Archive for June, 2005

New MTV Channel for Desis

Thursday, June 23rd, 2005

MTV recently rolled out new music channel MTV Desi, a “music video-centric channel totally dedicated to the sounds, style and everything else absolutely essential to youth South-Asian Americans.” It’ll feature shows like “Top 10 Desi Countdown,” which invites viewers to pick your favorite videos, “Bollywood on Ice,” for an inside look into the Indian film [...]

Aussie Indian Food Chain Logo Criticized As Racist, New Logo Equally Racist

Thursday, June 23rd, 2005

Australian Indian food fast food chain “Handi Ghandi” should probably just quit the business and start over. The New South Wales-based restaurant came under fire last week when Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, objected to the use of his great grandfather’s image in the chain’s logo. The logo features a drawing of the [...]

Srikant Datar to be Dean of Harvard Business School?

Thursday, June 23rd, 2005

When Harvard Business School dean Kim B. Clark announced her departure on June 6th, she left the head position at the nation’s richest ($1.8 billion endowment) business school wide open. Who will succeed Clark is still under question, but accounting professor and senior associate dean of executive education Srikant Datar has been named as a [...]

Bollywood Looking for a Fresh Face

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005

With no new big male star emerging to the silver screen in the past five years, Bollywood is on a search for a new face who can bring Indian audiences back to theaters, after an eight to 10 percent drop in attendance in the past three years. Veteran actors from the 80s and 90s still [...]

Bollywood “Raking It In” at Foreign Box Office

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005

With the Bollywood thriller Bunty Aur Babli closing in at the one million mark in the U.S. box office, and Parineeta sitting happily at eighth place on UK charts, Indian critics are lauding the success of domestic movies in the international marketplace. Parineeta isn’t doing badly in the U.S. either, opening up at 23rd place [...]

Reliance Group Dispute Ends

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005

Mukesh and Anil Ambani, the quarreling brothers at the head of India’s Reliance Group, have finally reached a settlement on how to divide up their father’s business. The petroleum and petrochemical companies of Reliance Industries Ltd and IPCL Ltd will go to Mukesh, while Anil will take over the telecom, electricity, and financial services under [...]

Rape Victim Imrana Bibi Won’t Marry Her Father-in-Law

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005

Stating that she would rather stay single that comply to the panchayat’s decision, Imrana Bibi, who was raped by her father-in-law on June 6th and ordered to marry him under village law, said she will not marry her attacker. Allah Razi, head of the Murwaan Masjid in Charthawal declared that sex with her father-in-law has [...]

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar Past His Prime?

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005

32-year-old cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s best days on the field are over, according to cricket legend Kapil Dev. “His youth is not coming back…and his best is gone,” said Dev, and also noted that the expectations on Tendulkar’s performance were always too high. Dev also stressed the importance of doing what’s best for the country, in [...]

Woman Forced to Marry Rapist Father-in-Law

Monday, June 20th, 2005

An Indian rape victim, 28-year-old Imrana, is being forced to marry her father-in-law who raped her, by her Uttar Pradesh village elders, who state that the rape nullifies her 10 year marriage to her current husband. The mother of five must leave her husband and live with her mother and father-in-law for seven months and [...]

Tennis Star Sania Mirza Adjusting to Fame

Monday, June 20th, 2005

As the first Indian woman to reach the third round of the Australian Open and win a WTA tournament in Hyderabad, Sania Mirza is getting a lot more attention from the public than she’s used to. Just like Wimbledon champ Maria Sharapova, Mirza now requires an entourage of security guards when she goes out to [...]