So the Grammys were on last night and a nice mixed bag of winners it was. Robert Plant won a bunch , along with Alison Krauss – including  Record of the year – woo hoo! Coldplay picked up three, Jennifer Hudson  got one to go with her Oscar, Lil Wayne picked up four!

MIA at the Grammys
img: via MSN

Whats the desi connection  you ask? Well M.I.A gets huge props for performing on stage (with Jay-Z , Kanye West,T.I. and Lil Wayne ) in an extremely advanced stage of pregnancy . That girl can bring it! When I was in that condition,so to speak, I could barely waddle!

I must temper the accolades with a “What was she thinking?” directed at her outfit  – which looked like a shower curtain strategically positioned to cover some – not all – of her assets. Now I know rappers and their ilk have to be very edgy – but there’s edgy and there’s Halloween – appropriate and this outfit falls squarely in the latter category.

Judge for yourself here!

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We at Uberdesi pride ourselves on being up to date with fashion.

No, really ! We actually know the difference between “prive” and “pret-a -porter”. So we feel eminently qualified to comment on recent fashion choices by Desi Divas Freida Pinto ( of “Slumdog Millionaire” fame) and Aishwarya Rai Bachhan ( of “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World” fame)

Freida Pinto at the Golden Globes
img: via Styleist.com

First : kudos to Freida who has managed to standout in the crowded field of Hollywood pulchritude with some great fashion choices. Exhibit A: At the Golden Globes, Freida rocked the red carpet in a mustard – gold Christian Lacroix gown accessorized with Lorraine Schwartz gems and Roger Vivier sandals.

A risky color that but Ms Pinto pulled it off and even made it to a few best dressed lists ( link)

Ms.Pinto then repeated her success at the SAG awards in a glorious periwinkle ( see, we know our fashion palette!) gown by Marchesa.

Freida at the Directors Guild Awards
img: via omg.yahoo.com

And now she completes the trifecta by donning a one – shoulder metallic Zac Posen mini to the Director’s guild awards where she shows off what her mama gave her !  We think its pretty amazing that with her very first movie , she has gathered all this international attention and carries it all well on her pretty shoulders!

Another desi hit in Hollywood, Ms, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (pictured below) unfortunately misses the mark in our opinion at the premier of the Pink Panther 2.

Don’t get us wrong, Ms.Bachchan could not look bad even if she tried but her choice of Alberta Feretti draped chiffon gown was disappointingly safe. The bland necklace and hairdo inspired evidently by the polygamnist look did not help. We think she is taking her “Bachchan Bahu” tag too seriously !

Aishwarya at Pink Panther premiere
img: via Sify

After a long trial, it looks like Anand Jon, Newsweeks most successful South Asian of 2004 and star of “America’s Next top model” will finally spend some time behind bars for all his reprehensible acts, the sentence will be delivered on the 13th of January 2009.

Jon, 34, a rising designer who had dressed socialite Paris Hilton and singer Janet Jackson before his arrest last year, was found guilty on 16 criminal counts. They included lewd acts on a child and involved assaults between 2001 and 2007 against nine aspiring models aged between 14 and 21.

Jon was acquitted of four other charges. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury could not reach a verdict on a further three counts.

And if you thought it was over, you are so wrong. It looks like there are pending cases in NYC and Dallas.

Jon, whose full name is Anand Jon Alexander, denied the charges and his lawyers argued that the young women made up their stories. He is being investigated on similar charges in New York and Dallas.

… Über Desi [Über Desi @ Moksha]

So says our flagship tee in the Über Desi @ Moksha section of Moksha Tees.

Summer’s here and it’s time to pull out those old raggedy t-shirts out of the closet. But wait, why do that when you can buy brand new ones, unique desi tees with a brand of humor seldom seen in the desi fashion world. From the guys who crack way too many PJs, presenting Moksha Tees.

Moksha Tees, an obvious play on the words “Mocha” and “Tea”, is what happens when the guys who designed the rotating banners for Über Desi run wild with their imagination and humor. What can I say, we got mad graphic skillz.

Every single one of these tees has been well thought through and painstakingly designed from scratch. No copy-paste of text and clipart images from Microsoft Word, every single image is designed in Photoshop and Gimp 2.0 and is unique unlike anything you will see anywhere else. Our inspiration is the brand of tees we wore growing up in India, Tantra, but unlike Tantra, which caters to an exclusively Indian audience, we cater to Indians and Indian-Americans.

Our tees are humorous and edgy and are likely to amuse and offend, but when did that last stop us?

Other tees in Über Desi @ Moksha:
1. Über Desi – Putting the D in ABC….
Offended? There’s more.

2. Kiss my kundi
My personal favorite – the kundi is from a Mohenjo Daro era relic. It can’t get any desier.

3. Desi World – No mice, no ducks, just real nice people
An obvious play on that place where those mickeys and goofies live.

and of course,
4. FOBs R Us

Wait! We’re just getting started.
We also have a number of selection in two other sections:
1. Moksha Lite: Most designs in the store available at cheaper prices. We’re desi, we’ve been cash strapped at some point in life, we understand.

2. Moksha Grande: Note the coffee theme all over the place? Goes well with the color brown. Moksha Grande is our premium section featuring the best and the boldest. Check it out yourself.

Some of our designs have already been turned down by some major t-shirt outlets, for being too edgy or too controversial and are strictly available on a request-by-email basis only.

We’re not endorsed by any celebrities because we believe the customer is the celebrity. So be a celebrity. Get value for your money and great quality @ Moksha Tees.

How to pick one? Simple. Just go with the ones you like most.

Please email your feedback to moksha[at]uberdesi.com

*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 designed by Abdul Haldar and choreographed by Mark Robinson. Some of the clothes worn by the scavengers were said to be designed by the women themselves.

There was an International Toilet Meet held in India in October of last year to raise awareness of sanitation issues.

Before scavengers, another Indian blue collar profession in the news was the dabbawalas and their trysts with Prince Charles [1,2].

In the light of all these professions being thrust into the limelight, we’ve decided to hold a caption contest portraying these professions as prominent American television shows: Read the rest of this entry »