Beer Drinking Desi

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The first time I saw the poster, I had just walked out of work and saw the ridiculousness of it all on the bus stop kiosk. “Great.” I muttered to myself. “Another frat boy comedy.” Than I looked a little closer and saw that the main face dead center in the sea of beer was in fact (un)typical and desi. “Great…”
Yes, I am talking about Beerfest, now playing at a theatre near you.

Seriously? A desi in a frat boy comedy around beer competition? Why, it’s almost like a desi in a frat boy comedy around marijuana! The desi in this movie, Jay Chandrasekhar, is who I’m talking about and it looks like he is doing it all; starring, directing, writing and producing for Beerfest. We’ve seen Chandrasekhar’s directing before with the movies The Dukes of Hazard and Super Troopers.

I wasn’t planning on watching it but that will not stop me from reviewing the movie for you.

When their great grandmother asks them to return their grandfather’s ashes to the old country, Jan (Paul Soter) and Todd (Erik Stolhanske) Wolfhouse jump at the opportunity. It doesn’t hurt that the trip would take them to Germany during Oktoberfest… What Jan and Todd find is a secret competition in which all of the world’s greatest beer gamers and beer drinkers compete for glory: Beerfest. [link]

Director Jay Chandrasekhar (who also stars as Barry, the hustler) has plenty of good ideas to bounce into his cinematic glass but, at several points, they become too much. What seems like a “Saturday Night Live” skits winds up as “Long Day’s Journey into Night.”…Easily, “Beerfest” is an acquired taste. If you’re not into this kind of comedy, you won’t find the film intoxicating. If you are, drink up [link]

Beerfest is a movie that is funny when it goes for outrageous and farcical, but tedious when it displays the originality of a Kevin Federline rap. [link]

Ouch, a Federline diss. Read more reviews of catch-phrase critics here, watch a red carpet interview with Jay here, and Manish at Ultrabrown compiles some more reviews here. But in all my searching, I haven’t read any other desi perspectives on this movie on the blogrolls. Mutineers, have you seen the movie? What do you think? And of course, is it really a step forward for desis in Hollywood if instead of being typecasted as terrorists and silent head henchmen, we have a role like the one on Beerfest?

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Reminder: SF Meetup TOMORROW, 4pm

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Last night, I held a meetup of my own at Enoteca Viansa (yes, Kingsley darling, you can totally say it…it’s not like it’s Malayalam or something difficult). Fortunately for me, a few of my closest wessside friends indulged my greedy desire for their Thursday evening– if it wasn’t clear to them before, I now heart Salil/Jay/SJM, MP, Kingsley and of course, mutineer Vinod even more. Viansa makes my favorite non-cab red ever, so I’ve always wanted to check out their somewhat random Napa-esque tasting room in the city; a refined time was had by all and at no point were the words “sodomy”, “that skank who cheated on you”, “dry hump” or “back channel communication” uttered, though there was some mention of “the futility experiment”, which was M’s kind way of characterizing my prospects for reproductive success. We poured some out for my forlorn alleles and then called it a night. Don’t fret, I wasn’t two-timing you…it was a pre-meetup before tomorrow’s hotness, if you will.

Speaking of 20+ hours from now, we will not be swirling or checking out the legs on anything other than shorts/miniskirt-clad mutineers– we’re meeting at Greco, which is good for espresso, not dolcettos.

Just down the street from that obnoxious Pimps of Rome spot, Greco has Razib’s AND my seal of approval. Do explore it for yourselves, so that we may fatten the Sepia Flickr group and make merry in North Beach on a Saturday afternoon. See you at 4pm, you back-channel-loving perverts (I can totally say that, because Salil, Vinod and I are going to be there).

NB: Not to spook or guilt you or anything, but this may be a certain mutineer’s last appearance at a meetup… 😮


When: Saturday, September 4pm
Who: You
Where: 423 Columbus Ave Continue reading →

Conversions

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Two Fox News Reporters were recently forced to convert to Islam as part of negotiating their release from Palestinian captors (the other part of the package was a monetary ransom paid in American dollars, said to be in the six figures). In the video they made of the event, the captors made the bizarre claim that the conversions weren’t under duress. Yeah, right. (Interesting Slate.com essay on this here)

That surreal spectacle led to an interesting column in the Wall Street Journal by David Aikman, where he mentions India in conjunction:

Under the sheltering wing of the First Amendment and a core civic belief that religious faith is a private matter and a private choice, religious Americans have overwhelmingly made the selection of their private faith as normal as choosing a breakfast cereal. Sometimes the selection seems to be as inconsequential as well. . . .

In the Hindu and Islamic worlds, the conscious choice by someone of a new religious conviction is very serious business. There are family pressures to overcome, community prejudices and, often enough, threats of violence if a conversion is actually made. Even in India, where there is a strong legal tradition since British times of religious freedom, advocates of Hindutva (“Hinduness”) do everything possible to prevent people defecting from Hinduism to join other faiths. In much of the Islamic world it is technically a capital offense under Sharia, or Muslim religious law, to change one’s faith. But even if it weren’t, the prevailing response to a suggestion to alter one’s religion would be: “Why would I want to?” (link)

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Mixed Messages, Part I: Gettin’ Down with the Brown

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For many of us this site is a place where we can explore the desi experience, not just as it plays out in news or culture, but also on a personal level. As a community we are coherent but not cohesive, united by a diasporic experience but keen to its many variations. What it means to be desi is still very much under negotiation, which is good: it means that we haven’t congealed, nor been taken over by ideological disputes or anointed leaders. This, combined with tools like the Internet which previous diasporas did not enjoy, has helped to keep the conversation open, generally productive, and most important of all, conducive to sharing personal experience.

babymacaca.jpgFor some of us, the idea of being desi comes with self-questioning built in, because we are of mixed race and ethnicity, products of unions where one partner was desi, the other not. I know there are a lot of people who read this site who belong to this group, and many more who are having, or are likely to have, mixed children. Among the regulars here who identify as both mixed and desi, the most outspoken in the past year have been DesiDancer and myself in the U.S. as well as Bong Breaker in the U.K.

Recently DesiDancer (portrayed here as a young macaca) and I began a conversation that aims to explore the experience of being a mixed desi in America today. It is also a blog experiment: A different format than usual, and a new way of engaging the many people here who have been so generous and thoughtful in sharing their stories. We are corresponding by IM and editing the transcripts for coherence and pace. And by making it a series, we can absorb your responses to each instalment as we prepare the next.

Today, in “Gettin’ Down with the Brown,” we talk about how we came to identify as desi when we had the choice of not doing so. Later we’ll discuss the ways we — and others — live, deploy, engage our “desi” and “mixed” identities in the world today. Whether you are mixed yourself, or the (potential) parent of mixed kids, or neither, your responses will help shape the discussion. (You may also share thoughts in confidence with either of us.)

So, here goes: Continue reading →

A Little Xenophobic Nastiness from Sen. Conrad Burns

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Conrad Burns, Republican Senator from Montana, recently said the following:

Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, whose recent comments have stirred controversy, says the United States is up against a faceless enemy of terrorists who “drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night.”(link)

Looks like a garden variety anti-immigrant slur — they seem to be coming hot and heavy this year (the theme this campaign season seems to be brown-baiting: Latinos and Middle Easterners/South Asians). I suppose it would be possible to say, “well, he’s just talking about terrorism, he never said ‘immigrants’ or ‘South Asian immigrants.'” First, as far as I know no taxi driver is currently being accused of a connection to terrorism, so he’s not literally talking about taxi drivers, but the types of jobs working class immigrants usually start off with when they reach the U.S. Second, this is in fact a slur because it attempts to demonize those same immigrants by lumping them (us) in with genuine threats to American democracy. According to Conrad Burns’ thinking, immigration is terrorism. Wonkette says it with admirable succinctness: “Racist and Insane!”

By the way, it’s not the only WTF caliber comment Senator Burns has made recently:

He has drawn criticism in recent weeks for calling his house painter a “nice little Guatemalan man” during a June speech. Burns, whose re-election campaign is pressing for tighter immigration controls, also suggested that the man might be an illegal immigrant. The campaign later said the worker is legal.(link)

Hm, I think I might go give my $25 to Jon Tester for Senate. Apparently it’s a close race; I vote we Macacatinate** him.

**Macacatinate: (v.) to inflict a mutinous, internet-based critique than can cause poll numbers to shift once the mainstream media grabs hold of it. Continue reading →

Los Angeles End-Of-Summer-Blowout Meetup

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Seems like everyone else got one. DC got one a couple of weeks ago. Even the Bay Area is getting one this weekend. Except for us. What about us? It’s been months since our last one. It was all I needed to make my summer vacation the best summer vacation ever.

Well as Sepia Mutiny Temporary Super Star, I’m here to change things around.

You KNOW you just want to go to a meetup with us. Come on, all the cool mutineers are doing it…

It’s time for the Sepia Mutiny Los Angeles End-Of-Summer-Blowout MEET UP!

YAY!

I can hardly wait. Unlike L.A.’s last meetup, we are going to shift things around. It will be evening-ish (7:00 pm). And it will be at a Bar. Being the electoral advocate that I am, I will let the Los Angeles Bloggers/Commenters/Lurkers have a couple of votes:

1.) Friday, September 15th or Saturday, September 16th?

2.) Someplace downtown (Golden Gopher) or on the westside (Palomino Euro Bistro)?

Please RSVP and vote in the comment section what day would be best for you, and which “side” you prefer. My personal vote is for Friday night at Golden Gopher. But I’m willing to compromise, especially if it means that one of the following folks can come: Abhi, Shruti, Janani, VMN Rao, Ami, Rajan, Ani, Payal, Anjali, Vivek, Mad Guru, Arun, Rohit, Rahul, and Lata. And of course, I’m sure there are plenty more Los Angeles readers that I’ve left off who are of course, strongly urged to make an appearance.

There will be a prize for the mutineer With the Longest Drive to come to the meetup- is anyone coming from The OC or The Valley? Prizes will be also be distributed for Best Dressed and Funniest Macaca Joke- it’ll be like our own mutinous awards ceremony- tis the season afterall. I’ll tantalize you even further because, just like the at the Emmys, no one will turn away from our event without an infamous goody bag. We’re going to have to tax you on that though. Come on now, how can you pass up on coming to a meetup like that?

Yup, that’s what I thought. We’ll be seeing YOU at the Los Angeles End-Of-Summer-Blowout Meetup!

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That invisible stuff and…The End

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According to an account of the Hindu mythology, Hiranyagarbha, meaning the golden womb, is the source of the creation of the universe. It is one of the Vedic myths which explain the origin and the creation of the cosmos and the universe. The legend states that the Hiranyagarbha floated around in water in the emptiness and the darkness of the non-existence for about a year, and then broke into two halves which formed the Swarga and the Prithvi, and most likely other parts of the universe. It is believed that Brahma was born from the Hiranyagarbha. [Link]

It has been way too long since we have had a nerdy science post to get everyone’s juices flowing. An article this past week in Science Magazine gives us hope that cosmologists are getting closer to understanding where it all came from and where it all might be headed. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory, named for Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, captured images of a smoking gun. Via Science (subscription required):

This composite image shows the galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, also known as the “bullet cluster.” This cluster was formed after the collision of two large clusters of galaxies, the most energetic event known in the universe since the Big Bang.

A fantastically energetic collision between clusters of galaxies has demolished a challenge to the law of gravity, providing the clearest evidence yet for the existence of intergalactic dark matter.

For decades, astronomers have inferred that unseen matter lurks within and between galaxies. Luminous stars alone, they realized, don’t exert enough gravitational force to explain how individual galaxies spin and clusters of galaxies clump together. Something invisible must be pulling, too.

Some of the extra matter in galactic clusters is just hot gas. But even more mass seems to exist in the form of “nonbaryonic” dark matter, made of something other than ordinary atoms.

A few holdouts have insisted that the observations could be explained by modifying the law of gravity at great distances. But a new result from the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite offers clear-cut evidence that dark matter really does infuse galactic clusters. “It demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that dark matter exists,” says Sean Carroll, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago, Illinois, not involved in the study. [Link]

I love that there is an invisible physical force (that should be therefore measurable) out there that is stronger than gravity and yet remains invisible to detection by us except by inference. Its just a good mystery (which we all need once in a while). Continue reading →

Indra Lal Roy, WWI Fighting Ace

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indra lal roy.jpgA bit of military history trivia for the history buffs…

This afternoon I got an email from someone doing research on a World War I fighter pilot named Indra Lal Roy.

Unsurprisingly, I knew nothing about the subject, but through a little digging I did come across a couple of pages in a book called Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History by Rozina Visram that has a couple of pages on Indra Lal Roy. It turns out the interesting thing isn’t that he fought in the war — in fact, there were thousands of Indians on the western front — but that he managed to get into the elite Royal Flying Corps (RFC). He was one of only four, and (at least on the internet) he is the only thing about which anything is concretely known: Continue reading →

IMPORTANT: SF Meetup…rescheduled?

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A few weeks ago, I put up a monster meetup post outlining social possibilities for my three cities: NY, DC and SF. New York’s Summerstage meetup (soundtrack provided by Talvin Singh…sort of) was epic, DC’s was private and fabulous and San Francisco…um…gosh, this is awkward. It’s not you, it’s me. 😉 Two out of three ain’t bad…

Here’s the story, morning glories: originally, I was supposed to be in Baghdad-by-the-bay for the entire beginning of September, from the first through the tenth. We planned a meetup on the 9th and it was good. Unfortunately, we may have to rethink that thought. I landed in heaven Northern California at 11pm yesterday and I’m leaving on Tuesday. Which means that on the 9th, I’ll be in DC, probably at work. We have two options:

1) Meet tomorrow evening (spontaneous! edgy! unpredictable! fun!), since I will be in the city all day.

2) Meet sometime this weekend, i.e. Saturday or Sunday. I had assumed that all of you international bright young things would be out of town because of the holiday, but I’ve heard from a few of you (coincidentally, all my favorite peeps) that I am quite wrong, that you WILL in fact be right here in the bay. Goody!

What do you want to do? Pipe up or forever hold your mattar.

Oh, and because I feel terrible about this calendar cluster #>@%, I’m letting you see a picture which was taken a few days before the LAST SF meetup I hosted; it was never supposed to go public, since it shows two mutineers wackily impersonating an uncle and an auntie…well, that and it’s someone’s proof. Peek the illicit photo after the jump. 😉 Continue reading →

A Dosa and a Dream

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I can’t begin a food post without sharing an experience from a few nights ago. A group of us had dinner at Indus Valley, a reasonably well-regarded desi restaurant at 100th and Broadway in New York. At some point the composer Philip Glass walked in, and one of our group, a big fan, went into a state of beatific darshan that threatened to destabilize our meal. It got worse when Glass and his companion sat at the table next to ours. My fellow diner was finally able to compose himself, give Glass props, and return to getting our eat on.

Suddenly another of my companions let out a piercing yell and pushed back from the table with great speed. Yes, there was a big old cockroach crawling up the tablecloth — not the short dark ones you often see in NYC kitchens, but a tropical-quality beast, two or three inches long (though not the flying kind). A minor tamasha ensued, during which Philip Glass turned to me and said, with an air of wisdom, “Don’t worry, they have very small appetites.”

Cockroaches happen; celebrity sightings happen too. But what was truly shocking was that the macacas brothers running the restaurant did not comp us even a round of drinks or dessert, let alone a meal, in recognition of the disgusting insect experience. I guess it shouldn’t have surprised us, seeing that they were already trying to seat a couple at a nearby two-top while the cockroach hunt was still on, but come on, what the hell kind of restaurant management is that? So, folks, if you go to Indus Valley at 100th and Broadway, watch out for big-ass cockroaches and don’t expect a discount.

Which brings me to the subject at hand. Perhaps in response to a desi dining landscape that, except in a few fortunate neighborhoods and towns, consists of the same old slop doled out from the same buffets, plus a few “nice” places that look fancy but aren’t necessarily up to snuff in the hygiene department, the idea of desi fast food — cheap, standardized and franchised — becomes a more and more compelling alternative.

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