SAJAforum

AWARDS: Kahani children's magazine wins Parents' Choice award

Kahani, the South Asian literary magazine for children, has just picked up its second Parents' Choice Award. That puts it in the company of much larger publications, such as Highlights, Sports Illustrated Kids and National Geographic Little Kids (See the rest of the list here). The awards have been handed out by the Parents' Choice Foundation since 1978, and are meant to direct parents to the best toys, books, games, music, magazines and whatnot.

According to a press release from Kahani, the Parents Choice Awards honor twenty percent of all submissions.

“The fact that this is our second Parents’ Choice Award is huge,” said Monika Jain, editor. “There is always the novelty factor with Kahani because there is no other magazine like it out there,” she said. “But winning two years in a row: that means the Foundation subjects Kahani to the same strict criteria as all mainstream magazines."

<snip>

Kahani, which means story in Hindi, is a children’s literary magazine illuminating the richness and diversity that South Asian cultures bring to North America. Published four times a year, it is full of short stories, art, activities, and fun facts. Unlike most magazines, Kahani does not publish any advertising and uses a subscription-based model. Subscribers include schools, libraries, and families—some as far away as Bermuda. The magazine’s online home can be found at www.kahani.com.

BOOKS: V.V. Ganeshananthan's "Love Marriage"

UPDATE: Join us for a live SAJA webcast, Friday, April 25, 2008, from 10:30-11:30 a.m. New York time: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2008/04/25/AUTHOR-CHAT-VV-Ganeshananthan

Journalist and SAJA VP V.V. Ganeshananthan's debut novel hits bookstores next week. "Love Marriage" is one of the first American novels to deal with Sri Lanka and the civil war that has devastated the island. From the press release below:

Sri Lanka, a paradisal gem on the Indian Ocean, has been plagued by over 25 years of bloody warfare between minority Tamil separatists and the majority Sinhalese government, and was ravaged by the 2004 tsunami. Yet Sri Lanka garners little attention on the international stage, despite the fascinating complexities of its population—Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, and Sinhalese all intermingled on this tropical island—and its struggles with human rights violations by both militant groups and the government.

One of the first-ever novels to deal with Sri Lanka and its ongoing war, V.V. Ganeshananthan’s LOVE MARRIAGE (Random House Paperback Original; Publication Date: April 8, 2008) examines decades of families suffering from this war and displacement.

For review copies or interview requests, please contact Jynne Martin in Random House publicity: jymartin[at]randomhouse.com. Tell her SAJA sent you - please note she will only be able to respond to journalists.

And be sure to note the back-of-the-book extras, including a conversation between Ganeshananthan and "Maximum City" author Suketu Mehta.

Details of her book tour, testimonials and more below and at Vasugi.com. Post your comments below.

Earlier on SAJAforum: V.V. Ganeshananthan in Esquire

AWARDS: India Abroad Person of the Year Awards 2008

WINNERS ALL: Dr. Navin Shah, Renu Khator, Mira Nair, Joy Cherian, Padma Desai, Jagdish Bhagwati. PHOTO: Jay Mandal/On Assignment (more below).

Manhattan's glittering Gotham Hall was the site of this year's India Abroad Person of the Year awards ceremony on Friday, March 28, 2008. Several awards were presented to winners selected by the editors of India Abroad, the country's oldest South Asian publication.

The India Abroad Person of the Year 2007 was awarded to filmmaker Mira Nair. The award was presented by Indra Nooyi, chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo and the India Abroad Person of the Year 2006. Thanking Nooyi and confessing to the audience, “I hope to be her when I grew up," Nair said:

“The challenge really is in our heads, to be original - and it takes courage to be original. Especially for those of us who have been told for centuries that the west is the mirror in which they can say their future. But I’d like to say there is not one truth, there are many truths it just depends on who’s doing the looking and from where.”

“For me, the mantras are simple. Safety and calm in family life, but bravery at work. A systematic dreamer, much like the awardees before me, I feel I must have a dream, I must have a vision, and then I work out very carefully a plan to achieve the vision.”

Nair has recently completed two short films written by Suketu Mehta. One is "Kosher Vegetarian" (with Irrfan Khan of "The Namesake" fame and Natalie Portman) as part of an anthology film, "New York, I Love You." The other short, "How Can It Be," is part of a UN project starring leading arthouse actors Konkona Sen Sharma ("Mr. and Mrs. Iyer") and Ranvir Shorey (former video jockey, also played
income tax officer Asif Merchant in "Bheja Fry").

She is scheduled to start shooting "Amelia" with Oscar-winner Hillary Swank in two weeks. It's a biopic about Amelia Earhart, the legendary American pilot who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

The evening was hosted by Sree Sreenivasan in his carefully casual style, walking around in the audience with his wireless mic introducing the various boldface names present at the function. Among them: Sanjaya Malakar of American Idol fame; legendary actress and chef Madhur Jaffrey; musicians Karsh Kale, Vishal Oberoi and Falu; Sunil Gulati, Columbia econ prof and president of the U.S. Soccer Federation; ESPN's first South Asian anchor, Kevin Negandhi; TV star Daljit Dhaliwal; SAJA VP and brand-new author V.V. Ganeshananthan; Indo-American Arts Council's Aroon Sivadasani; Shelley and Donald Rubin, founders of the Rubin Museum of Art; MTV exec Nusrat Durrani; Time foreign editor Bobby Ghosh; ABC News executive producer  Vinnie Malhotra; Toby Choudhuri, deputy press secretary for the Gore 2000 campaign; Preeta Bansal, former solicitor general of New York State; Rashmi Vasisht, deputy press secretary to Andrew Cuomo, NY State attorney general; SAJAforum's own Arun Venugopal;  there were too many others to name them all here.

The India Abroad Publisher's Special Award for Excellence 2007 was presented to Dr. Renu Khator, president and chancellor of the University of Houston and its 56,000 students. She shared the learnings of the journey from master's degree aspirant to educator-administrator, summarized below:

DESI SPOTTING: Sarita James at NYC's KGB Bar

KGB, a bar in NYC famous for its literary readings, is hosting the fifth edition of a popular series. "Pour Your Heart Out: Unpublished memoirs from really good writers" is on Tuesday, April 1, 2008, at 7 p.m. (the full event details are below).

Among the writers this time is Sarita James, reading a chapter from her book-in-progress, "Indian in Indiana: Adventures of a Misfit from America’s Heartland."

James first got national attention with an essay she wrote for the "Modern Love" column of the New York Times in May 2006. You can read that essay, "Mom, Dad, Let Me Find My Own Husband," and learn more about her at SaritaJames.com.

Post your comments below.

TV: Tracey Ullman's Bollywood pharmacist, on Showtime

Tracey Ullman's back on TV and her new show, "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union," is loaded with her impersonations of celebrities and others, including a couple desis and a yoga instructor.

One character that many TV reviewers have noted is that of Padma Perkish, an Indian pharmacist who breaks into Bolly-mode to spell out the downside of Viagra or some other drug. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times had this to say:

One of Ms. Ullman’s more inspired creations is Padma Perkish, an Indian pharmacist in Oak Ridge, Tenn., who dispenses medication Bollywood style. When an elderly customer seeks Viagra, Padma throws off her white smock and dances and sings in an electric-blue sari. (“Please enjoy the geriatric sex/But I must warn of the bad side effects/Your brain may bleed or your blood pressure soar/Or maybe something worse if you are sleeping with a whore.”)

The show also skewers blogger Arianna Huffington, David Beckham, Renee Zellweger and Andy Rooney of "60 Minutes." New York magazine's review opens on Padma Perkish:

Of the dozens of characters Tracey Ullman embodies, distends, devours, and detonates in her flagrant new sketch-comedy series, State of the Union, my favorite is Padma Perkish, a “full-service” pharmacist in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Padma, with her freakish patter of Bombay bombast and babu baby talk, is not only eager to supply whatever meds her customers need for everything from erectile dysfunction to bipolar flip-out, she also insists on accompanying each sale with a complete Bollywood musical number, stripping off her white coat to strut upon a cheesy set like some blue-skinned avatar of Krishna. This is invariably hilarious, but never more so than on the occasion of a mishap involving a Suzanne Somers Vagisizer, available with or without cilantro.

OBIT: Sameer Bhatia loses battle against leukemia

[UPDATE: June 25, 2008: Vinay Chakravarthy, whose HelpVinay campaign partnered with the HelpSameer campaign, died today.]

Sameer Bhatia, whose brave struggle against leukemia was documented at HelpSameer.org and caught the imagination of South Asians across the U.S., died on Thursday, March 27, 2008, in Seattle. Below are messages from the family (please post your thoughts in the comments section).

The photo on the right is from July 1, 2007, when a group of students made 1,200 paper cranes for Sameer. More coverage at Ultrabrown and SepiaMutiny.

From: "Chatwani, Robert" <rchatwani@ebay.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:44:24 -0600
Subject: Sameer Bhatia's Memorial Service

Dear Sameer's friends,

For those of you who have not yet heard, it is with deep sadness that I share the news of Sameer's passing. Sameer passed away peacefully early Thursday morning in Seattle, surrounded by family.

Regardless of whether you knew Sameer for years or if you met him just once, all of you experienced his amazing zest for life, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his passion for changing our world for the better.

Please see below for details about tomorrow's Memoral Service, information about the live webcast of the service, and messages from Sameer's father. All of these details are also available at http://helpsameer.org.

If you wish to share your thoughts or prayers with Sameer's family, please do so by adding comments to blog posts on the Sameer's site. Also please pass this message on to anyone you feel should be informed of Sameer's passing.

With warmth,

Robert, on behalf of Sameer's family
 
-----

FROM SAMEER'S FATHER - TODAY

We have arranged a memorial service for Sameer on Saturday, March 29 at 3 PM to accommodate many of you as well as our friends in Seattle. Many of you  have flown long distances at a short notice to be here. We want to overcome our collective grief by dwelling on all the positive aspects of Sameer’s life. We hope that it will help all of us to move forward in the way Sameer would have wanted us to do.

RESOURCE: TasveerGhar.net, all about South Asian visual culture

Rohit Chopra, a professor of media studies at Babson College and creator of Interjunction.org, a new site that connects media and academia (see SAJAforum item), wrote in to tell us about a valuable resource:

This is a terrific resource on South Asian visual culture: Tasveer Ghar, a digital archive of images of popular culture, media, film etc -- that I recently discovered. It can be accessed at TasveerGhar.net.

I found it thanks to a friend Aswin's blog Bollyspace 2.0. Aswin is Assistant Professor of Communication at University of Michigan Ann Arbor and doing some terrific work on globalization, media, and Bollywood.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

LANGUAGE: American schools hunt for Hindi teachers

According to The Times of India, American schools are looking for Hindi teachers in India, as part of a government-sponsored program known as the National Security Language Initiative. Hey, if the love of literature and foreign cultures doesn't inspire American kids, perhaps the war on terror will. From "India Shining: US headhunting Hindi teachers":

Earlier this month, [Jagdish Prasad] Sharma was one among the 100-odd Hindi teachers who travelled to Noida to be interviewed by a delegation from Connecticut and Carolina, in India to headhunt young, full-time Hindi teachers for their schools.

Hindi is the new Mandarin. Just as Mandarin is being learnt by youngsters all over the world to give them a strategic advantage with the emerging China, Hindi too is being sought after as the language of the other Asian tiger.

Some schools in the US have decided to introduce Hindi as a foreign language with staples like French, Spanish and German.

It's unclear from the article how many Hindi teachers would actually make it to America. But as the State Department's website notes, the US wants to "produce 2,000 advanced speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Persian, Hindi, and Central Asian languages by 2009."

BYLINE WATCH: Vikas Bajaj's two bylines on the NYT front page

Walter Pincus, the highly-acclaimed Washington Post reporter, has been quoted as saying: "The front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times are very important in shaping what people think. They’re like writing a memo to the White House." He's right, and today, Vikas Bajaj wrote two such memos.

He has two bylines, above the fold, in today's paper (click to enlarge): Equity Loans as Next Round in Credit Crisis and Inquiry Assails Accounting Firm in Lender's Fall (see a PDF version of the full frontpage here).

A non-South Asian friend and reader of the NYT for several decades wrote to me early this morning to point this out: "vikas bajaj has two bylined top-head stories side by side on p. 1 tdy. that's rarer than a lunar eclipse on feb. 29."

Just how rare is it exactly? Has anyone seen a reporter get this kind of play before? I often see plenty of reporters get two bylines the same day, and, on occasion, I have seen reporters get two bylines on the front page on the same day. Even Bajaj himself once got two double bylines above the fold in December 2007 (see our item about that achievement). But today's performance has got to be as rare as my friend described.

Earlier on SAJAforum: SAJA CONVENTION: Vikas Bajaj's nonstop hits (June 26, 2007)

See Vikas Bajaj's collection of stories at his Times Topics page. Post your comments below.

ART: MF Husain's $1.6 million painting

Modern art has always been a front in the so-called Culture Wars, with religion as the main battleground. Works like Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ or Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin’s Ecce Homo are seen by some as significant interrogations of religion and freedom of expression, and by others as deeply insulting and to be eliminated either through force of law or through violence.

Last Thursday, a painting by Maqbool Fida Husain, India’s most controversial artist, sold for an astounding $1.6 million at a Christie’s auction in New York. Lot number 57 in the catalogue, Husain’s “Battle of Ganga and Jamuna” (panel 12 in the series of paintings based on the Mahabharata he painted in the early seventies), was snapped up by an anonymous bidder for more than twice its appraised value.

The auction demonstrated that contemporary Indian paintings are a hot commodity on the international art scene. Another lot, Ram Kumar’s “The Vagabond” (painted in 1952), sold for $1.1 million.

As the Times of India reported in 2003, Husain has been the driving force behind bringing Indian contemporary art to international attention. Chester Hirwitz, a man described by the New York Times as Husain’s “most avid collector in the United States” compares the artist to Andy Warhol.

But not everyone is pleased by Husain’s success. Christie’s was picketed by members of the Indian American Intellectual Forum (IAIF) and the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, who argue that Husain’s work is tantamount to hate speech. (Rediff interviewed several of the protesters.) The artist has angered some Hindus over the course of his more than half century long career with what they regard as “sacrilegious” representations of Hindu deities and characters from the Sanskrit epics.