As a young child, I thought the standard for beauty was contained within the perfume-scented pages of Vogue. When I turned its glossy pages and saw impossibly thin (mostly-white) women with flawless skin carrying $10,000 handbags and hairless men with heroin chic eyes, I thought, “Here is beauty.” Well, I was all wrong. Beauty is actually a South Asian man. And a Latina woman, but let’s focus on the man for the sake of this blog. Allure magazine released the findings of a 2,000 person survey last month and found some interesting results. According to Racialicious blog:
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Author Archives: Phillygrrl
Somebody’s Gonna Get Hurt Real Bad… in Source Code
On Saturday, I had the opportunity to see Source Code, the new thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as an army helicopter pilot serving in Afghanistan who awakens to find himself in a Chicago man’s body in a train headed for disaster. He’s given the difficult task of attempting to stop a terrorist who plans to blow up the train and other parts of Chicago. Imagine my surprise when I saw Canadian comedian Russell Peters (who Manish first introduced back in the 2004) playing the role of one of the passengers in the train. Certainly he doesn’t play a leading character in the film, but he does have a somewhat significant part in the plot. No spoilers, don’t worry. And not to worry Peters fans, the brusque, comedian plays pretty much himself in the entire movie. As Max Denoff, Peters plays a comedian whose sharp wit doesn’t leave him out of the terrorist suspect pool. Take a look at the first five minutes of the film in the trailer below. Continue reading
Bacon + Indian Food = Epic Meal Time
I want all of this. Bacon. *drools
More on Epic Meal Time.
“In this day and age, I feel like there’s a big emphasis on organic foods or a lot of negative media in regards to obesity and stuff like that,” Morenstein said. “We are there eating this, and [viewers] are eating vicariously through us.”
In each weekly episode, they set out to prepare and eat what they call epic food; the “world’s greatest sandwich,” for instance, made from nine bacon slices, three hot dogs, chips, cheese, gravy, a dozen eggs and maple syrup, all on a large french baguette.
These guys are my brothers in artery-clogging goodness. I will eat vicariously with you. No organic bacon, please. I want the real stuff. Continue reading
Tiny Mom’s Kidney Donor Fired from Job
Remember at the beginning of this month when I told you the amazing story of Amy Donohue and how she decided to donate one of her kidneys to the mother of a Twitter acquaintance? As you’ll recall, Kirti Dwivedi put out a desperate call for kidney donors via Twitter and Facebook after her mother’s kidneys started functioning at less 20%. Amy, who Kirti had only met once at a function, stepped up to offer one of her kidneys in February 2011 and Project #TinyFabKidney was born. Since then, the two have met each other’s families and planned various fund-raising activities together as Amy has undergone testing to determine if she’s a match. A few weeks ago, Kirti emailed me with the good news that Amy was indeed a match and that surgery was scheduled for April 19th! This past Tuesday, however, Amy recieved some devastating news. Her company told her they were letting her go because she hadn’t met her sales goals. Today CBS 5 in Phoenix put up this story:
Kirti said she was shocked when she learned Donohue lost her job.
“Amy is donating a kidney to my mom and she lost her job because of spending time testing for it. It’s really hard to understand how that could happen, and it’s hard not to feel guilty or upset,” said Kirti Dwivedi.
Amy estimated she used about seven sick and personal days in the past couple of months to go through testing. She had held her job for approximately seven months.
“I take full responsibility. How can I not say I’ve been distracted? I’ve got a big thing going on in my life,” said Donohue.
She said while she does not want her job back, she wishes her company had handled her situation differently, considering the circumstances.
“Sometimes, accommodations need to be made for people when something huge is going on,” said Donohue
Amy has written up her own version of her firing over on her personal blog. Personally, I would have thought an employer would appreciate the value of a person with Amy’s courage and empathy and try to accommodate such heroics. But for some people, it’s all about the bottom line.
If you’re interested in learning more about Project #TinyFabKidney and sending your support to Amy, Kirti and Tiny Mom, you can find them on Facebook. And you can donate here. Continue reading
What Jimmy Wong Taught Me About UCLA Girl
I will be the first to tell you that I don’t have a good sense of humor when it comes to racist remarks directed my way. When a fellow five-year old at daycare made some sort of remark about my skin color being ugly, I threw a bucket of sand over her head. And a few weeks ago, when someone responded to my roommate’s ad by calling her “egg roll” and “pork fried rice,” I can’t say my initial reaction would have made Gandhi-ji very proud.
Throughout my lifetime, I’ve had trouble moderating my inner Malcom X and channeling a more Martin Luther King Jr. approach. This despite the fact that I grew up in the most turn-the-the-other-cheek of communities, the Amish Mennonites. When I see racism, in any shape/manner/form, I tend to lose my cool. My blood pressure goes up. I start to see red.
The whole Alexandra Wallace incident was no exception. You’ll remember her as the girl from UCLA who made a YouTube video where she rants against Asian students. I admit, I felt a little bit of sympathy at the start of the video. My own classmates often vent about international students in the law library who blab loudly on their cellphones, seemingly oblivious to the glares of fellow students. But when Ms. Wallace started on her “ching chong” rant, I stopped feeling sorry for her and just got mad. Then I saw this. Continue reading
Pakistani Demonstrator Single-Handedly Inspires Country… to Go Home?
I love this video. Pakistani dude sounds completely befuddled at how uncomfortable demonstrations can be…
I hear ya, bro. Find yourself some Limca paani [lemon-soda] and get back to it! Continue reading
Penn Masala Leaks “Heartless/Kabhi Kabhi” from Panoramic
I’ve been consistently impressed with Penn Masala, University’s of Pennsylvania all-male a cappella group. Instead of sitting on the laurels of their success as the nation’s first South Asian a cappella group, they keep training the next generation of students to continue the Penn Masala tradition. While other collegiate South Asian a capella groups have started and fizzled out, Penn Masala has continued producing fresh, innovative albums. So obviously, I’m super excited about Panoramic, their seventh studio album, which comes out this month. Today the group released “Heartless/Kabhi Kabhi,” a song from Panoramic, on a student blog. Enjoy, mutineers! And while you’re at it, tell me a few of your favorite South Asian a capella groups. Is it the University of Michigan’s Maize Mirchi? Stanford’s Raagapella?Northwestern’s Brown Sugar? I need some new music.
Two White Girls Become Cunning Linguists via Google Translate
I can’t say I’m always the most confident Urdu speaker. When my mother’s younger siblings came from Pakistan a few years ago,with a slew of adorable baby cousins (okay, it was three), I was happy to once again immerse myself in the language. But nowadays it’s rare that I have the chance to practice Urdu, which is why this video made me giggle. Two girls decide they want to order Indian food — but in Hindi. So of course they turn to the Interwebs for help. Because on the Internet, nobody knows you’re brown. Using Google Translate, they successfully order themselves some takeout. I like the part at the end where the dude on the phone is like, “Will there be anything else?” And the girls just keep “saying” the address instead.
Twitter Helps Mom Find Kidney Match
Here’s what Twitter addicts everywhere already know: Twitter isn’t just a social media tool, it’s a lifestyle. Spend a certain amount of regular time on the website interacting with folks and if the stars align, you’ll find yourself with a good group of friends, a search engine more specialized than Google, a date or two, news in real time and much more. But for one person, Twitter may literally be a life-saver.
I’ve been following Arizona-based Kirti Dwivedi on Twitter for over a year now and her updates about her parents, who she lovingly tweets about as #TinyMom and #TinyDad, have always brought a smile to my face. But I didn’t know that Kirti’s mother has been suffering from kidney disease for the last 10 years and that she desperately needed a kidney transplant. On Sunday, while absent-mindedly playing with my phone, I saw this tweet from Kirti, “What has social media done for you? It helped me find a kidney donor for my mom…”
Turns out that Kirti, being the social media addict she is, turned to Twitter and Facebook to see if she could find a kidney donor for #TinyMom. Kirti told me via email, “Unfortunately, neither my brother nor I are blood type matches for my mother.” Neither was #TinyDad. After Amy Donohue, one of Kirti’s Twitter friends, checked out the informational Facebook page Kirti had created, Amy offered to donate her own kidney.
Anu Dwivedi’s daughter, Kirti, is the one who brought the two together. She started a Facebook page educating people about her mother’s kidney disease. Eventually, Kirti started chatting with Amy Donohue via Twitter about the Facebook page, and their friendship progressed to phone calls. One day, Donohue told her something she’ll never forget. 

”Her words to me were, ‘You have two kidneys. I have one mom. So, let me see how I can help you out,'” Kirti said. [Link.] Continue reading
Happy Valentine’s Day, Mutineers!
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who entered our Valentine’s Day Haiku-Writing Contest. We received a number of fun, creative entries. But the judging itself wasn’t too difficult. We turned to our sweet tooth for the answer. Congrats to Mutineer Richa, who sent us this titillating gem.
You are sweeter than/ Gulab jamun or laddoo/ Give me just a taste
Once we picked a winner, we quickly put Rajini the monkey to work on a special design to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Okay, actually, Kunjan crafted a heart-shaped gulab jamun and snapped a quick pic. Thanks to Kunjan for his V-Day efforts. Happy Valentine’s Day, mutineers! You can check out a larger version of the graphic below the jump. Continue reading