continued significant poverty rates, low job skills and limited English-language ability since their flight from war and political turmoil.

The report, “We the People: Asians in the United States,” was based on 2000 census data and underscored the enormous socioeconomic diversity among the nation’s 10 million Asian Americans, more than one third of whom live in California, the state with their largest population.

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Just say NO to Ayurveda

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The Boston Globe and several others report on researcher’s findings that many herbal pills and powders sold in Indian stores in the U.S. are dangerously high in heavy metals.

The scientists, first alerted to the danger by reports of patients suffering seizures after taking herbs, discovered that one in five of the imported products they bought in local shops had levels of heavy metals sometimes hundreds of times higher than the daily amount considered safe for oral consumption. The same products are sold nationwide.

The herbal pills, powders, and liquids are a cornerstone in the practice of Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient holistic system of health that originated in India and that emphasizes the mind-body connection. It relies on herbs and oils to treat illness and prevent disease. An estimated 80 percent of India’s 1 billion adults and children use the remedies as a routine part of health care.

The herbs are not regulated in India, and in this country, unlike prescription drugs or over-the-counter medicines, the imported products can be sold without rigorous scientific testing, subject only to the same standards that apply to food.

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I am wanting my MTV

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Wow, I guess when it rains it pours. From Worldscreen.com:

MTV Networks today announced the launch of MTV World, initially consisting of three new channels in the U.S. targeting Indian-American, Chinese-American and Korean-American viewers.

The channels will feature content from MTV’s own international networks, plus original programming, promos and packaging created in the U.S. “We live in an increasingly diverse and multicultural country, where conversations at the dinner table and in the living room are more and more taking place in Chinese, Hindi, Urdu and Korean,” said MTV Networks’ chairman and CEO, Judy McGrath. “Launching these new channels is the next logical and tremendously exciting step for MTV Networks, delivering customized programming that reflects the bi-cultural identities of these audiences, not to mention providing another platform for all the great talent from these communities.”

Okay. Maybe a Sepia Mutiny blog show isn’t respectable enough to get on American Desi TV, but surely MTV will take us? I can’t wait to make an appearance on TRL with all those girls scream… Okay back to reality.

The first to launch will be MTV Desi, targeting Indian Americans. MTV China and MTV Korea will launch in 2005, with additional channels to follow. Tapped to oversee these new networks is Nusrat Durrani, as general manager and senior VP of MTV World.
Posted in TV

“American Desi” T.V.

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Several news services carry a press release announcing the creation of a new 24-hour English language American television network for South Asians living in America:

American Desi, the first and only 24- hour English language American television network for South Asians living in America, today announced the appointment of senior management, advisors and on-air talent who among them represent over 125 years of relevant experience at such media companies as ABC, NBC, ESPN, FOX, PAX-TV and major corporations, including American Express, among others.

The new network’s senior management will lead a team of executives, producers, directors, writers, on-air talent and production personnel who have received many of the U.S. television industry’s top honors — including more than ten Emmy Awards.

Well its about damn time. What can we expect in terms of content? It looks like they are putting together a great team:

American Desi today also unveiled several featured on-air talent appointees, including Divya Ohri, Vice President of Production and Sree Sreenivasan, WABC-TV reporter and South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) co-founder. Ms. Ohri becomes American Desi’s Senior Vice President and host of “American Desi: Prime Time Live,” the flagship show of the network; “Bollywood Fix;” and co-host of “Points of View.” For his part, Mr. Sreenivasan is executive producing and hosting American Desi’s new “Live Wire; The Pulse; The Voice” in-depth affairs programming. “We are extremely proud of the unprecedented and unparalleled team we have assembled both behind and in front of the camera. Never before has such a senior assemblage of Western and South Asian executives and on-air talent been assembled to launch a comprehensive media venture for the Desi community,” said Mr. Verma.

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Posted in TV

Eying ’08

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Oh, come on. Everyone knows Hillary is going to run in ’08. It’s inevitable. She is busy putting together her crack team (ostensibly for her ’06 Senate Run), which includes Neera Tanden of NY. From the Hindustan Times:

Senator Hillary Clinton has chosen an Indian American and several other long-time advisers as part of her inner team to gear up for her 2006 re-election bid.

Neera Tanden, who joined the Democrat from New York last year as her legislative director, worked in former President Bill Clinton’s White House and with Hillary Clinton in various capacities for many years.

…Tanden, who was born and brought up in the US, is a law graduate. She worked as Associate Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during President Bill Clinton’s tenure. She focused on healthcare, education and juvenile crime for then first lady Hillary Clinton. Even before that, she worked on the Clinton-Al Gore campaign in California in 1992 and 1996.

A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Yale Law School, Tanden was on Hillary Clinton’s campaign as deputy campaign manager in her run for Congress in 2001.

So what kind of team is Clinton putting together?

Roll Call magazine called Clinton’s team “a small, ethnically diverse stable of advisers dominated by women,” which is supposed to help “chart her political course over the next four years.”

A good ladaka is hard to find

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A daily part of too many of our late twenty-something, early thirty-something lives seems to revolve around the question of finding someone, simply to get our parents off our backs. 37 year old Priti Chowdhury, who is a pediatric anesthesiologist in Chicagoland, decided to finance and film a semi-documentary about her search for Mr. Right titled, Finding Preet. From the Philadelphia Inquirer [free registration required]:

At first glance, the dilemma sounds familiar: A successful woman in her late 30s isn’t married, and her well-meaning but old-fashioned mother and father nag her to find a husband.

But two things set this story apart.

The victim in question, Priti Chowdhury, 37, a pediatric anesthesiologist named one of Chicago’s most eligible women, spent a quarter of a million dollars to make a movie about her misadventures in love and dating. (And instead of objecting, her proud South Jersey parents are in it.)

I can already imagine dozens of my female friends looking for advanced tickets to this movie. Hell, with that many girls going, I may as well go too 🙂 Continue reading →

Amu: A look at the 1984 Riots

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Amu.jpg

About a year ago, a friend asked me if I could spare a couple hours to talk with her film director friend as well as a lead actress who needed to conduct some basic background research on a film about the 1984 riots against the Sikhs in India that they were working on. They wanted mostly for us to give them our impressions upon returning to India after a long absence. In my case I talked about living in Delhi and doing volunteer work there and how my perceptions of India had changed between the 14 years that passed between the time I visited as a child and when I returned as an adult. The other person she interviewed happened to have been Sikh, and was a small child in Delhi at the time of the Riots. His recollections were perfect for the type of research they needed. It seems that the director, Shonali Bose, is set to release her film next month. From the AFP:

US-based Shonali Bose is set to release a film next month depicting anti-Sikh riots that hit India following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, after accepting cuts demanded by Indian censors.

She told AFP that “Amu”, based on her novel of the same name has been shot in English and cleared for release in India by the Central Board of Film Certification.

“Amu” tells the story of an orphan named Kaju [Actress Konkona Sen Sharma], adopted and brought up in Los Angeles by American parents, who returns to India to discover her roots and finds that her real parents were killed during the anti-Sikh riots.

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Mahabharata and the Illiad

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As Manish recently noted, three Indian-Americans were awarded the Rhodes Scholarship this year. One of them is Ian Desai of the University of Chicago. Ian plans to use his time to make a comparison of the Iliad and the Mahabharata. From The Tribune of India:

A New Yorker, Desai graduated this year with a degree in ancient studies. In 2001, he tried to retrace the mythic journey of Jason and the Argonauts through Greece, Turkey and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

He traveled by bus, motor cycle, car and on foot. To get around, he used a little Greek, broken Turkish and the kindness of strangers. He even negotiated with Turkish fishermen to spend 10 days on their trawler.

At one point he and Michael Newton, a photographer who chronicled the trip, were warned by a Georgian train conductor that they were in bandit country.

“WeÂ’re very proud of him,” said Susan Art, Dean of Students of the University of ChicagoÂ’s undergraduate college. “Ian is a remarkable individual who has contributed so much to the university. I think his success does justice to the quality of the education we offer,” Art added. Desai hopes to build upon his undergraduate research that has explored a rarely undertaken subject: a comparison of the Iliad and the Mahabharata.

Now to me, mythology-geek that I am, this sounds like a fascinating study. I Googled the terms “Mahabharata and Illiad” to see what came up and this review of the Mahabharata which draws parallels to the Illiad was one of the first. I suppose all Myth is to a great deal interrelated. Joesph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces does a good job of exploring that hypothesis. In any case I hope to hear more about this in a few years when he finishes.

Sikh family’s house burned by arsonist

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Why is it that every time I write about some unfortunate Indian American family they happen to be Sikh? Just bad luck? The latest is the case of the Anands from Concord, California whose house was burned down in early September, allegedly by arson. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Concord police have recommended that a laborer who was working at the home next door be charged with arson and burglary in connection with the fire. The district attorney expects to make a decision within the next week or so. To support the family, a candlelit vigil was held recently at the family’s burnt-out home that brought together about 150 South Asians, neighbors, civil rights groups, and supporters from many different backgrounds who urged the district attorney to prosecute the suspect.

The Anands are thankful to the many people who have donated clothes, food, and even architectural services. Now, they are struggling to rebuild their lives.

“I can hardly sleep. I’m worried all the time what is going to happen to this family,” said father Gurcharanjeet “Don” Anand, 54. The delivery truck driver is on disability following a car accident and heart bypass surgery late last year. Thickset, with a graying beard, he is a laconic man.

But once again the question that is difficult to answer is whether or not this was a Hate Crime. The Anands suspect it MAY have been by some comments the alleged arsonist had made in prior dealings with the family.

Over three days, a man working at the house next door asked the Anands for water, and to borrow the phone. They obliged, and Minnie Anand even fixed him a plate of spaghetti when he said he was hungry. But each time, he made increasingly disturbing comments, according to the family’s pro-bono lawyer, Edwin Prather.

What made your people come here? You Indians have a lot of money. Do you own your house? You have beautiful daughters.

Sunday afternoon, the Anands turned the man away when he asked to use the phone. He left, angry. The Anands and their five children left for temple — where the bad news came that night.

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