Happy New Years, I’m glad to see that even the Times of India is writing a story on Rosh Hashanah. How’s the new year look? Well, shofar sho good … Continue reading
Author Archives: Ennis Singh Mutinywale
Shoot the raghead in the face
Around a year ago, it seems that Sukhmani Singh Khalsa, a student and conservative columnist at the University of Tennessee, wrote a column criticising University Issues Committee for being liberal and one sided. (The Issues Committee is the body that invites speakers on to campus)
Upon reading Sukhmani’s column, one of the committee members, Justin Rubenstein, emailed some of the others, saying:
if you see one of those ragheads, shoot him right in the fucking face. [Sukhmani deserves] torture that would put the Spanish Inquisition to shame.
Maybe a single tea is long enough to know
You’re on the phone with your grandmother, and she wants to know when you’re going to produce grandchildren for her and how on earth you can be “dating” the same person for 2 years without any marriage plans. You tell her that these things take time, that people are complicated, and it’s hard to know where this is going. You feel morally superior as she clucks disapprovingly. You think, I’m a modern person, and I have science on my side.
Or do you? Well, today the BBC reports that:
People decide what kind of relationship they want within minutes of meeting, a study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships said. “It’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. We make a prediction about what kind of relationship we could have with a person and that helps determine how much effort we are willing to put into developing a relationship.” The results were the same for people who talked for three, six or ten minutes. Prof Ramirez said: “That tells you things are happening very quickly. People are making snap judgements about what kind of relationship they want with the person they just met.”
Asians remain dominant in golf
Across America, I expect sports columnists to be remarking on how the crown has been passed from a black man to a brown man in what used to be the white man’s sport (largely because the only way you could get on the court if your skin was darker than manilla was by caddying). But why talk about the transition from black to brown? Why not say that a browner black man was overtaken by a blacker brown man? Or that the yellow man lost to the brown man? Continue reading
Early this afternoon
I listened carefully for the usual remark, and wondered what it would be. My mind flashed forward to a scene of myself, explaining to a judge why I had decided to wastefully pelt these kids with my precious produce. I was also wondering, in another part of my mind, whether I would miss my peaches or beets more, and which ones would be more accurate to throw. I wished I had picked up some overripe tomatoes just a few minutes before, to make sauce with and to express myself more precisely with. With the anniversary of 9-11 approaching, I really didn’t feel like smiling and turning the other cheek at a threat, an accusation of terrorism, or my favorite phrase (which I haven’t heard here yet), “Sand Nigger.”
The chatter from the boat dimmed as they noticed me, and I tensed slightly. Finally one of them yelled, “Nice Beard!”
“Thanks!” I responded. “I grew it myself!”
Excerpts above; the full version is available at my home blog.
It’s not the color of your money, it’s what’s in your pants that counts
From the Beeb:
Angry eunuchs in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are protesting against a state-run insurance company which they allege has refused to issue an insurance policy to a eunuch.
[snip]
A spokesman for the Life Insurance Corporation at their headquarters in Bombay (Mumbai) has denied that eunuchs will not be sold insurance.
But a senior official who requested anonymity told the BBC that, according to the company rules, only men or women can apply for insurance.
He said that, going strictly by the rules, applications from eunuchs are normally rejected.
I can just picture some desi bureaucrat looking at the boxes labeled “M/F Check ONE” and stamping denied across the form. Somebody please smack said bureaucrat silly, then send him to Bombay Dreams for re-education?
Those whacky, dancing, teenage, Indian nuns
The four nuns from India, some with a few pimples left over from adolescence and all in black habits and crucifixes, giggled and chatted like American freshmen as they arrived here for college.
They came from Kerala, a state in southwest India, to attend Assumption College for Sisters at Mallinckrodt Convent as part of an atypical Roman Catholic experiment.
[snip]
The students have been encouraged to display their talents at prayer services, in the motherhouse and occasionally at Mass. One of the visiting nuns … said, “The Nigerians are great singers.” The Indian nuns, she added with a giggle and peek in their direction, “really know how to dance.”
[NYT]
Does anybody else think this sounds like a bollywood movie? Or yet another Sister Act movie with Whoopy Goldberg? Sister Act 12, in which Whoopi Goldberg teaches teenage indian nuns how to sing to go with their dancing.
Hari Puttar and the Order of the Phoenix?
Mira Nair to direct the new Harry Potter movie? According to Nair herself:
“I’m getting offers to direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I read it over the weekend. I’m still deciding… I’m not letting all this go to my head. I’m grounded. I practise detachment, it helps me keep my balance. I’m a Dilliwalli [someone from Delhi], only an asana [a position in Yoga] gets me on my head! My son Zoharan’s excited. I’ve seen all the Harry Potter movies with him.”
I’d be quite interested to see what she could do with the material. I thought that Chris Columbus did an awful job, both in terms of deadening the joy in the material, but also in terms of whitewashing it all. Cuaron, on the other hand, did even better than I had expected (although given how well he directed “A Little Princess“, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised). He also managed to showcase the non-white characters who were there all along, and who play a larger role in the story as the series goes on. No word yet on whether Sitara Shah will come back as Parvati Patil (heck, they haven’t even re-signed Daniel Radcliffe yet).
For more on Nair, read Sajit’s earlier post on the topic, where he mentioned this rumor earlier. Continue reading
Bringing coals to Newcastle
In a cheeky act of reverse colonialism, Amrut distillery plans to sell its whisky in Scotland.
The whisky is made from barley grown in the Himalayan foothills and is malted in Delhi and Jaipur…. distilled in Bangalore, then matured for three years in American oak casks.
Even this guy has a cell phone! (in the left basket)
Swami, as he is described, is on an epic mission – he is carrying his aged, blind mother, Kethakdevi, on his shoulders on an all-India pilgrimage.
The loving son carries two baskets on his shoulders, balanced by a wooden bar … In one, his mother, in the other his meagre belongings.
His spartan possessions include a stove and pots, a couple of rugs, some clothes, a gold-plate wristwatch and a mobile phone. [via the BBC]
“Oh hi. How are you? No, I’m not busy, just out for a stroll with my mother. You know, same old same old. Yeah, she can be a huge pain in the back sometimes, but she’s my mom and I love her. So when she said, carry me all over India, I said, why not, I’m not doing anything until 2013 anyway. But … it’s boring sometimes. And mom doesn’t talk much. So I’m really glad I’ve got unlimited night and weekend minutes on this plan. Enough about me though. What did you do this weekend, anyway?”