Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

The redemption of Karan Takhar

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karantakhar.jpg

Since we’ve had so many posts on kids lately, thus taking our mind off more troubling matters, I thought I’d throw a post into the mix as well. Remember Karan Takhar? He came in second place a few months ago in the National Geographic Bee. Indian Americans were denied a coveted “bee” crown. Well, on Thursday in Budapest, Hungary, Karan redeemed himself with the help of two teammates. Voice of America reports:

A team of three American school students has won the National Geographic World Championship in Budapest, Hungary Thursday. The team from Russia came in second and Canada was third.

Looking relieved three teenagers of the United States received the golden medals in an Olympic style ceremony at the end of the National Geographic World Championship in the Palace of the Arts in Budapest.

They received them after a nerve wrecking hour, which included burning questions on the capital of Slovakia, an egg-laying mammal, and questionable election practices in Zimbabwe.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that one of the three Russians walked up to Karan before the bout and whispered, “I will break you.” This made their eventual loss all the more difficult.

Less impressed with the American victory was the Russian team, which came in second.

The two boys and one girl wearing silver medals found it difficult to smile. 15-year old Ivan Prokhorov from Murmansk, explained why Russia should have won. “From one hand I am happy because it is the best result in Russian history. But from the other hand I feel upset a little bit, because we could be the first. Because we are intelligent enough to win this competition but something happened, I don’t know what,” he said.

The Globe and Mail asked Karan what he thought of the experience:

“It’s such a great experience but once you’re done, it’s really tiring,” said Karan, adding that his plan was to “sleep first, then celebrate.”

Think you got what it takes? Try for yourself. Continue reading →

Hari Puttar and the half-caste raja

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Following up, the BBC reports that 13 year old Trisha Mittal, from Delhi, was India’s representative to the great Hari Puttar Gala in Scotland for the official release of the book of the book. She beat out 2,500 other children from India (is that all?) for the honor:

“We are supposed to be brought into the castle in carriages and ushered into a great hall on the launch night to meet Rowling and get an autographed copy. It sounds so exciting,” she says.

After speed-reading the book through the night, Trisha will be present as one of the 70 “cub reporters” from around the world at Rowling’s press conference the next day, asking questions and filing a report for the Indian paper. [BBC]

She’s a Hari Puttar drama geek, acting out her own plays and movies based on the characters:

Trisha is an active member of a flourishing Potter sorority in her housing block in Delhi. Along with friends, Neha, Rachita, Shanoo and Esther, they go around doing pithy Potter skits and plays, enacting roles and borrowing lines from the books. They even tweak a character “to make it funnier or grimmer” and videotape their homegrown contribution to the Potter mania that is sweeping India. [BBC]

You may not realize this, but the Hari Puttar launch was simultaneous around the world for countries that were ahead of the UK – bookstores released their copies at midnight BST. [Some places in India, as usual, were two hours late] Because of the logistical complexity of the task and the need for tight security, the company that handles Indian exam papers was chosen to distribute the book:

Safexpress’ experience of handling earlier projects of such high profile like CBSE question papers, PMT exam papers, UGC papers and earlier book releases including Harry Potter have come in handy for bagging this project. For Safexpress, the logistical feat here is the simultaneous delivery nationally to hundreds of outlets in over 50 Indian cities, as the India launch is to coincide with the worldwide launch. The simultaneous delivery impact gets higher considering the time of delivery to stores is to match the midnight of 15 – 16 release of the book in London.

With reports of leaks coming in from different parts of the world, Safexpress has implemented stringent measures across its warehouses. In every city, the books have been placed under constant electronic surveillance with guards manning storage centers. All kinds of electronic equipments like phones; cameras etc are prohibited inside the premises. [cite]

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To me, “HP” will always mean Hewlett-Packard ;)

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potter.jpgThough I’ll never, EVER share in your ecstasy, I sincerely hope that all of you Harry Pot-heads out there (ahem, achoo, cough, Ennis) are enjoying your weekend of magic and mediocre prose. I keed, I keed!

All over the world, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is dominating the news, most stores and quite a few lives right about now. On the right, these two bespectacled little boys in New Delhi who are holding their prized “bricks” are so cute, I’ve forgotten to smirk.

Meanwhile, this gaggle of adorable children attended a Harry Potter party in Calcutta. And the rest of you? Did you don capes and wave magic wands at similar? Or are you too busy reading through the sixth HP to admit to such activities? 😀 calcutta.jpg

Oh, and before you hurl it at me below, of course I agree with the oft-proffered declaration that “at least it gets kids to read”, though I’m astonished that you have to get them to do so in the first place. As a child, my parents punished me by taking away my library card. I did not require Dumbledores, muggles, quidditch or other J.K. Rowling-created concepts to inspire me to pick up a book. But whatever. (Cue the comment thread where we all attempt to out-do each other with tales of bibliophilia/nerdery and…begin.) Continue reading →

Code jock

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At age nine, Arfa Randhawa from Faisalabad, Pakistan, became the youngest person ever to pass a Microsoft certification exam in programming (via Slashdot):

Sitting down for a personal meeting with Bill Gates this week, 10-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa asked the Microsoft founder why the company doesn’t hire people her age…

She has created basic Windows applications, such as a calculator and a sorting program, primarily in the C# programming language… The institute instructors assumed it would take Arfa about a year to go through the process of certification for developing Windows applications. But after four months… she passed the required exams….

“I saw her doing something extraordinary, making presentations,” said her father, Amjad Karim, who serves with a U.N. peacekeeping force in Africa and came with his daughter to Microsoft this week… he first noticed something unusual when she started displaying a remarkable memory, perhaps photographic, at a young age…

Later in the afternoon, she sat outside with S. “Soma” Somasegar, a Microsoft corporate vice president, and described her vision for a self-navigating car. [Link]

BillG evinced some curiosity:

… he asked her at what age Muslim women start wearing the “Hijab”… Arfa… extended an invitation to him to visit… The Microsoft chief reportedly accepted the invitation and said that he would visit Pakistan in the near future. [Link]

Arfa says she wants to build satellites or software. She has stiff competition in Mridul Seth of Bangalore, who at age eight became the youngest to pass the Microsoft system admin exam.

Somasegar blogged their meeting here. Related post here.

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“Lost” finds TWELVE nominations

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congrats naveen.jpg The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences revealed the nominees for the 57th Annual Emmy Awards today…and would you look at who got props:

Supporting Actor, Drama Series : William Shatner, “Boston Legal,” ABC; Oliver Platt, “Huff,” Showtime; Naveen Andrews, “Lost ,” ABC; Terry O’Quinn, “Lost ,” ABC; Alan Alda, ” The West Wing,” NBC.

Can our boy beat Captain James Tiberius Kirk? Does the latter pronounce “I’m Denny Crane” a lot on Boston Legal? 😉

Eeeek, how exciting– “Lost” is also up for “Best Dramatic Series…and before you ask, no, I don’t know what the other nine noms are for. 😀

The only even remotely un-fun part about this is the fact that there are dueling-“Lost” nominees in the same category. I hate it when that happens, though I’m not exactly torn about whom I prefer in this instance. Now if it were the “Lead Actress” contest… Continue reading →

Desi finally corrupts Hollywood

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The guy who played Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard complains that the new Dukes movie has too much humpin’ ‘n cussin’:

“… to take a classic family show and do that is like taking ‘I Love Lucy’ and making her a crackhead or something…” [Link]

“… the “Dukes” movie is a sleazy insult to all of us who have cared about the “Dukes of Hazzard” for so long… I think the whole project shows an arrogant disrespect for our show, for our cast, for America’s families, and for the sensibilities of the heartland of our country… Sure it bothers me that they wanted nothing to do with the cast of our show, but what bothers me much more is the profanity laced script with blatant sexual situations that mocks the good clean family values of our series.” [Link]

Cooter then took a big bite of apple pie, saluted the flag, and then rolled himself back underneath a replica of the General Lee. [Link]

Good clean family values? These good clean family values? 🙂

Cooter says the song ‘Dazzy Dukes’ is a church hymn, cameltoe is what you find on a dromedary, and Bo and Luke’s ass-tight jeans are heartland values. So director Jay Chandrasekhar, stoner flick impresario, is now officially the first desi to corrupt Hollywood. And he’s Tamil, no less.

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Love is heroic

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prem.jpg When I was in Chicago for the fourth of July holiday, I made my first (and most assuredly not last) pilgrimage to Devon Avenue. I got there early, scouted the boutiques and took pictures of anything that caught my attention. Still, despite my attempts to take it all in, I almost missed the most significant thing I ended up seeing that saturday– the small brown sign that read “Gandhi Marg”, to the left of the regular “W Devon Ave” designation.

This may seem like an odd thing to be fascinated by, but in my defense, I’ve never seen an American street that was named after someone desi. To me, it was a big deal. I remember feeling a distinct sort of awe while gazing at that very official metal rectangle. If I go to Edison, NJ, and visit the intersection of Oak Tree Road and Wood Avenue, I will be overwhelmed there, too.

Four years after 57-year-old structural engineer Prem N Jerath died in the 9/11 terror attacks while saving a fellow worker’s life, a street here has been named after him…
“This corner reflects him. We chose this place because earlier we used to live around here. We passed from here everyday; even now I pass from here. I will get a chance to see this every day,” Meena Jerath, widow of the deceased said.

Edison City Councilman Parag Patel dedicated the intersection to Jerath, as the honoree’s family and friends looked on. Jerath’s widow thought the gesture was “touching”. I think it is as well. I also can’t think of a better person to celebrate:

Meena said her husband was always helping others. She said he lost his life while trying to help a person on whose leg a wall had fallen.
“He was helping him to go back to office and call for help…but…they didn’t realise the scope of the situation.”

In the Greek Orthodox church, we take the act of remembrance seriously; the chant that is sung at memorial services is “May his/her memory be eternal.” Prem Jerath was an engineer who worked for the Port Authority on the 82nd floor of Tower 1. Without hesitation, he sacrificed his own life for another’s. Such selfless love should be remembered forever.

As I mourn newly-stolen victims of terror, celebrating this life which was also lost in a senseless act of hatred provides me with a tiny bit of comfort. If I ever visit Edison (haven’t yet), I’m taking a picture of that intersection, for an everlasting reminder of Love. Continue reading →

Insecurity about security guards

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Goodness gracious me, I’ve got NO love for the gulf today. First the barbaric evil that is ab-using little boys for Camel-racing, now this?

In a bid to create more jobs for its nationals, Saudi Arabia has passed a new law banning the employment of non-Saudis as security guards at private companies and organisations.

Huh. I wonder…who…might…be affected.

No, really, what I should be wondering is “whom are they going to look down on and abuse, if they aren’t importing brown people for that”?

It’s so gut-twisting (though that could also be the OJ I just had)– I refuse to visit family members in the gulf, because there’s so much odious injustice going on there…even as my cousins swear that it’s worth all the hardship and anxiety, since the opportunities are so plentiful. If laws like this continue to be passed, then that’s one way to ensure that Indians aren’t getting shat on. You can’t get mistreated in Saudi Arabia if you aren’t allowed to work there.

I want people in India to have a chance at the material success we all crave, but I can’t stand the second- and third-class…hell, no-class treatment we get in oil-y places. I can’t wait for India to become really successful; then my cousins can just stay home, and the Saudis can keep their damned jobs.

In my pleasant daydream, right after India becomes that kind of powerhouse, Pakistan grows a set and gives would-be Arab hunters the bird— and I don’t mean the beautiful ones with feathers which they already shamelessly and hypocritically provide. Continue reading →

Toronto arts fest uncloaks

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Toronto’s fifth annual South Asian arts festival, Masala Mehndi Masti, just posted a lengthy schedule for this year’s event (thanks, jo). You can also see it by day or by category.

The free festival runs from August 3-7 at Harbourfront Centre in the shadow of the CN Tower. With 80,000 attendees in 2004, it’s the the largest such festival in North America. Toronto’s desi population of 500K is 2 Å“ times the size of New York’s. It may be the city outside the subcontinent with the most desis.

Just a few of the events:

  • Lots of new bands
  • Kathak-flamenco fusion
  • Brits: Sonik Gurus, Rhythm, Dhol and Bass
  • Kalapani, a play about the Indian middle passage to the Caribbean
  • Your Palace in the Sky, a performance piece about the Air India bombing
  • Tina Sugandh
  • American Daylight, an indie film about Indian call centers, featuring Koel Purie
  • Sam and Me, Deepa Mehta’s first feature film
  • Short films
  • Sketch comedy
  • Spoken word
  • Shayari

Neha comments about last year’s fest:

… I found the music portion incredibly varied, from Rishi Rich to qawwali parties… The Filmi festival was on at the same time, which focused on South Asian Canadian films… if you get lost just let the Hondas lead the way.

Related post on the Artwallah festival here.

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