Check out our new application on Facebook. You can share your blog comments with friends:

Here’s what you do:

Add the application
Click ‘more’ in the left sidebar and click
Type your commenter name, including spaces if any, and click Save

That’s it! Now come back here and leave a comment.

Samoan-Kiwi-American graffiti artist Iosefatu Sua created this mashup of Krishna, kali and thangka. It’s available as one of several laser etchings on the back of a customized Zune 80, which WinSuperSite thinks is better than the iPod Classic and Touch:

… the Zune 80 blows the iPod classic out of the water. It offers a vastly […]

The Hollywood writer strike takes a toll on the protest itself. This scare-vid about writers’ jobs being Bangalored is badly-scripted and irrelevant to the bandh (via Racialicious).
Holly Hunter does nail one thing, though: writing Hollywood like a Lokhandwala serial would be a 360 degree, repeat-shot-thrice disaster.
The accent is fakey, as usual. What, no head-wagging?

The NYT licks its typing finger and reels off Yet Another Curry Review, because after all these years, it’s so original. Even lamer, the movie is about a 2nd genner. You can take India out of Shelley Conn, but Shelley can’t take herself out of India — the Times won’t let her:

A cloying blend of […]

The visual style of Nina’s Sita Sings the Blues is hypnotic in part because of the metronomic regularity of its lines, from the sinusoidal waves to the microchip rain . It reminds me of wide-eyed manga faces, Web comics like Demian 5

Nina Paley’s animated gorgeousity has evolved from the last time I got a look, gaining a puppet voiceover among other changes. Props for finally finishing this painstakingly-animated labor of lusciousness and pain:
[Sita Sings the Blues] is narrated by… shadow puppets… voiced by journalist Aseem Chhabra, consultant Bhavana Nagulapally and Loins of Punjab Presents director Manish […]

India can be a dizzying place, but the new Love Travel Guides bring the country into focus. In the handwoven silk pouch, you’ll find information that feels as if it’s been culled just for you by a local friend—from off-the-radar sari shops to yoga retreats. Bangalore and Mumbai editions are already on bookshelves, and six […]

Dominique Lapierre’s Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union, an account of a historic road trip across the USSR in 1956, has just been published in India by Full Circle Books. This isn’t an in-depth travelogue or a sociological study of the unimagina…

At the Bride and Prejudice premiere in New York, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein came out to introduce Gurinder Chadha. He sounded humble in front of the part desi, part industry audience, nothing like the enfant terrible of movie industry lore. Weinstein’s made a large bet both on desis personally and on desi culture becoming part […]

The NYT reports that earlier this year, New York cops ran a subway theft sting which ended up entrapping Good Samaritans:

Shopping bags, backpacks and purses were left around the subway system, then stealthily watched by undercover officers. They arrested anyone who took the items and walked past a police officer in uniform without reporting the […]

Like some aging prom queen who’d overstayed her welcome, Musharraf finally gave up the title he fancied so hard:

Gen. Musharraf, 64, handed over his post as promised to the vice-army chief and retired from the army at an elaborate ceremony on a vast parade ground inside army headquarters in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi… […]

Here’s a rundown of some of the desi lit on tap at Amazon’s Kindle ebook store, and what’s not available yet:

Author
Book
Ebook?

Salman Rushdie
Shalimar the Clown

Y

Fury

Y

Step Across This Line

Y

Midnight’s Children

N

The Satanic Verses

N

The Moor’s Last Sigh

N

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

N

Who would’ve thought that Pakistanis would be calling on Congress to slash aid to Pakistan?

… wealthy Pakistanis have contacted members of Congress — as well as classmates from American colleges they attended — and urged them to cut American aid to Pakistan… [Link]
Many years ago, the country blacklisted Shame, Salman Rushdie’s biting satire of how […]

Waris Singh Ahluwalia is always searched, but it’s truly random

Rootsgear… which designs T-shirts with political and social messages and a hip-hop sensibility aimed at Punjabi Sikh youth, says its Facebook group helps the company stay connected to regulars in its ethnic community and the socially conscious rap scene… the page drives more traffic to Rootsgear… […]

Photos

… Con Edison… buys a quarter of its manhole covers… from India… the workers at one of West Bengal’s many foundries relied on strength and bare hands rather than machinery…. flames, sweat and liquid iron mixing in the smoke like something from the Middle Ages… men, often shoeless and stripped to the waist, waited with […]

What Black Friday means in India:

Black Friday is a film based on the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai which many believe were organised as retaliation for the Bombay riots… It was featured at the Locarno Film Festival and received widespread praise. [Link]
What it means in most of America:

The news media frequently refer to […]

Much chuckling and bwahahaha-ing was induced by the designation given on this press invite that came in today:I suppose it was inevitable. I often meet people at book events/conferences who think of me primarily as “that blogger” and sympatheticall…

Didn’t think much of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal; in fact I can’t remember the last time I found it so hard to sit through a film (no wait, that would be this one, which was even harder). However, the film was partly redeemed by the best scene involving a…

Another article in Today’s Times about the independent career woman in India. This picture is classic.