Riffing off of Siddhartha’s post, here’s a photo of the most prominent mixed Black-Brown American family that I know of:
 |
|
The auntie in the center might have been America’s first desi First Lady! |
Can you guess who this is? Answer after the fold.
Category Archives: Photos
Amar Akbar Shabana-ji
Now here’s a matchup you don’t see every day: Shabana Azmi and Muhammad Ali being honored at Davos (thanks, nycpepe).
 |
|
Muhammad Ali and Shabana Azmi |
 |
|
Honorees Ali, Azmi, Michael Douglas, Gilberto Gil |
… veteran actress Shabana Azmi has been honoured by the World Economic forum… at Davos in Switzerland. The Bollywood actor was honoured with the prestigious Crystal Award… alongside Hollywood actor Michael Douglas. The honour places Shabana in the league of… Paulo Coelho, Peter Gabriel, Richard Gere and Nikita Mikhalkov, who have won the award in previous years. [Link]
Related post: Browns take over Davos
Filthy Hands
This is wicked cool [via Sandalwood Swara]. I wonder how one goes about requesting this at a pre-wedding mendhi party with all your female realtives around. I’m sure the groom will dig it.
 |
|
Kama Sutra Mendhi (click for larger picture) |
Shiva and Durga in tag team smack down
My dad forwarded me the picture below. It is of a mural that serves as the centerpiece at the “Dharma Sansad,” a two day meeting at a Swaminarayan Temple at Vadtaal town near Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It is a meeting of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ultra-conservative Hindu Nationalist group. Divine justice?? 
 |
|
Durga takes care of Musharaaf and Shiva takes care of Osama Bin Laden |
Yeti kitsch
The Imagineers at Disney World in Florida have erected a mandir to the abominable snowman next to their new Himalayan-themed roller coaster. Expedition Everest opens in spring (via Boing Boing):
 |
|
Yeti another mandir |
The artificial mountain is not a reproduction of Mount Everest; it is the fictional “forbidden mountain” guarded by the yeti… One of the highlights of the attraction is an encounter with an enormous audio-animatronic yeti… Although moderate by contemporary roller-coaster standards, Expedition Everest is unique for having its trains travel forward and backward as a result of the yeti’s interference…Riders approach the attraction through the remote village of Serka Zong in the fictional kingdom of Anandapur, which is located in the foothills of the Himalayas. Several village buildings that had been used by the Royal Anandapur Tea Company have been repurposed… the legend of the yeti is communicated vividly through a mandir… and a makeshift museum that documents yeti sightings, the yeti’s significance in Himalayan cultures and a so-called “lost” expedition that ran afoul of the yeti many years before… [Link]
Disney is taking over Times Square immediately after Valentine’s Day:
Disney plans to transform the exteriors of the W Hotel and the adjacent Argent building at Broadway and 47th Street into a gigantic backdrop of Mount Everest. An aerial acrobatic troupe will perform there Feb. 15 and 16 on a stage 57 stories high, rappelling down the mountain and coming face to face with a Himalayan yeti — the legendary abominable snowman. [Link]
I’ve never felt entirely at ease in simulacrum cities like Orlando and Vegas, miniature Matrices. There’s something odd about Imagineers daubing tilaks onto idols of yeti which look like ‘roid-crazed Hanumans, leaving offerings of plastic fruit and hanging a poster of Krishna stealing butter. Disney movies like Aladdin and Pocahontas often mince cultures into purposely inaccurate baby pap which plays to stereotype.
(And in the other direction of mashup done badly, I can’t stomach the weak-ass rap in Bollyflicks. French and Spanish rap has coalesced as the language of the barrios, but Little B rapping is as silly as Nic Cage going gangsta.)
But let’s not be yenta about yeti. At first glance, the props around this roller coaster look pretty cute. I love the hand-painted signs.
Subzi Mandi, the Ladies’ First Choice
My mom and mother-in-law to-be returned from the Indian grocery store this weekend with their purchases in these bags. I guess desi men don’t frequent Subzi Mandi?
|
|
 |
|
At least they put the apostrophe in the right place |
Britney Tikka Masala
BREAKING NEWS (well, sort of) via PEREZ HILTON (and tipster Simran):
Casually dressed erstwhile pop superstar Britney Spears attended an event at a Malibu mandir yesterday, Feder-spawn never out of her arms. More pictures of her doing so are available here.
At least this is one occasion where it was appropriate and not disgusting for Brit-Brit to be shoe-free.
Seriously though, motherhood agrees with her– and so does going to mandir. While I have NEVER been a fan and I am gloating that she’s not wearing her ring (DUMP HIM! You still have a chance! Turn your future “Behind the Music” ep around NOW!), I sincerely hope she got something out of her trip to temple.
Anyone have any idea why she was there? After some lazy googling, I haven’t discovered further details so I leave it to you, Mutineers. Kindly call your religious cousins in or near Malibu and beg them for deets, thanks. 😉 Continue reading
Leave a Message and I’ll Call You Back
Fresh from the little red phone which rings whenever I get a tip:
This is probably the stupidest ‘tip’ I’ve ever sent to a blog, but…If you look at the cover of Gwen Stefani’s latest album, and sort of squint your eyes, doesn’t it look just like a picture of Ganesha’s head? Am I nuts, or do others see this too?
Hmmm. How many other blogs you tippin’? How long has THAT been going on? 😉 Anyway, I’ve squinted enough that I now need creme de la mer eye balm, but I still don’t see it. Don’t be surprised though– I could NEVER see the “hidden” pictures in those magic-eye-annoying posters, either.
And the rest of you lot? Is our “anon” nuts or do you see the face of a beloved deity, too? Continue reading
All You Injuns Look Alike
If only you knew what goes on behind the scenes here in North Dakota– the GMail arrives constantly and furiously, let me promise you that. No, it’s not easy to foment a mutiny, but we try our damnedest.
Without going in to too much detail, since I love you all too much for such carnage (it involves someone exhorting others to give his caruthu kundi an ooma), I’ll just let you know that I ended up at a verrry interesting website, which scanned a picture I uploaded before telling me which celebrity in its database I resembled. Mutineers, I present to you a most inapposite result:
See whom YOU don’t look like by going to MyHeritage.com y’self. Continue reading
