Two articles I read this morning stayed with me the entire day.
The first was this uplifting ( sarcasm) headline “India at bottom in man-woman equality index: World Economic Forum” in the Times of India. India ranked a shameful 114 out of 134 developing countries , indexed in terms of man-woman equality. The gender gap is increasing – not the least because of an estimated 25 Million ” missing women ” in India.Missing because of female foeticide or abortion. On the list , India ranks behind Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri …

Anand Deva, a Sydney-based doctor, is in the middle of a major racial controversy after performing a blackface spoof of the Jackson Five on an Australian show ‘Hey Hey its Saturday’. [TOI]
This story seems to have garnered worldwide attention as Harry Connick Jr was one of the judges on the show and ended up protesting the performance and rating it a zero. The offender, Dr. Deva expressed surprise over the controversy and made a rather weak argument trying to justify it.
“I am an Indian, and five of the six of …

This is a post that I would rather not have written. It is one of those that is deeply uncomfortable and yet it must be written. Especially after the minor meltdown I had last week. Diepriye Kuku, an African American Phd Student at the Delhi School ofEconomics gives a searing and first hand account of the racism he faces daily in India in a piece entitled wincingly enough ” India is Racist, And Happy about it ” published in Outlook India. (link

CNN International has this curious story on the prevalent fairness cream craze in India. [CNN]
Curious because CNN treats an age old social issue like it’s a new fad. Basically the article is a segue into comments by Indian Member of Parliament, Brinda Karat, who labeled the concept behind such creams “racist”.
“Basically if you need a job you have to have white skin. If you want a good partner, a companion you need white skin and you always seem to get it once you’ve used the fairness cream. Basically I …

In case you have been living under the proverbial rock, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), was detained at an U.S. airport. [CNN-IBN]
Contrary to popular reports, SRK was not held hostage by a fan masquerading as airport security who was smitten by his six-pack.
The actor said he was told he had a “common name” and hence the questioning was required.
“It was in Newark where I was detained for questioning. It was because they said my name was common to some name that popped up on the computer. They were asking …

An attack on Indian students in Australia  – the latest in a string of such incidents- has left a 25 year old engineering student from Andhra Pradesh in critical condition in a Melbourne hospital.
Shravan Kumar, the 25-year-old student, is critical, said one of his close friends who had a narrow escape during that attack.
“Doctors are still unsure if Kumar will survive and if he does, he will lose his vision or memory”, Kumar’s friend, Srinivas Gandhi, said.(link)
The group of Indian students was attacked by a group of teenagers. In the …

I don’t know how this escaped my notice .As of July 2008, the USCIS has revised list of vaccines required for applicants seeking to adjust status to become legal permanent residents. For those of us who have gone through the process earlier, its not out of the norm to be asked to produce vaccination records or to undergo a TB test. But tucked away in the list of mandatory vaccinations for immigrant women wanting to adjust their status is this one: Human papillomavirus.As far as I know , the only …

Rediff reports (desinole via Über Desi Twitter) that the heartbeat of Malayalam cinema masses, Mammootty, (with all due respect to Mohanlal fans) was subjected to ethnic stereotyping at New York’s JFK airport.
Was it because of moustache envy? Perhaps, but Mammootty’s real name seems to be the more likely cause.
Mammootty’s real name, which appears in his passport as Muhammad Kutty Ismail. When the immigration official saw the last name Ismail, he sent the actor to a separate room for questioning. Mammootty has visited the US 22 times, once after the 9/11 …

The latest in the “foot in mouth” chronicles starring  Texas Rep Betty Brown:
Rep. Betty Brown suggested that Asian Americans might want to adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with” when they want to vote so their names will match what is on registration rolls (link: via angryasianman.com)
To be fair, the hon. representative was definitely *not* addressing Indian names because as every school kid in America knows – Indians are not Asian ! ( ASIDE: This was one of the biggest culture shocks for me when I moved …

The US army has ordered two Sikh men, a doctor and a dentist to get rid of their turbans and shave off their hair and beard when they report for active duty.[CNN]
The irony?
They will recruite for your language skills if you speak Punjabi.
Uncle Sam: “No turbans”
(CNN) — For Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi, a doctor, and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, this is a hill worth fighting for.
These two U.S. military recruits of the Sikh faith are challenging an Army order that they remove their turbans and cut their …

Growing up we were told: Keep your head down, eyes averted , be ladylike .The nuns at school would not let us run in the hallways – no matter what the emergency. We had to walk like ladies, talk like ladies.
The conventional wisdom drilled into us when we – oh so often – encountered that loathsome breed – the roadside Romeo was -Don’t respond. Don’t acknowledge the insult. Don’t make eye contact. Keep your head down,keep traveling like nothing happened – like no-one was saying filthy things or passing lewd …

Proof in the new year that while you can take the desi out of the des, you can’t take the des out of the desi.
Recent research has shown that the desire for a male child, well -known in Asia , follows immigrants here in the USA too.
A Columbia University study suggests that Chinese, Indian and Korean immigrants have been using medical technology, most likely including abortion, to assure their later children were boys. And a soon-to-be published analysis of birth records by a University of Texas economist estimates there …

The constitution of India begins “We, the people of India”. Nowhere does it say “We the people with exceptions…” . So I cannot figure out at what point the Government of India decided that a complete section of people can be excepted from constitutional protection. I read this article in the “Times of India” which deals with the court case being heard in the New Delhi High Court. A group of activists has requested a change to Section377, specifically a :

toning down of the act …

Raj Naidu, an immigrant engineer from India won a discrimination case against his former supervisor at the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). [SF Gate]
Here’s the sad part to the story, his supervisor at the PUC was also an immigrant, from Iran.
Naidu, an engineer in the state PUC’s water division since 2001, received strong job evaluations until he got Moshen Kazemzadeh as a new supervisor in 2004, the court said.
Normally, when you got to go, you got to go. “Not so fast, my friend” said Raj’s supervisor. Reminding Raj of his …