Vantage point




Saturday, March 31, 2007

Oh India.. You Mean...

Whenever someone identifies himself as an Indian in this country, the responses he gets from the white folks have varied.

It started with "Oh India... you mean the place where they fly on carpets?"

Then it went to "Oh India... you mean the place where they ride elephants to work?"

Then, "Oh India... you mean the place where Ghandi(sic) was from?"

to, "Oh India... you mean the place with arranged marriages?"

to, "Oh India... you mean where all our tech support phones are answered?"

If you, as an Indian, were bugged by one or all of these, imagine what I felt when I got the newest and the worst question yesterday. I was talking to a lady at the bus stop yesterday and she asks,

"Oh India... you mean the place where Sanjaya Malakar is from?"

And I wished she had asked me about the caste system, bride burning, poverty, slums instead. But she had to ask me about Sanjaya Malakar.

Yes, Sanjaya Malakar, who very much like the present Indian government, is half-Bengali and half-Italian (not Marathi as I mistakenly assumed here... hey Bongs, stop ending your last names with -kar or I'll set the Sena on you).

Sanjaya Malakar, whose calibre as a performer is marginally greater than Karl Rove's.

Please, please, vote him off. To remind you why, here's a sample of him mangling one of my favourite bands -

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Ghaati on the floor!

Maybe everyone else in the world already knows this. But I have been avoiding the TV show the way Paula Abdul avoids sobriety. Among the 12 male semi-finalists for this year's American Idol is apparently a Maharashtrian dude called Sanjaya Malakar. His sister, Shyamali(one of the trademarked ghaati names) was also in the auditions. I am surprised TOI, which is rabidly hungrier for some valdiation of Indians from the white guy, hasn't put this on the front page yet.

So it's not all bad for Indians on primetime TV. So far the only Indians I have seen on American primetime are the software engineers or NRIs who stupidly get stung and then arrested on Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator. Every episode features at least one desi stooping lower than ever before just to get some action.

Though I am not sure which ordeal is worse - facing Chris Hansen or facing Simon Cowell.

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