The macaca crime blotter is on overdrive this month.
Long time readers may remember the story of Karishma Dhanak, 20, a UC Irvine student who was found murdered alongside her father about 3 years back. The crime was allegedly committed by her sister’s former boyfriend who wanted revenge on the parents for being responsible for the relationship ending, apparently religion was a factor.
NDTV reports that the accused, 25-year-old Indian national Iftekhar Murtaza, is currently on trial in Orange county, California.
Prosecutors in California’s Orange County had last week said they will …

Desi ishtyle [link] (tip maisnon via email)
No thanks to Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans, it has been every desi guy’s dream to join the mile high club. Murali Nookella achieved it in typical desi ishtyle and probably landed himself on the FBI no-fly list.
Say you’re a 34 year old horny male computer programmer from the subcontinent stuck on a boring cross country flight. What do you do for fun? If your name is Murali Nookella, the answer would be: pull out the male organ and start pleasuring one’s self.
A Delaware …

A genetically modified version of the baingan a.k.a brinjal a.k.a eggplant is at the center of a fascinating debate in India. [Time]
The brinjal in question is no ordinary vegetable: it’s full name is Bt brinjal, whose DNA scientists have fortified with a gene that kills a range of common pests. Its creators say the genetically modified vegetable will increase farm yields and bring a less pesticide-laden vegetable to Indian dining tables, where the fiery brinjal-laden baingan bharta enjoys cult status.
However, project baingan ran into a familiar buzzkill – politicians and …

Indian cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar, is trending on Twitter …….. in 3 different spots! Things related to India trending on twitter are starting to become fairly common. The other day a viral tag titled #awesomeindianthings (which loosely translates to …… uberdesi) was #1 for a while on Twitter. Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to score 200 in a one day international match against South Africa earning him 3 different spots on Twitter trends.
Update: Turns out being politically incorrect when referring to Sachin Tendulkar as batsman as opposed to …

Sometimes competing is bigger than winning. Anyone who’s watched Cool Runnings is likely to echo that sentiment. Bollywood better fire up the camera for a desi version of the same movie, for participating in the winter Olympics is Indian luge competitor, Shiva Keshavan. [Vancouver Sun] (Runa via email)
Keshavan was interested in winter sports from an early age, despite being born in Vashisht, a village in the Indian Himalayas. “I was lucky because I was picked out by an international talent scout who started training me,” said Keshavan, who often trained …

We talked about MetroPCS’ Ranjit Chad tech talk commercial in an earlier post, remarking that there was perhaps some stereotyping of desis going on in this ad. [UD]
Well, the perhaps part has been laid to rest. For some ad execs, Indian-Americans particularly the newer immigrants with their accents and garish (at least from an American perspective) choice of attire, make an easy target to garner a quick chuckle or two at their expense. MetroPCS now has an entire series of these commercials, including a couple aired during the recently concluded …

I don’t really #follow celeb tweeple, well maybe a few but you get the idea, and this is perhaps out of boredom from being stuck home on a stormy Friday evening. I was reading this particular quote in this story about Shiv Sena v/s Bollywood stars (yaaaaawn) and came across this particular quote. [IBN]
“We will be back to Mumbai. I hope the Bandar Sena won’t stop us. Shiv Sena has become a joke to the nation. They’re instilling hatred. I guess they didn’t learn any lesson from the election debacle. …

Is there such a thing as the “Slumdog Millionaire” effect? [THR]
Hollywood Reporter … ummmm…. reports on the revival of two new Indian-American themed comedies, “Nevermind Nirvana” on Fox and “Outsourced” on NBC.
The two comedies — “Nirvana” at Fox and “Outsourced” at NBC — have something else in common: They both are ensemble shows about Indians and Indian Americans.
A third project, a U.S. version of popular British comedy “The Kumars at No. 42,” about an immigrant Indian family, also is poised for revival. Eight years after NBC took a stab at …

Suroosh Alvi, founder of Vice Magazine and VBS.TV, ventures into an area which recently earned the moniker of the “world’s most dangerous area” – the Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan. Pulling some strings, he manages to find a political agent/guide and sets off to visit the world’s largest illegal arms market. Would it be disingenuous to question if there’s a relation between the world’s largest illegal arms market being the world’s most dangerous area? [VBS.TV via CNN]
The market is believed to have its humble origins in the Afghan-Soviet war for …

Savita, every desi guy’s favorite bhabhi, has become a de-facto personification of sorts against the arbitrary censorship standards of the Indian government. [WSJ]
“I’m going to take a shower! You should also change out of those wet clothes,” she greeted a neighbor in a November episode, for example. As expected, the two end up together in the shower. The illustrations are explicit, the dialogue laughably simple: “Oh that feels so…” or “Oh I’m going to…”
Now, some random Mahila mandal in India felt so threatened by this brilliant piece of anti-feminine literary …

MetroPCS’ latest commercial: Tech & Talk with Ranjit and Chad, takes desi stereotyping to new heights (or depths) with a couple of desi dudes in dorky clothes, thick Borat-like mustaches and accents to boot. The ending is kind of funny though with Chad dancing to techno music.

On January 12th 2010, Haiti was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale. The casualties are expected to be in the thousands with more people injured and millions left homeless. [Y!]
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – A major earthquake rocked Haiti, killing possibly thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and left the Caribbean nation appealing for international help.
A five-story U.N. building was also brought down by Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years according to …

…. desi ishtyle. Sujatha (Sue) Sachdeva, Koss’s former vice president of finance and secretary, had a penchant for clothing, jewelery and to put it in simpler terms “bling”. However, there is a reason for the use of the word “former vice president”, she reportedly pursued her love for “da bling” with her employer’s money. [MW]
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal had reported that the U.S. attorney in Milwaukee had filed a criminal complaint charging Sachdeva with embezzling company funds.
The complaint charged that she spent some $4.5 million to buy furs, …

Desi ishtyle. [BBC]
The Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trusts (HLFPPT) had noble intentions when it rolled out around 3000 condom vending machines in Mumbai.
Over 3,000 condom vending machines have been installed in the city as a part of an HIV Aids prevention programme.
These machines are installed in areas where high risk people like truck drivers are likely to visit.
One of the guidelines is that a person should be able to procure one within 15 minutes. It is not easy to get people to use to condoms and take them from …

Blogging is slow these days with our bloggers on vacation either in random locations of the US&A or the glorious nation of Hindustan. But not one to disappoint, we sign off for the holiday break with this little (pardon the pun) jingle.

India has a weird relationship with basketball. No one really plays basketball, at least not at a competitive level. Most sports not named cricket receive little airtime or publicity. Yet, the NBA somehow has garnered a rabid following among youth in the middle class and above in large cities. Everyone and their appa was a Michael Jordan fan in the 90s and a Kobe Bryant or Lebron James fan these days, which reeks of bandwagonism, but I digress.
To capitalize on the bandwagon effect, NBA’s Basketball Without Borders initiative has launched …

Paging the protestor extraordinaire and the saffron clad protector of all things Indian and Hindu – Glenn Beck has insulted the holy Ganges.
MediaMatters has this clip of conservative commentator Glenn Beck launching into a vicious anti-India diatribe just to make an argument in the healthcare debate. Biting sarcasm is one thing but Beck hits an all-time low on the intelligent argument quotient when arguing against the benefits of cheaper healthcare in India he chooses to highlight India’s lack of flush toilets and goes on to state that the name “Ganges” …

The Star Trek Gandhi post inspired me to look into the other desi on Star Trek – Persis Khambatta.

Persis was a model from Bombay and somehow landed the role of Lt. Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Here’s the twist, Persis was a model from India with beautiful long locks and the role of Lt. Ilia required her to be completely bald. So did she somehow wear a wig or did she actually have to shave her head for this role?
In this behind the scenes footage for the …

This interesting feature on BBC talks about the recent emergence of actors of South Asian origin in Hollywood and US television shows. For decades, they were relegated to token and stereotypical roles. As recently as a couple of years back, one of the biggest South Asian names, Kal Penn, played the role of a ….. surprise ….. terrorist on the TV show, 24. Besides Penn, the article also talks about other popular TV names like Aasif Mandvi and Pooja Kumar.
However, before any of the current crop had an opportunity to …

The holiday season is here in the US and A and with that commences the seemingly never ending list of potluck parties, not that I’m complaining. At one such potluck in an official setting, some of us volunteered to bring food towards the potluck lunch.
I took the easy way out, I brought salad and dressing to the lunch. A co-worker of mine, desi obviously, has his contribution listed as “Indian fried rice”, which brings up an all-important question: WTF is Indian Fried Rice?
I probably missed the memo but what is …