You’ve
probably heard about Warner Bros.’ plans to makeover
their beloved Looney Tunes characters into a crime-fighting gang of edgy superheroes entitled the “Loonatics.” Instead
of making us wait for the show to premiere this fall, animator
Niraj Shah offers a glimpse of what to expect from the new “Buzz
Bunny” (thanks,
Sanjay Shah).
TLG Media: “A New Bunny” (NSFW)
A high-speed chase down Highway 101 in South San Francisco ended with police killing a man believed to have beaten his spouse. It all took place last week when Kamal Lal punched his wife Shelly in the face following a dispute over a pile of trash. Shelly called 911, and Kamal fled from the scene in his truck. When authorities tracked him down, Kamal led them on a chase at speeds as high as 100 mph. His car eventually ran off the road and into a ditch. Kamal emerged from it and began throwing rocks at CHP officers. When he threatened them with a concrete slab, they pumped him full of bullets. Court records show that Kamal had a history of domestic abuse, and had plead guilty to misdemeanor battery against his wife in 1996. Like many battered spouses, Shelly defended her husband of 16 years:
“Everyone has their problems, but where this went, it totally doesn’t make sense,” said Lal, 37, of her husband. “I’m just mad that he was killed in such a barbaric way”…Lal described her husband as a warm, generous man who loved playing with his son and often bought homeless people meals. She said their relationship was strong enough, she thought, to withstand Sunday’s domestic violence. “It just seemed like a little dispute between husband and wife,” Lal said. [San Francisco Chronicle]
San Francisco Chronicle: ‘It doesn’t make sense,’ says wife of man shot by CHP, Man killed by CHP had battery record
A global study of sleep habits found that most Indians can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning:
Top
10 Early Birds – out of bed by 7 a.m.
Country |
Before 6 a.m. |
Between 6-7 a.m. |
Before 7 a.m. |
|
1 |
Indonesia | 72% |
19% |
91% |
2 |
Vietnam | 55% |
33% |
88% |
3 |
Philippines | 41% |
28% |
69% |
| 4 | Denmark |
21% |
45% |
66% |
| 5 | Germany |
29% |
35% |
64% |
| 6 | Austria |
25% |
39% |
64% |
| 7 | India |
24% |
40% |
64% |
| 8 | Japan |
21% |
43% |
64% |
| 9 | Finland |
20% |
43% |
63% |
| 10 | Norway |
21% |
41% |
62% |
What’s got them waking up so damn early? Awesome jobs? Too much water before bedtime? Unbearable spouses? We’ll never know. It’s unexplained by the ACNielsen Consumer Confidence and Opinion Survey, which also found that Indians are more likely than others to make home improvements, purchase fashionable clothes, and take weekend trips.
Alternative
community/pin-up site Suicide Girls features a blog and photo collection
from a U.K.-based desi named “India” (NSFW).
She’s an aspiring mathematician,
and daydreams about numbers:
FANTASY: to solve one of the clay institutes seven prize math problems (http://www.claymath.org/millennium/)…
First Navi Rawat, and now “India.” When did math become the new black? One thing’s for sure — she shouldn’t have any trouble finding an algorithmically-inclined South Asian suitor. Oh, and for the record, I was on Suicide Girls in order to read a scintillating interview with the always-hilarious David Cross.
Billboard.com
reports that powerhouse music label Interscope Records has signed U.K. rapper
M.I.A., and will release the controversial musician’s upcoming album “Arular” in
the U.S. by mid-April (via Nirali
Magazine). She’s currently touring the country, and will appear at the
immensely popular Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in May.
Billboard.com: Sources:
Interscope signs M.I.A.
Previous posts: M.I.A.:
step up to blow up, Steel
balls and pots, M.I.A.
looked directly into my eyes!, and Military chic
SM tipster Vipur
Andleigh (by the way, a great stand-up comedian) turns us
on to a report in the San
Jose Mercury News about the arrest of kabaddi pro — yes, you read that right,
kabaddi pro — Kuljeet Singh:
Coming home after a grueling winter season of Kabaddi matches in East India, Kuljeet Singh arrived at San Francisco International Airport two weeks ago with a suitcase full of trophies, neatly folded designer jeans and a stash of syringes and steroids in his shoes.
He got as far as customs.
Singh obviously isn’t the sharpest raider on the kabaddi circle. Everybody knows that the best way to smuggle illegal drugs into the country is by stuffing them up your ass, or ingesting a sealed bag of them. Hiding them in your shoes is so 1998.
DJ’s in Philadelphia are not alone in lobbing verbal assaults at Indian call center agents. Industry executives and analysts say abusive hate calls are commonplace, and a primary cause of workplace stress. The Washington Post reports:
Rohail Manzoor thought he had what it took to work in a telephone call center. All he had to do was pick up the phone and answer queries from American customers about their long-distance bills. He was armed with lessons on how to speak English like the Americans — adjust the r’s, say “zee” instead of “zed,” “mail” instead of “post.”
He even called himself “Jim,” and figured he would pretend to be an American customer service agent.
But nothing prepared him for the shower of curses that came his way when he picked up the phone one night on the job.
“‘You Indians suck!’ an American screamed on the phone,” recalled a soft-spoken Manzoor, 25. “He was using a lot of four-letter words, too. He called me names left, right and center.”
As a result, some call centers now offer classes on stress-management, meditation, breathing, yoga, and even how to be more American:
Industry watchers say some call centers have giant TV screens showing the weather in different U.S. cities, the scores from latest New York Knicks game or news about the latest play on Broadway. The agents use the information on the screen to make small talk with the caller and mask their location in India.
The training given to the call center aspirants not only involves diction, but also a crash course in American culture. Maneesh Ahooja, a voice and accent trainer for call center employees in Bombay, often makes them watch popular TV shows such as “Friends” and “Dharma and Greg.”
Obviously, part of the problem is with the training itself. After all, when was “Dharma and Greg” ever considered popular? And does anyone really ask about the score of the Knicks game? These days, isn’t it safe to assume that they’re losing? Of course, most of the problem, say executives, finds its source in American anger over outsourcing, and Jason Alexander.
The Washington Post: India call centers suffer storm of 4-letter words (Free registration required)
Bollywood
actress Preity Zinta writes about a pair of year-end brushes with death in a
column for BBC
News. Her first experience came during a concert
and dance show entitled “Temptation 2004” in Colombo, Sri Lanka:
I am waiting in the left wing for my finale. The music is pulsing through the audience, and the pyrotechnics are lighting up the inky black night.
Suddenly I see a man in the front row flying to his left. Then I see Shah Rukh looking to his right and left. Then I see the dancers disappear.
What is happening?
I stepped on the stage and leaned over. I saw a pool of blood in the front rows. The security men grab us from behind and ask us to leave.
A bomb has exploded in the front rows – two people are dead, more than a dozen injured. The concert has come to a bloody end.
“Born
Into Brothels” picked up the Academy Award for documentary
feature, and filmmakers Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski were on-hand to accept
the award. In case you missed it, here’s a Quicktime
video of the presentation, and acceptance speech (2.3 MB, 2:20 mins.).
Ashvin Kumar’s “The Little Terrorist” lost out to “Wasp” in the category of live action short. Here’s a brief clip of the presentation, where you can briefly spot Kumar (900 KB, 50 sec.). Spain’s “The Sea Inside” took home the award for foreign language film, beating out South Africa’s “Yesterday,” which was produced by Anant Singh.
Previous posts: The award for the most sepia film goes to…, The Little Terrorist, “Born Into Brothels” earns Oscar nom, & Kids with cameras
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) travelled to India this week and met with
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss a wide range of issues integral to U.S.-India
ties. From The Times of India:
Clinton, who was accompanied by US Ambassador David Mulford, met the Prime Minister at his 7, Race Course Road residence.
“It was a nice meeting and both enjoyed it,” said an aide to the Prime Minister.
“They discussed healthcare, education, India-US relations and South Asia. It was a wide-ranging discussion,” the aide said.
Clinton also held talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi:
During her an hour-long one-to-one meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the latter’s 10 Janpath residence, Clinton discussed at length about the socio-economic issues of both countries.
“Both the leaders assessed the growth of India-US ties from Clinton’s time and how far it progressed.
“They have also reviewed the socio-economic situation prevailing in the country,” sources said.
She rounded out her trip with an appearance at the India Today Conclave, where
she shared a table with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
Overall, the trip appeared to be a success, and Clinton resisted the urge to make any culturally insensitive remarks. You’ll recall that at a fundraiser in January of last year, she introduced a quote from Mohandas Gandhi by saying, “He ran a gas station down in St. Louis.” Following uproar from the Indian community, Clinton apologized, and said her remarks were “a lame attempt at humor.” Indians observed this time that Clinton was making a lame attempt to hide her ambition for the White House.
The Times of India: Hillary Clinton meets Manmohan, Sonia