Sanjaya Malakar’s Other Sister

Photo courtesy of TMZ.Com

Sanjaya Malakar remains in the running to become the next American Idol. He is the first desi to make it into the top 12.

The judges aren’t too fond of him (Simon Cowell has even threatened to quit the show if Malakar wins) but the Washington-native seems to be a favorite especially with teenage girls and the South Asian viewership.

Now the gossip rags have decided Malakar bears an eerie resemblance to Halle Berry. If Jennifer Hudson can win an Oscar, I say Malakar could be an X-man or Bond woman, easy.

Are you rooting for Malakar?

More:
Malakar’s intro video for AI

Surya, You’re Fired!

Yalamanchili’s back is turned in this photo with fellow team-members

Surya Yalamanchili gave the fight of his life on last night’s episode of The Apprentice, but it wasn’t enough, and Trump (reluctantly) gave the Rutgers-grad the boot.

Did anyone tune in?

I did, and it gave me no small amount of anxiety to see Yalamanchili’s adopted team gang up on him in the boardroom. He’s “different from the rest of us,” they told Trump.

Really? Different because he’s desi? Or because he’s competent?

Sadly enough, the only non-white member of his team (James Sun, a preppy, Korean American founder of the social networking company Zoodango) was the most hostile toward Yalamanchili.

Watch Yalamanchili’s audition interview video here.

Muslim Brotherhood? Maybe.

Congregation heads (Dr. Faroque Khan on the left) James Estrin/The New York Times/

In yesterday’s feature “Between Black and Immigrant Muslims, an Uneasy Alliance,” the New York Times introduces us to members of the Islamic Center of Long Island and Imam Talib’s mosque in Harlem.

Their congregations share a religion but apparently, that’s about it.

The rift between immigrant and black (the piece calls this group “indigenous”) Muslims seems to have a lot to do with social class (but could flat-out racism be a factor as well?). The Center in Long Island attracts well-to-do desi, Arab and Turkish immigrants (“It is a place where BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes fill the parking lot, and Coach purses are perched along prayer lines”).

In Harlem, most of the Imam Talib congregants “get to the mosque by bus or subway, and warm themselves with space heaters in a drafty, brick building.”

The groups have historically kept to themselves. But post-September 11, they are understanding the value of cross-group coalition-building. “The more separate we stay, the more targeted we become,” says Dr. Faroque Khan, a pulmonologist and one of the co-founders of the Long Island mosque.

Of the estimated six million Muslims who live in the US today, about 34% are South Asian. Roughly 25% are black.

Sethi Supplies Star-Swag

Pratima Sethi, of San Francisco-based Manak Jewels, helped the stars shine even brighter this Oscar season. Check out Sethi as she takes Carlene Davis of US TV behind the scenes to the TMG Luxury Swag Suite:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

More:
On Manak
Water misses Oscar boat

In Short

Penn (Rediff India)

**70 million people. 6 weeks. 3 rivers.

The Kumbh Mela has drawn to a close this year.

Prashant Panjiar, photographer and author of India: The Definitive Images, offers Time magazine readers this photo essay in honor of the 45-day festival in Allahabad.

**Kal Penn will star in ABC’s new comedy, The Call, about a group of Los Angeles paramedics. The Namesake star will play a “hypochondriac and pessimist” on the show, which will also feature actress Kali Rocha (of Grey’s Anatomy fame).

**Amitabh Bachchan continues to make headlines this week, as he heads to Kolkata for the filming of Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh’s first English-language feature The Last Lear. The film will also star Preity Zinta and Arjun Rampal.

**New Yorkers may want to visit the Union Square Barnes and Noble this Monday night at 7PM, where Jhumpa Lahiri and Mira Nair will be talking about The Namesake.

Show Me The Rupees

Mittal

Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s richest people has just been released.

In 2007 India has become home to the most billionaires in Asia—taking the top spot from Japan (effectively ending that country’s 20-year-domination ).

Lakshmi Mittal is the richest man in Asia (fifth globally). Estimates put his net worth at $32 billion.

This year India, where 400 million people live on less that one dollar a day, has added 14 new billionaires to the Forbes list.

“Holy Disobedience”

Church in Southern India

Jane Magazine readers (guilty) will want to check out desi guest writer Jay Dixit’s piece “Why can’t a woman become a priest?” in this month’s issue. Dixit, a Yale grad who has written for the New York Times and Washington Post, follows a group of twelve reformist Christians—the “Roman Catholic Womenpriests” as they become ordained priests—a first for women in the United States.

There are about ten million twentysomething Catholic women in this country, says Dixit. Many are “questioning the church’s teachings on contraception and women’s and gay rights.”

More:
IndiaChristian.Com
Christianity in India

GTA Gets Desi Life

Desi Life (thestar.com)

Canada’s largest daily newspaper, The Toronto Star, launches a new glossy magazine called Desi Life. Editor Shree Paradkar speaks about her vision for the bi-monthly in this short video, describing the publication as a “voice of integration” for the over half million South Asian population of the Greater Toronto Area. Staff writers include Besharam’s resident DJ Amita Handa and author of Their Jihad…Not My Jihad, Raheel Raza. The inaugural issue comes out April 19.

Viewers Not Silent About Nishabd

Photo courtesy of http://www.nishabdthefilm.com/

The film has left many upset. Some are even asking for its lead actor to retire.

Amitabh Bachchan stars in the controversial new movie Nishabd. Earlier this week, protesters lined the streets of his hometown (Allahabad), asking for the film to be banned.

Nishabd, being called the Indian Lolita, is a remake of a classic Bengali film of the same name.

The plot revolves around an aging photographer and his infatuation with a young girl. Its subject matter has left some Indian film-goers feeling uncomfortable. “We’re still very orthodox and conservative about something like this,” says critic Taran Adarsh.

Bachchan insists he is pleased with the movie. “I like my performance, which is quite rare.”

More:
Unauthorized Bachchan biography out in the UK today
Bachchan’s daughter makes her small screen debut
Nishabd film stills

Got Kites?

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Aaron Huey/ ATLASPRESS

The services of Noor Agha, a fourth-generation kite-maker, have been commissioned by the producers of The Kite Runner, the soon-to-be-made film based on the eponymous best selling book by California-based MD Khaled Hosseini.

These days Agha spends his time in his “factory” (his living room) where he has been putting his two wives and 11 children to work. One wife, he describes as the second best kite maker in Kabul–but quickly adds that he has 45 years’ experience and “she’ll never be able to catch up.”

“In a country where most success stories are haunted by failure…about the only thing going right these days is the kitemaking industry,” Time Magazine tells us. Go here to read their full feature on Agha and The Kite Runner.