He Man comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress – Bollywood ishtyle. Bollywood created a musical rendition of the cheesy cartoon show complete with junior artistes in florescent skeleton clothes and a Skeletor idol with flashing eyes. He Man is played by a random white dude, yelling “He Man, He Man, I’m He Man”.
The movie is a generic 80s action movie. In case you were wondering, the music is by, who else, Bappi Lahiri. Which brings us to the next important question: what would a Yash Raj-Karan Johar …

A classic MTV India Ad – enjoy !

NB: Cyrus Broacha for the uninitiated is an MTV India VJ !

One of my all time favorites!

Feet up, laying back, texting (or SMSing, if you so prefer) while cruising down the road on the bike, this is how we roll -desi ishtyle (Anantha via Twitter)

I know, everyone is tired of hearing about, talking about and voting for Change. But here is how India would have reacted to Obama’s message.

Now that the election is over, a host of Indians are expected to be a part of the new administration in various roles.
Here is the CliffsNotes version.
Sonal Shah – Confirmed to be a part of the official transition team.
Preeta Bansal – Part of the personnel operations to staff the new administration / Solicitor General.
Neera Tanden – Not sure in what capacity, but will possibly be offered a senior position in the Obama administration.
Subodh Chandra – Might be appointed the US Attorney for Ohio.
Besides these senior positions, a whole list of …

Bradley Schmadley.
In the end it was Barack Obama in a landslide over John McCain. Obama will be 44th President of the United States.
[CNN]
It is but a befitting tribute that we replay the speech that started it all.
Presenting Barack Obama’s keynote speech from the July 2004 Democrat Convention.

As Americans take to the polls, the good bloggers @ Über Desi, most of whom are not voting eligible (age is not the factor) attempt their own predictions based on an intricate system involving months of research, media hype, rhetoric, crystal balls, astrological charts and just plain gut feeling.
Here is how we did it. [link]
1. We decide whether the candidates will win in states that lean towards them
2. Using above mentioned criteria, we pick the tossup states Ohio, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Montana and North Dakota.
3. We add the …

I’ll start off with this great quote I read on uber blogger Amit Varma’s India Uncut blog.
Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.
I agree. With all due respect to the leading candidates, and discounting the rhetoric, there is little difference between either party.
If John McCain wins, he will possibly be faced with a Democrats-controlled House and Senate. Even if the Republicans win back both in 2010, by then …

Barack Obama and John McCain may scoff all they want at Eastern mysticism. But their fates have already been decided, not by the American voters, but by Indian astrologers. Yesterday, we had some Indian astrologers predict a win for McCain [UD]
That should’ve sealed the fate of Barack Obama. But this Presidential race has been interesting to say the least. Anantha sends us this beauty of a horoscope, that all but clinches it for Obama. [New India Press]
Stunning change of fortune within a span of 24 hours?? Not surprising, considering the …

Video footage of volunteers, including some Muslims and a (presumably desi) McCain campaign manager at a McCain rally confronting and driving away people handing out “Obama for Change” stickers with Islamic symbols. [Huffington Post] (link Karthik via email)

These recent events come on the heels of Powell’s rebuke of Islamophobia among some Republican supporters. [UD]
The stickers they were handing out also had the Communist sickle and hammer along with the Islamic crescent. I’m guessing the purported message was: “Obama is a socialist, hence by extension, communist, with ties to radical …

In case you missed it, Republican Colin Powell, a retired four-star general and former Secretary of State endorsed “that one“. [Goog]
I believe his exact words were:
“I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change and that’s why I’m supporting Barack Obama, not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Sen. John McCain.”
Now, given Powell’s stature and the respect he garners on either side of the aisle and among independents and moderates, this endorsement is apparently a big deal to …

Both candidates picked off from where they left off in the first debate, resulting in the second debate becoming a de facto extension of the first one. Each one did a great job of explaining why the other one should NOT be the next President and consequently a poor job of why people should vote for them for President. I really doubt last night’s debate changed any undecided voter’s mind.
However, there was an odd moment with McCain referring to Obama as “that one”. Not sure if McCain was just being …

In perhaps the only Vice Presidential debate I’ve ever watched, seen a lot of Presidential debates but c’mon Biden v/s Palin is so much better than Cheney v/s Leiberman or Cheney v/s Edwards, watching a winking Palin square off against a fairly circumspect Biden was like watching a boxing match where both boxers circle each other warily, rarely landing a punch.
Biden sighed repeatedly, attacked John McCain, attacked the Bush administration, attacked the Iraq war, defended Barack Obama and stuck to time tested terms like “fairness” and “equality”. Palin with a …

McCain’s run-in with Hollywood has done no favors for his campaign either with shows like “Saturday Night Live” starting to rip his campaign. Of immense amusement is Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin which even refers to the Zadari (sic, Sarah Palin’s pronounciation of the name of the Pakistani President) incident. (video below)

Also, in connection with the same incident between Zardari and Palin, the prayer leader of the Lal Masjid in Islamabad has issued a fatwa against Zardari for flirting with Palin. [NDTV] (tip Sai via email)
Maulana Abdul Ghafar, the …

McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin gave him the surprise factor he was looking for resulting in a post-convention poll bounce. But of late, Palin with her limited experience on dealing with the mainstream media has turned more into a liability than an asset to the McCain campaign. Palin faltered not once but twice in interviews with the feisty Katie Couric, mostly on claims of her experience on foreign policy because of her state’s proximity to Russia. [BH]
The first was when Couric questioned Palin on her so-called foreign experience because of …

John McCain has suspended his presidential campaign at least for the time being so he could supposedly “help tackle the financial crisis”. [AFP] (tip Karthik on GTalk)
After enjoying a post-convention bounce where he narrowed the gap in polls between himself and Barack Obama, McCain and his campaign have taken a pounding over the current financial crisis forcing them to take this unusual gamble. From some of his hand-picked supporters calling America a “nation of whiners” and suggesting there was no real crisis to acknowledging the crisis and approving the whopping …

From the ABC interview that will air soon. The emphasis, of course is mine.

GIBSON: And let me finish with this. I got lost in a blizzard of words there. Is that a yes? That you think we have the right to go across the border with or without the approval of the Pakistani government, to go after terrorists who are in the Waziristan area?
PALIN: I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hell bent on destroying America and our allies. We …

* 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]. Unfortunately, even Lord Ganesh couldn’t save Hillary Clinton’s campaign. We @ Über Desi occasionally dabble in exotic arts, but matters involving the supernatural are beyond even our jurisdiction. So we were unable to explain how …

Hari Sevugan, an attorney has joined the Obama team as a senior spokesperson. [Rediff] (tip Sai via email)
Sevugan was previously Communications Director for the Chris Dodd campaign. Here’s a video of Seguvan from Chris Dodd’s campaign.
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