Here are some key excerpts from Aravind Adiga’s excellent class revenge opus The White Tiger. On what fuels the Dickensian bitterness of the Indian underclass. How servants are kept in line:
He must have phoned his man in Laxmangarh… ‘He’s got a good family. They’ve never made any trouble… No history of supporting Naxals or other […]
This is rich. British churches are finding that metal thieves are stripping their lead roofs and selling the metal to fulfill demand in India and China:
In some cases, clergy members and parishioners discover roof thefts only once rain pours into the building, damaging cherished items like carved wooden screens and ancient organs… [A churchwarden] has […]
Parag reppin’ D.C. on a glorious summer morning at Lands End in the Second World
My buddy Parag Khanna launched his book The Second World at a clutch of readings around Harvard last Friday and had a chi-chi launch party at Sparks House, the residence of Harvard’s official chaplain.
When I was living in Bandra, my pad […]
Barnes & Noble is remaindering the Reluctant Fundamentalist hardcover for four bucks, clearing out stock before the softcover which releases April 8th.
Publishers remainder or pulp books which aren’t selling because it saves them taxes on inventory treated as depreciating assets:
An unforeseen side effect of this [tax] decision was that it became less profitable for publishers […]
Shashi Tharoor shilled his parody of Tom Friedman on Colbert last night with his admirable mop and his plummy laugh. Did he run for UN chief or prep school headmaster? Handled Colbert well, though.
I love how Boston is mecca for desi book tours. Tonight Jhumpa Lahiri is reading from Unaccustomed Earth, her new short story collection, at MIT Crazy Strata Center (thanks for the tip, and do join).
Today is also the release of my buddy Parag Khanna’s The Second World:
Since 2005 I have traveled through almost 40 countries… […]
When The Simpsons tackled outsourcing in ‘Kiss Kiss Bangalore,’ the only segment on YouTube at the time was the Bollywood-style dance scene at the end. But Srini’s posted a condensed version of the full segment:
It’s got the whole enchilada — Middle Eastern music confused with South Asian, Homer as a Thuggee, non-desi voice actors reading […]
On Sunday, CNN broadcast a news segment implying that Nepali workers who left their jobs at an Alabama DVD plant were security threats, based on little more than their ethnicity. Reporter Bill Tucker from Lou Dobbs Tonight interviewed a nutty local politician throwing around insinuations of terrorism. The segment accused the workers of stealing furniture […]
Barack Obama’s lead econ adviser, young Chicago b-school prof Austan Goolsbee, apparently picket-fenced an entire extemp season. I’ve never even heard of that before, because individual excellence is easily waylaid by random variations in judging. It requires someone who’s so self-evidently in a different league that even the mythical Bubba the Bus Driver lay judge […]
Back during the helium-huffing of the first Internet bubble, a second-rate dialup company bought out the publisher of Time magazine with inflated, gilt-edged shares. When the clock struck midnight, the old media diva was left with a lover turned pumpkin and the sickening certainty that she had sold herself cheaply.
… AOL was then at the […]
When I first came to this country as a kid, I loved my dad’s stick-shift Toyota. It cost $3,000 in ’70s dollars and seemed unbelievably luxurious after the norm of five sardines on a Bajaj. I used to sneak in at night, admire the blue lights on the dashboard and inhale the perforated vinyl steering […]
The Ritz is now the Taj. How you like them Tatas? (courtesy of bunkosquad)
This month, ailing luxury brands turned up their noses at a wealthy Indian buyer:
‘I don’t believe the public is ready for Jaguar ownership out of India’[Ken Gorin, chairman of the Jaguar Business Operations Council:] “I don’t believe the U.S. public is ready […]
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?
Check out the U.S. cities with the highest proportion of residents born in:
India: Millbourne, PA; Plainsboro Center, NJ; Iselin/Edison, NJ; Yuba City, CA
Pakistan: Madison Park, NJ; Herricks, NY; Lincolnia, VA; Boonton, NJ; Herndon, VA
Bangladesh: Hamtramck, MI; Millbourne; Hatfield, PA; Hudson, NY; Housatonic, MA
Afghanistan: Springfield, VA; Fremont/Newark/Union City, CA; Upper Brookville, NY
What’s interesting is the cities […]