We've posted some really funny videos in the last couple of weeks. This one is not quite as funny but I think it crosses the limit of silliness. He clearly had some very urgent business to take care of.
This is not an everyday scene in Delhi... or is it? Post your thoughts below.
Ah, the auto rickshaw.
Not exactly the first choice for a cross country, all-terrain vehicle, but try telling that to University of California Berkeley students Brian Wong, Sonny Sabhlok and Allen Rodriguez, aka “Team Korma Police.”
With inspiration from Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, the team embarked on a 2,400 mile trip from Nepal to Pondicherry, India in June as part of a race
called “Rickshaw Run,” organized by a British group the Adventurists.
To be eligible to enter, the team had to raise $2000 for
charity. They chose to raise money for Mercy Corps India and the Frank Water
Project. The team name was a combination of a Radiohead song and Indian cuisine.
Korma Police updated a blog during their trip with tales of Buddhist temples, scenery and fellow rickshaw racers as
they make stops in cities such as
“We already miss our rickshaw,” Wong writes in the blog, post-race. “Everytime I get in one here I'm tempted to kick the driver out and take over.”
There was no prize for crossing the finish line, but here's hoping the memories sufficed.
Many Americans who tuned into Fox's hit reality show So You Think You Can Dance earlier this week got their first introduction to Bollywood when contestants Katee Shean and Joshua Allen danced to Dhoom Tana from the hit film Om Shanti Om.
Neither dancer had heard of Bollywood prior to meeting choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan, who gave the couple their first lesson in mudras. "The story is guy likes girl, girl plays hard to get, but eventually gives in," said Mahajan as he described the dance to the couple.
Check it out:
The performance apparently prompted loads of people to do a Google search of "so you think you can dance bollywood" - the search term was the 77th most popular, according to techdreams.
The routine also received rave reviews from the show's three judges. Judge and Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe seemed particularly pleased. "I've been trying to get [Bollywood] on this show for three years," he said.
Here's what a Fox News TV critic had to say:
Continue reading "TV: Fox's So You Think You Can Dance gets its Bollywood on" »
Scottish singer KT Tunstall, whose hit single "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree" won her a Grammy nomination in 2007, says her favorite travel destination is Maldives.
From the Florida Sun-Sentinel:
I visited the Maldives on my first fancy holiday three years ago when I first had success and really needed to lie down for a week! I fell in love with it. What was incredible about the Maldives was that the entire island we were on consisted of sand. There didn't seem to be any dirt. You could walk around for hours barefoot with your white trousers skimming the ground, and they'd still be pristine white.
Please post your comments below.
Sir Ben Kingsley is soon to be enshrined on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Gujarati-English actor (who was born Krishna Bhanji) is one of 25 artists that will receive a star on the legendary sidewalk next year. Others on the list include Robert Downey, Jr., Tim Burton, Cameron Diaz, and Felicity Huffman.
Kingsley has been all over the silver screen of late, with roles in War, Inc, The Love Guru, and the soon-to-be-released The Wackness. Fans will be able to see him again a fourth time this summer with the release of Elegy in August.
He's best known, of course, for playing the title role in the 1982 film Gandhi. He discussed playing the Mahatma at length when he visited the Late Show with David Letterman earlier this month. You can also watch him giving a quick Namaste to Letterman as he makes his entrance, then imitates a Delhi taxi driver later on.
Part 1:
Continue reading "HONORS: Ben Kingsley to receive star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame" »
Tannishtha Chatterjee and Sarah Gavron are interviewed by SAJA's Aseem Chhabra after the screening.
The new experience isn't limited to the audience, though - neither director Sarah Gavron or lead actress Tannishtha Chatterjee are Bangladeshi. So it was a learning curve for them, too, they told the audience at a screening for the South Asian Journalists Association convention.
The screening on Thursday night at Columbia University marked the beginning of the 2008 SAJA Convention. The screening, courtesy of Sony Picture Classics, played to a nearly full house, and featured a special Q&A session hosted by Aseem Chhabra with Gavron and Chatterjee.
The movie is adapted from a book of the same name by Monica Ali. It weaves through the life of Nazneen, as she grows up, marries at 17, moves to London and raises a family.
This is British director Gavron’s first feature-length film, and she said she picked Brick Lane because of its wide appeal across cultures.
“At its heart, it’s a human story,” Gavron said.
Continue reading "CONV: "Brick Lane" brings Bangladeshi slice of life to the scree" »
We know the "Guinness Book of World Records" is a book full of all kinds of records. But I did not know there was one for holding tennis balls in your hands.
A 25-year-old Nepali, Rohit Timilsina, who is a teacher by profession, balanced 21 tennis balls in his hands for 14 seconds, breaking the previous record of 19 balls in 10 seconds, held by Aranaud Deschamps of France.
Timilsina broke the record during a special event at the All Nepal Lawn Tennis Association in Kathmandu on June 14.
Timilsina first held 20 balls for 1 min and 42 seconds and went for an extra one on his palm which he held for 14 seconds.
He is currently waiting to hear back from the Guinness committee.
How many of you think you can beat that record? Please post your comments below.
Although
Vijay Narendran was born in Texas, his love for baseball began only while he
attended the University of Chicago, where he became a fan of the White Sox. That must have made the Astros really upset.
But Narendran, who is currently pursuing a joint MD/MBA degree at Texas Tech University, is not your average baseball fan. To prove it, he decided to take a trip to all the 30 major baseball stadiums around the United States in 61 days traveling approx. 12,000 miles.
Read his blog to know all about his trip and see pictures from his trip.
Narendran started his journey with a game in Colorado on May 8. Since then, he has been to every single baseball stadium you can think of. His trip will end on July 4 in Los Angeles.
See his trip and budget plan here. (I noticed he put $3.50 per gallon for gas. That was in May, not anymore.)
The official title for Narendran's trip is "30 ballparks, 61 days, 1 dream." I asked him three questions about this trip.
1. You talk about "one dream." What is this one dream you have?
First of all, there's a dream of completing the thing, just doing something that took so long to prepare and put together. The dream is really the actual process and execution of the whole thing, not really the end result. This usage encompasses the "surreality" of the stories and the interesting people i meet.
Second, if the "Dream" represents an end goal, it would be to see and re-establish connections with so much of my very supportive network of friends and family across the nation with whom, through medical school and otherwise, i have been remiss in my communications, having in some cases been unable to attend weddings and other major relationship-solidifying events. This is my way of honoring THEM, those people that are so important to me in my life. Without them i would not be able to do this, nor would i be where I am.
Do folks know of other South Asians who have been on such adventures? Other thoughts? Please post your comments below.
Continue reading "DESI AMERICA: A Trip to 30 Baseball Stadiums " »
Setting a new auction record for an Indian work of art, Goa-born Francis Newton Souza's "Birth" sold for a record $2.5 million ($2,519,762 to be exact) at the Christie's International sale in London.
The piece was estimated to bring about $1.2- 1.6 million. According to the BBC, Souza is the only Indian artist to have a room dedicated to his paintings at Tate Britain.
In March 2008, M F Husain's "Battle of Ganga Jamuna" was sold for $1.6 million at Christie's auction in New York. In 2005, Mumbai-born Tyeb Mehta's "Mahishasura Mardini" made a record with a $1.54 million.
Do you know of other Indian (or South Asian) artists whose works have fetched this kind of money?
Please post them below.
Earlier on SAJAForum:
Even more creative than our previous desi-inspired e-mail spam/hoaxes (see "Monica Kumar" | "Alma Patel"). Post your comments below.
Mrs Esther Prakash
P.O.Box: 20581, Safat
13066 Safat KuwaitDearest in Christ,
Greetings in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I am Mrs Esther Prakash. I am married to Mr Prakash Anderson who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for many years before he died in the year 2006.We were married without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.
When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of (($2.600.000.00) Two million six hundred thousand Dollars in a Bank in Ivory Coast. Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next Eight months due to cancer problem.
I Have decided to donate this fund to you so that you will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct you.
Continue reading "DESI SPOTTING: Spam from "Esther Prakash"" »
A high court in Delhi has given Air India the right to prevent any of its flight attendants from flying if they are considered over weight, according to BBC News. The reason - health and safety hazard.
When I googled "Air India flight attendants" (I tried "air hostess" and "stewardess" as well), not a single image showed what was being referred to as "fat." Instead, I find this image: ---------------------->
The decision came after five air hostesses, who had been grounded by the airline for being too fat to fly, filed a case in the court.
Last year, a court ruled that the airline would have to pay out the wages lost by 13 Air India flight attendants who had been "deemed too fat to fly and grounded" by the Indian Airlines.
Claiming discrimination and unconstitutional behavior by Indian Airlines, the hostesses took legal action in the middle of last year so that they would be allowed to fly again, regardless of their weight.
Citing that some 10 percent of its 1,600-member crew (data as of 2005) were overweight, Air India had threatened its cabin crew in 2005 to ground them if they did not lose the extra pounds within two months.
BBC News says:
"Air India, whose air hostesses wear traditional Indian saris, is facing a stiff challenge from a number of private airlines with younger flight crew typically dressed in skirts or Western suits. <snip>
"A few years ago, during a recruitment drive for new crew, the airline said that it would not consider applicants with acne or bad teeth."
What do you think?
Check out this great video of Suleman Mirza, a Michael Jackson impersonator who auditioned for the TV show Britain's Got Talent. Simon Cowell of American Idol is one of the judges. The real treat isn't Mirza's impersonation-- although that's plenty good--it's what comes afterward, in the form of a big, burly Sikh guy wielding a broom. And the crowd goes wild...
The Sikh man is Madhu Singh. Video via SikhSwim.
Most spam messages I used to get were all about reducing my mortgage and increasing my body parts. Of late, a bunch have been about chatting online. Today, however, I spotted a first.
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:49:51 +0000
From: Alma Patel <a-ayehsa@addograph.com>
To: merkelcell@googlegroups.com
Subject: Let's chatHello! I am bored tonight. I am nice girl that would like to chat with you. Email
me at Emily@whypapeal.cn only, because I am using my friend's email to write
this. Hope you will like my pictures.
Post your comments below.
Since we haven't posted anything comic in a long time, here goes.
I came across this piece in a CNN-IBN show. This was the "Defining Moment" of the show - equivalent to "Your Moment of Zen" in the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Here is Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Minister of Railways and the president of Rashtriya Janata Dal, trying a speech in English upon request from some members of the parliament.
We know what you're thinking: Bad Photoshop Job.
But folks, that just may be the world's littlest bodybuilder, a 2-foot-6-inch, 20-pound morsel of muscle by the name of Aditya 'Romeo' Dev, who has suddenly received a big heap of media attention.
From UK's Telegraph:
"Using custom-built 1.5kg dumbbells, Romeo, 19, pumps iron daily to prove that small is beautiful. While most dwarfs have large heads compared to their bodies, Romeo is perfectly proportioned, and despite his diminutive stature has triceps, biceps, calves and thighs that would make many a full-grown man blush.
"He was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records in 2006 following three months of intense exercise. Large crowds regularly flock to watch him at his gym in Punjab, where as well as weight-training and push-ups Romeo is training to be a dancer.
"I've been training as a bodybuilder for the last two years and by now I think I must be the strongest dwarf in the world," said Romeo."
More coverage at Fox News, and Xinhua. Naturally, the doubters persist in their doubting ways. From CBS Sports:
Our beaver pelt trader of the week is 2-foot-9, 20-pound Romeo Dev. At least until he's proven to not actually exist. This nomination comes courtesy of Brad, who writes, "Was hard at work today and came across this. I'm just not buying it. It says 'Romeo' is in the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records. That's not good enough for me. Could you get the research department over there at CBS Sports to find out what's going on here? I mean look at the third picture. Really? I've done better work in 6th grade using MS Paint. Everything I found on this guy was dated today. I think the Telegraph got got. Thoughts?"
I'm giving him the beaver pelt because I want him to exist so badly and make these pictures legit. Especially the one where the Indian man in biker shorts is holding him up in one hand. Has there ever been a better picture of an Indian midget being held up by another Indian man wearing biker shorts in Internet history? The answer, my friends, is no.
One little observation: while the Telegraph has the man from Phagwara calling himself 'the strongest dwarf in the world,' this Asian News International piece changes the quote, so that he's suddenly the 'world's strongest midget.' Either that's a case of sloppy copy editing, or we have a dangerously ambitious bodybuilder on our hands, so to speak.
What do you think? Aren't dwarfs distinct from midgets? Is this a big con? Does that bleached hair do him any good?
UPDATE: Jan. 25, 2008 - Sarkozy arrived in India today, accompanied by a 300-member delegation but without Carla Bruni. So it looks like policy is going to be the story rather than affairs of the heart.
Original post, Jan. 20:
When French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives in Delhi
as a guest at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26th, there
is a danger that he will set off an international incident, according
to the BBC.
As everyone who has looked at a grocery store magazine rack in the past few months knows, Sarkozy divorced his wife of 11 years, Cecilia, last October and is now engaged to former supermodel Carla Bruni. So if Bruni accompanies President Sarkozy to Delhi and if they are not married by then, how should she be treated according to diplomatic protocol? Like a First Lady? Like any other guest of honor? Should she not go at all?
Continue reading "CURRENT AFFAIRS: Nicolas Sarkozy and Les liasons indienne" »
Last Christmas, we posted a "12 Days of Christmas," a YouTube animated song by Boymongoose. At that time, in late November, the video had been downloaded 195,000 times. Now, a year later, 2,284,245 have seen it as of this writing. In honor of the season, here is the video (and lyrics) again.
"On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me..."
Please leave your comments below.
For those still smarting over Barack Obama’s anti-outsourcing kerfuffle from a few months back, this may prove redemptive: a trippy, 2-minute plus YouTube video called Barack OBollywood. The video, set to “Chori Chori Gori Se,” from The Guru, works the candidate into a fast-paced Bollywood montage, and even has him appealing to voters in Hindi, and groovin to the beat. (thanks to Aman Batheja)
The video was produced by someone who goes by the handle CamPain2008.
Also, check out one of the comments at Wonkette, where the video was also posted, wondering, presumably, if this will cause offense among desis: "I wonder what we [sic] are thinking right about now at Sepia Mutiny."
Serious news organizations often run stories that have no impact on world affairs but merely showcase some of the zany things happening in far-flung corners of the earth. It’s fun to read about the man who was forced to marry a goat in Sudan — a somewhat tragic story since his goat-wife apparently died soon after when she choked on a piece of plastic — but when a Western media organization reports on the odd happenings in parts of the developing world, is there an implicit moral judgment?
India with its vast rural population is a source for many of these stories. Recently the BBC ran an article entitled “Man 'marries' dog to beat curse.” As promised, it celebrates the marriage of one P Selvakumar, a 33-year-old man, to a dog called Selvi in a village in Tamil Nadu. The marriage is intended to cure the groom of paralysis, which the villagers believe has resulted from his having killed dogs. And lest we forget, the Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai allegedly married a peepal tree and a banana tree in order to keep the faults in her horoscope from afflicting her human husband, actor Abhishek Bachchan. Furious feminists brought a lawsuit against Rai, claiming that tree-marriage is against the Indian constitution and that by assenting to such a “primitive” practice, Rai is holding back the cause of women’s rights in India.
Continue reading "MEDIA: "Man marries Dog" and other strange tales from India" »
A cartoon from Rick Detorie's "One Big Happy" comic strip (Nov. 13, 2007, distributed by Creators Syndicate). Post your comments below.
EARLIER ON SAJAforum:
Reading Arun's posting from earlier this afternoon about the World Scrabble Championship taking place in November in Mumbai reminded me that it's time for a Scrabulous update.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about this Facebook.com application that's taken off in a big way among Facebook users. It's an online version of Scrabble and was created by Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, two brothers in Kolkata. My wife, Roopa, can testify to its addictive nature and tell you have I have never managed to win a game against her yet (the image on the right is a screengrab of one of her games).
On Oct. 13, the WSJ had an in-depth story by Jamie Brophy-Warren about the game. Excerpts from "Networking Your Way to a Triple-Word Score":
In offices, college dorms and living rooms across the country, Scrabble fans are finding a new way to get their fix. It is Scrabulous, an online game that uses rules nearly identical to traditional Scrabble. In fact, there are enough similarities that some lawyers say that the creators of Scrabulous, a programming team of two brothers in Kolkata, India, may face possible copyright issues.
<snip>
Continue reading "TECH: Scrabulous Continues to Make Waves" »
We've been remiss in under-reporting the 2007 World Scrabble Championship, and as many of you wordonomists (experts in the knowing of words) probably already know, it's being held in Mumbai this year, from November 9 to 12. The competition will host players from 42 countries who will compete for the $15,000 first prize. According to this article LiveMint.com (the site of the business daily Mint), sponsor Mattel is hoping that Scrabble has a big future in India:
India has a huge English-speaking population, often touted as its singular advantage in businesses such as software and back-office operations, but it isn’t known what proportion of this is into Scrabble, a game that is the trademark of Mattel. Mattel India managing director Sanjay Luthra says Scrabble is the most popular word game in India along with the rest of the English-speaking world. “We definitely see a big market (here),” he adds. “We (Mattel India) pitched for the world championship as we want to promote Scrabble here.”
There are doubters, of course: one expert says Scrabble is a distant second to video games, and is mostly played by the upper-middle class. I think the game would pick up thousands of Indian players if they allowed Indian slang like 'pilax' (the act of being overbearing, or piling on; ie., "Don't pilax, da!"). What about Hinglish? Probably a bad idea, but as certain regional words get absorbed into the English lexicon in India I'd think the Scrabble dictionary would become hopelessly outdated.
Here's the official site of the championship, which includes media information and more.
Post your comments below.
That's a picture of runway 02 at Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal (elevation is more than 4,000 feet, as you can see via the green numbers on the right, with the snow-capped Himalayas in the distance), taken from the flight simulator in Google Earth. If you reaction is "what flight simulator in Google Earth?" - not to worry. It's what engineers call an Easter egg (a feature hidden within a piece of software). It only works on the latest version of Google Earth, 4.2, which you can download free at earth.google.com (there are other new features, including a cool view of the night sky). Once you have Google Earth running, you can launch the secret game by hitting Ctrl+Alt+A on a PC or Apple+Opt+A on a Mac.
G.E. is already one of the biggest wasters-of-your-time and a heck of a lot of fun, but this flight simulator takes the time wasting and fun quotients to entirely new levels - to Himalayan heights, if you will. Once you get the hang of it (left and right arrow keys to turn right and left; but the down arrow key to go up and the up arrow key to go down, just like a real plane), you won't even know that hours have gone by as you fly around different corners of the world. I spent time touring the Himalayas; my parents' hometown of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala; Agra, the city of the Taj; and Manhattan (some screengrabs below).
You can choose to fly one of two planes. The F16 is almost impossible to control for novices, so the SR22 propeller plane is the way to go (and offers better sightseeing). You can choose to start from your current position on G.E., or you can choose from several airports around the world, including the Kathmandu one.
Here are some links/resources to help you with the program:
Do take a look and post some comments and tips below. More South Asia photos below.
Continue reading "WEB: Google Earth's Hidden Flight Simulator" »
The current issue of Time Out New York has a desi cover - the Statue of Liberty with a bindi and a sari - as part of its race issue.The cover line says "This Picture... thrills me/angers me/confuses me." Manish Vij over at Ultrabrown thinks she might even look like the actress Rekha.
Lots of stuff about diversity in the issue, available in full online.
We have added this cover to our collection of 125+ U.S. magazine covers with South Asia/South Asian images.
Post your comments below.
From the SAJA Stylebook, here is an entry about the term "ABCD"...
ABCD: Short for "American Born Confused Desi" -- a slightly derogatory name that first-generation South Asians in the U.S. use to describe children who were born and brought up in America and are "confused" about their South Asian background. Thanks to the Internet, there are now at least two versions of the phrase that stretch all the way to Z.
One is "American Born Confused Desi Emigrated From Gujarat House in Jersey Kids Learning Medicine Now Owning Property Quite Reasonable Salary Two Uncles Visiting White Xenophobia Yet Zestful."
And the other: "American Born Confused Desi, Emigrated From Gujarat, Housed In Jersey, Keeping Lotsa Motels, Named Omkarnath Patel, Quickly Reached Success Through Underhanded Vicious Ways, Xenophobic Yet Zestful."
It caught the eye of SAJAer Shurjendu Dutt-Mazumdar - sduttmazumdar[at]gmail - who wrote in with his own version:
American Born Cosmopolitan Desis, Eagerly Fighting Groupthink. Highly Intelligent, Jovial Kids Loving Mata-Pitaji; Naughty Occasionally, Posing Questions, Resisting Stereotypes, Truly United. Vah! Vah! Vah! What Xenophilous Yankee Zaafirs!
He says he "thought it might be nice to have an alternative to the typically self-denigrating (albeit fun) interpretations of ABCD."
What do you think? Got a better expansion all the way to Z? Other thoughts? Post your comments below.
Here's "Watch Your Head," the African-American- and youth-oriented comic strip by Cory Thomas (distributed by the Washington Post syndicate), for Monday, Aug. 20, 2007. Post your comments below.
Post your comments below. See a bunch of outsourcing cartoons at CartoonStock.com.
REQUEST: Cartoonists! Do you have an outsourcing cartoon? An author has contacted SAJA looking to buy some for his next book. E-mail us: saja[at]columbia.edu
EARLIER ON SAJAforum:
SAJAer Preston Merchant sent us the following observation.
So why is it that Indian people all buy Honda Accords and then refuse to remove the airbag warning tag on the passenger side dash? I have been with two separate Indian car owners, in different states, and witnessed this cultural phenomenon. Then I noticed why they are so fond of the tag--it is
written in Indian English: "To be removed by owner only."
See photo below. Comments welcome.
Continue reading "DESI SPOTTING: Honda Accord Airbag Tags (U.S. versions)" »
My wife, ever alert to my finding-desi-stuff-everywhere obsession, sent me a note today that one of the most popular women's-oriented sites, DailyCandy.com is marking Aug. 15 with an item called "Indian Summer" - see screengrab below. [See our collection of coverage of the Aug. 15 anniversary of India-Pak independence.]
Earlier on SAJAforum:
Continue reading "TRAVEL: DailyCandy.com on an Indian Summer" »
An unusual event in NYC to celebrate India's 60th Independence Day (though this says "58th Anniversary").
A Celebration of India’s Independence Day with a Jewish Twist
India celebrates its 58th Independence Day on August 15th. Join us in a display of solidarity among India, Israel and the United States. The program will include representatives of the Israeli and Indian consulates in New York and entertainment featuring both Indian and Israeli music and dance. Refreshments will be served. Co-sponsored with the Indian Jewish Community of the USA.
Sign up online here
EARLIER ON SAJAforum:
Jay Leno, host of "The Tonight Show on NBC," had a joke about India's election of Pratibha Patil as president during his monologue on July 24, 2007.
"India, on Saturday, elected their very first female president. And today, President Bush called India -- not to congratulate her, he had some questions about his computer."
Here's "Mother Goose & Grimm," the popular daily cartoon strip by Mike Peters (it runs in more than 800 newspapers worldwide), for Thursday, July 26, 2007. Might be the first one to get Mahatma Gandhi into an outsourcing cartoon. Post your comments below.
Post your comments below. See a bunch of outsourcing cartoons at CartoonStock.com.
REQUEST: Cartoonists! Do you have an outsourcing cartoon? An author has contacted SAJA looking to buy some for his next book. E-mail us: saja[at]columbia.edu
EARLIER ON SAJAforum:
[ Welcome, SepiaMutineers! Love your remix of this cartoon! ]
With the release next week of "The Simpsons" movie, there's even more attention being paid in some circles to the character Apu as well as to the 7-Eleven/Kwik-E-Mart promotion (see our postings on this, featuring CNN coverage). Manish Vij, who's the go-to guy on these topics, has been blogging about them on Ultrabrown and talking about them on the air and in print. Read about his essay, "The Apu Travesty" in The Guardian; read (and listen to) his BBC interview on "six degrees of Apu" and read his item on "Kwik-E-Mart: Profit vs. Principle." For another perspective on Apu, as "a positive character," see Rohin's 2005 essay, "Much Apu About Nothing" (and my passing reference to him in a 2001 essay, "Gandhi, Apu & Me").
Meanwhile, because I had five minutes to kill, I went to a site called SimpsonizeMe.com and had some fun with a photo of CBS News Dallas correspondent Hari Sreenivasan (who served as co-emcee for the SAJA gala dinner this year, as he has for several years now; his co-emcee this time was Aditi Roy from NBC10 in Philly). As you can see, I "Simpsonized" him. You can do similar stuff with your own photos. My apologies, in advance, to Hari (no relation). [Actually, there's something serious that Hari's doing that you can help with. He's running in the NYC Marathon in November to raise money for "Team for Kids," a terrific charity that helps children around the country. You can support him by going to this link and putting in his last name (SREENIVASAN) and his entry number (124528) and making a tax-deductible donation.]