I am on holiday with the husband, but I just couldn't help making notes of what is happening on the diaspora scene. And two news items struck me as worth reading about.Updating while the husband is watching football. The only thing that can keep us apart.

New York's Indian film festival to push new talent from India.

For the first time, the New York -based Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) Film Festival is accepting Indian independent projects, with organisers saying the event would work to give a platform to new talent.

Chutney is hot and we are not just talking of grandma’s tangy preparations here. It is also a form of music now making waves everywhere. But not all are aware of its Indian roots.

Chutney is an up-tempo, rhythmic song, accompanied by the dholak, the harmonium and dhantal. Originally, chutney songs made references to deities and were offensive to religious leaders. Now, chutney has become extremely popular and new compositions are being written. When India’s men in blue visited Trinidad and Tobago, they took back chutney music with them. Indian singe-rs have adap-ted chutney music for desi audiences.

I love this culture mixin'!

I am on hilday until June 4th, after which I am off attending a workshop on Knowledge Sharing, so going to get back to active blogging from June 13th.

India's first NRI themed movie, is running for over a decade and is in its 500th week.

Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge became a cult film for a generation of Indians living abroad who identified with the two stars.

If one looks at the Indian film Industry it was during the 1990’s when globalization came , the character of the NRI in Bollywood films evolved one from Westernized to an NRI who is Western in his commerical consumption but with an Indian heart. Today, Indiannes within the diaspora is determined more by religio-cultural relations and traditional Indian values. And our movies capture that, therfore the resounding success of such NRI-themed movies.

DDLJ is a movie that epitomizes the relationship between the diaspora and the homeland, one where there is yearning for the homeland yet there is the Indianness of heart whilst living abroad.

A lot of critics have claimed that in most of the Bollywood movies featuring NRI’s , India the country does not exist, but Indiannes is commodifed to suit the NRI’s imagination of India and is also used as his/her justification for living away from the homeland while remaining faithful to its values.

I am just in-between finishing off urgent work assignments and taking a holiday. So the Ph.D is on the backburner. Phew! I've got to meet my guide next week. Most times I wish I enrolled for a full time Ph.D.

But on second thoughts, I really don't want to live in an academic ivory tower nor do I want to get so involved in the commercial work force that I forget the intellecutal gusto of the academia. So here I am doing my two bits.

I never thought a Ph.D would be so intellectually fun yet one helluva anxious roller coaster ride. Sometimes it is a crisis of motivation, on other days you just can't get the concept clear and on certain terrible days you wonder if the work your producing will have any kind of impact or in any way be taken seriously.

It is hard to be intellectually active, self-disciplined and strong.But you've got to do what you chose to do.

Kal Penn


Purva Bedi


Sheetal

Sepiamutiny led me to Kal Penn's blog .

I am often intrigued by these actors, too desi to make it into any mainstream cinema and IMHO too undesi to make it in Bollywood. Their acting abilities are only to portray and break stereotypes of the South Asian Community, their physical characteristics are more important than their acting skills, their brown looks are often used to capture the ethnic, not character emotions that mark a fine actor.

A lot of South Asian Actors from the diaspora will only be portraying their "Indian Ethnicity" on screen, never a true acting talent. I do feel it is time that these actors realize that the genre of "South Asian Diaspora Film" has few story lines so they can never really break the mold of the "confused", "identity" character. The other thing is doing smaller roles in mainstream TV and film, just because you’re brown is never going to give you the label of world class actor.


I think South Asian film makers and production houses need to produce films that have strong story lines with actors from the diaspora who do more than just display cultural dilemmas. They need to produce films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity.

This was a long over due post, I had the good fortune to meet Desi journalist – Francis Assisi, in February during a conference on the diaspora. He is currently editor at Indolink, where he also writes a column INDiaspora: Desis in Pardes. He covers issues contemporary, racy, complex , debatable and academic. He has for long urged the Indian diaspora to accept its ‘marginality’ in the American society and learn to accept the status of being Indian American.

A soft-spoken man, with an in-depth knowledge and passion for the diaspora, his manners are impeccable. My emails to him get back a prompt reply with sound advice, I remember when I started the blog, he was the first to ask me to collaborate and get in other students as well. He gave me leads to South Asian academics in the US. That is how I discovered the only book to talk of South Asian Diasporic Film –Beyond Bollywood.

I later learnt that the Assisi has had a dual career in medical research and in journalism. He also contributes to Mantram magazine (New York) and the International Indian (UAE). He has done pioneering research on identifying the first people of Indian origin in America (Indentured slaves taken to colonial America around 1860)

I also read Shashi Tharoor’s columns regularly, the UN high Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations. He is also Indian and a writer, espousing the cause of the Indian Diaspora. He writes articles on the diaspora , but hardly telling us why the story or the relationship between the diaspora and India is important. He criticizes the government for looking at the NRI only to increase India’s economy. I think to a large part it is true, but then here is a man of experience who can do more than just criticize. He should offer more solutions on how the diaspora can engage in an active dialogue with the Indian government. Shallow NRI observations really don't help.

I think the Diaspora needs more journalists that write actual stories on the diaspora, to speak of issues that have been pervading their lives. We need journalists who act as intermediaries between India and the Diaspora only then can there be an honest, creative and enriching relationship between the two. I am talking about the kind of real informative and objective journalism, Francis Assisi writes about.

In my quest for finding video and film that captures the "Indian Diaspora", I found a documentary "Pure Chutney". Pure Chutney is an exploration of the delicious - and even difficult - mix of Trinidadian-Indian culture.

Another film The Gravel Road (Chemman chaalai)tells the story of an Indian girl stifled on a Malay rubber plantation.

This film is a striking work within Malaysian cinema. Alongside Malaysia's native population, the country has two large ethnic groups: the Chinese and the Indians. The latter are almost completely absent from the film scene, because only films spoken in Malay are entitled to any financial support. That did not stop Menon from making the first Tamil-spoken film in Malaysia.

Why is it that we give so much prominence to the newer diaspora, the old indentured slaves are often not talked about. India had her fair share of the boat people in the late 18th and early 19th century. Their lives are now buried in few academic journals and other political NRI lobbies. Their grand/great grand children still carry the brown genes of 'Indianness'. Some of them are making films on their histories.

As a nation, I think we must be proud of our "slave legacy". Proud not that we sent out slaves, but proud of who they became. Slaves were sent in all false hope and ignorance to work in the Sugar Cane fields in the Carribbean and Africa, build the rail-road of California, slog on Teak plantations in Malaysia, Burma etc. But three or four generations later, most of them hold positions of power and intellect. They have always looked back at India, all the time for their tradition, culture and feeling of home.

As Indian, I am proud of the non-violence, Gandhi, the developing country status, t- but most of all I am proud of those "Indentured Labourers" that left India, ignorant and lonely, but genrations later they still balance the love for their past homeland and committment to their personal betterment, such as the young film-maker Deepak Kumar Menon.

We need to document these legacies more on film and art. Literature has been doing it so far.

If you dear reader knows of films/documentaries on the Diaspora, please let me know.

The Commonwealth film festival has a slot for Diaspora films:

Diasporama: tales of displacement from Diaspora filmmakers. Don't miss Pink Ludoos, Canada's answer to Bend It Like Beckham!

Mathieu Ravier, the film festival's director says: "Beyond the ever popular cinema of Bollywood there is a fantastic range of diverse and entertaining South Asian films that rarely make it to our shores. For a limited time we bring you an exclusive sample of what this year’s best South Asian filmmakers are up to."

Other South Asian diasporic films to be showcased:

Punjabi Love Stories - a fascinating world of seduction, sex and youthful desire


Meet the Sumdees - ('sumdees' = urdu for 'in-laws')

Indian Arrival Day celebrations May 30 - the day when the first ship carrying over 200 indentured Indian labourers reached Trinidad and Tobago 160 years ago.


Indian diaspora filmmakers dominated at the recent 5th Annual ReelWorld Film Festival held in this Canadian city and several also walked away with awards.


An article by the Diasporic journalist Francis Assisi on Project Indian Diaspora: Encyclopedia of Indians Overseas.

In addition there will be archival and modern photographs of people, costume, buildings, cultural traditions, and economic activities, documents, artifacts - as well as a comprehensive array of maps, diagrams and important statistics. The editors claim that “Every writer has been asked to contribute photographs, as well as directing us to other sources of material. The photographs will convey a sense of period and a sense of place, so reinforcing the themes that will emerge from the text - demonstrating not only what members of the Indian diaspora have in common with one another, and with India itself, but also what has come to differentiate one community from another.

Honigman explains why Gandhi’s idealistic vision for India failed in its own right and why it would be expected to fail when applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sam Pitroda said the intention of the council is to attract the talents of intellectuals, professionals, industrialists, scientists, university professors and other experts from various fields to help India in its quest for wealth and development. "We have seen a change in our traditional mindset and people back home are receptive to new ideas and modernization", he said.