Code jock

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At age nine, Arfa Randhawa from Faisalabad, Pakistan, became the youngest person ever to pass a Microsoft certification exam in programming (via Slashdot):

Sitting down for a personal meeting with Bill Gates this week, 10-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa asked the Microsoft founder why the company doesn’t hire people her age…

She has created basic Windows applications, such as a calculator and a sorting program, primarily in the C# programming language… The institute instructors assumed it would take Arfa about a year to go through the process of certification for developing Windows applications. But after four months… she passed the required exams….

“I saw her doing something extraordinary, making presentations,” said her father, Amjad Karim, who serves with a U.N. peacekeeping force in Africa and came with his daughter to Microsoft this week… he first noticed something unusual when she started displaying a remarkable memory, perhaps photographic, at a young age…

Later in the afternoon, she sat outside with S. “Soma” Somasegar, a Microsoft corporate vice president, and described her vision for a self-navigating car. [Link]

BillG evinced some curiosity:

… he asked her at what age Muslim women start wearing the “Hijab”… Arfa… extended an invitation to him to visit… The Microsoft chief reportedly accepted the invitation and said that he would visit Pakistan in the near future. [Link]

Arfa says she wants to build satellites or software. She has stiff competition in Mridul Seth of Bangalore, who at age eight became the youngest to pass the Microsoft system admin exam.

Somasegar blogged their meeting here. Related post here.

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“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 →

Desi finally corrupts Hollywood

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The guy who played Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard complains that the new Dukes movie has too much humpin’ ‘n cussin’:

“… to take a classic family show and do that is like taking ‘I Love Lucy’ and making her a crackhead or something…” [Link]

“… the “Dukes” movie is a sleazy insult to all of us who have cared about the “Dukes of Hazzard” for so long… I think the whole project shows an arrogant disrespect for our show, for our cast, for America’s families, and for the sensibilities of the heartland of our country… Sure it bothers me that they wanted nothing to do with the cast of our show, but what bothers me much more is the profanity laced script with blatant sexual situations that mocks the good clean family values of our series.” [Link]

Cooter then took a big bite of apple pie, saluted the flag, and then rolled himself back underneath a replica of the General Lee. [Link]

Good clean family values? These good clean family values? 🙂

Cooter says the song ‘Dazzy Dukes’ is a church hymn, cameltoe is what you find on a dromedary, and Bo and Luke’s ass-tight jeans are heartland values. So director Jay Chandrasekhar, stoner flick impresario, is now officially the first desi to corrupt Hollywood. And he’s Tamil, no less.

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Here’s to you, Mrs…William

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All right, stop what you’re doing, ’cause I’m about to ruin…the substance and the style that you’re used to… 😉 Kindly allow me get your mind off that toxic Us vs. Them, anti-ABCD debate. Instead of feeding trolls, peep THIS Hindustan Times article with shotacon overtones :

A 45-year-old Indian woman who operated a telephone sex service has been jailed for five years for seducing a 16-year-old boy, a report said on Wednesday.
Persis William was also fined 2,000 rupees (46 dollars) for having “illicit intercourse with a minor” and using him for “immoral purposes” in a house in Mumbai, a leading newspaper said.

The impressionable youth first called the sex line in 2000. After several months of chee-chee talk, the pervy Mrs. William upgraded from phone call to booty call. Or…perhaps “sugar momma” would be a more apposite term:

She gave him a gold chain, a shirt and three pairs of jeans. The boy stayed with her for 16 days during which time they had sexual intercourse, the newspaper said.

When the boy’s concerned parents contacted the authorities about their missing son, the police found him with his Ephebophiliac lovah. Now before you flame-broil me over it…yes, yes…I feel mildly guilty for my amusement at this story, because if the genders were reversed, I surely would’ve raised an arch. Still, if you think I’m depraved for that inexcusable double-standard, then just remember– I once voted and worked for the GOP. Now that’s some hard-core evil, right thurr. 😉 Continue reading →

Love is heroic

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prem.jpg When I was in Chicago for the fourth of July holiday, I made my first (and most assuredly not last) pilgrimage to Devon Avenue. I got there early, scouted the boutiques and took pictures of anything that caught my attention. Still, despite my attempts to take it all in, I almost missed the most significant thing I ended up seeing that saturday– the small brown sign that read “Gandhi Marg”, to the left of the regular “W Devon Ave” designation.

This may seem like an odd thing to be fascinated by, but in my defense, I’ve never seen an American street that was named after someone desi. To me, it was a big deal. I remember feeling a distinct sort of awe while gazing at that very official metal rectangle. If I go to Edison, NJ, and visit the intersection of Oak Tree Road and Wood Avenue, I will be overwhelmed there, too.

Four years after 57-year-old structural engineer Prem N Jerath died in the 9/11 terror attacks while saving a fellow worker’s life, a street here has been named after him…
“This corner reflects him. We chose this place because earlier we used to live around here. We passed from here everyday; even now I pass from here. I will get a chance to see this every day,” Meena Jerath, widow of the deceased said.

Edison City Councilman Parag Patel dedicated the intersection to Jerath, as the honoree’s family and friends looked on. Jerath’s widow thought the gesture was “touching”. I think it is as well. I also can’t think of a better person to celebrate:

Meena said her husband was always helping others. She said he lost his life while trying to help a person on whose leg a wall had fallen.
“He was helping him to go back to office and call for help…but…they didn’t realise the scope of the situation.”

In the Greek Orthodox church, we take the act of remembrance seriously; the chant that is sung at memorial services is “May his/her memory be eternal.” Prem Jerath was an engineer who worked for the Port Authority on the 82nd floor of Tower 1. Without hesitation, he sacrificed his own life for another’s. Such selfless love should be remembered forever.

As I mourn newly-stolen victims of terror, celebrating this life which was also lost in a senseless act of hatred provides me with a tiny bit of comfort. If I ever visit Edison (haven’t yet), I’m taking a picture of that intersection, for an everlasting reminder of Love. 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.

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My son the fanatic

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londonbomber.jpg

Following the comment thread on my last post it quickly became apparent that folks were going to fixate on the wrong labels and thereby detract from the more important discussion that needs to take place. “They weren’t South Asian, they were Pakistani.” “They weren’t Pakistani, they were Kashmiris.” “There is no such thing as South Asian.”

Allow me to propose that we put semantics aside to focus on the one label that really matters. There is one label that we can hopefully all agree on: They were Second-generation. Born and raised in a western country with all the freedoms and opportunities they could want. In this instance the pejorative “confused” really does apply.

When I was a child my mother told me a story that her mother had told her. I can only re-tell the story as it was told to me:

“Once when mami was young she was at a train station. There was a strange man there who simply looked at her and hypnotized her. The man was a Fakir. She followed him unable to control herself as he led her away. Fakir’s have magical powers. Really Abhi (I was shaking my head in disbelief). They are Muslim and they kidnap and convert you to Islam. Luckily the family got her back before she walked too far off. She didn’t remember anything that happened afterward and said she couldn’t control herself. A Fakir can just look at you and you’ll forget everything, your whole life.

Now bear in mind that my family is from Gujarat, where bigotry has persisted for generations. My mom is not a bigot but she believed (and still does) that a Fakir has mystical powers that can brainwash a normal person and get them to walk away from their life and convert to Islam (even though not all Fakirs are Muslim and the Sufi order is the least fundamental). I actually asked her to tell me this story again when I went home just last month.

Most of us know at least one person that is a “born-again” into some religion. Various things motivate these people. Many of them (like at least one of these bombers) were described as being out-of-control before their conversion (or re-discovery of their family religion). Others feel overwhelmed by the influence of the world they live in and retreat back to a basic set of instructions that they think will bring order to the chaos they feel. Some take this “order” too far by trying to impose their interpretation of that order on others. Most born-agains however are perfectly sane and choose to practice their new beliefs in private without a harmful thought toward anyone. How do we recognize in our second generation peers which path they have chosen to walk? Continue reading →

Desi victims of the London bombings

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Confirmed desi victims of the London bombings (via DBS):

Bank worker Shahara Islam, 20, was travelling towards Liverpool Street on the Tube on her way to work at [Angel station]. She is British, of Bengali origin. The family are practising Muslims. Her uncle Nazmul Hasan, 25, said: “We are absolutely desperate. Her father has broken down several times but has spent hours at all the hospitals searching for her. “The bizarre thing is that I missed a call from her at 9.45am yesterday, approximately an hour after the explosion (near Liverpool Street) went off.” [Link]

Her mother Romena is riddled with guilt because she insisted her daughter should go to work on that fateful day even though she was a little reluctant. Shahera wanted to take the day off because she had an appointment with her dentist in the afternoon. [Link]

… Islam… was a model Muslim and attended the mosque every Friday. [Link]

Shyanuja Parathasangary, 30, has not been seen by her parents since she left the home they share in Kensal Rise on Thursday morning to go to work. Her mother, Ruth, said she boarded a train at Kensal Green at 8.55am and arrived at Euston station at 9.08am. Mrs Parathasangary believes her daughter may have then got on the route 30 bus to take her to work at the Royal Mail offices in Alder Street. She said: “She did not say anything when she left, she just gave me a sweet smile.” [Link]

Still unconfirmed:

IT worker Neetu Jain, 38, is also feared dead in the No 30 blast. She had been evacuated from Euston station and caught a bus. She made a mobile call 10 minutes before the explosion. Her Muslim boyfriend Gous Ali, 32, said: “Neetu is a very spiritual, down-to-earth, loving person and she would not hurt anybody. Her family are of Indian origin but she is British and she embraces all faiths and cultures. I am a Muslim but nowhere in the Islam of the Koran does it say that this is acceptable…” [Link]

Jain apparently narrowly escaped a subway bomb only to succumb to the bus bomb:

It is ironic that the 37-year-old computer analyst, who could not take the tube as she was evacuated from the Euston Tube Station, decided to take a bus. She never reached her office. [Link]

Here are photos of all the missing.

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One-Track Uncle

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When growing up desi, you learn through painful experience to avoid One-Track Uncle at family parties. Whether it’s the greatness of fifth-century India, the importance of religion, American politics or the problem with ‘yooth’ these days, One-Track Uncle has a favorite harangue which he’s made his own soliloquy. And there are usually several of them at a party. With a little samosa and a little beer, you can usually get a circle of uncles launching monologues at each other and pretending to listen. They’ll politely ha-ha and not so subtly change the subject back to their own particular obsessions.

If only they had blogging back in the day.

So it surprises me not at all to find that One-Track Uncle also appears at the grandaddy of all circle jerks, the presidential press conference. Meet Raghubir Goyal, an Indian reporter whose obsession with Pakistan has become the subject of much humor inside the Beltway:

“The 32-minute pummeling was perhaps the worst McClellan received since he got the job two years ago… [he] robotically refused to answer no fewer than 35 questions about Rove and the outing of the CIA’s Valerie Plame.”… Pummeled by tough questions, McClellan time and again reached for a lifeline. His first… was “Raghubir Goyal of the India Globe, who reliably asks about Pakistan — and did so again…” That gambit had a payoff for McClellan: Once it seemed clear that the mumbling Goyal was just warming up, CNN chose to cut away from its live coverage of the briefing. [Link]

The idea is it becomes a feeding frenzy in the press room — you’re just getting hammered with question after question you don’t really want to answer, but if you’re careful you can call on somebody like Mr. Goyal, who’s known to all as Goyal, who will predictably ask you about isn’t it time we start bombing Pakistan, because he’s representing an Indian point of view… you can pretty reliably change the subject… [Link]

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