Ritu Beri: Help Me Understand

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I read this article: “We Have No International Designers” in the Times of India.

First, I was annoyed that Ritu Beri seems to be chasing the ideals of a postmodern colonialist landscape.

The West doesn’t even recognise the Indian fashion industry, just individual designers…

Then, I felt like she might have a point…

In fact, Ritu feels that the West wants fashion with a distinct Indian edge from us. “We should restrict ourselves to Indian wear because we do that best…”

Then, I was annoyed again:

Her take on the Indian fashion weeks is also quite dismal. “Indian fashion weeks will not take the industry anywhere as we don’t exactly know what is happening outside our four walls…”

Then I wondered why I’m ever surprised that India still gets so exotified by the West for its spiritual swamijis and silken sensuality and, now, ruffled cotton petticoats:

So, that’s why Ritu herself prefers phoren to Indian fashion weeks. “For them, India is a very exotic land. From spirituality to people – everything attracts them. For them, even a petticoat and a saree is Indian fashion,”says Ritu.

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India’s only world cup (dis)appearance

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India did make it to the world cup, once. Kind of. Well, not really:

No, don’t rub your eyes in disbelief. India did make it to the 1950 World Cup finals. Well sort of. Four countries from Asia were invited to participate in the qualifiers. Burma, Philippines and Indonesia all withdrew, so India qualified automatically.

India was placed in Group 3 with Sweden, Italy, and Paraguay. But their request to play barefoot was turned down by FIFA and they withdrew! [Link]

Sadly, this was back in the hey day of Indian Soccer, too. Until some South Asian team makes it to the world cup, we’ve always got Vikas Dhorasoo and his action figures, right?

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Sometimes the material just writes itself

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joliebrownkids.jpg

Tonight on CNN: Doctor Sanjay Gupta on refugee health concerns, Christiane Amanpour on poverty and famine, Jeff Koinange on refugee camps, and, uh, this:

“We don’t know which — which country. But we’re looking at different countries. And we’re — I’m just– it’s gonna be the balance of what would be the best for Mad and for Z right now. It’s, you know, another boy, another girl, which country, which race would fit best with the kids,” she said, referring to her adopted children.

The Jolie interview will air Tuesday as part of CNN’s entire day of programming devoted to World Refugee Day.

Hmmm… The tsunami is so 2004, and those earthquake villages are kind of hard to reach. Still, can’t you imagine a darling little wheatish tyke amid the United Colors of Brangelina? We can always dream. Continue reading →

Where can I get…

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You’d be surprised at how often we get these kinds of questions come in over our “Contact Line.”

Message:

hey where did you buy the vikash dhorasoo jersey from? i’ve been looking for it everywhere

What do we look like…Google? Someone want to help this dude out? In the meantime I have another item that may interest Vikash Dhorasoo (a.k.a The Great Brown Hope) fans. The official Dhorasoo action figure from his regular team Paris Saint-Germain:

Now I know it may not look exactly like him. The skin color should be darker. But who really cares? A few years ago I actually looked into making bobble-head dolls and action figures of me. I thought, “what a great gift to give to friends.” Who couldn’t use a bobble-head Abhi to kick around? My action figure would have been extra-muscular though. And I’d finally have perfect hair. You have to buy in bulk though and I just don’t have that many friends.

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Art and Friction

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This is the most kickin’ weekend of the entire year to be in Los Angeles if you love desi arts. I have already told you that Artwallah is THIS Saturday. You should be buying your ticket now in case it sells out (note: the after-party on Saturday is NOT sold out despite what the website says and goes until 5 a.m…and so will I). If you are a student then I’d recommend that you volunteer for a few hours to get a massive discount.

The weekend kicks off this Friday night with a little bit of a British Invasion. BBC Radio 1’s own Bobby Friction will be in Los Angeles hosting a kickoff party with Artwallah and for Project Ahimsa at the Standard on Sunset Blvd. For those of you who haven’t heard Bobby Friction and his partner DJ Nihal spin, you can listen to their latest shows online.

Sajit has covered the duo before on his own blog. Here is a snippet from the 2004 article that Sajit cites:

The fact that Friction and Nihal’s show has a primetime slot on national radio also speaks volumes for the rising profile of British Asian culture. A few years ago it would have been unthinkable to hear a Radio 1 DJ play an unreleased bhangra track to a nationwide audience. Then, in 2003, Panjabi MC’s Mundian To Bach Ke, with its sample from the theme tune to Knight Rider, became a national hit. A huge and vibrant culture, that had hitherto remained isolated, was exposed to the wider world…

While Friction grew up in an Asian community in Hounslow, Nihal was the only non-white pupil at his comprehensive school at Chelmsford, Essex. He found a sense of belonging in hip-hop culture. “When I was a teenager in the mid-80s it was fashionable to be a racist skinhead,” says Nihal. “Hip-hop completely saved me, because within a couple of years it was cool to have brown skin and be into hip-hop. Almost overnight I went from being a geeky Asian kid, who people called a Paki for no apparent reason, to being someone who people wanted in their crew to help them tag the sides of buses…” [Link]

The tunes they will be spinning should be very new to most people that represent on Friday. I’m going of course.

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Female Infanticide + $$$ + Orwellian Recalibration = Designer Babies

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If anyone was wondering what exactly it takes to transform female infanticide from the morally judgmental, ethically reprehensible “evils of sex selection” into a kinder, gentler “medical tourism for designer babies,” this week — somewhere between the crossed wires of the Associated Press and the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer — we had the answer printed for us in black-and-white typeface on crisp, clean newsprint:

$20,000

:::Insert eyeroll here::: Continue reading →

It’s time once again for our pledge drive

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Dear SM Readers,

It is time once again for us bloggers at Sepia Mutiny to extend our empty cups and ask for donations to keep this website running. Remember, every time you visit our site it costs us money. We have recently purchased a dedicated server because we plan on greatly expanding our services. Just be patient a while longer and we will start to slowly roll out new features one at a time. The master plan is top secret right now but has been codenamed Operation Sepia Utopia.

Much like NPR and PBS hold an annual pledge drive, we are asking you to donate whatever you can via our Paypal link. If you don’t want to use Paypal but rather mail in a check then contact us for a mailing address. Donations will keep our website ad-free and distraction-free. The thermometer on the sidebar will disappear once we have met our goal of a $1000 for the next year of service. If enough of you give just a few dollars we might be able to meet our goal in under a week. Thanks in advance everyone! As you can see in the pictures below, we have a lot of supporters rooting for us.

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Global warming withers Shiva lingam

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Not long ago Abhi, fresh from watching Al Gore’s documentary, alerted us to the consequences of global warming for the subcontinent. And they are as dire as he predicted. In a crisis that has mobilized India’s High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) and Snow and Avalanche Studies Establishment (SASE), the Shiva lingam at Amarnath has failed to form this year. The glacier cover of the cave has receded by 100 meters, and there has been insufficient snowfall. At the onset of the annual pilgrimage season, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims trek up to the cave to see the lingam, temple officials faced a major problem. Consider the two pictures below. The first shows the lingam in a normal year. The second shows the lingam site on May 6, 2006:

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But when pilgrims and journalists arrived, a full five-foot lingam had mysteriously appeared in place even though there had been no snowfall. It was immediately evident that this lingam was a crude fake:

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Jharkhand minister gives power to the people

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mahto.jpgYesterday Sudesh Mahto (pictured), the home minister of Jharkhand, wed fiancee Neha, a law student, in her home village of Dimbudih. The “VVIPs” were out in force:

Many of the ‘Who’s who’ of the state along with some of the political bigwigs of the country including Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad [Yadav] and senior BJP leader L K Advani graced the occasion but, Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda did not attend the function as he was indisposed.

State Road Construction officials worked overtime to construct new roads, Energy Department employees erected electric poles, intelligence sleuths and senior police personnel made tight security arrangements at the venue, which falls in the Naxal-infested zone, with STF jawans keeping a hawk eye vigil.

The festivities, which continue tomorrow with a reception for 50,000 in Mahto’s village Lagam, have brought a flurry of rural development activity to the area. To accommodate the minister’s 300-vehicle motorcade, an all-weather road was constructed between the two hamlets. Places along the route have received electricity for the first time.

‘Thanks to the marriage of the minister our village got connected with roads and we saw electricity,’ said Ganesh Mahto, a resident of Silli.

The villagers are happy for more than one reason. Besides roads and power, many have also got short-term employment thanks to the construction work. Incidentally, the home minister is also in charge of road and construction, so there was no problem in getting funds.

‘We had been making rounds of offices to get electricity connection for the past decade. But the minister’s marriage brought electricity to the village,’ said another villager.

Indeed, the wedding has alerted villagers to a whole new development strategy:

But the best part of the marriage was the glittering, almost blinding electric lights, which villagers saw for the first time since Independence. “May every daughter of this village be married to a VIP,” prayed one of them.

The villagers should not to count on those lights glittering too often. Jharkhand’s power situation is dire. The state electricity board is mired in dispute over reforms, and its two thermal plants generate no more than 10% of their installed capacity. Even importing power from outside, Jharkhand is plagued with power cuts.

Then again, Mahto, a former footballer, has also vowed to “wipe out Naxalism through games and sports.” So perhaps he has an integrated theory of social progress, not just an over-reliance on pixie dust. Social scientists would be wise to stay on the case. Continue reading →

Why you should be nice to call center workers

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This week’s edition of Time Magazine includes a cover story about the world’s next great economic superpower: India (via the News Tab). The cover features a worker from the industry that Americans are most familiar with. She is a representative from the ranks of those much abused call center workers. Similar to Manish’s fine entry, The Anatomy of a genre, I thought I’d take a shot at examing the nuances of this cover picture.

The next time a call center worker calls me about signing up with the Dish Network, I am going to pay a lot more attention…and flirt a little.
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