This is the funniest review I've read in a while. Feeling a bit guilty about giggling though; Isvaran was an acquaintance of mine many years ago. I've never seen her on stage.

I wasn't impressed by the interview at all. Bill Maher sounds increasingly irrelevant and incoherent. Sometimes I wonder whether his writers bother to research anything anymore, because he has so many half-baked views. Why was he fixating on how she sounded? I mean, why didn't he just say something stupid like, "You were born in Sri Lanka, how come you don't sound "Sri Lankan"?" Is that of any importance? He sounded so small-town when he said that, I felt sorry for the man. His time is over (if he ever had a time). And MIA is not exactly articulate herself though I suppose she tried.

Why did she have to have an Indian accent? Is her character not Indian-American?

I enjoyed this book too. My mother recommended it to me and even though I don't know much about Indian classical music, I found it pretty interesting.

I assume these self-appointed defenders of the great Indian culture think that part of that culture is hitting and slapping women just because you don't like what they are doing.
As for that idiot woman from the National Commission on Women, she says, "without men, what are we?"!!! My mom has been on the phone with me ranting about this for two hours, just got off the phone with her.

Fun photos!

onparkstreet, to answer your question, it means that the women have been looking at the same fashion magazines. Pick up any of them and you will see the same looks featured-same hair, same shoes, bags etc. I never buy these magazines, but then I also look fairly awful most of the time.

I don't know about men, but I feel for women, your "look" is decided for you by the stores and the magazines. Variations on the same theme are available year after year. If purple is in and you want to wear green, good luck finding clothes in that color.

Viraasat is a remake of a Tamil film called Thevar Magan. I wonder if you have seen it, Manish? It's worth watching.

she needs to realize she really can’t break into hollywood despite being a catholic…so the accent bit doesnot really help…not even her MUM can do much about it...

Sounds like sour grapes.
I don't know why dre thinks it's odd to say "MUM".
I grew up in India and often heard people say "mum" when referring to their mothers, as in "My mum said..."

Now I hear people saying "my mom", but I didn't hear "mom" twenty years ago.

And give me a break about the accent, what it with people- if you have an Indian accent it's not ok unless it is the "right" kind, and if Americanisms creep into your speech, that's not ok either. I agree with Saa (#23).

The title translates as "Little Malayali". Malayali isn't a person's name, as far as I know. I hope they didn't call the character "Malayali".

I am still giggling over 'Chetan Bhagat "My greatest rival" '.

I know you were joking but the lady is hardly a bridezilla...

I read a couple of British newspapers and there are always one or two agitated pieces on losing the "British way of life" and "British national identity" because of immigrants. Ho hum, let's move on.

I was just told by a non-brown colleague that her dad is as "dark as a Hindu".
Does anyone know if this is some antiquated expression- I'm imagining two colonels sitting down to tea,"I say Johnson, this sun will turn you as dark as a Hindu, what?"

It's my understanding that Jean-Dominique really did "dictate" his book as portrayed in the book. It's not as if the film-makers made up the whole reciting-the-letters thing, did they?

I did wonder why he did not use a Dynavox (in real life) but then I think you should at least be able to move one finger to use a Dynavox. Or you should be able to use a pointer with any muscle that has the ability to work. So if he really did "write" this book in such a tedious manner, that's pretty incredible.
I was moved by the film because of something similar that happened in my family-especially the scene where he used to be wheeled to the balcony. That used to be the highlight of the day, to sit on the balcony and look at the trees.

I never understood why she was on the cover of Newsweek as part of the "New India" feature-she has been in America since the age of 4 or 5, in what way does she stand for "New India"? She's not doing her show out of Bombay or Madras.
Am fed up of people going on about their Indian grandmothers being the source of all knowledge and wisdom.....Anand Jon did it and look how he ended up. My Indian grandaunt (I think of her as a grandmother) was too busy running away with someone who was already married, forget about being the source of wisdom and truth.

I feel nervous every time Padma Lakshmi opens her mouth and says something about South Indians/Indian food/culture.

Hey, I was at the IFC theatre on Sunday for the Middle East and North African film festival, but I didn't notice that Kamasutra was playing there. I did go to the Kati Roll Company though-the rolls were delicious.

The trailer made me really curious about the movie-even the short clip made it seem more interesting than the book was.
I have to admit, "The Namesake" made me cry and I bet I'll cry if I watch "Brick Lane". Anything to do with leaving home makes me feel that way these days. I'll go prepared with a towel to mop the tears up.

Hey, this is news to me-I can't remember SRK attempting an American accent but then I have seen only DDLJ, Baazigar, and KANK so far.
Now Kamalhaasan on the other hand, has been speaking American since the 1970s-"Id is rooode to taaaalk in anotherrrrr language..." (from Punnagai Mannan, I think).

Manish, did you buy this book in New York?

Haven't seen Chak De, but Indianoguy, that clip of Vijaykanth was hilarious!

Bengali and Spanish-those are the two languages I hear all day (apart from English). Can understand a bit of both now, though I speak neither. I get a lot of 'preguntas por la maestra" from the parents of the kids I work with (sorry, not sure about the spelling). I now know the days of the week in Bengali and all my colors in Spanish!

Do you think you can give me an approximate time for the meet-up?
I may not be able to make it back from work in time for the movie at 4 pm, but would love to attend the meet-up after the movie.
You do have more than 4 readers!

In general, I wouldn't put "Chennai" and "live-in relationships" in the same sentence. But I do happen to know two couples in live-in relationships in Madras (I'm from the city), which makes me wonder if the reporter spoke to just these two couples!

I know that the families were initially not happy about the live-in relationships (one woman left her husband and moved in with this other guy, and the other couple had a baby and do not want to get married). But now I notice that the families seem to have accepted these couples' decisions even if they would like things to be otherwise.

Sharanya is right when she says there must be a very tiny minority involved in live-in relationships.

I’ve never met anyone who talked like Apu/Sellers/Azaria. I’ve heard the rare singsong, but only with an upper-class female Bombay accent.

How nice to hear this acknowledged! I am Indian and live in New York. I went to graduate school here a couple of years ago. One or two of my American classmates tried the fake accent with me and were met with such a stony glare that they gave up on it.

I know for a fact that I am the first (and maybe only) Indian person they have hung out with, so I assume the only way they could know about the stupid fake accent is from Apu/Sellers etc.

Manish, this is a great post. It must have taken a fair bit of time and effort to put it together-thanks! I had not heard of the movie "Black Friday" until I read this post. Looks like an interesting movie; I hope Netflix has it!

I think Rohan is the new favourite name for boys. I expected Maya to be the most commonly used desi name...surprised that it's Priya.

I just went to ABC and was taken aback to see Ganesha and Lakshmi statues at every corner. It seems strange to think of them standing around in someone's loft. And those cloth bags with things like "Poornima Tea" written on them...I used to buy vegetables in those bags and now they're selling them in ABC.

Your photos make me miss India so much. It's the sunlight in your photos-the sun and the shadows in your pictures.

I couldn't agree with you more...Peter Sellers is not my favourite actor at all. I'm from India and throughout the 80s and 90s I had these lovely cousins coming down to visit from the US...they thought it was hilarious to do the Sellers desi accent while being treated to nice dinners by my parents. Aunties fussing over these cousins while they made fun of our accent. Simply lovely.
So it's not just non-Indians like Hank Azaria who get it wrong.
Now I live in New York city and the awful cousins live in New Jersey(HA!!!!!!), and I still get the fake desi accent from them once in a while. They seem to have no clue that it is hurtful and mean to make fun of other people.

Very fun blog you've got going here, btw!

Sorry to nit-pick...Nagoya is a city a couple of hours from Tokyo. Lived in Tokyo for 5 years and I think I've even been to Nagoya. Had no idea about Club Ganesha though!

The only time I thought Katie Holmes was watchable was when I saw "Pieces of April". I guess we'll never know what she's capable of, now that couch-jumper(love this!) has taken her life over. I saw Uncle Chest in London this summer...dancing on the steps of the National Library. But I didn't see his chest; for a change he was fully clothed.

I miss your writing on SM. What are you doing in Bombay? How you do you like living there? I visit Bombay once a year because my sister lives there. I enjoy the city, though my head spins from all the running around I do with my sister.
Happy Thanksgiving!

When I was a little girl in Madras, the most exciting thing for me was to be taken to a store called "Millions and Millions" to choose colourful "loveintokyos" for my hair! I called them "loveintokyos" for ages....have no clue what they're really called.