Author Archives: Abhi

About Abhi

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

An update on those Kids

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The New York Times follows up (tip from Angana) on those Kids with their Cameras [see previous posts 1,2,3]:

The children’s story is by now well known, thanks to the sad, beautiful film that Ms. Briski and Ross Kauffman made about the youngsters’ pinched lives in Sonagachi, the largest red-light district in Calcutta. Their world opened up when Ms. Briski, a photojournalist struck by the children’s plight, decided to give them cameras and teach them photography.

Avijit actually makes his observation in “Born Into Brothels: Reconnecting,” a short three-years-after addendum to the original film that shows the ecstatic reunion of Ms. Briski and most of the children. They were between 8 and 12 when “Born Into Brothels” was shot; they are entering adolescence now, taller, more mature and, thanks to her efforts, attending boarding schools. They appear to have been rescued.

Ms. Briski’s life has changed, too. In 2002, she founded Kids With Cameras, an international nonprofit organization that is building a school for the children of Sonagachi, partly with money from the sales of her students’ photographs. (Kids With Cameras has also established programs in Haiti, Jerusalem and Cairo.)

There were several comments following one of our previous entries that didn’t quite like the message this movie sent or the idea that Briski was “rescuing” these kids.  Most comments however were positive.  Anyone who has seen the movie can attest to the fact that their story is powerful.  If you live in New York then you can decide for yourself this weekend at an exhibit of their work.  I’m curious as to what became of the children:

Open to the public, Kids with Cameras: Calcutta will be presented at ICP, 1114 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd St., Aug. 10 through 14 from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm. The CINEMAX Reel Life presentation Born Into Brothels debuts TUESDAY, AUG. 16 (7:00-8:30 pm ET/PT), exclusively on CINEMAX. In tandem with the premiere, Born into Brothels: Reconnecting, a short update on the children featured in the documentary, will be available on CINEMAX On Demand beginning Aug. 11; Born Into Brothels will also be available on CINEMAX On Demand beginning that day, in advance of its CINEMAX debut.
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An ode to my beloved

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The first thing I’ve always noticed is how she feels to my touch.  Even if left out all day, there is some warmth left at her core that rises up through my fingertips.  A person’s true beauty is on the inside and despite the fact that I always take time to admire the texture and taste of her outer shell, every crease and fold and hard bit, it is what’s inside that I think about with the greatest anticipation.  In there, a secret garden she hides.  And the way she smells…mmmm mmm mmmm.  It can make you hop right out of bed in the morning.  Is there any better way to break-fast?  Even in college I could always count on her at the end of the night when nothing else would fill me up, and the partying just wasn’t fun anymore.  I’m not the only one that lusts after her though.  True beauty is easily recognized and doggedly pursued.  The folks at The 92nd Street Y (thanks to the anonymous tipster) not only recognized her, but delved into her past to uncover the things even I didn’t know:

…we thought it might be time to pay tribute to the humble samosa.

The deep-fried, fist-sized triangular pastry is traditionally filled with either spicy potatoes or ground lamb and is India’s great contribution to the world of fast food. Traditional samosas come in all sorts of variations; in the Punjab they’re smaller and more akin to Western potato puffs, while in southern India wrappers are traditionally made from Lentil flour. There’s samosa chaat–where samosas are doused in chickpea curry or yogurts and chutneys to make for a quick, messy meal on the go–and regional variations like Bengali dessert samosas filled with rosewater or Myanmar’s samosas, which substitute wonton wrappers for the thicker shells used in India.

But the samosa is also the product of a thousand years of culinary heritage. Variants of this uniquely Indian food can be found everywhere from Cape Town to Singapore to Tashkent to Tel Aviv. A samosa/samoosa/samsa/sambusek/burek world tour (with recipes) after the jump.

Food historians have established, however, that the samosa originated not in India, but in Persia. The sanbusaj, originally a Persian term for any stuffed, savory pastry or dumpling, started showing up in Persian, Arab and Turkish literature starting in the 9th century, when poet Ishaq ibn Ibrahim-al-Mausili wrote verse praising sanbusaj.

Wow.  I am truly humbled to follow in the footsteps of the poet Ibrahim-al-Mausili.  I am a blue-collar samosa eater.  I don’t need the finest green and brown chutneys.  Just give me a little bit of ketchup and you’ll shut me right up.  That’s right, I like to go slumming.  I also refuse to see any movie at a theater longer than two hours unless there is an intermission with warm samosas in the lobby.  I LOVED Lord of the Rings, but it was so long that every time Gollum said “my precious,” I kept thinking about samosas.  My mom makes them the best.  Cashews and tofu sometimes.

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Writers less frequently heard

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Looking at all the comments following Amardeep and Manish’s book reviews yesterday made me realize that we have an awful lot of avid book readers.  This article in the Hindu from a few days ago is therefore particularly relevant, especially to those who, like me, search for the hidden gems:

The British Council, along with editors Mini Krishnan and Rakshanda Jalil, has launched a website for women’s writing from South Asia: www.womenswriting.com. The site intends to promote internationally, voices that are less frequently heard and, therefore, focuses only on writing from women who live and work in the region.

The site features a unique, searchable database containing up-to-date profiles and work from some of South Asia’s most talented women writers — short excerpts, biographies, bibliographies, prizes and photographs. The site developed from a conference organised by the British Council India in 2003, UKSAWWC, which brought together women writers from the U.K. and South Asia, many for the first time. The database can be searched by author, genre and nationality.

There is an entire list of authors and their stories on the site that one can browse through.  Rest assured that there are book critiques as well. 

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The Palani Witch Trials

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Every day I am reminded of how we still live in a Demon Haunted World.  Vikram tips us off to a very Arthur Miller-esque story in the Washington Post.

At sundown, Pusanidevi Manjhi recalled, nine village men stormed into her house shouting, “Witch, witch!” and dragged her out by her hair as her six small children watched helplessly.

“This woman is a witch!” the men announced to the villagers, said Manjhi, 36. She said they tied her ankles together and locked her in a dark room.

“They beat me with bamboo sticks and metal rods and tried to pull my nails out. ‘You are a witch, admit it,’ they screamed at me again and again,” Manjhi said, tearfully recalling her four days of captivity in June.

“They accused me of casting an evil spell on their paddy crop that was destroyed in a fire. I begged them and told them I was not a witch,” she said, showing wounds on her legs, thighs, hips and shoulders one recent morning in this village in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.

So of course I wonder, why her?  What was the real reason the village men decided to put on such an obscene farce?  After reading just the above portion I skimmed over most of the article to land on the following:

“Gahan Lal was a powerful landlord. There were fights all the time in the village over land and wages,” said Jayant Tirkey, the police officer investigating the case. “When his paddy caught fire, he blamed [Manjhi] for casting an evil spell. But that is merely an excuse. His real motive is to instill fear among the poor.“

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Hyphenated-Identity

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We are pretty used to it here in the States.  Whatever the reason, we accept labeling people as German-American, Japanese-American, Indian-American, etc.  We are at once comfortable with the identity inherited from our ancestors as well as that acquired from our new home (even if it’s been are only home).  Or perhaps, a hyphenated-identity is how it has always been and it’s too late to fight such convention.  Not so in the UK where folks are raising a storm.  MSNBC reports:

Inayat Bunglawala was born in northwest England, speaks English as his native language and only once visited his ancestral homeland, India.

That makes him bridle at a proposal being floated in the government to give members of minorities hyphenated identities — he would be Indian-British — to strengthen their bond to Britain.

The idea “simply makes no sense,” the 36-year-old said. “I am 100 percent British.”

The British government is discussing a variety of ways to improve community cohesion after last month’s bombing attacks, and it was not clear in what ways such a label might be used. But minority groups were angry at the very idea that they need a new identity label to tie them closer to a country that has been the only home many of them know.

Who the hell suggested such a thing in the first place? Continue reading →

The longest striptease ever

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Over the weekend I ran into a friend with a crazy story.  He told me that he had recently visited a city in the U.S. South on business.  While there he was taken to a nightclub which had women in saris dancing provocatively.  “People were throwing dollar bills at them,” he told me.  That’s crazy I thought.  I am pretty familiar with said city and I had never heard of such an unusual establishment.  Apparently even families sometimes go there.  I hate to be so cryptic but identities must be protected especially given the type of business.  Then, this morning I saw this on India Daily:

The Indian girls in Toronto are busy making big bucks with sari stripping. They wear sari to attract traditional clients from getting rich India and strips in front of them.

Industrialists, politicians, Bollywood directors, actors and producers all are heading towards Toronto to experience this massive display of Indian sex!

The number of girls involved in sari stripping and sex market exceeds hundreds. They speak fluent Canadian English, are brought up in Canada and have Indian heritage.

Pretty sad.  The logistics of stripping a sari must be a nightmare.  You’d assume that more than one girl has tripped on their own sari.  Now we know the downstream consequences of this.

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Prison Yoga may be bad for your health

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I have long flirted with the idea of attending a Yoga class.  I have heard that once you approach your 30s you should stop lifting weights as often, and concentrate instead on maintaining your flexibility and cardiovascular health.  Plus, everyone says that Yoga is supposed to be relaxing.  Well…not everyone.  Norwegian prison officials have another take.  The BBC reported earlier this week:

A prison in Norway has stopped holding yoga classes after it found that instead of calming inmates, they were actually making some more aggressive.

High-security Ringerike jail near Oslo offered the classes to eight inmates on a trial basis earlier this year.

Prison warden Sigbjoern Hagen said some of the inmates became more irritable and agitated and had trouble sleeping.

He said the prison did not have the resources to treat emotions unleashed by the deep breathing exercises.

Yeah, I don’t know.  Call me a prude but I am not sure it is wise to practice something like a Dog Pose, Spread Leg Forward Fold, or a Bridge Pose in a prison anyways.  I would definitely not want to be on the receiving end of “emotions unleashed.”  I kid, I kid.  A sample of eight prisoners is pretty unscientific to say the least.  Maybe they just had an incredibly annoying instructor.  I have long believed that both Andy Dufresne and the Count of Monte Cristo probably had to perform Yoga in order to remain sane and escape.  Determination to both stay sane and escape will more than likely be my ultimate motivation for dropping in on a Yoga class as well.

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The Ravages of Mutiny

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Tonight, at the stroke of the midnight hour, marks the one year anniversary of the launch of Sepia Mutiny.  We would like to thank our readers (especially those who have left insightful comments) for taking time out of your busy schedules to participate.  Loss of productivity at your jobs is our collective gain.  In the past year our website has received just under 1,000,000 visits without a single lawsuit filed against us.  That alone is cause for celebration.

But alas, all is not well.  Fomenting a mutiny in the Blogosphere takes a physical and emotional toll on one, as some of the bloggers who visit our site know well.  I won’t presume to speak for my fellow mutineers, but my own life has fallen into a downward spiral worse than that faced by any heroin addict.  Hours spent attempting to fight the good fight has transformed me much as Mangal Pandey was transformed in his day:

Those who are familiar with blogosphere lingo know that the term “Pajamahadeen” is sometimes used to describe a blogger.  The two pictures below were taken only two days apart.  On the left you see me on August 6th of last year.  On the right is my countenance as it was on August 8th.  Just two days of Mutiny had taken a heavy toll.  I don’t really go out in public anymore, and hopes for a “girlfriend” are quickly fading.  Frankly, you’d be disgusted by my appearance.  What is worse is that the delusions of grandeur I suffer have led me to adopt the name “Mangal Pagal”.  Even my phone bill has that name.  Again, I thank you all sincerely and hope you keep visiting our site.  Please be aware though that blogging comes with a heavy price.  I ain’t pretty no more.

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A man of many talents

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Director Wes Anderson, in addition to “hearting Walis,” also has a soft spot for Kumar Pallana.  Why?

Wes Anderson has given Kumar Pallana (Pagoda [in The Royal Tenenbaums] ) a part in each of his movies (with the exception of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)). Pallana used to work at his favorite Coffee shop in Dallas.

Pallana is actually quite a character:

Born in India in 1918, Pallana began as a juggler and singer, performing for small Indian communities throughout Africa. In 1946 he took his act to America, eventually appearing on several television shows, including The Mickey Mouse Show and Captain Kangaroo. Pallana also toured nightclubs in Las Vegas, Paris and Beirut, combining magic, rope tricks, comedy and plate-spinning under the name “Kumar of India.”

Apul informs me that the new video for the song “Clock In Now” by the group The Deathray Davies also features Pallana and some of his tricks.  When I am that old I hope to be nearly that cool.

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The flooding continues…

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Just a quick note about the Monsoon induced floods in India in case you missed the note at the end of Amardeep’s updated post.  Two new blogs have recently emerged to collect stories and the latest news from the affected area.  They are in the same tradition (and run by some of the same dedicated people) as the SEA-EAT blog which was a great resource for many during the Tsunami.  The blogs are as follows:

http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/
http://cloudburstmumbai.blogspot.com/

Also, on Thursday morning many of us NPR addicts woke up to a poignant essay by commentator Sandip Roy who relates his memories of the rains from his youth.  He describes them in a mixture of both wonder and destruction.

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