TOW SAJA Convention 2008

Looks like you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Last year was fun. So three weeks ago, when one saw Sree’s email wondering if someone would represent this Über blog at SAJA’s annual conference this year, disappointment arose. With work being the dampener during the week [...]

Mr. Tata goes to the USA

The ink has not even dried on the papers and the goodwill has started to flow in. Barely a month has gone by after he signed a $2.3 billion deal to buy prestigious, but ailing British car makers Jaguar and Land Rover from their overlords in Detroit, Ratan Tata is already doing his bit for [...]

Live cricket on ESPN360

If you are a hardcore sports fan, you will definitely be familiar with ESPN360. For those of you who are not, here is the lowdown (via Wikipedia)
ESPN360.com is a broadband network for live sports programming in the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Europe. In the U.S. the network can only be accessed through [...]

Unlikely Support For The Love Guru (UPDATED)

(scroll to the bottom for an update)
The makers of the new Mike Myers homage to juvenile toilet humor, have managed to garner support from an unlikely source. The same source that the movie parodies, well sort of.
The North American Chapter of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has just urged Hindus protesting Guru [...]

God’s Divine Messenger Shows Obama The Light

The Pundit of Pizazz, Stephen G. Colbert, helps Barack Obama find a new religion by exploring Hinduism with Hindu Temple Society of North America President Uma Mysorekar and presents some Hin-do’s and Hin-don’ts.

The Exorcism Of Susan By The Young Piyush Jindal

Via Boing Boing comes this amazing story about dark forces and spiritual healing, an incident that will be out of place on a Twilight Zone script. And we, at UberDesi would not have even batted an eyelid, if not for the fact that the main protagonist in question was our own Bobby. No, not that [...]

It ain’t over…

… until the fat lady sings. Or in the case of Formula 1, till they sing the national anthems.
Just over an hour ago, the desi presence in Formula 1, Force India, found this the hard way. Just over 10 minutes to go before the clock ticked to zero (there is a 2 hour limit [...]

Jhatpat Restaurant Review: Dosa Grill, North Brunswick, NJ

Submitted by Anantha
Name of Restaurant: Dosa Grill (http://www.dosagrill.com/)
Restaurant Address: 1980 Route 27, North Brunswick, NJ-08902 (Near the intersection of Route 27 & Cozzens lane)
Restaurant Phone: 732-422-6800
1. What kind of meal did you have?
A. Dinner

2. What kind of food is it?
A. South Indian / North Indian mix

3. What did you eat and drink?
A.
I had -
a. Idly [...]

Asok’s lost his pants

Our friendly neighborhood desi intern could be in trouble. And America waits with bated breath.
After coming back from the dead with a piece of All-American candy in him, it had been a relatively calm period in Asok Land.
But not any more. Yesterday, Asok was provoked into using some banned Dark Arts version of telekinesis. [...]

Olympics and the freedom of choice

Much has been said about the Olympic torch relays and the fact that some people are calling for the torch bearers to boycott it to express solidarity with the Tibetans. I have a couple of things to say, things that seem to have been conveniently forgotten in all the politics and events of the past [...]

Breaking News - Jaguar/Land Rover change hands

And so it finally goes down… sort of.
Autoblog is reporting (via Autonews.com) that Ford and Tata have put in the finally signed off on a 2.65 billion deal. Finally, Tata gets its hands on Jaguar a once proud brand that has since fallen into bad hands and a inept management, and Land Rover, a iconic [...]

Once the Jeep goes desi…

Ok, that title does not make any sense. But the news is nevertheless huge.
After Tata, now it’s Mahindra. Gawker Media’s automobile blog - Autoblog is now reporting that Mahindra and Mahindra may soon own the Jeep brand.
In order to reach the markets that matter, M&M may be looking to forge an alliance with Chrysler [...]

Cheap Cars and Dear Gas - A Precognitive Prevarication

Last week, I speculated that 2008 could turn out to be India’s solely because of the trendsetting auto industry. It can be argued that these trends are by no means cutting edge technological. Rather, this upswing in newsworthy snippets has solely been caused by some smart economics and business decisions. And curiously one company, Tata [...]

Is ‘08 the Year of the Tatas?

The last couple of months have seen a bunch of India related news snippets in the automotive media. The three major auto blogs that i subscribe to, Autoblog, Jalopnik and The Truth about Cars have all devoted multiple posts to India related subjects recently. While the Nano and the Jaguar/Land Rover sale have gotten the [...]

Argumentatum ad-hominem? Guilty as charged

If you are desi, you will know that the Indian cricket team is currently touring Australia. And things have not been going well for India. Australia have been their usual efficient selves while the Indians, hampered by a mind freeze by their own board that pooh poohed the lack of preparatory games before the test [...]

Asok 2.0

Were reports of Asok’s demise greatly exaggerated? Well, yes, if you believe in the ancient Hindu principles of karma and reincarnation. So it seems that he is back from his seemingly temporary stay in heaven. His cloners really did “Make it happen with Snickers” and now he has been reborn in Amreeka with a piece [...]

Obituary - Asok (19** - 2007)

Asok (age unknown), the world’s most famous desi intern and telekinetic IIT alum, died today. Details of the sad death are yet to be known. Sources say that the presence of a curious Grim Reaper as his co-pilot in a prototype moon shuttle and the apparent lowering of the value of his life to below [...]

Spirit of Halloween - desi ishtyle

One Halloween, a few summers ago, on an unusually balmy night, one decided to adopt the best spirit of Halloween that one could and dress up as a M.i.D (Man in Dhoti, if you are asking!) for the best Halloween street party in the world.
Sadly, no one understood! *sigh*
But surely a lot of you feel [...]

Virtual Reality Travel - Desi ishtyle!

In the last couple of years, a slew of budget airlines have cropped up in India. But not every Indian can experience the joys of air travel. It never has been the case. For example, I lost my air travel virginity (for the record, I am not a member of the “Mile High Club” yet) [...]

Indian GP venue decision soon?

It is official. Alonso and Hamilton have just completed a McLaren 1,2 at Monza. But the talking point in the Indian context is that the decision on the venue for the Indian GP is expected in a week.
This piece of news is probably a week old, but sadly slipped under the UD radar. But [...]

Bollywood gets Hitched….

… and may be slapped with a $30 million law suit!
Prem is a Love Guru who solves out love problems of everyone. He meets Bhaskar Diwakar Chaudhary who comes to Prem for help in his love life. Bhaskar loves his Boss Priya Jaisingh but unable to express his love to her as she [...]

Spent bullets in a new gun?

A few months ago, I had posted about the breakaway Indian Cricket League, proposed by Zee TV head honcho Subash Chandra and the ramifications it would have on cricket as we know it. At that point, it was just that, an announcement.
Is Subhash Chandra trying to do a Packer? Is this independent cricket league [...]

TOW the SAJA convention ‘07

It is almost August. Summer is approaching its home stretch. People are having parties celebrating their favorite boy wizard and India’s cricket team is playing in England. As for me, I am spending most of my waking hours, thinking about my day job in one way or the other. But I do manage to have [...]

The final countdown…

47 days later, it all comes down to one game. Two teams, one that has steamrolled every single barrier in front of them and the other that while not being as spectacular as the other, has come out with a professional performance every single time. Australia has been the behemoth that everybody loves to [...]

New Zealand vs Sri Lanka - A Preview

Have I ever told you that this World Cup is the most evenly matched tournament in its 30 year history? Oh I did? Let me tell you again. This World Cup is the most evenly matched tournament in the 30 year history of the tournament. And this first semi final match is no exception. Man [...]