Erstwhile Guest Blogger Ads finds the ultimate in pimp rides, on Craigslist of all places; I totally understand her desire.
I realize that this is completely impractical, but I still kind of want it. [link]
I want one, too. What a beaut. Classic red with tan top, street legal, meets strict emissions standards for my home state, a mere 400 miles old…book it, I’m sold. Continue reading
Mutineer anti-favorite Toral Mehta is on the Apprentice again tonight. Joy. 😉 Actually, I should’ve seen this coming; Rebecca had the most ridiculous soft shpot for her friend Toral, a.k.a. the woman who established herself as a righteous defender of the Hindu faith with her refusal to don a costume.
Were any of you watching while I was? I thought Carolyn’s eyes were going to turn Rebecca to stone when she made such a controversial pick for her team of three assistants, but that’s just me. Mais oui, the only female contender left resumed her familiar stoic, I-might-be-wrong-about-this- but-I’m-going-to-nod-emphatically schtick. Oh yeah, since the finale is a two-parter, you get some Toral NEXT week, too. Chrismukkah comes early this year, truly.
Related: Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro Continue reading
Blog Quake day came and went, but so much more still needs to be don(at)e(d).
Mushie was on NBC’s Today this morning, as Ann Curry asked him how much more his country needs; his answer was measured in the Billions.
My cousin Lisa sent me a forward with an easy way Mutineers in DC can help TOMORROW:
BEN & JERRY’s in Dupont Circle has graciously agreed to donate 25 % of your tab towards the South Asia Earthquake Relief Effort. The money will go directly to the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA). Please mention the cause when you purchase your ice cream.
An estimated 70,000-80,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million left homeless in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that hit Pakistan, Kashmir and India on October 8th. With the harsh Himalayan winter rapidly approaching, death tolls are expected to double.
You CAN make a difference. Your contribution will be used on the ground in Pakistan to assist doctors and nurses treat the injured and prevent the spread of disease.
When: Wednesday, November 16th, 7:30-8:30p
Where: Ben & Jerry’s, 1333 19th Street NW
This is a wonderful idea– if any of you are coordinating similar fundraisers, please let us know. Mo’ notice, mo’ betta. Continue reading
We go from the strangely disturbing to the just plain strange today on the Mutiny. Right on time for dinner!
An Indian boy considers his rare birth defect to be an advantage. Devender Harne, 10, was born with 25 fingers and toes — six fingers on each hand, six toes on one foot and seven on the other.
Video of the child here. Of course he’s going to take the brown view of things:
Though it would be considered an abnormality to some, Devender says it allows him to work faster than the average child.
Despite his super powers, Devender is a pretty ordinary kid:
The extra digits on his hands and feet don’t hinder his daily life. Like any normal 10-year-old, he goes to school, plays sports and spends time with his friends.
As tipster BJ said– another one twenty-five for the world of Guiness. Brilliant!
The Guinness Book of World Records has contacted the boy’s family and is investigating whether he has the most useful fingers and toes in the world.
India Uncut points us at a series of fun blog posts over at Minor Scale. Manoj has translated some choice South Indian film songs into anglais. Most translations are just text but this one had pix and made me smile. Next time some cultural elitist snob rants about how every piece of media was better in the original Tamil, Uyghur or !Xóõ, I’ll point ’em here –
Proof that if you can’t have the pix, some folks really do listen to the lyrics.
When it comes to music in the diaspora, there a few names that of course come to mind (Talvin Singh, Panjabi MC), but one of the most consistent and visible musicians evolving from the South Asian diaspora, and who is not universally from the UK Bhangra or the Asian Drum and Bass scene, is without a doubt, Nitin Sahwney. DJ, producer, musician, and activist extraordinaire, Sawhney whose most recent studio-album Philtre, which has to be listed amongst his best work, is now slated to score Mira Nair’s production of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, and is reported to be working as a producer on Indo-Canadian British transplant pop-star Raghav’s unfinished second album. In fact, Bobby and Nihal, on their October 12 radio show on the BBC offerred up a bit of a preview of the Raghav/Nitin collaborative work entitled “Seasons,” which draws heavily on the heavenly ‘Mausam’, which appears on the Philtre album. After having heard the original Mausam, the version featuring Raghav admittedly sounded a bit cheecky, but knowing that Nitin is producing some of the record makes me dizzy with anticipation. Well, maybe not dizzy, but excited for sure.
Incidentally, Sawhney, who has also worked with Sting and Spanish collective Ojos de Brujo among others, seems to be in demand lately. Former Beattle Sir Paul McCartney, in an interview with Rolling Stone published earlier this month, said he initially wanted to make a record influenced by Nitin’s sound,
“I liked the idea of toying with a kind of Asian thing, a one-chord thing. There’s an artist called Nitin Sawhney who I like — he’s a British-Asian guy. It was just a vibe I was into at the time
More SM on Nitin here.
“43” hosted an Iftaar dinner at the White House yesterday, the fifth time that Bush has held one in the State Dining Room. Ambassadors Ronen Sen and Bernard Goonetilleke attended, as did other diplomats and prominent Americans who practice Islam. After the Imam’s prayer, the President announced a “first” which seemed especially appropriate; a Koran is now part of the White House Library.
The President used the occasion to express his gratitude towards Muslim nations who have assisted in the WoT. As for the rest:
“I believe the time has come for all responsible Islamic leaders to denounce an ideology that exploits Islam for political ends and defiles your noble faith,” he said at the White House, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). [link]
Well, this is delightfully unexpected. A technology support services company called SlashSupport just announced that it’s outsourcing—to America. Yummy globalization.
HereÂ’s information from the press release, via SAJAÂ’s email discussion list:
SlashSupport, the technology support services company announced today the opening of a new support center in San Jose, California. It is SlashSupport’s sixth center (adding to its existing four locations in India and a redundancy center in Singapore). SlashSupport is a part of Cybernet Software Systems ( CSS ) Group.
SlashSupport’s core support delivery backbone at India employs over 2000 representatives, at four distinct support centers spread across 180,000 sq. ft. in Chennai, India.
This might only be the beginning?
The new San Jose support center will help SlashSupport meet some of the local support needs in providing complete range of support services, significantly strengthening its support infrastructure outside India. Depending on the needs of the business, SlashSupport has the option of expanding its North America operations.
Jason Alexander, erstwhile-Costanza and current…um…outsourcing guru was unavailable for comment. Continue reading
Desi-related snippets in American TV ads:
I don’t understand the practice of hiding women away somewhere dirty while they’re menstruating. Men say a woman’s “impure” then. Hello? If she didn’t bleed, you never would have been born. If you’re going to have a segregation practice, shouldn’t it at least be something nice for a woman, like a Mikvah?
Women’s rights activists in Nepal have hailed a Supreme Court order to end discrimination against women during their menstrual cycle.
Women in poor villages in much of western Nepal are forced to stay in dirty cow-sheds outside the home for four days during their monthly period. They are often given unhygienic food and suffer verbal abuse.
The Supreme Court has ordered the government to declare the practice as evil and given it one month to begin stamping the practice out. [Link]
That’s plain wrong, just like hitching a woman to a plow. You’ve still got a long way to go baby, and honestly, a legal change is just the first step.
p.s. Take it from me, Nepali men, yelling at a woman who has the cramps is just not a good idea.