Make way for the Loins…

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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 [...]

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 [...]

iPhone 3G makes midnight India debut

4 customers show up. [Reuters]
Pimping an iPhone 3G - desi ishtyleimg: via Reuters
Remember when Apple launched the iPhone 3G nationwide in the US? That launch garnered more negative publicity than all the positive hype that the pre-launch mass hysteria was going to generate. [Time]
People camped out all night only to receive iPhone sets that could [...]

Condom Ringtone

As part of a massive social awareness campaign to prevent the spread of HIV, CondomCondom.org has produced a catchy a cappella 45 seconds long mobile phone ringtone solely comprising the word “condom”.
[CondomCondom.org] [via]
The campaign is produced by the BBC World Service Trust and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The basic goal is [...]

Remove THE Musharaf….

Save THE Pakistan? (img: via TOI)
Musharraf has become a common noun, so has Pakistan.

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Nitin Sawhney featuring Paul McCartney - My Soul

Sir McCartney has come out with a collaboration with Nitin Sawhney titled “My Soul”. [TOI]
News reports allege this song is dedicated to Paul McCartney’s now former wife Heather Mills but the video features McCartney’s first wife, Linda. The number has a distinctly desi flavor to it and the video with its cheesy 80s flavor would [...]

Wordscraper - Facebook’s Phoenix?

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 [...]

An ode to Aya Ram, Gaya Ram

With the Congress party-led UPA coalition in India staring down the barrel of a crisis, with the no-confidence vote looming large, elected members of smaller parties are coming into more focus. [Reuters]
“So this is democracy??”, Ghandi (sic) seems to be sayingimg: via Reuters
With a vote of confidence (or one of no-confidence) looming large on the [...]

Pakistan stock market plunges, investor go loco …..

….. desi ishtyle, of course. [NYT] (tip Karthik via email)
Bad day at work?img: via NYT
The pictured scene is not from a campy Lollywood flick (which by the way I highly recommend for purely entertainment purposes), it’s the aftermath of the violence near the Karachi stock exchange. After 15 days of losses and the worst month [...]

Grand wedding entrance - desi ishtyle

We @ Über Desi are vary vary family-like - loving, nosy and overbearing. So much that we’re already planning the baraats of our yet-to-be-married resident bloggers [1,2] even without marriage dates or in some cases, without potential brides. So when we heard about rich grooms in India arriving at the wedding venues in choppers, we [...]

The Next Top Kachrawali

*kachrawali = female scavenger
All in an evening’s work at a fashion show in New York called Mission Sanitation where former scavengers from India sashayed down the ramp with professional models. The event was organized by the UN in conjunction with Sulabh International. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh was the promoter, the costumes were [...]

Mr. Tata goes to the USA

The ink has not even dried on the papers and the goodwill has started to flow in. Barely a month has gone by after he signed a $2.3 billion deal to buy prestigious, but ailing British car makers Jaguar and Land Rover from their overlords in Detroit, Ratan Tata is already doing his bit for [...]

Did you know Laloo could speak in English?

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Now it’s a Hanuman murti* for Obama

* Murti = idol in Hindi
Them Hindoos currently are nowhere close to being a dominant force when it comes to electorate size in the US [UD]. But that doesn’t stop from trying to influence the outcome of the November elections. Back in April, when Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania, she was gifted a Ganesh murti [UD]. [...]

Laloo blogs

In case you missed it, Laloo Prasad Yadav, my candidate for President of The United States, has started blogging. [Lalu's blog] [via TOI]
It appears from the comments section, his blog has turned into the Indian railways complaint desk.

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Love is having to say you’re sari: Jessica Alba

Ash points us to this picture of Jessica Alba on the sets of “The Love Guru”.
Jessica looking mast mastimg: via Filmiholic.com
Previously on Über Desi:Love is having to say you’re sari: Ashley Judd.

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Black IPL cheerleaders claim racial abuse

Two black British cheerleaders in an interview to “The SUN” were quoted as saying that they were stopped from going on stage at an IPL pre-match show by a staff member from pre-match show organisers Wizcraft International Entertainment. The staff members allegedly told the two girls: “people here don’t want to see dark people“. The [...]

Artistic Freedom: 1, Religious Fundamentalists: 0

The Delhi High court rejected all cases of obscenity registered against MF Husain by Hindu fundamentalists. [BBC] (tip Runa via email)
A court in the India has dropped legal proceedings in three cases against one of the country’s best-known and controversial artists.
MF Husain has been accused of obscenity in at least seven cases filed against him [...]

Wedding gifts and WCs

I appreciate many things about life in the USA. Amongst these are great sanitation and wedding registries. I am one of those crackpots who cannot use the “facilities” unless they are up to par.(Remember George Costanza’s trip to India on Seinfeld? He simply didn’t go).
Wishing the couple a happy married life and plenty [...]

Thackeray: Cheerleaders seduce crowd

From the chronicles of the obvious: Thackeray has claimed cheerleaders seduce the spectators in a stadium. [link]
“I am a lover of good sports and music. It is the secret of my cheerfulness. I have a special affinity towards cricket. But till now only cricket was played in the field.
Of course, there Thackeray has conveniently [...]

Two stories about sex

(You can file this one under ‘misleading advertising’.In my defence, it worked and you are reading this ! The stories *are* about sex but peripherally.)
Story # 1:
The desi obsession with producing sons is well-known.This recent article about a study of expectant mothers in the UK found that :
As well as consuming more calories, [...]

Nepali woman waits 66 years for husband’s return

A Nepali woman has been waiting for her husband to return since he went missing in Burma during World War 2. The missing man, Baburaja Limbu’s Gurkha regiment fought against the Japanese in Burma and he has been missing since 1942, resulting in a lifelong wait for his widow. [1]
Is this story:
a. amazing? - she [...]

Love hurts

“Love hurts, love scars,
Love wounds, and marks,”
goes the lyrics of the song with the same title by Nazareth.
Check out this weird love story inspired (unintentionally) by the song. Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boys parents disapprove of the relationship. Typical desi love ishtory so far, correct?
Girl takes out a Rs. 5000 [...]

Friendly neighbourhood Leander man

One of my fondest memories of Indian tennis star, Leander Paes, was in 1995 when Paes vanquished serve demon, Goran Ivanisevic, in 1995 in a Davis cup match.
That victory and many other in Davis cup matches and in doubles combined with Mahesh Bhupathi, made Leander Paes, perhaps one of the most popular players in [...]

“Witch” hunt - desi ishtyle

A man in Bihar named, Ram Ayodhya (Über Desi nomination for the holiest name), hired a “magician” to cure his wife and when her magic did not cure (imagine that), he accused her of black magic and collected a mob to rough her up. Besides the obvious superstitious and social angles to this story, CNN’s [...]