The bloggers of Sepia Mutiny would like to take a minute to thank our readers for putting us over the 100,000 “visits” mark within the last couple of hours. What started as a mere Mutiny is now a full scale Insurrection. Our lucky 100,000th visitor, Mr. Jagjit Popatlal of Bangor, Maine, has received a special invitation to visit the staff of Sepia Mutiny at our non-descript North Dakota headquarters. We believe in giving back to the amazing community that has brought us to where we are (wherever the heck that is) and felt this was an appropriate manner in which to show our appreciation. As part of his prize package weekend, Mr. Popatlal will get a behind the scenes tour of what it takes for us to keep you coming back to this blog for more. First he will learn the truth about what’s really inside Anna’s closet. Admit it, you all want to know. Next he will slide down a poll into the reclusive Ennis’ secret office and learn how to be mysterious. Once properly trained by Ennis in the art of deep cover, Mr. Popatlal will accompany the ever erudite Vinod into enemy (i.e. progressive) territory to learn some of the methods we use to “extract” information for the eventual use on this blog, and as a bonus he will also learn why small government is good. After lunch Mr. Popatlal will meet with Apul. In all honesty he could care less about Apul but is only interested in meeting him because of the rumor that Apul is a close friend of Super Jagjit. Mr. Popatlal apparently idolizes Super Jagjit with whom he shares a first name. Toward the evening Mr. Popatlal will have the pleasure of Sajit’s company. Together they will attend a Broadway musical on the main street in Bismarck. Sajit is definitely not happy about having to relocate “just for this friggin’ blog,” as he put it. Finally, Mr. Jagjit Popatlal will end his grand tour over drinks with the suave Manish Vij. By the end of the night they will be speaking to each other ONLY in sentences of poetic word play. These skills taught by Manish will help him with the ladies in Maine when he returns to his normal life. Where will I be during all this? Someone must man the Blog.

If you wish that YOU would have won this prize weekend instead of some chump from Maine, then I encourage you to be the 200,000th visitor. Continue reading →

Are you tired? Huddled? Massive?

Yearning to be problem-free?

Well then, put down that New York Times and fold your hands together–but don’t say a western “hello”–to the man who has India’s Supreme Court judges and other VIPs at his feet(for blessings, natch):

It was 4:30 a.m., the stars were still out and Swami Ramdev was ready to begin the day’s yoga lesson. His 12,000 students watched raptly as he sat wearing little more than a loincloth, chanting morning prayers in Sanskrit. When he walked on his hands across the stage in New Delhi’s cavernous Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, they applauded.

The students were on the final day of a weeklong yoga camp that the swami had promised would cure whatever ailed them, mentally as well as physically, and without a great investment of time. For a growing number of harried middle-class Indians, worrying about health problems associated with a more affluent lifestyle, that is just the message they want to hear.

Don’t they mean “hairy” middle-class Ind-…oh, wait. Wrong post. 😉

While a majority of Indians are familiar with yoga, many think it is too complex and time-consuming to practice, particularly with the increasing demands on their time.

The swami, youthful and photogenic, has become wildly popular with a “yoga made easy” approach that promises to yield quick health benefits with minimal effort.

Continue reading →

Inodlink’s Melvin Durai pays tribute to the last honest profession: The cab driver. What you say?!?

Perhaps all your encounters with cabdrivers have been sour. They donÂŽt stop for you, and if they do, the only place they seem interested in taking you is to the cleaners.

But before you pass judgment on the millions of cabbies in the world, you need to realize that some of them are so honest, theyÂŽll return almost anything left in their cabs, even Harry Potter books.

But wait…

Glenn Sher, a Long Island, NY, cabby, returned a womanÂŽs purse containing $13,300. ThatÂŽs a lot of money, almost enough to take Paris Hilton on a date.

“I could have used the money to pay bills or whatever,” Sher told The New York Post. “But it wasnÂŽt mine. I canÂŽt take whatÂŽs not mine.” The mayor of New York was truly impressed. “ThatÂŽs amazing,” he said. “I didnÂŽt realize we had a cabdriver who spoke English.”

Another New York cabby, Benjamin Adjepong, was commended by the Taxi and Limousine Commission for returning a bag containing $7,000. “It makes me feel good, and my wife is so excited,” he told WABC TV. Now thatÂŽs a good wife — excited about her husbandÂŽs honesty, not even thinking about the number of shoes she could have bought.

Cabbies in other countries have been just as honorable. Ashraf Qureshi, a Pakistani immigrant in Australia, drove a tourist around for three weeks, even let the man make long distance calls on his phone and eat meals in his apartment — allowed him to do everything but sleep with his wife.

The man paid Qureshi $50,000 for various expenses, according to an Ananova.com report. But after the cabby deposited the money in his bank account, he began to feel guilty about accepting so much and returned $40,000 to the man. “It was all getting too much for me,” Qureshi said. ItÂŽs a good thing heÂŽs a taxi driver, because with integrity like that, he could never be a corporate executive.

I am personally undecided on cab drivers. While traveling Jordan I hired a cab driver, who although nice at first, wanted to share a hotel room with me on the first night. Maybe if I’d known him longer. He also began to cry when I didn’t tip him at the same time I paid him for the three days. I tried to explain he’d be getting a big tip when he dropped me off at the airport, but it didn’t seem to register. That’s my taxi cab confession.

Continue reading →

You snooze, you lose (an eye) –

Indian boy’s eye injured as teacher flings pen at him NEW DELHI: An eight-year-old school boy’s eye was badly hurt when a furious teacher flung a pen at him during class to get him to pay attention in the southern Indian state of Kerala, a report said Wednesday. Al Amin, bleeding profusely, was rushed to a hospital Tuesday where he underwent emergency surgery for a 4.5-millimetre cut in the pupil of his eye, the Press Trust of India news agency said. Doctors who performed the surgery said it was too early to say whether the boy’s eyesight would be restored to normal, the report said. The woman teacher hurled the pen at Amin to make him pay attention during an Arabic lesson at a government school in Kattakkada, near Kerala’s state capital Trivandrum, the report said. Police have filed a case against the teacher, the report added. Indian parents often complain about harsh treatment of students in schools. Many teachers and school administrations believe corporal punishment is the best form of discipline.

When I saw the headline, a little voice inside my head said “I betcha this is in Kerala.”

(fyi – reason #35235) Continue reading →

BridalBeer isn’t playing with a full deck — hers has an entire suit of jokers 🙂 In today’s episode, she catches her SO thinking about his ex:

“Brian, you’ve been a Deviant Dick. I want six Broadway shows. One-a-day this week.”

“OK”

“And don’t go cheap on the seats. And no sneaking in the good seats after the singing and dancing has started. And I’ll check the places you pick for dinner on NYCitySearch.com. Atleast $$$, please”.

“OK”

“Thanks. And I earn Cheating Rights for a month”

“OK”

“Good. Now go carve circles” And I sung a fresh, unfamilar song in Bollywood melodies:-

    Miranda! Graduate classes at MIT
    Memories of your mouth in math
    Pointy-tit trignometry!

Chorus.

Go read the rest.