Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

World Wide spider-Web

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indianspiderman.jpg

The New York Magazine delves deeper into a story that hit the news over a month ago, about a new Indian Spiderman comic. Author Sukhdev Sandhu writes:

Farewell, Peter Parker; namaste, Pavitr Prabhakar. His fiefdom is the mean streets of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) instead of Manhattan. When crisis calls, he still dons his Spidey bodysuit, but he also sports a billowing dhoti and a pair of snazzy curl-toed slippers on his feet. The Green Goblin, his chief enemy, now takes the form of a rakshasa, a demon drawn from Indian mythology.

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Jay Sean to Open for N.E.R.D.

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British Asian pop-star in the making Jay Sean will be one of the two opening acts for American Hip Hop Producer/Musician extraordinaires, N.E.R.D. for their upcoming fans only London show reports nme.com.

Sean, whose latest single “Eyes on You,” entered the British charts at number six, is one of the many rising British Asian stars “making tings happen” for desi music in the UK. Others to look out for are, Jay’s record label mate and fellow Rishi Rich project member Juggy D and Indo-Canadian phenom Raghav (V2 Records), among others. Continue reading →

Amardeep breaks down ‘The Namesake’ for you

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Amardeep Singh, prof at Lehigh University, finds an invisible man in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. I normally wouldn’t point at a piece referencing Gayatri Spivak and other jargon-filled lit academics, but this was so worthy.

For Sikh men of course, the misnaming is much more aggressive: “Osama” and “Bin Laden” are the most common mis-names one hears. One South Philly man (a caucasian), in a moment of inspired racist efficiency, recently referred to me simply as “Bin,” thus saving himself the expenditure of five syllables he no doubt did not have to spare…

“Jhumpa” is her pet name rather than her good name… Growing up in America, however, she has chosen it as her official, public name… Asserting the name “Jhumpa” is at once a misnaming and a refusal to be misnamed…

And he dissects the lack of a handle for the desi community in the U.S., while those in the UK have long since usurped the term Asian.

…desi may work, but it remains a name like a Punjabi or Bengali pet-name, a name used around the house rather than recognized by a broader public. In this case, there is a chance that the term will reach a critical mass, but it is not yet broadly available. I find it hard to imagine the word rolling off the tongue of someone like Charlie Rose…

“India” (like Calcutta and Delhi) is itself is an Anglicization of “al-Hind,” the Persian name for the area around the Indus River… What was India before it was misnamed? The confusion of the community-without-a-name is merely the latest extension of a permanent historical crisis in naming.

Dangerous liaisons

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Let your chai tea latte runneth over.

______ has graying temples with a thin patch at the back, rimless eye-glasses and a satisfied masculine air. He smells faintly of cigarette smoke and late nights in the lab.

And then, like Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, she completes the story.

But he orders gnocchi anyway, saying in his slightly raspy from smoking too many cigarettes voice, “This could be dangerous.”

A Message from Kal Penn

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First, if you haven’t seen Harold & Kumar go to Whitecastle, you’re a turd and you don’t know what you’re missing. Using my unparalleled Desi-in-SF connections, I had a chance to hit a sneak preview a week before the flick opened for the proletariat.

I’m a tough critic (albeit with a softspot for juvenile slapstick humor) and I was frankly bursting in laughter throughout the flick. If my recommendation ain’t enough to compel you to part with your hard earned $8, then perhaps this message from Kal Penn might convince you –

Remember when “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” came out and no one would sit next to you in school because they thought you had monkey-brains and snakes in your sandwich?… Unfortunately, most of us within the South Asian American community have had negative experiences with media images.
…I might be biased since I`m IN the film, so I`ll quote my mom (she loved it too). I believe her words were, “Very nice beta.” She was joined by Ebert & Roeper who gave us “Two Thumbs Up” (the physical gesture, not the Indian soda).

Entertainment or community service, whatever the motive, go check it out.

Cornershop to be opened on Sesame Street

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The U.S. Agency for International Development has just rewarded a $500,000 grant to the non-profit educational organization Sesame Workshop to create an Indian version of Sesame Street, complete with some Indian muppets. What I really wonder is whether or not Big Bird will become a big Peacock as the show matures, instead of a…actually what kind of bird is Big Bird?

Read the full story: U.S. gives money to add Indian Muppet to Sesame Street created for India