Category Archives: Caption This

McHindi: Sunday Photo

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Ask not what Sepia Mutiny can do for you; ask what you can do for Sepia Mutiny! The picture above is courtesy of tipster Ashish, who ran after a bus to take this picture for us. As he notes, it is an ad in Hindi, for McDonald’s. It was on a SamTrans bus in Menlo Park this summer. I intended to put it up back when he originally sent it, because did I mention he ran after a bus for us? and also the picture is cool? but now it is cold and grey and I am glad to have just recalled this and to be posting it now, because among other things it is a nice reminder of summer and running and outdoor things. (I hope those of you on the East Coast have power and are warm and safe.)

Anyway. Hindi on the side of a bus in America, for the quintessential American fast food chain, which is now selling various South Asianish foodstuffs, by which I mean mangoes and coconuts are involved. If you have tasted any of these foodstuffs, please revert.

UPDATE: from the crowdsourcing on my FB wall—since I am not a Hindi speaker—this ad references pineapple-mango smoothies made from real fruit (the word “real” didn’t make it into the photo, so that part’s an educated guess). The ad further informs us that these smoothies are cooler than the month of August in San Francisco. Thanks to Aruni, Salil, Oindrila, Sucheta, Sumita, Zain! Oindrila offers this review of the smoothie, which she had several times this summer: “It was too much pineapple and not enough mango imo. I like my exotic cliched fruit.”

Caption This: 100 Years of International Women’s Day

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Social media is all a flurry this morning letting me know that it is the 100 year anniversary to International Women’s Day. Only 100 years? Feels like we should have been honoring women since the dawn of time.

To celebrate the day, I wanted to post an iconic image that some of you may recognize from 1971 of the Mukti Bahini women of Bangladesh. I dedicate this post and this image to all the mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers out there, all fighters in their own revolutionary way.

Women in Streets of Bangladesh.jpg

Let’s have a go around of “Caption This”, shall we? Let’s keep it a celebratory post, please. And if anyone has another image or link to a website to honor International Women’s Day, please share it in the comments – I’d love to hear and see stories and images that pull you on this important day. Continue reading →

Caption Contest: I Was Going To Make A Sari Pun, But My Better Self Rose Up And Prevented Me

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Longest-ever post title? I dunno, friends. So, you may have heard a teensy weensy leetle bit about the Indian ambassador to the U.S. getting singled out for some TSA TLC because she was wearing “the traditional Indian garment.” If you didn’t, read Pavani. I’m not here to comment on the Mississippi Masala. (Oh, come on, no one’s said that one yet and my better self gets tired sometimes.)

Anyway, I’m here for THIS:

alg_clinton_meera.jpg Look at it. Blink. Yes, it’s really there: THAT is the photo the NY Daily News used to illustrate their sari patdown story. I don’t know which is better–the expression on Hillary Clinton’s face or the expression on Meera Shankar’s. Either way, it made me laugh out loud. Well spotted, Vivekster. And well chosen, NY Daily News photo editor.

Caption contest time! “Surely you can think of some puns yourself,” you say? I want yours. And don’t call me Shirley. Continue reading →

Caption Contest: Mark Zuckerberg parties it up, desi-style

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zuckerberg_at_wedding.jpg

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a break from rewriting his company’s privacy policy last winter to attend the wedding of two of his employees in India. Facebook’s Principal Project Manager Ruchi Sanghvi and Director of Engineering Aditya Agarwal were married in January.

Fast Company reported these details about the ceremony back in February:

…Zuckerberg and more than a dozen past-and-present Facebook indispensables — including now-departed cofounders Adam D’Angelo and Dustin Moskovitz — trekked to a beach in Goa, India, for a week-long family celebration. Everyone dressed in costumed splendor; Zuckerberg looked fetching in a maroon silk sherwani. Women flashed henna tattoos. The groom arrived on horseback.

The photo above was one of five pictures from the wedding that were recently submitted to a photo contest on the Indian IT news site Techgoss. Receiving the photos was a big coup for the site, as they had unsuccessfully tried to photograph Zuckerberg both while he was in India for the wedding and during his 2008 trip to the country.

Of course, the first thing I thought when I saw this photo was that it was the perfect entry for a caption contest. So have at it, Mutineers. Leave your wittiest and most creative captions below.

(Via Valleywag)

Continue reading →

Caption This: Carnival Style

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Over at the Boston Globe there is a beautiful array of images on this year’s Carnival. Image number 31 is the following (h/t Yoga Fire):

Rio Float.jpg

I wish the image had audio – I would have loved to hear what I can only imagine as Samba-bhangra-fication. I’m guessing it’s like Chutney music, but with more sashay, if that is possible. So have at it, Mutineers. How would you caption this image? Continue reading →

The Caption Game: The “Pukka Baby” Edition

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Avni and the idli.jpg

It is Monday, and that means it is time for a ridiculously-delayed (the last one I posted was last fall, I believe) edition of your favorite way to commence the day– The Caption Game. Since the vast majority of us are hungover, bleary-eyed, exhausted pensively contemplating our sure-to-be productive work week, captioning a funny (or in this case excruciatingly cute) picture is a gentle way to ease in to Monday.

This is little Avni and she is consuming an idli. Avni, idli, idli, Avni. Adorable, no? Avni’s mom was kind enough to allow us to imagine funny things baby might be thinking, as baby noms on one of my favorite South Indian foods. Blogger Neha Viswanathan of Global Voices Online inspired all of this when Avni showed up on her flickr stream. I thank her for securing permission from Mother, baby and idli, for this post.

Perplexed? Bemused? Hung-over? Consider previous editions of the Caption Game, awailable for your edification here: onnu, rendu, muunu, naalu, anji, aarru, erzhu , ettu, onpatu , pathu…

p.s. Backstory re: picture, after the jump. 🙂 Continue reading →

Dude, where’s my car?

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Just when former Senator Allen thought it was safe to leave the house, Wonkette reports a sighting of a car with a VA license plate reading MCACAS [HT: Blue].

Of course, a photo like this is just begging for a caption.

Also, feel free to speculate as to whose car this is and how it ended up with such a vanity license plate. Do you think this is the Macamobile of S.R. Sidhartha himself, with its patriotic bumper sticker? I mean, hopefully he does satire. Or is it a tone deaf racist exclamation by a die-hard Allen supporter? Or perhaps it belongs to an aspiring DJ, an MC Acas? What say you, intrepid Macacans?

Related posts: One Macaca, two macacas, three cute ‘lil macacas

Continue reading →

The Caption Game: The “Surjeet-o Bandito” Edition

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Hold on, let’s get this over with…

Okay, now that I’ve stood in the corner and thought about what I’ve done during my time-out, I half-heartedly apologize for being so insensitive as to vaguely reference a politically incorrect, wayyy-before-your…and-really-my time cartoon character/mascot.

My bad. If it helps, it’s a rather obscure ref and I did change the “first name” to something browner (shout out to my friend Surjeet, who is sure to be THRILLED about this). Anyfoo. cricketers before one-day vs australia.jpg Monday came and went, with nary a caption game in sight; I blame you. What, on top of everything else in my disorganized, estrogen-powered day, I need to discover non-existent time with which to ferret out funny pictures?

Wait, what?

I do? Meh.

Well, if we’re relying on ME, then prepare for tardy everything (including me). I saw this on the BBC website yesterday and that is why we have an uber-late* CG today, which is THURSDAY for those who are either hung-over, a disciple of Rip Van Winkle or too confused to keep count.

So, now that you’ve seen the amusing picture, kindly be doing what some of you do best– caption away. Why should you expend such effort? Because a photograph like that deserves more than this (you know there’s no-o-o-othing):

Indian cricketers pose with turbans, before a one-day international against Australia. [Beeb]

Perplexed? Bemused? Constipated? Consider previous editions of the Caption Game, awailable for procrastinating purposes here: éka, dvá, trí, catúr, páñca, s.as., saptá , as.tá, náva… Continue reading →