Connecting Desis Everywhere

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It seems that it is time to add another woman to my original list of ‘Desi Women Under 30’, and am honored to add my homegirl and fellow Bangladeshi-SoCal woman Sumaya Kazi (Thanks, Nirali!).

In its second annual search for the best young entrepreneurs, BusinessWeek.com selected Sumaya Kazi, a Bangladeshi American woman from California, as one of its “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25” for 2006. At 24, she is the youngest manager in her marketing department at Sun Microsystems and co-founder of online media publishing company The Cultural Connect.

Sumaya is one of two women in the Top 25, for the magazine’s US, Europe and Asia lists combined.

Readers are encouraged to vote for their top entrepreneur — the top five will be published in the business magazine’s print edition. You can read about Sumaya and vote for her at BusinessWeek.com. [nirali]

The Cultural Connect, started last year as The Desi Connect, before they expanded to include other cultures. I’ve been following their movement since Sumaya first interviewed me for their inaugural issue of The Desi Connect last year. Since then it has grown tremendously with now over 30,000 subscribers and 30 staff members all under the age of 35.

Last summer, she realized […] networking was a huge and untapped resource that could help solve two problems: the fact that she and other young Americans of south Asian descent rarely read or hear about themselves in the media, and that these successful young minorities could give back to their communities, if only they knew whom to call.

That’s partly how Ms. Kazi and two others dreamed up The CulturalConnect, a free online magazine catering to people from four different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The magazine comes in four editions: “The DesiConnect” (“Desi” refers to a person with South Asian roots), “The MideastConnect,” “The LatinConnect,” and “The AsiaConnect.” [cbs]

Being nominated for a the Top 25 under 25 for BusinessWeek.com is a big achievement. Other desis have made it to this year’s nomination as well: Adnan Aziz (licking paper for flavor), Karen Goel and Avichal Garg (online SAT prep course), and Sudhin Shahani (digital media company). I may be a little biased due to my love for all things with desi in the title, as well as in my favoring young desi female breaking “ism” barriers, but my vote goes to Sumaya. Top five make it to the print edition and voting will only be open for a couple of weeks — go place your vote today!

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Right to Information

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This Saturday, I had the opportunity to listen to Arvind Kejriwal, founder of Parivartan, speak about his work on the Right to Information (RTI) Act of India.

Arvind Kejriwal is an Indian social activist and crusader for greater transparency in Government. He was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Emergent Leadership award in 2006 for activating India’s Right to Information movement at grassroots and social activities to empower the poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding the government answerable to the people.

[He] devotes full time to his work as the founder-head of Parivartan – a Delhi based citizens’ movement trying to ensure a just, transparent and accountable governance… [Kejriwal] campaigned for the Right to Information Act, which was passed in 2005. In July 2006, he spearheaded an awareness campaign for RTI across India. [wiki]

As we all know, the government agency bureaucracy in India is wrought with a culture of bribery and no real citizen accountability. The Right to Information Act has provides a way for Indian citizens to hold their government accountable, and has been doing so effectively.

Right to Information Act 2005 empowers every citizen to; ask any questions from the Government or seek any information; take copies of any government documents; inspect any government documents; inspect any Government works; and take samples of materials of any Government work. The Central RTI Act extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir… All bodies…which are owned, controlled or substantially financed by the Government are covered.

If concerned officer does not provide information in time, a penalty of Rs 250 per day of delay can be imposed by the Information Commissioner. If the information provided is false, a penalty of a maximum of Rs 25000 can be imposed. A penalty can also be imposed for providing incomplete or for rejecting your application for malafide reasons. This fine is deducted from the officer’s personal salary. [link]

It was interesting to hear about the grassroots tactics around the RTI implementation Kejriwal used. This past July they ran a 15 day media campaign where they trained 1,500 volunteers and worked with 700 organizations across India. They worked with all of the major media outlets, and during that two week period 2,200 RTI reports were filled out. They coordinate with volunteers to stand outside of government agencies to inform citizens that if the agency tries to bribe them inside, to come return outside and receive help on filing an RTI report. They even have a blog to spread the word on RTI activities. Continue reading →

The rituals of voting

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Early on Monday morning I am making my way over to city hall to cast my ballot in the 2006 election. Election day is for chumps and for political novices, all of who wait in a line because they just don’t know any better. Almost every major metropolitan area has an extended early voting period where you can go in and vote at designated locations OR fill out and mail in an absentee ballot (even if you aren’t really absent but just lazy). I believe in voting early and voting often (although I don’t vote often in the same election because that would be illegal and would come back to screw me someday when my opponent reveals my sordid past to the electorate). The truth is I am fairly certain that I am currently on voter rolls in Michigan, Maryland, Colorado, Texas, and California.

Voting is a multi-step process. You can’t just show show up and start punching holes or touching screens willy-nilly. Democracy would collapse if that’s all it took. Some would say it already has. Here is my process in several steps:

1) Research: I tune out every television and radio advertisement and delete any voice messages that campaign workers have left on my phone. Rubbish. All of it. Lucky for us voters, every state has a voter education website(s) that can teach us about each issue and candidate from scratch. The California ballot has about 30 elected positions, a dozen state measures and a few local measures. What I thought would be a daunting task of researching, only took me 45 minutes. The website I used was The California Voter Foundation. I am sure that Taz will leave a comment soon that will help you find similar websites for each of your states (although Google might work as well). This website had a brief synopsis of each proposition including a non-partisan analysis and pro and con arguments from each side. It also showed me what prominent figures were for and against each proposition and who the financial backers were. Follow the money.

2) Talk to friends and family about what they think of the issues: Voting is supposed to be fun and build a sense of community. We can practice here on SM if you’d like. Forget all the desi candidates across the country for just a minute. Ballot measures are as important as candidates. Are there any issues local to you that you wish more people knew about? Out here Proposition 87 is the big headline grabber:

Former vice president Al Gore came to Berkeley Monday to support the “Yes on 87” campaign.

Prop. 87 promises to end California’s dependence on foreign oil with cleaner, cheaper alternatives such as wind, solar and biofuels that will improve the economy and reduce air pollution that causes asthma, lung disease and cancer. At the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park rally, Gore emphasized that half of California’s foreign oil comes from the Middle East. [Link]

A couple weeks ago former President Clinton was in town for a Prop 87 rally. My mom really wanted to go see Clinton so we went to the rally.

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“Don” – Paan + Tae Kwon = Long

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Actually, the new Shah Rukh Khan movie Don isn’t as bad as you might expect, given all the negative reviews (for instance). It’s also shaping up to be a box office success.

Farhan Akhtar is probably the most hyped director in the new wave of Bollywood film directors. Though he comes from an old B-wood family (his father Javed co-wrote the script of the original Don), Farhan’s first film, Dil Chahta Hai showed no signs of film dynasty nepotism. Dil Chahta Hai was considered a stylistic breakthrough because of the realistic (well, relatively) plot and its rebellious attitude, and it became an anthem of sorts for the post-liberalization generation. That sense of clarity or mission is missing here: in his remake of Don, Farhan devotes most of his writer-director energy into matching western action flicks, fight-for-fight, and stunt for stunt. On this he succeeds: I liked the first car chase, and I think the skydiving fight scene is probably a first for Bollywood. There is also a certain amount of Kill Bill theatrical viciousness here that’s novel in the Bollywood hero-villain iconography.

What most of the film’s critics have missed, I think, is the basic problem of identity this film symbolizes, a problem which is broader than just this film. Farhan Akhtar seems to be torn between two approaches: on the one hand, he could do a slightly tweaked version of an outdated version of India, from a “disco” gangster movie that wasn’t all that great to begin with. (Yes, I said it.) The upside is you get the warm-and-fuzzy nostalgia atmosphere, but the danger is the mindless perpetuation of the myth of the “glory days” of Bollywood and Amitabh Bachchan, as if we need any more of that. Or: he could make a slick, essentially imported style of action movie, with a few “traditional” songs added to appeal to the folks in UP (the “Mourya Re” and “Khaike Paan Banaraswala” numbers). This film flirts with both but doesn’t fully commit, which shows it fundamentally doesn’t know what it wants to be.

It may be a false choice, but the question continues to nag: will the real, contemporary Indian film aesthetic please stand up? Continue reading →

Brangelina to Adopt India

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I so called this story (thanks, Jai!) a few weeks ago and not one of you Mutineers took me up on the friendly wager…!

Angelina Jolie is adopting an Indian baby to add to her growing international brood, according to US reports.

Sources say the big-hearted actress and partner Brad Pitt have already applied to adopt a tot from an Indian orphanage. An insider said: “They hope to be able to bring the child home by Christmas.[…] She has said: “I want to create a rainbow family. That’s children of different religions and cultures from different countries.” [link]

And the disturbing cherry on top…

The source told US magazine Globe: “Whichever they end up with, they’d like to name the child India to honour its homeland.” The pair are rumoured to have visited the Priva Darshini orphanage in the last month. [link]

Seriously?!?! It’s not like they went around and named the other kids ‘Cambodia’ and ‘Ethiopia.’ How come they get cool names like Maddox, Shiloh and Zahara, and you want to name the desi kid ‘India?’ Like she isn’t going to be teased enough…

I once had this girl in my class, a Latino woman, whose name was Asia. I found it confusing. Now that I think about it, I may have met an India or two in my lifetime and I was always left feeling a little … put off. Being named after a country just never seemed, um, meaningful. But INDIA, really? Brangelina, don’t you think you could name the desi kid something else, while still honoring his birth land? Those poor children will be raised with such identity issues…

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Scary

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Each Friday NPR’s Morning Edition features a StoryCorp Project interview. You may recall that I had previously blogged about an interview between a Sri Lankan American husband and wife. This morning’s interview featured a really cute story (only ~1 minute long) from a Sri Lankan woman who came to the United States in 1969. I recommend that you guys stop reading this post right now and listen to this clip first. For those of you too lazy to follow my recommendation I will give you the lead in below:

Two friends interview each other in Pittsburgh

When Juliet Jegasothy came to the United States from Sri Lanka, she had already heard many stories about what life was like in America.

“We came to America in 1969, we were just newly married, and we came to Brooklyn, New York.” Jegasothy recently told her friend Sheena Jacob.

“I was so terrified to even open the door, because I had heard all these horror stories about crooks, and gangsters, and guns, in New York.“

Jegasothy soon encountered an American tradition that she was not prepared for… [Link]

I realize that I am jumping the gun and that Halloween isn’t until next Tuesday. However, most of you have probably been invited to some Halloween party this weekend (unlike some grad student I know who will be writing alone in his apartment dressed up like a blogger) and if you are a procrastinating slacker like me you could really use some costume advice STAT! After the jump I will provide you with some last minute ideas.

*WARNING* There is some scary sh*t past this point.

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The Karma of Capitalism

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Harvard Business School Ain’t What It Used To Be….

BusinessWeek is currently featuring a story on the purported influx of Desi inspired ideas into cutting edge American capitalism. Paint me a cynic but the piece takes a simplistic view of 1) what really happens in business or 2) what’s really uniquely desi philosophy or 3) both. The result is a mass of ethnic feel-goodness but not enough of a structured explanation to satiate a, uh, cynic like myself.

Our no-doubt well-intentioned writer christens the movement “Karma Capitalism” –

You might also call it Karma Capitalism. For both organizations and individuals, it’s a gentler, more empathetic ethos that resonates in the post-tech-bubble, post-Enron zeitgeist….while it used to be hip in management circles to quote from the sixth century B.C. Chinese classic The Art of War, the trendy ancient Eastern text today is the more introspective Bhagavad Gita.

BizWeek quotes different folks who take stabs at identifying what “it” is –

…One key message is that enlightened leaders should master any impulses or emotions that cloud sound judgment. Good leaders are selfless, take initiative, and focus on their duty rather than obsessing over outcomes or financial gain. “The key point“The key point is to put purpose before self”,” says Ram Charan, a coach to CEOs such as General Electric Co.’s (GE ) Jeffrey R. Immelt, “is to put purpose before self. This is absolutely applicable to corporate leadership today.”

…”The best way to describe it is inclusive capitalism,” says Prahalad, a consultant and University of Michigan professor who ranked third in a recent Times of London poll about the world’s most influential business thinkers. “It’s the idea that corporations can simultaneously create value and social justice.”

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Bollywood Fugly

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A very happy one-week anniversary to “Ugly, Ugly, Bollywood Fugly,” a brand-new and already fabulous blog that aims to chronicle and record for posterity the more egregious cosmetic and sartorial effects of Bollywood film. But of course it’s fabulous: Sepia friends DesiDancer, t-HYPE, and Filmiholic are all involved! Just one week and it’s already a treasure trove of gems like the one above. With material like that, there’s nothing else to say… except for the fantastic captions that our fearless hunters-of-ugly have composed. Welcome! Continue reading →

Brahman Pimped My Site

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An item in the November print issue of Wired drew my attention to the work of Dr. Smita Jain Narang, who has developed WebVastu, a system to design websites in balance and harmony with cosmic principles. According to the article (page 72 in the print edition), “Narang reports that on the 500 sites she’s redesigned, three-quarters received an imediate boost in traffic.” I took a look at Narang’s own site to learn more about this path-breaking technique:

We all know that the five elements that comprise the human and the world are called the “Paanchbhootas”. Similarly every website has its own “paanchbhootas” and a balance has to be maintained to achieve a desired result. Any disturbance in any of the element may result in negative consequences.

This is especially important for commercial sites, as you can imagine. Negative energies are never good for the bottom line:

For the websites to bring business the element in each quadrant must be honored and they should be kept in balance as this creates powerful and beneficial conditions, which draw business towards the owner. On the other hand, an imbalance of the elements can create negative energies, which may have an adverse effect on the websites.

Wired asked Narang, who is 30, to “diagnose one of our spiritual haunts, Slashdot.org,” and her assessment was mixed at best. It scored well for its address and graphics (good Water flow), but poorly on structure (too much Air), lead-off (inauspicious header), page length and footer, which should have been “brown, fawn or copper.”

Copperish colors must be extremely auspicious, as Narang’s own site involves white lettering bathed in a glowing, brown-yellow background that is nearly overwhelming to my bleary morning eyes. Then again, I haven’t been up since 3 AM performing austerities and contemplating the Divine. The site also lacks navigation; perhaps such tools only breed maya, and we must instead move about the site in an organic way. So should you, but if you don’t mind the spiritual shortcuts, here are a few highlights.

WebVastu takes its place in humanity’s long process of spiritual and material advancement:

Man has endeavoured to improve from time immemorial. Starting from the Stone Age to the 21st century, mankind has only improved and is keeping their step toward modernisation. But as we are becoming modern we are leaving our culture far behind and are overburdened by sorrows, unhappiness, mental tensions and what not. Thus all kinds of sufferings are taking place in the life and in order to get all the things back, we are trying to follow the path showed by our ancestors. In my book I have tried to formulate some principles for designing the websites on the fundamentals of Vastu science, so that the person can achieve the maximum benefit in totality.

I am only trying to smoothen the people business by making it more harmonious and thereby having gradual increase through websites. Destiny always prevails, but by implementing the Vastu concepts, one can enhance the business provided by websites. Therefore, it is advisable to follow Vastu to open the gates to a happy and prosperous life.

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All religions suck … except Jainism

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Militant atheist Sam Harris has been making quite a stir lately with his best-selling polemics against religion and his in-your-face public appearances:

… [while] debating a former priest before a packed auditorium… he condemns the God of the Old Testament for a host of sins, including support for slavery. He drop-kicks the New Testament, likening the story of Jesus to a fairy tale. He savages the Koran, calling it “a manifesto for religious divisiveness…” [Link]

He goes beyond the usual attacks on fundamentalists to attack moderates for being “enablers” and apologists for more extreme actions:

Religious moderates, Harris says in his patient and imperturbable style, have immunized religion from rational discussion by nurturing the idea that faith is so personal and private that it is beyond criticism, even when horrific crimes are committed in its name. [Link]

He sees all religion as fundamentally dangerous, especially in the post 9/11 world:

… he demonstrates the behavior he believes atheists should adopt when talking with Christians. “Nonbelievers like myself stand beside you,” he writes, addressing his imaginary opponent, “dumbstruck by the Muslim hordes who chant death to whole nations of the living. But we stand dumbstruck by you as well – by your denial of tangible reality, by the suffering you create in service to your religious myths, and by your attachment to an imaginary God…” [Link]

The worst part, Harris says, is this: Because Christians and Jews cling to their “delusions,” they are in no position to criticize Muslims for theirs. And, as he italicizes it in his new book for maximum effect, ” most Muslims are utterly deranged by their religious faith. ” [Italics his] [Link]

Despite his deep and abiding enmity to all religions, he finds one acceptable:

He endorses Jainism, a religion-philosophy from India that finds God in the unchanging traits of the human soul. But everyone who organizes his or her life around an ancient text that purports to convey the words and sentiments of God — Harris would like you to surrender your prayers, history and traditions. You are welcome to check out Jainism, but Harris recommends that you accept his conclusion, which is that we live in a universe without God. Deal with it. [Link]
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