Padma Laskhmi, Supermodel, Chef, TV Personality and Author

India born, Padma Lakshmi, is even more in demand now than when she
was as a supermodel. Her cookery shows and books are more popular than
ever.

"The newly single Lakshmi -- she divorced novelist Salman Rushdie last
summer after three years of marriage -- is using her break to tend to
more business: She's still settling into the New York apartment she
bought in January and on the horizon are more cookbooks, another
cooking show, her own brand of bottled chutneys, perhaps a jewelry
line and a memoir," says an article in the LA Times, "If I don't
conquer the world, that's fine," said the Indian-born former model
with a few acting credits to her name, including Mariah Carey's
"Glitter" and a memorable turn on "Star Trek: Enterprise." "I want to
teach people about things and places and foods they don't necessarily
know. I think in America it's very important to sample and taste what
the rest of the world is about. Maybe it comes from being an immigrant
child and wanting others to understand me."

Read the full article at--
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-padma11-2008jun11,0,5647612.story

Indian Saris For The Indigenous Market

"With India's middle class flourishing thanks to the subcontinent's 10
percent annual growth, it is suddenly less urgent to create clothing
for foreign markets — especially when Bangladesh and China can
undercut the prices — and more interesting to adapt subtly and
gracefully, Indian style.
Indian fashion week functioned as though Mumbai were the new
Manhattan. Celebrities? Bollywood stars turned out in droves for the
splashy shows, and if you have never heard of the designer Manish
Malhotra or the superstar couple Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan,
they probably have a higher recognition factor in India than
Brangelina in the front row at Marc Jacobs," says an article in the
New York Times Magazine.

This is an interesting article that talks about the Indian fashion
industry catering to it's rich indigenous population versus
non-resident Indians, who were the focus segment earlier.

Article at---
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/05/18/style/t/index.html#pagewanted=0&pageName=18menkes&

Becoming Smarter...

"What is perhaps most intriguing about the list in Condé Nast
Portfolio of the 73 Biggest Brains in Business is how few traditional
businesspeople are among them," says a New York Times article. One of
the Indians represented on this list is Ratan Tata of of the Tata
Group, the multinational conglomerate based in India.

In this article titled "How to Be Smarter," The Times quotes from
Wired magazine and says, "WHILE your I.Q. is basically determined at
birth, "still, there are lots of ways to get smarter — to max out your
so-called functional intelligence" at work and elsewhere." They list
ways to get smarter as below, and I quote--

-- Discover. "Learning new things actually strengthens your brain —
especially when you believe you can learn new things," Steve Knopper
writes. "It's a virtuous circle: When you think you're getting
smarter, you study harder, making more nerve cell connections, which,"
he says, makes you smarter.
-- Don't panic. "While a little nervousness can boost cognitive
performance, periods of intense stress essentially turn us into
Neanderthals," Eric Hagerman writes. Try to control your breathing.
Yoga could help.
-- Drink tea. "Caffeine jump-starts the body and sharpens the mind,"
Mathew Honan says. "But studies show that we Yanks are doing it all
wrong" by drinking coffee and high-energy drinks. "For optimal brain
gain, regular tea breaks" are the way to go, he writes. Small doses
throughout the day are more effective than one huge drink.
-- Practice the types of questions that appear on intelligence tests.
"They're supposed to be objective and consistent, but don't believe
it," Mr. Knopper writes. "By prepping for the verbal, numerical and
spatial problems on a typical psychometric test, you can boost your
score."
-- Exercise. Studies have shown that students who are aerobically fit
perform better on cognitive tests.

Read the full article at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/05/10/business/10offline.html&tntemail0=y

Bollywood As a Social Vehicle

In an article titled "Bollywood No Longer A Dream Too Far for India's
Lower Castes" in the Washington Post, writer, Emily Wax discussed
Bollywood's struggle with casteism, a reflection of the country's
struggle with this chronic issue.

"Paswan, 33, is a Dalit, a member of India's most ostracized caste.
Dalits are often cobblers, street sweepers and toilet cleaners, but
they are rarely actors in the world's largest film industry. Still, as
he stood that day beneath towering billboards showing Hindi film stars
hawking expensive watches and cars, Paswan decided Bollywood was for
him," says Wax in this article, succinctly pointing out that, "It is
not easy for Indians to shake loose the cages of caste, a
3,000-year-old pecking order in which professions and social status
are inherited like eye color or height. But Bollywood, like Mumbai
itself, is a place where young Indians are increasingly finding
opportunities to reinvent themselves."

If Bollywood is the place to break this norm then so be it. It is not
surprising how many taboos are broken and norms changed by popular
media. If Bollywood can help break the taboos surrounding casteism in
India then kudos to this film industry that is often ridiculed for
their song and dance type films.

According to Wax, "Across India, Dalits and members of other low
castes are struggling to gain access to quality education and
better-paying jobs. The economy is booming, and Indians of low caste
-- often identifiable by their surnames, birthplaces or parents'
status -- want to share in the wealth, or at least the opportunity.
Some aspiring actors from low castes say their confidence is growing.
There is more social mobility than ever before, they say, and
Bollywood is experiencing its share of change."

Read the full article at--
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602200.html

The power of a brand..

Jhumpa Lahiri is no doubt a fantastic writer. What is even more
powerful than her writing today is the "brand" that has encompassed
her work. Lahiri is now one of the most powerful brands in the
literary world. Her book is now on the New York Times bestseller list.

"Lahiri, an author in the literary genre, has become so popular that
Knopf has reportedly printed 300,000 copies of her latest book,
similar to the amount of copies printed for books by popular fiction
authors like John Grisham," this is from a piece that I wrote for Idol
Chatter.

All the reviews of her latest book Unaccustomed Earth have been
fantastic, taking a powerful writer to even more heights, than she
could have ever imagined. Perhaps the only review that is critical of
her work with surprising logic is the one at www.Desicritics.org says
"Reading the collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri in
Unaccustomed Earth is like unwrapping layer upon layer of a much
anticipated gift only to find a mundane trinket in the end. Lahiri
seems to take perverse pleasure in playing bad Santa who stuffs the
stockings of her readers with coal, when in fact she could have easily
gratified us with eight beautiful presents. I am not entirely sure why
she would want to do what she does with unerring success story after
story. Is this by design or an unintended consequence?"

Read the full review at --
http://desicritics.org/2008/04/20/114322.php

Read the Idol Chatter piece about Lahiri becoming a pop-culture icon at--
http://blog.beliefnet.com/idolchatter/2008/04/jhumpa-lahiri-a-new-pop-cultur.html

Some glowing reviews and interviews with Lahiri can be read at the links below--
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200802u/jhumpa-lahiri
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/books/04Book.html?ref=review
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=b458594b-ac96-4572-8b8b-bedcd27bbf5e
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89236881

Water Yoga

Yoga is not just becoming a fashion and a fad but it's varied benefits
are also slowly being realized. Yoga in it's many forms is being used
for various applications. Vipaasana, a form of yoga is being used for
anger management in prisons, and to change the minds of hardened
criminals. Now this.

ANI reports that another form of Yoga, "Water Yoga" is being used to
treat those that are affected by HIV. They say that, "HIV positive
tested persons in India's southern Chennai are taking part in a Yoga
camp to practice 'Jal or Water yoga' which they believe would help
them in leading a better life. According to the experts, yoga 'asanas'
or exercises in water have many benefits attached to them including
increasing the longevity of life by improving the immunity system of
the body."

Watch the video at --
http://www.mediascrape.com/News/ViewNewsItem.aspx?newsItemId=40337&rootVideoPanelType=1

Lead India Video - Priyanka Chopra

Lead India Video - Abhishek Bacchan

Lead India Video - SRK

Lead India Video - Amitabh

Indian Food in London is the Best...

Many agree that London is one of the best places outside India for Indian food of all kinds. Reuters says, "Better ingredients give London the edge over Indian cities for fine Indian cuisine. Better quality meat, fish and vegetables could very well put London ahead of any Indian city when it comes to high end Indian food."

See this video from Reuters--

Rose, or is it Ramesh Venkatesan...

A new talk show on Vijay TV in Chennai, India titled "Ippadikku Rose"
features Ramesh Venkatesan as the transgender host. A huge leap ahead
for Indian television and more importantly the audiences. An excerpt
from an article in the New York Times --
"India's newest talk show host, billed as the local Oprah Winfrey,
hitched up her sari and looked for her stylist's approval. "Very
feminine. You look gorgeous, like a goddess," he said, smiling
reassuringly, as he braided a garland of fresh jasmine into her hair."

The show will certainly create an uproar and raise many eyebrows. It
will be interesting to watch how it is accepted and where this goes...
Another excerpt from the same New York Times article --
"The show's director, Anthony Thirunelveli, said the half-hour talk
show had been conceived as a program suitable for family viewing but
would discuss issues of sex and sexuality, confronting "hush, hush,
under the carpet subjects." The first nine episodes will tackle, among
other things, divorce, sex and relationships among the mostly young
employees in India's call centers, and sexual harassment.
The main attraction will be Rose herself, who now goes by only one
name. A poised, 28-year-old, American-educated former Web site
designer with a master's degree in biomedical engineering, she started
wearing women's clothes full time four years ago and is still waiting
for acceptance from her family and society at large.
If nothing else, the show will start to propel downtrodden groups of
transsexuals, or hijras, into the mainstream. Known as the third sex,
most are born male but see themselves as women."

Read the full article at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/20/world/asia/20chennai.html&tntemail0=y

Gayathri Mantra goes pop-culture

Right in the middle of one of my yogasana's, during one of my Yoga
classes, I heard a westernized version of the Gayathri mantra, set to
serene Enya like music.

The Gayathri mantra is becoming very pop-culture. Here are some more
examples where it is used - An abbreviated form of the Gayatri Mantra
is sung in the opening theme for the TV show Battlestar Galactica; The
Treasure Quest video game soundtrack by Jody Gnant includes a song
entitled "The Gayatri"; Cher, in her 2002-2005 live performances on
Living Proof: The Farewell Tour; Deva Premal's album "The Essence"
includes two versions of this chant; and An abbreviated form of the
Gayatri mantra is chanted in the Bollywood film "Kabhi Khushi Kabhi
Gham"; it can also be heard during the credits of The Matrix
Revolutions.

What is the Gayathri Mantra?

Om Bhur bhuvah svah, Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo Devasya dheemahi, Dheeyo yonah prachodayaat

Hinduism considers this the supreme mantra, the king of all mantras.
This is believed to be the basis of all mantras and the essence of all
the Vedas. Those that chant the Gayathri mantra are protected from all
evil.

One interpretation of the meaning of the Gayathri Mantra is -- We
meditate upon the spiritual effulgence of that adorable supreme divine
reality, the source of the physical, the astral and the heavenly
spheres of existence. May that supreme divine being enlighten our
intellect so that we may realize the supreme truth.

It is said that young girls and women should not chant the Gayathri
Mantra. One of the beliefs behind this is that the chanting of this
mantra generates a lot of energy in the female's body, that which is
not conducive to girls/women of childbearing age. This not any
different from women not being allowed to chant many other mantras
from the Hindu Scriptures, such as the Rudram and Chamakam, etc.
Another belief is that chanting the Gayathri mantra gives tremendous
"Shakti" or strength, to one who chants it, since women are considered
an epitome of Shakti anyway, they need not chant it.

As with many traditions and beliefs this one is meant to be broken as
well and many women chant this mantra in today's modern world, as they
do the Rudram, Chamakam and other "prohibited" mantras in Hinduism.

The marriage of Indian and Jazz music continues to be celebrated

There has always been a strong similarity between Indian music and
jazz music. Especially Carnatic music and jazz. This tradition
continues till date.

An article in the Boston Phoenix talks about Rudresh Mahanthappa's
Indo-jazz connection. An excerpt from tis article
"Mahanthappa, now 36, is one of the more celebrated young musicians of
his generation, a critics'-poll winner and Guggenheim fellow with an
original compositional style rooted in jazz and, yes, Indian music,
rich in rhythmic and melodic complexity, with an aggressive attack on
alto saxophone. His fat tone and fearsome articulation give his
improvisations a Coltrane-like sweep and grandeur. It's a trait he
also shares with one of his teachers from his days at Berklee, George
Garzone. Mahanthappa, who comes to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
with his quartet on February 21 (as a complement to the Gardner's
current Indian-themed "Luxury for Export" exhibit), tells a story
familiar to many first-generation children of immigrants. It's one of
musical and cultural crossover, and typically American."

An article in the Boston Globe says, "He's a self-described egghead, a numbers nut who could have become a mathematician or economist. He's a science-fiction fan who loves William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and is liable to zone out to sci-fi reruns on TV. But when Rudresh Mahanthappa takes the stage, it's with an alto saxophone, not chalk and blackboard, that he burrows into theorems and explores alternate planes, in a musical language so vivid and complex that hard-bitten jazz arbiters have dared to compare him to Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane."

Read the Boston GLobe article at --
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/02/15/for_saxman_its_all_adding_up/

Read the Boston Phoenix article at --
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid56101.aspx

Lighten up...

For years and years stereotypes are used to make ads, movies etc.
mostly with the intent of laughing together rather than laughing at
someone. In the US the swedish, germans, french everyone is
stereotyped, and have been for decades and decades. Accents are made
fun of by everyone. Everyone makes fun of the South Indian accent,
South Indians make fun of the North Indians accent. In the US we make
fun of the Bostonian accent, the southern accent, the list goes on and
on...

I don't understand why the 2 superbowl ads featuring Chinese and
Indians have been drawing a lot of criticism. I personally thought
they were funny, and the the characters came across as smart and
proactive, acting quickly achieving their goals and becoming
successful. If the characters were portrayed as losers then it is
something else. All I can say is people lighten up... You don't like
it don't watch it. Stop making something of nothing, just because...

Read the full article about the "offensive" superbowl ads at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/06/business/media/06adco.html&tntemail0=y

Jolie-Ash may have common ancestors

Yeah, here is some very important research to spend valuable time on
and to invest valuable resources into!!! Jeeze!!!

A report from MSN --
"Top actors Aishwarya Rai and Angelina Jolie may have common
ancestors. If a research is to be believed all people with blue eyes
can trace their ancestry back to one person who probably lived about
10,000 years ago in the Black Sea region.

Scientists studying the genetics of eye colour at the University of
Copenhagen found that more than 99.5 per cent of blue-eyed people who
volunteered to have their DNA analysed have the same tiny mutation in
the gene that determines the colour of the iris.

Professor Hans Eiberg of the university said he has analysed the DNA
of about 800 people with blue eyes, ranging from fair-skinned,
blond-haired Scandinavians to dark-skinned, blue-eyed people living in
Turkey and Jordan. "All of them, apart from possibly one exception,
had exactly the same DNA sequence in the region of the OCA2 gene. This
to me indicates very strongly that there must have been a single,
common ancestor of all these people," he said.

The study reported in the journal Human Genetics indicates that the
mutation originated in just one person who became the ancestor of all
subsequent people in the world with blue eyes. "From this we can
conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same
ancestor. They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same
spot in their DNA," Professor Eiberg was quoted as saying by The
Independent daily of Britain on Thursday.

Even though the scientists are unable to pinpoint the exact date when
the mutation occurred, evidences suggested it probably arose about
10,000 years ago when there was a rapid expansion of the human
population in Europe as a result of the spread of agriculture from the
Middle East."

Carnatic Music Festival

I'll never forget my winters as a young child attending the Carnatic Music concerts in mid December, in my silk pavadai, all decked up and pretty, holding my grandparents and parents hands and listening to some of the greatest stalwarts of carnatic music, watching some of the best Indian dancers perform, enjoying the best of tamil dramas and theater. The music (or fine art)festival is a cultural phenomenon. The breaks between the concerts and the hot mouthwatering tiffins from the makeshift cafeterias were a divine treat.

NPR did a recent story on this festival. Listen to it at --

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18146238

South Asian girls sizzle in US swimsuit calendar

From an article in CNN-IBN Live --

"The Indian- American community tends to be fairly conservative in nature. So, when Sexy South Asian girl’s calendar came out in 2007, it was a first for the community. The calendar sold about 22,000 copies.

Now, the 2008 version of the calendar is out but it's creators decided on a new name for the 2008 version.

Ten out of 12 models featured in the Desiclub.com’s Swimsuit Calendar 2008 are Indian-Americans with one each from Pakistan ad the Caribbean.

The shoot took a week and the location was at the upscale resort area of the Hamptons in New York state.

As for the changes that the calendar underwent, CEO, Desiclub. Com says, “It's a marketing strategy basically and it's also reputation. You have to be very careful about the wording that you use. And with the word 'sexy' in our title last year, the word 'sexy' automatically draws a certain type of attention. We want to keep it streamlined and classy. So we figured we should definitely title it something that's more mainstream.”

For the 2007 calendar, about 20 girls applied to be part of the project but in 2008, the number rose fivefold.

Of the models included, some said "no" initially due to their apprehensions about appearing in swimsuits but then changed their minds."

Full article at --
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/south-asian-girls-sizzle-in-us-swimsuit-calendar/56507-19.html

Calendar at --
http://www.desiclub.com/calendar/

Philosophical Pop Culture

As I was wathcing Spiderman 3 this afternoon, the underlying theme of an evil mind begets evil, nad a good mind begets good became evident very early on in the movie. Many religions, Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity, Budhism, believe that when a mind thinks good thoughts, good vibes emanate from an individual. Constant bad thoughts, make one sad and upset and an unpleasant person to hang out with.

Even though some feel that movies like Spiderman and Superman are pure entertainment and do not do much for the world, I believe otherwise. Some of these themes provide food for thought for young minds, why, even mature minds.

The folk tales of yesteryears, that I grew up with come to mind, like the Panchatantra, Aesops Fables, Arabian Nights most all of these stories carry a moral and even today when I read some of these to my little son, I stop to think about the morals behind some of these stories, basic, morals that the world of today ought to be reminded about and can surely integrate into their lives.