felly: this should be easy for you, judging from your love of the hindi film.
the most imaginative lyrics will win a special price

i have work i do not want to do so, i will reintroduce myself into this space and leave you all with something to think about.





Indeed, who will be the victim tonight?

libertad, thanks for asking where the hell i was. truth is there is absolutely nothing hapening in my life. nothing. but i can offer you this song i absolutely love. it is by this sufi singer Abida Parvin. She makes me cry.


or you can listen/watch to this, another favourite...,


where this great kannada (south indian language) actor Rajkumar sings about the vagaries of time, love and their intricate intersections.


great stuff this...It would probably also interest my readers (yes, the both of you) to know that Bangalore, Karnataka from where Dr. Rajkumar hails witnessed something that few outside of India will ever understand when he passed away. More info here

As many of you know, the devastating earthquake in Pakistan and India killed more than 40,000 people. The international community needs to respond and respond immediately before more people in the remote, quake hit parts of these regions die due to the cold and rain. The power that the blog-world weilds is undeniable. We need to do something, use this power responsibly. So, today is [size=xl]Quake Blog Day[/size]

Post far and wide, tell your friends. Visit the sites below for more details. If you want to be of more help, perhaps you could buy a tent for a deserving family?

Here, again, do something. ITS OUR [size=xl]RESPONSIBILITY[/size]

Queering South Asia

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Room 112, Center For Arts, University @ Buffalo
September 21st, 6:00-9:00 p.m.

An anthology of short films and discussion exploring
the increasing visibility of gay culture in urban
India against the background of significant
socio-political shifts in the 1990s.

BOMgAY (11 min.)

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Directed by the late Riyad Wadia, it broke new
cinematic ground in 1996 as India's first 'gay'
documentary. BOMgAY has R. Raj Rao's wonderful
poetry at its heart. Six vignettes address what it
means to be gay in contemporary India and the
struggle of the gay community to establish an identity

BeLonging (10 min.)

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Captures the state of mind of a gay researcher
(Parmesh Shahani) who returns "home" to study his
"own".

Q & A Session

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Parmesh Shahani will lead a discussion mapping the
wider social context of Gay Bombay, and more
generally, on sexuality and gender in contemporary
urban India.
[Parmesh Shahani has recently graduated from the
Masters program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT.
He was the organizer of "Between the Lines:
Negotiating South Asian LBGT Identity" – Boston's
first festival of South Asian queer cinema, readings
and discussions held at MIT in 2004, for which he won
the Public Service Center's Community Connection Award
for 2003-2004. He is currently working on turning his
Master's thesis on contemporary gay Bombay into a
book, tentatively called Disco Jalebi!]

Gulabi Aaina (40 min.)

---

A unique film coming from India where homosexuality
is still taboo, The Pink Mirror (Gulabi Aaina), is a
colorful funny look into the Indian homosexual closet.
It pits two Indian drag queens against a westernized
gay teenager in a battle to woo a handsome hunk. It's
a clash of the east and west. Who will win?

The event is being organised through the generous
sponsorship of Media Studies Graduate Club,
American Studies Graduate Club, Comparative Literature
Graduate Club and The Institute for Research
and Education on Women & Gender.

Contact: Swati Bandi (sbandi@buffalo.edu), Aswin
Punathambekar (punathambekar@yahoo.com)

so, India, my country, celebrates 58 years of independence today. happy happy to everyone. somethings been bugging me and it seems a lot of other brown people are feeling it too. i took the subway in new york a couple of days ago. i had a big red bag and two smaller bags. i was only trying to get home to my sisters place after 8 hours in a car travelling from buffalo. sweaty and hot, i probably never looked more "brown." i finally get on the subway. it is packed. i find myself a seat and wait for it to get going. i feel like i am being watched, intensely. i look up and see that no one cares. i begin to wonder why i care so much. i take pains to appear as normal as i possibly can. i open my bags, rest my legs on them and smile a lot at everyone. i figure a "terrorist' will not smile like an idiot at those she is going to blow up (unless it is my fave hindi film villain Amrish Puri before he whips out a diamond studded gun and blows up his enemy).
my station arrives and i get off, still with that huge smile on my face. As i sat on another train i wondered why i had to take on the onus of appearing 'normal.' what is 'normal' anyways? the world has changed after the 9/11 attacks and it has never been more clearly reinforced as by what ensued after the London train bombings. The words 'subway' and 'indian'-looking (a blanket misleading term meant to mean all brown-skinned people of South Asian origin) are now intrinsically meshed to invoke images of terror and destruction. as i write this, i still do not know how to explain this deep seated desire to fit in, to look 'normal' to look non-threatening. my younger sister, who takes the train to work in Atlanta was shocked to see that people moved away when she got into the train with a backpack. A policemen kept staring at her as if waiting for her to make a wrong move. as she told me what happened i assured her that it was just a few hyper-paranoid people. oh boy, was i wrong! accounts of similar experiences began to surface on the internet, on peoples blogs and other websites. it was subtle but the fear was palpable. it existed in the slight move away from you when you sat next to the nice lady in thr train. it exists when the policeman/woman keeps staring at you, hoping and waiting for you to make a wrong move so he/she can arrest you. it exists in the 'innocent' question a friend tells you that these 'security' measures are necessary to protect "us." it exists when you cannot carry a backpack without something inside you screaming caution. it exists, oh yes it does.
here is a humorous take on the current paranoia (via the fantastic sepiamutiny.com)

thats how many years i have lived in this body and walked this earth. and what do i have to show for those many years?
these are 28 things i wrote down as they came to me. they are things i love, loved, lost, wear, smell, touch, miss, want


1.many books
2.some music
3.a beautiful nephew
4.many mad laughs
5. many more tears
6. my dear dear friends
7. a mind
8. many great loves
9. a father who no longer lives in this earth
10. a home with the guava tree and an old creaky wooden swing
11. masala chai and tandoori rotis
12. open toed slippers and crisp cotton shirts
13. many nights of talking about mad "bosses" and their secret mistresses and yes, their fabulous movie ideas
14. my amma
15. my sisters
16. a mad, mad lover and friend
17. sex,it was always either really bad or really great
18. silk, khadi fabric
19. my eyes
20. my breasts
21. great food
22. my feet - to dance
23. my fingers - to touch
24. gold flake cigarettes
25. old boyfriends
26.new places and smells
27 old places and smells
28. 15 year old tongue cleaner


Hazaaron khwaishein aisi ki har khwaish pe dum nikle
Bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle -

thousands of desires, each worth dying for...
many of them I have realized...yet I yearn for more

-mirza ghalib

below is the cover of a book. i found it on some one else's blog. now the internet is an egalitarian 'site' right? i can steal and share, no? i love the cover. it is maha (great, as in 'maha'-raja) cool.

ok i know ther is no connection between the title and the post but i can do what i wish and so have.

and others interested in badass brown chicks with an attitude check this out and this
Also, check out the sidebar with the news piece about the arrest of an Indian student at UT Austin. He was arrested, for he asked inappropraite questions regarding Ms. Coulter's sexual predilections.

Mr. (whatever your last name is Ajay, insert here, since we are on last name basis),

I would advise you to live in this perfect little oasis that you have made for yourself. The blinders will never come off and we can pretend not to see those unfortable truths. We can live this life we lead and pretend that we are one big happy family, like that happy Bajaj ad (just google it already).
Ok, now my response,
Firstly,
The Nazi government did not send out flowery notes to the Jews saying that they were going to be killed. They were forced into the camps under pretence of protection, a temporary one at that. The same thing happened as part of the Gujarat riots. The victims had to run to the camps as they had no other option. These camps were supposed to be 'safe.' I see a pretty straight line here and hence, the parallel.
Secondly,
You say " Moving to refugee camps and back has been happening to families in India for 60 years. The refugees from the mayhem of the Partition in 1947 didn't land in 5-star hotels; they landed in refugee camps all over India (and Pakistan). Every riot has resulted in families moving to/from refugee camps."

Yes, so your point is? This violence can actually be condoned? It is ok? Look at the bigger picture? Which bigger picture? Will we even be talking about the bigger picture when your father is killed, your mother raped and your home burnt by a mob drunk on a self-righteous mission? believe me, the picture is not a pretty one and it seems very small then.

Thirdly,
Ms. Bandi does not make mention of the many thousands of Kashmiris living in refugee camps because Ms. Bandi chooses to talk of a topic that is relevant to the discussion. The discussion, in this case, being the Gujarat riots. Now, who is drawing parallels that are illogical? The Muslims are being killed in Gujarat but instead you say but thats Ok let them die because see, in my liberal mind, aren't those poor Hindus also dying? How patronizing and blind can one get? Ofcourse I am equally horrified at any kinds of violence in whatever name, religion, power, geography etc etc. Yes, there should be more discussion about it. If the only way you can express your frustration with your surroundings is by picking up a camera and making a film, then very well.
What have you done if you are indeed so moved by the plight of people dying in the name of religion and oil? Your little oasis is drying up Ajay.