Author Archives: Abhi

About Abhi

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

Blanco C*ck-Blocks Jindal. Big time.

Posted on by

Up until today it seemed that by 2009 the United States would have its first Indian American Governor in Piyush “Bobby” Jindal of Louisiana. You can read my most recent entry about it here. No more. Jindal went from a shoe-in to what some might consider an underdog in the span of a single day. Via Politico:

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) announced she’s not running for re-election this evening at the state Capitol, setting the stage for former Sen. John Breaux (D) to enter the race.

“I am choosing to do what is best for my state. I will focus my time and energy on the people’s work, not politics. After much prayer, I have decided I will not seek reelection as your governor,” said Blanco in her address at the governor’s mansion.

Breaux is currently asking the state attorney general for an opinion on his residency status. Though Breaux represented Louisiana in the House and Senate from 1973-2005, he remained in the Washington area since leaving Congress. He currently lives in Maryland, and serves as senior counsel for the prestigious law firm and lobbying shop Patton Boggs. [Link]

Breaux is the former (popular) Democrat senator from Louisiana (although he often voted like a Republican). With him entering the race, Jindal’s lock on the governor’s mansion is shattered.

Breaux issued a statement following Blanco’s speech: “I join other Louisianians in thanking Governor Blanco for her many years of public service to the people of our state, the last couple under extremely difficult circumstances. I wish her the very best over the rest of her term, and in the future as she enjoys spending time with her family and pursuing other opportunities.”

Blanco was widely criticized for her response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and her popularity had not recovered since the storm. GOP Rep. Bobby Jindal, who narrowly lost to Blanco in 2003, has already begun his campaign

A January Southern Media and Opinion Research poll showed him leading Blanco by 24 points, 59-34 percent. [Link]

Let me re-phrase Breaux’s statement: “Blanco sucks and is resigning because she wouldn’t even be able to beat a corpse in 2008.” Now it is either “Breaux” or “Jindal.” It is the favorite son vs. the guy who has been laying a lot of groundwork for the last few years. The Swing State Project opines on what Jindal’s new strategy might be:

With Blanco out and John Breaux presumably announcing his candidacy within the next few days, at the very least, Louisiana Democrats are buying an extra inning to hold on to the state. At best, Breaux’s entry will be exactly what’s needed to throw a monkey wrench in hard-right Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal’s longtime gubernatorial ambitions. Expect a lot of mud to be hurled at Breaux about how he’s “gone Washington” and lived out of state for a couple of years. It won’t be easy, but I think we can all agree that Breaux’s chances, even with one hand tied behind his back due to his residency issues, are a heck of a lot better than those of a damaged Kathleen Blanco. [Link]

Continue reading →

Research NOT to conduct with daddy

Posted on by

For those of you who missed it, there was a groundbreaking study out of Texas last week:

The traditional theory of beauty says that for every man who chases the voluptuous type, such as Jordan or Marilyn Monroe, there is another who prefers to woo a waif such as Twiggy or Kate Moss.

But this and the idea that beauty is subjective and ever-changing has been overturned by Prof Devendra Singh and his daughter Adrian Singh…

The psychologists from the University of Texas today publish research showing that lovestruck men have only one thing on their minds: a woman’s WHR – waist-hip ratio, calculated by dividing waist circumference by that of the hips.

Jordan and Twiggy have something in common: both have waists that are noticeably narrower than their hips and Prof Singh has found evidence this “belle curve” is ingrained in the male brain in his studies of Playboy centrefolds, the ancient Egyptians and tests on men from Africa to the Azores. [Link]

Ok, I know this is science but…eeeww. If I had a daughter I wouldn’t want to be looking through stacks of Playboy magazines with her, even if it was for the good of science (which I normally support). Anecdotally, I know these two have hit upon the correct theory. Just this past weekend I leaned over to a friend and mentioned that I was totally “crushing on that girl’s WHR.”

The team also found the hourglass in ancient literature. Two ancient Indian epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana (first to third century), and Chinese sixth dynastic Palace poetry also link attractiveness with a wasp waist.

Consider, for instance, the description by Chinese writer Xu Ling (507-583): “Beautiful women in the palace of Chu, there were none who did not admire their slender waist; the fair woman of Wei.” Similarly, the Mahabharata contains the description: “accept this slender-waisted damsel for thy spouse…” [Link]
Continue reading →

A place at the table

Posted on by

Hot-off-the-press (so hot that it won’t even be available until July) is a book whose subject matter seems to tackle some of the same topics we often post on this site, as well as might contain some good explanations as to why our website sometimes attracts bigotry/ignorance of a certain persuasion. The book is titled, A Place at the Multicultural Table: The Development of an American Hinduism. The book is by author Prema A. Kurien (who I see has been denounced in some way or another on a smattering of websites). Indolink reports:

According to its publisher Rutgers University Press, the book offers an in-depth look at Hinduism in the United States and the Hindu Indian American community.

The book focuses on understanding the private devotions, practices, and beliefs of Hindu Americans as well as their political mobilization and activism. And it probes the differences between immigrant and American-born Hindu Americans, how both understand their religion and their identity, while it emphasizes the importance of the social and cultural context of the United States in influencing the development of an American Hinduism…

Drawing on the experiences of both immigrant and American-born Hindus, Kurien demonstrates how religious ideas and practices are being imported, exported, and reshaped in the process. The result of this transnational movement, according to Kurien, is an American Hinduism- an organized, politicized, and standardized version of that which is found in India.

The book explains that Hinduism has undergone several modifications in interpretation, practice, and organization in the United States in the process of being institutionalized as an American religion. Kurien argues that while Hindu American spokespersons espouse a genteel pluralism and attempt to use Hinduism to secure a place at the American multicultural table, they also use the ideology of multiculturalism to justify and legitimize a militant Hindu nationalism. Drawing on this contradiction, she develops a theoretical model to explain 1) why multiculturalism often seems to exacerbate émigré nationalism, and 2) why religion is often involved directly or indirectly in this process. [Link]

Continue reading →

Proof of Life

Posted on by

Over the last three years SM has slowly gained in readership, and other news sources and blogs often link to us. These links are one part of the formula that search engines like Google use to rank pages for relevance. That means that very often when you search for a desi related story, celebrity, etc., you’ll end up here at our humble site. Sometimes the people we write about love that fact! It is free publicity for them from a source whose intelligent (yes you!) readership they $value$. Other times we get celebrities threatening to sue us for embarrassing them (see our FAQ as to how we respond to those emails). I won’t mention which celebrities save one. Indian born fashion designer, Anand Jon.

Almost two years ago our Anna, a fan of ANTM, mentioned him in a blog post. In fact, she quoted from an article over at Nirali Magazine (link is broken) in which former ANTM contestant Julie Ann Titus made some rather disparaging comments about Mr. Jon. Here is a quote by Ms. Titus from Anna’s post:

I respect him as a fashion designer. But he was very, very rude to some of the girls. He seemed so boring to me. I asked him what part of India he was from, and he asked me, what part of India are you from? So I said I’m from Kerala, and he looked at me kind of crazy. He’s Malayalee , too. He asked me if I knew any Malayalam, and I said I only knew the bad words. Then he says, “Shouldn’t you be serving us or something?” [Titus and the other cast members had to serve four of the girls who won that week’s model challenge.] So I walked away, cursing at him in Malayalam. He said, “Oh, so now you know it?” And he smelled bad. The girls looked at me and were like, are all Indian guys like this? And I was like, nope, just this fool right here. Later, my parents told me that they know him through family friends.

Well, it turns out that one of the top Google hits on “Anand Jon” was our site…describing how he smells bad. “Jon,” or someone pretending to be him emailed us about a year ago, begging that Anna’s post be deleted. His mother had seen it and people were unfairly talking smack about his sister as well. Anna would have none of it. If a celebrity can’t take a little bad press then they shouldn’t be celebrities Anna gently (and correctly) explained to me. Always trying to be a good boy however, I told Anand that we would not delete Anna’s post but I would delete some of the especially nasty comments that followed the post, corroborating that he did in fact smell (allegedly). Partly as a joke however, I told him that he had to prove he was the real Anand Jon and not a prankster. “How,” Jon asked. Well, I once saw a movie starring Russell Crowe as an ex-SAS soldier whose new job was to become a hostage/ransom negotiator, and if need be, a hostage rescuer. When a person is kidnapped the first thing you do is to ask the kidnappers for “Proof of Life.” Typically, this is a picture of the victim holding the day’s newspaper. That way you know he/she is still alive. Since I’ve always thought of myself as a bit Russell Crowe-ish (Gladiator not Insider), I asked Jon for very specific “Proof of Life,” before I would delete the nasty comments. See below:

<

table id=rp_picture_table style=”border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0″>

Anand Jon, posing with the day’s news. That is SEPIA MUTINY on his screen.

Now, I promised Jon that I wouldn’t post this picture of him reading his favorite website, and I know I will burn in the fiery pits of Mt. Doom for this. But…we here at SM can confidently say that allegedly smelling bad is no longer the worst of Mr. Jon’s problems. See after the jump.

Continue reading →

Why do you have to go and make things so…

Posted on by

It looks like everyone’s favorite Canadian (after Alex Trebek, Michael J. Fox, and the late Peter Jennings) is having a bit of trouble with the mother tongue. It’s been getting her quite frustrated (thanks for the tip Mona):

Napanee, Ontario native Avril Lavigne is showing appreciation for her fans around the world, and looking to sell a lot more albums, by recording her new “Girlfriend” single in eight different languages.

While some detractors aren’t convinced that Lavigne has mastered English yet, her annoying single can now be heard in Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. Lavigne even went so far as trying to record it in Hindi, but the language was too difficult to match the song’s western rhythm, said manager Terry McBride in a Canadian Press interview following his keynote address at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel as part of the Canadian Music Week conference. McBride said that Portuguese was the hardest language to learn, next to Hindi, and that the singer spent hours studying foreign language recordings before going into the studio to record the song. [Link]

Obviously Lavigne, an icon of the punk rock movement, didn’t have the right Hindi tutor. I’m sorry but am I the only one offended here? Don’t be tellin’ me that Mandarin is any easier than Hindi. Why do Indians always seem to get shafted? Why did she have to make the Hindi version of her song match the white man’s “western rythym?” So let’s watch the video together and imagine it in Hindi. Lavigne, you’ve let us down this time.

Continue reading →

BOB is now in Chicago

Posted on by

<

p>The annual Best of the Best dance competition that has been previously held in NYC (see here and here), has moved to Chicago this year. On Saturday, April 7th, hordes of young Bhangra fans will descend upon the windy city like locust. Will our elusive Ennis make an appearance there as well?

After drawing an audience of more than 2,000 last year, Best of the Best (B.O.B) dance competition is back in its third year, bringing the best dancers from across North America to one stage to compete for a grand prize totaling $6,500.

B.O.B has moved from New York City to Chicago, and is proud to announce that this years competition is at the world-renown Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place on Saturday, April 7th, 2007. The event promises to attract an audience of over 4,000 people nationwide to watch nine teams compete in three categories. Ticket holders can expect a special guest performance at the competition, as well as an after party featuring some of the country’s best DJs.

B.O.B is unique in that it is the first large-scale non-profit competition to bridge the gap among different South Asian dance styles and crown one winner among the top teams. The show consists of three dance categories: Bhangra, Raas-Garba, and Fusion/Bollywood. Competing teams are invited after placing first at a previous South Asian national competition such as Boston Bhangra, South Beach Bhangra, Raas Chaos, Dandia Dhamaka, Bollywood Berkeley, Phillyfest, Chicago-Agni and others.

You can get your tickets here. Speaking of Indian dance competitions, a story last week in the SF Chronicle took a look at what seems to be a growing market for these types of events:

For Indian-American students reared in the United States, Bollywood dance competitions have become a way to connect with their parents’ culture without losing touch with what they see on MTV.

Rohit Bal, 20, a third-year management science major at the University of California, San Diego, grew up in a mostly white suburb of Los Angeles, with few other Indians.

“Up until college, I was more … I guess you could call it whitewashed,” he said. The dancing “was a window to get in touch with my culture, with my parent’s culture, while making it fun for myself.”

Approving, Indian-born parents filled the seats closest to the stage at the Scottish Rite Center. [Link]

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized

Virginia is for Lovers and Indians

Posted on by

Guess what? Virginia ain’t just for lovers no more. It is also for Indian Americans. Well, at least on January 26th of every year:

Virginia will celebrate January 26 as Indian-American Day in recognition of the community’s contribution to the State.

A legislation to this effect was recently passed by its legislature.

“Over the past year, I have come to realize how much the Indian-American community contributes to the Commonwealth. In appreciation of their efforts and all they have done for the Commonwealth and its people, it is my pleasure to announce the creation of Indian-American Day in Virginia,” Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling said. [Link]

Let me rephrase that quote by Bolling so that it is slightly more honest. “Over the past year, I have come to realize that you shouldn’t refer to brown people as Macacas but rather, you should make dosas with them.”

Although this is bound to upset some of our more sensitive readers, I do wish they had been more inclusive and called it “Macaca-American Day” instead. The way I see it, we have nearly 10 months to plan. How are we going to celebrate our own day?

“The face of Virginia is changing and the immigrant community is a powerful force in urban and suburban Virginia,” Bolling said, adding that he wanted to do everything he could to reach out to the immigrant community and build a ‘better’ Virginia.

“During my campaign for Lieutenant Governor I made a promise to the Indian-American community. I promised to do my best to develop closer ties with them and involve them more in the leadership of Virginia,” he said. [Link]
Continue reading →

Ponnuru listens to straight talk

Posted on by

Seems like that one time “Maverick” John McCain is falling like a rock (an old rock) in the way too early to matter polls. I still think that he would have won running away in ’08 if he had run as an Independent instead of sucking up to the Radical Right and the Bush administration. That ship has sailed, however. While hanging out at the National Review’s website (ahem…cough cough), I came across Ramesh Ponnuru’s cover story interview with McCain. Here is an excerpt:

The “maverick” pose

Sen. McCain: I got some encouraging news this morning in the USA Today.

Ponnuru (reading headline): “McCain firm on Iraq war. . .” (McCain flips the paper over.) “Despite cost to candidacy”: even better. . .

Sen. McCain: (Laughs) Yep. They’ve got a poll that says 33 percent are much less likely, and 11 percent somewhat less likely to [vote for me]


Ponnuru: So do you think that’s already been costing you? That that’s behind some of the slides in the polls?

Sen. McCain: First of all, I don’t know. But second of all, I can’t worry about it. You just can’t, with something like this you just can’t let it concern you. The issue is too important. The sacrifice that so many young Americans have made already pales in significance to any cost that it may mean to me. You’ve seen these wounded kids, you know how much they’ve given.


Ponnuru: But is the country prepared to give more? The Post had a story on the front page that people want a deadline.

Sen. McCain: Well, I think that it’s the job of people like me to explain to them what’s at stake here. It isn’t just Iraq. I really believe that chaos will ensue, genocide will take place, and unlike after we lost the Vietnam War when they didn’t want to follow us home, these people want to follow us home. I think what’s at stake here is this entire struggle we’re in — you know I hate to use the word war, because then you give people legitimacy as soldiers — but the struggle that we’re in against radical Islamic extremism.

And so for me to somehow trim my sails on an issue like this would be just a disservice to the nation. [Link]

By the way, as an interesting side note. This post I wrote when SM was first getting started accounts for a large chunk of visits to our site even still.

Continue reading →

A history of European vegetarianism

Posted on by

I know that many SM readers like to partake in one particular cross-border skirmish we seem to have a lot here. You know the one of which I speak, right? It’s the herbivores vs. the carnivores (although technically we are all omnivores). Well, to throw a little fuel on to that fire I submit to you this book review over at Slate.com.. The book is titled “Bloodless Revolution” and is meant to be a sort of “history of European vegetarianism.” I haven’t read the book but the review was quite insightful. First the background on the book:

Here’s the story as he tells it in The Bloodless Revolution: In the 17th century, a fundamental question about the relationship between ourselves and the other creatures of the earth broke out into passionate debate, a debate that swooped over and around and through the culture, rattling long-held European assumptions about the very nature of life. There was no single word adequate to capture the ideas that were bursting forth, until the term vegetarian emerged in the middle of the 19th century. And with that, the battle was over–not because meat-eating came to an end but because European culture made a home for this challenge to dietary norms, giving it a local habitation and a name. Whether or not this constituted a victory for animal-lovers is hard to say. As Stuart points out early on, when the concept of vegetarianism became domesticated, it turned into “a distinct movement that could easily be pigeon-holed, and ignored.” But people did start thinking differently about animals, human responsibilities, and the rights of living creatures, albeit rarely to the extreme sought by such groups as PETA. Stuart sums it up well: Nowadays, he says, “negotiating compassion with the desire to eat is customary…” [Link]

The critic contends, however, that vegetarianism from a European perspective isn’t so much something they accept as a way of life but is rather a philosophy to be practiced off an on:

If vegetarianism has settled comfortably into Western culture by now, it’s because the term vegetarian has become so vast and shapeless that it describes just about everybody who isn’t on the Atkins diet. To be sure, there are vegetarians who avoid all animal food. But most are willing to eat eggs, and many eat fish. Chicken is fine with some because hey, it isn’t beef. Hamburgers? Absolutely not–or maybe just once in a while. And turkey because it’s Thanksgiving, ham because it’s Easter, pepperoni because it’s pizza–what on earth is a vegetarian, anyway? No wonder Stuart never tries to define the term. A huge, wonderfully entertaining cast of dietary rebels parades through his chapters, but all we really know about the eating habits of these pagans, scientists, doctors, scholars, theologians, writers, philosophers, and crackpots is that most of them ate meat. [Link]
Continue reading →