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Archive for the ‘Indians’ Category

The Bharat Matrimony ads make me want to vomit

27 Feb '11

As watch cricket on Willow.tv for the ICC World Cup, I’m bombarded with badly produced commercials for NRIs (Non Resident Indians). Most are about sending money to India, or insurance coverage for visiting relatives. These are so horribly produced, it makes my eyes bleed. I love a good commercial, they are the backbone to making a product memorable.

I really appreciate commercials that tell a story, even little ones, and these are ones the get my vote. An ad that portrays the organization as long term and integrated into our lives, distinguishes it from the crop, this usually alludes that the company is more than just about raw profit. Yes, I’m probably a romantic, but I also feel that way about where I work. Now, I understand that not all companies have history nor do they deliver perceived value to consumers i.e. the ones watching TV, but the objective is to make an association and buy into the story being told.

Back to the rant at hand. So in this particular ad, the “mother” announces that “Amy” is headed over. The “grandmother” spits out “Gori”, meaning “white girl” and looks disgusted. The “father” looks pretty disgusted too. The “boy” shows up with the girl who introduces herself as Amy… *pregnant pause*… Amritha Khanna and without saying anything else about herself, she states very brightly “My father is a Doc in New York”. Immediately, the entire family is thrilled, they now have an Indian girl whose father is a Doctor in New York, instead of some trampy white chick. Acceptance all around.

Why, oh why do they think xenophobia is OK? If the tables were turned we’d have some very offended Indians, but this is perfectly fine. Also what is hell is with the name, no self respecting Indian will feel the need to anglicize their name. Amritha is not very hard. Lastly, one can tell that the ad was made in South India, Amritha is how the name is spelled down south, a Khanna would most likely spell the name Amrita. The last one is just an observation not really something I hold against them; insufficient research.

I’m guessing most of the folks watching the matches on willow.tv are likely South Asian, but of the few people who aren’t, the impression they are getting from this commercial is that all we look for in an arranged marriage is pretty young thing who is defined by who her parents are and her personality is of no consequences at all. I’m guessing that is true most of the time, but I’d rather not be reminded that with a very crass commercial from bharatmatrimony.com.

But, what do I know?

 
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Posted in Indians, rant

 

Durga puja

18 Oct '10

We went to a couple of Durga Pujas this year. The one in Hayward that we’ve been to a couple of times and a new one in Foster City. Here is the email Anupam sent to my mom about the puja…
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About Durga:

Maa Durga is the embodiment of creative feminine force (Shakti) and is usually depicted with 10 arms with various armaments in each one of them. She manifests fearlessness and patience and is the warrior aspect of the divine mother.

According to the legend, Mahisasur was terrorizing the earth, heavens and the nether worlds and could not be defeated by any god or man. After many wars, the gods went to Brahma, the supreme being for help, who could d nothing since he himself had given Mahisasur all his powers. Brahma went to Vishnu and Shiva, two other gods with this tale of despair. On hearing the full story of what was going on, the gods were enraged and a fierce white light emerged from their bodies. From this light emerged Durga.

She then engaged Mahisasur in fierce battle for many days where many died on both sides. Mahisasur had the capability of changing form and it was during one transformation from a raging buffalo to his real form she stuck a spear through his heart killing him. Since then she was given the name Mahisasurmardini i.e. Mahisasur Killer

Durga in all her forms have been seen in Indian art and culture starting from the 1st century BCE. She has been depicted with 2, 4, 6, 10, 12 arms. But it is in the Gupta dynasty/empire during CE 300-600 she evolved into what we currently see.

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Durga Puja:

This is an annual festival. The name translates to “Festival (or Worship) of Durga”. It is celebrated across India but is most popular in Eastern India and is the primary festival of West Bengal, the state I’m ethnically from. The prominence of Durga Puja increased gradually during the British Raj when Goddess Durga was identified with India and she became the icon of the Indian Independence Movement. Over the last 250 years, Durga Puja has become the one of the largest celebrated festivals across the world. It is often called the Rio Carnival of the Eastern Hemisphere.

During Durga Puja, over 5 days, the entire state of West Bengal comes to a standstill. It is a public holiday. In any and all public places, grounds, parks, stadiums, traffic circles, schools etc a pandal (temporary structure made from bamboo) is setup. Some can be rather simple and some can be very elaborately decorated, drenched in history. Inside this structure there will be a stage with Durga astride her lion, with her 4 children (also gods/goddesses) flanking her. Bengalis dress up in traditional clothes over the 5 days. The men wear a Dhoti (The long fabric that is wrapped to create pants) and a long kurta which is usually tied together with strings. Women wear saris with red hues. The main part of the puja is a pushp-anjali (flower-worship); the priest hands out flowers to the attendees gathered around the stage and leads them in a prayer that lasts about 3-5 minutes. After the prayer, the attendees toss the flowers at Durga to bless her because she saves them from evil. Earlier in the day a young priest will demonstrate Aarti, which is a ritualistic worship dance often carrying a couple of container with smoking coconut husks to enhance the mysticism.

On the last day of the Puja, the goddess is immersed in a large body of water so she can leave her avatar and go back whence she came to protect the people. After that, the married women put sindoor on each other foreheads in the parting of their hair. The sindoor symbolizes marriage. Bengalis will then call upon each other to wish “Shubo bijoya” or auspicious victory. As kids, my sister and I used to write letters to all our relatives to wish them Shubo Bijoya. I used to consider it quite a chore, but as time has passed, I’ve grown to romanticize it…

 
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Posted in Anupam, Arjun, Bengali, Eve, Indians, Tricia

 

Patang baazi

03 Oct '10

Well kind of. I used to fly kites traditionally during the January time-frame when I was a kid. The shapes of kites were fundamentally the same. Diamonds with triangular tails. These are highly unstable little things held up in the primarily by the tension in the string. The string itself is made up of two parts manja and dor. The manja bit is for kite fighting; the string is coated with glue and powdered glass is applied to it. This is usually 50 meters or so, the rest of it dor, essentially unweaponized. Kite flying as I was growing up in places like New Delhi, Gwalior, Jodhpur, Allahabad and later Bombay was quite competitive. I used to love it. There used to be hundreds

Last year, Tricia’s dad gave the kids a kite and I had been planning on taking the kids kite flying as much for as them, as for me, for over a year now. Yesterday, Tricia, the kids and headed over to Seal Point Park behind our home because there is almost always a strong breeze there. Tricia had her Kindle with her and spent the entire time reading. The kids and I flew the kite for an hour or so and got admiring looks from all passersby.

 
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Posted in Anupam, Arjun, dad, Eve, Indians, Tricia

 

Is it just me?

28 May '10

I read the article quoted below on Better Homes and Garden website the other day about Kid-ekette at restaurants. Just like other things, I agree there should be some form of protocol for dining out with children. The author went on to list 10 commandments for fine dining with children. Many of them just made sense, such as making sure not to leave your double stroller in the aisle and if your kids are screaming, it would be best to take them outside. The original article was removed to be replaced by one for “real moms”.

However, I was totally flabbergasted by the overall tone of the post and attitude of the author. Okay, so it was written by someone who doesn’t have kids, that may make it forgivable until I started reading the comments. The comments seemed to swing one of two ways: 1. Leave the kids with a sitter and if you do bring them out feed them in the bathroom and bend over backwards to make sure they don’t do anything more than whisper or two. You don’t like it when I breastfeed at the table? Then you go eat your dinner in the bathroom!

Before I go on, I should fully disclose that I LOVE my babysitter and date night! Absolutely LOVE them! But I love them because I want to have some connecting time with just my husband, not because I don’t want to dine out or be with my kids. I think that is the fundamental difference (between what? Me and the masses?). I don’t mind when I go out if other people’s kids are around making a ruckus, just so long as it isn’t MY kids! Maybe my compassion comes from a bit of ‘been there done that, or maybe I just don’t mind kids. But this brings me to my gripe about our society… Why is it that we don’t seem to like kids and all that being a kid means?

I have lived in many countries in my short life, and while I was probably too young in some of them to have noticed any cultural difference in this arena, I can still say with great certainty, that it is not so in India. Kids are everywhere, and miraculously, they are almost no where at the same time. Culturally, Indians don’t seem to be as likely to get babysitter. Probably one of the many benefits of joint families. And when they go out? They all go together, fine dining or not! Kids are just part of the scene, and that is what I meant by they are also nowhere while everywhere.

What is it about us that has caused us to be so intolerant of children? And to really react as this author did about the thought of maybe seeing an active child at their favorite restaurant? And don’t even mention the breastfeeding! The horrors! In his/her defense, I definitely don’t remember feeling quite to empathetic before I had kids (although I thought I was at the time). However, I luckily usually decided to keep my mouth shut because I knew this tidbit of wisdom: I can’t know what it’s like until I have been there…

Read the article below or click here

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted in couple, Indians, morons, rant, Uncategorized

 

Grenadier Yogender Singh Yadav, Ghatak Commando, PVC

22 Sep '09

Like I mentioned a few days back, most people don’t know that India has had a turbulent history with invaders coming from across the world. These have been coming for silk, spices, religion and a plethora of reasons. So we’ve seen the Mongols, Mughals, Afghans, English, French, Portuguese and more recently Chinese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and even Sri Lankans wage wars, invasions and terrorist attacks. Though India hasn’t really attacked any nation ever… well, unless you count Goa, Pondicherry and Daman/Diu, where the Portuguese and French had small colonies, which were liberated in the 60′s, she certainly has been at the recieving end often. For this reason the Indian defense forces are always involved in border “skirmishes”. This is the story of the Kargil War, fought over the line of control in Kashmir.

So, let’s go to 1999. India and Pakistan were already getting all pissy with each other. Pakistan crossed the line, literally, by entering the Kargil district in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. This act escalated things and both countries were at war for about 3 months between May-July 1999. One of the things India needed to do to regain advantage was to recapture strategic peaks like Tiger Hill on the NH 1A (National highway 1A) route. This sounds easy, but let me explain Tiger Hill to the uninitiated. This “hill” is 18,000 feet high, that is about 5,500 meters. Denali is about 20,000 feet high, which is the tallest mountain in North America. So, obviously the Indians have a sense of humor, Tiger “Hill” my ass.

So, on 4rd July 1999, Grenadier Yogender Singh Yadav a Ghatak Commando was tasked to scale a “hill” and win a war. Now, Ghatak translates to “lethal” in Hindi. So, obviously, some serious badassery is involved to get on this unit. Their role is to act as shock troops and conduct assaults against enemy positions, usually without support from the rest of the battalion. These crazies carry the INSAS assault rifles and stainless steel nuts.

Most Ghatak Commandos are also paratroopers

So, let’s call him Yogi bear cause he just sounds snuggly like a cuddly bunny. Yogi bear, is a commando in the 18th Grenadiers, a unit which has the distinction of the highest number of “Param Vir Chakras”, the highest medal of gallantry, among all Indian Army’s Infantry Regiments. Screw it, I’m going to call him Grenadier Yadav, he deserves that.

Grenadier Yadav, offered to lead the assault up the 17,000 odd feet to the first bunker. His job was to not only take over the bunkers filled with Pakistani soldiers armed to the teeth, but also to set up the ropes to ensure the rest of his platoon could follow him up. Yup, piece of cake says he, as he prepares to climb in the -30 degrees Celsius, about -22 degrees Fahrenheit. So, yeah it was nippy outside, and yes there was a whipping wind. Lastly this was at 11pm. Sounds like a fun day hike to me.

He was working his way up with his platoon commander and a squad of other commandos following him as he’d fix the ropes on the cliff face. They were most of the way up and hear the unmistakable sounds of an RPG. Yup, the Pakistani soldiers were shelling them with a few rocket-propelled grenades and followed that up with heavy machine guns. The Pakistanis were bang on. His entire squad including his commander lost their lives. Grenadier Yadav was shot several times in his shoulder and his groin. Ordinary men would have given up at that point, but not our vsevolod here. He just gets really really upset and pretty much scales the rest of the “hill” like Spiderman. He gets to the top of the cliff, flips his rifle on full auto and charges the bunker, screaming bloody murder, rifle blazing while lobbing grenades. The Pakistanis to thier credit are trying really hard to stop him with more RPG and other heavy artillery fire. Grenadier Yadav, silences all of them, then rather than rest on his laurels, he pulls out his ice axe and charges bunker #2 of 3. He takes over bunker #2 with some serious hand to hand combat. None of that pansy Karate Kid nonsense, ice axes and lethal blows to the larynx.

The rest of his platoon joined him, after scaling the ropes he had set up and suggested that he be taken to safety considering the gushing blood from his groin. He looks at them like they’re off their rocker and charges at full tilt towards bunker #3. His platoon follows him and in minutes Tiger Hill was back in the control of the Indian Army. This was a divisive victory and turned the war in India’s favor.

Indian flag on Tiger Hill

The President of India awarded the “Param Vir Chakra” to Grenadier Yadav posthumously for his show of gallantry and selflessness on Tiger Hill. But here is the problem. He um, wasn’t dead. They just assumed that after being shot several times and breaking multiple bones in the hand to hand combat, nobody would survive. Nope, not this guy… he was at the military hospital in New Delhi recovering. Getting ready for another tour of duty.

Grenadier Yogender Singh Yadav in the center
 
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Posted in badass, Indians

 

Vsevolod Indians

17 Sep '09

Most people don’t think the Republic of India is filled with badass crazies who have protected the country from the baddies. This goes back hundreds of years back to Alexander the Great’s days to the World Wars and wars with Pakistan.

Not all of us are call center agents or farmers or engineers.

I will choose a Vsevolod (“ruler of all” in Russian) at random every other week or so and talk about their badassery and balls out insanity.

 
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Posted in badass, Indians

 

India’s got talent: Super Mario

13 Jul '09

Here’s a group of young Indian gamers recreating Super Mario onstage for an installment of the reality TV show “India’s Got Talent”. It may be a little trite because there are so many takes on Super Mario, but overall till the boss fight, it follows the script quite well, after that it gets a little weird. Pretty cool overall.

 
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Posted in Indians, YouTube