Last March I wrote about a great Hindi movie, a comedy called Munnabhai M.B.B.S., which is something of a remake of Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School. Well, the circle is now completed with director Mira Nair having bought the rights to make the Hollywood remake of Munnabhai. I have actually bought the remake rights of [...]
Before going through Customs at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, Shashwati had to stop and fill out an “embarkation” form to give to customs. (I had already filled out the “disembarkation form for foreign nationals” when we had arrived, and it remained stapled to my passport.) While she was filling this form out, three [...]
One of my former professors is involved in the following organization, which is unique in that it bypasses most of the usual NGOs, getting the money directly to 20-30 families. The Thoreau Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to development and disaster relief. It is currently raising funds to help the Tsunami victims of the [...]
Some random observations from the trip as we prepare to depart from India… Conversation on a street corner: Stranger: Hello sir, what country? Me: America. Stranger: Congratulations. Conversation at a hotel restaurant (on the third night eating there): Shashwati: Please don’t use so much oil tonight. Cook: Madame, we use only the finest quality oil. [...]
The last leg of this trip has been a bit unfortunate, as I’ve spent about a third of the time in bed, either due to a bad cold I picked up in Ahmedabad, or food poisoning from some under-cooked fish. Fortunately, however, I am staying at my in-laws where I was well looked after and [...]
In my last post I wrote about India’s Adivasis, or “Scheduled Tribes.” Accounting for over 85 million people, they account for the bulk of India’s indigenous population. There are 697 tribes “scheduled” or recognized as such by the central government. Some of these belong to a subcategory known as “Denotified and Nomadic Tribes” or DNTs. [...]
India is a settler state, like Australia, the United States, South Africa, Israel, Canada, Taiwan, and many other states where the indigenous population was displaced by later migrations. The difference is that the initial migrations which displaced India’s native populations happened in prehistoric times. With so many thousands of years of history you would think [...]
Just about a year before the Tsunami struck, I wrote a post on Aceh, decrying human rights abuses in the region. A recent article in the Straits Times (sorry, no live link possible) made the point about how much the Acehnese have suffered: This appalling disaster comes after more than a century of misery for [...]
I find myself hesitant to write this post because it touches on two issues that are often harped upon in the Western press when writing about India: the caste system and the status of Indian women. These are both important issues that deserve attention, but the way they are usually discussed in the West is [...]