Author Archives: Abhi

About Abhi

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

Plug: 2008 SAAN Conference

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Most long time readers know (see previous posts 1,2) of my soft spot for the SAAN Conference. If you are a college student and want to go to one desi conference this year, make this one in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 25th-27th the one. Once again, the hard working University of Michigan students have assembled a great line up of speakers and some fascinating workshop topics (workshops are highly interactive):

Who’s the Man?

Dialogue on gender rarely focuses on men’s issues. Why are Muslim men always seen as sexist? In film, why are most of the romantic leads Hindu? Where do Sikhs fall into the picture? By processing all of these questions, we will be able to see how identity, gender, and stereotypes collide in creating images of South Asian masculinity, as well as their tangible effects on individual lives.

Journalistic Justice

With podcasts, blogs, and email, we have an infinite amount of information at our fingertips. Fewer people are subscribing to paper publications, shifting the way we consume current events. Technology facilitates new forms of journalism, broadening who has access to innovative ideas.

Loans for Livelihood

An abundance of food and money are two commodities that most First World societies take for granted, but almost every continent includes regions that have an immense scarcity of these basic resources. Due to international development goals as well as the motivation of private firms and individuals, micro-credit, or lending small amounts of money to people with little or no capital, has become one popular and possibly successful way to approach poverty.

The Keynote speakers this year include Vijay Prashad and NPR guest commentator Sandip Roy. This is a great alternative to that other desi conference which I shall not even name. If you’ve attended a SAAN conference before, please leave a comment about your experience.

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A Brief and Wondrous Book

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Its not often that a book blows my insides out. They were able to quite frequently when I was younger, and my mind became irreprably twisted on a diet of science fiction and fantasy. At some point I got “old” and realized that the highs I got off those books couldn’t be matched by a real life. Now I read mostly non-fiction and stay away from any strong stuff that could push me off the wagon and require literary methadone treatments. I started doing what I could to seek out the rush, the lust, the magic in the real world. I’m still doing what I can in the real world.

And then I relapsed last week. Hard. My past is why I so connected with the title character in Junot Diaz’s brilliant first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Or rather, I connected at some middle ground between this dateless, hopeless nerd and the consummate ladies man who tells us the story. You’ll have to wait a bit longer for the desi connections. From the back of the book:

“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a book that speaks in tongues. This long-awaited novel by Junot Diaz is a masterpiece about our New World, its myths, curses, and bewitching women. Set in America’s navel, New Jersey, and haunted by the vision of Trujillo’s brutal reign over the Dominican Republic, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is radiant with the hard lives of those who leave and also those who stay behind — it is a rousing hymn about the struggle to defy bone-cracking history with ordinary, and extraordinary, love.” Walter Mosley

This book is a “diaspora novel” that transcends both time and reality (its filled with quotes from Lord of the Rings and other books that any real sci-fi nerd would know). As another reviewer stated, to paraphrase, “this is a diaspora novel for people who hate diaspora novels.” Set in New Jersey and the Dominican Republic it is the tale of a several generations of a strong Dominican American family that has been cursed (like all Dominicans) by the Fuku, brought by the “Admiral” who should never be named (but arrived in 1492). It is a curse so powerful that it is pointless to fight it. Diaz uses the life of an overweight science-fiction nerd to propel the story, a roughneck ladies man to narrate it, and a group of strong and beautiful latin women to beat the nerd and the roughneck out of each man and make the sadness of this book worth enduring. It is also a detailed and illuminating account of the brutal 20th century dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (a.k.a Sauron or The Eye).

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Ghosts of Christmas (and other times) past

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I’m always a bit hesitant to write what might be viewed as a “personal” entry on these pages. I used to have my own personal blog for those types of musings but decided to give it up because of the pressures of a full time job and this blog. I also don’t want to be presumptuous and assume that the vast majority of SM readers care about my life (as opposed to my writings highlighting something of interest or importance to the South Asian American community). That being said, today is a holiday (when SM readership plummets for obvious reasons), and so I figured I’d get away with some personal blogging. Since many of you seemed to enjoy my previous entry about my arduous toils in my basement, I thought I would serve up one more entry based on the booty recovered from the nine tons of refuse we removed from down there over the last three days.

First off, I know some of you don’t believe me when I say I’m a Grinch. Do these pictures finally convince you? I could tell even at a young age that this new-fangled Santa Claus was an imposter:

Leave this one alone. He’s bad to the bone. (Age 1)

And Frosty? Please. The only large snowball I care to associate with is a snow cone with watermelon syrup:

Where is Frosty’s left hand?

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Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai 2007

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India and China are just about to wrap up joint military exercises, 45 years after the border war which put an end to the phrase which serves as the title of this post. The CSM reports:

The decision to hold joint Army exercises, ending tomorrow, in China’s Yunnan Province, is admittedly a small measure. But it is the first time the two armies have cooperated in such a way, and it comes on the heels of rapidly expanding Sino-Indian ties in business and politics…

This being the first Army exercise between the two countries, it has been small. Only 95 Indian soldiers have traveled to Yunnan Province, where they are participating in counterterrorism drills. But the joint exercise is expected to become an annual event, helping each side become better acquainted with the other.

“These are building blocks being put in place,” says Rahul Bedi of Jane’s, a London-based military analysis firm. “It’s a part of the learning process…” [Link]

And what did they name these exercises? Operation Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? Sadly, no. That would have been the name if only I were in charge. Instead, the name given to these joint training exercises was “Hand-in-Hand 2007.” Hand-in-Hand? These are supposed to be warriors not playmates. For your viewing enjoyment I have posted some of the most exciting pictures from the the last several days:

Chinese soldier teaches Indians that the best way to defend against a sledge hammer to the head is by using the nearest pile of bricks for protection. They swear it works and that Indians should try.

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Skeletons in the basement

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The last two days I have been performing back-breaking, grueling, utterly soul crushing labor…in my own house (well, my parents house). Have you guys ever read a news article about some reclusive old guy who had a lifelong hoarding problem (a.k.a syllogomania) and when police finally entered the house they found a rotting, partially eaten corpse buried underneath a pile of junk that was formerly on one side of the only navigable lane through the house? Yes? Then now you know what my dad is like (known as “Yo Dad” to some who read SM). My dad left with my mom for India earlier this week so I flew home to help my brother clean out the house without any resistance. I wanted to solve this looming crisis before my dad made the local news in the “odd news” segment. Over the last two days we’ve been cleaning out stuff (mostly stored in the basement) that spans back 40 years! I won’t bore you with descriptions of 20-year-old used shower curtains or “Indian luggage bags” filled with spiders. I will take you straight to the good stuff. First, check out these two cricket bats. I remember they were purchased on a trip to India in 1982/3 in Ahmedabad (I was ~7). Notice anything shocking on one of them?

Was I an angry militant batsman as a child?

Can someone please explain this to me? Why would a child’s cricket bat say Hitler on it? I can understand why the one on the right has Sunil Gavaskar’s name…but Hitler?? As best as I can guess, the bat makers meant to spell “Hitter” but misspelled it as “Hitler.” Why did my parents even buy me this cricket bat? This could REALLY come back to tank my candidacy if I ever run for office. This is a closet skeleton right up there with GW Bush’s and Obama’s cocaine use.

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Stocking stuffers for the Orissa government

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The opposition Orissa Congress Party is pissed off and they ain’t going to take it no more. Surely I am referring to some local matter (perhaps involving bauxite), right? Nope. They are pissed off at the online (mostly T-shirt) store CafePress and want to lodge a formal complaint with the United States government so as to put a stop to the highly offensive insanity I am about to describe. We’ve heard this all before from American Hindus, but this one just escalates the absurdity to a whole new level:

Is that a Nehru in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

Insensitivity towards foreign cultures and sentiments has plumbed new depths. A US-based online shop has kicked up a storm by printing images of the Tricolour, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru on undergarments.

The Orissa Congress on Saturday condemned the “cheap publicity stunt.” “This is stupid on the website’s part to malign a world leader like Gandhi and a great national icon like Nehru in such a disgraceful fashion,” Opposition leader, J B Patnaik, said, adding, “They should be told through proper channels to stop it. Since the website is US-based, I urge Indians there to lodge strong protests…” [Link]

Did you hear that? “They should be told…to stop it.” I beseech you my fellow Indian Americans to heed the call of this nobody politician from Orissa and demand that we protest against the First Amendment of these United States. If you remain unconvinced then I must point out that the reputations of Gandhi, Nehru, and the Indian Flag are not the only ones at stake. There is far greater disrespect involved here:

Youth also protested against the derogatory portrayal of Bollywood icons, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, on similar products. Now, it’s the turn of freedom fighters to air their grievances against the “offensive attacks on national leaders”. [Link]
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Meet the Mutiny: SM interviews Candidate J. Ashwin Madia

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At the end of October I profiled Jigar Ashwin Madia, a “Democrat” (or DFLer) who is running for Congress in the 3rd District of Minnesota. An important thing to note here is that, as I understand it, in order to compete in the general election as a DFLer in Minnesota, you have to first obtain an endorsement from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) is a major political party in the US state of Minnesota. It was created on April 15, 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and Farmer-Labor Party merged. Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger. The party is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. The nickname “DFLers” is often used in Minnesota by both members and non-members of the party as an alternative to “Democrats”. [Link]

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will base part of its decision (a long process) on which candidate has raised the most money by the end of the year, since money in the war chest is an indicator of general election viability (an unfortunate fact about politics in America today). Therefore, the month of December is critical to Madia’s campaign if he hopes to contend for this seat. One of Madia’s staff explained the process to me back in November:

“…the fundraising period that matters most ends December 31, 2007. That period matters most because the results from that time will be what voters know going into the endorsement process that begins on February 5, 2008. (Ashwin has agreed to abide by the results of the endorsement process, so if he does not receive the endorsement from the Democratic Party, the campaign is over.) The next round of fundraising numbers will not come out until April 15, 2008, and at that point, the endorsement process will be almost over.”

Asking for your effort as a volunteer or for a monetary contribution, just like asking for your vote, demands that a candidate explain his positions clearly and thoughtfully enough to satisfy you as a voter or donor. I asked Madia a few questions that I was curious to know the answer to (some of them just to warm him up for you all). I am counting on our smart readers to vet him some more with thoughtful questions. If you like what he has to say, consider supporting him. If not, this is still a chance for one-on-one participation in the political process. Here we go:

Abhi: Tell us a little about your experiences in Iraq. What are the top three things you learned over there that you feel helps make you a better candidate now that you are back in Minnesota?

Madia: While in Iraq, I worked with the military, the State Department, the Justice Department, the European Union, the United Nations, and Iraqi judicial officers to strengthen Iraq’s legal system and establish the rule of law. I learned that: 1) Iraq is a beautiful country with some of the most gorgeous sunrises I’ve ever seen; 2) the Iraqi people (at least those that I dealt with – primarily lawyers and judges) are brave and very kind; and 3) we, the Americans, need to do a better job of establishing unity of command of our military and State Department efforts, to ensure cohesion and maximize the effectiveness of our efforts. I believe these understandings make me a better candidate because they will give me the foundation to help reestablish Congressional oversight over the conduct of the war through probing questions and initiatives. I can draw upon my experiences to push the military and State Department when necessary about their planning and execution of long term strategy in Iraq.

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And now a couple of programming notes

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First off, this coming Monday we will be having the first of several “Meet the Mutiny” posts for the 2008 election cycle. That means that on Monday you all will be interviewing J. Ashwin Madia, the congressional candidate from Minnesota right here. He will be periodically checking SM through the entire day to answer your questions (in the form of comments) below the post I put up Monday. You can ask him about his stance on local or national issues, advice about what it takes to run as a candidate, or any other reasonable questions you might have. If you’ve been watching Iowa and New Hampshire from the sidelines thus far, wondering what this election fuss is all about, now is your chance to get involved and educated about some of the issues that our country is facing, including the war in Iraq (of which Madia is a veteran).

Second, the new Indian magazine TrafficLife is featuring a SM post each month, starting with Amardeep’s post in their inaugural issue. Gosh, I never thought I’d see the day when SM was openly distributed below a highway overpass. Pages containing SM blog posts might potentially even be used as part of the home of someone living under than overpass. Now that is deep.

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A Revival?

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The Christian Science Monitor carried an article last week detailing the rise of Sufism in the Middle East and South Asia, focusing particularly on its potential role as an “antidote” to the extremism preached by many others who claim to act in the name of Islam:

Images of Islam have pervaded the news media in recent years, but one aspect of the faith has gotten little attention – Islamic spirituality. Yet thousands in America and millions in the Muslim world have embarked on the spiritual path called Sufism, or the Sufi way. Some see its appeal as the most promising hope for countering the rise of extremism in Islam… In the West, Sufism has appealed to seekers attracted by its disciplined spiritual practices as well as its respect for all faiths and emphasis on universal love…

But Sufi practice faces intense pressures in Islam’s internal struggle. “What the Western world is not seeing,” says Akbar Ahmed, a renowned Pakistani anthropologist who teaches at American University in Washington, “is that there are three distinct models in play in the Muslim world: modernism, which reflects globalization, materialism, and a consumer society; the literalists, who are reacting, sometimes violently, against the West and globalization; and the Sufis, who reject the search for power and wealth” in favor of a more spiritual path.

Feeling under siege, the average Muslim today is in turmoil, Dr. Ahmed says. To which of these answers will he or she turn? He believes that the spiritual hunger is deep and resonates widely. [Link]

I think that in a world where the average Muslim finds violence in the name of Islam abhorrent, and yet can’t accept a solution which counters violence with more violence, a path like Sufism has the potential to grow exponentially in the coming years. This can only have a positive effect in places where religion, as it stands, has led to a stagnant or despotic society.

While Sufism has been persecuted in Saudi Arabia, it is thriving in such places as Iran, Pakistan, and India outside the modernist cities, says Ahmed, who traveled throughout the Muslim world in 2006. During a visit to the Sufi shrine at Ajmer, India, he encountered a throng of thousands worshiping there.

“Just last week, when former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan, where did he go? To the Sufi shrine in Lahore,” he adds…

Yet, according to a survey Ahmed took of some young people in Turkey last year, their top choice as a role model is a Sufi intellectual, Fetullah Gulen, who has built a large system of schools and is known for his promotion of interfaith dialogue. [Link] Continue reading →

Parties to make my heart grow three sizes bigger

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Despite the fact that I’m a total Grinch during the holiday season, I have to acknowledge that this time of year isn’t only about consumption (monetary and culinary) and bad music. It is also a time for helping out those less fortunate. With that in mind I’d like to recommend two holiday parties to our readers (and I shall be at both). The first is tonight at 10 pm. in Washington D.C. at Cafe Asia:grchheart.jpg

In the years past we have worked with many organizations in the Greater Washington area to help bring local children a wonderful holiday season and give them encouragement and assistance in bettering their lives. We have also worked with a number of international organizations to help bring children hope who have been orphaned, affected by natural disasters, displaced by war and or have been born with disability. These organizations through our generous donations have been able to help build schools, provide education and sustenance for kids and provide hope for those that may have had none.

The Sumil Shah Foundation for Children is looking for your support this year for the seventh annual toy drive. Through the Toy Drive we are able to collect numerous toys that are further distributed throughout the local DC area by way of our network. We also collect cash donations which we rely on greatly to help many unfortunate children locally and internationally. We welcome you to visit our website at sumilshah.org to get more information on these wonderful organizations.

The second charity party is in Houston next Saturday night at 9p.m. at Zimm’s Martini and Wine Bar:

Join us on Saturday December 15, 2007 for a fabulous night! We are throwing a charity party benefitting the DePelchin Children’s Center – a Houston area orphanage.

Zimm’s is ours for the night! All we are asking is you bring a toy for the kids or an item off of the orphanage’s needs list. If you prefer you can donate money and we will buy the items for you.

If you guys know of any other charity parties thrown by desi organizations or individuals, please throw them up on our Events Tab (and mention them as a comment in this post). Please remember to drive responsibly when leaving these parties. And remember, if not us, WHO will think of the children? Continue reading →