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 Obama’s aspirations and a huge setback for McCain.

Powell cited the negative tone of McCain’s campaign and his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate as some of the reasons for his support for Obama. Among other things that troubled Powell were some Republicans (not McCain) repeatedly calling Obama a Muslim.

“He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America,” Powell said. “Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

That is refreshing to hear coming from a mainstream politician in America. This is not something we’ve heard to date from either the Obama or McCain campaigns. The Obama campaign has always “denied that Obama is a Muslim” and McCain has always “criticized anyone who called Obama a Muslim” as if there is something wrong with being one. But the right answer like Powell says is “he is not, but then again so what if he is”.

This sentiment seems to be catching on even in some sections of the mainstream media. Last week Campbell Brown raised the same question in an op-ed column on CNN.com [via Browsekid]

We’ve all been too quick to accept the idea that calling someone Muslim is a slur. I feel like I am stating the obvious here, but apparently it needs to be said: There is a difference between radical Muslims who support jihad against America and Muslims who want to practice their religion freely and have normal lives like anyone else.

Of course, before Gen. Powell (retd.) and Ms. Campbell expressed the sentiment that one’s religion should really not be a factor, a humble blogger from a niche desi blog had raised the same question as early as last year. [UD]

Granted religion tolerance is not a strong point in this nation at this juncture in history, with the tyranny of the majority prevailing. But this problem is further damaged by unwillingness of the (so-called) leaders of this nation to promote religious tolerance. Instead people like Romney choose to either tailor their religious beliefs to align with that of the majority and people like Obama and Bobby Jindal completely wash their hands off any past religious links the majority views in an unfavorable light.

A true leader would’ve said: “Ok, so I grew up practicing so-and-so religious belief including attending their schools. But when I govern this country, I will leave my religion out of the equation and deal fairly with people of all religions and cultures and in doing so will set an example in religious harmony and tolerances for the citizens of this wonderful nation”.

The 800 pound gorilla in the room has always been the question that no one asked: “So what if he is/was Muslim? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.” Ladies and gentleman, I’m happy to announce the 800 pound gorilla has left the building.

No this is not Über Desi taking a hard right turn and embarking on a Sarah Palin lovefest. Our regular readers are probably aware of this – Über Desi was down for almost 120 hours over the Labor Day weekend !!!! The reason, GOP Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.

This former mayor of a small town in Alaska takes Über Desi a hearbeat away from oblivion

We @ Über Desi seem to have developed this knack of talking about news makers before they make news, big-time news. Case in point, this post of the “Hottest Female Politicians” from last year. Cristina Fernandez and Yulia Tymoshenko, from afore mentioned list made an appearance in the Forbes 100 most powerful women in the world list.

It appears the Forbes list was premature, at least at this point for as soon as that list was published, there was a major development in the US Presidential race – Sarah Palin, was selected as running mate by John McCain. There was one minor caveat to this announcement however, the world knew very little about this lady and so naturally, they turned to that fountain of eternal knowledge.

Another little fact about the “Hottest Female Politicians” post is that since it was posted last year, this post has been one of the most popular posts on Über Desi, again thanks to a high ranking of certain keywords for this humble blog at that fountain of eternal knowledge. All elements were aligned correctly, or incorrectly, depending on your perspective.

The sequence of events goes something like this:
-John McCain declared Sarah Palin as his running mate
-Media, and more specifically, bloggers, get whiff of this news
-Media, and more specifically, bloggers, dive headlong into that fountain of eternal knowledge
-Our “Hottest Female Politicians” post and specifically Palin’s picture is returned on the first page of results of major search engines
-Major blogs including Comedy Central’s Indecision 2008 blog link to us.
-Über Desi traffic spikes. Total hits in 1 hour far exceed our monthly averages. So far so good, correct? Wrong.
-Über Desi was hosted on shared hosting, more specifically, Total Choice Hosting (TCH). The morons at TCH, see the spike and attribute it to a DDOS attack, the kind that takes place when you piss of Chinese or Russian netizens and in their infinite wisdom shut Über Desi down.
-By that time, the bloggers are either flying or driving cross-country on their Labor Day weekend vacations.

Long story short, we changed hosting providers and here we are. We do have a small favor to ask of our readers, lurkers and fellow bloggers, please spread the word that your friendly neighborhood desi blog, Über Desi, is back online. After all, it is through us that, at times, you get to hear about the soon-to-be-news-makers

Over the past months, I’ve observed with great interest the increase in number of searches with the keyword “virgin” that lead to our humble blog. [thanks Google Analytics]

It all starts with some poor unsuspecting soul typing in the keyword “desi virgin” on google and hitting the search button. For some weird reason, UberDesi.com shows up on the first page of search results for the above search term along with some websites with language so colorful, I cannot reproduce it even on Über Desi. At this point it’s unclear what he/she is searching for but a future analysis of similar search terms presents a clearer picture.

The most innocuous set of the virginity treasure seekers consists of people seeking to familiarize themselves with Indian culture or dating someone within the Indian culture. “Virginity culture” and “non virgins acceptable among indians?” (complete with the question mark) is the preferred search term for these “phoren” people.

The next set of searchers are outright predators. How else could you explain someone searching for “india girls virginity”?

The third set of virginity seekers evokes mixed reactions of sympathy. They represent a hidden but growing population of marriage age Indian females, who seek to “gift virginity to your husband”. Ladies, better hold on to your men or these women shall gift their virginities to your husband.

Then they ask us if “lying to husband about virginity bad idea”. Unable to find answers to such philosophical questions, they then look for other methods to “regain virginity – bangalore”. Wassup to all the ladies in Bangalore. Of course, this brings them to our post on Born Again Virgins, which explains that such miracles may happen for a reasonable sum of Rs. 15,000-20,000. Of course being desi, these ladies are unable to resist looking for better deals. Hence, “cost of virginity surgery in india”.

The last set of seekers for this holy grail of virginity, is marriage age desi males. Desi males, of course, are known to cut to the chase. Not finding “no virgin girls in india survey”, they panic and enter the search term “desi marry a virgin” – which, of course, return us as the #1 result. So there you have it. By the power of google, I anoint Über Desi as the “desi virginity central”. As for these fine young men, I sure hope they find their soulmates in the Born Again Virgins from the previous category.

So what kind of virgin are you looking for today?

… 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

I recently watched Wes Anderson ’s “The Darjeeling Limited” on DVD.

The film stars Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman (who also co-wrote the movie). The three play the Whitman brothers who have not spoken for a year- since the death of their father. Their mother is missing from the funeral – much as she seems to have been missing from their lives most of the time. Francis (played by Wilson), the eldest type-A sibling organizes a reunion-cum- spiritual journey to India where Peter ( Brody ) and Jack(Schwartzman) join him on the “Palace on Wheels”-inspired “Darjeeling Limited”. The train also houses the delectable Amara Karan as attendant. No account of the cast will be complete without mentioning the gorgeous matched set of Marc Jacobs-designed Louis Vuitton luggage that the trio drag along with them on a rollicking “spiritual’ journey to India. Honestly, the luggage is so beautiful that it deserves top billing! With all the subtlety of a jackhammer, the luggage,of course, stands as gorgeous metaphor for all the baggage that the Whitman family- one that puts the “fun” in dysfunctional-carries around.

My theory on foreign travelers to India is this: they go there looking for shit or salvation.

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