DesiPundit

Of Dan Brown,Gilbert and Shoddy Writing

Rehab — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:16:00 +0000

The precursor : A lot of people find Dan Brown and Elizabeth Gilbert’s writing to be shoddy. I am guilty of committing the same crime. However, if a contradictory and sometimes obscure thought is ‘out there’, such overwhelming success is welcome.
Salman Rushdie gave this piece of advice to Irshad…

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A day in the life of an I.T. Bachelor, chapter 2: Check up

krishashok — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:48:12 +0000

Here is part 1. As I was transcribing part 2, I realized that the ponderious dadabudality of Ashok from 7 years ago was getting rather tiresome. So I decided to brutally hack long sentences and banish every GRE word to 14 years of exile. Also made it a little more contemporary.
Chapter 2: Check…

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The Hurt Locker: A Review

Sujatha — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:19:00 +0000

The Hurt Locker is the tale of a trio of soldiers that makes up the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), a bomb disposal squad, attached to an army regiment on rotation in Iraq. Of the three, Staff Sgt. William James (played by James Renner, nominated for a Best Actor Oscar this year) functions as…

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The Indian Spy in Kashgar – Part 1/3

JK — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:00:46 +0000

Around the 1860s, when Thomas Montgomerie of the Royal Engineers noticed that Indians traveled freely from Ladakh to Yarkand in Chinese Turkestan (modern Xinjiang), he came up with the idea of sending some of them with concealed surveying equipment. He hired and trained Indians in the art of…

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Danger! More on Indian Muslims and the Possibility of an “International Communalism”

Mircea — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:21:00 +0000

If what mine eyes read in the Wall Street Journal is indicative of things to come, then we’re in trouble. A report that should have been innocuous on the Jaipur Literature Festival by journalist and author Sadanand Dhume on Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s speech turns into something very sinister. I expected the…

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India Pakistan Talks – Outcomes please enough with Intentions

offstumped — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:09:50 +0000

It is with a weary sense of Deja vu that we must greet this umpteenth attempt at getting across the table with Pakistan.
Perhaps even Deja vu quite doesnt describe this weariness in greeting what has become a recurring theme in India’s non-Strategy towards its Pakistan problem.
One is…

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Jhing Chik Jhing – Nominated in 7 Categories @ Zee Gaurav

gargi — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:41:52 +0000

Saturday was a strange sort of a day. i was shooting from dawn, outdoors around Mumbai. By dusk, i was knackered. 15 years earlier, i would have gone to edit – but on Saturday, all i wanted was to get home. My mind had packed up.
SK called – Bharat, Madhavi, Chinmay, Raju, Story,…

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Hornio Couplus from the Kanpur Zoo

Nikhil — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:56:04 +0000

What bothers me is when the Hornio Couplus sneak into a corner. That is a private display of affection(a little too much affection methinks). A zoo is where animals are bred in captivity, humans are bred in hospitals and honeymoon hotels. The Hornio Couplus intend to breed in the zoo.

Tantanoo discovers a new species in the Kanpur zoo: Hornio Couplus

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Tiger love

silverine — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:56:00 +0000

Alarmed by the rapid decline in the Tiger population in our country, the Indian government decides to send a Minister to China, the largest consumer of Tiger meat. According to reports, not a single part of the Tiger is wasted in China. The Indian Minister (IM) and his Aide are given a warm welcome…

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Meet Twitter Comedian – Sagarika Ghose

Patrix — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:17:28 +0000

Famous crazy person, Sagarika ‘Shouty’ Ghose, who screams from inside your teevee every night, also has a twitter machine, which is full of comedic gold.

Here are a few selected classics:

I do not follow Sagarika Ghose so I was not exposed to such comedic gold. I should thank Overrated Outcast for compiling this treasury of classical greatest twitter hits from Sagarika Ghose. My favorite – “foggy delhi. difficult to believe in global warming when the northern hemisphere is freezing!” Sigh! And I’m told she is actually a college graduate. No better reaction than *facepalm*

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Power play

Nikhil — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:24:57 +0000

Power does not give you the right to vent your frustration on someone else. Shefaly has a lot to say on this.

This morning, I heard how an 11 year old child, who has just gone to live in India for a short while, was slapped by his teacher. The child comes from a very different culture. To him, this idea of disciplining is alien. When I heard I felt instantly livid and embarrassed. It seemed the barbarism is alive and kicking, and now we are passing it on to our children. So much for India Shining!

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Two events tomorrow evening at the Kala Ghoda Festival

Chandrahas — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:38:00 +0000

I’ll be making two appearances at the Kala Ghoda Festival this year, both on the same evening.

This pleases me very much, as it saves me the trouble of polishing my boots twice over and having an extra shirt ironed, and I’m one of those people who loves the sense of having saved a lot of time…

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Haat e Bajar e — to the Market (I)

Bong Mom — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:50:00 +0000

The early morning ritual on most days were very similar for middle class Bengali Men in the late 70’s and 80’s. A cup of tea, a quick browse through crackling pages of the Statesman or the limp ones of AnandaBazar and then a stroll to the nearby bajar for the fresh vegetables and fish of the day….

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Thirty Six Hours with an Indian Playback Singer

Brijesh Nair — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:09:00 +0000

I always used to believe – the famous playback singers in movie industry never drink or smoke as it affects their sound. This belief was gone a couple of years back when a very famous playback singer from South India came to Phoenix for a stage show. This artist was here for only thirty six hours…

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The Bewitching Yakshi

Maddy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:40:00 +0000

The middle aged Namboothiri (A class of Brahmins in Kerala) was on his way across the fields that warm & sultry summer evening, going from his mana to the neighboring one, only that the other one was some distance away. He was indeed walking the distance and alone. Dusk had approached and he…

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Open Letter to Rahul Gandhi

offstumped — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:51:32 +0000

Dear Rahul
Thanks for the brave trip to unchartered territory in the badlands of Mumbai.
Thanks also for letting us in on a little secret that you don’t carry enough pocket change like the rest of us Aam Admi.
We are told reliably by the “liberal” media that God has been thanked…

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Calico and its origins

Maddy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:26:00 +0000

Some of you would remember weaving units north of Calicut in the Badagara area and Beypore, others may remember the textile trade mentioned in the 12th century Payyanur Pattu in North Malabar. These days you do find coarse crepe material from some remaining handloom units in Malabar but what is the…

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Kavi – a short film

Solilo — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:17:26 +0000

Kavi is a 19 minute fictional short film (Hindi) nominated in the best live action short film category at 2010 Academy Awards. It is directed by Greg Helvey, a student at the University of Southern California and produced by Guneet Monga and Harish Amin.
The official website of the film [link]…

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Review: Striker

brangan — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:58:49 +0000

BOARD EXAM
A carrom whiz is constantly tested by life in a beautifully textured docudrama that keeps us at an arm’s length.
FEB 7, 2010 – SURYA (SIDDHARTH), THE MINOR-LEAGUE LEADING MAN of Striker – I hesitate to call him “hero,” for he stands resolutely, refreshingly life-sized – is someone…

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Between Reviews: Different Strokes

brangan — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:58:31 +0000

DIFFERENT STROKES
There’s a whiff of exciting experimentation in the current Tamil cinema, never mind that the intents don’t always translate to fully fledged results.
FEB 7, 2010 – WOULD YOU BELIEVE ME IF I SAID January has come and gone and I’ve already seen the best Tamil film of the year?…

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