Here’s to You, Rabid Hrithik Fans

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On Friday, I left the City of Brotherly Love for NYC for the press conference surrounding the May 21st release of Kites, the Bollywood film directed by Anurag Basu, produced by Rakesh Roshan and starring his son, teen hearthrob Hrithik Roshan. Disclaimer: I am no Hrithik fan. When I was a freshman in high school, both the girls and the guys my age were going gaga over Hrithik’s debut in Kaho Naa… Pyar Hai, but he doesn’t do it for me, never did. Sorry. But in deference to all you Hrithik fans who have been hounding me for this post, I will share all the details from Friday via the notes I took in timeline form. And don’t forget, I’ll be posting my review for Kites on Friday!

First, a brief synopsis of the 130 min. film (the American version is 90 min, stripped down a la American director Brett Ratner). Kites stars Hrithik as J., a hustler/dance teacher working in Las Vegas. He is pursuing the affections of Gina, daughter of a wealthy casino owner and one of J.’s dance student. At the same time Gina’s brother, Tony is engaged to Natasha (played by Mexican telenovela actress Barbara Mori). When J. and Natasha’s paths cross, sparks fly. Cars crash. People dance in the rain. Or something like that. (If you think this sounds like the plot of some Mills and Boon dime novel, well then you’ve clearly never seen a Bollywood film.) Continue reading →

Pakistan vs. Facebook

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pakistan-flag.jpg Oh government of Pakistan, pick your battles, please. You want to cut the power for hours at a time, crippling the economy and lowering the standard of living for the general populace? Fine, go ahead. The people may grumble, but life goes on. But for the love of all things proper and sacred, don’t take away the people’s right to Facebook. Heed my warning, you’re playing with dynamite here. I predict a revolt in the vein of the Russian revolution. Heads will roll because of this, mark my words. Never, ever get in between an auntie and her Facebook. You’ve been warned.

Pakistan’s government ordered Internet service providers to block Facebook on Wednesday amid anger over a page that encourages users to post images of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

The page on the social networking site has generated criticism in Pakistan and elsewhere because Islam prohibits any images of the prophet. The government took action after a group of Islamic lawyers won a court order Wednesday requiring officials to block Facebook until May 31.

By Wednesday evening, access to the site was sporadic, apparently because Internet providers were implementing the order.

The Facebook page at the center of the dispute — “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” — encourages users to post images of the prophet on May 20 to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of South Park for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year. [Link.] Continue reading →

Salaam Brooklyn

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weddingphoto.jpg

In the ‘Weddings’ section of the New York Times, I imagine a report that might read: “Priya Bery, a social entrepreneur who focuses on global philanthropy and human rights, and Farooq Ahmed, a writer who like Ms. Bery was also raised in the Midwest, he in Kansas and she in Michigan, got married in a ceremony at the Angel Orensanz Foundation on Saturday. The parents of both the bride and the bridegroom migrated from India several decades ago.”

The Times would probably not mention that Priya and Farooq getting married last weekend in a beautiful nineteenth-century Jewish synagogue was a way of staying true to our culture. In Bollywood films, the male can be from Ludhiana and the female from Lucknow, but when they start to sing their song of love, they do so in a field of flowers in Switzerland.

If my mother were there, she’d no doubt gently remind me that “marriage is no joke.” Marriage is no joke, beta. She gave me that advice when I got married thrice–to Mona Ali, first in a civil court, then in a Muslim nikaah, and finally, in my hometown, in a Hindu shaadi.

Mona and I met in New York City. When I think of what happened between us, I am reminded of what my friend Suketu Mehta once wrote about this place: “The first time I met the enemy people, Pakistanis, was when I went to New York. We shopped together, we ate together, we dated each other and had each others’ babies.”

Priya and Farooq met in New York City as a part of an alternative desi music scene called Mutiny, which led a few years later to an evening in their favorite restaurant, where Farooq proposed to Priya, and had the waitress bring out the ring like it was a course during their meal–just before dessert.

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Guest Blogger: Amitava Kumar

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It has been a while since we put a new guest blogger in front of you. So here is a treat. Author and professor Amitava Kumar will serving up some hot mutiny for you. From Wikipedia (where tired and sometimes lazy bloggers go for bio quotes):

Amitava Kumar is a writer who was born in India and is currently Professor of English at Vassar College. Kumar is the author of Husband of a Fanatic (The New Press, 2005 and Penguin-India, 2004), Bombay-London-New York (Routledge and Penguin-India, 2002), and Passport Photos (University of California Press and Penguin-India, 2000). He has also written a book of poems, No Tears for the N.R.I. (Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 1996). The novel Home Products was published in early 2007 by Picador-India, and will appear in the US in August 2009 under the title Nobody Does the Right Thing. Early in 2009, Picador-India published his book Evidence of Suspicion, which will be published by Duke University Press in August 2009 under the title, A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb: A Writer’s Report on the Global War on Terror. [Wiki]

I spent a few solid days chatting about writing, blogging and politics with Amitava at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver where he was there as press. Fantastic guy and I like how his mind works, or rather how he sees the world. Hoping in the coming weeks that you get that same glimpse.

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Results from the PA-6th: Trivedi Wins!

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Via the Swing State Project that is monitoring the results here:

12:42am: The AP calls PA-06 (D) for Manan Trivedi and PA-17 (R) for Dave Argall.

12:22am: Trivedi wins! 100% in according to the AP, and he’s up 21,338 to 20,667, a 50.8% to 49.2% victory! WOOHOO!!!! GREAT NIGHT!

12:12am: Manan Trivedi is up 672 votes, and it looks like there are very few if any precincts outstanding. Hard to tell, though, since the SoS doesn’t say, and AP is lagging. [Link]

As I said last night:

… but we know with absolute certainty that it will come down to anywhere from a couple thousand to a couple hundred votes (more likely the latter). [SM]

I can’t help but reflect on this comment from last September when Trivedi announced:

…it is not a good idea for us as South Asians to support candidates simply because of who they are. We have to be more sophisticated and look realistically at their chances at winning. Does it make sense for us to invest our time and money in a candidate who has no support locally and whose only campaign strategy is to raise money from the South Asian community? No.

As a proud supporter of Raj Goyle’s congressional run in Kansas, I know that it takes time to lay the groundwork for a political run for office. For him, and for Trivedi, the sky is and should be the limit. But, they have to be smart about planning long-term strategies to create the local and political groundwork for these races. It’s too bad Trivedi has not done so. [SM]

There is a lesson here.

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What To Do? Ask Auntie Netta

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I first encountered my favorite (imaginary) Auntie, Auntie Netta, almost a year and a half ago, when a friend of mine sent me the video here:

I thought Auntie Netta was pretty frickin’ hilarious: she’s cunningly raunchy and very specifically Sri Lankan in some of her humor. Now, Netta’s creator, actress Nimmi Harasgama, is taking her to the stage, in London. The show goes up tomorrow night, Londoners–get your tickets!

Update: In an e-mail, Nimmi says that while the show is about Netta’s “craziness,” “it is also about her seeking asylum and as such has a serious side to it too.”

There’s a whole series of Netta on Funny or Die.

Facebook event here.

My chat with Nimmi about the character will hopefully be an upcoming post, but I wanted the flag the show for those of you who might be interested (and flag the videos for those of you who might have headphones at work). Continue reading →

Election day in PA-Go Vote!

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Tuesday is primary day in the state of Pennsylvania. My cousin Manan Trivedi is vying for the Democratic party’s nomination against Doug Pike. The winner will face the Republican incumbent in a district that has a real chance of switching hands in November and will therefore be the focus of national attention. For obvious reasons I have been following this battle pretty closely and here are three observations:

1) Money rules, and being independently wealthy rules more. It doesn’t matter if you rack up double or triple the endorsements of your opponent. It might not even matter if you out-fundraise them. If he/she can afford to put their face up on TV more often than you then its an uphill battle until the end.

And the fundraising is going well for Trivedi. Because of the impending primary, the candidates had to filed with the FEC yesterday for their sums raised from April 1 through April 28. Here’s your totals:

Trivedi: $41,478.50
Pike: $9,381.00

In the month before the election, less than $10,000 raised? That’s Martha Coakley-level complacency not only compared to Trivedi but to other regional Dems who face no primary challenges — Bryan Lentz, in neighboring PA-07, also raised over $40,000 in April, for instance. [Kos]

2) You can enter a race “late,” “come from out of nowhere,” and have a South Asian name and still compete if you have good ideas and know how to communicate them. I believe this is the single most important thing I have learned from this race. I am not sure who will win tomorrow but it was amazing to see that sound policy knowledge resulted in such a lopsided endorsement tally and such a toss-up on election day.

Going into the final full week of campaigning during the primary election season, Manan Trivedi has received the endorsement from two very influential women and an organization devoted to advocating for women’s equality.

The National Organization for Women (NOW/PAC) chair, Terry O’Neill stated that “Manan Trivedi has demonstrated to us that he will stand up for the full equality of girls and women. We are looking forward to joining forces with him in that pursuit.” [Link]

3) Anything can happen in a primary (see Bob Bennett). Primaries are ruled by the most hard-core activists in the party. The people that vote are the ones that probably vote in every election or the ones that feel passionately about a particular candidate or their policies. There aren’t any real polls that have attempted to predict the outcome of this race but we know with absolute certainty that it will come down to anywhere from a couple thousand to a couple hundred votes (more likely the latter). If you live in PA-6th and were debating whether or not to vote then I’d tell you that a primary vote is where your voice will be heard the loudest.

If you live in the PA-6th and vote, please tell us about your voting experience in the comments below.

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“Outsourced”: Hot or Not?

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Lizzie sent us a link to some trailers for NBC’s forthcoming comedy, “Outsourced,” with the comment: “Looks super-[crappy].” Here is a clip:

I’m leaning towards “not,” though I could still be persuaded, if they get past the “Man-meat” jokes… I think their idea is to make fun of kitschy Americana and get traction on the culture-clash (which means a certain amount of stereotype humor). What do readers think? Continue reading →

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In Support of Amitav Ghosh and Margaret Atwood

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Nilanjana Roy, at Akhond of Swat, has done a pretty thorough round-up of the recent controversy surrounding Amitav Ghosh and Margaret Atwood’s decision to accept a prestigious Israeli literary prize, and I won’t rehash it all here. Ghosh and Atwood were offered the Dan David Prize this spring, and were urged to refuse to accept it by pro-Palestinian groups, including a significant number of academics from the Indian left (based both in India and in western universities).

I just wanted to put in my own two-cents’ worth: I support the decision made by Amitav Ghosh and Margaret Atwood to accept the prize. In contrast to many of my colleagues who signed the recent open letter to Ghosh, I do not think there was anything to be gained by boycotting a cultural prize given by an institution outside of the Israeli government. Far better to stay, to continue to engage, and to dissent where necessary.

A viable argument against “cultural” boycotts is that they simply don’t do anything, though defenders of the practice might say that the symbolic value and media coverage is worth it. (Note that I’m not talking about economic boycotts, which may be more effective.) Ghosh himself points out that in writing In an Antique Land, he worked with Israeli as well as Arab academics to learn the written language (Judeo-Arabic) used by Abraham Ben-Yiju; a boycott would have made that project impossible. Similarly, this kind of cultural boycott would also lead us to be unable to engage with dissenting Israeli cultural expression, such as the recent film Waltz With Bashir.

But for me the most compelling argument against this way of reacting to Israeli cultural institutions is that, as bad as things are for the Palestinians, what the U.S. itself has engaged in over the past decade — especially the debacle of an unjustifiable and badly executed war in Iraq — is far worse. By any reasonable standard, if we’re boycotting Israel, we should be boycotting ourselves! (And similar kind of accusations could be made against India or Pakistan, for any number of reasons.) In short, this kind of thing doesn’t get us anywhere. Structurally, if we pay taxes and receive benefits from a government, we are all “complicit” in what that government does. Continue reading →

The soft bigotry of fake license plates

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I was horrified upon reading this. While growing up in diverse northern California in the early 80s this is the one thing that really stuck out to make me feel like a minority. 25 years later it seems this continues to be a problem for our peoples.

HAYWARD, CA– Dinesh Parekh, 9, continues to struggle to find a bicycle license plate with his name on it, the Indian-American child reported Monday. “This is the third store I’ve checked today,” said a dejected Parekh, exiting a Toys “R” Us near his Hayward home. “Derrick, Diane, Dillon and Dylan, Dirk… no Dinesh.” Parekh, who has pedaled his brand-new Schwinn to more than a dozen stores during his three-week search, said he plans to ask his mother to drive him to the KB Toys in San Leandro next weekend. [Onion]

Can’t we just ask prison inmates to add a bit of diversity to their plate making assembly lines? Until at least Fremont, Edison, Sugarland and other U.S. cities start carrying “Dinesh, “Rahul,” “Ravi,” etc., we will never really be accepted.

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