Regulars of this blog will probably notice some house cleaning around here. We’ve made a bunch of changes, some obvious, some not-so-obvious.

Regulars will probably notice that the look and feel of the blog has been upgraded. We made long pending upgrades to our Wordpress software and changed the blog theme. We went with the Newsweek theme because we felt it was clean, simple and fitted in well with our already existing content and features. And above all, it was 100% free – desi ishtyle. Vaat to do? We are like that vonly, no?

Gone are the broken links and missing pages but the top menu stays pretty much the same. We decide to up our Twitter presence by getting an official Twitter account. Any tweets made by this account will show up on the homepage. Just our own little way of keeping our readers updated on the latest. The best way to reach us on Twiiter is still by using the #uberdesi hashtag.

The “Total Desi News” section stays. For those unfamiliar with this section, this Google powered newsfeed resides on the homepage and updates every 5 minutes with the latest desi news. The popular “Polls” section also stays.

One the biggest changes we’ve made is moving towards integration with Facebook. You see, by our very nature Über Desi is all about community. In this case, the community that fits a certain demographic. At this point in time, we feel that Facebook is by far the most commonly used social networking site used by our readers. Besides, it’s easier to build Facebook apps to integrate with Wordpress. So, Facebook it is. If you already have a Facebook account, you can now click on the large blue “Connect with Facebook” button on our home page and other pages to login to comment on UberDesi.com. Also, join the UD Facebook group, which we have big plans for in the near future.

Oh, and Orkutians and Tweeple, we love you too.

Not that some of our readers really care about this stuff, but we changed hosting servers. After the episode with Sarah Palin crashing Über Desi, our traffic has come back to normal proportions, making a dedicated server redundant. So we’re back to hosting on GoDaddy.com, cheap and reliable – desi ishtyle.

The poll section has already been active and most readers have been either upbeat about our new look or feel that there is room for improvements. I’ve also received some tweets and emails mostly positive. To those who responded about the blog having potential for improvements, I’m interested in knowing what some of those might possibly be. Feel free to use the comments section below or the Tipster page.

Welcome to Über Desi 2.0! Enjoy!

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 genres in his compositions, particularly in reference to Gangsta Blues [ITunes], from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack and the reggaton influence in one of my recent favorites, the Taxi Taxi number from Sakkarakatti. I also used the occasion for a shout out to his catchy collaboration with Apache Indian for the Lovebirds soundtrack from 1996.

The verdict on my contribution has overwhelmingly been that I sounded EXCITED. Yes, I was excited and if I had been speaking to him in person, I’d have been even more excited and tongue tied. So, there!

You can listen to the webcast (I come and ask my question at about 50:00 into the discussion) by clicking on the embedded player below, or go to the SAJA page on Blogtalkradio (link).

Our indomitable blogger, Anantha, represented Über Desi on a veritable who’s who panel on a webcast organized by SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association) about the powder keg of a situation in Mumbai. [SAJA webcast]

Anantha had some interesting thoughts on the Indian media’s coverage of this situation and also on how online social media is helping maintain contact between those affected and the rest of the world. Feel free to listen to the thought provoking discussion on the SAJA webcast].

About a month ago, I was on the SAJA panel discussing The South Asian Blogosphere and How it is Changing the Media. Embedded below is the episode of the podcast, feel free to leave your comments below.

When you do get a chance visit the SAJA blog, they do a great job of keeping us in the loop about Desi events happening here in the US. They also analyze and discuss events from a Desi angle.

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.