SAJAforum

CONFLICT: Tracking India's separatist rebels, in the Virginia Quarterly Review

Jason Motlagh, a roving journalist who covers South Asia, has written an extensive piece for The Virginia Quarterly Review on insurgencies that persist across India, despite the country's record economic growth. Motlagh's 9,562 word piece (you read that right) involved months of reporting, and took him to remote areas of Assam, Chhatisgarh, Orissa and Kashmir. His work--including the photographs he took--was funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center.

In response to a few questions I had, Jason emailed me about what motivated him to undertake this project:

My editor for the VQR piece was Ted Genoways, who heads it up and is based in Charlottesville, Virginia. As for the coverage of the Maoists, I decided to dig deeper upon realizing the striking dearth of coverage -- both in the Indian and international media. To date there's a lot of vague assertions and sensationalism in the Indian media on the Maoist issue, and I think the reluctance of local journalists to go the extra mile on the story is troubling. Kashmir and Islamist terror still dominates coverage, as far as internal conflicts go. The rest of the mainstream press, with some notable exceptions such as Tehelka, are more willing to feed the hype surrounding India's rise as an economic power. When leftist extremism does make the news, scant attention is given to the root causes of the insurgency. It is this sort of narrow vision--among media and the government--that the Maoists are trying to exploit.

From "Maoists in the Forest: Tracking India's Separatist Rebels":

BYLINE WATCH: Ravi Ubha covers Wimbledon

I am on a working vacation in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and wasn't able to easily find a live telecast of Sunday's Wimbledon final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer - already being considered one of the greatest matches ever played. I had to rely on news coverage and ESPN.com's in-match analysis (ie, play-by-play blogging). The latter was provided by Ravi Ubha (pictured here), a London-based journalist who writes the "Americans Abroad" column for ESPNsoccernet when he's not writing about tennis. A quick search shows he also regularly writes/wrote about sports for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, among other pubs.

Here's how he recounts the final moments of the match:

Nadal elects to serve out wide, and Federer is waiting for it, unleashing a spectacular backhand return that's untouchable. Wow. Deuce. 

Match point No. 4 after a serve out wide to the forehand forces an error. Toni Nadal is out of his chair, willing his nephew on. 

It's over! Federer sends a short forehand into the net.

9-7 after four hours, 48 minutes. 

What an epic. Federer loses for the first time on grass since 2002.

Rafael Nadal wins the Wimbledon championship 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7.

Nadal is in tears as he climbs into the players box, then walks on a roof that takes him to the Royal Box, exchanging hand shakes with the prince and princess of Spain, a Spanish flag draped around his neck.

MOTHER'S DAY: Ranjit Souri on his ailing mother, and the writer's journey

Ranjit Souri has written a painful and poignant Mother's Day essay in India Currents, recounting the physical decline of his young mother, years ago. He also read out the same piece on WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio.

From "Tribute to a Gardener":

One humid afternoon while we were gardening, Mom asked me to go inside and bring her some water. When I came back outside with the water I saw her trying to get out of her wheelchair to stand up.

I felt a sharp annoyance at this sight—why was she trying to do something so dangerous? She could easily fall and get injured.

I rushed at her and shouted, “No, Mom, don’t!”

She fell back into her wheelchair and began to cry. Through her tears she said, “I wanted to see my vegetables.”

Her wheelchair was facing away from the vegetable garden.

Suddenly I felt profoundly ashamed. I collapsed onto my knees and laid my head on Mom’s lap as lightly as I could, to avoid hurting her fragile body. We held each other and wept bitterly. We wept for everything that she had lost. For all of her loves that had been taken away from her. And for this one last passion that she refused to let go of, even to the end of her life on earth.

Ranjit's mother died in 1994, soon after her 50th birthday, but he goes on to explain just one of the ways she left her mark on him.

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.

BYLINE ROUNDUP: The Week in Bylines - 8

Time for another installment in our "The Week in Bylines" series (see earlier editions). On most Sunday nights, we publish a collection of interesting/unusual bylines stories by South Asian journalists in the U.S./Canadian media. Even though it's about bylines, we also highlight work on TV and radio (in front of, and behind, the camera/mic). This is not meant to be a definitive, exhaustive collection. Instead, the idea is to show you the range of work that SAJAers are doing. Send us items you'd like us to consider, including your own: saja[at]columbia.edu (if we miss it one week, we will add it the next).

The Week in Bylines, March 16, 2008:

• Moni Basu, a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is back reporting in Iraq (she's been the several times to cover the war) and has been filing a series of stories. Among them:
  Family Reunion in Iraq: Bond on the Battlefield: March 12, 2008
  GI father, daughter disarmed by tears and love.
  Two Years After Life-Saving Surgery: Baby Noor's Troubling Future: March 9, 2008
  The family knew their baby girl would never walk, and that underneath the smile that melted hearts lay a bitter truth: Noor al-Zahra was destined for hardship. But Noor had been just a baby, cradled in her grandmother's arms, when she came to Atlanta for a life-saving operation more than two years ago. Now, as she grows older, an even harsher reality is revealing itself. 
• Vauhini Vara, a Silicon Valley reporter for the Wall Street Journal, had a big front-page story about one of the hottest tech companies around: Facebook.
  Facebook CEO seeks help as site grows up: March 5, 2008.
  Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Inc.'s 23-year-old chief executive, is finding that he and his company have to grow up at Internet speed. The latest sign: He has poached a top Google Inc. executive, Sheryl Sandberg, to help expand his social-networking company.

BYLINE ROUNDUP: The Week in Bylines - 7

Time for another installment in our "The Week in Bylines" series (see earlier editions). On most Sunday nights, we publish a collection of interesting/unusual bylines stories by South Asian journalists in the U.S./Canadian media. Even though it's about bylines, we also highlight work on TV and radio (in front of, and behind, the camera/mic). This is not meant to be a definitive, exhaustive collection. Instead, the idea is to show you the range of work that SAJAers are doing. Send us items you'd like us to consider, including your own: saja[at]columbia.edu (if we miss it one week, we will add it the next).

The Week in Bylines, March 2, 2008:

• Arun Rath wrote, produced and directed a documentary for the PBS/Frontline TV series about one of the most disturbing stories to come out of the Iraq war. The show, from WGBH in Boston, aired on Feb. 19 across the U.S.
  Rules of Engagement is "the untold story of what happened in Haditha, Iraq, and how it forced the U.S. military to confront the rules of war in a way it never had to before." At that link, you can watch the full documentary, see web-only video, see a quiz and analysis and a lot more.
  Read the transcript of a live chat with Rath at WashingtonPost.com.
• Angela Shah, a business reporter for the Dallas Morning News, had an in-depth story about the making of Villa-O, a Dallas restaurant, from conception through opening night.
  Villa-O: From Conception to Opening Night - Feb. 14.
  Here's Shah's sidebar on Robert Columbo: Restauranteur Brought Lessons Learned From All Over to Dallas
• Saeed Ahmed, newsdesk editor at CNN in Atlanta, has a quirky story about elections in the northeastern state of Meghalaya, India.
  Hitler, Frankenstein Battle for Votes in India - Feb. 25.
  

  Think Barack Hussein Obama has it rough campaigning for president with a name like that? The Illinois senator has nothing on Frankenstein Momin. Or Billy Kid Sangma. Or Adolf Lu Hitler Marak.

  The three men are among dozens of others with equally colorful names who are competing for legislative seats in Meghalaya, a remote northeast Indian state, on March 3.

PREZ POLITICS: Obama writes in India Abroad

Senator Barack Obama has a two-page, 1,832 word op-ed in the latest issue of India Abroad (here's a link to the pdf version). In it, he calls for a better balance between security and civil liberties, better immigration policies for foreign students and families, and less rigid alignment with the Musharraf government. He also links his own family's immigrant story to that of Indians, and of course, gives props to Gandhi.

Early on in the piece, he calls for... change.

This kind of change will require the active participation of the American people. And as President, I will reach out to encourage the active engagement and partnership of the vibrant Indian American community in making the change we seek.  Already, in communities across this country, Indian Americans are lifting up our economy and creating jobs. Leading entrepreneurs, innovators, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and hard-working professionals are adding to the richness and success of the American story. 

And yet, since the attacks of 9/11, we have been gripped by a politics of fear that has far too often targeted Indian Americans, excluding them from the American story. Too often, flawed strategies like racial profiling have had a disproportionate effect on Indian Americans. Too often, restrictions at our borders have prevented entry for many students and family members who seek nothing more than opportunity and reunification with loved ones. In the process, we have restricted the promise of America for millions of hard-working, law-abiding individuals who advance our nation’s economy and potential through strong families, excellence in education and achievement, and personal faith. 

As President, I will restore the essential balance between the security we demand and the liberties we cherish. I worked as a State Senator to bring together law enforcement and civil rights advocates to reform racial profiling tactics – this is not a reliable tool for our law enforcement, and it is not reflective of core American values. As a United States Senator, I co-sponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to reach violent hate crimes motivated by race, color, religion, or national origin – because there can be no justification for these heinous acts.  And I helped craft comprehensive immigration reform that would have fixed our broken immigration system by securing our borders while reaffirming our legacy as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

Further down he discusses strategic ties between the US and India, and a conditional relationship with Pakistan.

The United States and India must work together to combat the common threats of the 21st century. We have both been victims of catastrophic terrorist attacks, and we have a shared interest in succeeding in the fight against al Qaeda and its operational and ideological affiliates. That fight must not be undercut by a misguided war in Iraq. 

BYLINE ROUNDUP: The Week in Bylines - 6

Time for another installment in our "The Week in Bylines" series (see earlier editions). Every Sunday night, we publish a collection of interesting/unusual bylines stories by South Asian journalists in the U.S./Canadian media. Even though it's about bylines, we also highlight work on TV and radio (in front of, and behind, the camera/mic). This is not meant to be a definitive, exhaustive collection. Instead, the idea is to show you the range of work that SAJAers are doing. Send us items you'd like us to consider, including your own: saja[at]columbia.edu (if we miss it one week, we will add it the next).

The Week in Bylines, Feb. 17, 2008:

• SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY, filmmaker and long-time SAJA member, made a six-minute video about President Musharraf of Pakistan for NYTimes.com (credits also include Adam B. Ellick and Salman Masood).
  Voices on Musharraf - Feb. 16: President Musharraf's approval rating is at an all-time low in advance of  Monday's parliamentary elections.
• SAMIR PATEL, an associate editor at Archaeology magazine, has a six-page feature about "Queen Anne's Revenge," the flagship of one of the most notorious pirates of them all.
  Blackbeard Surfaces - March/April 2008: For the piece, Patel went diving with the team on the wreck as they raised one of his cannons from the sea floor. He also took the pictures. Click on the image below to see the first spread. The link is only to an abstract of the piece; to read the full story, you will have to get it at a newsstand near you.

  

• RAJU CHEBIUM who covers the Congressional delegation of New Jersey for
  Gannett's six newspapers in that state and also writes about transportation issues nationally, has had some election articles worth noting.

BYLINE ROUNDUP: The Week in Bylines - 5

It's been almost a year since we last visited our series called "The Week in Bylines" (see earlier editions). We are now relaunching this, with a plan to publish by every Sunday night, a collection of interesting/unusual bylines stories by South Asian journalists in the U.S./Canadian media. Even though it's about bylines, we will also be looking to highlight work on TV and radio as well (in front of, and behind, the camera). "The Week in Credits," however, sounds like something to do with the subprime crisis (which several desis have been covering). This is not meant to be a definitive, exhaustive collection. Instead, the idea is to show you the range of work that SAJAers are doing. Send us items you'd like us to consider, including your own: saja[at]columbia.edu (if we miss it one week, we will add it the next).

The Week in Bylines, Feb. 10, 2008:

• MEGHA RAJAGOPALAN, a student at the University of Maryland, wrote about the first meeting of a pair of legendary names in U.S. journalism history.
  Bradlee, Ellsberg finally meet, chat about Pentagon Papers - Diamondback Online - Feb. 8
  It seemed unbelievable that the two men hadn't yet met. Their careers had collided in the most public way, shaping the way Americans understood the Vietnam War and the freedom of the press. But when Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and Nixon-era whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg first shook hands, it was in the green room at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center last night.
• SULEMAN DIN, a reporter at the Star-Ledger in New Jersey, wrote about a tragic consequence of a new bridge.
  Taller bridge sees a rise in suicides
  The number of people who have committed suicide by jumping from the Victory Bridge has sharply increased since the new, taller span opened in Middlesex County in 2005, and now state and local officials are examining ways to stem the disturbing trend. At least a half-dozen people have leapt to their deaths from atop the new 110-foot-tall Victory Bridge, which links Perth Amboy and Sayreville and soars 90 feet above the previous span. Another person attempted suicide and survived.
• NEIL MUNSHI, a student at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, wrote a piece about new information about dinosaurs.
  New clues portray dinosaurs as adolescent mothers - Boston Globe, Jan. 28
  New research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, adds support for the idea that dinosaurs had babies starting in adolescence. For an animal that died young - roughly between ages 15 and 30 - such teenage pregnancies would have helped the species survive, scientists said.
• SUMI AGGARWAL, an associate producer at CBS News "60 Minutes" worked on the Hillary Clinton interview segment that ran on Feb. 10.
  Sen. Hillary Clinton tells Katie Couric she's the best candidate to go against the Republican nominee in November because she has experienced the negative ad campaigns the Republicans are sure to run and Sen. Barack Obama has not. But Obama, in a separate interview with Steve Kroft, says running for the Democratic nomination against the "Clinton Machine" is just as tough.
• SHAILA DEWAN, who covers the U.S. South out of Atlanta, wrote stories about various tragedies man-made and nature-made.

ADVERTISING: In India, white models on the ascent

In The Washington Post, Rama Lakshmi examines the omnipresence of Caucasians in India's modeling world, beckoning from billboards to TV ads to storefronts. From "In India's Huge Marketplace, Advertisers Find Fair Skin Sells":

These days, the faces of white women and men, mostly from Eastern Europe, stare out from billboards, from the facades of glitzy, glass-fronted malls and from fashion magazines. At an international automobile show this month in New Delhi, most of the models were white.

The presence of Caucasian models in Indian advertisements has grown in the past three years, industry analysts say. The trend reflects deep cultural preferences for fair skin in this predominantly brown-skinned nation of more than 1 billion people.

This may seem the logical conclusion to Indians, who are all too familiar with skin-color description tags on bachelorettes ('wheatish', 'dusky'), fair-skinned Bollywood stars (men and women) and skin-lightening products like Fair and Lovely.

European models have been drawn to Mumbai, India’s cultural capital (even as more Indian models go abroad), and advertisers prefer them because they're often less inhibited than their Indian counterparts (and not as expensive as Western European models). There's also the belief that ‘fair’ and ‘beautiful’  go together and the perception that brands with international faces are of better quality and therefore reliable. One model interviewed, Tanya Bohinc, is Slovenian and newly arrived.

WORLD AFFAIRS: Parag Khanna's NYT Magazine cover story

[UPDATE, Feb. 5, 2008: WSJ's Bret Stephens critiques this essay]

Today's New York Times Magazine has a provocative cover image and essay by Parag Khanna, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation (headed by Steve Coll, former WashPost managing editor and South Asia expert). "Who Shrank the Superpower" says:

Just  a few years ago, America's hold on global power seemed unshakeable. But a lot has changed while we've been Iraq - and the next president is going to be dealing with not only triumphant China and a retooled Europe but also the quiet rise of a "second world."

[Am trying to recall the last South Asian byline on the cover of this magazine - anyone know? saja[at]columbia.edu, please)

The essay is adapted from Khanna's book, “The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order,” to be published by Random House in March.

Khanna is director of the New America Foundation's Global Governance Initiative, leading "an effort to find innovative strategies for governmental, corporate, and civil society collaboration to resolve pressing global problems and redefine diplomacy for the 21st century."

Other details from his bio:

Parag Khanna is an expert on geopolitics, global governance, and Asian and European affairs, and was most recently the Global Governance Fellow at The Brookings Institution. He has worked at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, where he specialized in scenario and risk planning, and at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he conducted research on terrorism and conflict resolution. He holds bachelors and masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and is completing his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He speaks German, Hindi, French, Spanish, and basic Arabic. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Harper’s Magazine, Policy Review, Foreign Policy, Prospect (U.K.), Slate, and Survival (U.K.), and he has been featured on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera International, National Public Radio, and Doordarshan.
E-mail: khanna[at]newamerica.net

Some highlights that have South Asia connections in Khanna's piece, which opens with a future scenario:

OPINION: Ramesh Rao on Dalrymple's use of 'Hindu extremists' of the LTTE

Ramesh Rao has a column in ReligionAndSpirituality.com on the mis-use of the term 'Hindu extremists' to describe Sri Lanka's LTTE. In a January 4 New York Times op-ed entitled "Bhutto's Deadly Legacy," William Dalrymple said Rajiv Gandhi "was assassinated by Sri Lankan Hindu extremists." But Rao argues that there is no merit in that claim:

"I wrote to The New York Times' editors, arguing that Sri Lankan terrorists are not "Hindu extremists," and that the most well-known of the Sri Lankan extremist groups is the LTTE which stands for "Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam," and that language (Tamil) and ethnicity (Tamilian) are the influencing factors, not Hinduism. It was the LTTE that was connected to Rajiv Gandhi's killing. The LTTE finds sympathy and support from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party of the bordering South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which claims to be both anti-Hindu and atheist.
   
"It is reported that the LTTE leader Prabhakaran, originally from the Karaiyar caste, is a lapsed Methodist. Prabhakaran named his son Charles Anthony, after one of his associates, Charles Lucas Anthony, alias Seelan, who was killed in 1983. Anton Balasingham, who was LTTE's lead political strategist and thinker, was a Christian. It is also said of the LTTE that "religion is not a major factor in his philosophy or ideology," and that it "does not cite any material from religion or religious texts in any of its ideological documents and propaganda but are driven only by the idea of Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. ... " So, to assert that Rajiv Gandhi was killed by "Hindu extremists" is therefore both tendentious and mischievous."

So far, Rao says he hasn't heard back from the Times.

Read the rest of Ramesh Rao's piece, and please post your thoughts below.

OPINION: Chicago Tribune op-ed on violence in the Indian community

Rupa Shenoy, a grad student at Northwestern, has a piece in The Chicago Tribune about the recent spate of killings, suicide attempts and all-around strange incidents within Chicago's Indian-American community (thanks to Ranjit Souri). Her basic point is that the trauma is a reflection of the resistance some immigrants have to change, even as the social order back home, in India, is changing dramatically.

The column opens on the community's reputation for professional success.

Indian Americans have generally enjoyed and cultivated this favorable reputation. We have not made waves; we have just excelled -- quietly.

That's why a recent spate of bizarre, passionate acts of destruction by members of our community has shocked us as much as it has the greater public.

She goes through the various crimes that have taken place lately:

• "Last week, an Oak Forest Indian man burned down the home of his daughter and son-in-law, killing them, their son and the unborn child the woman was carrying. The father said he disapproved of his daughter's marriage to a man of a lower caste."
• "Shortly before that incident, a young newlywed Indian woman, also living in the suburbs, abruptly left her husband and drove cross-country with another man. Her mysterious disappearance caused police to launch an intensive search that eventually cost $250,000. The woman said she wanted a clean break and a new life."
• "In November, an Indian father from Glendale Heights set himself and his two young sons on fire in what family members called a suicide attempt. They survived, but the boys remain hospitalized."
• "Last summer, I covered the story of a suburban Indian-American mother who poured gasoline on herself and her two young children, then lit a match, killing them all. She was said to be unhappy in her marriage."

Further down, Shenoy suggests that Indian immigrants are going through a period of transition, just as people in India are experiencing changes:

BOOKS: Wash Post on India's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Emily Wax of The Washington Post writes about author Kancha Iliah and his illustrated children's storybook "Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labor in our Times":

"Turning the Pot" is the first Indian children's book to openly challenge the 3,000-year-old caste system, which ranks professions from scholars to shoemakers in a rigid hierarchy and is reinforced by some interpretations of Hindu theology.

"This book is a weapon for India's millions of low-caste children who are fighting for respect, just as African Americans did and do in the U.S.," said Ilaiah, who also wrote the best-selling anti-caste book "Why I Am Not a Hindu." "How do you change ancient prejudices in any society? You do it through repositioning caste at childhood. If young children are taught respect over a bedtime story or in class, that could help enormously."

Three thousand copies of the book have been bought for schools by UNICEF, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may also order copies for the school system. Wax suggests that the book is part of a larger movement in India to teach about historical discrimination against lower castes, and comes at a time when the economic divide is growing.

Upper-and middle-caste children in India often grow up with domestic servants, including maids, personal chefs, door openers and dog walkers. In many such families, Indian children are never asked to clean their rooms, wash the dishes or empty trash, because such tasks are seen as beneath them.

Ilaiah hopes that children will learn to see that's not the case. "Today, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin are famous cobblers known for designer footwear at over $750 a pair," he said. "In India, because of the caste system, people who did this work were labeled 'untouchables' and forced to live away from the main village. They were not allowed to prosper."

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• "MEDIA: Courting Dalits as Readers"
• "LANGUAGE: Calling Dalits what they really are"
• "BOOKS: Plain Speaking: A Sudra's Story"
• "HUMAN RIGHTS: Human Rights Watch says India's failed to Uplift Dalits"

BYLINE WATCH: Ramesh Ponnuru's "Right Matters" on WashPost Site

On the frontpage of WashingtonPost.com this morning, I noticed that conservative writer and National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru hosts a regular discussion group called "Right Matters: Talking about the Future of Conservatism with Ramesh Ponnuru." More on Ponnuru at Wikipedia | National Review. Take a look and post your comments below.

HOLIDAYS: Reducing Christmas waste, the Kerala way

Community columnist Nalini Krishnankutty has an editorial in the Centre Daily Times of Pennsylvania, in which she calls for the end of that cherished Christmas tradition: gift wrapping. She says the threat of climate change is reason enough to reduce all that waste - a better way, she suggests, is to give gifts in re-usable bags, or wrapped in yesterday's newspaper. She cites the example of Vishu, the Malayali New Year, where "no envelopes, cards or gift wraps were used." From "Helping Santa save the world, one gift at a time":

There was a time, someone told me recently, when people received an orange and an apple as gifts at Christmas — unwrapped — and were happy to get an orange and an apple. Does Santa remember that time?  What would he say if he heard of gift giving in my parents’ generation, in faraway India?

For our New Year (Vishu), in April, my family followed a tradition of Vishukaineetam, literally translated to “extending the hand at Vishu” for giving and receiving gifts.

The oldest person in the house gave gifts to all the younger people and anyone in their employment — gifts of money and fruits to family members and money, fruits, vegetables and rice to employees — all given unadorned and received with thanks.

As a child, I happily received my Vishukaineetam money directly in my hand while calculating my total “loot” for the day. No envelopes, cards or gift wraps were used, no indulging a need to surprise — saving so many trees and creating less pollution.

Read the rest of the article here.

Also check out Krishnankutty's blog post on celebrating Onam in central Pennsylvania.

BYLINE WATCH: A Desi First?

Seeing SAJA VP Vikas Bajaj's byline (shared with the legendary Flyod Norris) in the lead story ("Central Bankers to Lend Billions in Credit Crisis") in today's New York Times made me realize I hadn't posted something that caught my eye last week.

That's Bajaj with TWO bylines above the fold in the New York Times on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007. I can't recall the last time that's happened in the NYT, but I am willing to bet it's the first time in a major U.S. daily that a South Asian journalist has had two bylines above the fold on the front page. You can click on the image to magnify it. And below, you will find an image of the entire front page.

EARLIER: Vikas Bajaj's Nonstop NYT Hits (June 26, 2007)

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...

MOVES: Vindu Goel becomes Business Columnist at San Jose Mercury News

Vindu Goel, a veteran journalist at the San Jose Mercury News, has just gotten one of the most exclusive jobs in American journalism, that of a business columnist at a major U.S. daily. As the new business columnist at the Merc, he work will be read by leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond. His column should be launched later this summer; right now, he's an editorial writer and blogger for the paper (see his work, Vindu's View from the Valley, at http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/vindu/)

Goel told SAJAforum.org that he is looking forward to writing columns that spark positive change in Silicon Valley and the global technology industry as they take larger leadership roles in the world economy on issues like climate change and the digital divide. "I've wanted to be a columnist since I was in high school reading Russell Baker and Charles Krauthammer," Goel said. "This is a dream job for me."

Announcing the new job, James Robinson, told his staff: " I'm pleased to announce that Vindu Goel will be returning to the newsroom as a columnist in the business section. The new column will build on his recent work as an editorial writer and blogger, giving us a sharp and savvy new voice in our redesigned business report."

See Robinson's full memo below, along with Goel's bio and examples of his work. Post your comments, too.

SAJA CONVENTION: Vikas Bajaj's Nonstop NYT Hits

The SAJA Convention and Job Fair is coming up fast: July 12-15 in NYC; buy your tix today at SAJAconvention.org. We're different from most other journalism conventions in two ways:

1. We deliberately price it at the lowest price of any major convention - prices start at a mere $100.
2. We have no paid staff working on the convention. It's all run by volunteers, led by convention chair Vikas Bajaj of The New York Times.

And Vikas is doing this without cutting back from his NYT work in any way. To give you an idea about how incredible that is, please take a look at this note by SAJAer John Laxmi...

Even as he has been busy orchestrating preparations for the Convention, almost everyday this past week, Vikas has had a major piece in The New York Times.  Some of these pieces appeared on the frontpage of the main section (above the fold) and the others on the frontpage of the Business Section.  The topic Vikas has been covering (along with NYT's Julie Creswell) is a very complex one even for those who are familiar with economics and Wall Street.  Vikas and Julie have been writing about how delinquencies in the subprime loans and CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligations) are unfolding and the potential for these problems to spill over into other parts of the financial markets and the economy.   Considering the extraordinary complexity of these topics, the articles by Vikas and Julie have all been generally very well written.  This topic is so complex that The Wall Street Journal chose to publish a primer yesterday titled, "Center of a Storm: How CDOs Work." Congratulations, Vikas.

Recent articles, with links, are listed below.

THREE QUESTIONS: Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer, Portfolio

The biggest magazine launch in the U.S. this year has been Condé Nast Portfolio, the glossy new biz mag that aims to be Vanity Fair for the business set. Only one desi byline appeared in the debut issue (two actualy, by the same person), and it belonged to Sheelah Kolhatkar, a staff writer there (there are fewer than 20 desi staff writers at major U.S. mags).  Her pieces were
“Opening up the Citadel: Hedge fund wunderkind Ken Griffin has $13.5 billion at his disposal—and he definitely knows how to use it.” and “The Women of Private Equity: A closer look at the thickest glass ceiling in finance.”.

A former staff writer at the New York Observer (see full bio below), Kolhatkar answered three quick questions from SAJA.

Q: Congrats on the launch. What did you learn doing the stories?
A: Thanks. Both of the stories I wrote for this issue dealt with influential people in the financial world who weren’t used to a lot of press attention, so I learned something about working with delicate subjects. I also spent a lot of time thinking about why people read glossy magazines and what the role of the writer is in delivering that to the reader—a good magazine piece is less directed towards serving up information (daily newspapers are better at that) and more about offering a new way to look at a subject by taking you deep inside it. And I learned about the importance of not talking down to readers.

Working on a magazine launch was also fascinating—getting involved in everything from the selection of paper stock to the planning of photo shoots to learning about advertising and marketing strategies was a whole new experience. Being part of something that was the focus of intense media scrutiny was also pretty unfamiliar—normally I’m used to being the reporter, not the one who’s questioned by others! 

Q: What's it like to go from NYO to Condé Nast?
A: It was a little like going from a high quality independent film set to a big budget Hollywood production. Both have their advantages and drawbacks—at the Observer I felt much closer to the ground, for one thing, whereas at Condé Nast you have great support and resources.

Q. Any tips for young writers who aspire for magazine staff writer jobs?
A: Well, the most obvious is to write as much as possible—ideally for a publication that is read by others in the media world. And then, it’s very helpful to develop reporting skills. Learning how to be a good reporter is crucial—it means that for the rest of your career, you’ll not only be able to write, but you will have something to write about.

Read the New York Times story on Portfolio’s launch. Kolhatkar's bio is below.

BYLINE WATCH: Dr. Atul Gawande, NYT Guest Columnist

Atul Gawande, author of the brand-new "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance," New Yorker writer, MacArthur Genius and Boston surgeon, has another credit these days: New York Times Op-Ed guest columnist for the month of May 2007. He is the first South Asian to have a regular spot on the NYT op-ed pages. Here's how the credit line runs:

Atul Gawande, a general surgeon at Harvard Medical School and a New Yorker staff writer, is the author of “Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance.” He is a guest columnist this month.

Here are the columns, posted as they came in:

May 1: The Power of Negative Thinking
We Americans believe instinctively in the power of positive thinking. Whether one is fighting a cancer, an insurgency or just an unyielding problem at work, the prevailing wisdom is that thinking positive is the key — The Secret, even — to success. But the key, it seems to me, is actually negative thinking: looking for, and sometimes expecting, failure.

DESI WATCH: Two Desis each on WSJ A1, NYT Op-ed

In all my years of keen (obsessive?) watching for South Asian appearances in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times (the two dailies I still get in dead-tree versions), there has never been a day quite  like this. As a friend BlackBerryed me at 7:30ish this morning, with "Desis x 2 x 2" as the subject line, "2 desis on front page of WSJ, as well as on oped page of NYT."

The two desis on the front page of the Journal: 

Ashwin Shirvaikar, who is in the opening sentence of a story about business jargon, talking about Cognizant, a US-India company:

• Ashwain Shirvaikar, a Citigroup analyst, wanted to get a better handle on the cash flow of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. "Does it make sense to think of it as a whole, or as two buckets -- one in India and one in the U.S.?" Mr. Shirvaikar asked during an earnings conference call last year.
• See full story (WSJ.com paid access required)
  Business Types Pick Up the 'Bucket': "Bucket" is pushing aside other business-speak such as silo and basket as the favorite term for describing categories or organizational units.

Mohan Murjani, the famous Gloria Vanderbilt jeans designer, is in the opening sentence of a story about India's obsession with luxury brands:

• India Goes for Designer Goods (WSJ.com paid access reqd)
  
  Mohan Murjani made a fortune in the U.S. when he created Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and backed designer Tommy Hilfiger. Then he lost it. Today, he's rebuilding his empire in the high-end retailing boom sweeping the country he left 50 years ago: India.

Here are the two South Asians on the New York Times op-ed page:

• Pakistan’s Silent Majority Is Not to Be Feared
  By MOHSIN HAMID [ Mohsin Hamid is the author of “Moth Smoke” and the forthcoming novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” ] See more about Hamid's new book.
  Liberal Pakistanis like myself have seen many benefits from General Musharraf’s rule.
• Prosecution Complex
  By NEAL KATYAL [ Neal Katyal,  a professor of law at Georgetown, was  an adviser to the deputy attorney general from 1998 to 1999. ]
  The  only way to get to the bottom of the United States attorney scandal is to appoint a special prosecutor.

There is also a desi on A1 of The Washington Post:

• An Enclave of Normalcy in Baghdad
  In Shiite Slum Named for His Family, Radical Cleric Offers Aid, Hope
  By Sudarsan Raghavan, Page A01
  See posting from earlier today about Raghavan.

Reax? Post your comments below.

BYLINE ROUNDUP: The Week in Bylines - 3

Welcome to the latest edition of the SAJA Byline Roundup - the freshest bylines from across the SAJAverse. See the explanation of how this works below and send in your suggestions to arunvenu[at]gmail.com (we want to hear about ethnic press and TV, student pieces, etc, etc, etc).

• Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post's Baghdad bureau chief: "Marriages Between Sects Come Under Siege in Iraq."
• Nisid Hajari, foreign editor of Newsweek, reviews Dennis Bock's new novel in The New York Times Book Review: "The Doctor's Dilemma."
• Rummana Hussain in the Chicago Sun-Times on a Special Olympics fundraiser: "Really Big Chill"
• Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy in The Journal News of Westchester: "Pleasantville parent devoted to helping find treatment for Down Syndrome."
• Shilpa Banerji in DiverseEducation.com: "UCLA Expert Challenges the Asian-American Model Minority Assumption."
• Vinod Sreeharsha, a contributor to McClatchy Newspapers - and one of the only (or is it only?) South Asian-American journalists based in Latin America - wrote about two presidents in "Chavez denounces Bush in a rally in Argentina."

MOVIES: "The Namesake" inspires a SAJA byline bonanza

Perhaps you've heard that Mira Nair's got a new movie out, called "The Namesake." Yes, we know: loads of coverage (SAJAforum goes on and on here, here and here). But for those of us in the press, this isn't just a big cultural moment, it's a chance to expound on the movie's themes, knowing that millions of people may see the movie and connect with the story.

Here's a few of the bylines that come out of the movie's release (send us others and we'll try to add to the mix):

• Sheila Marikar interviews Kal Penn for ABCNews.com - it was on the home page on Saturday: "Kal Penn: The 'Iconic Stoner' sobers up"
• On Rediff, Arthur Pais interviews members of the Lahiri (as in Jhumpa) family about how it feels to se