Suroosh Alvi, founder of Vice Magazine and VBS.TV, ventures into an area which recently earned the moniker of the “world’s most dangerous area” – the Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan. Pulling some strings, he manages to find a political agent/guide and sets off to visit the world’s largest illegal arms market. Would it be disingenuous to question if there’s a relation between the world’s largest illegal arms market being the world’s most dangerous area? [VBS.TV via CNN]
The market is believed to have its humble origins in the Afghan-Soviet war for …

Paging the protestor extraordinaire and the saffron clad protector of all things Indian and Hindu – Glenn Beck has insulted the holy Ganges.
MediaMatters has this clip of conservative commentator Glenn Beck launching into a vicious anti-India diatribe just to make an argument in the healthcare debate. Biting sarcasm is one thing but Beck hits an all-time low on the intelligent argument quotient when arguing against the benefits of cheaper healthcare in India he chooses to highlight India’s lack of flush toilets and goes on to state that the name “Ganges” …

It is not uncommon for the Indian media to report on Chinese transgressions into Indian interests almost on a weekly basis. However, in reporting this “sensational” news on an event-by-event basis, the desi media is missing the larger picture, something an UK news so correctly outlet points out. India and China are in the throes of a cold war, one that is redefining the balance of power in Asia. [Times]
Indo-Chinese relationships never recovered from the 1962 war, and to make worse for relationships between the two, China provides arms …

It is a truth universally acknowledged in India that a politician bereft of an issue to express his indignation over, would concoct one out of thin air. The moment such a concoction is introduced to the mango citizens (aam janta if you are wondering), the Indian news-media congregates to take a swig out of the barrel and proceeds to get high.

This familiar scene is playing out currently in India. In what has to be the most WTF evoking “It happens only in India” type occurrences that I have seen since moving back home, an innocuous exchange on Twitter (see image below) between a journalist and the most famous Indian recipient of the Colbert Bump in dominating newsprint and airwaves. It has politicians jostling among themselves to express their displeasure and the media, not one to be left behind, has been fanning the flames mentioning twits and twats every minute of the day for the past 24 hours and counting.

BBC has a photo feature on political leaders and their love of statutes, of themselves. [BBC]
Leading the group is U.P. Chief Minister Mayawati and her parade of statutes of herself and her mentors. Curiously, one of them (immediate right of Mayawati) seems to resemble Mr. Miyagi, complete with a pose that appears to be a karate punch to the gut.

First off, this photo below, showing Barack and Kalpen getting real close to each other, is begging for a caption. Got any good ones?
Kal Penn’s character of Dr. Kutner shocked the television world by committing suicide on House so Kalpen could take up a supposed job with the White House. After a prolonged hiatus leading to some speculation by the media on whether the gig was still on or not, Kalpen Modi, the actor known as Kal Penn, finally started his stint with the White House. [ABC] (@krupali via Über …

The Sri Lankan government arrested a famous astrologer who predicted that the president will be ejected from office. [BBC]
Chandrasiri Bandara announced last week that the government would flounder in September and October because of political and economic problems.
Police told the AP news agency that Mr Bandara told an opposition meeting that the prime minister would take over as president on 9 September and the opposition leader would become prime minister.
He was arrested on Wednesday night to investigate the basis of his prediction, police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera said.
Investigating the basis of …

Rep. Nikki Haley announced her intention to run for governor of South Carolina. [Herald Online]
Her background bears an uncanny resemblance to that of one Bobby Jindal.
1. Of Indian origin: Like Jindal, Haley’s parents were immigrants from Punjab, India. [Wiki]
2. Republican, in her late 30s. Fiscal conservative. Anti-tax. [NikkiHaley.com]
3. Has run and been successfully elected in a Southern state. [NRIInternet]
4. Converted to a different religion. [Wiki]
Haley was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in a close vote over Larry Koon, the longest-serving member of the House. [NRIInternet]
Her position on …

At the time of posting, it appears that the Congress-led UPA will retain power. Congress appears to have gained at the expense of the Left and regional parties. Their major opponent BJP by virtue of making no gains and perhaps even losing some of the ground they held are heading for their biggest defeat in the last 20 years or so.
A few notes:
- The Indian Election Commission’s official election results website was down most of the time.
- By contrast, Tweet Grid with its multiple twitter updates per minute was a …

“The Customer Can Have Any Color He Wants So Long As It’s Black”. — Henry Ford
Similarly, India can have any government so long as it’s not comprised of largely leftist parties.
Between the two major parties, the Congress and the BJP, the Indian voters are faced with choosing between dumb and dumber, in no particular order. So which one would be better for maintaining and promoting economic reforms?
Vikas Bajaj at NYT asks this question and comes away with the following conclusion, no leftist parties.
Parties interested in India’s economy have reasons to …

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 …

Neel is done carrying the cash. [WaPo]
Per Neel, Friday (May 1st 2009) was his last day as the head of the Treasury Department’s bailout operations. Kashkari’s whirlwind tenure was not without it’s critics …..
Although he scrambled to get the rescue’s operations running, often sleeping in his office and working seven days a week, during hearings lawmakers questioned his competence. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) once called him “a chump.”
…. and admirers.
“I deeply admire the guy,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in an interview. “I think he’s a person …

The votes are rocking and the birds are flipping. Raj points to this new pop culture trend in India – proudly displaying their middle finger after voting. There is absolutely no way these celebrities don’t understand the significance of showing the middle finger.

If any of our readers in India, have pictures of voters showing their ink-stained middle fingers send them to us and we will proudly do our bit for democracy by displaying them on here.

Thanks to a new ruling by The Election Commission of India, voting officials in certain polling stations are now marking middle fingers with the purple ink, instead of index fingers as in days of yore, making for some hilarious photo-ops. [TOI]
Amit Varma of India Uncut sees the gesture in the following picture as a huge “FU” from Indian politicians towards the electorate. In the meanwhile, famous American blog Boing Boing sees it as a huge “FU” from the Indian electorate directed to no one in particular. Reminds me of a …

The shoe tossing trend seems to be catching on. First George W. Bush, then Wen Jiabao, now P.C. A Sikh journalist tosses his shoe in the general direction of the Home Minister in a press conference on the recent CBI report on the anti-Sikh riots. Better aimed he could’ve easily hit him square on the face but since the gesture was more symbolic, probably chose not to.
Soon worldwide leaders will be insisting on barefoot press conferences.

From BBC:
The reporter was identified by local television channels as Jarnail Singh, a veteran correspondent …

Gursharan Kaur, wife of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seems entertained by Michelle Obama and her hubby says “wassup Barack”. (images via TOI)
Singh supposedly asked for Obama’s autograph for his daughters. [IBN]
One of Manmohan Singh’s daughter, Amrit, is an ACLU lawyer. She also co-authored a book speaking out against torture by the Bush administration. [Rediff]

Following last week’s scandal in his D.C. office and Kundra’s sudden leave of absence from his brand new position as Obama’s I.T. czar, we had a cautionary note for our readers warning them against assuming that Kundra was automatically involved in this scandal.
Turns out Kundra was just following standard government protocol of going on leave regardless of guilt for being involved in an investigation, and is now back in his new office. [Network World]
“Mr. Kundra has been informed that he is neither a subject nor a target of the investigation, …

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Chinese occupation of Tibet and Dalai Lama’s flight to India, the UK Times has an entire section dedicated to this event. Dalai Lama’s arduous flight to India has been captured in these unique photos. [Times UK]
Also of interest is this news clip from the Times published in 1959. [News Clip]

The Election Commission (EC) of India says no to a minister’s blog and before bloggers cry “freedom of speech”, this was a great decision by the EC. [TOI]
The minister was reportedly (mis)using the state’s resources, his blog was on the police department’s website, and the minister was reportedly using his blog for advertising himself for the upcoming elections. Any private citizen using his/her employer’s resources would probably meet a similar fate at the hands of the employer. You are free to blog about yourself or any other topic under the …

India’s newest envoy to the United States is a woman – Meera Shankar. Ms.Shankar is a career diplomat and currently India’s ambassador to Germany. This is her second stint in Washington, the first was as Commerce Secretary.
Shankar, an Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1973 batch was posted in Washington from 1991 to 1995. She will succeed Ambassador Ronen Sen whose extended term ends on March 31(link)
Other women ambassadors from India are Chitra Narayanan ( Sweden ) and Nirupama Rao ( Beijing).
Its great to see women in leadership positions on …