It is  interesting that along with sending congratulations to the PRC leadership, the US also chose to announce that it has appointed a special coordinator for Tibet. While the symbolism is not lost on foreign policy observers and researchers, the question being asked is what does this move really mean?

US Secretarty of State Hillary Clinton named Maria Otero as the special coordinator for Tibet. Otero is currently the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.

Otero’s role will be to coordinate and manage all Tibetan related issues within the context of US-PRC relationship.

Last month China strongly protested the visit of President Obama’s senior advisor to Dharamsala. Valerie Jarrett, accompanied by Otero met with the the Dalai Lama, whose government in exile is based in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama left Tibet about 50 years ago and came to India, which is where he continues to live.  China does not recognize the Dalai Lama’s government in exile.

Tibet is labeled as an autonomous region of China. China’s central concern is to preserve its territorial integrity and minimize any problems it faces from its minority population, including Tibetans.

The Dalai Lama is currently traveling in the USA and next week will be in Washington DC. This will be the first time in 19 years that a sitting US President will not be greet the Dalai Lama according to The Washington Post.

Some observers point out that President Obama appears to be following a middle-path and does not want to rock the boat for next month’s high level meeting with China.

Related link: In case you missed, you might want to listen Pico Iyer talk about Dalai Lama, Tibet and China in this interview.

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Shantanu also sits on the board of Metavante Technologies that was recently acquired by Fidelity. He sits on the advisory of Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. He received his MBA from Haas School of Business.

Shantanu replaces Sallie L. Krawcheck, who joined Dell’s board in 2006 and resigned earlier this week. She is President of Global Wealth and Investment Management for Bank of America (BOA). Krawcheck joined  BOA in August, and prior to that she was with Citi Group.

Links: You can listen to a wide-ranging interview that I did with Shantanu Narayen in 2007 a week before he became CEO of Adobe. Listen to Part-1 and Part-2

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The Toss of a Lemon is a multi-generational saga that revolves around Sivakami, who gets marries at 10 years and becomes a mother at 14 years and a widow  by the time she turns 18. The novel and the central character are based on the personal stories of  Padma’s great-great-grandmother. It took Padma years to produce this 600-page novel and was published in 2008.Here is a Q&A that I did with Padma via phone and email.

KB: What does the title The Toss of a Lemon mean?

PV: The title refers to an incident early in the novel. Sivakami, my central character, is married to an astrologer, Hanumarathnam, who has predicted his own death. He is hoping, however, that the birth of a son might change his fate by altering his horoscope. Hanumarathnam wants to calculate his children’s horoscopes himself but needs the exact birth time to be able to do that. Since he’s not permitted in the birthing chamber, though, he gives the midwife a lemon, and tells her to toss it out the window the moment the baby’s head appears. Hanumarathnam waits in the garden beside the house. The first child is a girl and he calculates her horoscope, which has enormous significance in the novel, but doesn’t affect her father’s fate. The second child is a boy, and also a breech birth. The midwife, seeing a bum instead of a head, hesitates to toss the lemon. She eventually does, but the time Hanumarathnam uses to calculate the horoscope is inexact. Worse, the resulting horoscope, instead of averting his death, confirms it. Much of the rest of the story proceeds, in some way, from those two tossed lemons.

KB: As a child brought up in Canada how did you react to the stories that your grandmother related? Did you find the raw materials culturally alienating or shocking like for example child marriage and the complex caste system? Or, did it connect with you in some historical or cultural way?

PV: Both versions are accurate, in a way! I visited India many times while I was growing up and as a young adult, for as long as 4 months at a time, often in rural areas and in relatives’ homes where much—about people’s values, or the way the caste system was enacted—was as it had been for centuries. So although I’m staunchly opposed to casteism and sexism, I am close to many people who feel differently from me, including my grandmother. I also understand that these matters, while distant from me, are inextricable with my own history and my family culture. It is this understanding—and this affection—that gave me an “in” when I began to write the book.

KB: What methods or literary device  did you use to refrain from coloring the narrative with your observations or reactions?

PV: I didn’t refrain: the novel is entirely composed of my observations and reactions! Sorry…  I think what you’re asking is how I wrote a novel about people whose beliefs are so different from my own, and even potentially abhorrent to me, without seeming to judge them. This was very important to me: portraying this world from the inside, seeing my characters’ relationships and decisions as they would have seen them. It’s easy for us, from the vantage point of a different era, to think that our value systems and ways of living are best, but I really enjoyed the imaginative challenge of getting inside the skins of characters like Sivakami, a Brahmin widow who denies herself all physical contact, despite the emotional consequences for her young children, and Muchami, her servant, a homosexual man who is also Sivakami’s staunchest ally and closest confidant. Both are firm defenders of the caste system, though both are, in different ways, on the receiving end of its oppressions. The contradictions, the tragedies and the often inadvertent comedy I discovered in investigating this world and creating these characters were far more interesting than any pat judgments I might pass.

KB: What kind of a relationship did you have with your grandmother? How did she trust you with all the information?

PV: I’m very close with my grandmother, and, when I finally asked her to tell me about our family history, the stories poured out. Neither of us knew, when we first started sitting together to formally record her memories, where I was headed with this project, but I suppose she trusted me implicitly. I did assure her, because she was worried that some of the things she told me were controversial, that I would keep the tapes and transcripts of our conversations under lock and key for twenty-five years. I think she had wanted one of her grandkids eventually to make a formal record, and she told me, some years after we finished, that, since passing on the stories, which she did in incredible detail, she had begun forgetting them. She knew I had them, so didn’t need, any longer, to retain them herself.

KB: Writing is a lonely pursuit and writers need space and time to write. What was the experience like for you?PV: My temperament craves solitary time to fiddle around with my ideas and live in my head. That’s probably a necessary quality in a writer of books. It is hard to clear that space out of the business of life, which always makes contrary demands, but I have managed, at least for stretches of time, courtesy of grants, awards, and now a book advance, that have let me take periodic breaks from jobs such as teaching and freelance journalism. Childcare is now another must, and my parents have come on board for that, looking after our kids during the academic year.

KB: What kind of reactions have you had from your readers to the book?

PV: I get a couple of letters a week from readers who have been moved by my story, which is enormously gratifying to me, both that they have loved it and that they made the effort to let me know! Some are Westerners with no personal or cultural connection to the world of the story, and many have told me that they found themselves in the uncomfortable position of sympathizing and even identifying with characters whose lives and worldviews could not be more different from their own. I find that very flattering: I think it is in that kind of discomfort that real insight arises and I would like to believe that my story challenges and transcends a number of received ideas, about child brides, about widows, about India’s narrative in the early 20^th century.

Many Indians have also written to me, some to say that the story brought back stories and sense experiences from their pasts. Occasionally, I have gotten a letter to inform me that I got something wrong, and it becomes clear that the “mistake” arises from regional or even familial distinctions. One of my uncles by marriage, for example, while very complimentary about the book as a whole, told me that I that widows cannot go to the cremation grounds as my character Sivakami does. When I asked my grandma about this, she said, “Oh, no, that’s true in his district, but not in ours….” all of 300 miles away!

Someone else criticized my choice of names, saying I should have done my research better: Brahmins of that era, this person said, would never have a name such as “Thangam.” Well, that was actually my great-grandmother’s name, one of the few I transferred directly into the book! I was expecting such criticisms, because I think Indians often do not appreciate how profoundly diverse our country is, how imperfect our knowledge, and how often what we believe to be a cultural regulation is confounded by individual idiosyncrasy. That particularity was, in fact, one of my motivations for writing the book.

KB: Who are some of the writers that have inspired you?

PV: The contemporary author of greatest importance to me is Salman Rushdie. He has been an enormous influence on me as a writer, though no one would guess that from my prose. Midnight’s Children breaks my heart over and over. On a technical level, the one element of Rushdie’s (Ann Marie MacDonald also does this in Fall on Your Knees; so does Faulkner, in a different way) that I admire is the way he creates an image, rotates it, inverts it, and puns on it, until it becomes equally a visual and a verbal metaphor, infused with humor and pathos.  I think it’s a wonderful way to sew a narrative together and have tried it on in The Toss of a Lemon.

KB: What are you working on next?

PV: I’m working on a second novel, under contract with Random House Canada. It’s called Losing Farther, Losing Faster, and takes place in contemporary western Canada. The story centers on an Indian man named Seth, a devotee of a very popular Indian guru. He became a devotee in the course of comforting a friend through the death of the friend’s wife and son in the Air India bombing of 1985. The story actually hinges, though, on a highly ambiguous sexual misdeed committed by Seth’s guru. Seth must come to terms with his faith in light of that revelation. And there are a few other mysteries, which will be revealed in time…

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Badmash, Ishaara, Dil Se, KYA, Zamana, Dhamaka, Tamasha. No, these are not names of new Bollywood movies. These are the names of  Hindi Film Dance (HFD) or Bollywood dance groups from various US universities, and this list does not include the names of  ras gharba or bhangra teams that exist in many of these universities.  

In this article we are focused narrowly on HFD or fusion dance groups in US universities. Over the past few years there has been a sudden explosion of these HFD teams, and almost every Ivy League, well-known state or private school has a Bollywood dance team. And new teams are born every year. as old ones are revamped and get a total makeover with a new name like the one from University of California Irvine did last year.

The newest team to hit the HFD circuit is Tamasha that was born last year at Tufts University, and the oldest team is Penn University’s Dhamaka. Interestingly, Penn’s Dhamaka is one of the few all-male dance teams, and Tufts Tamasha is an all-girls dance team. These two teams are the exception since most of the dance teams tend to have both male and female dancers. It is not uncommon for many of these teams to have non-desi members.Before we go any further let us get the labeling and definitions straightened out.

Some colleges use the term HFD, while others use the term fusion, and rarely do any of the teams’ use the term Bollywood to describe their dance group. On drilling down further I uncovered that West Coast schools prefer to use the term HFD, while East Coast teams largely prefer to use the term fusion. What is the difference you ask? There is plenty depending on which team you talk to and where they are located geographically.  The labeling determines what category you are slotted in a dance competition. The labeling also determines the content of your show. Broadly HFD teams tend to have a 7-8 minute routine with a plot and a theme, and are often described as a mini Bollywood or Broadway show. Even though the final routine is just 8 minutes long, the amount of effort, energy, thought and analysis that is put into the production is enormous and I suspect beats the efforts put in by the original Bollywood choreographers themselves.

“Ten years ago the term Bollywood was not used,” points out Nickesh Vis of Berkeley’s Ishaara, who prefers to use the term HFD. Ishaara was ranked as the top HFD team for 2009, and is recognized by other dance groups as a team to reckon with. HFD’s tend to “have a storyline and there is a plot. It is Bollywood compressed in 8 minutes,” points out Vinitha Rangarajan of KYA, UC San Diego’s HFD team. “You build a storyline and select songs that embody those feelings. The tempo of the songs should fit the theme and get the audience excited,” adds Nickesh.

Both Vinitha and Nickesh grew up in the bay area and danced together in various events as teenagers, which is where both of them got their taste and love for Bollywood movies. While Nickesh is a big fan of Hrithik Roshan, Vinitha is a fan of Madhuri Dixit.

Besides the story line and the songs what distinguishes a HFD team is the elaborate use of props, backgrounds and costumes. HFD teams typically have 4-5 costume changes for their 8 minute routine, and they barely get 15 seconds to change says Vinitha. “California teams have pretty high levels of showmanship where costumes, props and choreography are big,” she adds.  “We basically look like shining disco balls. We need to make sure our team and clothes stand out when you have 1200 people in the audience” adds Akash Shah of Zamana from UC Irvine.  “Every year new team members will look at the costumes and say we are not wearing this. And when they see they have to wear make-up their response tends to be ‘You are kidding me, right?’” Akash points out with a laugh. But eventually the new team members come around to donning those shiny, glittery costumes and wearing make-up when they realize what is in stock for the team, and how committed each one of them is to putting their best foot forward.  

Other HFD teams on the west coast include Stanford’s Dil Se, UC Davis’s Toofan and Zindagi (Yes, UC Davis has 2 teams), UCLA’s Naasha, UC Santa Barbara’s Aashiqi among others.”Stylistically there is a difference between East and West coast dance teams. And yes, there are two different dance styles” agrees Ashwin Pushpala, President of Penn Dhamaka, the all-male dance group. Ashwin pegs Dhamaka as a fusion team. “HFD blew up in the west coast,” adds Ashwin.  Since Dhamaka slots itself as a fusion team they use a mix of hip-hop, salsa, bhartanatyam, bhangra, and ras gharba in their routine. “Our focus is on different dance forms,” says Ashwin. One of their lead dancers is Dean Johnson, “who is an amazing salsa dancer and we learnt salsa from him and incorporated it in our dance,” he adds. Just like Penn Dhamaka, Tuft’s Tamasha slots itself as a fusion group. “We mix bhangra, bhartanatyam, bollywood and hip hop to create our own fusion,” says Tina Jumani of Tufts University.

Penn’s Dhamaka, Tufts’ Tamasha and Brown’s Brown Badmash are all East Coast based University dance teams, who seem to prefer the term fusion to HFD.

Regardless of what label these dance teams use to describe themselves they all pretty much follow a similar routine to forming their teams and figuring out their dance routines. When the new school year begins it means audition time. Dance teams across the country hold audition and choose the new members for their dance team. Once their team is formed they get busy working on their dance routines by selecting songs, learning new steps, building props and making costumes. On an average most members spend anywhere between 10-15 hours each week during a semester. Predictably the number of hours increases on the eve of a competition.

“I watch 1-2 movies in a month and watch YouTube clips for dance sequences,” says Chad Alexander Sitgraves of Stanford’s Dil Se. YouTube seems to be the favorite teaching tool for many of the dancers.”Sean is a very good dancer and we taught him some moves. But, he also spent time watching lot of YouTube videos,” says Rahul of Brown Badmash. “YouTube is a fantastic source that tells us what kinds of moves will work for us,” he adds.While there are many dance competitions held every year there are four that stand out.

The aim of many dance groups is to be invited to participate in the annual Best of Best Competition for South Asian Dance. This is strictly by invitation only competition. The schools with top rankings are invited to participate in the Best of Best competition. Then there are the 3 must-attend competitions: The Philly Fest by Penn State, Bollywood Berkeley by Cal Berkeley and Jhoomthi Shaam by UCLA. “Each team sends an audition tape, and the organizers place you in a category. Not every team makes it to the competition. More teams get rejected than they get selected,” describes Nickesh of Berkeley’s Ishaara.

Dance teams spend anywhere from $15-20k each year to organize and participate in various competitions. How do they raise money? Some like Penn State get funded from their school, while others like UC Irvine raise money through corporate sponsors or organizing charitable shows.

An upshot of organizing and raising finances for their dance team’s means students get to apply what they learn in school. For instance, many point out they have honed their skills at managing finances for their organization.

“I learnt how to manage a team and finances,” says Akash of UC Irvine, who graduated this year. Because of the intense involvement in their dance groups it is unsurprising when you hear that some of the members are seriously thinking of pursuing a career in the entertainment industry like Akash is. And some teams like Berkeley’s Ishaara are working towards appearing on national dance competition on TV. Berkeley’s HFD is all set to appear on “America’s Got Talent.”  (Update: Ishaara made it to the semi-finals in America’s Got Talent.) 

Others members like Rahul Banerjee and Ashwin Pushpala are focused on their professional career. Rahul will be joining Brown Medical School, while Ashwin is interning at a financial institute this summer before heading back to school to finish his studies. But, both of them plan to be involved with their dance groups until they graduate from school. Rahul’s goal is to see if Brown Badmash can qualify for a couple of the dance competition later this year.Interestingly, many team members feel a strong sense of belonging and pointed out that most of their friends are from the dance team. “It gives me a sense of belonging and 90 percent of my friends are from Badmash. Some people have called us a fraternity minus the alcohol and partying,” says Rahul.

“Lot of my friends think I am a quasi desi,” says Chad of Stanford’s Dil Se. “They call me Chad Singh, Chadwinder,” he adds with a laugh. “The team became my closest circle of friends. Dance sort of fuses my extracurricular and social activity,” explains Vinitha Rangarajan. In the meantime, school has just reopened, and that means a fresh round of auditions to recruits freshers and new dancers to various teams. This year I suspect will turn out to be an interesting and challenging one given that Bollywood has gone mainstream on US TV, and this means more opportunities for the various school teams.

Jai Ho!

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On July 25th 2009,  the 43rd Annual Rath Yatra was held in San Francisco’s  Golden Gate Park. Over 40 years ago San Francisco became the first American city to hold this  annual Rath Yatra by ISKON.I wrote an article about the Rath Yatra for Open, where I tried to capture the transformation of the phrase “Rath Yatra” (a procession of chariots) and what the term has come to signify for young Indians. Today, the term Rath Yatra  is automatically associated with politics. Today, the term ‘Rath Yatra” brings to mind LK Advani, BJP and the Hindutva movement.This in in stark contrast to the Rath Yatra I saw in San Francisco, which had no political underpinnings. As one wise onlooker during the Rath Yatra put it: “This one was found on loving and not hating. This one was found on giving and not taking. Maybe the India that we knew has found refuge in San Francisco?” Perhaps, it has.

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All things Bollywood-related or should I say Indian (remember the Burger King boo-boo in Spain?) has caught on in the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal). Portugal should not come as a surprise when you consider the long and consistent presence of Portuguese in India starting with Vasco Da Gama in the 15th century.  Until 1962 Goa was still under the rule of Portugal and there is a small, thriving group of desis that live in Portugal. But, Spain? Now, that is interesting. Chess champion Anand Vishwanathan lives in Spain, but I don’t think he had anything to do with importing Bollywood culture into Spain. I guess it is a combination of things: desis in Europe may have acted as cultural pollinators combined with the desire of the Spanish government to attract Bollywood filmmakers to come and shoot in their country. Switzerland is the defacto choice for many Bombay filmmakers, and other European countries are trying to woo the filmmakers to come to their country.

Besides Bollywood, bhangra appears to be quite the favorite dance form in Spain. Earlier this month when I spoke to Sarina Jain of Masala Bhangra about Bollywood and bhangra inspired exercise in the US, she mentioned about her trip to Spain and the popularity of Bollywood and bhangra there.I wonder which Bollywod filmmaker is plotting to make a film in Spain? It will be interesting to see a fusion of kathak and flamenco. Both dance forms have lots of common elements: the stamping of the feet, the hand gestures and the twirling.

(Thanks to Debashish Paul of Bangalore for sending me the link to the Jai Ho performance in Spain.)

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Ishaara, University of California’s Hindi Film Dance aka Bollywood dance group appeared on NBC’s primetime show American’s Got Talent. They clearly wowed the audience and are moving up the ladder and participate in the next round in Las Vegas.

Currently, Ishaara is ranked as the number one dance group in the Bollywood or Hindi Film Dance category at the University level. Interestingly, I just did a longish story about the growth of Hindi Film Dance group in US universities, which has seen a sudden explosion in the last 5 years and is emerging as a new dance category. Will share the link once the article is published.

Last year I saw Ishaara perform live at Cal Berkeley and these guys outstanding. It is amazing how much energy, time, money and above all analysis goes into the creation of each show. I sometimes think even the original Hindi or Bollywood production folks don’t put in so much time and effort.

Wishing Ishaara the very best.

Disclosure: Our nephew is a member of Ishaara.

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There is a new trend in the US: Bollywood inspired exercise routines. While some may consider this new and attribute it to  last year’s Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millioniare … the truth is that this trend has been around for a few years. I first heard about it almost 10 years ago when Sarina Jain introduced her Masla Bhangra exercise routine in US gyms.

For over 10 years now Sarina has been tirelessly promoting this new fusion form of exercise, where she added her own desi masala steps to spice up the old aerobics routine.In the past few years there has been a rapid growth of Bollywood inspired exercise routines that were often available as Bollywood dance classes in the local community centers around the country.  Many of these classes were not certified by any fitness organizations in the US, but that did not stop the growth of this new exercise trend.

The new dance exercise became the new “in” thing in many desi communities around the country. Then with last year’s success of “Slumdog Millionaire,” the new exercise trend got a shot in the arm.While I have watched the growth of this phenomena from the sidelines, I had not written about the popularity of this desi exercise dance form. But, when I did I discovered a whole new world of why, what, when and where this new Naachercise, Bollycercise all began and that in turn became the subject of an article: Masala Grove in Open magazine. I had to distill all the research and squeeze into a 1,000 word article.  You  will get a pretty good  idea of why Bollywood inspired exercise is the “new in” thing in the USA and has now crossed the borders (or should I say the oceans) into Europe and Asia?

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Burger King Corporation (BKC) values and respects all of its guests as well as the communities we serve. This in-store advertisement was running to support a limited-time only local promotion for three restaurants in Spain and was not intended to offend anyone. Out of respect for the Hindu community, the in-store advertisement has been removed from the restaurants.

To my question if their advertising agency Cripsin, Porter and Bogusky was involved in the campaign in Spain, I got this reply:

It was produced by a locally-based Spain agency and not by BKC’s U.S. advertising agency of record, Crispin Porter and Bogusky.

Update: I asked Burger King’s PR folks if they had responded to the Hindu Community leader’s call for an apology.

Burger King’s response: “We have not received a formal letter from the Hindu community leaders.”

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Probably the company was looking to create  a shock value points a marketing professor in the news clip. I guess the ad campaign did provide shock value not only to the customers, but to Burger King itself. It does not sound like the creators of the ad-campaign remotely thought this marketing campaign would backfire on them. This is not the first time Burger King has made a cultural boo-boo in its ad campaign points out AdAge. (more…)

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McNamara was President of Ford Motor Company, served as Defense Secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and was head of the World Bank. But, what he is best remembered is for his role as Secretary of Defense in the 1960s. (PBS Newshour on McNamara.)

There was nothing in McNamara’s early career to indicate that he would become the Secretary of Defense. McNamara belonged to what was described as “best and brightest” group of people from the 1960s, who worked for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. When Kennedy was elected as the President he appointed McNamara as his Defense Secretary and it is for that role he is best remembered. He was dubbed as the “Architect of the Vietnam War.” (more…)

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35-year old Key, a lawyer, set sail from Baltimore in 1814 and was on his way to release one of his good friends from the British, when he wrote the words for this famous American patriotic song. While aboard the ship Keys, often described as an amateur poet, wrote what was originally titled as “Defense of Fort McHenry,” which later came to be known as The Star Spangled Banner. This patriotic song was officially adopted by the US navy in the later 19th century and it was only in 1931 that it became the US national anthem under President Hoover.

Key is a distant relative of Scott Fitzgerald, the famous 20^thc American author, whose work highlighted the Jazz Age and Gilded Age of America in the 1920s and 1930s.

The India Connection: In the late 18th century once the British established their foothold (from a toehold) in India they were focused on expanding of trade between India and other countries. It was the lucrative trading opportunities that brought the British to the shores of India. Initially, it was spices and later on went to include cotton, jute, and opium among other commodities. Cotton, opium and jute were huge revenue generators, and by one account opium was one of the most important revenue generators for the British. Hong Kong was founded by the British in order to carry on their opium trade to China. An Imperial Chinese decree forbade any foreigners from trading directly with China, but they could carry on through the cohong merchants. I digressed, so back to the British in India. In order to carry on the trade it was essential to have a good shipping infrastructure, including dry-docks and ship-building capabilities.

During the British rule the Parsi and Baghdadi Jewish communities were granted special privileges and benefits to carry on trade with the Far East and China. And members of these two communities travelled extensively to Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong and China (Shanghai, in particular).

Members of the tightly knit and educated Parsi community played a key role during the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries. The Wadia family originally from Surat, Gujarat played a significant role in the building of Bombay (Mazagaon) dry dock and the ship building industry in India and later on played a key role in the textile industry (Bombay Dyeing Textiles).  Bombay Dyeing is owned by Ness Wadia, grandson of MA Jinnah.

In the late 18th century the Wadias were involved in repairing and fixing ships for the British during their wars with the Dutch and the French and the family went on to build  Bombay’s  first dry-dock, which was the first in Asia in 19th century.

In the early 19th century the family was commissioned to build HMS Minden, a 74 gunship, which was later on deployed to the Baltic to fight against the Russians. But in 1814 the ship was in the USA, which is when Frances Scott Key sailed on it and penned those famous lyrics.

It must be pointed out that there is some dispute as to whether Key sailed the HMS Minden or not.  But, the fact remains that India and US had maritime trade connections during the 18th and 19th century.  Another little factoid: Yale, a well-known Ivy League university, is named after Elihu Yale, who was the British governor of Madras in the 19th century. Yale gave a sizeable donation to the school and is not the founder of Yale University.

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Whether they admit it or not, Indian film makers were heavily influenced by Jackson. Whether it was the dance steps, the music, fashion or the way the sets were created to reflect that look and feel of  Jackson’s music videos. It was in the use of light, the camera angle. Basically, the whole nine yards.People that were clearly influenced by Michael Jackson’s music, fashion and dancing style were: Govinda, Hrithik Roshan, Bappi Lahri, Mithun Chakraborthy (the original Disco Dancer) and Chiranjeevi. 

I think in in recent time if there was one person in Bollywood  that  re-introduced Michael Jackson’s style of dancing to  young movie goers it was Hrithik Roshan. Take a look at this Bollywood song with Hrithik Roshan and don’t tell me that you are not reminded of Michael Jackson?Still not satisfied? Then take a look at this video clip of Hrithik dancing and let me know if you see any Michael Jackson inspired moves here?

Perhaps the person who identified closely with Jackson’s style of dancing and fashion was the Bollywood actor Govinda, who popularized break dancing through his movies. In the early part of his career you can clearly see Jackson’s stamp on Govinda in the various song and dance sequences. The Govinda that  you saw in the late 1990s was a very different one when compared to his earlier avatar. Here is a video clip of Govinda and Neelam in Street Dancer.

Before Hrithik and Govinda there was Mithun Chakraborthy, also known as Mithun da, who popularized Jackson’s style of dancing.  In this video clip of Disco Dancer, you will clearly see how Jackson influenced the dance steps.  Besides Bollywood there were Telugu films that were heavily influenced by this cultural and pop icon.

A hallmark of  Telugu movies are their lavish song and dance sequences. An important ingredient for the success of Telugu films was the song and dance routine.  It was Chiranjeevi, a young successful star in the 1980s who popularized Michael Jackson’s style of dancing through his films.  Here is the Indian Thriller version. 

Finally, as if did not have enough exhibits to support Michael Jackson’s influence on India and the expat population that lives around the world…here is a final piece of evidence: Remember Madhu Singh and Suleimain Mirza  from Britain’s Got Talent? Don’t remember? Watch this video clip, which is a great piece that captures everything that I have been trying to paint with words. Enjoy. 

I wonder if Michael Jackson had any idea at all about the extent of his influence in India and the Indian film industry, especially Bollywood. Perhaps, he did have some inkling. But, we will never know. 

Rest in peace Michael Jackson.

PS: Thanks to Kittu Kolluri for reminding me that Prabhu Deva and Michael Jackson’s influence on this dancer/actor. 

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The memorial service and burial of Khan sahib will be held at Mt. Tamalpais Cemetary (2500 5th Ave, San Rafael, CA 94901), Sunday, June 21st at noon. This will be followed by a gathering at the Ali Akbar College of Music.

Instead of flowers, the family asks that if you would like to help, please send send your donation to AACM for the Ali Akbar Khan Library.Some media reports have incorrectly reported that Khan sahib passed away at his Ali Akbar College of Music in San Francisco. This is incorrect.

A wonderful and gentle teacher, Khan sahib was one of the early ambassadors of Indian classical music to the western world. A frequent visitor to the US since the 1950s, Khan saheb settled down here in the 1960s and established a school for teaching Indian classical music. Located in San Rafael in Marin County, north of San Francisco, Khan sahib’s school was a magnet for musicians from all over the world.

Every evening just before 6 pm Khan sahib (video clip) would arrive at the school, and climb up the stairs to the first floor where he held his music classes. The class consisted of a mix of students with varying backgrounds and ethnicity, but they all had one thing in common: their love for music. During the break and after the class was over it was very common to find students gathered around his white upholstered chair and he would patiently listen and answer all their questions. He was a great listener with a wonderful sense of humor and loved to laugh.

Khan sahib leaves behind a rich legacy of his music and teachings. For the last several years Mary Khan, his wife, has been painstakingly digitizing all his recordings to be made available to the public.

In 2002 I had an opportunity of meeting and spending time with Khan sahib both at his school and his home, where he patiently answered all my questions and clarified some others.  At the initial meeting he realized that I had lot of unanswered questions, and extended an invitation to come and visit him in his home the following week He spent an afternoon answering question and sharing anecdotes. (This was before the YouTube, flip camera and smart phone.)  Later that year I attended his 80th birthday celebration, where well-known musicians (both Indian classical and western) came to pay their respect to him. The event was held at a local auditorium attended by hundreds of his followers and admirers.

May his soul rest in peace. Thank you Khan sahib for sharing your wonderful music and gift with so many people.

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During my downtime I got to spend time with friends and family, travel, read and watch some wonderful movies that were on my “to-watch” list.

Thanks all for your tweets, emails and phone calls.

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Arjun Janah left this poem about Shashi Tharoor as a comment on one of my blog posts. I am taking the liberty of publishing it. Arjun is based in New York, and is a graduate of St. Stephen’s just like Mr.Tharoor, who is running for elections from his home town of Trivandrum, Kerala.

For the past few years Arjun has been involved in helping his father Sunil Janah, a well-known photographer.

Yon Shashi Tharoor attended my college,
A year or so senior to me.
He wrote for the paper, that was called Kooler Talk,
But was shortened to read just “KT”.

He rose, or descended, to be Kofi Annan’s
Right hand man, and had even a shot
To be UN sec gen, but the Bushies, you see,
Decided they wanted him not.

Now he’s off to Trivandrum, where he is trying
To win a true Lok Sabha seat,
With the CPI, BJP, he will be vying,
But he’s got it all figured out neat.

For Tharoor’s a smart cookie, he’s good with a pen,
And he knows what to do, and what not.
And now, he’s gone high-tech, and all of his men
Are computerate, which I am not.

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We bring you a series of digital vignettes that will hopefully give us a peek into who are these young voters, and what issues do they support?  Most of them profiled here are white collar professionals with degrees in engineering or marketing, live in large cities and work for an IT company. It goes without  saying that all of them are tech savvy, who either blog or Twitter.

Nikhil Narayanan is a marketing consultant, who works in Bangalore and is a registered voter in his hometown of Trivandrum , Kerala. In early April Nikhil traveled to Trivandrum to vote in a 3-cornered election between the Congress, Left and BJP. Kerala is traditionally considered as a stronghold for the Left party. (more…)

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Bollywood actor Feroz Khan (70) passed away earlier today according to The Hindustan Times. He was suffering from cancer. He is survived by his son Bollywood actor Fardeen and daughter Laila.

Khan was the oldest of the original “Khan brothers.” His younger brother are Sanjay (his daughter Suzanne is married to Bollywood Hrithik Roshan), Akbar and  Sameer Khan. 

Born and brought up in Bangalore Feroz was born to a Pathan father and an Iranian mother and maintained close ties with the city, which is where he had a sprawling farmhouse. Apparently once he was discharged from the hospital, he wanted to come to his farm house to be close to his horses.

Khan made his debut in 1960 in the Hindi film “Didi,” and continued to act in a series of movies. It was in 1975 with the release of “Dharmatma” that Khan reached new heights in his career. Dharmatma was perhaps the first movie that was shot in Afghanistan. (Subsequently a couple of other Bollywood films were shot in Afghanistan). Five years later Khan’s film Qurbani starring himself and Zeenat Aman became a box-office hit and the song “Laila, Main, Laila,” became an instant hit.

Khan went on to produce and direct more films and also starred in a couple of them including Welcome in 2007. 

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Who knew that when Munthadar al-Zaidi ,the Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the visiting American President he would be unleashing a new fad around the world.  Last year al-Zaidi  famously threw  his shoes at President George W. Bush, who deftly ignored the whizzing footwear not once, but twice. al-Zaidi was instantly wrestled to the ground and later sentenced to a prison sentence. But, al-Zaidi seems to have uncorked some sort of universal pent-up  anger that folks have towards their political leaders. On the heels of the al-Zaidi incident people started sending shoes to the White House in protest of US policy in Iraq. 

While shoe throwing was an isolated incident in Iraq, it appears to have become somewhat of a trend in India where people have embraced this novel method of registering their protest against politicians.  With the general elections underway the number of shoe throwing incidents appear to be on the increase.

(more…)

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RG: Most of us are concerned about the governance and happenings in the country and in our thoughts and private meetings debate about the need and a common urge to bring in change.

The Mumbai terror attack (26/11/2009)and what we in the aftermath of the public coming together proved to be a turning point.  It showed and proved that public movement can do wonders.Encouraged by this, a  group of young professionals conceived and that resulted in the birth ofNocriminals.org. The response to the initiative has been very encouraging.

(more…)

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Fast forward to 2009 and the involvement of entertainers from Bollywood (or the Hindi film industry) based in Mumbai, Tamil and Telugu film industry has registered a significant spike in the election campaign. Telugu actor Chiranjeevi launched a new political party in Andhra Pradesh, while Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt failed to get nominated because of his criminal record in the 1993 Mumbai blast. In Tamil Nadu former actress and Chief Minister Jayalalitha is in the running after being defeated in the previous elections.  But, it is the involvement of Bollywood folks that has captured people’s imagination.

Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan cum blogger offers a glimpse of his thoughts on the  upcoming Indian elections. He writes:

“The elections are upon us. Elections in the largest and most thriving democracy in the world. TV has nothing else to offer but the electoral scenario unfolding upon us. Exit polls and analysis and who will win from where and who said what to whom and why. Even the media questionnaires that come across to us are full of queries on politics. Friends have become foes, foes have become friends. Games and manipulations all parties play to come to power. To win for the next 5 years and remain in governance. To them politics is an aphrodisiac, an elixir, that compels them to perform.”

Bachchan’s wife Jaya Bachchan has been active politically for a few years now.

What could be the driving force that has prompted so many Bollywood actors to step out of their comfort zone and do their bit for this Indian election campaign? Gaurav Shukla of India Election 2009 might have unearthed the answer to that question. He writes:

“Celebrities who used to keep politics at an arms length have surprisingly chosen to rally around the need to vote this time. Industry experts suggest that the Mumbai terror attacks in November last year may be the reason for this change…Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, John Abraham, Kamal Haasan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Anurag Kashyap, Shriya Sharan, Shruti Haasan and Sushmita Sen are among those who have joined the chorus.”

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan helped launch a voter awareness campaign for Association of Democratic reforms with the tagline: “Sachche ko chune, Achche ko chune” — meaning “vote for the honest, vote for good people.”  Besides being the face and voice of the voter awareness campaign, Khan went one step further and helped produce the videos and audio pieces. AamirKhanblog writes:

“The ads have been made by the actor’s production company, Aamir Khan Productions, free of cost. An ‘A’ list Bollywood ensemble has put together this campaign. The creative head is Prasoon Joshi of McCann Erickson, Rakyesh Mehra is the director, Avinash Gowarikar the still photographer, and Shashi Sinha of Lodestar Media the media planner for the campaign. Everybody is working for the campaign gratis.

The ad campaign is being aired in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Assamese and Oriya so that it can reach out to the masses.”

Aamir Khan, who is also a blogger reminds Indian voters to make an informed choice when they cast their post. He wrote in his  blog post:

To all Indians, remember to vote, and make an informed choice. Meaning, check out all the candidates from your area before you decide who to vote for.

Khan is vacationing in Montana, but according to media reports will fly back to Mumbai and cast his vote on April 30th, the day the commercial and entertainment capital of India goes to the polls.

Besides Khan, a whole slew of Bollywood actors and filmmakers have volunteered their time for various election mobilization and awarness programs. Perhaps, the most significant one is the involvement of the entertainment industry in the non-profit organization called Jaagore (that translates to “Wake up”). The NGO has created powerful short video clips like this one where Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor points out that average age an Indian is 23 years old, while the average age of a a cabibet minister in the Federal Governmnet is 62 years old.

Or, this video clip by Bollywood film director Rakeysh Omprakash, where he points out that in the state of Rajasthan a politican won the elections by one vote.

With this kind of star power and backing analysts and political pundits are predicting that that there could be a spike in voter turnout in this year’s elections.(This was cross-posted on Global Voices.)

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There are 714 million people that are eligible to vote. About 1,368,430 electronic voting machines have been deployed across the country. This is the first time where quite a few states have been redistricted to allow more urban representation. Karnataka, especially Bangalore,  is a case in point, where because of the redistricting there is an increase in the number of seats from the urban areas, when compared to the rural ones. (more…)

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Post Mira Nair’s The Namesake Kal Penn has  been doing some pretty interesting things including  a stint teaching at a univeristy and working for Obama’s campaign during last year’s elections.  More interestingly, he has been doing graduate work in International Studies at Stanford University. So, in a sense his appointment to the White House should not come as a surprise.

Here is my interview with Kal Penn and Mira Nair at the premier of Mira Nair’s The Namesake, where he talks about growing up in New Jersey and  his name Kal Penn. His name is Kalpen Suresh Modi. I vividly recollect that Kal Penn was dressed in a off-white kurta pyjama and spoke in a very quiet tone. And a few weeks later I saw him at a PR event in a mid-town Manhattan hotel, where he was more like his character from Harold and Kumar, which was open, outgoing and fun. (more…)

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But, it is  superstar Rajnikanth or “Rajni,” who has provided tantalizing glimpses of his political ambitions, who can change the political landscape in Tamil Nadu.

Rumor has it that if Rajni were to join the political arena he would be a big game changer. But, will Rajni make his political debut is the $64 million question. In the meantime his Telugu counterpart, Chiranjeevi made his political debut in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh.It was the the Telugu movie star NTR took a leaf out of the Tamil film makers turned politicians and ran for state elections in the early 1980s by forming a new political party; Telugu Desam (Aside: Before Hyderabad became a base for Telugu cinema in the mid 1980s, it was Madras or Chennai, where Telugu cinemas were made. When NTR became the CM of Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu film industry slowly moved its base out of Madras/Chennai.) To the surprise of many political pundits NTR won the elections and remained as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for multiple terms before being ousted by his tech-savvy son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu. Dominating the elections in Andhra Pradesh this time around is another megastar: Chiranjeevi, who started a new party called Praja Rajyam (roughly translates into People’s Rule).

This is what The Economist wrote about Chiranjeevi and his charismatic and mesmerizing influence over a crowd of 400,000 people. (I don’t think even Obama can match this kind of devotion). 

WHEN Chiranjeevi lifts his arms, a human ocean, stretching into the distant gloom, roars. Beneath the rickety stage that bears the 53-year-old film-star, idol of Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu-language film industry, or “Tollywood”, the crowd boils and threatens to burst. Having sweltered for hours waiting for this actor-prophet, the men and boys of Rajahmundry, a concrete city in southern Andhra Pradesh (AP), want entertainment. Feverishly, they shriek his nickname: “Megastar!”  

There is a lot riding on these actors to deliver. The question is will their star power convert into votes? Will Chiranjeevi be able to pull off a political coup and head the government in Andhra Pradesh?

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The second reason the article caught my eye was their use of the term Bollywood. I am a little disappointed that the paper chose to use the title Bollywood to talk about the involvement of Indian films stars from Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi film industry. They mentioned Nandita Morarji and Vijayshanit and did correctly identify them as belonging to the South Indian film industry, but then why have the title Bollywood in the article? Bollywood is a term that is generally applied to the commercial Hindi cinema produced in Mumbai. Bollywood does not automatically mean all Indian cinema. I am not being picky, but I think it is important that we don’t use the term Bollywood and the Indian film industry interchangably.  

 Once you get past the definition of the term Bollywood, the article provides a succinct summary of various film actors that are either running or contesting for the elections from a Bombay/Delhi perspective. Interestingly, the article does not talk about Sanjay Dutt, who is trying to contest from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh as a Samajwadi Party candidate. But, Dutt has run into problems and needs to get clearance from the Supreme Court in order to run for elections. Dutt, who is on bail  in connection with the 1993 blast,will know on March 30th when the Supreme Court pronounces its verdict. In the meantime, the Congress Party has announced that it does not plan to field any candidate from Lucknow if Dutt runs for elections.More than Bollywood, it is the film stars in the South, who have been deeply involved in the politics of their states. To be continued….

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In India it is not so much the the political parties, but tech-savvy (mostly young)  people that are harnessing the Internet to appeal to young Indians to vote. There are non-partisan organizations like  VoteIndia and  Jaagore, who are using  tools like YouTube, and Twitter to reach out to 700 million people that will go to polls from mid-April through mid-May.

What is also interesting is that young Bollywood filmmakers and actors are pitching in to do their bit to get people to vote.  In this video clip Abhishek Bachchan urges the young voters to go out and vote and points out only 16 percent actually vote.

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Delhi 6 is an interesting movie that unfolds in a slow and unhurried pace and is set against a complex background and backdrop. The movie unfolds almost like a play. A lot of time is spent in weaving that backdrop and background and I suspect that might not appeal to the audience especially for those who might be looking for a fast paced movie. The movie captures the fears, aspirations and needs of normal, everyday Indians as Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra described in his interview that I did for NDTV.com. (more…)

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In this exclusive interview Danny talks about the making of Slumdog Millionaire in Mumbai, whether this is an Indian or a British film or a hybrid film and  about the future of the young kids that acted in the film. I also asked Danny if he has any plans to make a Bollywood film. Danny appears to be clearly smitten by Mumbai and all the while when he was shooting for Slumdog he had this constant thought that Mumbai would be a great city to shoot a thriller.

Slumdog Millionaire has won 10 Oscar nominations and has won a string of prestigious awards including 4 Golden Globes.

Tune in to find out what Danny has to say about Slumdog Millionaire, Loveleen Tandan, Tessa Ross,  Mumbai, AR Rahman, Aamir Khan and Bollywood.

And as always thank you so much for your support, encouragement and feedback.

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Should you see Slumdog Millionaire or not? Well, that is up to you. All I can say is that this is a good movie  just like Govind Nihalani’s Ardh Satya or Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya. (more…)

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Hollywood movie makers wants a share of the Indian film industry. Warner Bros appears to have gone all out in marketing their first Bollywood commercial film: Chandni Chowk to China or CC2C as the film is called in India. The film opens in the USA today and stars Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Roger Yuan and Gordon Liu and is directed by Nikhil Advani.

There are a lot of firsts in Chandni Chowk to China: first film backed and distributed by Warner Bros, first Bollywood film shot in China, first film starring well-known Chinese actors and first kung-fu inspired Bollywood film. I believe this is also the first time that a Bollywood film is releasing across 50 cities in the USA. Here is another first: the number of reviews in American media for a Bollywood film. I have never come across so many reviews for a Bollywood film like I did for Chandni Chowk to China. A by-product of all this coverage means that Akshay Kumar dubbed as India’s Jackie Chan  has got his fair bit of coverage including a profile in the venerable The New York Times. The paper describes Akshay as India’s superstar Everyman. (more…)

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British director Danny Boyle won the award for directing this independent film, film composer AR Rahman won the award for best musical score and Simon Beoufy won for the best screenplay based on Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A. (more…)

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AR Rahman won the People’s Critics Award for best music composer for director Danny Boyle’s  Slumdog Millionaire in early January 2009. It is unsurprising that AR Rahman won the award giving the dynamic composition of the musical track for the film, which plays a pivot role in the film almost like it does in Bollywood films. In particular, O Saya sung by AR Rahman and MIA has won rave reviews from critics, moviegoers and music lovers. O Saya is a dynamic musical collage and the track brilliantly captured the essence of India at different levels.

Slumdog Millionaire, an independent film that come from the left field has become an instant hit and has turned out to be a hot favorite. The film is expected to win a clutch of awards at the Golden Globe Award on January 11, 2009.  By the way Shah Rukh Khan is presenting at the ceremony this year. The Golden Globe Award is generally regarded as the dress rehearsal for the big one: The Oscars. While competition is stiff this year there is a strong and persistent buzz that Slumdog Millionaire has a strong chance of walking away with a couple of  awards both at the Golden Globe and the Oscars.  (more…)

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The irony of the meaning of Satyam has been highlighted by many media reports. Satyam is derived from the Sanskrit word for truth and honesty.  The company turned 21 years old recently.

Satyam  is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Euronext. Earlier today NYSE  stopped trading Satyam’s stocks. There are reports that Satyam maybe removed from the Indian stock exchange. (more…)

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Thanks for all your support and feedback.

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Mumbai (Bombay) the financial and financial attack of India came under a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that started in South Mumbai or “town” as denizens of the city call their downtown. CNN has labeled these attacks as de-centralized, well coordinated and synchronized. This was a low-level terrorist attack that used grenades and handguns. As CNN reports this is not a suicide attack, but one that was focused on taking hostages.

The attacks started late on the evening of November 26^th 2008 and has continued on for nearly 2 days now. Mumbai is under siege.  The attacks clearly targeted Mumbai’s well-known landmarks like The Taj Hotel, Oberoi and  Leopold’s Cafe. The attacks appear to have originated in Nariman Point/Colaba area, which is where all these hotels are located and then gone up to the busy intersection where Victoria Train Station or VT as it was previously known, is located.  This is one of the busiest intersections in Mumbai and also home to Mumbai’s Municipal office and the police headquarters. And if you trace the route northwards there appears to be no attack in the Crawford and Muhammad Ali Road area, but if you go further north to Bandra/Juhu/Santa Cruz area there were attacks at the JW Marriott Hotel in Juhu. The hotel  is a popular watering hole for folks from India’s entertainment center esp. Bollywood.

Mumbai is home to about 17 million people and is one of the largest cities in India.

Here is a list of places where you can get updates and help if you are trying to reach people in Mumbai or India. Lots of very good resources in real time.

Get breaking news on Mumbai blasts from TweetGrid and BreakingNewz

Wikipedia page on Mumbai Blasts 2008.

Arzan Wadia  et al. have got a constant stream of updates on Metblogs Mumbai.

DesiPundit is aggregating stories about Mumbai blasts.

  (more…)

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