Category Archives: Short

Mmm, yummy condescending Colonialism!

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blacknar-thumb copy.jpg

If you’re on the east coast, consider turning off the Emmies and switching to Turner Classic Movies, right now. Sabu‘s “Black Narcissus“– I wrote about it in May– is on! Maybe some of you on the west coast will be able to catch it…

IMDB provides a plot summary:

Anglican nuns, led by the stern Sister Clodagh, attempt to establish a religious community in the Himalayas, and must battle not only suspicious locals and the elements, but their own demons as well.

Enjoy the “exotic” accents. They sure as hell ain’t South Asian. Continue reading →

Cricket: India thrashes Zimbabwe

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jai hind.jpg I know nothing about cricket. In fact, whenever someone mentions it, I’m sorely tempted to chirp, “Now THAT was a wicked googly!” a la Seinfeld repping for AmEx. Forgive me for writing this post anyway? 😉

From the Beeb:

India thrashed Zimbabwe by an innings and 90 runs in Bulawayo despite a brave lower-order resistance from the hosts on day four of the first Test.
Resuming on 67-6 and still 208 runs shy of making India bat again, Zimbabwe managed 185 in their second innings with skipper Tatenda Taibu making 52.
Harbhajan Singh finished off the tail to return figures of 4-59.
The match was over when the off-spinner trapped Gavin Ewing lbw for 34 to end the hosts’ last-wicket stand of 47.

Continue reading →

Damned Women.

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SM reader tef sent in a story from the BBC about a woman who plowed a field, while harnessed right next to a bull. Sigh. 🙁

The move was ordered by village elders who said she had angered the rain god by breaking a taboo on women touching ploughs, thus risking a drought.

Apparently, this taboo has existed for hundreds of years; some villagers saw the 25-year old woman touch a plow at the end of last month and my goodness, it hasn’t rained since. Obviously, there’s a connection between the two events.

Predictably, the woman is from a minority caste and refuses to press charges. Police can’t do anything unless she does.

Police have been seeking legal opinion on whether a formal criminal case could be framed under a law which bans witchcraft and such activities in the state, the police chief said.

My inner cynic doesn’t believe that a criminal case will change such ingrained superstitions, but it’s a good first step. What else can you do? Continue reading →

Now I know what “samadhi” means

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wiki shot.jpg Uncleji’s comment about “A boy named Sue” led me to Wikipedia, one of the sites I adore most on the interweb.

Whenever someone leaves a wiki-fied link, I gleefully click through and then I always check the “main page” to see what’s up. Without fail, I find something fascinating to read and learn. Today? No exception. 🙂

Raj Ghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi is a simple black marble platform that marks the spot of his cremation on 31 January 1948. It is left open to the sky while a flame burns perpetually at one end. It is located on the banks of the river Yamuna in Delhi, India. A stone footpath flanked by lawns leads to the walled enclosure that houses the memorial. Two museums dedicated to Gandhi are located near by. The memorial has the epitaph Hey Ram, the last words uttered by Gandhi, meaning, Oh Lord!

Read the rest here, if you desire edification. 🙂 Continue reading →

“Oh help me Jesus, come through this storm”

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She had to lose him, to do him harm:

Police in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh have detained a mother who they accuse of drowning her adopted son. The mother tied the baby to a heavy stone and threw him down a well after villagers told her that he might be suffering from Aids, police say. [BBC]

The ten-month old child didn’t have a chance; coughing and feverish, he was in the coastal village of Gurripudi, a place full of idiots whose idle, tragically incorrect speculation carried more authority than, oh, I don’t know, ACTUAL HIV TESTS. Gurripudi, which is in the East Godavari district, is an area where HIV is rampant, where it would be easy to stupidly, hysterically assume the worst about a baby who isn’t yours.

The murderess is in police custody, her husband hasn’t been charged. The couple adopted the little boy from a nearby village to complement their family, which already included three obviously lucky daughters. Continue reading →

I Prefer That You Kiss My…

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Also, I urgently require that you not be so “Jim Crow” (Thanks, Al Mujahid).
This is outrageous, y’all:

Posted On : 17 August 2005

URGENTLY REQUIRED

A leading company in the automotive business requires the following personnel to be located in Abu Dhabi and Beda Zayed city branch

DIESEL MECHANICS
ELECTRICIANS
MECHANICS
PAINTERS
DENTERS
LIGHT & HEAVY DRIVERS

Applicants should have a relative Diploma with minimum 3 years experience in Automobiles industry.

UAE D/L is a must for drivers.

Indians are not preferred to apply.

Fax: 02-6767708
P.O Box 29699 Abu Dhabi

Just one more reason why it’s a part of the world I’m not fond of…the minuscule silver lining is, less jobs for brown people means less brown people in the gulf, which means less stories like this. Continue reading →

“Lost” finds TWELVE nominations

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congrats naveen.jpg The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences revealed the nominees for the 57th Annual Emmy Awards today…and would you look at who got props:

Supporting Actor, Drama Series : William Shatner, “Boston Legal,” ABC; Oliver Platt, “Huff,” Showtime; Naveen Andrews, “Lost ,” ABC; Terry O’Quinn, “Lost ,” ABC; Alan Alda, ” The West Wing,” NBC.

Can our boy beat Captain James Tiberius Kirk? Does the latter pronounce “I’m Denny Crane” a lot on Boston Legal? 😉

Eeeek, how exciting– “Lost” is also up for “Best Dramatic Series…and before you ask, no, I don’t know what the other nine noms are for. 😀

The only even remotely un-fun part about this is the fact that there are dueling-“Lost” nominees in the same category. I hate it when that happens, though I’m not exactly torn about whom I prefer in this instance. Now if it were the “Lead Actress” contest… Continue reading →

British Backlash box scores

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Earlier, somebody asked if the incidence of hate crimes in the UK was worse now than in the past. The short answer is yes, immensely so:

In the three days after the bombing, police in London recorded 180 racial incidents. A total of 58 faith-related crimes were recorded, compared with one in the same period last year.

Attacks have also been reported on mosques in Tower Hamlets and Merton, both in London, Telford, Leeds, Bristol, Birkenhead and Gloucester, and on a Sikh temple in Kent. [Guardian]

Today’s BBC Worldservice radio broadcast indicated that there have been additional reports of backlash related violence, but gave no further details. Before some of you start frothing at the mouth and comparing this to the violence of the bombings, there is no comparison. I was livid when the bombings occurred. Since then, it has only become more personal – my cousin was one of those lucky enough to dodge the bullet, passing through only 10 minutes before the bombs went off. There is no reason to mix the two issues though. The bombing does not justify anti-brown violence afterwards.

Continue reading →

Aren’t we uptight enough?

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curry leaves.gif From the verdant paradise of my ancestors comes a story that has my head ringing with “You put your WEED in it!“– apparently, a needless slaughter of innocent, Idukki-dwelling Cannabis plants took place in Kerala…I ask you, where’s the outrage? 😉 Oh, and what next?

The Kerala government will convert part of an 8,000-acre forest that used to be dense with cannabis plants into a tourist adventure and herbal park.
“Apart from the adventure park, we propose to convert the place into a herbal park as several species of herbal plants are growing in the area,” Forest Minister T. Radhakrishnan told reporters here Tuesday.

What’s an herbal park…without HERB? Sheesh.

If I had to guess, I would speculate that the park will be full of Karriveppilei, that sacred, venerated Malayalee houseplant that my mom would save from a burning building before any thought of me, my sister or my dog.

About 114,000 cannabis plants were destroyed.

Omg, they killed cannabis. Those bastards. 😉 Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go veg to more Comedy Central, lest I run out of cute ways to blog things. 😀 Continue reading →

Monkey see, Monkey do?

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Monkey got props for his actions, too. (Thanks, bl00t!) A simian devotee of Shiva showed up bright and early in Orissa the other day:

Said Aniruddha Behera, a village resident: “The monkey folded his hands, observed silence, put vermilion on his forehead and also took the prasad from the devotees.”
“When we saw the monkey joining us we were surprised. We did not try to drive it out and it continued praying for nearly an hour amid hundreds of devotees,” Behera told IANS.

Villagers from Junia, Balasore district placed a garland on the spiritual simian before he left for a forest. Apparently the monkey was not familiar to those who witnessed the surprising scene, which went down on the day that a symbol for Shiva was being “formally inaugurat(ed)”.

“We have not seen any monkey around for the last two years. This is a miracle for us,” Behera said.

Over forty years ago, my mom’s family in Kerala had a parrot that famously prayed with everyone every day; in fact, if “evening prayers” didn’t commence exactly on time, the much-loved bird would chide my heathen mother and sonorously begin them for her. Yeah, I love stories like this. Continue reading →