The Great Ganesha

Via the Ultrabrown News Feed which, I think, is one of the best ways to get your desi-in-the-media fix (if that’s the kind of thing you go for (I know I do (and not only can I nest sentences within sentences but also parentheses within parentheses (see?)))) - I found this article about a freelancing [...]

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So - I was browsing the Times of India online, reading some crappy article (sans byline, of course) about how Rushdie spent more time flirting with some Bollybabe rather than on promoting AIDS awareness or some-such. Finishing that in a few seconds, I followed some articles here and there and then went to the picture [...]

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When those Japanese get fixated on a fad, they get fixated on a fad even if it’s as mundane as the eleven-times-table. In today’s NYT:
Bookstores are filled with titles like “Extreme Indian Arithmetic Drills” and “The Unknown Secrets of the Indians.” Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables far beyond nine times nine, [...]

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This is not new, but the NYT ran an article on outsourcing tutoring (in math, amongst other subjects) to India. This is part of the “second wave” of outsourcing:
The first wave of slicing up services work and sending it abroad has been all about business operations. Computer programming, call centers, product design and back-office jobs [...]

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Apparently, the reason why 13-year-old SamirPatel lost out on two consecutive Spelling Bees is because he’s not in touch with his roots. Word roots, that is.
In 2006, Mr. Patel lost in the seventh round thanks to just such a word, eremacausis (“gradual oxidation of organic matter from exposure to air and moisture”).
The word sounds like [...]

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If you’re Indian and were at a reasonable age in the ’80s (4 years and up) then it’s most likely that you remember the 1982 Asian Games that were held in Delhi. You probably even remember the mascot - an elephant named Appu.
Well, the other day, I was having a coffee at Ritual Coffee Roasters [...]

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A little late in posting, but here goes anyway. Last Sunday’s NYT had another feature on India, this time on its burgeoning art scene:
… the air is heavy with the smell of gasoline and flowers, you are approached by women begging for money and food. Men shout invitations to enter their carpet shops or purchase [...]

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Was in Los Angeles for the weekend, and it’s mandatory to lunch at Pioneer Blvd in Artesia, and raid the well-stocked cupboards of Surati Farsan Mart after that. For the uninitiated, that’s where LA’s ‘Little India’ is located.
So, after doing the rounds, we start walking back to car. While waiting for the signal, [...]

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In today’s New York Times:
As Beijing?s influence in Asia and around the world has grown, their common interests have forced Tokyo and New Delhi to begin warming their historically chilly relationship and to start forging closer economic ties. ?The key issue facing the whole region is how to accommodate the rise of China,? said Suman [...]

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Was browsing around YouTube this morning and I came across a bunch of animated Ramayana clips. Here’s one on Hanuman (in Hindi), since I’ve blogged about him before, though in another context.

They’re made to be in the style of Japanese Anime and I was intrigued, so I did a little bit of research (well [...]

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