When Nilanjana sent me this graphic earlier today, I have to admit that after my initial anger, my second reaction was one of resignment. After all, the arrest of Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad earlier this week brought with it the usual blanket condemnation of all things Pakistani. Even funnyman Stephen Colbert milked laughs with his emphasis on the name ‘Faisal.‘ Was it so unreasonable to think that the New York’s Metropolitan Transportation System would issue posters saying ‘If You See Something, Say Something. Even if You’re Pretty Sure He’s Just a Pakistani?’ Given the treatment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, I was not at all convinced this was a hoax. Continue reading
Author Archives: Phillygrrl
Desi Douche of the Day
Happy Thursday, mutineers! Thanks to Ennis for sharing this jaw-dropping gem with the Mutiny. It brings to mind a couple of questions. First of all, who is this smarmy individual? Why is he wearing two button-down shirts one on top of the other (in clashing colors)? Is he aware of what he’s really saying? (I’m thinking he cobbled a couple of cliches together for a really awkward result.) How long did it take him to write and memorize this Bollywood-gone-wrong type script? Who is this girl that only likes BMWs? How successful was the proposal? It would be hilarious if they were married by now. I’m picturing twin boys wearing two button-downs a-piece riding BMW trikes.
Arjun Basu Wins Shorty Award for Literature
There are two kinds of people: those who use Twitter and those who don’t. I belong to the former group. But even a Twitter fanatic like myself can appreciate the apathy that inevitably creeps in when the initial excitement of sharing your world in 140-characters dies down. After a while – it’s easy to become disinterested in the Tweets of the people you follow.
A couple of months ago, I became curious about sharing narrative via Tweets. Upon further Googling, I discovered the concept had been realized in all its glory by Arjun Basu, who Pavani first bought to the Mutiny’s attention last summer. I started following Basu on Twitter and ever since then, have been consistently entertained by what he calls Twisters, short stories told via Twitter. There’s something about seeing a full story told in such a succinct, boiled-down way that appeals to my fancy. And it looks like I’m not the only one who’s a fan. This past month, Basu’s work was acknowledged at the second annual Shorty Awards, which recognizes the “the best people and organizations on Twitter.” Basu won in the Literature category in a surprising upset over Neil Gaiman, the so-called “rock star’ of the literary world.” For someone still working on his first novel, the award was quite a coup. Basu was kind enough to answer some questions for the Mutiny. Continue reading
PSA: Yo Desi Ladies, Did You Date This Guy?
A number of you folks have emailed me with information regarding a possible con artist who has been allegedly accused of trolling desi matrimonial sites and hitting up desi networking events for women, then stealing their identities. According to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Police say the man they know as Jay. D. Singh but who holds several passports romanced his way into the bank accounts of at least three Philadelphia area women, ages 26 to 28, taking them for about $40,000.”
Authorities believe Singh may have also contacted Hindu and Sikh women in other states. One of his alleged victims sent me the following: “He targeted Indian women between the ages of 25-34 living in NYC, Philly, DC and there is high likelihood that he has victims in Boston, Chicago, Detroit. Hawaii and London as he often traveled to those places.”
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.
UPDATED: Listen to Goldspot
Five years ago, Abhi first brought the Mutiny’s attention to Goldspot, the Los-Angeles-based band founded by multi-talented frontman Siddhartha Khosla. Remember their first album, ‘Tally of the Yes Men?’ This past fall, Goldspot released their second full-length album ‘And the Elephant is Dancing,’ which I’ve been playing in heavy rotation on iTunes for the last few months. Their work, often described as ‘Bollywood-inspired’ and ‘Beatles-influenced,’ is getting even more attention this time around. In the past year, Goldspot has gotten play on television shows such as ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ and soundtracks including ‘Today’s Special,’ starring Aasif Mandvi and the Bollywood release ‘The President is Coming.’ Continue reading
Mummy, Daddy I Want the ‘Love Marriage’
Happy Humpday, SM readers! Hope you’re having a great week. Whilst stalking my friends’ Facebook pages, I came across the best music video EVER via Sugi. Behold: the Interwebz phenomenon that is Wilbur Sargunaraj, who apparently first came to attention through ‘Blog Song’ back in 2007. Since then he’s done many, many videos. But man, am I loving this beat right here. It doesn’t hurt that he has those adorable aunties self-consciously throwing it up in the back. Seriously, this song needed to be my ringtone yesterday. Enjoy!
My Name is Khan: Review Roundup
A man travels across the United States on a quest. Along the way, he meets a variety of colorful characters and despite a possibly debilitating condition, manages to influence the entire nation for the better and win back his love. Sound familiar? Of course it sounds familiar, it’s the plot of Forrest Gump, err, My Name is Khan, which centers around a South Asian family torn apart after 9/11.
This past weekend, I braved the icy roads with members of my family and a rabid-SRK teenage fan from my church to go to a half-empty theater in Philadelphia and watch the movie I’ve been blogging about since September. As an American-born South Asian, I was curious to see how Indian director Karan Johar, whose prior experience consists only of making three romantic-comedy-type films, would portray America and especially the events surrounding 9/11. Continue reading
Valentine’s Day Shararaten(Shenanigans)
Happy Belated Valentine’s Day, mutineers. Hope you lovely folks got all the flowers, chocolates and cards you deserve. I was doing a little post-celebratory research tonight on Valentine’s Day and came across a couple of interesting facts I thought you folks might like to learn a la our good friend, Wikipedia. For instance, did you know that American men spend twice as much money on Valentine’s Day than women? And that in Paris, there was a ‘High Court of Love’ established on Valentine’s Day in 1400 that dealt with crimes against women? And that the judges for that court were picked by women, based on their love poetry? Oh yeah, and finally did you know that in India, Hindu fundamentalists highly discourage the celebration of Valentine’s Day? Of course you do, you read SM. We’ve covered that in the past. Not to worry, Shiv Sena continued its anti-Valentine’s Day diatribes this year, although they were a little distracted. So many grievances, so little time… what’s a violent protestor to do nowadays? It’s gotten so there’s too many effigies to burn.
With most of their aggressive workers identified and picked up by the police ahead of the release of My Name Is Khan, Shiv Sena members have admitted that their annual Valentine Day protests will likely be low-key, if they happen at all.
Every year, Sainiks denounce the concept of Valentine’s Day and warn couples against celebrating it, but this year, they say, the agitation against Shah Rukh Khan and his movie are of more immediate importance. [Link.]
Perhaps they’ve turned their sights to virtual protests? Alongside the other factoids on Wikipieda, I came across this interesting new poster, which was uploaded on Wikipedia’s ‘Valentine’s Day’ this past Saturday. I thought SM readers would find it as amusing as I did. Continue reading
Khan Signs Nude Pics of Self at Airport
What next? No, really. I want to know. What next? First SRK announces he’s releasing a movie called My Name is Khan that has to do with issues of terrorism post-9/11. Then SRK gets detained by guards at Newark airport. Now, days after SRK wraps up a publicity tour in NYC, we hear that our friend is once again in the news? Life imitating art? Stranger things have happened.
Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London. Continue reading
Q&A with @PorkAdventurer aka Abdullah Saeed
Three weeks ago, 25-year old Philadelphian and lifelong foodie Abdullah Saeed did something thousands of people around the world were doing that very minute – he wrote a blog post. The post, titled “What a strange new feeling” was the first for his blog, ‘Adventures in Pork: A Muslim eats various pork dishes for the first time in his life and divulges his thoughts.’ Over the next four weeks, Saeed, a DJ and freelance writer tried Wendy’s Baconator, Pork Vindaloo and BBQ pork ribs among other pork dishes. The reaction from the blogosphere was immediate. Phoodie, a Philadelphia food and drink blog had this to say about Adventures in Pork, “Saeed’s almost poetic prose and fresh perspective on swine merge like ribs and BBQ sauce that makes for a witty feast for the eyeballs.” Thrillist wrote, “a scrumptious blog from a guy who realized he could have his pig and eat it too.”
I first heard about Saeed a few days ago, when I asked Hassan from Sunny Ali & The Kid who ‘The Kid’ was in the band. He introduced me to Saeed’s blog and suggested I read it. I was immediately hooked. I simply had to interview my bacon-brother-from-another-mother (especially given my own current exploration of pork.) Saeed was kind enough to sit down and share his story with SM. Continue reading