The Daily Delicious for May 19, 2008

5/19/08 – Confronting an Epidemic: Conference on Asians, Pacific Islanders, and HIV/AIDS
Sapna Pandya of the South Asian Health Initiative presents “Scaling the HIValayas: An Overview of HIV/AIDS in South Asia.” NYU Langone Medical Center. Free admission. No advance registration required.
(tags: health south_asia(n) AIDS medicine)

Desi Manifesto Blog: The Forum for South Asian American Men
“As Indian men, we’ve shared numerous experiences that sometimes only other South Asian men can grasp…But up to this point, the only way to really discuss these experiences freely, among other men, was to have a set of brown friends…Until now.” Sadly, the desi dose burrito story sounds familiar, like something my dad told me about being asked if he was a messenger when he went to see his attorney. —Pavani
(tags: blogs men desi south_asia(n))

Desi Online Matchmaking, no gays allowed
“After extensive research I found out that Shaadi.com had no plans to make a section for Queer Desis. Their reasoning was that they are based in India and they have to follow Indian law. According to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code it states it’s unlawful to have “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.” This code has also been used to prosecute acts of oral sex, sodomy and bestiality,” and ultimately to “discriminate against homosexuals.”
(tags: desi web dating gay queer)

Online Dating for Indian Gays and Lesbians
“This just in! Check out Indus Gay, a site that caters to the queer Desi Community.” (via)
(tags: dating gay queer desi south_asia(n) web)

Bharatanatyam on the BART: Zavain Dar

Zavain Dar. (Photo by Weiferd Watts)

As we filed on to the escalator taking passengers up from the Civic Center BART station in San Francisco, I noticed that I wasn’t the only one struck by the dancer in one of the large posters on the wall. Others also took more than a cursory look at the young man captured in a graceful pose. He made a striking figure in a black short-sleeved tee, with ornate traditional jewelry layered on top in bold relief. Bharatanatyam, I thought, and wondered if “Zavain Dar” was a visiting artist from India.

Actually, Pakistan-born, Berkeley-raised Dar is an undergrad at Stanford, where he has participated in competitive garba raas, among many other activities. Dar has studied the Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam with teacher Arul Francis for several years (his dedication is evident in a 2003 story that encounters a young Dar at his lesson, where Francis mentions that his students from Pakistan have outlasted all his Indian students ). Francis says, “Zavain started learning from me when he was an 11-year-old child in 2000. Now he’s turning into a very talented dancer and so for his varnam, I chose “Danike” the very difficult varnam in ragam Todi.” View moments from their lesson of March 16, 2008.

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The Daily Delicious for May 15, 2008

Image from a Tulir poster.

Genes ‘up Indians’ obesity risk’
“The finding might provide a possible genetic explanation for the particularly high levels of obesity in Indian Asians, who make up 25% of the world’s population, but who are expected to account for 40% of global cardiovascular disease by 2020.”
(tags: health medicine india(n) genetics)

TULIR- Centre for the Prevention and Healing Child Sexual Abuse
Chennai-based TULIR is dedicated to preventing and bringing awareness to child sexual abuse. TULIR created colorful posters in English, Tamil and Hindi that define child abuse (e.g., “employing a child in your home” is on the list) and show kids how to protect themselves. —Pavani
(tags: children health chennai india(n))

R.I.P. Gopal Raju, founder of “India Abroad”
His legacy extends beyond the well-thumbed pages of IA gracing many coffee tables in the desi diaspora. Raju founded the IA newspaper, the Indo-Asian News Service, the Indian American Foundation and the Indian American Center for Political Action. —Pavani
(tags: journalism india(n))

A Brown Paper: The Health of South Asians in the U.S.
Seeing the importance of addressing the health and well-being of SA communities, a group of public health professionals and students formed SAPHA in 1998. In 2002 came the Brown Paper, the “first ever health literature review of South Asian Americans.”
(tags: health south_asia(n) activism)

Payal Singhal trunk show
Thursday, 5/15, 3 -8 p.m. Indomix, 232 Mulberry St., NYC. View the Fall 2008 collection of cocktail dresses inspired by 1920′s flapper fashion. Cocktails will be served.
(tags: fashion shopping history)

Obama Statement on APA Heritage Month
“The APA story and community are also personal to me. Members of my family are of Asian descent and it is a community that I became a part of while growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia and living in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.”
(tags: politics barack_obama)

Cowgirl & Indian

The two-woman show, “Cowgirl & Indian,” written and performed by comediennes Margee Magee and Angeli Millan, finishes up its three-week run at the L.A. Comedy festival this Friday, May 16. Magee and Millan met at The Groundlings Improv/Comedy school. As they embarked on their careers in acting they became co-conspirators in comedy.

“Despite how different we might appear, we’ve really endured a lot of the same experiences as actresses, comediennes, dating, despite various stereotypes that we both get put upon us,” says Millan. If you’re in L.A. this Friday and curious to know more about their satirical take on the shared experiences of a “Cowgirl” and “Indian,” visit the show’s website for event details and ticket reservations. Millan adds that the show will include experimental comedy, running the gamut from sitcom spoofing to powerpoint presentations of their lives, plus audience interaction and “a male mannequin taking center stage to tell of our exploits with the opposite sex.”

The Daily Delicious for May 13, 2008

(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Debt woes drive thousands of Indian farmers to suicide
“Crushed by debts most Westerners would deem inconsequential, farmers … killed themselves at a rate of 48 a day between 2002 and 2006.” —Priya
(tags: India(n) agriculture economics)

Penning a Letter to Undeclared Superdelegates

Kal Penn sent an open letter to two undeclared superdelegates urging them to cast their votes for presidential candidate Barack Obama. Penn is not the first big name to contact law student Lauren Wolfe and college senior Awais Khaleel, who are the President and Vice President of the College Democrats of America. On their way to the dining hall or grocery store, student superdelegates field calls from the likes of Bill Clinton and John Kerry (JS). Milwaukee-born Khaleel, of Muslim Indian background, received the Sproul treatment in The Wall Street Journal and had coffee with Chelsea Clinton. He, like Wolfe, plans to stay neutral, working with the College Dems to improve voter turnout.

Penn, who has been campaigning for Obama since late last year, was respectful of their neutral stance, but urged the two undeclared superdelegates that now is the time to pledge their support. “Perhaps three weeks ago was not the right time to pledge. But neither is three weeks from now. Your failure to pledge now risks returning those passionate, first-time voters to a political landscape of the same old games that caused them to maintain such distance from the Democratic Party before.”

In the video clip below Khaleel and Wolfe ask college students to tell them how to cast their votes. “Guess who might decide the leader of the free world?” Khaleel asks. “Me!”

The Daily Delicious for May 8, 2008

M.I.A. Launches Clothing Line
“With my stuff, because everything’s really bright, if you lose it or someone steals it, you can see it from miles away and you can be like, ‘Oy! Give me my shirt back!’” —Priya
(tags: fashion music)

The Daily Delicious for May 7, 2008

Impeccably Indian
Anthropologie is now offering (gorgeous!) clothes from seven Indian designers: Manish Arora, Rina Dhaka, Ashish Soni, Gurpreet Pia Fleming, Pankaj Ahuja, Ranna Gill, and Payal Jain. —Priya
(tags: fashion)

The Daily Delicious for May 6, 2008

Governor Jindal and family. (Tim Mueller/AP)

McCain-Jindal?
An argument for choosing Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal as the running mate on the Republican presidential ticket.
(tags: politics south_asian rumors)

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Satya for Sale

Inspired by the world travels and spiritual explorations of founders/designers Satya and Beth, Satya Jewelry combines semi-precious stones with gold and sterling silver to create pieces with diverse elements and meanings. Satya is a Sanskrit word meaning “the inner Truth that permeates all.”

This weekend, 5/2–5/4, their jewelry is up to 80 percent off; the triple-charm necklaces were $128, but are now $35. 95. Christopher St., at Bleecker St. (212-243-7313); 5/2–5/4 (10–6). — NY

More: The Satya Foundation is a non-profit committed to bringing yoga and healthy living to kids. The foundation also donates 100% of the proceeds from one of its necklaces to the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation (EBMRF), aiming to find a cure for this rare childhood skin disease.

Look for more details on Satya in an upcoming issue of Nirali!