SAJAforum

FOOD: Dosa man Thiru Kumar voted NYC's best vendor

Sri Lankan native Thiru "Dosa Man" Kumar, the most famous dosa maker in New York City - aye, perhaps in the whole nation - was voted best street vendor in the annual Vendy awards competition. This was the third time in the 3-year history of the Vendy awards that the 39-year-old lentil crepe maker of Washington Sq. Park has competed, and although he was judged a runner-up in his previous attempts, he persisted, and now he is redeemed. He even beat out the crew of Super Taco.

The big story, of course, is what this will do for the dosa in the popular imagination. I've always respected Dosa Man's Pondicherry Masala dosa, which includes a sprinkling of raw carrots and other vegetables over a just-right masala. But now, I foresee Americanized knockoffs, incorporating peanut butter and/or Nutella. Maybe a musical, scored by MIA.

If anyone spots a photo of the trimphant Thiru - perhaps hoisting a trophy overhead, filled with dosa batter - do send in. (photo of Thiru by Preston Merchant, from SAJA Convention '06)

Coverage elsewhere, by the Associated Press - more to come. For now, 'feast' on this pre-award YouTube video, featuring Thiru and other contestants.

US-INDIA AFFS: Mira Kamdar on the Rise of the India Lobby

Mira Kamdar, author of "Planet India: How the Fastest-Growing Democracy is Transforming America and the World," has a major op-ed in today's "Outlook" section of The Washington Post. It looks at the rise of the India lobby in the U.S., and how it's been influenced by Jewish and Israeli groups. As you may know, a current book with "the Israel Lobby" in the title has gotten a lot of attention and criticism, including  charges of anti-Semitism. But the India lobby sees no such problem with, well, "the India Lobby."

The fall's most controversial book is almost certainly "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," in which political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt warn that Jewish Americans have built a behemoth that has bullied policymakers into putting Israel's interests in the Middle East  ahead of America's. To Mearsheimer and Walt, AIPAC, the main pro-Israel lobbying group, is insidious. But to more and more Indian Americans, it's downright inspiring.

With growing numbers, clout and self-confidence, the Indian American community is turning its admiration for the Israel lobby and its respect for high-achieving Jewish Americans into a powerful new force of its own. Following consciously in AIPAC's footsteps, the India lobby is getting results in Washington -- and having a profound impact on U.S. policy, with important consequences for the future of Asia  and the world.

"This is huge," enthused Ron Somers, the president of the U.S.-India Business Council, from a posh hotel lobby in Philadelphia. "It's the Berlin Wall coming down. It's Nixon in China."

Read the rest of the essay, "Forget the Israel Lobby. The Hill's Next Big Player Is Made in India," and post your thoughts in the comments section below (we'll make sure she sees them).

BURMA: A South(east) Asian crisis, and India's muted response

Burma is one of those sleepy, business-as-usual dictatorships that no one in the West pays much attention to until something exceptionally horrible happens, such as the violence inflicted on anti-government protesters this past week. Pakistan and India have both commemorated their 60th anniversaries this year as states freed from the British Empire and we should not forget that Burma, which is in others way so very different, will celebrate that same milestone in 2008.

Burma, or rather Myanmar — we’ll come to that in a moment — is not usually considered part of South Asia, according to the Asia Society, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and many other organizations. However, it comes very close: Burma shares a long border with India and Bangladesh and is set along a once-lucrative trade route between India and China. During the centuries when Indian culture and trade dominated Southeast Asia, Burma was geographically at the center of things and as a result, Buddhism remains the most common religion in the country. (In a truly surreal twist, the military junta justifies its brutal rule with the claim that it is protecting Buddhism.) India still has a significant interest in trade with Burma, including in petroleum, which is comparatively scarce in India, and this has been suggested as the key reason India has maintained silence over the Burmese regime’s abuses. India sees itself in competition with China over the Burmese energy sector, as the Hindu reported in 2005.

Though they are now split by the magical line dividing South Asia from Southeast Asia, India and Burma were amalgamated in the 19th century thanks to colonialism. The history is a bit complicated but basically Burma was absorbed into India as the British fought three wars of conquest against Burmese rulers between 1824 and 1885. George Orwell spent time as a civil servant in Burma and he famously hated it. It inspired Rudyard Kipling to write one his worst poems. In short, Burma was just the eastern frontier of British India.

REVIEW ROUNDUP: Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Limited

Wes Anderson's latest film, "The Darjeeling Limited" opens in limited release today. It's about a spiritual train journey across India, taken by three brothers - played by Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody  (see here in an autorickshaw) - who've not spoken in the year since their father's death. As with the entire body of Anderson's work - "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums," "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," "Bottle Rocket" - the reviews are mixed here, and often suspicious. Our review roundup is below, followed by links to the official website, the trailer and the short web-only film that Anderson wants you to see before you see the movie.

Post your comments  - about the reviews or about the movie - below.

A.O. Scott writes the majority opinion in the NYT:

“The Darjeeling Limited” amounts finally to a high-end, high-toned tourist adventure. I don’t mean this dismissively; it would be hypocritical of me to deny the delights of luxury travel to faraway lands. And Mr. Anderson’s eye for local color — the red-orange-yellow end of the spectrum in particular — is meticulous and admiring.

But humanism lies either beyond his grasp or outside the range of his interests. His stated debt to “The River,” Jean Renoir’s film about Indian village life, and his use of music from the films of Satyajit Ray represent both an earnest tribute to those filmmakers and an admission of his own limitations. They were great directors because they extended the capacity of the art form to comprehend the world that exists. He is an intriguing and amusing director because he tirelessly elaborates on a world of his own making.

In Entertainment Weekly, however, Lisa Shwarzbaum says the film works:

"This is familiar psychological as well as stylistic territory for Anderson after Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. But there's a startling new maturity in Darjeeling, a compassion for the larger world that busts the confines of the filmmaker's miniaturist instincts. (A jolting, unironic plot turn may even shock.) I don't know which came first — inspiration provided by the beauty and complexity of India, or an attraction to India because of a wiser heart.

On Salon, Stephanie Zacharek writes that The Darjeeling Limited "is the first of Anderson's movies that has elicited even the mildest scrap of affection from me: I feel warmly toward it, although I reserve the right to remain wary of its aging-hipster gimcrackery."

In USA Today, Claudia Puig says "the cinematography is stunning, the soundtrack is engaging and some moments are tenderly observed. Still, the story lacks some substance and character development.

Slate's Dana Stevens writes one of the nimblest, most biting reviews of the film, but she's become a skeptic. She calls his films "miniaturist studies of haute-bourgeois anomie that, however deftly sketched, ultimately shut down on themselves."

Stevens takes note of "a wonderful, nearly wordless performance from Indian actor Irrfan Khan" as the father in a village where a where has died. But she thinks this part of the film, with its juxtaposition of traveling Westerners against native misery, also brings out "Anderson at his worst: self-serious, aestheticizing, and morally yucky."

BYLINES: Sandip Roy on Ahmadinejad's No-homosexuals Remark, in Salon (plus, Jayati Vora in The Nation)

SAJAer and New America Media editor Sandip Roy has his second piece in Salon this month (the first was "In Defense of Larry Craig"). This time it's about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's much-tittered-about statement at Columbia University: "In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon" of homosexuality.

From "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Iranian Style":

The loud, skeptical laughter from the audience showed that while some might still believe that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes, no one bought his homosexual-free zone. But the problem lay in the question. Ahmadinejad was asked why his country denies women and homosexuals rights. If the questioner had asked the Iranian president about homosexual acts instead of a class of people known as "homosexuals," maybe Ahmadinejad would have conceded the existence of such a "phenomenon."

The piece ranges over other countries who are in similar states of public denial, namely India. Roy cites the 1944 obscenity case resulting from Ismat Chughtai's very steamy, very lesbian short story, "The Quilt." Roy's point is that the story, by placing the act out of view (quite literally, blanketed), remained suggestive, rather than graphic, and thus honored the cultural code.   

But then, of course, the ruckus over (NRI) Deepa Mehta's Fire...

MEDIA: Fortune magazine plans Indian edition

Time Inc. says it's going to launch an Indian edition of Fortune. It's currently finalizing a partnership with an un-named Indian publisher, which it needs under local laws. Right now the international edition of Fortune costs 80 rupees, or "four times the price of an Indian business magazine," according to this AP article:

Currently, the magazine, published every two weeks, sells about 8,000 copies per issue in India. That number could increase 10 times with a local edition, Friedman said. Under a license deal, Fortune would get a royalty from the Indian partner.

The article also talks about how globalization and rising incomes are driving demand for foreign magazines:

New York-based Conde Nast Publications Inc. recently introduced a local edition of fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue. Conde Nast also plans to bring Glamour, Vanity Fair and Traveler to India depending on the success of Vogue.

Magazines like Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Men’s Health, and Maxim are already being published through joint ventures. A local edition helps these magazines compete with their Indian rivals.

More from LiveMint on the launch event for the Indian edition of Vogue, "a gala weekend where elegance and sophistication found a new idiom." Having once been an ad copywriter, it's always fun to spot press releases disguised as news.

CRIME: Desi Student Arrested at St. John's University

Since yesterday afternoon, the local media in NYC has been focused on the campus of St. John's University, in Queens. Yesterday, a freshman named Omesh Hiraman was arrested after he was seen carrying a rifle and a mask. From Sewell Chan's postings on City Room, the NYTimes.com blog:

A man with a firearm in a bag was arrested by campus police this afternoon at St. John’s University in Queens and turned over to New York City police, who said they were also searching for a second possible suspect. Police officers descended on the St. John’s campus. Police identified the armed man as Omesh Hiraman, a 22-year-old student from Guyana. They initially identified the weapon he was carrying as a musket, but later said it was a .50-caliber Wolf gun, which holds one round of ammunition and uses black powder instead of cartridges. It was not clear if the firearm was loaded, but no ammunition was found in the bag. The weapon is seen as a niche weapon among hunters and sportsmen.

See the coverage and comments at Gothamist.com, and video from WNBC.

His father, Pat Hiraman has been speaking publicly about the incident. From WABC:

Hiraman's father, Pat Hiraman, said the incident was "a misunderstanding" and his son, who lives at home near the school, "would never harm anyone."

"Our son has always been a good boy and has never been in any sort of trouble," the father said.

Pat Hiraman says his son hasn't been the same since back surgery that's left him on heavy medication.

"It has only been about six weeks. He's still suffering from the affects of anesthesia and he gets the medication that causes him to throw up," the father said.

People who know Omesh said he seemed a little troubled, but no one said he seemed a little violent. So, his intentions are still not clear.

Post your comments, news links, updates, below.

HISTORY: Desi connections to previous U.S./Canada mass shootings:

• April 16, 2007: Two desi victims among those killed in Virginia Tech shootings.
• Sept. 12, 2006: Kimveer Gill kills one and injures 19 at Montreal's Dawson College.
• May 9, 2003: Biswanath Halder kills one and injures two at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University.

BURMA: Another Crisis in the Region - the Saffron Revolution

Add Burma/Myanmar to the list of countries in the South Asian region that are in crisis. We are still watching the crackdown and its aftermath in Bangladesh, but now the military leaders in Yangon have launched a crackdown of their own on what's being called the "Saffron Revolution" in reference to the robes of the Buddhist monks (see USAToday's editorial about the monks). From Wednesday's AP report, via Yahoo:

YANGON, Myanmar - Security forces in Myanmar opened fire on demonstrators Wednesday, and witnesses said police beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks. The government said at least one person was killed, while dissident groups and media reported up to eight dead. The military junta's announcement on state radio and television was the first acknowledgment of the use of force against protesters and its first admission of bloodshed after a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations against the government.

A strongly worded editorial in the NYT - "The Despotism Formerly Known as Burma" points out the role that India and China have to play:

By dispatching troops into the streets and imposing a curfew, Myanmar’s cruel military junta has set the stage for a serious clash with pro-democracy activists. A firm and united international response along the lines outlined by President Bush and the European Union at the United Nations yesterday offers the best hope of encouraging peaceful change in a nation that has endured a 19-year reign of fear. The question is whether the countries with the greatest influence on Myanmar’s generals — China, Russia and India, which all sell weapons to the army, as well as the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that are Myanmar’s immediate neighbors — have the good sense to condemn the repression and exert the pressures only they can wield with any hope of positive effect. It is essential that they step up to the plate, and fast, before blood is spilled.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights, based in New Delhi [+91-11-25620583, 25503624; website: www.achrweb.org; Email: achr_review@achrweb.org], sent out this message:

"Burma: Member States of the UN must intervene" It is available at
http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2007/186-07.htm

As we upload this issue of ACHR WEEKLY REVIEW, reports have been pouring
in that the Burmese riot police today used baton and tear gas against the
Buddhist monks and civilian protesters at Shwedagon pagoda, the holiest
Buddhist place in Rangoon. The demonstrators were reportedly beaten up
while many were arrested. At least one Buddhist monk has been beaten to
death by the riot police.

The international community must intervene. The European Union, the United
States and others must immediately instruct their Permanent
Representatives at the United Nations Offices in New York and Geneva to
sponsor necessary resolutions to hold (i) a special discussion at the
ongoing 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly; (ii) an
Emergency Session at the Security Council; and (iii) a Special Session at
the ongoing 6th session of the UN Human Rights Council on the prevailing
situation in Myanmar.

I spent part of this morning sending out e-mails trying to locate journalists, fixers and others inside the country, with no luck. One of my contacts says that it's hard to find freelance journalists there, because of the current situtation: "There are many 'informants,' not professional journos who could pinch hit." I have never come across this situation where finding a local journalist is impossible, so I am going to keep trying. Tips, leads and more welcome at saja[at]columbia.edu.

I lived in Burma in the early 1980s for a few months and was then a place with no political freedom, thanks to the ruling junta, but we never saw anything like this.

See SepiaMutiny coverage and comments, "Bharat Backs Burma, Bad!"

Your comments and news links below, please.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum:

• BURMA: Himal Mag Looks at a Neighbor - item about a special issue of Himal magazine

MUSIC: Shaheen Sheik in Top 10 of L.A. radio station contest

Pop singer Shaheen (full name: Shaheen Sheik) has made the top 10 of the $10,000 Star Lounge song contest, with her song "Wildflower World." The contest is held by 98.7 FM in Los Angeles, and drew 400 initial entrants. The online voting continues through September 26 - this Wednesday - and the winner will be announced on the 28th.

The winner's song will be included in a CD with top performers; in the past, the Star Lounge CD has featured Coldplay, Norah Jones, Tori Amos, Avril Lavigne and others (check out this Amazon link).

Check out Shaheen's MySpace page to hear some of her songs and watch her Wildflower World video.

In other news, the Nikhil Korula band is opening for the Dave Matthews Band on September 26 and September 28 - check out the band's MySpace page. Those two shows will be in Irvine and San Diego.

DESI SPOTTING: Indian Events Hit NYC

It was 4 p.m. on Sunday, and my family and I had just piled into a yellow cab outside Manhattan's Bryant Park. The 4-year-old twins and their parents were exhausted from a day of watching Indian entertainment, handrcarafts and more at the park. The cabbie who picked us up was a Bangladeshi and was full of questions about the event and the programming. He'd heard about what was going on and wanted to know more. We handed him a brochure and told him about all the India-related stuff going on in the city through Wednesday. The kids loved watching the folk dances, the Bollywood dancing (choreographed by the legendary Saroj Khan, who's the biggest dance choreographer in Mumbai) and seeing the huge, fake Taj Mahal. See the full lineup of events, Sept. 23-Sept 26. Photos below by Shaju John, freelance photojournalist - ask him for reprints, hi-resolution versions: shajujohn2005 at gmail.com.