Author Archives: Abhi

About Abhi

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

They got married the next day

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My mom, who works for a department store in the D.C. suburbs, asked me if I would be willing to write a post on SM about her co-worker Smita. My dad sent me an email: AbhiandSmita2.jpg

You may want to post this on “Sepia Mutiny” i.e. if this type of things are accepted per your protocols……

SmitaÂ’s husband (whose name is Abhi) will die within about two months unless he gets a bone marrow match. The story is particularly sad. My mom told me that the night before their wedding they received a call from the doctor for Abhi, who wasnÂ’t home at the time. Smita told the doctor she was his fiancé and that she would relay the message. The doctor told her Abhi was dying of Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. They went ahead and got married the next day. The two are desperately seeking a bone marrow match and have made this flyer (click on the picture) appealing for help. Many of you reading this post may end up at the annual NetIP conference in Atlanta next weekend to find a love match. If you do attend make it priority #1 to give just 5 drops of your blood for the database. Even if you can’t help save Abhi you might make a difference for someone else. Click the image below for the schedule at NetIP.

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Pornographic terrorism

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Q: So how does a terrorist make money these days to fund his activities? 

A: Porn.  BBC News reports (thanks for the tip Srinath):

Rebels in India’s north-eastern state of Tripura are making pornographic films to raise money for their separatist campaign, officials say.

The information has come from surrendered guerrillas of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), according to police.

They say the rebels are forcing captured tribal women, and some men, to take part in the films.

The films are then dubbed to be sold in India and neighbouring countries.

Come on.  It’s one thing if porn is between “willing” participants, but to force helpless tribal people into it, and then dubbing over their voices is just sick!

“We get a lot more money , much above our normal rates, to process these films and deliver a sleek final product.

“We know the insurgents are behind these films. When we process their raw stock, we can see boys standing around with automatic rifles and revolvers pulling in girls but we are supposed to cut all that out and just concentrate on the sex,” the owner said.

“It is very good money and we don’t think it is right to question the insurgents anyway,” he said.

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The Markhor stands proud

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There is at least one group (above all others) that values the comparative “calm” that has recently settled over the LOC in Kashmir, as India/Pakistan relations have thawed.  The mighty Markhor.  The Independent reports:

The ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir has produced an unexpected beneficiary – the world’s largest goat.

The markhor, a mountain goat that stands almost 6ft tall at the shoulder and can weigh 17 stone, was thought to be extinct in Indian-held Kashmir. But a recent joint survey by Indian wildlife organisations and the Indian army found 35 small herds – 155 goats – thriving near the Line of Control.

As recently as 1970 there were 25,000 on the Indian side, but by 1997 they had been driven to near extinction. The main cause was the conflict.

The Indian Express goes into more detail:

”It is really encouraging that we still have a sizeable Markhor population here. The present peace situation is conducive for wildlife. Regular cross-border firing and shelling was a serious threat. But the habitation was improving even before the ceasefire was announced in late 2003. We declared protected areas and were hopeful that the Markhor population would improve,” J&K Chief Wildlife Warden CM Seth told The Indian Express.

J&K Principal Chief Conservator of Forests SD Swatantra also lauded the Army for its role.

”Army personnel have been sensitive to the environmental concerns. Border thaw during the last two years has helped the animals a lot. Earlier, constant presence of the troops minimised poaching and human interference. Now in the absence of conflict, the habitat is improving fast,” he said.

What a noble animal.  A part of me has always wished that humans too had horns.  A lot of petty arguments could be settled by simply locking horns for a few moments…or impalement.  Plus girls would immediately know that you were packing.

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Assuaging my guilt

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Being a Sepia Mutiny blogger there is one thing I feel guilty about.  With this post I am going to try and absolve myself of some of that guilt.  It pertains to our blog roll.  You know, that list of blogs we have links to in the right hand column of our page.  Many of you who are bloggers ask us all the time to add your site to our roll.  Our policy is explained in our FAQ:

Q: Can you please add my blog to the sidebar?

A: Send us your Web address, and we’ll take a look. We add the blogs we love, are addicted to and read daily. 

We honestly aren’t trying to be blog snobs, it’s just that we feel in order that our readers take us seriously we only include blogs that at least one of us regularly reads and can personally vouch for.  It’s like the mob.  If we vouch for a site that we really don’t know, then we leave ourselves open to being shot by our co-bloggers.  It’s all very Donnie-Brascoesque here in mutinous North Dakota.  The best way I find new blogs is when one of you leave a very interesting comment and I click on the link to your name.

I just wanted to give a shot out to some blogs that I am starting to read, and others that belong to dedicated SM tipsters/commenters that may have some promise.

(1) Chocolate & Gold Coins, Michael Higgins- Any blog with the word “chocolate” in the name is a winner.  He also sends us good tips.

(2) Punjabi Boy– Really, need I say more?

(3) Currylingus– I think that is my favorite blog name EVER.  Neha makes me laugh any time I visit her site.  And she’s cute.

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Guest blogger: Cicatrix

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Last night we had a MOAP (Mother of all Parties) at our North Dakota world headquarters.  We had just finished hazing the heck out of the newest blogger at SM.  After she chugged the 10 beers laid out before her and received two taps with the ceremonial paddle (courtesy of me ), Cicatrix was given a set of keys to “the bunker.”  Also, just a fair warning.  Anyone that calls her “aunty” will be banned.  Please join me in welcoming her [clap clap clap].

 

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The rise of pseudoscience

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I am a Deist.  That means that I believe in God whole-heartedly but reject all religious dogma.  My beliefs are a combination of certain elements from Hinduism, Sufism, and Buddhism and I try to pray and meditate daily and abide by a belief in karma.  During the day I am a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life.  I study the oldest life on Earth (dating back to ~4 billion years) in order to unlock the secrets of life, how it began, and how it evolved until the present.  I am an example of how one can embrace God and still believe at the same time that scientific explanations should always trump religious ones.

Over the last two days Deepak Chopra has been making arguments that basically support “Intelligent Design” on the liberal Huffington Post blog (which is an excellent website).  Such an embarrassing event can occur when you have too many bloggers in one space and can’t keep track of it all.  I am not a Deepak Chopra reader.  I find his writings too…elementary.  I don’t begrudge anyone that does enjoy his writing though.  We all have different tastes is all.  Chopra however has a lot of people that listen to him and take his words as “gospel.”  That is why I was pained greatly to read his post.  Here are some “scientific questions” he poses in order to demonstrate an openness to divine intervention:

1. How does nature take creative leaps? In the fossil record there are repeated gaps that no “missing link” can fill.

Wrong.  It is the rock record that is incomplete.  Tectonic activity is continually resurfacing the Earth and destroying the rocks containing fossils.  Nature does not take “creative leaps.”  The biggest such “leap” occurred around 535 Ma at the Cambrian boundary and over the last 40+ years the “gap” has been slowly filled in with solid fossil evidence showing gradual evolution.

2. If mutations are random, why does the fossil record demonstrate so many positive mutations — those that lead to new species — and so few negative ones?

Because organisms with negative mutations die out sooner making their preservation potential less.  Only a tiny fraction of dead life survives the fossilization process without being destroyed.  That’s why you don’t find dinosaur bones in your backyard.

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Stylin’ at IKEA

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Remember that ongoing battle between Sikh employees and the NY Metropolitan Transport Authority [see 1,2 ]?  Basically the MTA wanted Sikhs to wear a logo on their turban identifying them as MTA employees so that no passenger would think the train/bus was being highjacked.  Anyways, I thought of that story when I saw this on the DNSI blog:

IKEA’s new Edmonton branch contacted TheHijabShop.com to design and produce a ‘hijab’ – a Muslim headscarf – that would fit in with their current uniform.

When IKEA first approached TheHijabShop.com, their excited team was impressed that an internationally-acclaimed company like IKEA was making so much effort to accommodate Muslims in its workforce.

The challenge for the team was to create a hijab that had the IKEA branding; that was easy to put on without the need for pins – so avoiding any health and safety hazards; and that was something employees would feel comfortable wearing in a working environment, whether in the showroom or in the warehouse. It also had to be compact, without excess material flowing around, and meanwhile sticking to Islamic requirements. [Link]

Obviously I don’t see any similarity between the motivations of the NY MTA and that of IKEA.  I mean nobody could be worried about terrorism at IKEA…right?  No, I just think this is a clever marketing ploy.  IKEA has stores in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E.  I wonder if the hijabs will be for employess worldwide or only in those countries.  Are there other companies that make personalized “religious clothing” for their employees that anyone knows about?  I bet you Abercrummy & Fitch will design some stylish hijabs for their employees next season.  Not.

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I hear there’s a new lawman in town

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Uttar Pradesh has a plan to combat rising crime in the state.  It has decided to deputize some unlikely “lawmen.”  Radio Australia reports:

A pride of lions is to be unleashed in India’s Uttar Pradesh state to help combat crime.

But environmentalists fear the lions might be the ones needing help in the face of sharp-shooting bandits blamed by police for 4,000 abductions and 180 murders in the region over the last five years.

Mohammed Hasan, Uttar Pradesh chief wildlife warden in the state capital, Lucknow, says zoos have already been contacted to assist with the plan.

I am not sure about this.  Lions are known for their excessive brutality during arrests.  That is why they were banished from the NYPD several years back.

A previous attempt to establish a sanctuary in the region of Chandraprabha, in eastern Uttar Pradesh, initially appeared to succeed.

The lion population grew from three to 11 animals, but then the cats disappeared, presumably shot or poisoned.

Nobody likes to hear about a 187 on an undercover cat.  This would be a great way to deal with the Meth problem in rural U.S. states as well.

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My eyes “gleam” when I think about being arranged

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Okay.  This one is for you dozen tipsters who are jonesing for our take on this article about “”love-cum-arranged,” marriages that appears in today’s NYTimes. 

Yawn.  Haven’t I read this article like a dozen times before?  It’s always half of an article where they drum up the angle that they wanted to write in the first place instead of doing any real reporting. 

These young people may have come of age in an America of “Moonstruck” and “Dawson’s Creek,” but in many cases they have not completely accepted the Western model of romantic attachment. Indeed, some of the impetus for assisted marriage is coming from young people themselves – men and women who have delayed marriage into their late 20’s and early 30’s, said Ayesha Hakki, the editor of Bibi, a South Asian bridal and fashion magazine based in New Jersey.

“That has been the most remarkable trend,” Ms. Hakki said, citing the example of a male acquaintance, who, after dating on his own, turned to his parents for guidance.

As Madhulika Khandelwal, a historian who has studied Indians here, said, “Young people don’t want to make individual decisions alone.”

[cough]-bullshit-[cough].  It’s not that young people don’t want to make “individual decisions alone” and have decided that their parent’s “guidance” is best.  No.  It’s that they are giving up and no longer want to fight “the system.”  Ladies in their late twenties can only pursue self-absorbed or commitment-phobic guys (and there is nothing wrong with being commitment phobic ) for so long before they throw in the towel and opt for “traditional,” by default.  Likewise, guys are forced to deal with women who are too neurotic to date mostly because their parents are breathing down their necks to get married.  We (Indians raised in this country) turn to our families for the exact same reason as someone of another culture would turn to their’s, except for the fact that there is more pressure to turn to them. This article and others like it always seem to dodge the truth in order to accentuate the exotic “embrace” of our culture.  What the article describes is more than just being set up on a “blind date,” which it compares it to.  Lots of cultures practice the art of the blind date, whether through family or friends, and it isn’t particularly newsworthy.  When journalists single out Indians they do so with the implication that the family’s fingerprints are all over the entire courtship process.  If that is the case then explaining it away as a willing “return to tradition” makes my eyes roll.  Here is some more bullshit:

The embrace of more traditional habits is apparent in other ways. Weddings are often elaborate and last three or four days. Families of the betrothed often still consult a Hindu astrologer who schedules wedding ceremonies according to the stars. When Anamika Tavathia, 24, was engaged to a young Indian she met in college, his family visited hers to propose on his behalf and the priest determined they should marry on June 26 of this year between 10:30 and 11 a.m.

This fall is expected to be an unusually busy wedding season in Indian communities, because many couples postponed weddings last year when many days were deemed inauspicious.

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An heir for Rakesh Sharma

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Conflicting reports suggest that NASA may offer an astronaut slot to an Indian citizen in one of the next selection cycles.  The Telegraph reports that an offer is imminent:

After Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla, an Indian national could soon hitch a ride aboard a US space shuttle. An announcement could be made after the Joint Working Group on Civil Space Co-operation meets in Washington next month.

“The US offered to include an Indian astronaut in its training modules and later on a flight. So, it is their invitation rather than our request,” a source at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said.

“That’s why we cannot say much except that Discovery’s smooth landing means it could happen sooner than expected. We will begin working on the details after the next meeting of the joint working group.“

vs.

To a question on an Indian astronaut being trained by NASA, he [Chairman G Madhavan Nair of ISRO] said ISRO had not received any such proposal. [Link]

The India Daily seems to corroborate though, with an actual attributable source:

In a clear reflection of the newfound bonhomie, Robert Blake, Deputy Chief of US Mission in India, told reporters in Chennai that India’s moon mission would have active participation of the US.

“We wanted to do more in the area of space exploration, space navigation, satellite navigation and launch. We want to launch two US instruments on the “Chandrayan” (moon mission). Finally we agreed to include an India astronaut in the US astronaut programme,” Blake said.

India plans to send an unmanned mission to the moon by 2008, in what is seen as an effort to showcase the country’s scientific capabilities. The mission has been named as ”Chandrayan Pratham” (First Journey to the Moon).”

Now I’m a little skeptical.  Deputy State Department officials don’t usually have sway with NASA.  It’s true that foreign astronauts do fly with NASA (including an Israeli and a Japanese citizen on the last two missions), but in recent years they have almost all been from countries which have a stake in the International Space Station.  India is not one of those countries.  Israel isn’t either though.  Israel is however a strategic partner with whom we share a lot of technology.  Given that Bush is a big supporter of space exploration and a recent supporter of technology transfer with India, maybe it’s not so far-fetched after all.  My personal attitude (obviously for selfish reasons) is that there are plenty of good Indian American candidates already.  Hmmmm, maybe now would be a good time to apply for that dual-citizenship .  On the flip-side the Russians took up Rakesh Sharma over two decades ago.  It may be time for an Indian citizen to make the trip again.

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