Author Archives: apul

Religious ceremony buries children alive

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You’re in a restaurant or airplane, and someone’s rat-bastard tot will not stop crying at the top of their lungs. There’s something you can do about it, as long as you’re willing to risk arrest:

Indian police have charged 80 people for burying children alive in an ancient Hindu ceremony known as “the festival of pits.” The ceremony, in which children — some less than a year old — are buried alive briefly and then dug up, happened on Monday in southern Tamil Nadu state, The Asian Age reported on Thursday. [Reuters/Yahoo!]

Reuters/Yahoo!: Indians charged for burying children alive

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Los Angeles Times checks out Naz Cinemas

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The Los Angeles Times discovers the three-year-old Artesia branch of Naz Cinemas during a recent cricket match between India and Pakistan. What took them so long to notice? Hey, you try driving from L.A. to Artesia in under three years. It might be worth the trip:

The cinema draws expatriates from San Diego to Santa Monica, eager to see the colorful costumes and hear the lively songs that make Bollywood films famous. In addition to Indian movies, Jivani shows films from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Korea and the Philippines. But to South Asian immigrants, Naz cinemas is more than a movie theater. It also serves as a sort of community center and social club. Here they can comfortably gather and gossip, reminisce and reconnect. “It’s like a home away from home,” said (owner Shiraz) Jivani, 49. “By serving them Indian tea, Indian samosas, Indian snacks, they feel like they are back home.” Jivani, a Pakistani native with a degree from Stanford University, opened his first theater in the Bay Area city of Fremont in 1992, followed by another in nearby Sunnyvale in 1999 and the Lakewood theater in 2002. [Los Angeles Times]

Los Angeles Times: Indians and Pakistanis get together for cricket (free registration required)

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Effect of rising salaries on India IT

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India’s offshore dominance on the wane because of rising salaries? Hell no, says/hopes/prays Marc Hebert, the VP of a Silicon Valley company that has a branch in India:

Some even speculate that rising salaries in India will erode the cost advantage over U.S. IT workers, ultimately returning offshore jobs to American soil. But that’s only one side of the story. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reported death of Indian outsourcing is greatly exaggerated. The counterargument rests on two pillars: productivity and scale. Salaries may increase, but there are offsetting factors such as experience, infrastructure, high productivity levels and economies of scale to consider. Let me put it another way: The cost of doing information technology in India is falling, as the range and complexity of projects that can be offshored to India is increasing. [News.com]

News.com: The end of India’s offshore dominance?

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Bombay reporters undercover as street merchants

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Bombay street merchants sell just about everything — clothes; food; human kidneys. Seven Mid Day reporters tried their hand at hawking a variety of wares, in order to see if they could earn a day’s wage (thanks, Avi Solomon). Who made the biggest profit? Vinod may have been on to something about Indians and superstition:

Item Sold: Net Profit (Rs.)
Fortunes: 110
Head Massages: 109
Water: 107
Flowers: 40
Hairbands: 38
Newspapers: 22
Popcorn: 15

Mid Day: Mid Day reporters turn hawkers

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Deadly building collapse in Bangladesh

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Tragedy struck earlier this week at a sweatshop in Bangladesh:

Rescuers pulled two more bodies out of the rubble of a nine-story garment factory that collapsed four days ago, taking the toll to 32 on Thursday with more than 100 workers still feared trapped…The factory at Palashbari, 30 km (18 miles) from the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, was built without planning permission, officials and engineers said. Its owners have not been found since the worst tragedy in the country’s accident-prone garment industry struck in the wee hours of Monday. [Reuters/Yahoo!]

The factory produced clothes for export to the U.S, Belgium and Germany. The companies haven’t been named, or stepped forward. Seeing as how their oversight of the factory was lacking, they probably don’t even know yet. Once they do, surely their hell-bound executives will mourn the loss (of revenue, not life).

Reuters/Yahoo!: Hopes for Bangladesh factory survivors fade as death toll hits 32

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Musical is first to perform Lennon’s ‘India, India’

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Yoko Ono, the almighty creator of cacophony and destroyer of institutions, allows a Broadway-bound musical to perform a pair of unpublished songs written by her late husband, Beatle John Lennon. One of those songs, “India, India,” received yesterday its first-ever public performance:

Lennon wrote ‘India, India’ in the late 1970s for a musical of his own writing named after his song The Ballad of John and Yoko. However, the show was never performed and the track remained unheard. It seems likely that in ‘India, India’ Lennon was writing about his 1968 visit to India, when the Beatles indulged their spiritual side at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh. [Apun Ka Choice]

Apun Ka Choice: Lennon’s ‘India, India’ on Broadway
Times of India: India, India lyrics

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Noureen Dewulf in ‘National Lampoon’s Pledge This!’

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Actress Noureen Dewulf plays an Indian sorority pledge named Sanagarvarapoopoo “Poo Poo” Gandosimi in this summer’s “National Lampoon’s Pledge This!” The film reads like a female rehash of “Van Wilder,” and stars wealthy porn star Paris Hilton as the sorority president. Peta Cooper (PC) interviews Dewulf (ND) for DesiClub.com:

PC: Does your character have a lot of “fobby” qualities?
ND: Fobby? Not really, I mean she speaks with an accent, wears Indian clothes and is really innocent until she gets corrupted.
PC: Does she wear deodorant?
ND: Peta – Shut up! (laughs) I kind of like FOBs anyway. They are cute and funny plus ignorance is bliss right?
PC: So you’re in this movie with Paris Hilton, how do both of your characters interact?
ND: Well, Paris’ character, Victoria, is the president of a sorority (Gamma Gamma) that my character Sanagarvarapoopoo Gandosimi aka “Poo Poo” is trying to pledge. So basically, she tortures me and the other pledges throughout the film, which is really funny. [DesiClub.com]

Even if it is funny, it’s going to be pretty damn hard to top the hilarity of Hilton picking up a cell phone during the sex scene in her previous masterpiece, “One Night in Paris.” (NSFW)

DesiClub.com: Noureen DeWulf — in hot company with Paris Hilton

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Hard Rock Café coming to Bombay

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Twenty years ago when everyone was sporting Hard Rock Café t-shirts, this would have allowed us to be culturally-appropriate posers:

…global cafecum-entertainment giant – the USD 426-million Hard Rock International – has made the move to enter India. Industry sources said Hard Rock International has signed an exclusive arrangement up with two Indian franchisee partners – Jai Singh and Sanjay Mehtani. The first Hard Rock Cafe is expected to come up in Mumbai, in September. [Times of India]

Times of India: Hard Rock to enter India

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Female runners targeted in Pakistan

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From the perspective of religious extremists, at least this is somewhat logical — if you’re trying to enslave women, you definitely don’t want them training to outrun you:

A week ago baton-wielding men threw petrol bombs and torched vehicles at a mini-marathon in Gujranwala, 135 miles south of Islamabad. The race – one of the first to allow female participation – ended with police firing tear gas and making more than 50 arrests. The threat of further violence forced the cancellation of other mini-marathons at the weekend in a direct challenge to President Pervez Musharraf’s policy of “enlightened moderation”. [The Guardian]

The Guardian: Mullahs target women runners

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Time names world’s most influential

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Time Magazine released today its list of the world’s 100 most influential people, which includes Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in its assortment of “Leaders & Revolutionaries.” Bollywood, despite its growing popularity around the world, doesn’t show up anywhere on the list’s crew of “Artists & Entertainers.” Ann Coulter made it there though, which leads one to suspect that the selections are a tad American-centric. After all, the Third Reich hasn’t reemerged yet, so how much influence can Coulter possibly have outside of hard-up American reactionaries? Wipro’s Azim Premji and steel kingpin Lakshmi Mittal are also notably absent from the list’s club of “Builders & Titans,” which includes domestic diva Martha Stewart and rapper Jay-Z.

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