SAJAforum

HOAXY: Ericsson's free laptops. Act now.

My dad forwarded me this email, promising a free Ericsson R320 to anyone who forwards it to 20 people. I figure that posting it on this blog is worth at least 15 people, right? But I like how the supposed author is one "N.kousik [IT Manager - RCG]." See how innovative our desis are - not content to just send around a bland text-based hoax, but taking the time to make a shiny jpeg. Or at least to appropriate one that's been floating around for a while: according to the hoax-busting site Snopes, it's been going on for at least a couple years.

Savor the little differences: in the Snopes version, the letter comes from Anna Swelund. Here, you're simply supposed to cc Anna Swelung. 

ADVERTISING: Israeli Arms Manufacturer Lures India, Or At Least, It Tries

One of Israel's major arms manufacturing companies, Rafael, thought the smartest way to attract the Indians to buy their new weapons system would be to produce a Bollywood style video advertisement. I ran into this video as I was reading the Switchblog:

Defence Professionals, a website that covers international defence community, says in this article that India has been shifting its arms supply from Russia to Israel in recent years.

In 2008, Rafael won a contract worth some $ 340 million to provide 18 Spyder- short-range air defense systems as the Indian Air Force’s low-level quick reaction missile system (LLQRM). The Israeli company is now pushing the Spyder MR (medium-range) variant of the missile, with a range of 35 kilometers, as the Indian Army’s next Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) as well as the Spike MANPAD missile system.

According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade, Rafael currently works with several big arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. More here:

Rafael expects orders worth $600m for Gill/Spike from Europe and seems likely to get them as the Netherlands, Finland and Poland ⁹ have already ordered the weapon. Gill/Spike is also operational in Singapore. ¹⁰

Other Rafael exports include the Barak ship-borne anti-missile system to Chile and Singapore,¹¹Popeye missiles to South Korea, ¹²and a co-production agreement with Turkey for Popeye II missiles.¹³

And now India. Wonder if the video sealed the deal.

Please post your thoughts below.

WOMEN'S RIGHTS: The Pink Chaddi Campaign

There's a lot to admire in the Pink Chaddi Campaign, which is the organized response to the Sri Ram Sena's vigilante crackdown on pub-going women in India. There's the graphic design, for one: just look at that big, bold poster, with that big, baggy, radiating chaddi. And then there's the name: the campaign could've called itself the pink panty campaign (as Fox News has), but that would've played into the Sena's agenda. A word like 'chaddi' is about as un-sexy or utilitarian as underwear can sound--it's a word that kids use. But finally it's the sheer, outrageous forthrightness of the campaign that makes it such a hit, at home and abroad.

The campaign was started by Nisha Susan--a journalist, at that--and is somehow affiliated with or part of the Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women. The CPLFW's Facebook page had 9,998 members yesterday, and over 25 thousand today.

More from the pink chaddi blog:

The Pink Chaddi Campaign kicked off on 5 February 2009 to oppose the Sri Ram Sena. The campaign is growing exponentially (4,500 at this point in the life of our Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women) and that is not surprising. Most women in this country have enough curbs on their lives without a whole new franchise cashing in with their bully-boy tactics. Of course, a lot of men have joined the group as well.

Here is we want to do with the Pink Chaddi Campaign. Join in. Be imaginative, have fun and fight back!

So far, a great many chaddis have made their way through the Indian Postal Service and to the Sri Ram Sena, who now say they just want to talk, and are sending the women pink saris in return. The Hindu American Foundation has sent out a release, calling the Sena a "gang of miscreants" and elsewhere the group is referred to as the "Hindu Taliban." Even the RSS is distancing itself. And Rediff had this parody piece, treated as a page from Sena leader Pramod Muthalik's diary:

Technology: Google Releases Google Earth 5.0; mine in Hindi?

I just downloaded the new Google Earth 5.0 after reading how awesome it was - it allows historic timeline search for any specific place, deep ocean exploration, tracking flights and many more. I've been playing with it for about 10 minutes and I already love it.

But here is what's really really surprising. The entire program downloaded in Hindi!

I have never installed Hindi on my laptop and I can't even access sites that publish their content in Hindi. So why would Google Earth automatically download in Hindi? For a moment, I thought Google started auto-catering to people who speak specific languages (Seriously, aren't they capable of doing anything?) But the irony lies in this - I speak and understand Hindi very well, but I am not Indian. Is Google making me stupid?

ANIMALS: Elephants to remain at the LA Zoo

Not sure there are going to be Asian elephants here, but I couldn't resist noting this item that flashed across my e-mail as breaking news:

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:06:12 -0500
From: Los Angeles Times <news@e-mail.latimes.com>
Subject: Breaking: Council votes to keep elephants at L.A. Zoo

Los Angeles Times | January 28, 2009 | 1:01 p.m. PT

Elephants will remain at the Los Angeles Zoo, the City Council decided today.

Members voted 11 to 4 to complete construction of the six-acre, $42-million Pachyderm Forest, which opponents had said is too small and too expensive.

Zoo supporters screamed with delight after the vote. The vote marks a turnaround for the Council, which last year had signaled it was ready to kill the project.

More soon at: http://link.latimes.com/r/VKC7L0/1V9BO/NURQ9J/G3WJ/3O26D1/HK/t

Earlier elephants on SAJAforum:

• Name that elephant!
• Update on naming that elephant
• Yet another update on naming that elephant
• A tale of two Rajas - a tiger and an elephant
  
• Elephant-shaped Ganesh growth cured my ills, Queens man says
• BOOKS: The Elephant, The Tiger and The Cellphone - Shashi Tharoor's new book
  

SONG: Twinkle Twinkle, a la Carnatic, Telugu, Mallu, Punju

We posted last year on an alleged interpretation of Jack 'n Jill by KL Saigal, but of course the oeuvre is endless. Here's an actress from a Tamil sitcom in which you can experience Twinkle Twinkle in various South and North Indian renderings.

According to one YouTube commenter, the first Twinkle Twinkle she performs is in Vasantha Ragam.
I particularly like the endless laugh track, and the token suspicious neighbor who shows up near the end. Anyone know the Tamil serial, or the Bollywood film that shows up at the end of the clip? Love that dress.

For those new to the art of Indian nursery song drills, check out this video. Also, Bhai's version. And this clip has renderings of Twinkle Twinkle in Carnatic and Bollywood styles. And here's a version of Baa Baa Black Sheep, with tabla, and yet another, performed by what appears to be some sort of teacher. This Twinkle Twinkle, lip-synched by an Indian teenager in school uniform, is sped up and a little eerie. I really must pull myself away now.

YEAR-END: What are your 2009 resolutions?

Thanks to the Wall Street Journal, we know the professional, personal and industry resolutions for three folks we have discussed here in the past: writers Vikram Chandra and Shashi Tharoor and legal affairs expert Neal Katyal. They each participated in a WSJ compilation of such resolutions from celebrities such as Martha Stewart, Wolfgang Puck and Mitt Romney. Here's the premise:

The first of the year is that rare, earnest moment when we are all thinking this way together, resolving to be benevolent, compassionate, motivated, adventuresome. For the New Year, The Wall Street Journal asked some influential people three questions: What professional project do you plan to complete in 2009? What personal resolution do you finally hope to keep next year? And what problem should your industry or professional community tackle more effectively?

And here's what Chandra, Tharoor and Katyal had to say:

Vikram Chandra, 47
Author, Mumbai and Berkeley, Calif.
PROFESSIONAL: I just started a new novel a couple of months ago, and in a magical, perfect world I'd finish it in 2009. But my last novel came in at 900 pages, so I'll settle for slow, steady progress.
PERSONAL: I'm the father of a 7-month-old baby, so I think it's time for me to get done with my driving lessons and face the terrors of the DMV.
INDUSTRY: I'd love the publishing industry the world over to accept fully and without further complaint that electronic publishing is here to stay, and to provide innovative, sophisticated and, above all, low-priced competition for the Kindle and Sony Reader.

Shashi Tharoor, 52
Former under-secretary-general of the United Nations, author, Trivandrum, India
PROFESSIONAL: I have been immersing myself more and more into Indian public life. With the terror attacks having brought the country to a crossroads and national elections due in the spring, I will have to decide whether and how far to involve myself in my country's political future.
PERSONAL: To take a real stab at beginning work on a novel -- my last was in 2001. Though there have been three nonfiction books since, I haven't been able to find the time or the space inside my head to create my own fictional world.
INDUSTRY: We need in 2009 to tackle the task of reinterpreting America to the world: post-Bush, post-9/11, and post the historic election that has galvanized Washington-watchers on every continent.

Neal Katyal, 38
Georgetown University professor of law, Washington, D.C.
PROFESSIONAL: To return to a winning record in the Supreme Court.
PERSONAL: To conquer mogul runs to the beat of a metronome.
INDUSTRY: To remind our citizens that the government can be a force for upholding the rule of law rather than evading it.

Let's have some fun with this. How about sharing YOUR resolutions? Post them below, please.

LANGUAGE: Indian toponyms in Wordsmith.org's A Word A Day

I've been using Wordsmith.org's A Word A Day feature - and daily newsletter - to learn new words and new ideas for more than 10 years now. - with 664,000 subscribers. The New York Times called it "the most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace."

From the about us:

Wordsmith is a worldwide online community of some half-million readers who share a love for words, wordplay, language, and literature. They hail from Australia to Zimbabwe and almost all other places in between. Wordsmith was founded in 1994 by Anu Garg, while a graduate student in computer science.

You can subscribe here. Garg's e-mail: anu[at]wordsmith.org.

This week's theme: toponyms (I had to look it up - the word means a place derived from a place or region) from India. Today's word: jodhpurs.

PRONUNCIATION:
(JOD-puhrz)
MEANING:
noun: Riding breeches loose above the knees but close-fitting from the knees to the ankles.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Jodhpur, a city in northwestern India, earlier a princely state.

USAGE:
"One thing is certain. Once he packs up his souperman cape and jockey jodhpurs, stories about [Campbell Soup CEO] David Johnson will be traded for years to come."
Linda Grant; Stirring it up at Campbell; Fortune (New York); May 13, 1996.

The other words so far this week: golconda and doolally.
UPDATE, 12/21/2008: The final two words for the week: calico and tamarind.

Looks like SAJA needs to add these words to its collection of English words of South Asian origin (anaconda, shampoo, the suffix -ware among them) at
http://www.saja.org/resources/stylebook#southasianwords.

[In fact, the whole SAJA Stylebook for Covering South Asia & the South Asian Diaspora could use an update and new entries. If you'd like to volunteer, let us know - saja[at]columbia.edu]

Post your comments below.

OBAMA: Congratulations, in sand

Sand sculptor Sudarshan Patnaik's latest work, on the shores of Puri, Orissa in India. More here. And...

PREZ RACE: A McCain-Palin remake of "Benny Lava"

In July, SAJAforum's Ankita Rao wrote about the YouTube phenomenon known as "Benny Lava" - a spoof of an Indian filmi dance "item" that consisted of imagined English lyrics as actor Prabhu Deva writhed to "Kalluri Vaanil." From that July post:

More than 10,612,623 views later--more than twice as many as Obama's race speech, and about the same number as Lil Wayne's Lollipop--the Benny Lava You Tube video is a pop-culture reference, a Facebook phenomenon, a household stay-in-your-head-all-day tune. It's quite possibly one of the most popular bits of "Indian" film culture to have crossed over into the West.

And now, "Benny Lava" has spawned a song that takes on the 2008 presidential elections.

As Brandon Muller, who plays McCain, explains in the text accompanying the video:

I originally conceived this idea as Barack vs. Hillary during the primaries but was unable to pull that together in time. I think that would have been better, honestly.
<grin>
This was filmed in one day with no rehearsals at all (as if you couldn't tell). Still, pretty impressive for us. I know McCain can't lift his arms above his head--we decided not to limit his dancing. Also, I can do a much better McCain impression when I'm not singing. Plus I opened my mouth too wide and showed too much teeth. He doesn't do that. Anyone up for a reshoot? 

Post your comments.