Racism in Australia

Awesome post by Sakshi about racism in Australia at Desicritics - Desicritics.org: And Yes, Australia Is Racist. My sister lives in Melbourne and I have spoken to her multiple times about this issue and not too surprisingly, she feels the same way as Sakshi.

Gangraping 13-year-old white girls just because they happened to not conform to the rapists’ sick views of what a woman should be wearing is not a culture that should be defended by any measure of intellect. The same situation has made appearances most famously in the case of the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was brutally murdered for the sin of making a movie with Ayaan Hirsi Ali - another brave woman who refuses to surrender. I am not saying all this to paint Islam in a bad light - I am saying that these ghettoized immigrants need to be brought back into the fold and their distorted views of reality be dealt with realistically and not be brushed under the mosaic carpet of multiculturalism or be explained away. Enlightened people, feminists and true liberals must stop aplogizing for bigots and work more to ensure equality for their sisters of different religions - be they Hindu ladies killing their female children in the womb, Muslim women dying to “preserve honor” or European women being humiliated for not being chaste enough while appearing in public.

Boys and Girls

There has been quite bit of an on-going discussion in blogs these days (see here, here) about boys, girls, education and how the genders make it difficult for them to be taught in the same manner at school. I had an opportunity to observe first-hand, some interesting stuff yesterday.

My little (20-month-old) son was invited over to a childrens’ gym for a birthday party. There were probably about 4 boys 18-30 months-old and about 8 girls, all of same age range. The party co-ordinator let them all run around and let-off steam a bit. Then she called them all made them sit around in a circle for some group games. Initially, the entire group sat there in the circle and played. I noticed that 10-minutes later, only girls were left in the group and the boys had all wandered off (including mine) to play around by themselves and in general run around like little maniacs.

It was very interesting to see how the girls loved the attention of the group circle and participated eagerly in it, while the boys were initially made to sit there by their moms and then slowly just wiggled away for some solitary play time. They were not even playing with each other - they were all by themselves quite unlike the girls who were in little groups even in playtime. Even the games they were playig were really different - even though the gym equipment they were playing with was the same.

Now, I am no educator and I really don’t know what all this means. I grew up in a home where my dad was the only male, so I have had no chance (not interest) to observe the behavior of male children. I remember thinking of them as dirty, rowdy creatures when I was little and as the mother of a young boy, I want to see and learn as much as I can about what makes boys, boys. As a young girl, I have never had any problem in school and I remember most of the disciplinary action geared towards the boys. I guess I am kind of seeing now, how it just might be a male thing to run out-of-bounds since you are so full of energy and very less discretion.

Crappy hate mail

Dude, I miss real hate mail. I used to get tons of that stuff and trolls and all kinds of interesting people a couple of years ago. Now, it is all boring! I did get a feeble attempt at one this morning. Here it is -

Dilute Sulphuric Acid to me

Hello,
I used to visit your blog in 2003 when America first ‘invaded’ Iraq .And since then its common knowledge that there are no “weapons of mass desturction”, which the US claimed was its reason for the war. I searched your blog (using the search option there) for updates on this topic, after it was publicly known that the “war”, as such, was (is?) in vain.(It does appear like its all about the OIL.)
I havent found any updates , or your thoughts on this matter since you were following the topic quite keenly.
Did I miss any of your posts or havent you posted anything on this topic since then?

Regards

Let me see, my first thought was to say, “Screw you, I write about what I feel like”. Then I thought a bit and decided I might as well put this poor creature out of his/her misery.

1. Common knowledge about “no WMDs” - why would that be important for me again? It might have been “one” (I emphasize one) of the reasons for America to go to war. It was not my reason why I supported war. Go back and cite me one post when I say that - I had always supported the war because I thought Iraq deserved to be free. Prove me wrong on my points - don’t pick out whatever you want and then say I have debate what was not my point int he first place.

2. So, the war is in “vain” since there are no WMDs - maybe for America. Maybe for you, even. Not for me. I am vindicated every time Iraq goes to elections - every time the Iraqis flash their purple fingers proudly- everytime Iraqis post their thoughts about how great or sucky they are being governed - every time an Iraqi speaks his mind freely! So, kindly go stuff that!

3. It is all about (OIL) - awesome - this has got to be the stupidest canard people are still hanging on to? Where is my cheap 5-cent/gallon Iraqi oil? Why am I paying $2.20/gallon at the station? Show me the Oil! Atleast make up a few new stupid things to say and please don’t waste my time anymore with years-old crap, especially when it is proven that it was really france, Germany, Russia and the all-mighty UN who have been making off like Bandits from the oil money Saddam was spoon-feeding them for keeping him in power in return.

Tea Review - Edition I

Imaging being smothered by bales of dried lavender…until you feel like you are totally possessed by the essence of it and you feel like lavender is all you can think and feel. Drinking Miss Rona’s Lavender (with Jasmine Green) Tea is a pretty similar experience. It can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how much lavender you can take and if you are into strong smells or subtle hints of fragrance. I got introduced to the tea from a friend who couldn’t stand the intensity of lavender. It does feel like you are drinking pure lavender but the green tea and the jasmine fragrance do a little bit to assuage a complete onslaught of lavender. I would brew these bags usually for about 3-4 minutes in hot water that I would keep for a minute before adding the tea bag. I rebrew the bags atleast twice after the first use, but with slightly longer steeping time each go-around. It would make me feel like my body and the fluids in it are turning into lavender and I frankly loved the feeling. It combines the antoxidant properties of the green tea with the calming nature of lavender and is perfect if you can stomach the intense (and I do mean intense) smell of lavender in the brew.

How to get on Desipundit for Dummies

Are you low on traffic? Do you need to feel really relevant on the blogospheric scene? Want to make a name for yourself and get on the pages of Desipundit? Here is a how-to!

1. Memories, memories and more memories - the more childish, er, child-like, the better. Throw in a few relatives and a few more childhood friends for extra impact.
2. Write about how Indian policies suck. If that doesn’t work, whine about how Western people always point out that Indian policies suck. For bonus points, say Western policies suck even more.
3. If you are a man, write about how women are nuts and if you are a woman, write about how men are idiots. If not, try to write about reconciling the two sexes.
4. Bash someone. Even better, make sure they are a group of logic Nazis!
5. Whine about how Indianness is not being understood by the West.
6. Whine about West trying to understand and celebrate Indianness.
7. Whine about Western people asking too many questions in an attempt to understand your Indianness.
(Put your name in huge, big letters all over your blog to make sure they atleast get that right when they do decide to feature you!)

update: Here is an example post that illustrates my points and really, really should get linked ;)

Desicritics

Check out the brand-new brain-child of Blogcritics, Desicritics. It is a fun, little place to celebrate and comment on all things South-Asian!

Thinking of Verizon's FIOS TV? Fuggedaboutit!

My husband has tried switching to Verizon’s FIOS TV for a week now. Apparently, they were all nice and helpful till they got him all signed up on the 9th of Jan. We had no idea what we were going to be in for at that point. The installation was scheduled for the 12th and we even get a confirmation phone call from the representative on the 10th. He was all excited about the new and improved HD TV and DVR they have promised him. On the 12th, of course, he takes off from work in the afternoon since Verizon said they will be over anytime between 1 and 5 PM.

He waits and waits and finally calls the customer service only to hear that someone should be over there shortly. No one showed up. When he called to enquire, apparently his order was messed up and they rescheduled it for the 13th (Friday) and they said they could come over anytime in the day, so he had to take the entire day off and wait again….in vain!

When he called the customer service Friday afternoon, he was told that we were not even scheduled for installation that day. They then said they were rescheduling it for Sunday (15th), again all day. We just found out that we were not scheduled for today either, but for the 24th of Jan. So, two-and-half days of waiting and over 5 hours of waiting on hold for customer support, we get a vague promise that they will show up 10 days from today.

We are sorely disappointed with the way Verizon has jerked us around on this while being extremely apologetic while doing so. Someone ought to tell them that it is easy to say, “sorry”, but harder to mean it when they don’t make any amends to stand behind the apologies.

No woman no cry

So, by now the entire world is abuzz with word of how Mr. Alito’s wife cried yesterday towards the end of the hearings. The pro-Alito people lose no time to call “shame” on the Democrats for making the woman cry. The antis get all defensive and redirect their anger towards the poor woman, calling her crying staged and contrived. A pox on both the houses as far as I am concerned.

First of all, the Democrats were really doing their job questioning Mr. Alito on his qualifications and abilities to function as a good justice on the Supreme Court. It is a lifetime appointment and I have absolutely no problems with the senators making the quationing as hard as they can. If Alito wants it that bad, he will keep his cool.

As for the other guys poking fun at the poor woman, shame on you all too! Why is it so easy for people to laugh at a woman when she cries? Who says a woman who is bound by tradition to just sit there behind her man and watch as he gets brutally criticized cannot react emotionally to the event? Why do the sexists have to jump on her and call her tears theatrics? Have some empathy for her whether you are on her side or not. I promise, it will not kill you. It will just not show you up as the sexist jackasses that you are, that’s all!

update: Here is a good example of reasoned criticism of Alito without resorting to cheap shots at his wife. (link via Instapundit)

update: One of the reasons why the making fun of Mrs. Alito got to me viscerally is that as a woman working in what is largely a man’s world (the IT industry), I am expected to not be womanly. I am expected to be one of the boys and any sign of femininity is subject for ridicule and taken as a sign of weakness. It is as if the minute you show a crack in your armor, your opponents can go, “Ha! I knew she couldn’t hold it together! She is a woman afterall!”. It is almost a double-standard where “be a man!” is a compliment, while being a woman is somehow seen as a drawback. It completely and totally sucks!

Crash (2005) - Movie Review

Wow! I really don’t know how to describe this movie. I could say it is a study of race relations, racial tensions and emotions in America, but that would make the movie sounds too artsy and stodgy - something which this movie is completely not. (Now, “Birth” is another issue and might be the topic of another review). Crash in a nutshell is the story of a complete day in the lives of a lot of people living in LA, how their lives intersect through the day and in my husband’s words, “set off a chain reaction” that ultimately ends in the death of a black man.

The movie has pretty much every racial stereotype you can think of - Hispanic housekeeper, thuggish black people, racist white people, Chinese people who say “blake” for “brake” and illegal immigrants. There are Persian shopkeepers who think all Hispanics are out to cheat them - there are black guys who think the Whitey’s keeping them down - there are white people who think all black people are out to rob them. What keeps the movie from becoming a parody or a preachy lecture is the heart that the movie manages to find in it’s characters - the characters are all shades of gray - none really evil (well, maybe a couple who frame an innicent white cop so they can get the black vote).

I thought the most complex interesting characters were those of the black director(Terrence Howard) who thinks he has to shut up and let people walk over him so he can get on with his life - he doesn’t want to cause any ripples. He is too afraid to even speak up when Matt Dillon’s racist white cop (another very interesting character) pretends to search her while actually feeling up her skirt. He would rather stand there and let him and his wife be publicly humiliated than do something - all this pent-up frustration causes him to erupt at quite an unlikely time that puts his life in real jeopardy.

Matt Dillon’s portrayal of a racist cop seemed run-of-the-mill initially till you realize there are layers of empathy, frustration and hurt below his hard surface once you get to know him. It was commendable of the movie makers to not take any sides in the argument, but simply present the various sides of the race story. What got me were the scenes of confrontation between Thandie Newton who plays the wife humiliated by Matt Dillon and her husband. The wife is screaming at her husband in frustration - angry that he, her protector simply stood by and watched while she was being molested on a road by another man. She is humiliated not only for herself, but also for him that he couldn’t muster up the dignity to fight back. He, on the other hand is passive-aggressive and punishes the only person whom he can safely stand up to - his wife - by refusing to talk to her, and playing the martyr while at the same time choosing to ignore the fact that it was she who was molested and she, who is in greater pain than he could possibly be in.

Ryan Phillippe has an interesting little arc playing the honset sidekick to Matt Dillon who requests a reassignment since he cannot stand his partner’s racism, but in the end realizes there in inherent racism within himself too - whether he acknowledges it or not.

All in all, a very interesting movie - well-made with gripping characters that stay with you long after the movie has ended. A well-told tale that probably comes as close to balanced as it can when it comes to the state of race relations in America.

For some weird reason, a lot of this movie reminded me of Magnolia - I think it was two things - firstly, the way all characters in the movie have some connection to each other and secondly, remember the ending of Magnolia when frogs rain down? The snowfall-in-LA ending of this movie seemed very similar.

update: “Crash” scores upset victory at SAG awards - awesome!

Need a Mela host!

Amit Varma will not be able to host the Mela on the 19th owing to his traveling in Pakistan at the moment - we desperately need a new host, so please email me or drop a note in the comments if you are available to take on the job. Thanks to Spaceman Spiff for offering to fill in!

Chaai cha-cha-cha

I know I promised a review today, but I have had so many questions about teas in general, I am going to let this week’s review be a compendium of sorts about tea. The reviews will start next week.

First question most people ask me about tea is where I buy it - there isn’t one single place for me. I have bought good tea from Tom Thumb, Central Market, World Market, online - from all over. Most grocery stores are getting into the chai business these days and are beginning to stock more than the usual lipton iced tea.

Another question I frequently get is about the kinds of teas. Briefly, there are 4 broad categories -
Black Tea - this is the most common, most processed and the most caffeinated version of the teas. Pretty strong in tate and has the least amount of antoxidants.
Green Tea - this is also pretty common and this is processed a lot less than the black tea, so it retains a lot more antoxidants than black tea. This tea needs to be brewed carefully. Don’t ever use boling hot water to brew green tea. Instead, let the hot water cool for a minute before you put your tea bag or tea leaves in. Don’t overbrew this tea, since that will release the bitter tannins from the tea. Brew this tea about 3-4 minutes for optimal taste. Green tea is not quite as strong as black tea in taste and it’s taste can be enhanced by the subtle fragrance of jasmine flowers in it, a slice of lemon, a few drops of honey or all of them together.
White Tea - said to be the rarest of teas, this tea is made from the tea-leaf-buds and with minimal processing so as to preserve the antoxidants. This tea is extremely subltle in color and taste. The tea has a slightly sweet taste to it and is one of my favorites. This tea should also be brewed like the Green Tea.
Herbal Tea - technically speaking, this is not tea at all, but a brew of various herbs like licorice, lemon, ginger, chamomile, etc. with supposed medicinal properties. I love a blend of licorice and mint that has the minty freshness with the licorice after-taste adding a subtle sweetness that is out of this world.

Tip: Most teas, in tea bags and full-leaf can be rebrewed upto 3 or 4 times. This applies to the green tea and white tea even more, since you want to take the bag/leaves out of the water in 3-4 minutes while there is still some potency left.

Lastly, what is the difference between tea bags and tea leaves? Tea bags are most of the time, the powder left behind after the packing up of the full-leaf teas - I say most of the time, since there are also some full-leaf tea bags available. I always recommend full-leaf teas for the best and the cleanest taste. Well, ask me if there are any more questions and we will start on the tea journey few teas at a time starting next week.

My love affair with Tea

It is funny that one of the big things about being Indian is drinking tea (coffee if you are from the South). It is funny to me, since I was never into tea or coffee back home in India. My mom was extremely afraid of caffeine and addiction and strove to keep me away from those demon drinks. I vaguely remember drinking “adrak chai” early morning on a cold winter’s day in Bombay and thinking this makes my throat feel so good. My dad occasionally snuck me some sips of his tea, but over all I never developed a taste for it and remained extremely proud of my non-coffee-and-tea drinking habits.

It was sometime in 1999, in San Francisco at the best dimsum place in town that I had a chance to revisit tea again - this time albeit in the form of green, jasmine tea. I was hooked by the clear taste of not-over-brewn green tea that doesn’t overwhelm you while the jasmine adds a little tang. It was not truly love at first sight, but that first taste was enough to persuade me to get a few more to the point if you now looked at my cabinet in my cube at work, at current count you will find - 15 boxes of tea. Any addict will tell you that is it is hard to pinpoint the exact moment when like turns to love and into obsession, but all I know is that I am now a tea-drnker for life.

Even if I do chug down 4-5 cups of tea/day usually, 80% of the tea I drink is white or green - I drink black tea very rarely. I am going to offer up my reviews of some of the teas I have had so far, so if any of you want to try out tea, you have atleast a guide to the awesomeness or the suckitude of the said tea. The reviews will be a weekly affair starting tomorrow, so keep watching this space.

update: Here is a view of the collection (picture from my cell phone, so bear with the quality - click on to Flickr to the see the notes on the brands and the kinds of tea in the image)

Mela Schedule for 2006

January 2006:
5th January: Harini
12th January: Nilesh
19th January: Spaceman Spiff [note changed host]
26th January: Thej

February:
2nd February: Boomboom
9th February: Ambar
16th February: Karthik
23rd February: Ashish Hanwadikar

March:
March 2nd: Vulturo
March 9th: Ravikiran

Pongal Mela

Go to Nilesh’s blog and nominate your lovely posts for the BlogMela for this week - hurry!

Nominations for Blogmela Vol 4 Issue 2 : Nilesh’s Weblog