SAJAforum

TECH: Ash Patel moves up at Yahoo

Ash Patel, an early Yahoo! employee (he's been there since 1996), features prominently in the latest restructuring at the company. From NYT:

The new structure consolidates responsibility around two senior executives, Hilary Schneider and Ash Patel.<snip>
Mr. Patel started at Yahoo in 1996. Responsible for a broad swath of the company’s technology infrastructure, he will now head the newly formed audience products division that will be responsible for product strategy and product management for many crucial Internet services, including search and e-mail. <snip>
The executive responsible for running Yahoo search, Vish Makhijani, who is also leaving, is being replaced by Tuoc Luong, on an interim basis.

From WSJ:

The plan shifts more responsibility to two senior executives. Ash Patel, a Yahoo veteran who has been in charge of efforts to open up its sites to other developers, will lead a division in charge of global product strategy.

From the Washington Post:

Under the new order, announced yesterday, executive vice presidents Hilary Schneider and Ash Patel are being given expanded responsibilities over Yahoo's products and sales divisions.

He's the only South Asian on the official management team page. His now out-of-date bio is below. Post your comments, please.

BOOKS: Salman Rushdie webcast about "The Enchantress of Florence"

Listen to our webcast:

Sir Salman Rushdie has a new novel out and SAJA is hosting hosted a live webcast with him on Monday, June 30, 2-3 pm NY time. Please use the comments section below to post a question or comment that we can use for the discussion.

He'll discuss his latest novel, "The Enchantress of Florence." He will be live with us via phone for 30 minutes for a discussion with arts writer Vibhuti Patel. For the remaining part of the hour, Patel will discuss Rushdie's work and his place in world literature. Your questions and comments will be used throughout the event.

The discussion will be broadcast live using BlogTalkRadio at this link (you can go and set an e-mail reminder there right now).
The timing:
Monday, June 30
2-3 p.m. NYC/DC time (Sir Salman will be calling into a NYC number from DC).
To see local time in your city, go to this link.

See more about "The Enchantress of Florence" at Amazon, where it is a "Best of the Month" selection for June:

Trying to describe a Salman Rushdie novel is like trying to describe music to someone who has never heard it--you can fumble with a plot summary but you won't be able to convey the wonder of his dazzling prose or the imaginative complexity of his vision. At its heart, The Enchantress of Florence is about the power of story--whether it is the imagined life of a Mughal queen, or the devastating secret held by a silver-tongued Florentine. Make no mistake, it is Rushdie who is the true "enchanter" of this story, conjuring readers into his gilded fairy tale from the very first sentence: "In the day's last light the glowing lake below the palace-city looked like a sea of molten gold." At once bawdy, gorgeous, gory, and hilarious, The Enchantress of Florence is a study in contradiction, highlighted in its barbarian philosopher-king who detests his bloodthirsty heritage even while he carries it out. Full of rich sentences running nearly the length of a page, Rushdie's 10th novel blends fact and fable into a challenging but satisfying read. --Daphne Durham

Please post your questions and comments for Sir Salman below.

Listen to SAJA's 20+ webcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/saja

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• AWARDS: Salman Rushdie awarded knighthood (June 2007)
• INTOLERANCE: Salman Rushdie's visit prompts boycott threat in India (January 2008)

PHOTO: Jay Mandal/On Assigment - Salman Rushdie receiving the India Abroad Lifetime Achievement Award in March 2007.

Here is a video of a recent appreance on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report":

WEBCAST: Dileepan Sivapathasundaram on Zimbabwe and his ordeal

Back in April 2008, Dileepan Sivapathasundaram was thrust into the media spotlight when he was detained and then released in Zimbabwe at the same that that New York Times reporter Barry Bearak was arrested (he has since been released, too).

With all the news about Zimbabwe's mockery of an election today, we thought we'd remind you of a webcast we hosted with Sivapathasundaram on May 5, 2008, a month after his release. He discussed his work in Zimbabwe, analyzed the elections, talked about the future of that part of Africa, and much, much more.

Meet Dileepan Sivapathasundaram, a U.S. democracy worker who was arrested in Zimbabwe in April while helping local groups monitor the elections. We discussed his detention, how he was freed and his work as a democracy activist. Sivapathasundaram is a Sri Lankan-American who works for the National Democratic Institute ("a non-partisan, non-profit,
non-governmental org that aims to support democratic values & practices in more than 60 countries").

Post your comments below. Journalists want to contact him can write to dileepansiva[at]gmail.

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• April 5, 2008: NYT's Barry Bearak arrested in Zimbabwe; Dileepan Sivapathasundaram released (includes CPJ alert)

CONV: ESPN Anchor Kevin Negandhi to debut on SportsCenter

The dreams of a 14-year-old sports fanatic will come true on Friday when ESPN sportscaster Kevin Negandhi makes his debut on SportsCenter.

Negandhi, the first national South Asian sports announcer in the U.S. who spoke at the SAJA convention, joked that his parents will finally believe that he has a real job now.

"My mom still wants me to be a lawyer," he said, laughing.

His upbringing in an Indian household provided Negandhi with a strong work ethic but no role models in his chosen field of sports journalism. He decided to get as much hands-on experience as possible, and had five internships at radio and television stations on his resume by the time he graduated from Temple University.

Negandhi's  trategy was to start his career working in smaller markets, which would give him a chance to fine tune his skills without embarassing himself in front of a large national audience. He worked on developing his own style, an on-air voice that matched his personality. Eventually, he said an anchor has to learn to transfer his own personality on screen.

"You gotta just be yourself," he said. "If you're not yourself, the audience will figure it out."

His first jobs taught him to be aware that things constantly changed in sports. To broaden his expertise, he covered basketball, baseball and football. But his favorite is football, both NFL and college leagues.

"I think college football could be the best sport in America if we had a true playoff system," he said.      

Negandhi said he works on forming relationships with athletes by being the guy who asks them questions that dig deeper. His favorite interview: "The guy who really stands out is Warrick Dunn from the Bucs; he's just a great guy."

CONV: Conversations on Diversity: Recruiters say more needs to be done

The list of hires is impressive: So far in 2008, eight South Asian journalists have been named to a range of leadership positions, from managing editor to bureau chief.

 

Those who care about diversity in media find that heartening, but warn that more needs to be done.

 

Recruiters at the 2008 SAJA convention were both optimistic and cautious when asked about the state of diversity in the county's newsrooms.

 

"More than one third of the American population is made up of people of color, but nowhere near that level of diversity is represented in the newsroom," said Ernest Sottomayor, Assistant Dean of Career Services at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

 

"Media companies need to have basic understanding that diversity is as important as accuracy," he said. "Our communities are getting more and more diverse and they need to get their views into the paper."

 

Recruiters meet with job candidates at the SAJA convention.

CONV: Amar Bakshi and "How the World Sees America"

Punchy short-form writing, engaging video clips and a strong voice were the recipe for Amar C.  Bakshi’s multimedia blog series "How the World Sees America" for the online editions of the Washington Post and Newsweek as part of a project called PostGlobal.

[ PostGlobal, "a conversation on global issues with David Ignatius [of The Washington Post] and Fareed Zakaria [of Newsweek],"  is a joint effort of the Post and Newsweek and consists of commentary from the two of them, and assorted posting and commentary from other staffers and folks around the world.]

His subjects are varied: a drag queen in Pakistan, a female Lebanese rapper, pageant queens in England, a teacher at an Islamic school in India.

The stories range from prostitution to political leadership but with the common thread of how the global community feels about Americans and the U.S. government.

Bakshi, 24, spent one month in a country, putting a human face on the sentiments and looking beyond the blanket criticisms.
“My value added is bringing a bit of a humanistic, artistic sensibility to more mundane stories that wouldn’t be told,” he told a group at the SAJA convention.

He found his sources by listening to conversations at bus stops, bars and restaurants. Contacts with local journalists and doctoral students also helped him create relationships with compelling sources.
Learning how to narrate their tales came with experience.

A one-man show, Bakshi toted his high-definition Sony video camera around with him for hours, familiarizing his sources to the screen. His intention was to have people forget about the camera altogether, and in a few hours they usually did.

“For me it’s discovery,” he said. “Trying to be empathetic, and trying to tell stories that are worth telling.”

He edited the video clips to concise, one- to two-minute segments. Sometimes a voice over accompanies local images, sometimes the screen remains fixed on a subject’s face as they speak.

MOVES: Robert Thomson's big WSJ changes include Nik Deogun, Reg Chua others

Robert Thomson, the new managing editor of The Wall Street Journal announced a much-anticipated shakeup in the editors ranks. From the memo below:

At the heart of our new structure will be a National, International and Enterprise Team, a triumvirate which will report directly to me and to whom the bureau chiefs will report. Effective July 7, Matt Murray will become National Editor, overseeing American general and corporate news, and Nikhil Deogun will become International Editor and directly oversee our global network of bureaus and correspondents. Mike Williams will preside over a broadened Page One, being responsible for investigative reporting, as well A-heds and leders. The troika, who will become Deputy Managing Editors, will sit close together in what could prosaically be called a “news hub”, thus streamlining commissioning and editing decisions, and giving them a central role in the production and presentation of copy for the paper and the website.

See full press release below [Thomson will be the opening keynote speaker at the SAJA Convention & Job Fair tomorrow morning.]

This means that SAJAer India-born Nik Deogun (seen here in a SAJA panel photo by Preston Merchant), who was overseeing the "Money & Investing" section, becomes foreign editor, joining three other South Asian foreign editors of legendary publications:

• Nisid Hajari, foreign editor of Newsweek
• Aparisim "Bobby" Ghosh, world editor of Time
• Stephanie Mehta, global editor of Fortune

Asked about his new role, Deogun told SAJAforum: "I'm delighted about my new position and look forward to expanding the Journal's profile outside of the US and providing quality journalism of the highest integrity to our loyal readership." Deogun becomes the second India-born journalist to become deputy managing editor at the Journal. The first was Raju Narisetti, who left the paper two years ago to launch Mint a New Delhi biz daily.

This move is just the latest among a series of high-profile new appointments of South Asians at major U.S. publications in 2008:

• Davan Maharaj named managing editor of the Los Angeles Times 
• Vindu Goel named deputy technology editor of The New York Times
• Stephanie Mehta named global editor of Fortune
• Jyoti Thottam named South Asia bureau chief of Time
• Geeta Anand moves to Mumbai bureau of WSJ

Also spotted in Thomson's memo:

Reg Chua becomes Senior Assistant Managing Editor, and will oversee the Design Team – a new Director of Design will be appointed in coming days - and the development of data resources.

Chua is a long-time friend of SAJA and a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal before moving back to NYC a couple of years ago. Asked about his new role, Chua told SAJAforum: "I'm very excited about taking on these added responsibilities, and especially in helping build up the Journal's
capabilities in using and presenting data."

The full Thomson memo is below. Post your comments below.

MUSIC: Jason Joseph's new album, "Out of My Mind"

In January 2005, I was at a Los Angeles event for South Asian students and was expecting no surprises when the emcee introduced the music acts. But that night was a revelation for me. I got to see a whole music scene I hadn't been exposed to before. That's the first night that I saw live performances of talented desis doing serious rap (Kid Skilly, Bohemia the Punjabi Rapper, among others) and the first time I heard Jason Joseph sing. Billed as an R&B singer, he was more mellow and soulful than the hip-hop acts. He reminded me of a young Stevie Wonder, especially as he nearly brought down the house with "Giving Your Life Away" (a song he wrote himself).In addition to his powerful vocals, he had a great touch on the keyboard, too.

Fast forward to this week... I am excited to hear his new album, "Out of My Mind :: Side A" and to see him perform this Sunday at the SAJA Brunch (11 am-2 pm at Mint, 150 E. 50th St, with standup comics  Dhaya Lakshminarayan and Dan Nainan; $20; $15 for students). From the press materials for his new album:

Jason Joseph's powerful performances have led him to share the stage with many notable artists such as Missy Elliot, Craig David, Andrae Crouch, Zion I, Bebe Winans, & Erykah Badu...and his work has been featured on MTV, NBC, the CW, and the Cartoon Network.

The multi-talented vocalist, musician, songwriter and producer Jason Joseph is poised to leave his mark on the music industry with a style of music all his own. He describes it as eclectic soul. "It's a name I came up with to describe what I do and who I am as an artist," says Jason. "From a stylistic point of view, it's soul music intertwined with everything from rock to hip-hop to jazz. It came about as I was trying to find my own voice and ended up drawing upon all the influences of my past. There are no rules with it for me, so it is constantly growing and evolving as I am."

Six songs, meticulously crafted, make up Side A of his new album Out of My Mind. These songs not only make you want to dance and sing along, but more importantly, they make you want to raise your hands and say what you feel. Out of My Mind :: Side A will be released on June 10th, 2008 via Jaywalker/Adrenaline/Warner to all major digital outlets.

Review copies and interview requests at info[at]jasonjoseph.com. Listen to samples and watch videos at JasonJoseph.com. Tell 'em SAJA sent you.

DESI SPOTTING: Neal Katyal, Uma Mysorekar, Salman Rushdie on "The Colbert Report"

This is a screenshot of the Comedy Central's website page for "The Colbert Report" on Wednesday, June 18. You'll see two South Asian names on the screen - Dr. Uma Mysorekar on the blue promo line above and Neal Katyal below. Turns out Colbert has had three desi guests in the last three weeks (Salman Rushdie appeared on June 4). We've embedded all three videos below. Post your comments, please.

BOOKS: Rohit Bhargava's "Personality Not Included"

Rohit Bhargava, a senior VP at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence, is one of the best-known experts on branding, online marketing and such - and an influential blogger at InfluentialMarketingBlog.com. He has a new nonfiction book out on these topics. From the press release below:

"PERSONALITY NOT INCLUDED: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity and How Great Brands Get It Back" (featuring a foreword by Guy Kawasaki)

One of the hottest topics in business today is authenticity and how companies are trying to find real ways to connect with their customers. Much of the story is focused on blogging, but as Rohit Bhargava shows us in his new book Personality Not Included ... the real secret to building an authentic brand is to have a personality and learn how to use it. The key is to have a company of individuals instead of a big faceless entity. In the social media era, being faceless no longer works. 

So Personality Not Included takes you inside the real stories of brands and individuals from around the world to paint a revolutionary new picture of what the future of marketing and branding should look like. Taking you from the street vendors of India to the small restaurant tucked away in the hills outside Barcelona that has been rated the best restaurant in the world for three years running - the examples in Personality Not Included will keep you reading whether you consider yourself a business professional or just someone interested in the culture of business and how it is changing. 

To receive a review copy of the book, please email personalitynotincluded[at]gmail.com with your name and the name of your publication that you write for in order to receive a copy.  The author also has a full speaking calendar of events available at www.personalitynotincluded.com/events and will be attending the SAJA convention in June this year and is available for interviews on site in NY as well. Tell him SAJA sent you. Even if you don't review the book, you'll want to add him to your source lists.

Full press release below. Post your comments below.

FILMS: Listen to webcast with Manu Narayan of "The Love Guru"

On Tuesday, June 17, SAJA and SAMMA (South Asians in Media and Marketing) hosted an hour-long live webcast with Manu Narayan, who's starring in "The Love Guru" with Mike Myers. He answered questions from  SAJA and SAMMA members and the general public about the movie and life as an actor/musician in film and theater. [That's Narayan on the right, with Myers as Guru Pitka and Jessica Alba as hockey team owner Jane Bullard; the movie also stars Ben Kingsley as another guru and Deepak Chopra as himself.]

You can listen to a recording of the chat here and post your comments below.

Earlier on SAJAforum: Paramount to meet with Hindu leaders (March 2008)
Listen to SAJA webcast about South Asians in Hollywood (Feb. 2008)

PREZ RACE: Bobby Jindal on "Face the Nation," gets Gingrich's approval

[SAJAforum sources, resources about the 2008 race]

Bobby Jindal appeared on the CBS Sunday show "Face the Nation" today, where he was billed as "The Next Reagan?": "I have the job that I want... I am focused on being governor of Louisana."

Even more interesting is what Newt Gingrich, former House speaker and Republican elder statesman had to say right after Jindal's appearance.

Chip Reid: Would you recommend to John McCain that he pick him as his running mate.
Newt Gingrich: Absolutely. I think Governor Jindal is far and away the best candidate for vice president in the country. I think he is a future presidential candidate. I think he has enormous capacity to keep growing... Look, Bobby Jindal at 37 is fully as prepared at Senator Obama. You could argue that in fact Jindal's experience in the executive branch and the legislative branch is greater than Senator Obama's experience.

Post your comments below.

Our previous Jindal-as-possible-VP items:

• Jindal and a 1994 exorcism
• NYT news story on Bobby Jindal and his agenda
• Coverage of Jindal's weekend with the McCains
• Liberal prof Vijay Prashad writes a funny letter about Bobby Jindal
• Conservative scholar says Jindal should not be on ticket - for now
• McCain to meet with Jindal, Crist, Romney
• April 2008 appearance on the Jay Leno show
• William Kristol says McCain staffers are floating McCain-Jindal ticket
• Rush Limbaugh's push for the ticket | other conservatives' similar push

MOVES: Geeta Anand moves to Mumbai for Wall Street Journal

Geeta Anand, the New York-based senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal's investigative group, is moving her job to Mumbai for a few years. She's going to be joining the Journal's India team, where she will continue to do investigative work on health, science and the environment (among other stories). She will report to the paper's India bureau chief, Paul Beckett, and joins Peter Wonacott, Eric Bellman and Jackie Range as correspondents based in the country (in addition to stringers and others).

Asked why this job at this time, Anand told SAJAforum: "I've always wanted to write about India, and now is the time where it works both for my family and for the Wall Street Journal for me to be there."

She is also the author of 2006 nonfiction book, "The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million--And Bucked the Medical Establishment--In a Quest to Save His Children," which is scheduled to be made into a movie titled "Crowley" by the producers of "Erin Brokovich." Just this week, Variety reported that this will be Harrison Ford's next movie (as an actor and executive producer and that filming begins in the fall.

Anand, who shared a 2003 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for a series of stories on "the roots, significance and impact of corporate scandals in America", is moving with her husband and daughters to the city where she was born and raised. Before moving to the U.S. to study at Dartmouth College and launch her journalism career, she was a top swimmer in India, representing the country in international competition and setting various womens records.

In July 2007 at the SAJA Convention, she was asked by Sonu Munshi about the possibility of working in India:

GLOBALIZATION: New report looks at India & China in pharma R&D

In March 2008, SAJAforum hosted a webcast with Vivek Wadhwa (along with Vinod Dham, "the father of the Pentium chip") about immigration and business. Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur who is currently a fellow at Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University, wrote to us today about his latest research projects. Take a look below and post your comments, please.

From: Vivek Wadhwa <vivek[at]wadhwa.com>

As you know my team at Duke and Harvard has been studying the globalization of industries. We about to release our first report in a series which shows how India and China are becoming major players in global R&D. Even though China is investing hundreds of billions of dollars into next-generation plants to turn the country into an export power in semiconductors, passenger cars, and specialty chemicals, India is ahead in innovation and R&D.

We observed that in the aerospace industry, Indian companies are designing the interiors of luxury jets, in-flight entertainment systems, collision-control/navigation-control systems, fuel-inverting controls, and other key components of jetliners for American and European corporations. In the automotive industry, Indian engineers are helping to design bodies, dashboards, and power trains for Detroit vehicle manufacturers. In telecom and computer networking, Indians are developing futuristic technologies for the intelligent cities which are being constructed in the Middle East. Indian engineers are also developing technology behind the next generations of cell phones for European and American companies.

The first in our series of reports looks at the pharmaceutical industry. Details of this are provided below The press release below will be on the wire on Wednesday, June 11 morning. Our detailed report can be downloaded from www.globalizationresearch.com.

If anyone wants to contact me, they can write to me directly.

Thanks, Vivek <vivek[at]wadhwa.com>

Among the findings, as highlighted in the press release below:

Through detailed interviews with executives of 16 pharmaceutical firms in China and India on their business models, value-chain activities, partnerships and technology capabilities, the researchers found that:

1. Indian and Chinese companies are making strides in the most lucrative segments of global value chains. In less lucrative segments, such as preclinical testing, animal experimentation and manufacturing, Chinese firms appear to be more prevalent.

2. India is regarded as a more mature venue for chemistry and drug-discovery activities than China.

3. Domestic Indian and Chinese firms rarely have the capital and the regulatory expertise to develop a drug beyond phase II clinical trials. Their commercial development of new intellectual property therefore necessitates relationships with major multinational corporations.

You can download the full report here.

Press release below. Post your comments, please.

AWARDS: Arun Venugopal wins MHA prize for radio reporting

Arun Venugopal, SAJAforum's fearless leader, won a major award yesterday. In typical Arun fashion, he whispered not a word about it to us, hoping that the award, his trip to D.C. to collect it, etc, wouldn't be noticed. Well, too bad, Arun, because this is a prize worth noting (the photo is from last year's SAJA Convention; PHOTO: Manish Vij).

Mental Health America, "the country's leading nonprofit dedicated to helping ALL people live mentally healthier lives," presented its 2008 media awards on Saturday, June 7 at a luncheon as part of its Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Summit in Washington, D.C. Among the winners:

Local Radio
WNYC (New York, NY), "Cities Embrace New Ways to Handle Confrontations Between Cops and the Mentally Ill," by Arun Venugopal

Listen to Arun's report - all nine minutes - here (transcript link below):

MOVES: Jyoti Thottam named Time's South Asia bureau chief

UPDATE: Listen to a recording of a webcast with Jyoti Thottam a week before her big move. She discussed her appointment; the current state of newsweeklies; some of what she'd like to cover; and her career.

Jyoti Thottam, former SAJA president and Time magazine senior editor, has been named the magazine's South Asia bureau chief. From a memo by Rick Stengel, managing editor, and Michael Elliott, editor of Time International (see below for the full memo):

Next month, Jyoti Thottam will leave New York and relocate to New Delhi as our bureau chief there. Jyoti was born in India, but raised mostly in suburban Houston. She now lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn. She came to TIME from On magazine/Time Digital, and before that was a newspaper reporter in Queens and in Jacksonville, Florida. (She is the co-author of a play, Interrogations, based partly on her crime reporting in Queens.) Jyoti got her start as an intern at the Wall Street Journal, and her writing has also appeared in the Believer and the Village Voice. She graduated from Yale, where she studied religion and economics, and she also has a master's degree from Columbia, where she studied international affairs and learned Hindi. All those skills were indispensable during the year she spent as a freelancer traveling around India after grad school, and she's looking forward to using them again covering South Asia for TIME.

Asked why this move now, Thottam told SAJAforum: “South Asia is one of the most exciting places in the world right now, and after 10 years in New York City, I was ready to try something new. I can’t imagine a better place to be a journalist, and I’m looking forward to covering the region's stories, big and small.”

She and her family leave in mid-June. Press queries can be sent via saja[at]columbia.edu (subject="for Jyoti Thottam") - click on the photo for a high-rez version.

While at Time, her most high-profile story was her March 1, 2004, cover story on outsourcing, "Is Your Job Going Abroad." She appeared on the PBS show "Charlie Rose" that week to discuss the issue, along with Columbia University professor Jagdish Bhagwati.

Time HQ has been a very hospitable home for South Asians. Here are just some of the folks there now:

• Romesh Ratnesar, is one of two deputy managing editors, under Rick Stengel
• Bobby Ghosh, world (foreign) editor
• Ratu Kamlani, chief of reporters

Thottam replaces Simon Robinson, who was the South Asia bureau chief since 2006. He now moves to the  London office to be a senior editor there. The memo below also notes that Zoher Abdoolcarim is the new Asia editor of Time International.

PREZ RACE: NYT news story on Bobby Jindal and his agenda

[SAJAforum sources, resources about the 2008 race]

Here's what the front page of the New York Times website looked like around noon EST today. Must be the first time that two desis who engender such mixed emotions have been featured in separate stories at the top of the site (click to magnify the screengrab).

On the right, you can see a pointer to a profile of M. Night Shyamalan, whose new movie is opening on June 13. See SAJAforum's roundup of pre-release press.

The other desi, of course, is Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, who is part of a lot of buzz about the possibility that he might be a candidate to join Senator John McCain on the Republican ticket this year.

Today, the NYT's Adam Nossiter has the piece above was the first serious assessment of Jindal's possible candidacy inside the news pages of the Times. Back in April, columnist William Kristol had floated Jindal's name in the opinion pages (see our coverage collection below). From today's piece:

Religion and fiscal stringency have a friendly home at the state Capitol here, with a conservative, Bobby Jindal, in the governor’s office, a host of straight-arrow novice legislators eager to please him and an honored spot for the Louisiana Family Forum in the old marble halls.

The newly conservative tone of state government is seeping through a host of successful bills — on school vouchers, creationism, stem-cell restrictions and tax and spending cuts — and it is adding to the speculative frenzy here surrounding Mr. Jindal as a potential vice-presidential choice for Senator John McCain.

Politicians here say they are certain that Mr. Jindal would balance a McCain ticket, and not just because he is an Indian-American. The Christian right has a new champion in Mr. Jindal, a serious Catholic who has said that “in my faith, you give 100 percent of yourself to God.”

Bumper stickers saying “Jindal for V.P.” are circulating here, with increased velocity after the governor’s stay two weekends ago at Mr. McCain’s Arizona ranch. Mr. McCain’s schedule has him campaigning in Louisiana next week, according to his Web site.

“He has everything McCain is lacking,” said State Representative John LaBruzzo, a Republican, speaking of Mr. Jindal. “He’s seen as a true conservative, which McCain is seen as less than.”

FILMS: M. Night Shyalamalan's latest movie, "The Happening"

These are photos from the W. 103rd Street subway station in Manhattan, one of several spots with billboards for a movie opening soon across the country: M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening," an R-rated scary film opening, appropriately, on Friday, June 13 (see the first trailer). Below is a collection of some of the pre-opening press.

Today's business section of the New York Times has a front-page story about Shyamalan and his recent adventures. From "A Hollywood horror story, with a twist," by Allison Hope Weiner, who interviewed him from (that's the word used in the piece, so I presume it was by phone) his office outside Philadelphia:

...movie audiences still know Mr. Shyamalan as the guy who makes scary movies with a twist.

He also has not been able to undo his reputation in Hollywood as a talented filmmaker who will not play by studio rules. After the success of “The Sixth Sense,” he criticized Disney executives, dared to compare his talent to Steven Spielberg’s and Alfred Hitchcock’s and has steadfastly asserted his reputation as an outsider by refusing to move from Philadelphia to Hollywood.

His outsider persona continued to work for him, so long as the films “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” and “Signs” continued to make money. But when his films started to falter at the box office — his last movie, “Lady in the Water,” was drubbed by critics and ignored by moviegoers — the Hollywood establishment’s support began to wane.

That failure has put considerable pressure on his new film, “The Happening,” an R-rated horror movie for Fox that opens on June 13. Another failure would harm the Shyamalan name and make it difficult for him to keep full control over his films.

Among other things, the piece talks about his next project.

Mr. Shyamalan is also directing “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” a big tent-pole movie based on a Nickelodeon cartoon, scheduled to be released in 2010 for Paramount.

“I obviously did my homework and checked him out before deciding to make the movie. It’s a very important movie for us,” said John Lesher, president of the Paramount Film Group. “He’s collaborative, open to suggestions and wants to make a hit movie. He’s open in the right way. You want a filmmaker who has passion and want him to defend why he believes something is correct.”

OBIT: Sydney Pollack, movie director

Here at SAJAforum, we are always looking out for South Asian connections to mainstream stories. Sometimes, we find them even in the most unlikely stories. As you can see, we are managing to write about the passing of Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood director who made no movies with an obvious desi connection.

Photojournalist Jay Mandal, sent us this alert a few hours after the news of Pollack's passing:

A few years ago, I had an opportunity to meet up with Mr. Sydney Pollack on two different occasions (both happened at the UN Secretariet Bldg)  in NY, when he was attending a press conference that was conducted by the then Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor.

 

It was when Pollak was granted a permission to shoot his film, "The Interpreter".

His photos with Tharoor are below. So we turned to Tharoor to see if he had any comments. He did:

Sydney was a wonderful man, a creative genius at the top of his craft, and a delight to work with. He was also so fit, disciplined and youthful for his age that I am in shock to learn that he's gone.

Post your comments below.

PREZ RACE: Coverage of Jindal's weekend at McCain's

[SAJAforum resources, sources, links for covering the 2008 Presidential race]

That's Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and his wife, Supriya, at the airport (Phoenix or New Orleans, anyone know?) after their weekend at John McCain's home in Sedona, Arizona. He was one of three possible vice presidential running mates invited to hang out with John and Cindy McCain and various guests, including politicos, business leaders, etc. Also attending were two other possible VP candidates, Charlie Crist, governor of Florida and Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor.

The media, especially the 24-hour cable news networks (see MSNBC screengrab below), have been buzzing about the weekend, but this is just the start of the VP season, and there are plenty of other possible candidates on the shortlist, including Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota (and host of the 2008 Republican Convention in St. Paul) and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.

From WWL-TV's text and video report by Mike Hoss:

Following a weekend with presidential hopeful Senator John McCain, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said he discussed a number of topics with the senator, except the possibility of being McCain’s vice presidential running mate.

“There was never any explicit talk whatsoever about a short list, about vice president, any of that,” said Jindal.

However, the governor did say he had several one on one moments with Senator McCain during his weekend trip to Arizona.

“It was a wonderful weekend,” Jindal said. “John and Cindy were very gracious. Not only did we have a chance to talk to him one on one, as well as in a group, we had a chance to visit with the other senators there, the other business leaders.”

From an analysis by Aziz Haniffa of Rediff/India Abroad, "McCain's invitation to Jindal "strategic":

PREZ RACE: McCain to meet with Jindal, Romney, Crist

[See all SAJAforum posts, resources, sources about the 2008 presidential race]

For three months now, we have been covering the possibility that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal might/perhaps/could be on the short list for potential vice presidential running mates for Sen. John McCain. The talk suddenly got taken a lot more seriously yesterday, as journalists started reporting that McCain was going to meet this weekend with three possible running mates: Jindal; Florida Governor Charlie Crist; and former Massachussetts Governor Mitt Romney. From "McCain to meet 3 possible running mates" by NYT's Adam Nagourney:

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on Friday is scheduled to meet with two Republican governors who have been prominently mentioned as potential running mates, according to Republicans familiar with McCain's plan.

The two governors, Charlie Crist, of Florida, and Bobby Jindal, of Louisiana, have both accepted invitations to meet with McCain at his home in Arizona, according to Republican familiars with the decision. One Republican said that Mitt Romney, a former rival of McCain for the presidential nomination wasalso expected to visit him this weekend. Romney's advisers declined to comment.

McCain, after a week of campaigning, is heading home on Friday for three days without a public schedule. His campaign declined to comment on the meetings.

"We don't talk about the V.P. selection process," said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser.

Still, the names of McCain's visitors and the timing — coming three weeks after the Arizona senator told reporters that he had a list of 20 potential running mates — strongly suggested that he was moving into an intensified phase in his search for a vice presidential candidate.

From a similar story by the Boston Globe's Joseph Williams and Scott Helman:

FOOD CRISIS: Vinod Khosla's view

It's not every day that you see a South Asian name in the headline of a Wall Street Journal editorial. Today's "Khosla's Conspiracy," complete with one of the paper's signature "woodcut" illustrations, is all about venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

Spiking food prices, global shortages and Third World riots have managed to elicit repentance from some ethanol evangelists. Not Vinod Khosla. As the Silicon Valley billionaire explained last week in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, ethanol's contribution to the crisis is "very minor" and "overblown."

"Food prices have been going up," Mr. Khosla conceded. "But there are massive PR campaigns trying to ascribe most of the blame to biofuels." Apparently "lots of people" are behind the plot, though Mr. Khosla singled out one: "Clearly, the American Petroleum Institute has been very, very concerned about food prices, and you wonder why."

Gosh. API is a trade group for the oil and gas industry that is radioactive on Capitol Hill. But we didn't realize that API's tentacles were wrapped around the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the USDA, all of which blame ethanol for inflationary pressures on food prices. Nor did we appreciate how much authority API's views carried with the U.N.'s special rapporteur for the righ