I’ve been AWOL for a while due to work and personal reasons, but I wanted to very quickly let you know that Manish will be on CNN at 8:25 PM EST tonight, talking about the 7/11 promotion that requires 7/11 workers in 11 stores to dress up as Apu to help promote the Simpsons movie. We should be blogging this shortly, but for now, here are some links to his coverage of the event: Reminder: CNN tonight,
Category Archives: Events
Washington, D.C. <3 Vinay...at TANA *and* Tony + Joe's Tomorrow
I’m so passionate about telling you to get out to popped-collar-ville tomorrow evening, for the next marrow donor drive in DC, I decided to split my original “Best and Worst of Our Community” post in two, because I didn’t want the details for such an important event to be hidden under “the fold”.
If you are in DC and you have not registered yet– please come by because time is precious. I learned this weekend that if you register online or at your local center, it takes weeks to process your swabs; if you come to one of Vinay’s drives, they overnight everything to the database under his name and processing is expedited. Please, please, please register to be a committed donor.
TiE Seattle disappointed me, but I’d rather focus on the best of what our community can do, because the one thing I’m trying to learn from Vinay is relentless positivity.
First off, a huge thank you to mutineer Seema, who registered people at TANA this weekend until her feet ached. A few of our readers pitched in to help flyer, explain and swab– and I got to witness it.
I’ve never been happier to be a part of this sepia-colored space. Part of my sadness over my “second post” was inspired by what I saw at TANA— people were going without food, standing for hours, bravely facing rejection and apathy…and they did it with a smile on their face and faith in their hearts that it is just a matter of time before we find the one. With such memories playing on my internal plasma, how can I NOT cringe at those who would decline to do far less than what I saw all of you do. Together, you made sure a few hundred more people were added to the database and that deserves to be applauded.
Not all of us are Telugu, so I know plenty of you chocolate city citizens didn’t get to come on down and get swabbed– have no fear, happy hour is here! I heard about the following event at Subcontinental Drift, but have been too busy to post it before. I’m sorry about that because it’s going to be good fun for a great cause:
Join us for a Happy Hour and Show your Support!
Register as a Bone Marrow Donor!
Tuesday, July 10th, 5:30 – 9 pm
Tony & Joe’s Seafood Restaurant (Upstairs Lounge) at Georgetown Washington Harbor
3000 K Street Northwest Washington, DC, 20007
RSVP encouraged: dcdonordrive@aol.com
Drink specials if you register as a donor!!
Already registered? Come to show your support! Everyone welcome!
$7 suggested charitable donation to marrow donor recruitment.
Ultrabrown said (with a twinge of guilt) that the NYC mega-event which was held yesterday was SO MUCH FUN. I am certain that gazing at the Kennedy Center while the sun sets, as we toast to life, love and the pursuit of donors won’t be too shabby, either. I’ll be there. Will you? 🙂 Continue reading
In NYC This Weekend? GO. If Not, Read on…
Many of you have offered your good wishes for Vinay’s health– some of you have even taken the next step and become part of the database. Others– especially when they read these posts I keep beating you about the head (and hopefully heart) with– are reminded of their intention to get registered; they think, oh, I’ll make it to the next drive and do it then.
A very special opportunity to get swabbed is available to desis in what I still think of as the brownest city of them all– even if it’s a big apple and not a mango. This Sunday, in NYC, from 4-8 pm, show up at Pianos and not only will you increase the possibility of saving someone’s life, you may get to meet the man who has inspired this incredible campaign to paint the national database sepia. Vinay might be there. 🙂 Please wish him a happy second wedding anniversary (July 3) for me, if you go.
If you can’t attend or you are not in the NYC area, please harass your loved ones. Get every South Asian person you know to consider becoming a committed donor; a list of the drives which are happening all over the country is here. While my constant posting about Vinay may insinuate otherwise, this is about all of us, not one of us. It’s scary to consider how close this can hit to home; I’ve lost two family members in three years to this disease. I may not know Vinay, but I don’t have to, to believe in what he and his team are going to do.
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Which diseases can be treated by marrow transplant?
Over 70 diseases including the leukemia’s, aplastic anemia, severe combined immune deficiency, sickle cell anemia and radiation poisoning are treated by marrow transplant.
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What exactly is a marrow / stem cell transplant?
Simply, it is the replacement of diseased blood stem cells from a health donor infused into a patient’s vein just like a blood transfusion. Within four to six weeks the transplanted marrow / stem cells begin to produce normal blood cells in the patient.
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Who can become a marrow / stem cell donor?
You must be between 18 and 60 years old, have no history of hepatitis, heart disease, cancer or AIDS, and sign a consent form allowing the Registry to include your HLA tissue type in its confidential files for future matching. See NMDP link below for more details: Donor information (NMDP) and Donor Eligibility Guidelines.
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How do I know if I am a match?
If you are found to be a possible match with a patient, the center in which you tested and/or the NMDP will contact you immediately and give you the option of proceeding to the next level/s of testing to insure final HLA compatibility with the patient.
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Who pays for these tests?
Not you – the patient or his/her medical insurance does.
Set Adrift on “SubcontineNtal Drift” in DC Tomorrow
I recently emailed five questions to Sophie, who is part of the force behind D.C.’s Subcontinental Drift.
Several Mutineers discussed SD’s last event at the most recent D.C. meetup— in fact, a few of you even performed at it! I get the feeling the rest of you would be VERY interested in what Sophie and her dynamic crew are trying to do– so I thought I’d post a wee reminder that your next chance to marinate in creative splendor is tomorrow night, June 29. But first, some essential information:
Subcontinental Drift is ____?
…an effort to bring out the “basement talents of the District’s desis.” Basically, we’re trying to provide a creative space for people who are artistically-inclined (that’s a broad term and encompasses pretty much anyone from professional artists to people who like to watch other people read poetry) to connect with each other and share each other’s work.
What inspired it?
A few of us “D.C. desis” felt like there was a void in the South Asian community –in a place like D.C. where there are soooo many talented people, there wasn’t a cohesive group or space that was encouraging or nurturing that talent. The need was something that was floating around in the air, and we just grabbed it. Specifically though, the catalyst for me was when I was with Munish and Vikash at Bossa lounge in Adams Morgan and we watched Vishal Kanwar play tablas there. We’re like, wow, this is cool..let’s do more cool stuff. Something like that.
What’s the best thing about it?
The best thing is watching new artists get up in front of nearly 100 desis, and coming more and more into themselves. When you see people willing to get up there, be vulnerable, share a sacred part of themselves, and the audience is so warm and appreciative–it is the most beautiful thing.
What if someone wanted to get involved with it?
They should email us at subdriftdc@gmail.com .
What if a mutineer who isn’t lucky enough to live in D.C. wanted to emulate such awesomeness– any advice for them?
Get a few like-minded people together who are committed to the same thing you are, pick a venue, and go to the ends of the earth to SPREAD THE WORD about it. If your community doesn’t have a creative space for people, chances are people are hungry for it. As long as word spreads, people will come. And especially in the beginning, keep the vibe pretty informal and verryyy welcoming–human connection is the key!
I went to the last Subcontinental Drift and I’ll be at tomorrow’s, as well. The atmosphere that Sophie, Munish, Nina, Mona, Nabeel, Vishal and Surabhi create is extraordinary; upon being dragged to last month’s event, a friend of mine from out of town was actually envious of us DCists, because he thought the open mic/dance performances/live music/stand-up comedy/ridiculously good sangria made for one fantastic night. I agreed and immediately grew mindful of how lucky I was to live here, where creativity manifests like this. I’m telling you, the very air in that room pictured above felt charged, different, exhilarating. You should go, and see for yourself. 🙂
Subcontinental Drift
An open mic for and by South Asian Americans.
-experiments in words, sound or art
-music
-comedy
-spoken word
Friday, June 29, 2007
7:30pm-10pm
Cost: FREE and we have drinks and snacks!
La Casa Community Center
3166 Mt. Pleasant Street NW
3 blocks from the Columbia Heights metro stop.
(Green or Yellow Line)
Help Vinay & Sameer – SF
Unfortunately, Vinay isn’t alone in needing your / our help. Sameer Bhatia has also recently been diagnosed with AML, needs a bone marrow transplant, and is joining forces with Vinay to get South Asians registered. Mutineer Anna’s been fantastic about getting the word out for NYC and DC marrow registration drives, but West Coasters should know about an upcoming drive & fundraiser in SF — TONIGHT.
When: Thursday, June 28, 7pm to 10pmWhere: Dolce in San Francisco
Contact: Deepa Prasad and Harini Madhavan; deepaprasad@hotmail.com or hvmadhavan@hotmail.com
At the second event, we will be holding a donor drive as well as raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We would love to see you there as well. Please spread the word and bring as many people as you can to both events. It should be a great time as well as an important and meaningful cause.
If you can’t make it up to SF, there are other drives tonight in Sacramento, Seattle, Sunnyvale and NYC and a LARGE LIST of future drives all across the country. With 1 in 20,000 odds of finding a suitable match, every little cheek swab helps. Continue reading
Maybe a DC Meetup This SUNDAY? [Updated]
[Instead of Saturday at noon, the meetup will be on SUNDAY at 12:30. It is still at Amma. Please be noting date and time change– thanks. :)]
But first, a rushed write-up of what went down last time:
- Icebreaker: The battle of the Jessicas- who is hotter, Alba or Biel? There were two poultry-submitted abstentions.
- Adorable Munish changed his vote when he realized he was, in fact, supporting an Alumna of Seventh Heaven: “I thought you meant the woman from Flashdance!â€
- Once we started playing, “Who has the tiniest apt†after one of you suggested having meetups in our homes, Jay said we should have used THAT as the icebreaker—“Hi, I’m ___ and I have 400 sq ft!â€
- It was the reverse of our college years– Southies Reprazent!
- There was a minor TamBrahm crisis when we discovered that Amma had run out of vada, for the first time in nine years.
- I was smacked. Thrice. By our waiter. You can’t put a price on that kind of abuse.
- Two of the above three spankings occurred as THIRTEEN more people than the sixteen we expected showed.
- Once we ran out of table space: “Start sitting on laps. Sigh. I guess I’ll begin.†Plop.
- What is UP with the lack of RSVPing, meetup-crashers: “This isn’t a wedding, people!â€
- Murthy’s Law: Next time, we should reserve the entire restaurant. That way no one will show.
- We actually had to turn people away, for lack of space. 🙁
- Can’t make it to the bathroom to wash your hands? Use the “Indian Faucet†a.k.a. a poorly-approximated finger bowl via drinking glass
- Subcontinental Drift (we love you!)‘s MySpace page might induce seizures.
- Me to Jay (of the blog Weaselplasty) “All our friends are apparently stand-up comics (and they performed at SD)â€
- Said one, “Tortoise porn is available on YouTube.†Said the Terp, all dismissively, “I know about THAT”, as the rest of us exhibited the proper reaction to that statement, which is shock and horror.
- One attendee confessed that while this meetup was fabulous, they had “hobbit envy†about Houston.
- Library Science: it gets no respect
- Second Best line of the meetup: “Why are men always giving me money and then leaving?â€
- A Tamil girl who was raised in Bombay tried to reconcile her identities by saying…she was like a “paneer dosaâ€
- Paneer Dosa has said she will be at the June meetup; that way you can mock her for her metaphor in person! 😉
- I ordered two Salt Lassis and four Madras Kappis. I received ONE Madras Kappi.
- Lemon Rice for me, dosas for EVERYONE ELSE
- Best line of the meetup: “Your picture on Shaadi.com was so much better!â€
- More on Sunny Leone and the greatness of snuff films.
- Despite our most obnoxious attempts to be porntastic in order to clear the restaurant, so more of us could be seated, the packed place wasn’t bothered at all by our antics. Contrast this with Heritage India, where we sent them screaming out the door. It would appear that South Indian families are immune to our offensiveness. 🙂
Now, after reading the merriment-filled minutes of our last meetup, who feels like getting together again for more? 🙂 I’m craving dosa and you, well, after I published this post, I learned that you are ALL craving dosa, ALL the time.
WHERE: Amma’s Vegetarian Kitchen, 3291 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20007, 202-625-6625
WHEN: SUNDAY, JULY 1. 12:30 PM.
WHY: Because you nosy little monkeys want to pepper me for non-existant gossip about the Mutiny.
Think of it as a post-Subcontinental Drift “survivors’ brunch”. Kill your hangover with Madras Kappi and Rasam! 😀
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As for New York…Maybe mid-late July? 🙂
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San Francisco? End of August, we’ll keep you posted. Continue reading
How to Save A Life in DC + NYC — UPDATED
Remember Vinay? I blogged about him because he direly needs a bone marrow transplant and his best chance at finding a match lies with us. Unsurprisingly, several of you said you would step up and get swabbed, if only you had the opportunity to do so. Well, after throwing more meetups than any other mutineer, I know for a fact that DC has a TON of SM readers– now make good on your word to help.
You can even do so TODAY— look:
* * *
THURSDAY, JUNE 14 – DOWNTOWN D.C.
4:30p to 7:30p
Asian American Justice Center
1140 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC
Contact: DCdonorDrive@aol.com or Rachna at (202) 256-4326
Can’t make it? Live in the burbs? Try these:
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SATURDAY, JUNE 16 – LANHAM, MD
10:30a to 3:30p
Sri Shiva Vishnu Temple
6905 Cipriano Rd.
Lanham, MD
Contact: Aditya at aditya.raghavendra@gmail.com or (617) 872-0081
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SUNDAY, JUNE 17 – BALTIMORE, MD
9:30a to 5:00p
Greater Baltimore Temple
2909 Bloom Rd.
Finksburg, MD
Contact: Seema at indiaseema@hotmail.com or (949) 291-2545
5:45 PM UPDATE–
* * *
Jane says (she’s done with Sergio) that a NEW YORK Drive commences in 15 minutes;
Hey in NYC tonite as well….
Public House
141 East 41st St (between Lexington and Third Avenues), New York, NY
Thursday, June 14, 6:00pm to 10:00pm
One of our longtime readers lost a parent to this tragic disease last week. Some of you know whom I’m referring to and if you haven’t already given a little bit of yourself, maybe this message from their family will move you:
In lieu of flowers, please help save a life and register with the national bone marrow registry or get someone else to register (www.marrow.org).
How many people whom we know and love must we lose before you register? Continue reading
It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp (UPDATED w/ outcome)
You might not believe this, but we’re not really a vain bunch here at the mutiny. There’s barely a single full length mirror in the entire bunker, and it’s hard for me to move Rajni the monkey (who loves to watch herself preen) away when I need to tie my turban in the morning. We’re quite bashful really, and say awwww shucks a lot, as befits people of our rank and station in life.
This would explain why blogger Vinod failed to tell the rest of us about his latest honor (Thanks Manish!). Vinod was nominated for “The Bay Area’s Most Eligible Bachelor Contest” !!!!
We’re not asking for your votes, Sanjaya fans, they closed the polls on Friday. Instead, we’re asking you to collectively hold your breath until the winner is announced at some point tomorrow. If he wins, our very own man meat mutineer will receive an invitation to participate in the Guardsmen Bachelor Auction on May 17. That’s right … if we’re lucky, Vinod could be auctioned off to the highest bidder, thus demonstrating his strong belief in the efficiency of the market.
Just one complaint, yaaar. Whoever pimped you out used this photo when I think that this photo shows your good side. And if you win, remember, I’ve got dibs on one of the two VIP tickets and the pimp costume. A man has to look his best …
1857
If we had a tradition of open threads here, I would just open one here today and ask all of y’all to share your thoughts on the Sepoy Mutiny, a.k.a. Rebellion, a.k.a. First War of Independence, a.k.a. perhaps some other name, depending on your viewpoint and the importance you assign to nomenclature in history. I know shamefully little about this fundamental event in the history of the Indian Subcontinent, and even less about the debates that it has spurred among historians, except that I know that these have been complicated and sometimes heated.
But today marks the official sesquicentennial commemoration of the start of the Mutiny/Rebellion/War, and by way of launching the conversation, I present three different takes that are in the news today. First we have Mani Shankar Aiyar, India’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, who gave the official start to a youth march from Meerut to Delhi a couple of days ago. His remarks to a RediffNews correspondent emphasized the secular nature of the uprising; he observed that India today can learn from the uprising the importance of pluralism, secularism and religious understanding:
The significance of 1857 for today’s youth is that it makes you realise that we all are one people in spite of our diversity.
The freedom-fighters who revolted against the British in 1857 were mostly Hindus in Meerut. After disobeying their British superiors they went straight to the Mughal king, Bahadur Shah Zafar, and made him their king.
They had no ill-feeling for the Mughal king though he was a Muslim. This is the kind of secular bonding these soldiers had in them.
Our young generation must remember that united we stand, and though we are a diverse people we have to maintain our unity. That is what the message of 1857 was to all Indians. …
This is another message that Bahadur Shah Zafar and the freedom-fighters of 1857 wanted to pass on to the future generations. No matter what your religion and region be, respect all religion and maintain harmony. …
We have to remember the fact that India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. We have more Muslims than in Pakistan and Bangladesh but we Indians live together peacefully and I am proud to say all Muslims are my brothers.
DC: Brunch Meetup THIS Sunday? [UPDATED]
We’ve had some rough times in the bunker…when Manish and Vinod first broke up…when Ennis was told he couldn’t smuggle anymore adoring groupies in and pass them off as interns…when Manish and Vinod broke up again…when the lemurs went on strike to protest the lack of parties…when one of our guest bloggers developed a very rare allergic reaction to…ah, never mind.
My point is, what we faced before were minor challenges; this has been a rather difficult week, as we confronted far more sobering matters, which affected us all. This week, we dealt with real pain, as tragedy reminded us of how fleeting life actually is. Such “big news” always means more traffic, which means more moderating and more possibilities for this or worse, this.
So, I’m a little down right now and I know many of you are, too. This is what I propose to lift our sepia spirits: an eleventh-hour sort of meetup at reliable and hospitable Heritage India this weekend. Perhaps what this community needs is…more community. Let’s bond, y’all! You know you want to. All are welcome: trolls, lurkers, smurfs and elves included. Vogons, however, will not be tolerated, since it’s highly possible that they might be feeling poetic and no one deserves that.
We can do brunch like we did the first time we were there, at the third DC Meetup or we can have dinner like we did the last time we were there, at the fourth DC meetup which was also our first-ever SM Channukah extravaganza. No, that wasn’t convoluted at all. 😉 The more significant issue is that we haven’t met up in FOUR MONTHS.
Dinner on Saturday, April 21 at 8ish
or
Brunch on Sunday, April 22 at Noonish it is!
Either way, I feel like it is an apposite time to revisit Heritage; I’ve had a sad sort of craving for Golgoppas and I’d like to sate that, in memory of someone else who loved them.
FYI: Heritage is Metro accessible (Red line).
Heritage India Brasserie
1337 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 331-1114