Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

Peace, love and breakfast cereal

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The 3HO group of Sikh converts in the U.S. has made a small fortune on health food (thanks, commenters). Now, with real corn!

So the ginger asked the almond, “Could you make me a snack?” and the almond said, “Kazam! You’re a snack.”

What did the peanut say to the cashew? Gesundheit! [Link]

Waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki granola bar? I gotta say, their sense of humor is authentically desi. Let’s not forget Yogi Tea, which tells us you don’t have to work your way into exotique, you can just drink it (via Tilo). On camelback in front of the Taj, apparently.

Exotic Teas: Savor the enchanting flavor and sweet aroma of spices from around the world… [Link]

Peace Cereal, a million dollar biz, pitches nirvana via breakfast cereal. It’s a Ben & Jerinder’s business model:

Peace Cereal has promoted the transformative power of peace by donating 10% of our profits to peace building organizations, resulting in more than $1 million in donations. [Link]

They even have a warm and fuzzy founder story like the one on every package of Mrs. Fields. When Yogi Bhajan baked his first batch of authentic guru cookies…

In 1969 Yogi Bhajan began teaching Kundalini Yoga in America, sharing the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda and healthy living that he had mastered in India. After each class he would serve his students a special spice tea based upon this healing science, which they affectionately named Yogi Tea… Golden Temple (bulk granolas), Peace Cereal (packaged cereals), Wha Guru Chew (candy bars), Herbal Gems (capsulated herb formulas), Sunshine (body care products) and Soothing Touch (professional massage products), were some of the companies… [Link]

Other parts of their empire: Ancient Healing Ways, Yogi Botanicals.

The whole thing strikes me as a cross between the friars who support themselves with wine, fruitcake and Web design and the same consumer couture which gags my bullshit sensor on Solano Ave. I’m more impressed with their business savvy. At least they have a sense of humor about it.

Related posts: one, two, three

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Washington monument

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My favorite festival with a faux-Muslim name starts in just a week. SALTAF, the South Asian Literary and Theatre Arts Festival, will indulge your culture-vulture proclivities in D.C. this October 1st weekend (thanks, Pooja). It sounds remarkably highbrow for a NetSAP/NetIP event.

The list of numinaries includes poet filmmaker Deepa Mehta, Vijay Seshadri, Nadeem Aslam (Maps for Lost Lovers), Anita Desai, M.G. Vassanji (Toronto South Asian Review and my fave title ever, Amriika) and Shyam Selvadurai. With that literati-centric lineup, maybe they should just name it SAJA Delhi and call it a day

This documentary on the parallels between kathak and flamenco looks interesting:

Firedance by Vishnu Mathur

Two renowned Toronto performers… each [tell how]… Kathak and flamenco shared an ancient history. Soon they started working together… Joanna and Esmeralda demonstrate in the documentary how similar the foot and hand movements of these two dance forms are – and they trace the evolution of the differences that came about in the course of time; Flamenco using shoes for sound and subtle nuance, Kathak bells and bare feet for its rhythmic expressions.

Here’s the festival schedule.

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“Khaaaaaaaaaannnnnn” Noonien Singh

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The title of this post needs no explanation if you have even an ounce of cool in you (like me).  Has a more famous word ever been uttered in a 20th century movie?  I think not.  Here is quick background on the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan for you virgins:

Khan, a genetically engineered “superman” prone to megalomaniacal delusions, was exiled years ago to the barren planet Ceti Alpha 5. He blames Admiral Kirk for his hard fate, as well as for his son’s death, and vows revenge. When Commander Chekov mistakenly beams down to Khan’s lair, the villain finally has a means of escape. Using a parasitic creature that allows him to control the minds of his victims, Khan seizes command of the Starship Reliant. From there he hopes to lure Kirk to his death, using equipment stolen from an experimental research project. These devices allow him to trigger something known as the “Genesis Effect” — a means of generating new life from existing matter. Khan plans to use the creation machines as weapons, because the same fire of life that creates new worlds must destroy what existed before. Kirk and crew need all the courage and cunning they can muster in order to save their friend and silence Khan forever. [Link]

For those wanting a more detailed background (and you really should) please read here and here.  One important detail I had not known (or more likely forgotten until Punjabi Boy reminded us this morning) is that the most brilliant villain in science fiction history was a Punjabi Sikh.  You have to delve deep into Star Trek fiction literature to find the background on Khan.  Luckily there happens to be an entire website (I shit you not) about Sikhs in Science Fiction.

The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox

Although Khan Noonien Singh is the title character of this novel, he is not mentioned by name until more than half-way through the book. The last third focuses primarily on Khan, who is explicitly identified as a Sikh character herein. Prior to the Khan scenes, there are scenes in India with Sikh guards. But the Sikh-related material that is most prominent is in a chapter set in 1984, when Khan is just fourteen years old and living in Delhi. The Indian military has brutally attacked Amritsar, at the command of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who has subsequently been assassinated by her Sikh guards. Khan gets caught in the middle of the resulting anti-Sikh violence, as he must flee an angry mob intent on killing him.

Yes, yes.  Those who are immersed in violence at an early age often regrettably turn to violence.  How popular a villain was Khan?  There are poems about him, and you can also take a quiz to see how much you know about him.  Also, for any girls (or boys) who had a crush on Khan (played by actor Ricardo Montalban) in the 80s, here is a fun fact:  his breasts are fake, a prop.  He ain’t really that cut. They ARE real.

I’ve done far worse than kill you. I’ve hurt you. And, I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me–as you left her [Khan’s wife]–marooned, for all eternity, in the center of a dead planet: buried alive…       -Khan [Link]

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The Cara Sutra

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Commenter Angie went beyond the call of duty and scanned in this bit of whimsical pop surrealism from Cadbury:

… you’ll notice some very odd accessories in the drawing: a bbq, a duck flotation device, barnyard, and of all things a PLOW in the background. Maybe this appropriately 5 o’clock shadowed brown fellow plans on hooking up his lady to the plow later on… I don’t think he’d want to ruin his sheer silk chiffon shirt and capris with any dirty field work.

I love the musical anachronism, not that it’s a boombox but that it’s not an MP3 player. The two feet pressed together are a randy reference to a sexual position used to much effect by Indira Varma in Mira Nair’s soft-core raspberry, Kama Sutra.

Exploitative? Surely there’s a straight line from chocolate to eroticism. It’s much more tasteful than Raymond’s raunchy KamaSutra condom ads. Oh, yes: the conservative, Indian men’s suiting company covers everything that might pop up.

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Highway to heaven

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Highway signs from Ladakh:

        

Himank is responsible for construction of GS roads and other related infrastructure for Army, Air Force and government organisations located within the Ladakh region consisting of Leh and Kargil districts. Project Himank looks after the famous areas of Drass, Kargil, Batalik, Siachen Glacier and Chushul. The project sector encompasses world’s second coldest region of Drass, world’s highest motorable road astride Khardung La, world’s highest battle-ground of Siachen Glacier and Pangong Tso Lake at 14500 ft located across India-China border. [Link]

(thanks, Ankush)

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Desi MTV

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We may now have our own MTV Desi, but all of a sudden we also have a bunch of desis on MTV.  Sonia points us to a new MTV reality show, ingeniously (from a minimalist perspective) titled The Reality Show, that debuts tonight at 10:30p.m.

Are you a reality TV junkie? Then it’s time to take your addiction to the next step. Help MTV choose the next big star on The Reality Show.

Basically 10 final contestants or duos will compete for 9 weeks.  At the end of that period the person(s) with the most interesting “real life” will get their own reality show.  Why not?  In the running are two cousins from Virginia Beach named Karishma and Bansri.  See, it seems our dynamic duo, that apparently come from well-off families, told their parents they were coming to L.A. to work at internships.  In reality they came here just to party!  And party some more.  In fact, if they get their own show it will be a show about Indian girls partying in L.A.  Will hilarity ensue when their parents find out that they are not in fact “good Indian girls?”

Will these two party monsters have their life come crashing down when their parents show up? Will they find the hot parties and keep their parents placated with the lies? Or are they headed for a train wreck? Follow the all the cross-cultural chaos in “Karma Chameleons.”

Holla at yo’ boy.  I live in LA.  I like to party hardy too.  My parents used to think I was a hard working student but then they uncovered my double life as a blogger (among other things), and all the booze and women such a life involves.  Maybe these girls will invite me out with them some time.  I know people.  Come to think of it, why isn’t there a reality T.V. show based on my life? 

“We’re Karishma and Bansri and we like the boom…”

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The UK InvASIAN

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Ever since those floppy Beatles and hip-wiggling Stones stormed our Atlantic coast, American music mags lurve warbling on about the newest “Brit Invasion!” like retarded canaries in a perfectly oxygenated coal mine. Remember Blur? Pulp? The Verve? Ah, ’twas a Bittersweet Symphony indeed, Richard. sepiatigerstyle1.jpg

Coldplay is doing its best to launch a one-man (you know it’s true) full-frontal assault…but Mr. Martin sounds too intent on supporting Gwyneth and the Appletini to make anything really fresh these days.

So it’s with much interest that I’ve noticed that Brit-based Bhangra seems to be stealthily making unheralded inroads in the US. “Get ur Freak On” seemed to trigger something cuz soon after we had that Jay-Z rapping on Panjabi MC’s “Mundian to Bach Ke,” and no less than three (3) dancehall tracks with the Diwali Riddim. Sean Paul’s “Get Busy” being the best known.

Now, I’m pretty clueless about the Sardaar-scene, and know I’m a bit out of my depth here, so please refrain from tugging your beards and whipping your karas at me. please? I can’t do any worse than this Popmatters review that describes bhangra as:

dance music with the tabla beat at its base, sounding very much like drum’n’bass, sometimes with rapping but usually with Indian pop as its melodic focus.

Well, I hope.

At any rate, (and thanks Punjabi Boy) the previous post illustrates viral marketing at its finest:

The Xbox game, which is expected to hit the streets in November 2005, will feature two tracks by Achanak…taken from their forthcoming album, Bhangra-ology, which is due for release on 19th September 2005. Tigerstyle will have three tracks…lifted off their forthcoming, yet to be titled album, which is scheduled for a November 2005 release.[link]

May I draw your attention to the timing? Brilliant, I think. Besides, I hear there was a call for more turban-ed hotties…….Way to work it boys 😉

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Yaaran, start your engines

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British bhangra label Nachural has announced that five of its tracks will appear on a Microsoft racing game for the Xbox 360:

… Nachural has taken bhangra onto another level in announcing the placement of tracks from its catalogue onto [Project Gotham Racing 3], the game to be launched by Xbox [360]… in the winter of 2005…

Two tracks by Achanak (‘Teri Muhabbatan‘ and the ‘Lak Noo’ remix) and three tracks by Tigerstyle (‘Boliyaan,’ ‘Akh Mastani’ and ‘Maan Doeba Da’)… This is the first time that bhangra tracks… have been placed [in] any interactive game… [Link]

Art finally imitates life: First bhangra tracks in a console game?Vinod and I used to car-dance to Achanak while jamming from sterile Seattle up to rockin’ Vancouver on the weekends. Personally, I can’t wait to play berserker bhangra while fragging demons asuras in the next version of Doom. Bhangra’s raw energy is like Nine Inch Nails’ Doom soundtrack, only less sadist. Bow to the power of the turbanator!

In other news, Microsoft plans to release an even deadlier version of Halo (screenshot). It will also one-up Super Mario with Super Patel Brothers, where players must collect cheap vittles from an Indian food superstore in Jackson Heights.

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