Sidarth (of Macaca Fame) Works for Richardson Campaign

Sidarth (Rich Lipski/The Washington Post)

The Washington Post reports that recent college graduate S.R. Sidarth is “now a paid staff member in the communications office of Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson. He works in the New Mexico governor’s Santa Fe office compiling newspaper articles, drafting news releases and performing other communications tasks.” Presumably these other communication tasks include blogging in Spanish at RichardsonForPresident.com.

Shekar Ramanuja Sidarth was the man of the moment of the so-called Macaca-gate scandal, in which Virginia Senator George Allen, up for reelection, saw his standing plummet after using a word believed to be an ethnic slur to refer to Sidarth, who was recording the speech for Allen’s opponent. The video received over 350,000 views on the web and the ramifications of the scandal with Sidarth at its center were potentially far-reaching, as Allen’s election loss shifted control in the Senate to the Democrats.

More:
“I Am Macaca”
TIME
Sidarth at YearlyKos this past summer.

Billion Dollar Babies: Top 20 Heiresses

Vanisha Mittal Bhatia (Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images)

Vanisha Mittal Bhatia, daughter of Indian-born, London-based steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, tops a list of heiresses compiled by Forbes of women under 40 ranked according to their father’s or mother’s most recent net worth. Vanisha is active in her father’s industrial empire, holding a seat on Mittal Steel’s board. Dad, whose net worth is estimated at $51 billion, threw his daughter what is believed to be the most expensive wedding in history, a $60 million, week-long extravaganza in 2005 for some 1,000 guests in Paris, including a performance by pop star Kylie Minogue.

Josie Ho Chiu Yi is another heiress on the list. Daughter of one of Hong Kong’s richest men Stanley Ho ($7 billion), she is known to fans of her indie rock music as Josie Ho. Two of the top heiresses, Georgina Bloomberg, daughter of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($11.5 billion), and Paige Johnson, daughter of Black Entertainment Television founders Robert and Sheila Johnson ($1 billion) will be competing against each other for a spot on the Olympic equestrian team.

Read “The 20 Most Intriguing Billionaire Heiresses” and view the slideshow for more details about the heiresses.

Sunkrish Swaddled on NFTUB Season Premiere

Sunkrish Bala (ABC/Bob D’Amico)

The second season of Notes from the Underbelly premiered this week, with a cast including Lisa Harris, Jennifer Westfeldt and Sunkrish Bala. (See “Life of a Bala” in NIRALI for more on Sunkrish.) The bedroom scene in which he’s subjected to his wife’s efforts to unravel the secrets of their Burberry-clad French nanny’s swaddling technique is the highlight of Bala’s limited on-screen time in this episode.

Not sure what swaddling is or why it would strike fear into the hearts of new parents? Join the club. “How hard is a swaddle?” asks the show’s expecting mother. “It’s like giving an angry cat a bath when you’re drunk,” answers Melanie Paxson, who plays his wife.

In a recent interview, Bala talked about what he looks for in a girl, entertaining the babies on set, and his character Eric.

Ho Ho Half-Lotus

Santa’s asana this holiday season.

A levitating Santa on a blissful yoga break is an Adbusters mascot for Buy Nothing Christmas.

Not a bad message to take to heart for the rest of the year, in addition to this season of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and free shipping deals.

More: Shopocalypse, buynothingchristmas.org.

New from Dushyanthi

Sri-Lankan-American Dushyanthi has released a remix of J. Holiday’s “Bed” along with a video, shot in New York City. Dushyanthi was profiled in Nirali last year as she was promoting her single, “Many Men.” Since then, she’s been in the studio recording and even logged in some time to record with Wyclef Jean and the Ying Yang Twins.

See the video for Dushyanthi’s remix of “Bed” after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

“Portable Homes” at the New Yorker Festival

Orhan Pamuk and Salman Rushdie. (Andy Friedman/New Yorker)

“The Indian experience is becoming a diaspora experience as well as a national experience,” said Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, in a conversation with the 2006 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Orhan Pamuk. The discussion, titled Homeland, was part of this year’s New Yorker Festival and is now available online. Moderated by New Yorker Fiction Editor Deborah Treisman, the conversation revolved around issues of identity, diaspora, and community. Forging a connection between a people and their language, Pamuk asserted, “I have a portable home with me all the time and that’s the Turkish language.” Rushdie and Pamuk also offer other insights into writing, perspective, and existing in America. Both authors are full of witty observations: Rushdie, in an anecdote about his family, said, “My mother was the Garcia Marquez of gossip.” You can watch other videos from the 2007 New Yorker Festival here.

More: Critical Mass, the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors, offers up its take on the talk.

And The Emmy Goes To…Geeta Gandbhir

Geeta Gandbhir (rediff)

At last month’s Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, film editor Geeta Gandbhir won one of the coveted winged statuettes for her work on Spike Lee’s HBO’ documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.” She won the Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing in Nonfiction Programming and shared it with supervising editor Sam Pollard and editor Nancy Novack.

The film, which received three Emmys, portrays New Orleans in the wake of Katrina’s destruction with powerful music, imagery and words. It includes interviews from 100 people selected from diverse backgrounds, including Louisiana’s Governor Blanco and rapper Kanye West and has been described as the “opposite of a Ken Burns documentary.” (NYT). Clips: 1, 2,3, 4.

Read on to learn how Gandbhir, who has worked in the industry for over 15 years, got her start in editing, her other projects, and why babies and Emmys don’t mix.

How did you get interested and started in editing?
I originally worked in animation for a Harvard professor, until I met Spike Lee. He gave me a job as an intern in the edit department on his film “Macolm X” and that was the start of my edit career. I studied art and animation in college and have always been interested in storytelling through film and theater, so editing seemed to be perfect for me - telling stories through a visual medium. Read the rest of this entry »

The Chloé Kerala

The Chloé Kerala

My good friend Amrapali is looking for a cute purple patent clutch so we were perusing our favorite handbag blog, Bagsnob to see if we could find anything of note. While we didn’t find a clutch (And dear readers, if you have spied a nice one recently, please do tell!) we did find a favorable (!?) review of Chloé’s Kerala shoulder bag in a buttery yellow.

Yes, I know it’s not really desi-related but I found small joy in the first decently designed Chloé bag released lately carries the moniker Kerala.

That is all. Oh. If you want to purchase the above, it’s $1,225 at Net-a-porter.

Miles To Go

Saheli

To commemorate the upcoming Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Gandhi’s birthday, non-profit Saheli organized a 5K Run/Walk to Stop Violence Against Women in Burlington, Massachusetts, for Saturday, September 29, with co-sponsor Burlington Police Department (The Boston Globe). Over 1500 Indian residents live in the town according to the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

In Hindi Saheli means “a female friend; a shoulder to lean on,” explained Rita Shah, director of Saheli, which was founded in the Boston area 11 years ago and dedicates itself to helping South Asian women. The Run/Walk was planned to raise money for its Women’s Assistance Fund, which helps women on an emergency basis without requiring committee approval. The program assisted 23 women this year.

For more details on the organization, Saturday’s Run/Walk and to register visit Saheli online.

More: DVAM; Gandhi Jayanti

Pink Is The New Chai

Kashmiri chai from NY’s New Naimat Kada (traderjanki.wordpress.com)

According to The Gourmet Cartographer (a.k.a Janki Khatau), you should try Kashmiri chai. I wouldn’t mind trying any of the vegetarian delicacies described on her blog, which include foods from roadside stalls in India, homemade recreations of street food, and treats from various cities in the U.S. In fact, I went to Papalote for a great burrito after reading about it there. But it was this “very lickable” drink that caught my eye the other day, with its flash of color peeking through the cup’s white cover. It’s also salty. Who knew that salty chai could be tasty?

More: all the food that’s fit to print; Food; Kashmir(i)