I started this blog in February, after we had a conference on the "Indian Diaspora". This is a Ph.D blog basically, but I have learnt so much more keeping a blog.

I managed to keep the blog going, I have plans to make it more interesting, with a full time job, a part-time Ph.D , a new house to manage - it is difficult.

I reached a 100 posts - Way to go!

Image from: Jenkins, Edward. The Coolie, his Rights and Wrongs, London: Strahan & Co., 1871.


The internet throws a lot of surprises in your face, and I wasn't ready for this one. It got me excited. I found this site Saxakali, which is a site for "People of Color". They offer on-line courses on various issues. I don't know if the website is still updated, but there are on-line course on the Indian Diaspora (Hill Coolies).

COLORU was especially designed to serve the learning needs of communities of color by offering classes in education, history, culture, business, computers, and technology from African, Asian, Latino, Middle Eastern, & Native American perspectives.

Want to take an on-line Course on the Hill Coolies - CLICK HERE

Course: Asian Indian Diaspora - Hill Coolies (YU2200)
Type: Self-study tutorial

November 1-5, 2006 Sixth Annual IAAC Film Festival: Indian Independent & Diaspora Films

How I wish I could visit New York then!

At work I have a dear friend, who is 30, single, intelligent, not-pretty, but clean and dark. Now she started to date an American guy working here. Of course it was the ususal hush-hush affair.She wishes she can marry him.Now the guy is going back home and the friend is going to be single once more.Somehow this affair got me thinking.

And I couldn't help but put my mind to understand "inter-racial love affairs" that are so much a part of diasporic film. There are reasons - identity, race relations, marginal status,power, gender relations, colonial imperialism all of these can be reflected in an "Inter -racial Romantic Relationship".

My Ph.D is going to have a section talking about this aspect of diasporic film, which I find so insightful yet so banal on one hand.


For more books on Inter Racial Romances - CLICK

So Deepa Mehta’s “Water” had an opening at the Toronto Film festival. Kudos to Deepa, who completed the Trilogy, Fire, Earth and Water.

The film about Hindu widows was to be shot in Varanasi, India – the land of unadulterated Hinduism, the Hindutva kind was stalled. Deepa, was harassed by Shiv Sena activists, to shoot it despite all Government clearances for shooting it.

The archaic rule of getting the script approved by I&B ministry for a foreign film and having a government official at the shooting to see whether the script is followed was also taken care of, even after this permission the Indian State could not provide her security from a bunch of lumpens.

So when India is engaging with its diaspora trying to woo them to invest in the film industry, why did it not give Deepa, and Indo-Canadian Director, the security she needed? Indian censorship is a funny ballgame; they give you the freedom, but will not safeguard it.

Once again Hindu nationalism stopped a movie from being made in India. Maybe it would hurt Hindu sensibilities. On a certain level the film would make India seem like a retrograde society and reinforce the stereotype of a society cruel to its women, but the government should have known better. If there was a movie on “Witchcraft” in early Puritan America, would we have Christian fundamentalists protesting against the movie in America?

We are a nation that makes a thousand Bollywood movies a year, we need to allow foreign scripts on India to be made as well, especially foreign scripts by NRI Directors. This will increase our nation’s acumen and taste for a broad cinema spectrum. Deepa Mehta is India’s cultural insider, we need to understand that – And if anything, Water is seems more of a historical/cultural film than a Hindu film. And what the heck if it is not shot in Varanasi, India – the film has been made

You can’t keep a fiery film Director down for seven long years! Not when she has Lisa Ray and John Abraham as lead actors.


Apparently Deepa's daughter has written a Water memoir



For more on the Toronto Film Festival CLICK.

Dear Friends, I returned from Delhi last night, the Fulbright interview went of easy. There were 22 of us in competition so - Will it be me? I don't know, results are awaited.

On the way back home, I realized that with or without the fellowship, I would have to go on with my Ph.D. Do it well and enlighten myself.

I can't deny how much more my thesis will be enriched if I get to study in the US for awhile, I could complete my Ph.D in record time in the US because I will not be working on anything else.

The Ph.D has taken me on various mental journeys with the Indian diaspora - through their films. I am thankful, I have a purpose in my Ph.D and that is all I should focus on. A Fulbrighter or not!

I just had to blog about this guy - Hard-working and prolific scholar to head new center - Sanjay Subrahmanyam


Ph.D advice, I love

When he looks back on those years, dusting off the cover of his dot-matrix printed thesis, he marvels at how much and how many different things he was able to learn in such a short period of time. There was a steep learning curve, he says, and the time and intensity it takes to write a thesis is difficult to recapture.

"The truth is that every scholar worth their salt looks back on their Ph.D. as an important moment." Now, as a professor, he wrestles with how to give his own Ph.D. students that kind of experience. "For students who are good, you should just let them go -- you should even let them get lost for a bit," he says.

But Subrahmanyam says the best advice he has to offer Ph.D. candidates is that, while writing a thesis can be stressful and time-consuming, it is not the most difficult part of academic life. It is the second project, the post-thesis effort, which is most difficult. Recent graduates in the United States, he says, focus on too much on getting their first book out and getting tenure instead of channeling their energies into starting their second big project.

Last night I started to watch "Ae Fond Kiss", about romance between a Pakistani immigrant DJ, and Scottish Catholic girl. There was an intense beginning to the movie, but I posponed watching it to tonite, with the Husband.

I am interested in seeing 'Diasporic Film' of other countries as well, "Ae Find Kiss" based on the Pakistani diaspora is my first venture out of Indian diasporic film. The "Islamic" issue takes on a huge role here and I am beginning to wonder, if "Films can be used to reconcile the Western and the Islamic culture".

For the review of the movie CLICK
For the official website CLICK
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I read regularly - Intent Blog

The goal of www.Intentblog.com is to present original voices on and from Asia and India to inspire, stimulate and engage a dialogue about new paradigms of creativity, communication, and fulfillment. World renowned author, Deepak Chopra MD, and internationally acclaimed film maker, Shekhar Kapur, are the founders of INTENT.

I found particularly interesting Shekhar Kapur's future analysis of Hollywood.Now I don't really agree with him Hollywood is too large a cultural giant to cow down and accomodate foreign films, it could do it at a very marginal level. Hollywood has mass appeal because of its social realism and well designed fantasy icons, but Bollywood for instance is the same old romance, dance and song, ofocurse now we have locales of New York, Sydney and London - taking into account the diaspora earnings for a movie. Bollywood is too culture-centric too across cultures as widely as Hollywood.

Till then, lets celebrate individuality of story telling and film making. Just enjoy the new , Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Indian films.

I would love to see other films as well.
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There is this movie out now Ramji Londonwalla, about a Bihari Chef and his interaction with a Brit-Asian girl set in London, a very Indian filmi perspective on the immigrant situation. Don't think I'll spend money watching the movie in a multiplex, will catch it on DVD.

Good Weekend!!!

Dear Friends, my Ph.D will take a turn on the road to a more enriched and lively thesis, if I get through my Fulbright interview in New Delhi on September 14th. I am preparing fo the interview, trying to give it my best, given the time constraints and other important priorities.

The Fulbright will be an opportunity to work with Jigna Desai, Asst Professor, University of Minnesota, the author of the only book on South Asian diasporic film, titled “Beyond Bollywood – The Cultural Politics of South Asian Diasporic Film".

I am really grateful to Jigna Desai, for commenting on my proposal, for someone I just wrote into and who got so involved with my work at an on-line level, I can only say - if you want something badly enough, it comes your way.

"International education exchange is the most significant current project designed to continue the process of humanizing mankind to the point, we would hope, that nations can learn to live in peace"
--J. William Fulbright

I just read a Guardian review of Curry: A Biography by Lizzie Collingham, it got me thinking about - "Indian Cuisine". My Mom and Aunt are planning a trip to Australia and they plan to finance their holiday by making Chappathis and Egg Curry, Dosa and Sambhar. My brother used to work part time at Indian restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, he loved his job being Indian he loved the way the Aussies lap up paneer, rotis and of course “Curry”.

At home in India we hardly use the word “curry”, we have the staple dal, chawal. Curry is a delicacy we have only at restaurants or during a celebration.Curry is mostly Anglo-Indian cuisine - Kofta curry, Mutton curry. But I believe foreigners to Indian cuisine think curry to be authentic Indian. It is of course, but it largely borrows from Portugese and British cooking. Indian cooking is largely influenced by the Persians, think Hyderabadi Biryani, Koftas, Korma etc.

For Indian cuisine, it turns out, has always been a glorious bastard, a repository of whatever bits and pieces come to hand.

To sample another country's cuisine is like adding to your repertoire of worldly knowledge. Have you ever noticed how many immigrants are confidant of making it big elsewhere all because they believe that they can start an “Indian restaurant”. Food is always the safest bet, when no other skill can get you through in a foreign land. Look at the list millionaire Indian restaurateurs!

But it doesn't stop there. In rural Fiji, people who have never travelled out of their village eat Punjabi chapattis made from indigenous coconut milk, a legacy of the island's heavy dependence on indentured Indian labour in the 1870s.

Look at the number of Chinese and Indian takeaways that we hear about all over the world. Look at the swanky Indian restaurants is uptown New York and London.

Food is culture, it binds, you enjoy Dal when another fellow enjoys it with you. The Indian diaspora has taken “Indian Cuisine” to far off lands. Of course we now have Indian masala pasta and chicken tikka pizza. Food travels and its hard to put a good bite down.

There should have been an Indian word for Bon Apetit!


CURRY HOUSE ECONOMICS (Courtesy BBC)
9,000 restaurants in the UK
At least 50,000 employees
Up to 150,000 indirectly supported jobs
Majority Bangladeshi owned
Sources: Various industry estimates

Someday I would love to visit Fiji. Really where ever there is an "Indian Population", I would love to go. My citizenry never seizes to amaze me.Espcially on this island where the Indian diaspora was slandered.


Well I read this article today, Indian diaspora body opposes Fiji leader's India visit

The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) has opposed Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's upcoming visit to India, slamming him for denying fundamental rights to Indians in his country.

Indian diplomacy goes through the fire-test?