I know a lot of students go abroad to medical school because they haven’t gained admittance to a U.S. school. The most popular location for Indians seems to be India or the Caribbean. I have heard however that because these schools have the reputation of being less rigorous, life can be very difficult for those that go abroad to study or for foreign born doctors who want to later practice in the U.S. The Boston Globe Reports:

A Harvard Medical School assistant professor who was training to be a psychiatrist filed a federal lawsuit this week alleging that while serving in a residency program run by Harvard at a Brockton veterans’ hospital, he was discriminated against because he is from India.

Rajendra Badgaiyan, an assistant radiology professor for Harvard at Massachusetts General Hospital, alleges in his suit that he may not get his license to practice psychiatry because the director of the residency program was biased against Indian doctors and therefore made false claims about his performance.

What was it that let Badgaiyan to claim discrimination? Continue reading →

It’s not just Shashi Tharoor: India made a joint bid along with Germany and Japan, Brazil tagging along, for a permanent UN security council seat on Sep. 22. Sometimes history has a way of sneaking up on you: The U.S. pushed the UN to offer India the same seat, with veto power, in 1955, but Nehru unbelievably gave it up in favor of China, which invaded India seven years later (via the Acorn).

“…India is not anxious to enter the Security Council at this stage even though as a great country she ought to be there. The first step to be taken is for China to take her rightful place, and then the question of India might be discussed separately.” –Jawaharlal Nehru

Ah, Nehru’s idea of realpolitik. India’s alignment with Axis powers is nothing new. During WWII, Indian nationalist Subhash Chandra Bose met with Hitler to get him to give up Indian POWs fighting for the British (thanks, Turbanhead). The plan was to convert them into an army fighting for Indian independence. The plan fell through, and Netaji eventually carried out a different plan with Japanese support:

the Indian Legion came to a rather sad end… the Germans would be unlikely to get anywhere near India. Second, after Bose left Germany in 1943, the Legion was left without an effective leader… Now they knew they weren’t going to be fighting for India’s freedom, and their morale and discipline disintegrated. Many deserted, some joined the French resistance, and the rest disappeared in the chaos of the German retreat.

Bose’s biggest frustration in Germany had to do with diplomatic recognition. He wanted Germany to officially recognize India as independent, and him as the leader of a government in exile. This the Germans refused to give him. The reasons lay partly in apathy, partly in the Master Race mentality, and partly in the peculiarities of Hitler’s vision of the post-war world.

Hitler was not entirely comfortable with the idea of helping Indians – whom he saw as racially inferior – to defeat the British. The British were Aryans, after all… He was perfectly willing to use Bose to make trouble for the British, but he had no long-term interest in India’s future, one way or another.

Prior to the independence movement, Indian soldiers fought for Britain in WWI, and there is a memorial in Hindi, Urdu and English in Brighton, England for these soldiers. In WWII, there was even a destroyer named the HMS Sikh, along with the HMS Gurkha. They should’ve made it an aircraft carrier — Sikhs have greater surface area up top 🙂

An Egyptian-American novelist has sold film rights to her Lolita story, Towelhead, to the writer of American Beauty and HBO’s Six Feet Under (via Moorish Girl). The celebratory article doesn’t even mention the fact that ‘towelhead,’ like the term made famous by Louisiana Congressman John Cooksey, is an ethnic slur. I’m looking forward to the sequel, Sand N–.

Set during the Gulf War, the book is a coming-of-age story of a 13-year-old Arab-American girl who must navigate a sexual obsession with a bigoted Army reservist under the oppressive eye of her Lebanese father.

Wonder if the Arab world will be up in arms about this one? MSNBC – India to fence off B’desh border by March ’06 –

NEW DELHI – India has fenced nearly 40 percent of its porous border with Bangladesh and would fence the entire frontier by March 2006 to prevent movement of insurgents, illegal immigrants and smuggling, officials said on Wednesday.

Kofi Annan, it is fair to say, is a thorn in the side of President Bush (liberals like me find satisfaction in this of course). But the Nobel Peace Prize winner, originally from Ghana, who has been the Secretary General of the United Nations since 1997, won’t be the U.N. Sec Gen forever. Who will replace him in 2007? The New York Sun reports:

The early scramble to see who will fill the shoes of Kofi Annan has begun, with states and regions vying to bring one of their own into the position of secretary-general of the United Nations and all the bully pulpit privileges that come with it.

The latest Iranian attempt, floating the candidacy of President Khatami for the position, was seen, at Turtle Bay, as a diversion. But it also stirred the pot in the hallways, and as world leaders gathered here for a week of meetings, some wonder whether it is too early to ask: Who will be Mr. Annan’s successor?

More than anything, the early maneuvering for the position, which will become vacant at the end of 2006, underlines the chaotic method of selecting someone for the high-powered position. To be successful at this stage of the race, one has to feed the rumor mill.

Well hell. I feel like Sepia Mutiny is obliged in that case to feed the Rumor Mill, so I will take it upon myself to do so.

Shashi Tharoor Continue reading →

The India Abroad Center For Political Awareness has done a nice little summary of the 2000 census data about the Indian American community. For those of you SM readers too lazy to read the whole thing you have me here to summarize it for you, with my own observations thrown in as a bonus. The highlights:

• Indian Americans use Social Security benefits much less than the general population and significantly lower than even the Asian population. (We need to grab our piece of the pie out of that “lock box” folks)
  
  
• A significant number of Indians live in poverty in Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, D.C., and New York. (I didn’t even know Indians lived in Rhode Island except to attend Brown)
  
  
• Indians account for 0.68% of the U.S. population (Represent!)
  
  
• 96.70% of Indians live in Urban areas as opposed to 79% of the general population. (That really sucks if you are brown and live in a small town)
  
  
• Nearly 2/3 of the Indian American population is 35 years old or younger. This is the largest difference between Indian Americans and the general population. (The really young ones are turning into little punks. I worry about this)
  
  
• As this large group of young people hits retirement age we will begin to require a larger amount of healthcare, social security, and retirement facilities (Whatever. I plan to have rich kids to take care of me.)
  
  
• 6.6% of Indian Americans live in the same house with their grandchildren (Wow. That’s less than I thought. But my kids will take me in, I’m sure.)
  
  
• Since 1994, between 32.3% and 54.1% of the eligible Indian American population voted in each election (not good folks).
  
  
• Indian Americans are 3.5 times more likely to have a professional degree (what a pain in the ass it has been living up to that stat).
  
  
• Indian American children tend to start school earlier than children in the general population (NERDS!).
  
  
• Indian women are more than twice as likely not to have any schooling (foul!).
  
  
• While the general population has only 19.38% more people in poverty than the Indian American population, it receives 176% more public assistance (damn slackers).

Fauja Singh–the astonishing nonagenarian athlete and all-around bad-ass who was in an adidas ad–will be starring in another commercial, an ad for PETA:

The ad shows a runner in mid-stride, training for his next marathon, and reading, “Fauja Singh: Age 93/Champion International Marathon Runner/Father of Six/Grandfather of 13… Vegetarian”.

Singh will be competing at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon September 26.

Singh rediscovered his passion for distance running at the age of 81 and even now shows no signs of slowing down. He has joined forces with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to caution Asians and others about the perils they face if they clog their arteries with meat.

singh has received well-deserved accolades for his accomplishments:

…Singh, who finished ahead of his age group at the New York Marathon last year, was honoured with the Ellis Island of Honour for his feat. He is the only non-American to be so honoured in the history of the prestigious award.

Apart from congressional awards, the Ellis Island Medals of Honour are the only awards recognised by Congress.

what was that about old indian men with superpowers, abhi? 😉

What pops into your mind when you see Arabic script? BBC World News? Urdu shayari? Old-school Punjabi poetry?

Midwest Airlines grounded a flight from Milwaukee to San Francisco after a passenger grew alarmed at seeing Arabic script handwritten inside a magazine (via Half the Sins). The plane returned to the gate, a thorough search turned up nothing, and passengers had to spend the night. The script turned out to be a meditative passage in Farsi written by a Persian Jack Handy.

Reminds me of a trusty Shazia Mirza joke which went something like this: ‘I told my audience I had a surprise for them. And everybody ducked.’

Over the weekend, I went to a desi wedding in Long Island and drove past a slew of Amber Alert child kidnapping signs asking people to watch for a white van. The kids turned up safe, and the father/abductor committed suicide after killing his wife and shooting her sister. Turns out Clifford Bonner’s wife Michelle and her sister, Candice Rampersad, are both desi. The police bulletin on Bonner described him as black, but he’s actually Hispanic and Cherokee. Another case of conforming race to black / white/ Hispanic / other? Continue reading →

British reporter Yvonne Ridley, having been held captive by the Taliban, converted to Islam after her release. Her explanation (conveyed via the BBC) has some odd sexual undercurrents to it:

Working as a reporter for the Sunday Express in September 2001, Ridley was smuggled from Pakistan across the Afghan border…. her cover was blown when she fell off her donkey in front of a Taleban soldier near Jalalabad… Her first thought as the furious young man came running towards her? “Wow – you’re gorgeous,” she says. “He had those amazing green eyes that are peculiar to that region of Afghanistan and a beard with a life of its own. “But fear quickly took over. I did see him again on my way to Pakistan after my release and he waved at me from his car.”

Continue reading →