Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

Help a Wannabe-Desi Out

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white india.jpg Verity, at the conservative blog Albion’s Seedlings, says she wants to settle in India and buy property there. However, she’s been told that she can do neither.

My understanding is that with the approval of the Reserve Bank, she can buy property for residential purposes, and Wikipedia claims, “Citizenship of India by naturalisation can be acquired by a foreigner who is ordinarily resident in India for twelve years (continuously for the twelve months preceding the date of application and for eleven years in the aggregate in the fourteen years preceding the twelve months).”

Anyone know more about this than just what a Google search turns up? Continue reading →

Mutinous Radio

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I figured that it is was well past time that I showed some love to the South Asian community down in Houston. Every Thursday from 3:30-5:30p.m., Houston’s KPFT 90.1 FM is taken over by GenerAsian Radio featuring DJs Yogi and Alex. You can either catch it live or listen to past shows that they have uploaded to the web:

GenerAsian Radio is a unique radio program featuring an eclectic mix of Asian Underground, Hindi, Bhangra, Arabic, house, and hip-hop. Started back in 2002, the show has been widely popular among the South Asian youths and also among Middle Eastern, Hispanic, European, American music lovers. The show features interviews with musicians and artists from all over the world, live mixes in the studio, and cultural community events. GenerAsian Radio airs live on the web as Real Audio or MP3 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM CST on Thursdays.

What I like to do sometimes is to listen to the GenerAsian radio clips while either writing a post for SM or reading a post written by one of my co-bloggers. Sepia Mutiny needs theme music to be properly enjoyed. I have long subscribed to the idea that life would be more worth living if we all had our own personal soundtracks. Unfortunately society has not yet reached my prescient conclusion, so in the meantime I rely on websites like GenerAsian radio’s to mix something up.

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He blinded me with science!

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President Musharraf yesterday proposed a two pronged approach to producing a “Muslim renaissance.”

Step 1, Ban all hate and terror organizations:

Senseless acts of terrorism committed by a handful of misguided individuals while claiming to act in the name of Islam have maligned our noble faith of peace, tolerance and compassion … We must condemn and reject all forces of terrorism and extremism, banning organisations which preach hate and violence. We must promote the Islamic values of tolerance and moderation,”… [Link]

Step 2, Fund lots of science:

The president said most Islamic societies remained far removed from the expanding frontiers of knowledge, education, science and technology. Any dreams of progress on these fronts would remain unfulfilled if not fully backed by collective will and adequate financial resources, he said. [Link]

These are two admirable goals, but honestly, I fail to see the connection between them (perhaps I misread the original article). Is his plan to generate a society too geeky to hate or kill? Anybody who ever read soc.culture.indian (or encountered Biswanath Halder) knows that geeks are just as capable of hate as anybody else … Continue reading →

Fear of flying

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A desi Lt. Colonel was detained for 4 hours because air marshals didn’t “like the way he looked” When I was a little boy, I believed in an America where all men were equal before the law, and due process was paramount. However, when I grew up, I put away childish things and saw that this was not true. Therefore, I put on my best Stepin Fetchit imitation when flying, grinning broadly, shucking and jiving. I call somebody at each leg of my journey, so that there is a paper trail just in case somebody decides that I look “wrong” and I get stopped for flying while brown. [Why not drive? You should see how highway patrolmen react to the sight of a turban and beard passing through middle America. Flying is also far safer.]

Is this paranoia or simple prudence? If you think I’m overly cautious, consider the case of Bob Rajcoomar, a U.S. citizen and Lt. Colonel in the United States Army Reserve who was detained on a flight in August 2002 because federal air marshals did not “like the way he looked.” [Hat Tip: RC]

Dr. Rajcoomar’s disturbing ordeal began shortly after take off during a flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia on August 31, 2002, when U.S. Air Marshals were called to subdue an apparently disoriented man seated in the coach section. The air marshals rushed at the unstable individual, handcuffed him, and then dragged him to the first-class section, where they placed him in the seat next to Dr. Rajcoomar, a U.S. citizen and Lt. Colonel in the United States Army Reserve and is of Indian descent. Dr. Rajcoomar asked to have his seat changed and the flight attendant obliged. [Link]

Dr. Rajcoomar’s seat change made the air marshals suspicious:

… after the flight landed … air marshals handcuffed Dr. Rajcoomar without explanation and took him into the custody of Philadelphia police. His wife Dorothy, who was also on the flight, was given no information on what had happened to her husband. Because the authorities confiscated Dr. Rajcoomar’s cellular phone, she had no way to contact him.

After four tense hours in detention, Dr. Rajcoomar was released. TSA personnel told him that he had been detained because air marshals on board the flight did not “like the way he looked.” [Link]

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Don’t Call it a Comeback

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toral.jpg

Mutineer anti-favorite Toral Mehta is on the Apprentice again tonight. Joy. 😉 Actually, I should’ve seen this coming; Rebecca had the most ridiculous soft shpot for her friend Toral, a.k.a. the woman who established herself as a righteous defender of the Hindu faith with her refusal to don a costume.

Were any of you watching while I was? I thought Carolyn’s eyes were going to turn Rebecca to stone when she made such a controversial pick for her team of three assistants, but that’s just me. Mais oui, the only female contender left resumed her familiar stoic, I-might-be-wrong-about-this- but-I’m-going-to-nod-emphatically schtick. Oh yeah, since the finale is a two-parter, you get some Toral NEXT week, too. Chrismukkah comes early this year, truly.

Related: Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro Continue reading →

The Deepak Sutra

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Deepak Chopra is coming out with his own interpretation of the Kama Sutra (thanks, Cicatrix). What a coincidence! I was just telling myself, ‘You know what I need for the holidays? I need to read a sex book by a guy who could be my father.’

Since you never read the paperback Kama Sutra that you got as a gag gift for your 21st birthday, I’ll break it down for you: some parts of Vatsyayana’s sex manual for virgins have all the charm of a Sears catalog.

When the skin is pressed down on both sides, it is called the `swollen bite’. When a small portion of the skin is bitten with two teeth only, it is called the `point’. When such small portions of the skin are bitten with all the teeth, it is called the `line of points’. The biting, which is done by bringing together the teeth and the lips, is called the `coral and the jewel’. The lip is the coral, and the teeth the jewel. When biting is done with all the teeth, it is called the `line of jewels’. [Link]

And when you smack her on the ass, it is called the ‘last time you get play.’ But some parts are good advice:

… the signs of her want of enjoyment and of failing to be satisfied are as follows: … she does not let the man get up, feels dejected, bites the man, kicks him… [Link]

If your partner kicks you while you’re in bed, it’s a safe bet that you’re doing something wrong. So I look forward to hearing Chopra’s hypnotic voice on the audiobook:

Listen to my voice —
you are getting very horny

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SAIFF film fest begins tonight

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This year’s South Asian International Film Festival kicks off tonight in Manhattan with Hari Om featuring Cicatrix’ favorite, Vijay Raaz. Here’s the full program. The festival lasts through Sunday, Dec. 11.

Widely touted as one of the best films to come out of India in the last decade, Hari Om takes us on an unforgettable tour of Rajasthan as an autorickshaw driver and a French tourist set out on a cross-cultural journey through the beautiful region looking for a glimpse of the “real” India…

Selections from the top-shelf roster include: Being Cyrus, a dark comedy about a Parsi family featuring Bollywood megastar Saif Ali Khan in his English-language debut, and The Blue Umbrella, director Vishal Bhardwaj’s hotly anticipated follow-up to his 2003 masterwork, Maqbool. Both Cyrus and Umbrella were the subjects of a New York Times feature piece last week extolling the rise of New Wave Bollywood, which departs from song-and-dance conventions to present a fresh look at Indian society…

Other featured selections include: Kya Kool Hai Hum, the sleeper Bollywood superhit; Sancharram (The Journey), Liga Pullapully’s controversial depiction of lesbian love in an idyllic Kerala village; Bachelor, the hit romantic comedy from Bangladesh; Naked In Ashes, the acclaimed documentary about a young yogi; and Kal, Ruchi Narain’s revelatory look at Indian youth. SAIFF is also proud to present a special program for children on Saturday, December 10th, featuring the family films Duratta from Bangladesh about a runaway tyke, and Hanuman, the animated box-office hit from India. [SAIFF press release]

Being Cyrus on Thursday night looks promising.

Related posts: Indo indie, Dueling film festivals in Manhattan, Film festival hosts 14 South Asian premieres in New York

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Interpreter of blandness

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The New York Press, an alternative weekly, printed two stories last week which provide interesting bookends to our debate on Orientalism. In the first, a columnist uses Calcutta in the City of Joy sense, as synonym for grinding poverty:

The mayoral election was still fresh in everyone’s mind… “The billionaires have won,” Ken said. “They’ve been given a billionaire’s mandate…”

It’s time to start making New York City more homeless-friendly again… Before the rest of us are completely shoved out of Manhattan, we do our part to repopulate the streets with smelly, drunken and drug-addled bums. We turn street-level New York into Calcutta. Doing that will destroy the property values these people have worked so hard to build up. Multimillion-dollar real estate isn’t worth shit when it stands along Calcutta streets. [Link]

That will come as a surprise to homeowners in posh South Calcutta, I’m sure. In the second, Sam Sacks begins an essay on modern American short stories with a 40-year-old tale by R.K. Narayan, a self-referential parable about writing which foreshadowed works like Adaptation:‘Multimillion-dollar real estate isn’t worth shit when it stands along Calcutta streets’

In R.K. Narayan’s novel The Vendor of Sweets, a young entrepreneur pushes his father to invest in what seems like a dubious venture: a short-story machine. How the machine works exactly is never made clear, and the hapless man squanders the family savings.

Still, if Narayan floated the idea ironically 40 years ago, today a short-story machine is probably within technology’s grasp. Given a set of common parameters… a literate engineer could surely create a serviceable program. [Link]

It’s already been done. This post was generated by our AutoBlogger™: works day and night, doesn’t demand the abuse meted out to interns, and is just as repetitive as our own writing. I’m actually kicking back in Ooty right now. If you get too many M.I.A. posts, tweak a checkbox or two.

Sacks criticizes the bland homogeneity of stories from writers’ workshops:

… I was reminded of Narayan’s machine recently while reading the Best New American Voices 2006… Without ignoring the occasional flashes of verve, the stories included are so monotonous that they seem to have been written by a single person of middling talent. All but one of them are written in the first person; a similar percentage hinge upon the narrator’s difficulties with dysfunctional or deceased members of his or her family, or with ex-lovers. The tone is always confessional and saturated with self-pity. The plot and action are always negligible…

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