Category Archives: News

TODAY: Kiran Desai reading

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SAJA and the Rubin Museum of Art present
Kiran Desai reading from The Inheritance of Loss
Today, Wednesday, February 1 at 7pm
(how’s that for notice?)

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. between 6th/7th Aves., Manhattan [map]
$11 / $5 SAJA members
(includes admission to the museum of Himalayan art)

The novel wears the tricolor on its sleeve and savages wealthy immigrant privilege:

The Indian student bringing back a bright blonde, pretending it was nothing, trying to be easy, but every molecule tense and self-conscious: “Come on, yaar, love has no color…” He had just happened to stumble into the stereotype; he was the genuine thing that just happened to be the cliché…

Behind him a pair of Indian girls made vomity faces.

And yet she lives in…

Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971. Educated in India, England, and the United States, she received her MFA from Columbia. She lives in Brooklyn.

Related posts: The tree groom, ‘The Inheritance of Loss’

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Guest Blogger: Siddhartha Mitter

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I found our newest guest blogger sitting under a Bodhi Tree in a snow covered park near our world blogging headquarters in North Dakota. For one who had made such a long journey, an invitation to guest blog seemed very appropriate. As I approached him he simply said, “I had been expecting your arrival.” Please welcome one ill Hindu: Siddhartha Mitter.

I am an independent writer on topics including politics, music, food, race, globalization, and cultural change. After academic training in the politics and economics of developing countries, I worked on electric utilities in West Africa, and then spent six years in research and consulting work in the global energy industry. In 2002 I shed these layers to regain my creative freedom. [Link]

Yes, we have found that people who end up in our bunker have shed themselves of material things and chosen to take the blogastic vows that we too hold dear.

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Air Strikes from the Left

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It has been said and said again several times over, but here is something that bears repeating: India has the worst airports in the world. Our escalators open up unexpectedly and swallow kids; our toilets are horribly bad; our conveyor belts are too small to hold all the bags from a single plane (leave alone the 3 that arrive at one time); sleeping is impossible and even if you escape the airport in one piece, you still haven’t escaped the airport mafia.

And it is only going to get worse – the rapid growth in the Indian economy and the mushrooming of budget carriers in the country means that in a couple of decades from now, Delhi and Mumbai will be as busy as Chicago or Atlanta are today. Imagine. The solution to the problem is quite simple of course: A lot more money, which the Government does not have. As early as 1997, the Government of India released an “airport modernization policy” that said among other things that:

Looking at the quantum of investment required the answer to all the problems lies in the infusion of private — including foreign — investment in this sector. [Link]

Meaning, we don’t have the money. And we think the way to fix these airports is by handing them off to someone else. After a lot of hemming and hawing, the policy finally looked set to take off this year with the Government inviting competitive bids to privatize the management of the two biggest airports in the country: Delhi and Mumbai.

Then the bidding process ran into trouble, and so they appointed a technical committee (but of course) that evaluated the bidding process and okayed it, and then another committee was appointed to make sure the technical committee knew what it was doing. And finally, a decision was made: The bidding process produced a couple of winners. Nice.

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Woodruff’s other wingman

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Most news outlets have been covering the serious injuries sustained by ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff, and his camera-man Doug Vogt. Soldiers in Iraq get killed by IEDs every day, but it is much more “in your living room” when it happens to a guy who’s whose face is actually in your living room every night.

“While Mr. Woodruff, 44, faces months of recovery and the full extent of his injuries are not yet known, Colonel Tellez said he could imagine him going back to work someday as a broadcast journalist. ‘He has a very good chance,’ Colonel Tellez said.

The cameraman, Doug Vogt, who was not as severely injured by the explosion, was ‘awake a lot, and talking to family and friends,’ said Marie Shaw, a spokeswoman for Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. [Link]

Another person that was with both Woodruff and Vogt in Iraq, but who doesn’t get any camera time, is ABC News producer Vinnie Malhotra.

Just before the C-17 jet lifted off early Monday from Balad Air Base near Baghdad, an ABC Television News producer, Vinnie Malhotra, stood somberly to the side as doctors and nurses strapped his colleagues and friends Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt in for the five-hour flight.

“They’re hanging in there,” said a subdued Malhotra, who was working with Woodruff and Vogt when they were seriously wounded by a roadside bomb Sunday in Iraq. [Link]

In a poignant report on Monday’s “World News Tonight,” ABC News said that after the attack Woodruff asked his producer, Vinnie Malhotra: “Am I alive?”[Link]

A quick search reveals that Emmy nominated Malhotra has been right there in the thick of things, having spent months reporting from Afghanistan, in addition to Iraq. Much respect. If I hadn’t pursued the line of work that I am pursuing, than I can’t think of a job I’d rather have than reporting from a war zone.

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Banner Shout Outs

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One of Sepia Mutiny’s signatures is our revolving banners. Back when Abhi first proposed a desi group blog, we pretty quickly figured out the overall theme on the writing side. But, interestingly enough, the banners took more rounds of discussion, trial & error to nail down — in part cuz too many of us were budding artistes / advertising impressarios but also cuz we recognized that the banners greatly shape the overall emotional tone of the site.

Our / my goal with the banners was sorta summarized in this old email conversation w/ the other proto-mutineers –

The logo needs to be dirt simple, pref monochromatic and scale well w/ size…. my ideal example is the Absolut Vodka bottle. In one of the many posts that went back and forth between me / Kiran & the Absolut Vodka company [re: the] Mulit ad, the Absolut folks said that the key to thier ad campaign was to extend the theme of Absolut as the “universal cultural observer” on behalf of the viewer. The Absolut bottle bonds w/ the ad viewer by showing the viewer an interpretation of an otherwise familiar / interesting scene.

Sepia Mutiny[‘s banners] could be the same thing….

How about just locking / loading on a single, stylized font and then printing that font in diff colors across diff desi themed picts?

Now, back in the day, banners were mostly made by SM staff (esp. Manish) although we did have a round of submissions from a few friends of the blog.

Recently, however, we received an extraordinarily beautiful set of banners submitted by Sank of EthnoTechno which totally captured the spirit. As we learned at the NYC meetup, Sank’s a designer by trade and his eye for layout, color, and detail are readily apparent in these images. A few of his submissions are below –

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The tree groom

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Distraught after a marital tiff, an Oriya man took to a tree 15 years ago and remains there to this day:

That’ll show her

Kapila Pradhan, 45, a resident of Nagajhara village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, left home after an apparent tiff with his wife… “However no amount of coaxing can make him leave his tree house…”

He recalls the terrifying moments when it rained persistently and the other trees in the forest fell one by one… However, more than the cyclone, it was the threat posed by wild elephants and monkeys that forced him to move to a tree closer to the edge of the forest, near a village…

His neighbours say Kapila’s wife, Tulasi, began having “illicit relations” with his younger brother Babuan. Soon after Kapila left home, Babuan moved in with Tulasi and they had a child a few years later. [Link]

The tree- or cave-dwelling renouncer of the world is, of course, a recurring theme in old-skool Hinduism. Here’s an excerpt from Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai. Life imitates art imitating life:

… in the old orchard outside Shahkot, someone had climbed a tree and had not yet come back down… The man, he said, would answer no questions… ‘Arrange a marriage for him… You will have no further problems…’

Sampath looked down at the veiled woman standing underneath his tree and felt hot and horrified… The devotees raised the girl’s rigid, unwilling form into the tree… She was encased in layers of shiny material, like a large, expensive toffee. The cloth billowed about her, making her look absurdly stout… Her sari was pulled over her head and she held the edge of it between her teeth so as to keep as much of her face modestly covered as possible…

… the girl let out a faint cry. Losing her balance and her gold slippers, she tumbled indecorously towards the ground… and landed with a dull thump…

The signs for marriage were not auspicious. [Link]

Related post: ‘The Inheritance of Loss’

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NYC Meetup Writeup

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Been WAY too busy to write up detailed notes since the NYC meetup last weekend (since NYC, I’ve been in San Diego, Kansas City, SF and am on my way to Hawaii & Barcelona over the next 2 weeks – work can be a beeyatch sometimes).

Manish trying to hide his obvious jealousy of Anna…

Luckily, some of the loyal friends of the blog have stepped in to fill the gap.

Last Saturday’s NYC meetup was the largest meetup so far (~25ish people over the course of the afternoon) and brought in a lot of new blood, new bloggers, lurkers and almost pulled in a few anonymous patrons at Kati Roll.

The effervescent Jane of All Trades (who, BTW is currently reading one of my recent fav books – David Mccullough’s 1776), posted a good writeup, hints at an interest in a caste-no-bar mutineer 4some & put up handful of her picts.

Our own Suitable Girl blogged, fotolog’ed and flickr’ed the event & some of its aftermath.

Some of the other folks in attendance (reconstructed from my + Manish’s hazy memories of the event… apologies in advance if I missed anyone)-

True to form, the Mutiny family continues to amaze and the people at the meetup were each interesting specimens of the desi diaspora. And they certainly have no trouble striking up a boisterous conversation with folks they’ve just met. Some folks were nothing like their blog / comment persona’s. Some were exactly like them. Others were bigger. One thing we all agreed on – while the blogposts brought ’em in first, it’s obsessive comment checking 15 times a day that really destroys the @work productivity. We heart all the Mutineers.

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Indian Maxim is out to save lives

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Several of you beginning with “Msichana” emailed us to let us know that the Indian version of Maxim has just issued its first edition with Priyanka Chopra on the cover. The BBC reports:

Don’t ever change girl…oh…you already did? Nevermind then.

Is primetime Priyanka too hot to handle? Forgive me for pondering the merits of Priyanka Chopra, the Bollywood starlet and former winner of the Miss World beauty pageant.

But this is the burning question asked of us by the inaugural Indian edition of Maxim – the British “lad mag” which has just made its sub-continental debut with a pouting Priyanka plastered across its glossy front cover.

Readers are also promised information on “100 things you never knew about women”, a “how to” guide on professional begging, and a must-see article on the police inspector in Uttar Pradesh Panda, who fervently believes that he is the incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Radha.

Folks I have learned my lesson. I’m not about to make a comment about any of Ms. Chopra’s attributes, just in case I ever meet her. In fact, I had never even heard of her before I read this article. Bollywood film-watcher I am not. Also, it just so happens that guest-blogger Karthik answered a topical question at the very end of his first post. Getting back to the magazine’s contents:

Two bikini-clad models helpfully demonstrate how to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre (handy if you have a piece of food stuck in your throat).

Other parts of the magazine are a masala-like blend of men, motors and models.

Well sure. EVERYONE in India should know how to properly execute a Heimlich maneuver. I’m all for health education in developing countries. I hope however that they don’t let an article like this slip into the Indian edition. It might not go over so well.

See Related Posts: Indians love their newspapers, There is no place to hide it in India, Mortified

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Guest blogger: Karthik

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You know what we don’t have enough of on this blog? Wicked Tamil music videos. Our new guest blogger has written about buying a car:

Lavanya and I enter a car dealership, excited, dreaming shiny new cars – after all, first cars are bought just once. A salesman greets us at the door – a younger, taller Dennis Farina.

“Hi, welcome to our dealership. I am John.” (or Jacob, or some such name)

He then offers his hand to Lavanya.

“Hi John. I am Lavanya.”

” ‘cuse me?”

“Laa-van-yaa”

“Oh, ok.” Turns to me. And duly shakes my hand, almost squishing it. Wincing, I mouth, “Karthik.”

“Sorry?”

“Car – thick, like a car that is fat.”

A little pondering. “Ummm… Can I call you Bob?”

We left.

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Poison Pills

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The image at right is from a recent flyer campaign launched by the Nutritional Health Alliance (NHA) depicting Senator Durbin wearing a turban with the words, “Keep Congressional Terrorism at Bay.” What is this all about? Believe it or not, this flyer was put out by a lobbying group for the makers of dietary supplements, i.e.vitamin pills, who are upset over recent legislation proposed by Durbin to make manufacturers of supplements report serious side effects of their products.

Hate mongering is the last refuge of scoundrels

The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) and over 100 other groups have come together to protest this odious flier. In their response, SALDEF states:

We are outraged that the Nutritional Health Alliance (NHA) would be engaged in the production of such a racist flyer that serves to perpetuate an increased environment of prejudice and hate against the Sikh, Muslim and Arab American communities…The depiction of the turban as a terrorist symbol, or individuals who wear turbans as terrorists, as your flyer explicitly shows, is baseless and reprehensible…The flyer serves as nothing more than hatemongering [Link (pdf)]

SALDEF and its allies call for:

NHA to remove the flyer from any further distribution immediately. We further ask that a public apology be made and posted on the NHA’s website. Legitimate public debate must not be tainted with images that continue to create a dangerous environment of xenophobia and hate against innocent Sikh, Muslim, Arab and South Asian Americans. [Link]

The NHA has a little shame, but not much. They’ve replaced the flyer with one that talks directly about their opposition to the legislation, but they defend their right to use xenophobic lies to make their point: If I sound to you like a hate-monger, then I can’t help it

Even Jerry Kessler, director of the Nutritional Health Alliance, chief executive officer of N.Y.-based Natural Organics and designer of the circular, said it was a purely political response to regulations proposed by Durbin. He also agreed the flier was “not fair” and “in bad taste.”

“Desperate times require desperate actions,” Kessler said. “I’m certainly going to do what’s necessary to call attention to our cause. If I sound to you like a hate-monger, then I can’t help it.”

More than a million copies of the flier were sent to vitamin and supplement buyers, and Kessler said he’s responded personally to phone calls and letters from people he has offended. [Link]

Jerry Kessler, hate monger

It doesn’t look like he’s going to apologize any time soon. You can contact Kessler in the following ways:

Via email, via his company’s Contact Us web page, or via snail-mail:

NHA

PO BOX 649

Melville, NY 11747 – 9806

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