It is a truth universally acknowledged in India that a politician bereft of an issue to express his indignation over, would concoct one out of thin air. The moment such a concoction is introduced to the mango citizens (aam janta if you are wondering), the Indian news-media congregates to take a swig out of the barrel and proceeds to get high.

This familiar scene is playing out currently in India. In what has to be the most WTF evoking “It happens only in India” type occurrences that I have seen since moving back home, an innocuous exchange on Twitter (see image below) between a journalist and the most famous Indian recipient of the Colbert Bump in dominating newsprint and airwaves. It has politicians jostling among themselves to express their displeasure and the media, not one to be left behind, has been fanning the flames mentioning twits and twats every minute of the day for the past 24 hours and counting.

It was the stuff fairy tales are made of. It was a fairy tale that every sports person playing a sport other than cricket in India dream about, a Cinderella story in which you were picked by foreign team to play in a professional league abroad. But most Cinderella stories have their own evil witch who makes it difficult for our heroine. Geethu Anna Jose is one such Cinderella and the evil witch in her case, is the world’s largest employer, the Indian Railways (link via Curdriceaurora).
Geethu Anna Jose was …

This has been a week when the culture police has been out in full force in India. But this post is about an incident with a difference. For a change, it was the actual police that got into the act, this time to enforce public indecency laws that are more stringent in India than other place in the world, save for the Islamic nations of the Middle east and the “Gelf”.
The need to enforce “strict moral standards” is very strong in India particularly in Chennai where the nighty wearing maamis …

I have been off the blogging scene for the past few weeks for various personal reasons but this was one opportunity that I would not have missed for anything in this world – a chance to listen and interact with one of my musical idols, A. R. Rahman. Thanks to SAJA, I had a chance not only to listen to him talk, but to actually ask him questions and then participate in a discussion later.
After mulling over different things in my head, I asked him about his experimenting with different …

As someone who indulges in the nerdy pastime, my ears perk up when I hear about movies that revolve around quizzing. Such movies are few and far in between and the subject being such a niche, it is not surprising that the movies that get made are made by exemplary auteurs and writers who are through in their research.
Slumdog Millionaire seems to be one such movie. It tells us the story of Jamal, an 18 year-old half illiterate orphan from the slums of Mumbai who is a participant on …

For most level headed people, falling in love with a person that you have only spoken to over the phone is the stuff movie scripts are made of. Yet for others, it is what marriage is all about.
Priya Sethi is one of the latter. Even though she is engaged to marry a suitor chosen by her father who disapproves of her working in a call center, she is intrigued by the prospect of falling in love with advertising executive Granger Woodruff, a customer who calls in to report fraudulent charges …

… or NOT!
It is a fact that Prabhu Deva is quite well known among the Youtube types as the Crazy Indian. While it is mostly due to the excellent subtitling from one particular Youtube user named “Buffalax” (leading to the now famous verb, Buffalaxed), the Crazy Indian meme actually precedes Buffalax by at least a few months (if not more). The earliest of these “Crazy Indian” videos were actually added by Portuguese/Brazilian Youtube users two years ago, as a quick search on the 2nd most popular search engine in the …

Each week between March and November, a deep schism develops between some of the Über bloggers here as the Formula One circus travels round the world, a direct effect of the omnipresent cold war between the Intelligent World and the *cough* dumb *cough* Tifosi. But when it comes to Vijay Mallya and Team Force India, we always cheer as one for Fisi and Sutil as they fight their way through the ranks.
So it was indeed a pleasant surprise to hear today that Force India is going to tie in with …

Chennai born Arvind Adiga has won the 2008 Man Booker prize and £50,000 prize for for his debut novel The White Tiger. Adiga, only the fourth first time novelist to win the prize, beat out established names such as Amitava Kumar and Sebastian Barry to win the prize for his novel that the Guardian describes as “a bracingly modern novel about the dark side of the new India”.
Adiga was born in Chennai in 1974 and was raised partly in Australia. Having studied at Columbia and Oxford universities, he became a …

Dial 1800-ROMANCE! Ever imagine picking up a phone and talking to a customer service person and ending up falling in love with them? What? That’s the stuff movie scripts of made up of? Oh well. You caught me. That is the plotline of “THE OTHER END OF THE LINE”, the latest comedy from Ashok Amritraj productions
Shot in the Über beautiful cities of San Franscisco and Mumbai, The Other End Of The Line stars Desperate Housewife alum Jessie Metclafe and Thalaivar Rajinikant’s one time on-screen squeeze, Shriya Saran in leading …

6 members of a desi family were found dead in a house in the San Fernando Valley area (hattip: Annu). At a news conference this afternoon, LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore characterized the incident as an apparent murder suicide (Link).
Karthik Rajaram, 45, used a handgun he purchased Sept. 16, Moore said. The weapon was found still in his grasp, he said. The bodies of the man’s 39-year-old wife, 69-year-old mother-in-law Indra Ramasesham, and three sons — ages 19, 12 and 7 — were found inside the home’s various bedrooms.
Authorities …

It is a truth universally acknowledged by people in the know that when you get a bunch of immigrant desis from the length and breath of India into a single room, chaos will reign. Some would say its organized chaos, but nevertheless. Manish Acharya’s debut feature, Loins of Punjab, turns this organized chaos into a howl-arious laugh fest, thanks to an stellar ensemble cast.
Somewhere in the 29th state of India a.k.a New Jersey, the reigning king of pork loins in the North East decides the best form of advertisement for …

A group of strangers converge on that desi-est of desi addas (and my home away from home), New Jersey. For three days, each of them work towards fulfilling their biggest aspiration – to win the title of Desi Idol and $25000 in cash. And as each of ecelectic mix of characters do their bit over the three days, the fun unfolds. That’s the premise of Manish Acharya’s feature directorial debut LOINS OF PUNJAB PRESENTS.
We, at UberDesi have been waiting for this movie ever since we saw the promos and little …

Almost four months ago, Metro.co.uk reported that BMW had embarked on a crusade against canine urination. Describing the Canine Repellent Alloy Protection System, Dr. Hans Zoff stated the obvious.
‘Research shows that most BMW customers love to keep their cars clean – but dog fouling is a constant irritant.’
They even brought in an animal rights group to sell their case, albeit with a weird choice of words.
But Lola Forpi, from campaign group Put Animals First, said: ‘All motorists must expect to go through the odd puddle here and there. As well …

15 minutes ago, this post popped up on my feed-reader and my eyes popped out of their sockets.
Some n00b has totaled his/her LP-640 (that’s the Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster, for you uninitiated n00bs) in Mumbai, of all places. *sigh* And the Team-BHP forums, has a few more unsubstantiated mentions of accidents involving high end cars (incl. Rolls Royce Phantoms and Bentley Arnages) in India.
It is understood that this driver lost control while taking a right turn at 4 in the morning and went over the divider. And it seems that the …

Monica Devi, the only weightlifter chosen to represent India for the Beijing Olympics will not be in Beijing at all. Rather, she will be cooling her heels back home, after she failed a drug test (Hat Tip: Tony via email) and tested positive for “anabolic salt”.
Anonymous sources told PTI that the drug test was conducted on June 29 and was revealed hours before the squad was to leave for Beijing.
She has proven to be a winner and her three medals (one silver and two bronze) in the Asian Championship earlier …

If you are a enthusiast with a keen interest in automobiles and the business in general, like a couple of us Über bloggers are, you will certainly recognize Tesla Motors.
Tesla is an automobile startup that produces high performance automobiles with a difference – their cars are battery-electric hybrids. Their first first production vehicle (lucky customers have started taking deliveries), the Tesla Roadster, is an all-electric sports car capable of a top (governed) speed of 125 mph with a range of 221 miles on a single charge.
The reason that we is …

This is a first for UberDesi. In spite of Tamil being in a majority here at UD, we have resisted joining the quest for Tamil domination in the desi blogosphere. But, perhaps it is time to give in to our baser instincts. And what better way to hitch our cart to that bandwagon than to review the latest Thalaivar padam (i.e. Rajinikant film)!
If you know your Hindu mythology, you will recognize the name Sudama. Kusela / Kuchela is another name he is known by. As childhood friends, Lord Krishna and …

Rejoice all you word freaks on Facebook. Your favorite game is back, albeit in a new avatar.
In case you have been living under a rock or something, Rajat & Jayant Agarwalla pulled their popular Scrabble like app off Facebook last week (Pssst.. check out Scrabulous.com), after they were sued in US federal court in New York, by Hasbro Inc.
After months of uncertainty, Hasbro (who signed a deal last year with video game maker Electronic Arts to develop digital versions of the classic board games including Monopoly, Scrabble and Yahtzee), …

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 and cricket occupying much of the weekend these days, it was natural that the timing of the invite left one confused. But with some deft juggling, time was set aside on Saturday for a trip down to the intersection of 115th and Broadway. However nothing similar could be managed for Friday (or Sunday …