‘Brothels’ directors to open school in India

Posted on by

After you win an Oscar, you’re supposed to treat the little people like shit, not open schools for them. The diabolical do-gooders behind the award-winning documentary, “Born Into Brothels,” appear ready to violate that most holy of Hollywood traditions:

The two directors of the Oscar-winning documentary “Born Into Brothels,” which chronicles the lives of a group of children born to prostitutes in Kolkata’s red-light area, plan to set up a school in India, a member of the duo said in Lisbon on Tuesday. Ross Kauffman, who directed the documentary along with fellow New Yorker Zana Briski, told AFP that the two filmmakers hope to have the school up and running by the start of 2007. “The idea is to create a safe place for these kids to go, where a small group of kids can get out of that environment. It’s a way to make a small difference,” the 37-year-old said. The school will focus on leadership and arts, and will have a capacity for between 50 and 100 students, he added. [Sify.com]

Sify.com: Oscar winners to open school in India

Continue reading →

‘Sita Sings the Blues’

Posted on by

Ever seen Hanuman pluck a double bass? Animator Nina Paley has created a witty, ’20s jazz musical version of the Ramayana, Sita Sings the Blues (via Turbanhead). Her lovely, highly stylized characters evoke Betty Boop, Amul Butter ads and Ghee Happy, and Sita is voiced by ’20s blues singer Annette Hanshaw.

Watch the clips or, if the site is slow, see the end of the post to download.

This animation’s original title seems to have been The Sitayana. Like Anna’s feminist neologism, ‘Herstory,’ Paley had replaced Rama with Sita in the title. And she goes even further: Sita has the only speaking part in the entire animation. Rama is strong but silent, a Ken doll and essentially decorative, the inverse of most action flicks. But Paley stays reasonably faithful to the original text. Her Sita is still a maiden in distress rather than a Shrek-like princess-ninja.

Paley also inverts the Moulin Rouge formula. Instead of desi music in an American tale, she uses ’20s American music (one song even includes the banjo) in a quintessentially desi story. Her soundtrack choice is a classy touch; imagine someone doing a version like hip-hop Shakespeare, using Justin Timberlake as the soundtrack.

Shudder.

Continue reading →

We AREN’T the champions, my friends…

Posted on by

London’s Restaurant magazine just released their annual list of the 50 best places to get fat– and of course I’d be the Mutineer to post on this. 😉

I am slightly miffed that the list is not down with anything brown, unless New York’s lauded, pan-Asian-street-food mecca Spice Market counts. Since I cannot partake of their “chicken samosas” with cilantro-yogurt, I’m inclined to say…”NO”. 🙂

Now last year, the greatest place in the world for Dal Makhni made both the list AND the award for “Best Asian Restaurant”– I’m talking about New Delhi’s legendary Bukhara, mais oui. What a difference twelve months makes? Oh, well. I’m just amazed that a Brit magazine that listed no less than FOUR English restaurants in their top 10 couldn’t find a decent curry. Whatevs. Continue reading →

Almost funny if it weren’t true

Posted on by

This almost feels like it should be a scene from Kung Fu Hustle except for

1) the unhappy ending and 2) it’s sadly all too true –

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A Pakistani man accused of desecrating the Koran was shot dead Wednesday after being chased by an angry crowd. Ashiq Nabi, in his thirties, was accused of being disrespectful to Islam’s holy book and had been in hiding since Monday, a senior police official said. …Witnesses said the man was chased through fields and climbed a tree to get away from an angry crowd of up to 500 men. When he refused to come down, someone shot him dead, they said.

Although the article doesn’t really tell us how he desecrated the Koran, one of the mob’s motives here was apparently a type of vigilante justice. It appears that relative at least to this little slice of society, Pakistani courts almost come across as bastions of liberal due process. –

Blasphemy, including desecrating the Koran, is a capital offence in deeply Islamic Pakistan and carries the death sentence, but convictions have always been turned down by high courts because of a lack of evidence.

I guess in conjunction with the tragic death in India tab, we’ll start a count of the ones in Pakistan too. Continue reading →

K-street Kid

Posted on by

Think Pennsylvania Avenue is the seat of power in D.C.? Wrong. It’s K-street. Desi-Talk introduces us to Raj Mukherjee, a twenty year old lobbyist from Jersey who may end up there soon:

Most people would think for a 20-year-old being a lobbyist is an unusual career choice. Traditional choices for Indians have been engineering or medicine. But Raj Mukherjee doesn’t think it is so atypical. It is understandable considering since the age of 10 Mukherjee claims he has been making web sites to attract politicians. Today, he is a partner in the New Jersey-based lobby firm, Impact NJ, which is a full-service government affairs firm with an emphasis on lobbying in the Garden State.

Mukherjee told News India-Times that politics is a disease, “when it bites you can’t shake it away.” Initially his parents didn’t want him to do business or enter politics. “They wanted me to do school work. They believed in the power of academia,” he said.

Mukherjee is currently working with U.S. Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) on his campaign for governor. “I feel he can restore public trust. He is a good friend of India on the India caucus. In the Senate, he will work with Frank Pallone and Congressman Bob Menendez to represent the interests of Indian Americans in New Jersey, which has the largest Indian population in the U.S.” said Mukherjee.

Pretty impressive, right? Not everyone is going to be “elect-able,” especially at such a young age, but there are other ways to influence policy while he bides his time. Mukherjee already has an impressive resume.

He gained critical acclaim in N.J. political circles when at the age of 16, he became the vice chairman of the Publius Group (where he was previously director of technology & security), which owns and operates the state’s heavily trafficked political news source (PoliticsNJ.com), receiving approximately 4 million gross hits per month.

Mukherjee, who speaks four languages, joined the Marines at 17 two weeks after September 11. It is difficult to establish how long he spent time in the Marines considering he is an undergraduate student at Rutgers, majoring in counterintelligence. It is an inter-disciplinary major that combines political science, Middle Eastern studies and military studies.

Damn. Now I feel like I haven’t done enough today. Continue reading →

Aish ain’t gettin’ Hitched

Posted on by

Vaporwarya Rai is endlessly rumored to be in talks for this movie or that. Bond girl, anyone?

But one particular missed opportunity is quite funny: the director of the Will Smith romantic comedy Hitch says Rai was to play the college girlfriend. And since Smith produced the film, he probably had a hand in it. Said the director:

I want to see Aishwarya Rai because she was almost in my film… There was a time when she was going to play the college girlfriend, which was originally a much bigger part. I think we were all keen on she doing it. But we had a demanding schedule which she couldn’t work out. That was the hitch on Hitch.

That’s the girlfriend with whom a Steve Urkel-like, ’80s version of Will Smith makes all his early romantic blunders, like being too clingy too early and blurting ‘I love you.’ He later finds her making out with another guy in a parked car. ‘What did I do wrong?’ he repeats pathetically, slumping against the glass. The Other Guy takes pity on him: ‘You’re doin’ it right now!’

Wussy Will would’ve been an improvement over Two-Fisted Khan.

Benedict maledict

Posted on by

Punjabi Boy has quite a find about the new Pope’s views on Hindus and Buddhists:

Hinduism, he said, offers ‘false hope’; it guarantees ‘purification’ based on a ‘morally cruel’ concept of reincarnation resembling ‘a continuous circle of hell’…

In 1997 Ratzinger annoyed Buddhists by calling their religion an ‘autoerotic spirituality’ that offers ‘transcendence without imposing concrete religious obligations’… The Cardinal predicted Buddhism would replace Marxism as the Catholic Church’s main enemy this century.

Ratzinger had even more choice words for those who are not Catholic:

… Dominus Jesus, the major Vatican document released… by Cardinal Ratzinger… called other world religions “gravely deficient,” denied that other religions can offer salvation independent of Christianity, and said non-Catholic Christian churches have “defects” and are not “churches” at all in the proper sense.

‘Enforcer,’ in the hockey sense, sounds about right.

Update: Ratzinger was apparently more sparing with Judaism (thanks, MD):

… Ratzinger played an instrumental role in the Vatican’s revolutionary reconciliation with the Jews under John Paul II. He personally prepared… [the] document outlining the church’s historical “errors” in its treatment of Jews…

Previous posts: 1, 2

High-funda food

Posted on by

As if desis could get any more passionate about their comida, food diversity in India is rising with income (thanks, Rohit):

The amount spent nationally on meals outside the home has more than doubled in the past decade, to about $5 billion a year, and is expected to double again in about half that time…

“In the 1970’s and 1980’s our international menu consisted of Russian salad, shrimp cocktail, French fries … oh, and something baked,” Mr. Desai said. “Recently, though, I had a conservative Hindu lady explain to me the specifics of a risotto she wants for her son’s wedding, and a traditional Bohri Muslim family requested Mongolian hot pots…”

“When I first opened Diva people would send back al dente risotto because they were used to very soft cooked basmati rice…”

While I’m complaining about not getting arbi, Bombayites were complaining about not getting Italian:

The legendary Crawford Market in Mumbai… sells broccoli, iceberg lettuce, thyme, basil, rosemary, bell peppers and other non-Indian vegetables. Pasta in bulk is available alongside basmati rice.

It’s all causing drama with the saas:

“Much to my mother’s chagrin I use store-bought yogurt,” said Rujuta Jog, 24, a recently married office worker. “And my mother-in-law was upset when she saw that I use Pillsbury flour to make rotis. She still prefers to buy wheat and grind it fresh…”

“In the old days, since only the men worked outside the home, they were served first,” said Sathya Saran, a senior executive at Worldwide Media, one of India’s largest publishing companies. “Now everyone eats together, and the entire family dynamic has begun to shift.”

Continue reading →

‘Amazing Race’ runs through India

Posted on by

Tonight’s episode of reality television show “The Amazing Race” takes its contestants to the streets of Lucknow, India:

Battle lines were drawn as Teams made their way to Lucknow, India. Boyfriends Lynn & Alex led a group against their rivals, engaged couple Rob & Amber, who paired up with former POW and beauty queen Ron & Kelly, in an uneasy alliance. Catching an earlier flight to India, Rob & Amber never relinquished their lead as they battled for first place. Winning the hard-fought match, Rob & Amber stepped on the mat and received a shock when Phil told them that he had their next clue. The leg was not over. [CBS]

The web preview hosts video vignettes, a location briefing, and a call for your own Lucknow stories. “The Amazing Race” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.

Continue reading →

Posted in TV

Kahlo, meet Kahlon

Posted on by

A Manhattan gallery honors artist Rajkamal Kahlon this Friday with a reception opening her latest exhibit, ‘Unbound.’ Kahlon’s work, which I first saw at ‘Fatal Love,’ reminds me of the tortured visions of Frida Kahlo and Tarsem Singh, director of The Cell. (I said Kahlo, not J.Lo.)

Kahlon literally paints over history:

Kahlon’s new series of paintings respond to a nineteenth century tome entitled Cassell’s Illustrated History of India. After finding this book in 2003 on auction at Sotheby’s, Kahlon borrowed $400… with the intention of unbinding [it]… painting over texts and manipulating the illustrations set in front of her… she creates a charged, fragmented narrative about her relationship to India’s history and its colonial past.

You can see more of her work here and here.

‘Unbound‘ opening, Fri Apr. 22, 6-8 pm reception, 8-10pm afterparty with DJ Rekha; PPOW Gallery, 555 W. 25th St., 2nd floor, between 10th/11th Aves., Manhattan

Continue reading →

Posted in Art