Atul Vyas, Everlasting be Your Memory

Posted on by

Via our NewsTab, word that one of the 25 victims of Friday’s tragic head-on train collision in Southern California was Desi (thanks, Kusala): atul vyas.PNG

Atul Vyas scored in the top 1 percent on his medical school entry exams, but he was having trouble answering one question on applications to Harvard and Duke: Describe a hardship you’ve overcome.
“He said, ‘I’ve not had any, I’ve had a blessed life,'” Vijay Vyas said of his son Sunday.
Atul Vyas never finished the application, never came closer his goal of working in biomechanics. On Friday, he was among 25 killed when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a freight train in nearby Chatsworth. He was 20.
The accident was the nation’s deadliest rail disaster in 15 years.
The train, which was carrying 222 people when it crashed during afternoon rush hour, was headed north toward Ventura County from downtown Los Angeles. [AP]

This is just heart-breaking:

…Atul’s elder brother, who lives in London, was flying into Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. His parents did not tell him why they were summoning him to America, only that there was a family emergency.
“He has no idea,” Vijay Vyas said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to discuss it, just show up.'” [AP]

Though Atul probably could have attended school elsewhere, a cousin mentioned that he chose CMC because it was close to his family; he took the train back to see them every two to three weeks. Continue reading →

Delhi Gets Blasted [Updated]

Posted on by

This just in…five bombs went off in New Delhi today, at approximately 6pm.

Delhi Bomb.jpg

India’s capital New Delhi was rocked by blasts in three busy market areas, killing at least 18 people, the worst bomb attack in the country since 50 people were killed in the city of Ahmedabad in July.

…Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who said five blasts took place within 45 minutes starting at about 6 p.m., condemned the attacks in a televised statement in the capital.

…As many as 50 were injured in the blasts, Delhi Police chief Y.S. Dadwal told reporters at one of the bomb sites. Some television channels put the toll as high as 20 and the number of those injured at 92. [Bloomberg]

Other media outlets are reporting up to fourteen have died from the blast. I’m sure this number will change throughout the course of the day once the facts are sorted out.

Two of today’s blasts took place in the central Connaught Place area and two at a market in the upscale Greater Kailash area, Dadwal said. One blast took place at Ghaffar Market in the Karol Bagh area, he said. [Bloomberg]

With Diwali right around the corner, and in the midst of Ramadan, I’m sure the markets were crowded with people preparing for festivities. It feels like an overwhelming 24 hours of tragedy – between these bombings, Hurricane Ike, and here in Southern California a tragic head on train collision.

I hope all of our readers and family are safe – whether in New Delhi, Houston or LA. If you are in New Delhi, please keep us posted!

UPDATE: The death toll is up to 30, with at least 90 people injured.

The Indian Mujahideen, regarded by security agencies as a front of the Lashkar-Huji terror machine, has claimed responsibility for the blasts… This group had sent emails before the UP court blasts, the Jaipur and Ahmedabad blasts. This time, too, it sent an email to media groups, however, 10 minutes after the first blast. [TimesofIndia]

To keep following the latest, there’s been a pretty well-linked wiki page set up on the Delhi bombings. Continue reading →

Ike comes knocking (updates: 2)

Posted on by

12:46p.m. CST

There is really no explicit South Asian American angle to this post other than the fact the Sepia Mutiny’s U.S. Southern Region Bureau is located in Houston. Houston also has the largest desi population in the U.S. outside of NY/NJ, California, and Chicago. I have evacuated all of our staff but, as the bureau chief, have decided to stay behind and blog updates on this thread for as long as I have electrical power. Right now the eye of Ike is on a path to travel almost directly over our bureau.

I was looking for a bucket of food yesterday but the lines at the stores were too long. I was also looking for a shotgun in case I had to protect myself but I don’t know how to use one anyways so that was probably pointless (I’m not as cool as Omar unfortunately). Other than that I am just going to hunker down (Texans like this phrase) with my camera and video camera and document as much as I can (safely of course). When the storm passes I will try and see if there are any volunteer opportunities for people in more need. Luckily SM’s bureau is located on the second floor of a complex and is relatively well protected and just beyond the surge zone, so my mom is way more worried than I am. Here is the view of downtown from the parking garage:

View of Houston skyline: 12:30 p.m. CST, 9/12/08

I’ve been checking out StormPulse.com and the SciGuy at the Houston Chronicle for the best technical information on Ike. Stay tuned for more updates on this thread.

Continue reading →

“she had a cunning smile, like she was taking potshots at Maharashtrians”

Posted on by

I don’t claim to know or like Bollywood, but I do love languages and everything connected with them, whether it’s linguistics classes (so I may learn to pronounce the “u” in “Tu” properly, in french) or articles about the politics of what we speak, how we speak it, and when and where: http://www.chakpak.com/cpl/search?keyword=jaya+bhachan&category=persons

It was an innocent, throwaway remark but it was enough to throw India’s most famous acting family into a head-on collision with a right-wing group in the country’s movie-making capital.
Jaya Bachchan, the wife of the country’s best known movie star, Amitabh Bachchan, found herself at the centre of a nativist fury after she asked to speak in Hindi at a press conference in Mumbai, rather than Marathi, the local language. She said because the family was from northern India, it was easier for her to speak Hindi. [linkage]

Ouch. Ready the effigies!

A harmless enough remark perhaps. But her words were seized on by right-wing activists who demanded a boycott of all films by the Bachchan family – Abhishek Bachchan is Amitabh’s son and Aishwarya Rai is his daughter-in-law – and who began tearing down posters featuring the family and damaging a cinema showing one of their films. Such was the concern that the premiere of Mr Bachchan’s latest movie, The Last Lear, was postponed.[linkage]

The culprits (oh, how I love that word) may have belonged to or been inspired by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which splintered from Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena two years ago. The regionalist, right-wing MNS would prefer that Maharashtra be for Maharashtrians; predictably, they are rather protective of the Marathi language, as well. MNS insists that this isn’t the first time Bollywood’s finest family has dissed Bombay Mumbai (Mollywood?):

“She has purposely made such statements. Even when she said forgive me, she had a cunning smile, like she was taking potshots at Maharashtrians,” said the MNS party leader, Raj Thackeray.[linkage]

It’s a sign of how powerful this party is, that rather than roll their collective eyes, the Bachans responded by going in to apology mode. Big B even devoted an entire blog entry to his sorrow over the whole unfortunate affair, after passing a sleepless night. Highlights from that (I forgot he had a blog!), after the jump: Continue reading →

Life is Stranger Than Fiction.

Posted on by

Twice a week, a very kind gentleman comes by with a nifty vacuum cleaner strapped to his back, to spruce up the floors. I say nifty because it looks more like a jet-pack or something a lot more fun than a mere appliance. Anyway, when he strolls in with his trademark, “Hell-oooooo!”, I know it is time to stand up and get out of his way. I usually just move to the other side of my desk and prepare myself for a minute or two of nothingness, but apparently, today will be…something. I hear a familiar voice, but I can’t make out the words above the din of the machine.

I turn around to see who is speaking to me. It is the one Pakistani man I work with, an uber-sweet coworker who likes to make halwa to bring to work, which he then guilts me in to eating—not the first portion, mind you; that goes to our other, “grown-up” coworkers. Oh, no—he comes by towards the end of mithai-madness and always authoritatively says, as he spoons at least three servings on to a paper plate he has helpfully brought with him, “I make you halwa. Eat.”

When I protest meekly, saying, “It’s too much!”, because I don’t want to waste food, he gives me the exact same look I get at home, from my Mom at the end of dinner.

“It’s so little. Why you make me put back in dish? If dish is empty, I can wash. Finish it. Be helpful. So I can wash. I not have all day.”

So, much in the same endearing, parental way he force-feeds me food which my tummy has no room for, he often comes by to “check on” me, the youngest brown member of the team (nine desis work here, total). To see, as he inimitably pronounces it, “how you arrrr DEW-wing!” When I moved away from my desk to facilitate vacuuming, he saw an opportunity and approached.

“Hallo En-ah!”

“Hi…Mm-…hi” I stammered, just barely resisting the urge to call him Uncle. I can’t bring myself to call him by his first name, which is Mohammad, so I just…well, call him nothing. Who cares if it’s a work environment? The man guilts and keeps tabs on me. Being on a first-name basis ain’t happenin’.

“How is your Mum? She in Kelly-for-nya? Or she visit home, maybe?”

I have always loved that: home. My heart immediately softens. No matter how many decades my late father lived in this country (three, if we’re counting), despite the American flag planted dramatically in our front yard, when he wasn’t communicating mindfully, he always said that about Kerala, too. Home.

“No, she is in California. She is well, thank you for asking.” Continue reading →

Food Network Giving Desi Love

Posted on by

It’s been pretty serious around the bunker these past couple of weeks, and since I’m finally allowed to change the television channel from convention coverage, to “anything I want.” I’m changing the channel to The Food Network since I like to eat and because The Food Network has been down with the brown, as of late.

A few months ago, Minnesotan and Indian Cook, Nipa Bhatt was a contender on the Next Food Network Star. Nipa made it to the fourth episode, but was eliminated after a poor showing in the fish challenge. I think her bad attitude and limited knowledge of food had something to do with it, as well. I don’t want to undermine her effort though, she did make it through a few rounds, and was the first desi contestant on the show. On top of that, Nipa represented for cooking not often sampled by mainstream America: Gujarati food. I know it was the first time I had seen someone make Sukhi Bhaji (seasoned potatoes) or Rasa Valu Battaka Nu Shak (potato curry in gravy) on American television, and more importantly further promote regional Indian cooking to mainstream America.

I thought Nipa was a good introduction to Indian cooking, but what I’m really looking forward to is tonight’s episode of Iron Chef-America. Tonight’s battle pits one of my favorites, Bobby Flay against Floyd Cardoz, Executive Chef of Tabla, New York’s most famous “New Indian” restaurant. Cardoz was trained in Bombay and Switzerland, and opened Tabla in 1998. The main restaurant features food that is Western in orientation, but seasoned with the Indian aesthetic (think a Tandoori BLT or a Fricasse of Wild Mushrooms accompanied by “Upma” Polenta), while the restaurant’s Bread Bar, features more home-style Indian food that we would expect to see on the menu of most Indian restaurants, like chicken tikka and sag paneer. Given the variety and uniqueness of the ingredients highlighted on Iron Chef, I think the show will be a good opportunity for Cardoz to highlight his fusion of Indian and Western techniques on food that might not necessarily be perceived as Indian food. And for those of you in New York, Tabla is offering Cardoz’s Iron Chef menu starting tomorrow, August 8 through October 31. Continue reading →

Notes from the RNC, Post 7: The early bird gets the war criminal, Dhillon speaks, and final thoughts

Posted on by

This will be my last RNC post.

Friday started out with the news that I might interview Henry Kissinger, a man whose deeds and intellect I’m mightily afraid of. I was given the task because I’m always the earliest low-level employee to show up. Kissinger is considered old stuff by the established journalists I was working with – none of them could spare a moment of covering McCain’s upcoming speech to talk to the aging icon.

So I got the assignment. I had about three hours to prepare for my interview, which was not enough. I was assigned to ask only questions on Palin’s foreign policy experience, to plump up another reporter’s long-ish story on it.

When I arrived outside the restaurant, only one other reporter was there – Chuck Plunkett from the Denver Post. He told me he was nervous. I concurred.

We were eventually led in. There was Kissinger, planted on a black leather couch at the farthest corner of the restaurant. I sat next to him, Chuck on my other side. You can read what happened.

It was not a great interview, certainly one of the worst I’ve done. But then, he’s my first major subject, and it didn’t go terribly. I am hoping to score some time with him while I’m in Delhi, and prepare a lot more beforehand.

Speaking to him was like communing with a large, glistening brain. His sharpness was palpable, his empathy, not so much. He smiled a couple of times and made jokes, but mainly he was all business. It struck me how uncomfortable he was speaking outside of his “field of competence,” as he put it, that of foreign policy. But as soon as I introduced it – in the form of the India America nuclear deal – he visibly perked up. His speech was actually clearer. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized

Left vs. White

Posted on by

Watching the Republican National Convention was a little like being lost in an Alaskan snowstorm: I was blinded by the unbearable whiteness of being a Republican delegate. It was surprising, therefore, to find out that the delegates were even whiter than they appeared on TV. It seems the camera not only adds ten pounds, it also increases the amount of melanin in the room.

cite: 1, 2, 3 Democrats Republicans National Average
White 57% 93% 74%
Black 25% 2% 13%
Latino 12% 5% 15%
Asian 5% ~0% ? 4%
Male 50% 68% ~50%

While 44% of all delegates at the DNC were minorities, this was true for only 7% of RNC delegates. In fact, this was one of the whitest RNC conventions in decades, pretty much since Black Americans effectively regained the franchise:

Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago [Link]

This was a big shift from 2000 and 2004, when the Bush campaign successfully reached out strongly to Black and Latino voters. The absence of Latino voters was particularly striking, probably because Latino activists have been driven out of the party grassroots that constitute the delegates by the rancor over immigration.

The party has also made a concerted effort to court Hispanics, but its electoral gains have been diminished by the hard-line stance many Republicans have taken on immigration… 5 percent of delegates are Hispanic, the lowest percentage at a Republican convention since 1996 [Link]

McCain’s own campaign manager said:

“We have to make a better case to the Hispanic voter that the Republican Party has something to offer other than a deportation slip,” [Link]

And while I was unable to find any figures on Asians at the Republican convention, the numbers leave little room for Asian delegates unless in very small number.

Continue reading →

The Discovery of Bridget

Posted on by

Dear Bridget,

Amar chotho apu. My sister from another mother (because all of us Bangladeshis essentially are, nah?). Is Bridget your bhalou nam or dak nam? Neither? Ok. Well, yay! Finally, a Bangladeshi-American makes it to the stage of a big political party convention. Rumor has it that your outfit was pretty fly. How did it feel being up there on stage? Did you feel like you were breaking boundaries? Because as the first Bangladeshi-American on stage at the Republican National Convention, you definitely were. And your mother, Cindy McCain, made sure to let everyone know in her RNC speech how she “discovered” you too.Bridget McCain.jpg

For me, the great moment of clarity was when I became a mother. Something changed in me. I would never see my obligations the same way again. It was after that I was walking through the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh, surrounded by terrible poverty and the devastation of a cyclone. All around me were the children and the desperate faces of their mothers. The pain was overwhelming, and I felt helpless. But then I visited an orphanage begun by Mother Teresa, and two very sick little girls captured my heart. There was something I could do. I could take them home, and so I did. Today, both of those little girls are healthy and happy. And one of them you just met tonight: our beautiful daughter, Bridget. [Fox News]

Ahh, but who is this other little Bangladeshi girl you were adopted with?

John and Cindy McCain adopted one of them, Wes Gullett [McCain’s former aide] and his wife Deborah adopted the other… The McCains adopted the baby with the cleft palate, Bridget, and the Gulletts adopted the other one, Nicki. Both children required a lot of medical attention, but the Gulletts never saw a hospital bill.[ABCNews]

Continue reading →