A: Bal FAQ-eray. And now, freshly waxed and newly paroled, we humbly present the first-ever Sepia Mutiny FAQ (thanks, Anonymous Cow). Please add your own answers for clueless n00tineers.
The first answer: FAQ means frequently-asked questions. That all ya got? Put some heat on it…
The organization “Bay Area Unites” will be holding a large Tsunami fundraiser on Feb 20th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA. Over 10,000 people are expected to attend:
The event will benefit the victims of the tsunami in seven of the hardest hit countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives, Malaysia and Somalia. The organizing group, called “Bay Area Unites†(www.BayAreaUnites.org), is a coalition of several business, civic, cultural and religious organizations. The Cities of San Jose, Milpitas Morgan Hill and Fremont are also co-sponsoring the event.
“The Bay Area is a true melting pot of cultures from around the world, many from countries devastated by the tsunami,†said Vish Mishra, convener of the event.
“Local groups are banding together to create an unprecedented event that will bring several thousand people together to continue the relief and rehabilitation efforts for the victims of the recent Tsunami disaster,†said Mishra, Senior Venture Partner, Clearstone Venture Partners and a Director of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs).
There is an All-star line up featuring Deepak Chopra and an appearance, via videocon, by former President Bill Clinton. But that is not all:
-Interfaith vigil led by Dr. Deepak Chopra
-Personalized video message from Bill Clinton
-Music by Grammy-nominated singer Lisa Loeb
-Children’s programs, music and entertainment
-Celebrities to call for pledges, including philanthropist Dr. Malini Alles
-Performance by critical acclaimed choreographer, Danica Sena
-Masters of the double violin, performance by Shankar and Gingger
-New perspectives on the songs Bob Dylan by ‘Mostly Dylan’
-Balinese performance by Gamelan Sekar Jaya
-Fusing pop and rock performance by Tina Sugandh
Holy crap! Lisa Loeb? Will the Nine Stories be there also? Roadtrip!
If you’d like to volunteer, and maybe get the chance to meet Lisa Loeb (“I missed you, stay”) then you can visit the Bay Area Unites volunteer page. Continue reading
Stumbled upon a hidden musical gem while listening to one of iTunes’ streaming
radio channels:
Anup Patel is a unique musician who combines traditional classical Indian music with western pop music. Anup proficiently plays the sitar, table and the keyboard, with his personal favorite being the sitar. Although Anup does not consider himself a master, he has been playing both tablas and sitar for over 30 years, a fact which is easily noticeable in his music.
Sure, it probably isn’t for everybody, but you don’t have to waste any money to figure out whether you’ll like it or not. Online music label Magnatune is so confident that you’ll enjoy Patel, and their other offerings, that their entire library is available on a “try before you buy” basis. You can listen to Patel’s entire album for free, as much as you’d like, and without having to register. Check out “Sweet Dissonance” and “Resolve.” If you’re into it, show the uncle some love and buy the album.
Magnatune: Anup Patel
Another miracle:
A teenager who survived December’s tsunami has been rescued by police from a remote island on India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
Eighteen-year-old Jessy is said to have lived on wild fruit for 45 days.
She was found on Wednesday close to the site where nine survivors of the tsunami were found last week.
Jessy is part of the Nicobarese tribe. She fled the tsunami and sought shelter in the forest. When she tentatively made her way out several days later, “the rest of the population had been either evacuated to Campbell Bay or swept away by the waves”.
Her husband and year-old baby are among 1,000 people who are still considered missing; apparently, the “lucky” survivor told police that she believes her family are actually among the 2,000 archipelago-dwellers who died. 🙁
Sigh. I’ll take every bit of good that I can get.
:+:
via the Beeb: Tsunami woman found after 45 days Continue reading
That’s just great. After years of bitching about the colonialism of language and reverting city names to their pre-British originals, South Asian countries are about to lose their economic advantage. Yes, Outer Mongolia is learning English:
Within a decade, Mongolia is expected to convert its written language to the Roman alphabet from Cyrillic characters… “If there is a shortcut to development, it is English; parents understand that, kids understand that…” In Chile, the government has embarked on a national program to teach English in all elementary and high schools. The goal is to make the nation of 15 million people bilingual within a generation. The models are the Netherlands and the Nordic nations, which have achieved proficiency in English since World War II…
Mongolia, which, suspiciously, rhymes with Elbonia, has big plans for the tech industry:
“If we combine our academic knowledge with the English language, we can do outsourcing here, just like Bangalore…”
As you may recall, Kemal Ataturk forcibly converted the Turkish language from Arabic to Roman script decades ago. Turkey has done relatively well and is hoping to join the European Union. So Mongolians are welcoming their new Hinglish overlords only:
Mr. Tsagaan… explained in English that Mongolia hoped to attract English teachers… from India, Singapore and Malaysia.
You know what this means: bookshelves packed with weepy Mongolian memoirs written from the barren hinterlands of SoHo. The book covers will be edged with sensuous yak skins, yurts and thick-lipped models. That hot new novelist from Ulan Bator will be munching canapes, showing up in Granta and getting shortlisted for the Booker.
It’s
Valentine’s Day. Half of the country will be f–king like
wild billy goats. The other half will just be f–king bitter. The good folks
at Durex have something for both camps. The former can indulge in the contraceptive
concern’s wide range of STD- and pregnancy-busting prophylactics. And for
the latter — nothing less than an international-sized reminder of how much play
they’re missing out on.
Durex, a subsidiary of London-based SSL International, recently released their annual survey of sexual behavior around the world. The "Global Sex Survey," now in its eighth year, polled more than 350,000 people from 41 countries, and is billed as the largest such study around. Among the 16 questions, the following six stood out to me (I only listed results for first place, Canada, global average, India, U.K., U.S. and last place):
Who says Hindus and Muslims disagree about the fundamentals of culture and religion? In certain instances they CAN be in agreement. What better day than Valentine’s Day to showcase said agreement. Or should I call it “Prostitution Day?” From NDTV.com:
Shiv Sainiks continue to play spoilsports on Valentine’s Day.
The Delhi unit of the Sena has planned to hold a protest march near the Delhi University area, and have decided to call it ‘Prostitution Day’, because of what they see as a poisoning influence of western society.
“Valentine’s day is turning the youth away from our true culture and traditions. Growing commercialisation by certain vested interests is further leading them up the wrong path,” said Delhi Shiv Sena chief Jai Bhagwan Goel.
The government in Saudi Arabia has similar sentiments as reported in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Each year shortly before Feb. 14, the country’s religious police mobilize, heading out to hunt for – and confiscate – red roses, red teddy bears and any signs of a heart.
In a country where Valentine’s Day is banned, ordinary Saudis find they must skirt the law to spoil their sweethearts.
The Valentine’s Day holiday celebrating love and lovers is banned in Saudi Arabia, where religious authorities call it a Christian celebration that true Muslims should shun.
The only good part about this is that forgetful men, who are bad boyfriends, have a legitimate excuse to show up without flowers. “Look honey what do you want from me? The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice would have arrested my ass.”
When I was a kid, I used to devour comic books about Indian mythology. One of the best set of stories was about Birbal, the wise chief minister in emperor Akbar’s court. The Birbal-of-the-comic-books used to take the piss out of the wealthy, pompous and illogical with cleverness and humor.
One of the tales I remember was a story, pretty much identical to the one from King Solomon, where two different women claimed to be the mother of a single baby. Birbal ordered that the baby be cut in half and shared between the women. One of the supplicants begged him to stop and gave up her struggle, and her love for the child revealed her as the true mother.
These days, gene sequencers dispense justice like modern-day Birbals:
Sri Lankan authorities say DNA results have confirmed the identity of a baby who was found alive in the rubble of the tsunami disaster. Nicknamed “Baby 81,” the toddler was the subject of a desperate eight-week custody battle involving as many as nine couples… Nine couples claimed the child was theirs, but only Murugupillai Jeyarajah and his wife Jenita followed through, providing DNA samples.
From StrategyPage –
February 14, 2005: A new CIA report predicts that Pakistan may well come apart in the next decade. Corruption and poor government are making Islamic radicalism more popular, especially in the Pushtun (northwest) and Baluchi (southwest) tribal areas. Most of the population is not tribal. In fact, about have the population is in one province, Punjab. When India and Pakistan were formed in 1947, Punjab was split, with about 70 percent of it going to Pakistan. The Indian portion, with better government and less corruption, has done more than twice as well as the Pakistani part (on a per-capita basis). India also has problems with tribal separatists (in the northeast), but in Pakistan the tribes comprise a larger portion of the population (at least ten percent.) It’s expensive to fight the tribes, and the Baluchis are eager to take control of the lucrative natural gas fields operating in Baluchistan. The CIA report sees the country coming apart along ethnic lines, much like Yugoslavia did in the 1990s. This would create a Punjabi state, with at least half the population, plus Pushtun and Baluchi states, plus one or two more. The big question is what would happen to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. The Pakistanis dismiss the report, pointing out that, while they created the mess, they’ve also learned to deal with it.
Personally, this whole scenario feels a bit far fetched… But, I’m just the messenger 😉 Continue reading
Little Malayalee kids are so cute:
Dubai: A nine-year-old girl from Kerala has won 100 kg of gold, worth about Rs.60 million in India, in the world’s biggest gold promotion event at the Dubai Shopping Festival 2005, it was announced here Sunday.
“I don’t know the value in rupees, but I know 100 kg is a lot of gold,” said Shakiba Asif, when told that she had won the prize. The family had got a coupon for Dh.250 (about 3,000 rupees) that won the grand prize.
The 10th Dubai Shopping Festival, which ended Saturday, has proved to be lucky for the Asif family from Malapuram in Kerala, though Shakiba said she did not know the number of zeroes in the total value of the gold she had won.
But what Shakiba – a fourth standard student at a school here who nurses the hope of becoming a doctor – was sure that she wanted to buy “a lot of new dresses”. And what is a lot?
“Two”, she said promptly. “Also I want to give sweets to my schoolmates.”
Awwww. What a dear. I hope she gets her two dresses, and that she pirouettes happily in them. 🙂
A big TY to our favourite gori Andrea for leaving the link in my diary’s comments. I love posting about sweet things. Speaking of, who among you sweet things wants to take me to next year’s shopping festival? I saw an excellent segment on this extravaganza while watching the PBS show i adore most– Globetrekker. Dubai sounds like my kind of town. 😉 Continue reading
