India-Burma
2 April 1942–28 January 1945

“We got a hell of a beating,” Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell told the crowd of reporters in the Indian capital of New Delhi. It was May 1942, and the American general, who had only recently arrived in the Far East to assume the position of chief of staff to Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, was chafing at failure in his first command in the field. Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the previous December, the Japanese had won victory after victory, extending their empire from Wake Island in the Pacific to Malaya and Singapore in Southeast Asia. When Stilwell had arrived in the embattled Chinese capital of Chungking in March, the Japanese were already driving into Burma, capturing the capital of Rangoon on 6 March. The American general took command of two Chinese divisions and, in cooperation with the British and Indians, tried to stem the Japanese onslaught. Defeated, he and his staff endured a rugged, 140-mile hike over jungle-covered mountains to India. By occupying Burma, the Japanese had not only gained access to vast resources of teak and rubber, but they had dosed the Burma Road, 700 miles of dirt highway that represented China’s last overland link with the outside world. The reopening of an overland route to China would be the major American goal, indeed obsession, in the theater throughout the campaign.

A colleague at work bought some currency from pre-colonial India. His Dad (an American Soldier-not related to the extract above) had been in India during the second world war, stationed as an aircraft spotter around the time when Japan was officially into Burma – which was also a British colony.

Here are some  pictures of what I saw today would like to share -

Uber Coin

Pre-colonial Indian currency (flip side of above pic)

Burmese Rupee in 1942, issued by the Japanese.

The language on the coins is fascinating, I can identify Hindi, Urdu and Telugu (apart from English) on the coins – the fourth is somewhat confusing for me, could be Gujarati or Punjabi. Some of the shapes, the four sided 1/2 anna and the wavy circle shaped 1 anna are very similar to 5 paisa and 10 paisa coins that I was used to in late 80’s. They soon lost any real monetary value and I haven’t seen them in a long long time. The donut shaped 1 pice is a unique shape though.Also growing up, the terms like charana (char-4 anna ~ 25 paisa), attana (aat-8 anna ~ 50 paisa) and barana (barah-12 anna ~75paisa) were quite common, when that amount of currency actually could get you something, like a bunch of fresh cilantro, or a couple of pani puris on the road side.

Almost all coins are either King George V or VI, a more detailed history of King George V and King George VI coins can be found here and here, for the numismatists among you.

And here is the Rupee, just after the amount of silver in the alloy used to make it was reduced (source: from links above)

One Rupee in 1944

© Sidhu for Über Desi, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

All is well.....

Raj Kumar Hirani is the bearer of a lost art, the art of story telling. The problem is sometimes, he overlaps his piece of art with another of his own, that is still fresh in your memory.

And I’ll try to keep the review clean of any spoilers.

3 idiots is a movie ‘loosely’ based on one of India’s ‘best-selling’ novels, “Five point Someone, what not to do at IIT“, by Chetan Bhagat. A book, that critics love to hate and take a jab at it’s ‘popularity’, while a particular section of the readers who may not be into serious literature can skim through it with the ease of reading a tabloid magazine. Having read the book a few years back, and having lived with not really disliking it for some reasons and not liking it too well either, let me say this – reading or not reading the book may not really make a difference with respect to your movie experience.

Except a minor plot or two (actually, make that three) that do form an integral part of the story, the feel good, subtly emotional, humorous and pleasant movie is fun to watch. It may however, remind you (a lot) of the Munnabhai series. To begin with, the character artists are mostly in repetitive roles as the Munnabhai series, facing similar circumstances, and you feel a sense of familiarity with introduction of new roommates in a hostel, the unique hazing (or ragging) rituals, the challenges in classroom between a student and a professor, dramatized hospital recovery scenes, and some well known anecdotes that you may have received in forwarded e-mails ( a few thousand times) in the past several years that have been incorporated in the movie… those are the familiar parts. ‘Jaadu ki jhappi’ turns into ‘All is well’, but has a humorous application in the most chaotic circumstances. The group of friends (Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi) were also a group of friends in ‘Rang De Basanti’ a group that we may have already begin to love before we know what their characters are like.

The humor in a few scenes combined with Aamir Khan’s ever lovable, cheeky delivery, and keeping the heroine to one character and NOT compulsorily introducing two more (unnecessary) female characters, for the other two in the group (Madhavan, Sharman) keeps the plot manageable and engaging.

The beauty of it is while regional cinema (especially Telugu cinema) takes you to Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand for the song and dance sequences that have no relation to the plot, Raj Kumar Hirani takes you to Ladakh and Himachal (as seen in the movie as well as the end credits), albeit for a few minutes and sticking to the plot line and actually having a scene or two at these locations.

The speech by ‘Chatur Ramalingam’ who does not understand Hindi as well as he would like to, is by far one of the most hilarious scenes in a Hindi movie that I’ve seen in years.

This movie is probably a box office winner, going by Aamir Khan’s fan following, but is definitely worth watching for its humor quotient alone. Hope this gives you a reason to get out of home during this holiday season, and stop looking at movie reviews .

Cheers.

Psst – movie credits, here.

© Sidhu for Über Desi, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 3 idiots, Aamir khan, Raj Kumar Hirani

One Halloween, a few summers ago, on an unusually balmy night, one decided to adopt the best spirit of Halloween that one could and dress up as a M.i.D (Man in Dhoti, if you are asking!) for the best Halloween street party in the world.

Sadly, no one understood! *sigh*

But surely a lot of you feel different, no? So, if you are desi and you had dressed up, either earlier today or in the past years, post your favorite Halloween photo in the comments (with faces blanked, if needed be). And theme obviously is desi. Post away folks!

© Anantha for Über Desi, 2007. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

The most eagerly awaited sequel of all time

I’m sharing some of these pictures on ÜberDesi over the next few weeks or so. Some of you may find them interesting and mildly amusing. Others probably experience (or experienced) this stuff on a daily basis and may not find it to be of any appeal. Vaat to do, we@ÜberDesi are like this vonly. Enjoy!!!

King Kong ki Waapsi (King Kong Returns)

Apparently, Peter Jackson’s King Kong was quite the rage hit in India. In fact it was so popular Peter Jackson made a sequel of King Kong ……. in Hindi ….. no less. At least that’s what the poster (pictured left) wants you to believe. In reality, what the bug-infested theater will be showing is a poorly dubbed version of the any of these previous King Kong movies.

* Son of Kong (1933)
* Mighty Joe Young (1949)
* Konga (1961)
* King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962, Jp.)
* King Kong Escapes (1967, Jp.)
* King of Kong Island (1968)
* King Kong (1976)
* A*P*E (1976, Kor.)
* Queen Kong (1976, UK)
* King Kong Lives (1986)
* The Mighty Kong (1998, animated)
* Mighty Joe Young (1998)

You’ve been warned!!! They’re sneaky these Indians, I’m telling you!!!

© Santosh for Über Desi, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: king kong sequel, mumbai

Born in a Hindu family and currently residing in the US and A, whenever I visit my relatives over here for any extended periods of time, I cannot escape the inevitable trip to the local “mandir”. Late last month, ATL had the (mis??)fortune of being graced with my (shady) presence. Of course, with that came the inevitable trip to the newest attraction for Hindu desis in Atlanta – the newly constructed BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, which among other things claims to be the largest temple of it’s kind (whatever that means) outside of India. So I will do arguably the FOBiest thing ever done in the history of blogging – write a short review on a mandir.

Below: Pond/picnic spot in front of the mandir. The mandir lies on a sprawling campus in Lilburn, GA about 30 minutes (or 3 hours depending on traffic) from downtown Atlanta. Pictured below is an artificial pond which doubles up a picnic area for the throngs of desis who visit this mandir. As you can see, construction is still ongoing as is evident from the sand mounds and port-a-jons.

Below: The actual mandir. This is as far as they (the volunteers) will allow cameras and photographs.

Like mentioned elsewhere, shooting photographs/videos was not permitted beyond a certain point. The inside of the mandir is a sight to behold, especially the main worship area. Since these Swaminarayan people are more of a sect the inside is filled with idols of their saints with the occasional idol of Hindu dieties. The main worship area is a huge hall chock full with these idols and intricate marble carvings. The carvings, quoting myself, would put Shahjahan to shame. Every single inch above ground level has a carving of some sort, quite astounding. The temple is on the top level and the bottom level is sort of a media presentation room bundled with a souvenir store. This room contains all sorts of neat factoids about the Swaminarayan sect and Hinduism in general.

We went early on a Saturday morning and by the time we left, bus loads of brown kundis were descending in droves on this mandir, not kidding. My guess is this will become a popular hangout spot for Hindu desis – temple, food and picnic spot, all in one and above all entry is free, desi ishtyle. Vaat to do on Saturrrrdays?

Interesting experience – my cousin, who took us to this mandir, was wearing cargo shorts and the dude at the entrance, where people leave their smelly shoes, before entering the mandir, refused to grant him entry. He tossed sweatpants in his direction and mentioned that shorts were “not allowed” inside the temple. From all accounts this is an extremely conservative sect. A cousin of mine, who works with an well known online media company in Mumbai, tried to interview a priest in the Swaminarayan mandir in Mumbai and the priest refused to talk to her because “she is a female”.

To summarize it, if you’re in the Atlanta area with uncleji and auntieji in tow, this Taj Mahal of a mandir would probably be of some interest to them. For non-Hindus/non-desis, this would be an interesting place just to check out some interesting factoids on Hinduism and Indian architecture and carvings, sort of the equivalent of a 21^st century Old World Cathedral.

© Santosh for Über Desi, 2007. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: atlanta, baps, swaminarayan mandir