Aasif Mandvi is BROWN!

Looks like you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Ooh and watch out for John’s clothes in the video. Tip [GP]

SAJA webcast on South Asian Blogosphere

Today SAJA is having a webcast on the state of the South Asian blogosphere.
Sabahat Ashraf of iFaqeer.com, Anil Dash of AnilDash.com, Maria Giovanna of Filmiholic.com, Arun Venugopal of SAJAforum.org and yours truly representing UD will be on the panel.
Make sure you tune in.

Pakistan fires on US helicopters

Late last night, BBC reported that Pakistan fired on US helicopters that crossed into the Pakistani air space. The report from Times of India has more details

The gunship helicopters apparently intruded into Pakistani airspace at the border village of Lowara Mandi in North Waziristan Agency before they were fired at by Pakistani forces last night, [...]

Hummer dealership decides it wants to sell Smart cars instead

A&E, yes its a TV channel, had this reality show called the “King of Cars”, which followed the lives of the salesmen at the dealership.
Given the cost of gas, slow moving automobile stock and did I mention the cost of gas, Hummer is not the choice of people, even in Las Vegas, the city [...]

Chandok says thanks, but no thanks.

With the GP2 series wrapping up, Karun finished a distant 10th, but let that not fool you. He had some amazing races, fought and for a lot of the races, luck was not with him.
A few days ago, I wrote about why Karun should not take the tester role at Force India F1 and [...]

4 more years of the same. Sarah Palin agrees.

From the ABC interview that will air soon. The emphasis, of course is mine.

GIBSON: And let me finish with this. I got lost in a blizzard of words there. Is that a yes? That you think we have the right to go across the border with or without the approval of the Pakistani government, to [...]

Mallya wants Karun to be a test driver.

Karun Chandok, The great brown hope (at least when it comes to F1) has been doing pretty well in the GP2 series. For the uninitiated the GP2 series is the current feeder to the Formula 1 series and a few good drivers, Lewis Hamilton, Timo Glock and Heikki Kovalainen have emerged from there.
While Karun [...]

Study suggest incense burning could lead to cancer

Every desi knows the drill, be it at a temple or a church. Incense has always been a big part of our tradition. However a new study claims that prolonged exposure to incense could lead to cancer.
Image from abrinsky
"Given that our results are backed by numerous experimental studies showing that incense is a [...]

Obama picks Joe Biden, 7-11 hands McCain the win?

As someone who cannot vote, I do not have much to say on the subject.
But in today’s world where people use Facebook to announce their engagement and Youtube to announce their breakup, I have a strange feeling that the 7-11 video will be the Achilles’s heel in Obamas quest for the White House.

Karthikeyan could be back - The F1 silly season has begun

I’m not sure on how people dig this stuff up, but someone decided to pick a quote from Mallyas statement from over a year ago and have figured that Karthikeyan could be back.

Force India boss Vijay Mallya has indicated that his Silverstone-based team will not be changing their line-up ahead of next season but [...]

Desi Spotting - GE ad for olympics

Who is Balbir Singh? In search of Schumis ex Guru.

A couple of weeks ago, news broke that Balbir Singh, Michael Schumachers’ ex spiritual guru and physiotherapist was back, after a 3 year break.
As happy as I was to seeing another Indian face in the paddock, I was intrigued by who this man was. The regular readers and friends know that F1 is the [...]

Another desi child predator caught in the act.

A couple of years ago, Dateline featured a bunch of Desi men trying to meet girls kids, chatting with them and then showing up when their parents were not at home. Except the entire thing was a sting operation.
Now another desi has made news, for the same thing.

An Indian techie- 28 years -old [...]

MIA on the Pineapple Express sound track

For the past week, I have been intrigued by the sound track in the ad of Seth Rogans new stoner action flick, Pineapple Express. After being tired of being lazy, I googled it and had to share it with you.
Looks like the lady form across the pond is slowly but surely climbing the ladder.

Trailer [...]

Bollywood on SYTYCD

Hat tip [The pretty lady from HHC]. Honestly I was not expecting much but DAMN, they did an amazing job.

Jindal flip flops himself out of the veep position

A long time ago, a friend of mine, who wanted to get into politics quoted her dad. He said something along the lines of “Never do drugs, because when you decide you want to be a senator, that will come to bite you”.
Every politician knows this, well every American politician knows this and if you [...]

Lakshmi Mittal now on Goldman board.

Goldman Sachs named Lakshmi N. Mittal as an independent director. He will be the board’s 13th member.

Did you know Laloo could speak in English?

Vinay is no more.

You must have, at some point yesterday come across the heartbreaking news that Vinay Chakravarthy lost the battle against leukemia.
A spokesperson for the family has this to say [Via SAJA]
“Vinay was an amazing soul who inspired all of us with his will to live. We take some comfort in knowing his journey may [...]

And you would think it’s for the opening night.

Posters of a big tamil movie star line the street, the venue that could hold 20,000 people is twice as full, stampede on the streets and every big name in town and some from out of town decide to show up. Ideally this would be the scene for the first show of a Rajnikanth movie.
Not [...]

We also use filthy words in the Spelling bee

Just had to share this. [Via]

Desi Retro Ad of the week: Fevicol

Warning: Not sure if Animals were not harmed in making this ad.
Fevicol was one of the first companies to have smart ad’s, they also had a bunch of different ones, unlike most other companies.
Speaking of smart, most Amul billboards are very smart and I think they keep changing them every month, ahh I wish someone [...]

Desi Retro Ad of the week: Colgate Gel

Yes 1996, not that long ago, but it is retro, why, because I say so.
Ooh and you can see Aishwarya before she became this big star. And from what I see, her looks have not changed much.

A letter to Patel from the Australian GP

Regular readers will notice that this is styled after the “Letter to cousin Pedro” featured on planetf1, what can I say, I am just a big fan of them and Force India. So here is Mallya writing to his friend Patel and hopefully he will find the time to keep writing for the rest of [...]

Desi Retro Ad of the week: Natraj Pencil

Black and white from way back in the day.