The Gray Lady’s reader advocate shows the back of the hand to a NYT reporter who dissed Padma Lakshmi and Indian fashion (thanks, akhan):
“A semicelebrated hustler Ms. Lakshmi may be.” – Fashion writer Guy Trebay on Padma Lakshmi, Feb. 8.… gratuitously nasty, and inappropriate in a newspaper that many of us look to as a guardian of civil discussion.
If gratuitous snark were banned, blogs would go begging for want of readers.
After complaints that a film by a Sikh director and a Sikh actor is insulting to Sikhism, some protozoans hid bombs in two Delhi theaters (thanks, Sapna). At least 44 people were wounded when the bombs went off this evening, some critically:
Bombs exploded inside two movie theatres showing a controversial Hindi-language film in the Indian capital on Sunday, injuring at least 20 people, officials said. Both theatres are located in the Karol Bagh neighbourhood of west Delhi and the explosions occurred 15 minutes apart, said Junior Home Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal.At least 13 people were injured in the first blast at the Liberty Cinema about 20:30 (15:00 GMT), chief fire officer RC Sharma said. The explosive was planted under a seat in the front rows, he said. About 15 minutes later, another explosion rocked the nearby Satyam Cinema, wounding at least seven people, Sharma said. At Satyam, the bomb went off inside the washroom. [News 24]
There’s some discrepancy regarding where the first bomb was placed:
The intensity of the blast was so powerful that the police fear that many of the injured, who are currently undergoing treatment at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, may succumb to their injuries… Explosions, suspected to be caused by bombs, occurred at Liberty cinema hall took place in the rear stall during the screening of the controversial film Jo Bole So Nihaal. The blast at Satyam took place in a toilet. PVR cinema halls in south Delhi has also been evacuated as a precautionary measure. [Times of India]
Members of Sikhism’s highest body, the Akal Takht, said the film, Jo Bole So Nihaal, was ok by them, so I wonder about the rationality of blowing people up in a neighborhood that’s itself full of Sikhs. It’s true that it’s not entirely cool to explicitly play to dismissive stereotypes — the official site begins with ‘He is cute! He is adorable!’ And using a religious phrase as a title was bound to chafe in a religion-obsessed country:
Some Sikh groups had taken offence at the use of the religious phrase in the title and to some scenes in the film which showed characters entering Sikh places of worship without removing their shoes and covering their heads — considered sacrilege by Sikhism. [Reuters]
But dissing a movie is the realm of bloggers and movie reviewers. This violent reaction to a schlocky, anti-terrorist Bollywood film is self-defeating on every level. You think a movie insults religion and shows people in a bad light? Try mass murder. I hope these criminals are hunted down and granted the love of a good Indian jailer.
Like Kal Ho Naa Ho, the movie is set partly in New York and shows off the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s playing at Loews State in Times Square:
… Sikh groups demanded a ban on it. They were angered by its title and scenes depicting a Sikh character being chased by scantily clad women.
I have no doubt that Vikram Chatwal begged to be included.
Here are more news stories about the bombings.
Cruel and unusual punishment? From NRI-worldwide (scroll down past the article about the bobbitised penis):
In confinement for the last two years on charges of theft, inside cell number 11 of the Ghaziabad district jail his only companions were the 120 white pigeons whom he met once a day to feed grains and corn.
But not any more.
Bringing an end to what many inmates believed was “an immortal friendship”, perverted jail authorities caught 100 of Chandra’s pigeons and broke their necks, one by one, in front of him on May 16.
This was done by jailer R.C.Singh and his men on instructions from the jail superintendent Rajesh Kesarwani, as a way to make Chandra admit to his crime.
The 1957 Indian film Pyassa (which I have neither seen nor even heard of) has made Time Magazine’s “All Time 100 Movies.” This isn’t surprising given that reviewer Richard Corliss is a Bollywood fan:
Like Japan, India had a golden age in the 1950s. Independence from Britain sparked a robust, questioning artistry. While Satyajit Ray was pioneering the nation’s art cinema, commercial filmmakers such as Raj Kapoor (Awaara), Mehboob Khan (Mother India) and Bimal Roy (Do Bigha Zamin) were grafting influences from Hollywood melodramas and Italian neo-realism onto the Indian tradition of musical narrative. Pyaasa, which means thirst, is the most soulfully romantic of the lot. Vijay (Dutt) is an unpublished poet, dismissed by family and office colleagues but befriended by a prostitute (Waheeda Rehman). In a twist out of Sullivan’s Travels, Vijay is believed dead and his poetry “posthumously” lionized. The writer-producer-director-star paints a glamorous portrait of an artist’s isolation through dappled imagery and the sensitive picturizing of S.D. Burman’s famous songs. And Rehman, in her screen debut, is sultry, radiant—a woman to bring out the poet in any man, on screen or in the audience. —R.C.
Other Indian films that made the list included The Apu Trilogy, and Nayakan.
The Hindustan Times reports on the first Asian mayor of the England’s second largest city, Manchester.
Afzal Khan who came from Pakistan to Britain at the age of 12 had nothing to look forward to. He had no education and no money, but now 35 years later at 47, he has become the first Asian Mayor of Manchester, the second biggest city in Britain.
He said his appointment reflected the diversity of Manchester’s ethnicity and demonstrated the contribution immigrants can make. “They can provide a city with an infusion of energy and creativity,” he said.
There was this one line that caught my eye,
Khan has a reputation for taking firm stands on ethnicity. He has supported the idea of celebrating Englishness through a patron saint as a way of enforcing community cohesion and, although he is a former assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, he has not adhered to its policy of boycotting National Holocaust Day Remembrance services.
Here’s the European title of Harold and Kumar. The subtitle reads ‘Harold & Kumar – Let’s Get Retarded,’ which is maybe redundant.
There are actual castles instead of White Castles out there, so they didn’t want people getting all confused. And unlike us Americans, those Euros gleefully tolerate cheesecake.
Nope, no cheesecake on this here blog 😉
The ghost of Rudyard Kipling lives on in neocolonialist blog Arma Virumque (thanks, Saheli and many others):
… this third-world feminist of color should get down on her knees and thank Siva that her country was the beneficiary of British colonialism. Without it, she would never have heard of feminism or even of the third world, since the very concept depends upon the freedom, education, and language that the West brought to savages [sic] countries in the 18th and 19th centuries. India is such an economic powerhouse today because of the legacy bequeathed by her former colonial rulers… everywhere that Britain went–I cannot think of a single exception–it left better off.
The right-wing blog Power Line chimes in:
It’s great to see someone standing up for colonialism, especially British colonialism.
The author, Roger Kimball, picks the wrong deity and only gets lamer from there. This hapless duffer who calls himself an American patriot is arguing against American independence, which happened precisely because the crown raped its colonies and kept its boot upon the throat of political freedom. And in crediting the Brits with everything, despite their focus on their own economic interests, he falls prey to the classic fallacy of correlation vs. causation. It’s the one made famous by animism and sports superstition: ‘I wore a cap one day, I won, therefore my cap caused the victory.’
For Kimball to give the Brits all credit requires projecting an artificial stasis in India for 200 years. If you flash-freeze hundreds of millions of people and put them into deep hibernation for two centuries, that they’ll end up relatively poor is a tautology. You have to project India along the political, developmental and educational trajectories of similar regions not under colonial rule. Otherwise you’re reduced to a bogus argument: that absent the British, India would never have built a railroad, regional highways, river ports or seaports. Even the smallest and poorest of nations have managed that, if for no other reason than the economic interests of their kleptocrats.
Absent Ford, someone still would have popularized the automobile. Absent Microsoft, someone still would have popularized an operating system. And absent the British, India still would have had transport.
Attack of the blog roundups: MSNBC showed a screenshot of Vinod’s Indra Nooyi post today. Watch the clip.
They focused on Nooyi’s actual remarks and her position as Pepsi president, not the nativist backlash, which is exactly right. Oddly, they quoted the mildest phrase that’s ever been written on Little Green Frothballs: ‘I drink Coke anyway.’
This actually isn’t Vinod’s first time on an NBC network — here’s a photo of his appearance on CNBC several years ago. I’m not sure why he looks angry, but maybe someone stole his copy of ZAMM.
Also, Slate mentioned our MIT time traveler post last week, which Abhi first wrote about.
Thanks for the pixels, anonymous bored journies! Do your bosses know you surf blogs instead of working? Not that you’ll ever read this unless it pops up on Technorati with keywords about national stories. Unfortunately, I don’t see us writing about PARIS HILTON, MICHAEL JACKSON or TERRY SCHIAVO without a genuine desi angle. That would just be crass.
But The Daily Show was right, reading blogs out loud on TV does look pretty silly (watch clip). How about showing our dating profiles next time? Now that would be useful TV 😉
Hopefully this is the last installment in an unfortunate story & we can put it all to rest. Indra Nooyi posts on PepsiCo’s website –
Following my remarks to the graduating class of Columbia University’s Business School in New York City, I have come to realize that my words and examples about America unintentionally depicted our country negatively and hurt people. I appreciate the honest comments that have been shared with me since then, and am deeply sorry for offending anyone. I love America unshakably – without hesitation – and am extremely grateful for the opportunities and support our great nation has always provided me. Over the years I’ve witnessed and advised others how a thoughtless gesture or comment can hurt good, caring people. Regrettably, I’ve proven my own point. Please accept my sincere apologies.
Initial SM coverage here. Manish’s survey of “wingnut” reactions here. Continue reading
An operation to rescue endangered sharks from poachers went horribly wrong recently when the rescuers…oh I can’t even explain it. From the BBC:
An effort to save nearly 50 live sharks from poachers in the Sunderbans area of the Indian state of West Bengal appears to have gone disastrously wrong.
Wildlife officials say that although the sharks were initially recovered alive, several mishaps meant that they all died as the poachers were arrested.
Okay so here is the ridiculous punchline:
They say that the raiding party which intercepted the poachers – afraid of the dangers posed by the sharks – ordered them to throw the sharks from the deck of their vessel onto the sand by a jetty.
Ummm. This is what happens when you sit in front of the television and watch Shark Week all…week. Then the officials try to play it off all smooth like:
“The raiding part made a mistake. In the chaos that followed the seizure and the arrests, they were busy with other things, and forgot to preserve the sharks,” Continue reading
