EU considers banning the swastika

Posted on by

The BBC reports on the European Union being urged to ban the swastika after Prince Harry got caught last week brandishing one on his arm:

The EU has been urged to ban the swastika because of its Nazi associations with hate and racism. But the symbol was around long before Adolf Hitler. The swastika is a cross with its arms bent at right angles to either the right or left. In geometric terms, it is known as an irregular icosagon or 20-sided polygon.

The word is derived from the Sanskrit “svastika” and means “good to be”. In Indo-European culture it was a mark made on people or objects to give them good luck.

It has been around for thousands of years, particularly as a Hindu symbol in the holy texts, to mean luck, Brahma or samsara (rebirth). It can be clockwise or anti-clockwise and the way it points in all four directions suggests stability. Sometimes it features a dot between each arm.

Continue reading →

A still life: the family of fruit

Posted on by

Shashwati tells a railroad tale:

The last time I was on a train in India was a few years ago, traveling from Baroda to New Delhi, in an unreserved “Ladies” compartment. It was terribly crowded, and I had to share my berth with a rather plump housewife from Karol Bagh…  It turned out she came from a family of fruit merchants, and told us proudly, “My son has married into Apples, my daughter has gone to the Bananas, and we are thinking of a Guava family for the youngest son.”

… Squashed in a corner was a skinny, quiet woman… The woman came from a village in Karnataka… and had been abandoned by her only son and daughter in law. She was going to Delhi in the hope of… perhaps working as a domestic.

The next morning, the plump fruit merchant’s wife, after loudly cursing the world… gave the woman a generous amount of money so that she could fend for herself till she got on her feet. Then the merchants wife farted loudly and left with the youngest son (promised to the Guava family)…

I actually do know a desi fellow who ‘married’ into a family of Apples.

Shock Jocks better recognize…

Posted on by

The world is paying attention.

From the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal:

Expletives Undeleted: An Indian call center gets a rude introduction to American vulgarity. Friday, January 14, 2005 12:01 a.m. A nasty radio-show phone prank directed at a call center in India is the latest proof that abusive language is the last resort of the impotent. Something to remember when any of us is confronted on the low road to incivility. The call in question was played Dec. 15 on Philadelphia’s WUSL-FM, which bills itself as “Bangin’ Hip-Hop and R&B” Power 99. Morning DJ Star, aka Troi Torain, dialed the number of a company advertising a hair-beading device for kids and was connected to a lady at an ordering service in India. After ranting rudely about outsourcing, the DJ turned on the operator, calling her a “dirty rat-catcher” and a “bitch” before threatening to “come out there and choke the eff out of you.” Just another day for the lead host of the syndicated “Star and Buc Wild” show, who promotes himself as “The Hater.” But when a station employee posted the recording on WUSL’s Web site this month, it spread like wildfire among Indians around the world. On sites like Turbanhead and SepiaMutiny, people got their first taste of American shock-jockery, and were appalled.

Continue reading →

Bollywood Hearthob Vivek Oberoi Throws Down a Challenge

Posted on by
“For all those who talk about publicity, come here, get your hands dirty. Sleep four hours every night, walk around in the daily sun, run around in this fear of epidemics, come and do it, put your life at risk here. Then we’ll talk.” [CSM]

According to the Christian Science Monitor, Bollywood pretty boy Vivek Oberoi has left Bombay for Devanampattinam where he is taking a hands on approach to Tsunami relief. Instead of simply writing a check, or sending relief supplies south, he’s in the effected area, going house to house, handing out supplies. Continue reading →

Open skies and Air India

Posted on by

India and the U.S. finally drafted an open skies agreement. This means $700 airfares, more direct flights, more flights from smaller airports, and more flights from U.S. carriers, so you don’t always have to fly via Lufthansa, KLM, Singapore or Air India. The agreement eliminates all kinds of crufty protectionism dating back to the national carrier-dominated era of air travel: Air India is not currently allowed to fly to both Los Angeles and San Francisco, for example, and only three carriers are allowed direct flights; all others have to route via a third country. India’s domestic air travel is surging 20% a year, international at nearly the same rate. The agreement will probably be signed next month.

(Note to the savvy: Turkish Airlines from NYC to Delhi is beautiful and inexpensive; you fly in nearly a straight line, plus you get to see gorgeous Istanbul and the palaces and mosques of the Ottoman Empire.)

While we’re modernizing air travel, will someone please update Air India’s hokey, ill-conceived jet paint? The tagline in goofy Curlz script reminds me of the shabby Indian restaurant in Where’s the Party Yaar? (‘When you can’t afford the Palace, come to the Place!’)

The Mughal arches surrounding the windows are cute, but ‘antique’ is the last thing you want to associate with an airplane from a developing country. Think modernist. Think Virgin Atlantic. Maybe use the stylized Air India centaur . Graphics department — futtafut!

Previous post.


Bridal Beer

Posted on by

I usually don’t post refs to other blogs until they’ve been around for a while and generated a good body of consistently high quality material. But the premise behind this blog is just too interesting for Sepia Mutiny to ignore –

When I was a child, I imagined death as being a collective experience. As the lion roared for one last time and the monsoon clouds ripped their chests for the last July shower, we would suddenly drop to the ground, hands extended, toungues out. Dead. As a young adult, death seems too trivial an encounter. What casts shadows of fear is life. Especially if you are on the verge of an impending engagement with a guy you don’t particularly want to kiss-and never have. (Assuming you are a woman. Or a man.) He was “26 yrs computer professional, Brahmin, 5′ 10”, Ivy-educated looking for family values working girl bride of reputed North Indian family, no dowry, willing to settle in US”. Soon he will father my children and be the financer of my groceries. We will share toothpaste and possibly memories. In an arranged marriage, the premise is that you kiss a frog on the first night(and for the first time)- to convert him into a notional prince. Which reminds me of a video about illegal activities between a woman and two frogs. Can I bring my ex-boyfriend’s porn collection as dowry? I stole them when we broke up and I’m too sentimental to E-bay away those romantic Tuesday nights.

Follow BridalBeer as she navigates from the ex-boyfriend in NYC into an arranged marriage in India. Continue reading →

Punjabi in political Pizzagate

Posted on by

The Canadian immigration minister resigned yesterday, accused of offering asylum to a desi pizzeria owner in exchange for feeding her campaign staff. Harjit Singh of Toronto, a devout Mennonite convert, is also an alleged credit card forger subject to deportation. He says the minister, Judy Sgro, approached him for free food for her campaign volunteers last year in exchange for blocking his deportation, then reversed herself when word leaked out. Sgro denies all.

As scandals go, anchovies-for-asylum is so very… Canadian. No worries, we’ve got your back. Sgro was also accused of fast-tracking a Romanian stripper’s visa. Canadian women aren’t flocking to high-paying pole positions any more, so an exotic dancer visa is now an automatic ticket into Canada.

So while we’re bringing over Romanian quants for Wall Street, Canada’s importing Romanian strippers for Queen Street. Gee, I just noticed I bleed maple red 😉

Sleeping with the enemy

Posted on by

Indian and Pakistani soldiers living together? Must be a Bollywood film, no? From the Indo-Asian News Service:

A contingent of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel being sent to join the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo will serve alongside Pakistani soldiers.

IAF officials said the contingent, comprising 285 personnel and six Mi-17 transport helicopters and four Mi-35 helicopter gunships, would be deployed at Bukavu to provide cover to Pakistan infantry troops.

It is a region that rebel forces recently captured.

“Our forces will live and operate with the Pakistani peacekeepers at Bukavu,” an IAF official told IANS.

Will it become the begining of a beautiful friendship, or a rumble in the jungle? Regardless, I doubt their behavior could be any worse than that of the UN troops already there. Continue reading →

CIA has India surpassing Europe in 15 years

Posted on by

A new CIA report titled ‘Mapping the Global Future’ projects that India will overtake major European countries by GDP within 15 years:

By 2020, China’s gross domestic product, the total value of goods and services, will be greater than that of any Western country except the United States, and India’s GDP will have overtaken or will be about to overtake European economies.

The National Intelligence Council, a division of the CIA, makes some very interesting comparisons:

… the NIC said China and India, probably along with Brazil and Indonesia, should emerge as “new major global players,” comparing their expected impact to that of a united Germany in the 19th century and the United States in the early 20th century. “In the same way that commentators refer to the 1900s as the ‘American Century,’ the 21st century may be seen as the time when Asia, led by China and India, comes into its own…”

The NIC is confident in its projections:

“Barring an abrupt reversal of the process of globalization or any major upheavals in these countries, the rise of these new powers (China and India) is a virtual certainty,” it predicted.

There will be a geopolitical realignment…

As India’s economy grows, governments in Southeast Asia — Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and other countries — may move closer to India to help build a potential geopolitical counterweight to China, it said… Dubbing China, India, and perhaps others such as Brazil and Indonesia, as ‘arriviste’ powers, the report said they “have the potential to render obsolete the old categories of East and West, North and South, aligned and nonaligned, developed and developing.”

Continue reading →

Salt ’n peppa yo’ mango, live

Posted on by

M.I.A. is playing NYC on Feb. 5, along with partner in crime Diplo (via SAS). Tickets are just $12. She’s also rockin’ L.A. on Feb. 3. I think I’m having an Arulpragasam.

From the last time she performed in NYC:

… her super-limited debut UK single featured fuzzy, electro-tinged dancehall beats, vaguely political raps, and one of the most unexpectedly catchy hooks in recent memory. Completely modern urban music that didn’t sound the slightest bit forced or space cadet about itself (sorry Dizzee); I was captivated on the first listen…

Check out the ‘Sunshowers’ video and the remix MP3s. Here’s a previous post on M.I.A./Maya.