For the record I’m not for any kind of religious celebrations sponsored by tax payer dollars, but since that appears to be unavoidable I might as well blog about it. (tip Krupali via Über Desi on Twitter)
The Obama White House deserves a lot of credit for sharing their videos on the world wide interwebs via the U-tubes. Penn Masala makes an appearance, and I’m a big fan of them, but their choice of song appears to not jive with the occasion. Barack Obama flanked by a sea of South and East Asian faces launches into a 10 minute monologue ending with “saal mubaraq”. Obama’s South Asian connections need to do a better job providing him with the right word for the occasion “badaai” (congratulations in Hindi) as opposed to “mubaraq” (congratulations in Urdu). Finally, there are Sanskrit prayers by a beaming Hindu priest, who probably earned himself the moniker of “White House vadiyar” or “Obama vadiyar” (priest in Tamil).
Easy as it might be to nitpick the White House Diwali, it’s refreshing to see a performance by Penn Masala, the diya lighting by Barack Obama and shlokas by a Hindu priest, all celebrating Diwali in the White House of all places – 21st century desi ishtyle.
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