Author Archives: Abhi

About Abhi

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

Small hands are cute

Posted on by

It has been a while since we’ve received any Badmash in our inboxes. That’s because the Badmash crew has gone on a semi-permanent hiatus (as each of them moves on to other endeavours). Two Sundays ago anyone watching King of the Hill may have noticed that the lead writing credit for the episode went to former Badmash-er Sanjay Shah. The plot involved Hank Hill as the protagonist hooligan in a Grand Theft Auto-style shoot-em-up game called Pro Pain. Only fans of the show (living in Texas this is required viewing) will get why the title of the video game is so funny.

Badmash, however, isn’t the only example of a periodic desi comic strip. Readers of India Currents might also be familiar with a strip titled Small Hands, inked by Bay Area artist Nidhi Chanani. Here is an example of her cute strip:

Continue reading →

In fear of a dark-skinned Communist mob

Posted on by

This past week, on May 1st to be precise, our country witnessed a second wave of immigration reform rallies that were noted more for their violence (by the police) than for their size. These rallies weren’t nearly as large as those held to influence the mid-term elections last year. Those rallies were also in response to particularly harsh anti-immigration positions by some members of Congress (positions far less likely to pass with Democrats in charge). However, these demonstrations increasingly pose a problem for me. They are no longer just about immigration (to be fair I wonder if they ever were). They are rallies by the working class against the elite. I worry that conflating these two separate battles will lead to a maelstrom. I worry more that these battles will increasingly become inseparable and that we will start to move toward a culture as in Europe where class and race seem to be inextricably tied and often lead to violence. Our strongest defense against self-immolation as a nation is to fight to de-couple race and class.

It might be useful to first understand what happened at one of these rallies. Here is a good clip that will give you a feel for what it was like to be on the ground in L.A. both before and after things turned bad:

As most of you know, SM’s readership is quite diverse. We have 13-year-olds that read us and sometimes send us nice comments. We also have older readers who might enjoy our unfiltered perspective. One such reader, Ruchira, emailed me about her daughter. Here is an excerpt from her blog:
Most of you have by now seen news reports of the May Day rally at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles which turned violent when some demonstrators threw bottles and cans and the LAPD opened “fire” with rubber bullets and charged into the crowd with batons (the CNN report here). Although the incident is reported in the media as an “immigration rally,” the afternoon event at the park was an International Workers’ Day gathering where undocumented workers too demonstrated for their rights.

My daughter was present at the afternoon protest rally as an observer on behalf of the National Lawyers’ Guild along with other attorneys. She was caught in the middle of the melee when she tried to help move the back of the crowd away from the advancing police line. During her efforts, she was charged and beaten by a policeman. (full report on Indymedia here.) Some other attorneys, journalists, photographers and other non-protesting bystanders too were beaten and injured…

According to my daughter who reported Tuesday’s incident to her parents only on Wednesday (!!!), the Indymedia reports are a bit breathless and somewhat erroneous. She did not receive a blow to her kidneys. The policeman slugged her with his baton at least four times in the stomach. Oh, the report left out another detail. My daughter was also shot in the back with a rubber bullet! She is shaken, angry but otherwise okay and did not need to make a trip to the hospital.[Link]

Continue reading →

“Obhangra”: In pursuit of the desi voter

Posted on by

I’d been waiting for this Evite from SAFO-DC for over a month now because I’d been tipped off that it was coming:

Host: South Asians for Obama (SAFO)
Location: Karma, 1919 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC
When: Friday, May 18, 8:30pm
Phone: 202.331.5800

South Asians for Obama (SAFO) would like to invite you to our first official OBHANGRA!!

As you may have guessed, Obhangra is a clever combination of Obama and Bhangra! Bhangra fever has taken over the country and we want to give you an opportunity to learn and dance at Obhangra! So whether you support Senator Obama or are still undecided, we hope you will join us and many others to learn some Bhangra moves and dance the night away!

I must say that I am REALLY worried about the appropriation of bhangra for use in overtly partisan politics. In the same manner that K-street lobbyists are corrupting our political process by lavishing money on politicians, I believe that soon our desi customs and food will be used as a cheap tool to battle for the attention (and money) of the pivotal South Asian vote. Let me just give you all a glimpse of the future. It is scary:

Jalebis for Giuliani: A fundraiser organized by “Law-and-Order” browns.

Henna for Hillary: A fundraiser organized by feminist browns.

Raas for Romney: A fundraiser organized by Gujarati Mormons.

Bindis for Biden: A fundraiser organized by 7-11 and Dunkin Donut employees.

Katha for Kucinich: A fundraiser organized by religious browns who want a “Department of Peace.”

Masala for McCain: A fundraiser organized by Independent (maverick) browns who love good curry.

PLEASE, let’s not participate in any attempts to use our culture, traditions, or food to raise money for politicians.

Hmmmm. I wonder if there will be any cute, politically active, single women at the Obhangra. Balle Balle.

<a href="http://sepiamutiny.com/blog/2007/05/03/obhangra_in_pur/#more-4407" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&rarr;</span></a>

A Texas-sized SM meetup

Posted on by

Question: What is hotter than the Rodeo?

Answer: The first ever Houston, TX meet-up!

When: Friday, May 18th or Saturday, May 19th (TBD)

Where: Suggestions welcome

Who: Texas boasts the third highest concentration of Sepia Mutiny readers in the world after 1) California and 2) New York. I expect y’all to represent.

Why: Because you should never underestimate the South’s mutinous potential

This is the first time I am ever hosting a meetup alone. I have always had either Anna or Taz co-host with me. Sepia Mutiny’s Houston Bureau Offices have been up and running now for four months so it is time for the bureau chief to cease with his shut-in ways. Commenters, lurkers, randoms, all welcome. And remember…everything is bigger in Texas.

Check back at this post and our Events Tab for the final date and location. I will post another reminder a few days before.

Continue reading →

The Keys to the Bunker

Posted on by

Dear Readers,

Paul and Kunjan, Sepia Mutiny’s two website administrators, have done a great job keeping the Mutiny running for this past year. Now, however, we are looking for a group of people to take over the reins from them and guide this website to the next level. We are not just looking for people who are enthusiastic and got the skillz (Movable Type, PHP, etc.) to keep SM readers happy. In addition, we are looking for people with the TIME to actually implement their vision for what Sepia Mutiny could be. This should be a hobby that you are passionate about. Here is a partial list of the things we want to do in the near term (although the full list would blow your lenghas off):

  • A new News tab modeled after Digg with comments, comment rating, and registered users.
  • Website re-design. We want a cool new look.
  • User-submitted posts.
  • Great ideas that we haven’t thought of yet that will make us among the most innovative blogs on the block.

We are looking for people who can put in as much time and effort in running the site as the bloggers put in to writing posts. Paul and Kunjan will teach you the back-end of our current website and you can take it from there.

Please email me if you are interested and meet the requirements:

abhi [at] sepiamutiny dot com

If you have a technical question to determine if you are qualified then email Kunjan:

kunjan [at] sepiamutiny dot com

If you know someone who is perfect for this job then send them a link to this post.

Alternatively, if you have suggestions for how to improve our website then please click here to send it to us instead of leaving them in the comments.

Thanks all!

Continue reading →

Converts not invaders

Posted on by

A soon to be published genetic study of the population of Northern India is sure to get the attention of some right wing groups who like to come up with their own alternate “theories” with regards to the history of Hindu/Muslim interaction on the sub-continent.

Scientists have confirmed what historians have known.

Genetic studies have suggested that Muslims in northern India are mostly descendants of local people who embraced Islam rather than repositories of foreign DNA deposited by waves of invaders.

The studies by scientists in India, Spain and the US indicate that while the Shias and the Sunnis in Uttar Pradesh are mostly descendants of converts, the former have some elements of paternal foreign ancestry…

“In the mtDNA, we do not see discrete signals from outside India,” Rene J. Herrera, a biologist at Florida International University in the US and one of the collaborators, said. “Thus, both are, for the most part, descendants from local caste groups,” he told The Telegraph.

However, the Shias do show some signatures of foreign DNA from southwest Asia and North Africa in the Y chromosome, Herrera said. [Link]

Within the last decade it has continued to amaze me how some strands of DNA can help corroborate or disprove decades worth of historical investigation. As the techniques become quicker and cheaper I’m sure we’ll be unlocking all kinds of secrets about the movements of humans and whether they mated with each other or killed each other.

Principal component analysis (PCA), a statistical tool that separates individuals on the basis of differences in their properties was employed to place each social group on a plot. According to this plot Shias and Sunnis are much closer to Brahmins, Bhargavas, and tribals from Karnataka than people from UAE, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and or Central Asian countries. PCA generated a plot that showed three clear clusters- Souther Arabian Peninsula, North East African population in upper left quadrant, East Central Asian and Middle Eastern group in the lower right hand corner, and all Indian groups can be found closer to each other to the right. [Link]

A while back I blogged about this National Geographic Project that is looking to systematically trace the movement of humanity’s genes. Have any readers swabbed their cheeks and sent in their DNA yet? Want to share your results?

Continue reading →

He was a God of his subjects

Posted on by

Unfortunately Engineering Professors never get their proper due in life…

Professor G V Loganathan of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was teaching in a class in the Norris Hall – one of the crime scenes – when the gunman went on rampage.

His colleague Prof Raman Kumar confirmed the news of Loganathan’s death to CNN-IBN.

According to Raman, Loganathan was taking a lecture when the second shooting occurred. He was killed around 0915 hrs (local time), Raman confirmed.

When CNN-IBN contacted a shaken Raman, he was at Lognathan’s residence and said he got the confirmation from the authorities at the University. [Link]

If you click on the picture above it will take you to a video clip of reporters in India going into more detail about the Professor.

Loganathan first became a member of the Virginia Tech community in 1982 and has since earned several honors, including the Outstanding Faculty Award, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering Education. Loganathan has also served the academic community as a member of the faculty senate, a counselor on the honor court, and as associate editor of the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.

Loganathan received his bachelor’s degree from Madras University, his master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, and his doctorate from Purdue University. [Link]

I went to “Rate My Professor” to learn about Loganathan from the student’s perspective. Just one rating there:

He is God of his subjects… [Link]

And let him be remembered that way.

Continue reading →

Just how did she end up such a bad-ass?

Posted on by

Remember Demi Moore in the movie G.I. Jane? Wuss. Remember Jennifer Garner in Alias? Total pan-sy. Remember Hillary Swank in Million Dollar Baby? Lazy. I now have a new idol for bad-assness who is not a fictional character. She’s a teacher, a boxer, and about a dozen other things…and she does them all in a single day. You know who I’m talking about? Frequent Sepia Mutiny commenter Coach Diesel. She’s also a blogger. This morning before work I read her entry about her stint as a foster kid with an Indian family. Here is an excerpt (but if you don’t read the whole thing then you’re gonna’ miss the point):

The first thing I thought about the Patels was how weird their house smelled. It was a strange smell but I liked it too. I thought it might be the incense they burned, like at church. My own house smelled like dogshit because the dog was old, had issues and, of course, we had to walk the dog. I had known Indian people and gone to school with them. I’d had Punjabi friends, but these people were different than anyone I had met in my life before. Their house was super clean. You had to take your shoes off before going inside from the hallway. The people liked to explain things to me, which noone ever had done before.”We put our shoes here because…”The parents spent a lot of time writing.They were vegetarians. They had a lot of rules and Mr. Patel would take forever to explain, in great detail, what each rule was for and why it was in existence. I felt he talked an awful lot.

“Number one, You must wash your own dishes to respect the work that the chef has put into the meal. Water is expensive, so please wash like this…” Oh gawd, not this shit again…I look around and Mrs. Patel is standing behind me with her arms crossed over her chest, watching me, not smiling. She is a tiny woman, thin and about my height. She has a gold earring through her nostril, wears a ballcap with a Mets insignia on it and has a pencil behind her ear. I think to myself, my grandmothers would hate you, you Mets loving bitch. [Link]

Despite being a blogger I don’t actually read a lot of blogs (gasp…my secret revealed). I only read like five, and Coach’s is the newest one. Anybody that can make me feel lazy has got to be spouting some wisdom up in their space that is worth reading. Her back-story has also has me thinking about adoption and foster homes in the South Asian American community. You always hear about white couples going to India to find a child but you seldom hear of South Asian families adopting or taking in children of other races. Anybody have any stories they want to share? I for one am grateful to the “Patels” because if it wasn’t for them perhaps Coach wouldn’t have been interested enough in South Asian culture to visit this blog.

I’m going to stop here because she’s probably already embarrassed that I wrote even this much about her. Sorry Coach. Ohhh, except one more thing. I bow.

Continue reading →

Breaux says "No"

Posted on by

Maybe Bobby Jindal is just destined to become the next governor of Louisiana. A few weeks back I wrote that the influential Democrat, former Senator John Breaux, had decided to enter the race and turn Jindal’s previously assured victory into an uphill battle. No more (thanks for the tip Manan):

Former U.S. Sen. John Breaux decided against entering the Louisiana governor’s race Friday, hours after the state’s attorney general declined to rule on whether he was eligible for the post after having moved to Maryland.

“I said I would be guided by the attorney general’s opinion, and therefore will not be a candidate for governor,” said the Democrat, who represented Louisiana for 32 years in Congress.

Earlier in the day, Attorney General Charles Foti said a court should rule on the question of whether Breaux was eligible to run in the Oct. 20 primary…

At issue was a requirement of the Louisiana constitution that requires candidates for statewide elected office be a “citizen” of the state for “at least the preceding five years.” Breaux has been a Maryland resident since 2005. [Link]

Carpetbaggers never were much liked in the South, even if originally from there it seems. So who will be next to step up to the Jindal machine? The Dems can’t just give up on Louisiana all together. The Washington Post blog looks at some potential candidates but none of them really have Jindal’s street cred. Stay tuned and I will keep bringing you the twists and turns associated with this potentially historic race.

Continue reading →

…but carry a big stick

Posted on by

Evil Abhi: Oh no. Not another f*cking cricket post. Just kill me now.

Abhi: Come on, don’t be so mean. Some SM readers actually like cricket.

Evil Abhi: Why? Unless you trying to save your rainless Indian village from the British Empire, cricket sucks.

Abhi: Dude, you need to chill. You are insulting a game loved by millions as well as its fans.

Evil Abhi: All these cricket posts are ruining our prrrecioussss blog.

Abhi: Ok fine. I’ll just post an interesting picture then. I know you’re cool with pretty pictures.

Evil Abhi: Oohhh, look at the hobbittses.

Abhi: Dude, Sri Lanka just whooped new Zealand.

Evil Abhi: Hit it brown. Hit it.

Continue reading →