The WSJ has an interesting (and somewhat fawning) interview piece with Bobby Jindal, desi front-runner in the Louisiana Governor’s race. The now standard intro on Jindal lauds his technocratic skills –

WSJ’s famous thumbprint pix are so last century. Now a watercolor portrait signals you’ve made it.

Mr. Jindal, 36, is an affable policy wonk with a quick mind and a fascination with the details of governance. Before our interview, an aide emailed me a series of press releases announcing his 28-point anticrime agenda, his 31-point anticorruption agenda and his 25-point agenda to curb spending.

And significant time is spent on his wonkish roots, which include a tale familiar to many ABCD’s –

…In high school, Bobby aspired to be a doctor. But he sought out a well-rounded education, and this eventually led to a change in plans. As an undergraduate, he served an internship in the office of Rep. Jim McCrery, a Shreveport Republican. He earned a master’s in political theory, then went to work as a health-care consultant at McKinsey & Co. While there, he read an article in the Washington Post about Louisiana’s troubled health-care system. “It seemed to me that they were going to make a bad problem worse. They were going to have more government-run health care, more spending. So I wrote up an analysis of what I thought they should do.”

It was 1995, and Republican Mike Foster had just been elected governor. Rep. McCrery and then-Sen. John Breaux were impressed with Mr. Jindal’s report and recommended him to Mr. Foster’s transition team. Eventually he met the governor-elect, who proclaimed Mr. Jindal a “genius” and offered him the top job in the state’s Health and Hospitals Department. He was 24. “I realized: ‘Well, I guess I’m not going to medical school anymore.’ “

The remainder of the piece goes into more detail on the origins of Jindal’s politics, religion, Louisiana’s political & economic history, and perhaps most importantly, his program for post-Katrina Louisiana. An interesting read indeed.

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Had a *great* meetup last night in SF.

‘Twas a nice bright day in SF…

While not as large as the NYC meetup, ~25 folks swung by Greco’s over the course of the evening. The majority of the attendees were deep lurkers (although, apparently, fanatical comments readers). A handful of folks were visiting SF on vacation or en route to other locales with the Sunday afternoon meetup lining up perfectly with their scheds. Some folks brought the party (thank you DJ Dp). Still, other folks were conspicuous by their absence (best wishes to A N N A ; SFGirl, Camille + a few others)

Two new records were set for IST –

• Early: Mutineer Dharti figured a “lazy Sunday” might mean that folks would show up as soon as 1:00
• Very Early: Mutineer Harbeer (wallet chain and all) thought the meetup was supposed to be on Saturday

Post meetup, the hearty select ventured to Kennedy’s Irish Pub & Curry House…

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Via the News Tab, mutineer Dari points us at FT coverage of Shah Rukh Khan’s ad for Fair and Handsome skin cream –

Strong enough for a wheatish woman but made for a man…

Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood’s biggest star and corporate India’s most ubiquitous brand ambassador, is coming under pressure to abandon his controversial endorsement of a men’s skin-lightening cream.

Television commercials for Fair and Handsome, airing in August, show Mr Khan (or “SRK”) lauding a product that many see as entrenching discrimination based on skin colour by encouraging people to bleach themselves a lighter hue.

…Mr Khan urges a dark-complexioned and depressed-looking young man, struggling to attract female attention, to stop using skin-lightening products designed for women.

“Why are you secretly using a cream for girls?” Mr Khan asks. “Their skin is soft. Yours is rough and tough.” Several shades whiter and visibly more self-confident by the end of the 40-second commercial, the young man duly snares the girl of his dreams.

The commercial, of course, is up for all to see on YouTube –

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A quick thanks to all the folks who showed up last Saturday evening for the SM / UB joint meetup. A N N A’s ankle precluded her attendance (get well!) but long time mega-commentor Razib was one of several surprise guests for the evening.

Festivities were scheduled to start @ 5pm but more than just moi + Manish suffered from IST – Verlaine only opened its doors @ 6pm so a few of us socialized outside for a bit. While Verlaine had initially planned to allocate a small corner up front, our numbers swelled and by peak hour our >>50 folks occupied the entire front half of the venue (“we don’t die, we multiply”). Including in&out flow of peeps, I’d guesstimate we had close to 70 people over the course of the evening. About 15 folks survived till about 10pm when a few of us broke off to grab dinner @ the Mexican place next door.

I did my best to circulate and say hello, make a few intro’s and the like but alas, there were quite a few folks I didn’t get a chance to connect with. Still, I was a bit surprised by the number of lurkers + not-quite-regular readers I met. I sorta expected some of the regulars but was duly impressed with the folks who drove up from Philly, NJ, LI and other places to partake in some desi camraderie despite hitting the blog perhaps once or 2x a month. Wild stuff.

Pictures? Well, fotog extraordinaire, Preston Merchant has a few snaps up on his site and Ultrabrown host Manish Vij has a few more picts + commentary over here. Neither of them quite have the one pict that conveyed the scale of the event but it’s a fun browse nevertheless. Any attendees – would love to hear your take in the comments.

Off we go to San Francisco.

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Hey folks – see you in a few hours @ Verlaine. East siiiiiiiide!

Saturday, August 18	New York City
5pm – ??? Verlaine 110 Rivington St (b/t Essex & Ludlow) (212) 614-2494

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