Category Archives: News

Ghosts of Christmas (and other times) past

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I’m always a bit hesitant to write what might be viewed as a “personal” entry on these pages. I used to have my own personal blog for those types of musings but decided to give it up because of the pressures of a full time job and this blog. I also don’t want to be presumptuous and assume that the vast majority of SM readers care about my life (as opposed to my writings highlighting something of interest or importance to the South Asian American community). That being said, today is a holiday (when SM readership plummets for obvious reasons), and so I figured I’d get away with some personal blogging. Since many of you seemed to enjoy my previous entry about my arduous toils in my basement, I thought I would serve up one more entry based on the booty recovered from the nine tons of refuse we removed from down there over the last three days.

First off, I know some of you don’t believe me when I say I’m a Grinch. Do these pictures finally convince you? I could tell even at a young age that this new-fangled Santa Claus was an imposter:

Leave this one alone. He’s bad to the bone. (Age 1)

And Frosty? Please. The only large snowball I care to associate with is a snow cone with watermelon syrup:

Where is Frosty’s left hand?

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Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai 2007

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India and China are just about to wrap up joint military exercises, 45 years after the border war which put an end to the phrase which serves as the title of this post. The CSM reports:

The decision to hold joint Army exercises, ending tomorrow, in China’s Yunnan Province, is admittedly a small measure. But it is the first time the two armies have cooperated in such a way, and it comes on the heels of rapidly expanding Sino-Indian ties in business and politics…

This being the first Army exercise between the two countries, it has been small. Only 95 Indian soldiers have traveled to Yunnan Province, where they are participating in counterterrorism drills. But the joint exercise is expected to become an annual event, helping each side become better acquainted with the other.

“These are building blocks being put in place,” says Rahul Bedi of Jane’s, a London-based military analysis firm. “It’s a part of the learning process…” [Link]

And what did they name these exercises? Operation Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? Sadly, no. That would have been the name if only I were in charge. Instead, the name given to these joint training exercises was “Hand-in-Hand 2007.” Hand-in-Hand? These are supposed to be warriors not playmates. For your viewing enjoyment I have posted some of the most exciting pictures from the the last several days:

Chinese soldier teaches Indians that the best way to defend against a sledge hammer to the head is by using the nearest pile of bricks for protection. They swear it works and that Indians should try.

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Skeletons in the basement

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The last two days I have been performing back-breaking, grueling, utterly soul crushing labor…in my own house (well, my parents house). Have you guys ever read a news article about some reclusive old guy who had a lifelong hoarding problem (a.k.a syllogomania) and when police finally entered the house they found a rotting, partially eaten corpse buried underneath a pile of junk that was formerly on one side of the only navigable lane through the house? Yes? Then now you know what my dad is like (known as “Yo Dad” to some who read SM). My dad left with my mom for India earlier this week so I flew home to help my brother clean out the house without any resistance. I wanted to solve this looming crisis before my dad made the local news in the “odd news” segment. Over the last two days we’ve been cleaning out stuff (mostly stored in the basement) that spans back 40 years! I won’t bore you with descriptions of 20-year-old used shower curtains or “Indian luggage bags” filled with spiders. I will take you straight to the good stuff. First, check out these two cricket bats. I remember they were purchased on a trip to India in 1982/3 in Ahmedabad (I was ~7). Notice anything shocking on one of them?

Was I an angry militant batsman as a child?

Can someone please explain this to me? Why would a child’s cricket bat say Hitler on it? I can understand why the one on the right has Sunil Gavaskar’s name…but Hitler?? As best as I can guess, the bat makers meant to spell “Hitter” but misspelled it as “Hitler.” Why did my parents even buy me this cricket bat? This could REALLY come back to tank my candidacy if I ever run for office. This is a closet skeleton right up there with GW Bush’s and Obama’s cocaine use.

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L.I. Couple’s Fate: Jail and Bail

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An update on Varsha and Mahender Sabhnani, the Muttontown Uncle and Auntie who were convicted of mistreating their Indonesian servants (thanks, Mithua), via the NYDailyNews:

A Long Island judge jailed a wealthy woman convicted of enslaving two Indonesian housekeepers – but allowed her co-defendant husband to remain free on bail.
Varsha Sabhnani, who fainted and was hospitalized after a jury convicted her and her husband Monday of 12 counts of forced labor, was ordered remanded to jail by Federal Court Judge Arthur Spatt.
As her four children sobbed, the judge said the jury had found Varsha, 45, to be the culprit who inflicted the most punishment on the housekeepers, including beating them with broomsticks.

I’m going to start counting how many times the word “stoic” is used to describe MahenderUncle:

Her stoic husband, Mahender, 51, who remains out on $4.5 million bail, was allowed to return to the couple’s lavish Muttontown home and is under house arrest.
When sentenced March 28, the couple faces up to 20 years in jail.

I think one of the more interesting, unintended consequences of covering this story on SM has been the Schoolhouse Rock-like legal aid from our impressive roster of law geeks. (Pssst…law geeks, this is your cue to explain how all this sentencing jail stuff works. :D) So she’s in jail now…waiting to find out how long she’ll stay there? He’s wearing an ankle bracelet and then he might be wearing stripes, too?

The jury said the federal government can seize the couple’s 5,898-square-foot home because it was used in the commission of a crime.

And how is he under house arrest if they’re taking the house? That’s my role in this mutiny– I ask the dumb questions so you mutineers don’t have to. You’re welcome for that, by the way.

At the end of the last thread regarding this news story, a few of you wondered about what kind of coverage this was getting in Indonesia, where Varsha is from. Any lurkers from that part of the world want to chime in and let us know? Continue reading →

Security Perversity in Chicago

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p>I have a big deadline right now, but I feel compelled to respond to this bulletin from the Chicago Police that asks people to “immediately report any or all … suspect activity” including note taking, camera usage, video usage and map usage. [via BoingBoing, link to flyer image].

Before 9/11 I would have said that this sort of thing makes me want to explode, but I’ve expurgated such language in the same way that I no longer say hello to friends named Jack at the airport. I’ll simply say that the bulletin makes me sad and upset. You know exactly whose photo taking will be reported as suspicious and whose wont; Chicago has the third largest South Asian American population in the country, there are plenty of browns to drop a dime about.

I’ve been on the receiving end of this myself. Once I took a pad and pen to the courtyard behind my office to try to figure out how to craft a memo for work and was interrupted by the police who said that there had been a report of “suspicious activity” namely somebody “suspicious” “taking notes”.

I showed them my note pad and explained my behavior (which wasn’t unusual for that area at all), but that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted my ID and then they followed me back to my office so that they could verify that I actually did “belong” there. All for sitting around on a nice spring day and writing on a pad. And this was in a liberal town where they actually decided to follow procedures rather than detain first and ask questions later.

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The Indian Army in WWII Italy

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For many folks, the most widely recognized pop culture image of Desi soldiers in WWII was Naveen Andrews’ portrayal of Kip, the Sikh soldier, in the film version of Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. Kip was a combat engineer / bomb removal expert for the British army in Italy and his love affair with Hana, the gorgeous nurse played by Juliet Binoche, formed one of the central plot lines of the movie.

Oh bury me at Cassino
My duty to England is done
And when you get back to Blighty
And you are drinking your whisky and rum
Remember the old Indian soldier
When the war he fought has been won!

–Indian 8th Infantry Division
War Song from the WWII Italian Campaign

When I saw the flick, I recall many a female audience member shuddering at Kip’s “hair scene” – much to my progressively follicle-challenged chagrin…

Still, Ondaatje’s use of Kip in such a significant role is laudable not just because Kip is a strong, attractive & clearly desi male in a leading romantic role but also because it implicitly frames the presence of folks like him as relatively commonplace. I recently stumbled across a fascinating, slick, Indian-produced documentary that goes into much more detail on the “real Kips” who participated in the Allied offensive in Italy. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, it appears the entire documentary is online and available for your viewing pleasure after the fold.

Naveen Makes It Look Easy

The facts, sights, and sounds of the video are an impressive testament to an often overlooked chapter in history. Desi losses in the multi-day assault on the Gustav line, for example, numbered over 1000 – a figure comparable to US losses on D-Day. An Italian countryside scene shows a field of Hindi-inscribed tombstones that hits you in the gut. The UK’s highest military honor, the Victoria Cross, was awarded to its youngest WWII recipient during these battles – 19 yr old Kamal Ram. As is common in these sorts of documentaries, snapshots of soldier’s daily lives provide poignant color – such as the Sikhs making Naan on makeshift ovens. Local Italians, some of whom were barely teenagers at the time, discuss their impressions of these “handsome” soldiers from afar who’ve come to fight for their liberation and attend modern day memorial services to commemorate their sacrifice.

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Announcement: Abhi and Amardeep on Houston Public Radio

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Abhi and I will be on a Houston-based radio show called Border Crossings Wednesday night (12/19) at 10 PM Central time (11 PM EST). If interested, you can listen live via streaming audio here, or download a podcast of the show later here.

The topics? I just had a chat with one of the show’s organizers, and topics that came up were things like: the ABD/DBD identity question, the question of the meaning or value of “South Asia” (yes, that old chestnut again), globalization (especially the changing nature of the diaspora), the rise of Bobby Jindal, and the elections in Gujarat. Other topics will likely come up, and some of those topics might well be skipped if inspiration doesn’t strike (I get the feeling that this show is very free-form in nature.)

There will also probably be a some amount of “meta” discussion about blogging, the relationship between new and old media, and the nature of internet community.

Since a big part of what makes this blog work is the feedback and insight from readers, I wanted to ask you: are there particular posts or topics we’ve covered in the past few months that stood out to you as things to possibly discuss on the radio? Or particularly good comment threads, perhaps? Continue reading →

Daughter of Slave-holding L.I. Couple Screams, “How could this happen to us in america?”

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Back in May, I wrote a post about the Muttontown/Long Island couple who were accused of treating their Indonesian maids like “modern-day slaves”. It is time for an update (thanks, various tipsters): On the way to Justice on Monday.jpg

A jury on Monday convicted a millionaire couple of enslaving two Indonesian women they brought to their mansion to work as housekeepers.
Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, and his wife, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45, were each convicted of all charges in a 12-count federal indictment that included forced labor, conspiracy, involuntary servitude, and harboring aliens. [MSNBC]

In addition to grueling 18-hour days, Samirah and Enung were “fortunate enough” to receive discipline and opportunities like those detailed below:

Allegations of abuse included beatings with brooms and umbrellas, slashings with knives, being made to repeatedly climb stairs and take freezing-cold showers as punishment for misdeeds that included sleeping late or stealing food from trash bins because they were poorly fed.
Samirah, the woman who fled the house in May, said she was forced to eat dozens of chili peppers and then was forced to eat her own vomit when she failed to digest the peppers, prosecutors said… [MSNBC]

This next bit is clearly a misinterpretation of actual events; I’m sure that Mrs. Sabhnani was merely trying to assist with hair removal. That’s quite thoughtful of her!

Enung testified that Samirah’s nude body once was covered in plastic wrapping tape on orders from Varsha Sabhnani, who then instructed Enung to rip it off. “When I pulled it off, she was screaming,” the housekeeper said through an interpreter before breaking down in tears on the witness stand. [MSNBC]

These disposable women should have been grateful that they were allowed to come to America, so that they could live in a mansion– and be stashed in a 3’x3′ space whenever visitors came, lest they embarrass their generous employers with their bruises and scars. If they hadn’t been so gluttonous as to sift through the trash for scraps, then they wouldn’t have been punished. Makes perfect sense…if you’re EVIL. But wait! There’s MORE!

The Sabhnanis’ defense attorneys contended the two women concocted the story of abuse as a way of escaping the house for more lucrative opportunities. [CNN]

You know, when I’m on the prowl for more lucrative opportunities, I always make sure that I rush in to a Dunkin’ Donuts with naught but a towel for a shirt and then fake abuse while pleading for help. Works every time. Continue reading →

Meet the Mutiny: SM interviews Candidate J. Ashwin Madia

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At the end of October I profiled Jigar Ashwin Madia, a “Democrat” (or DFLer) who is running for Congress in the 3rd District of Minnesota. An important thing to note here is that, as I understand it, in order to compete in the general election as a DFLer in Minnesota, you have to first obtain an endorsement from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) is a major political party in the US state of Minnesota. It was created on April 15, 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and Farmer-Labor Party merged. Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger. The party is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. The nickname “DFLers” is often used in Minnesota by both members and non-members of the party as an alternative to “Democrats”. [Link]

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party will base part of its decision (a long process) on which candidate has raised the most money by the end of the year, since money in the war chest is an indicator of general election viability (an unfortunate fact about politics in America today). Therefore, the month of December is critical to Madia’s campaign if he hopes to contend for this seat. One of Madia’s staff explained the process to me back in November:

“…the fundraising period that matters most ends December 31, 2007. That period matters most because the results from that time will be what voters know going into the endorsement process that begins on February 5, 2008. (Ashwin has agreed to abide by the results of the endorsement process, so if he does not receive the endorsement from the Democratic Party, the campaign is over.) The next round of fundraising numbers will not come out until April 15, 2008, and at that point, the endorsement process will be almost over.”

Asking for your effort as a volunteer or for a monetary contribution, just like asking for your vote, demands that a candidate explain his positions clearly and thoughtfully enough to satisfy you as a voter or donor. I asked Madia a few questions that I was curious to know the answer to (some of them just to warm him up for you all). I am counting on our smart readers to vet him some more with thoughtful questions. If you like what he has to say, consider supporting him. If not, this is still a chance for one-on-one participation in the political process. Here we go:

Abhi: Tell us a little about your experiences in Iraq. What are the top three things you learned over there that you feel helps make you a better candidate now that you are back in Minnesota?

Madia: While in Iraq, I worked with the military, the State Department, the Justice Department, the European Union, the United Nations, and Iraqi judicial officers to strengthen Iraq’s legal system and establish the rule of law. I learned that: 1) Iraq is a beautiful country with some of the most gorgeous sunrises I’ve ever seen; 2) the Iraqi people (at least those that I dealt with – primarily lawyers and judges) are brave and very kind; and 3) we, the Americans, need to do a better job of establishing unity of command of our military and State Department efforts, to ensure cohesion and maximize the effectiveness of our efforts. I believe these understandings make me a better candidate because they will give me the foundation to help reestablish Congressional oversight over the conduct of the war through probing questions and initiatives. I can draw upon my experiences to push the military and State Department when necessary about their planning and execution of long term strategy in Iraq.

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Two DBDs Murdered at LSU (2 Updates)

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A simple way to take the pulse of the Mutiny is to pay attention to tip volume and composition. When the same story is sent in (and for a period is the ONLY story submitted to the tip line), it’s a powerful indicator of what you want to talk about…today, it’s tragedy at a major American public university:

Two students were found shot to death in a home invasion at a Louisiana State University apartment, and officials decided to keep the campus open Friday while police searched for three suspects.
The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both Ph.D. students from India, were found inside an apartment at the Edward Gay complex late Thursday night after authorities received an emergency call. [yahoo]

That emergency call came from Allam’s pregnant wife, who discovered the murder scene at her apartment.

The 911 call was made by Allam’s pregnant wife, who returned home and found the men dead. Authorities said both men had been shot in the head once in what is described as an area with one of the highest crime rates in the city.
Komma, who was studying biochemistry, was found bound with a computer cable, while Allam, who was in the chemistry programme, was near the front door. Initial reports said nothing appears to have been stolen from the house. [TOI]

The apartments are a vulnerable, easy target:

The apartment building where the shootings took place is designated for married and graduate students, and is near a field on the 2,000-acre campus where the university’s band practices. A cluster of pale yellow cinderblock, three-story buildings, it sits on the edge of the campus…
The complex has a tall fence separating it from the off-campus neighborhood, but the apartments have no gates or surveillance cameras…attempted break-ins and holdups are common at the complex. [yahoo]

Logically, TOI zeroed in on the anxiety most of you conveyed in your emails:

Phani Mylavarpu, a 26-year-old Indian student pursuing a mechanical engineering Ph.D., told the local Times-Picayune that he was an acquaintance of both victims, having met them at social events of the Indian Student Association, which brings together Indian students on the campus.
Mylavarpu, a former president of the group, said Indian students have spent much of the day talking with each other talking with each other about the crimes and fielding telephone calls from concerned relatives and friends from India.

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