Narain Karthikeyan Unplugged.

Looks like you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Narain Karthikeyan might not be racing in F1 anymore, but he still is very popular in India, according to this article by Rediff.
He spoke about a lot of things, but his answer to the most important question, [...]

Desis in the new Administration?

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 [...]

Heidi Klum dresses as Kali for Halloween

As I feast on discounted Halloween candy from Walmart, one of our readers, Raja, points us to this story of Heidi Klum’s Halloween costume. [Rediff]
Klum’s Kali would make Mola Ram proudimg: via Rediff
Various media outlets have picked up on this story and are hinting on perhaps some tinge of a controversy. I’m actually surprised that [...]

Twenty20 in 2020

Cricket as an Olympic sport has been discussed in the news off and on for many years. Logistics for organizing a sport like cricket were complicated, the number of teams requiring the number of grounds and the time taken for a cricket match in the traditional format was overwhelming. With the introduction of Twenty20 format, [...]

Bikini killer weds…

According to news reports, 64 year old, Charles Sobhraj, tied the knot with 20-year old Nepali girl, Nihita Biswas.
Caption: Love is blind, and plain dumb
Source: sify.com
Charles currently cooling his heels in a jail in Nepal, where he was arrested in Sept. of 2003 on prior charges of murdering two women from North America in 1975 [...]

Bailout or Sellout: 1 - Protests and Passage

Sellout: (see betrayal)
Generations to come will remember October 4th 2008 as the day of the largest socialist takeover of the biggest free market in the world, a.k.a, President Bush signing “the bailout plan” into law. [CNN]
Some desis don’t like U.S. bailout planimg: via Rediff.com

The very thought of taxpayers footing a bill of such gargantuan proportions [...]

Anil v/s Mukesh: This time it’s personal …..

… or maybe it’s still just business. This is perhaps the only recorded instance of a defamation lawsuit between 2 of the world’s top 5 most richest men. [Rediff] (tip Sidhu via email)
In another twist to the feud between the Ambani brothers, the younger sibling Anil’s Group is understood to have filed a defamation suit [...]

Nataraj at CERN

Now if you are reading this, it’s proof enough, the world hasn’t ended yet (I’m not talking about married folks, for you, it has ).
Nataraj image at the CERN centreSource: about.com
One of the largest science experiments in recent times, recreation of the Big Bang, the beginning of this world as we know it (and [...]

Chiranjeevi steps into politics

In Andhra Pradesh, everything about Chiranjeevi (star of some of our uber malarial videos 1,2 ), is dramatic - from films to real life.
Cowboy CM for Andhra Pradesh?
Image Source: Idlebrain.com
Born as Konidela Vara Prasad exactly 53 years ago to this day, but popularly known as Chiranjeevi, it hasn’t been too surprising to see that [...]

Victory - it only took 56 years !(Updated)

India’s Sushil Kumar won the bronze medal in the men’s 66-kg freestyle category on Wednesday at the Beijing Olympics ending a 56 year drought. The last bronze medal won in wrestling was by KD Jadhav who won a bronze in the 1952 Helsinki Games (link)
( Sushil Kumar’s moment of glory :Image via TOI ) [...]

Abhinav Bindra now a target

Abhinav Bindra, returned home not only a hero but also a target, so he say on his blog. [Bindra blog] [via]
“Chooooo chweeeeeet”, says President Prathiba Patilimg: via Hindu
After Abhinav won the first gold medal ever for India, life was supposed to be all hunky dory. Then he met the President of India who insisted on [...]

India’s Olympic drought ends (Update)

India’s Olympic medal drought ended with Abhinav Bindra’s win in the 1om air rifle event.(link)

Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in men’s 10 metre air rifle event of the shooting competition at Beijing Olympics.
The gold medal is India’s first since 1980, when the hockey team emerged triumphant in Moscow.

Update: Bindra’s gold medal is [...]

Beijing bound Indian weight lifter fails drug test

Monica Devi, the only weightlifter chosen to represent India for the Beijing Olympics will not be in Beijing at all. Rather, she will be cooling her heels back home, after she failed a drug test (Hat Tip: Tony via email) and tested positive for “anabolic salt”.
Anonymous sources told PTI that the drug test was conducted [...]

The faceless terrorist

Last year, Outlook India published a list of ‘villains’ that Über Desi blogged about here, and what struck me was an entry into the list that is probably the most relevant today, the faceless terrorist. This entry made it into a list in a respected Indian journal. Would you ever see such an entry [...]

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 [...]

Indian Americans cutting down on basmati?

Indians in India are consuming more rice, while Indian-Americans are cutting down.
More Indians in India are driving, while Indian-Americans are cutting down on their driving habits.
The comparisons between Indians of the des and Indian Americans are strictly anecdotal and may or may not be related but certainly indicative of the times. Personally, over the last [...]

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 [...]

Freed Indian prisoner sent back at border by babus

An Indian national, Ram Prakash, who was freed from a jail in Pakistan after 10 years on charges of spying, was denied entry into India by our bureaucratic babus for ‘not possessing valid travel documents’. As a result he had to go back into Pakistan where he was promptly jailed. All this because our babus [...]

Desi joins Obama team

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.
Web TV provided by Ustream

Share this postDiggdel.icio.usFacebookRedditStumbleUponTechnorati

And you would think it’s for the opening night.

Posters of a big tamil movie star line the street, the venue that could hold 20,000 people is twice as full, stampede on the streets and every big name in town and some from out of town decide to show up. Ideally this would be the scene for the first show of a Rajnikanth movie.
Not [...]

Is she really a “Bond Girl”?

Rediff has this story of Zaraa Adams, an actress of desi origin, who is visiting Mumbai, who is also supposed to be a Bond Girl. [Rediff] (tip Runa via email)
Hot or not, is she really a Bond Girl?img: via Rediff
We didn’t have to post the image but we can, so we will. Besides when was [...]

Sanjaya and Shyamali in Mumbai - part deux

Rediff has a lengthy interview with Sanjaya, uncomfortable at times for the former American Idol finalist when he is grilled on his Indian-ness, otherwise pretty extensive. The feature also has plenty of photos of our male readers’ favorite, Shyamali, in an Indian sari. [Rediff] (tip Sai via email)

Share this postDiggdel.icio.usFacebookRedditStumbleUponTechnorati

Shivaji goes surfing

Speaking of making extravagant promises to get elected, the Congress party promised the people of Maharashtra a 300-foot high statue of the Maratha king, Shivaji. (no relation to Tamil superstar, Rajnikant) [Rediff] [via Browsekid]
Shivaji surfs the wavesimg: photoshop courtesy Über Desi
Apparently, the Congress party decided this was one promise they could afford to keep, and [...]

The Malakars go to Mumbai

Remember our little blurb on Sanjaya starring in the Nationwide commercial. Apparently Sanjaya and Shyamali are in Mumbai for the filming of the commercial. Check out this pic and story on Rediff forwarded to me by at least two different sources. [Rediff] (tip Sai via email and Anantha via gtalk)
Shyamali swaps Hooters uniform for sariimg: [...]

Breaking News: Serial blasts in Jaipur [Updated]

UPDATE 3: 4 people have been arrested in connection with the blasts .Preliminary reports indicate that the Bangladesh based Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami. is responsible (link)
UPDATE 2: CNN puts the death toll now at 60. There is still no attribution for these terrorist attacks, but officials have since said that an eighth bomb was defused. [...]