On March 9, 2010 Cisco unveiled its plans that will “forever change the Internet.” Cisco unveiled a new mega router CRS-3,  and this was the big announcement. CRS-3 will be available in the third quarter and is currently being tested by AT&T. The product will sit in the data centers of big telcos like AT&T and others and help speed up the delivery of content to end-users. CRS-3 has a capacity to deliver 92 terabits per second. What does this mean? It means you can download all the movies (I believe I heard there are 2 million movies? Don’t quote me on this.) in the world in 4 minutes, download the content of the Library of Congress in one second and every man, woman and child can be on a video call simultaneously. That is a huge improvement from what routers can deliver today. But, like many observers and analysts have pointed out building a huge network capacity is closely tied to the last mile access, which has not yet been resolved.

Cisco’s big announcement fell a little flat and I guess many were expecting something more than the unveiling of a mega router. Many people were left wondering how could this big router change the Internet forever? “The shift happened so quickly that it felt both jarring and stupendous at the same time,” wrote Ashlee Vance in The New York Times.

I missed watching the announcement because of my radio show at KZSU, Stanford. The next day after the announcement I trooped down to Cisco’s headquarters to talk to Srivatsan Desikan and Melissa Mines, who are both marketing managers. The result is this short video clip where Srivatsan and Melissa answered some of the questions that were on your mind and my mind as well.

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In Part-2 of the interview Yogen talks about innovation, digital lifestyle, his mentors and his old high school headmaster Jack Gibson of Mayo College.

In case you missed you might want to listen or read the transcript to Part-1 of the interview with Yogen.

If you like, you can listen to a podcast of the interview.

This is Kamla Bhatt. We bring you part two of our conversation with Yogen Dalal, Managing Director of Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. In this segment, Yogen talks about innovation, Mayfield’s investment strategy and his mentors. Here is Yogen.

Kamla: How are you fostering innovations through your investments?

Yogen: Well, it’s a tricky line you know. Our goal here is to invest our limited partners’ money to make money for them and so successful investments are those that are just a little bit ahead of their time. So that when the company has a product that is ready to be launched, it fits in with the needs of customers, whether they be businesses or consumers.

So you know our job is to take risks. So we’re on the cutting edge of figuring out what is likely to be a good outcome but as you know; if you’re a little too early well they tell you about the pioneers who’re the ones with the arrows in their back. (more…)

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How do you describe the magic of Silicon Valley? What is the magic that pulls people from all around the world to come and work here and make their dreams come true? What is the digital silk road? I turned to Yogen Dalal, engineer turned entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, who came to Silicon Valley in the early 1970s when computer software was just starting to take off here. In this 2-part interview we talk on a wide-range of issues including magic of Silicon Valley, Vint Cerf innovation and his alma mater Mayo College in India.

Can these elusive magical qualities of Silicon Valley be reproduced in other parts of the world? What are the missing ingredients that make it difficult to recreate that magic? What was it to be one of the first graduate students of Vint Cerf, the Father of the Internet? What has surprised Yogen the most about the growth of the Internet? What was it like to work with Apple? What are his thoughts on IPv6 and the new wave of innovation, esp social media and the questions about privacy? Tune it to find out.

If you like you can listen to a podcast of the interview with Yogen Dalal.

This is Kamla Bhatt. Today my guest is Yogen Dalal, who is Managing Director, at Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley. Mayfield currently manages over $ 2 billion and has invested in 500 companies out of which 100 went public. Mayfield is also active in India and has invested in a handful of companies there.

Yogen has been in Silicon Valley since the 1970s and worked with Vint Cerf, the father of Internet at Stanford and co-authored the specification for Internet Transmission Control Program or TCP. Yogen was a founding member of the Claris Corporation and Metaphor Computer Systems and prior to that, he worked at Xerox Parc. He’s currently on the boards of Naunce, Revenue Science, Audiofeast and others.

Yogen has a PhD from Stanford and has an undergrad degree from IIT, Mumbai. Welcome to the show, Yogen.

Yogen: Thank you Kamla. Always nice to talk to you and get your perspectives on the world.

Kamla: Today I’m going to get your perspectives and the valley. What is the magic of Silicon Valley? (more…)

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If you like, you can listen to a podcast of this interview .

This is Kamla Bhatt. We bring you the second part of our conversation with Oscar-nominated music composer AR Rahman. AR has been nominated for three Oscars for his music composition in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.

In this episode AR talks about his journey as a music director and the role that his mother played.
Kamla: Welcome to the show AR.
A R Rahman: Hi, nice to be here.
Kamla: How has your journey been from Kodambakkam to Hollywood?
A R Rahman: My journey. Very unpredictable journey actually. When I was a child I never thought that I could probably perform properly. I was famous from the age of 11 because I was in a children’s show on TV every Sunday. So, they asked me to play film songs and I used to play that and people used to recognize me. Fame was not an unusual thing even then. But my confidence level and the level of probably delivering something all those things suddenly feel surreal. When you come here and you meet the people in America and Los Angeles. All the movies you have seen. Last night I saw Oliver Stone and one of my favorite movies of his is ‘Born on the 4th of July’. So it is really a big trip isn’t it from there to here? (more…)

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This is a 2-part interview with Oscar winner AR Rahman. An intensely private person, AR was pretty candid in this 2-part interview where he talks about his journey as a musician. AR entered the Indian film industry as a young boy, and through sheer hard work and determination rose to become one of the top film composer in India. In 2009 AR became the first Indian music composer to win 2 Oscars - for music composition and best song Jai Ho in Slumdog Millionaire.

If you like, you can listen to a podcast version of this interview with AR Rahman.

This is Kamla Bhatt and today my guest is AR Rahman, who is being nominated for three Oscars for his work in Slumdog Millionaire. He is the first Indian music composer to be nominated for three Oscars. In 2005, Time Magazine listed the musical sound track from his first film Roja as one of the top 10 movie sound tracks of all time. AR as he prefers to be called is also one of the top selling recording artist in the world.

Kamla: Welcome to the show AR.
A R Rahman: Hi, nice to be here.

Kamla: So, when you won the Golden Globe, who was the first person you called?
A R Rahman: I text from my agent Sam Schwartz’s Blackberry to one of my friends to tell my wife. Because we were sitting there and phones were not allowed and I think they saw it on TV. (more…)

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This is Kamla Bhatt and today my guest is Danny Boyle who is director of Slumdog Millionaire, the surprise movie of 2008 that has won four Golden Globe awards and has won 10 Oscar nominations. The New York Time Magazine called Slumdog Millionaire “The ultimate Danny Boyle movie”. The film had a shoe string budget of less than $15 million and has grossed over $52 million at least until early January. Danny directed the critically acclaimed “Trainspotting”, “28 Days” and more recently Leonardo Di Caprio in a big budget Hollywood film called “Beaches”. But what Danny likes making are films that are lower down on the radar or as he puts it, not on the radar at all.

Danny won an Oscar for best director for Slumdog Millionaire. The movie went on to win 8 Oscars in 2009.

If you like, you can listen to a podcast of this interview.
Kamla: Welcome to the show.
Danny: Thank you very much. Nice to be here.

Kamla: How did you manage to put Slumdog Millionaire, the cast and crew, right in the middle of the radar?
Danny: “With lots of help” to be honest is the short answer. We had an extraordinary time making the film and with a huge kind of talent and application of the caste and crew — all of whom are really, apart from Dev Patel and a couple of people that I brought from London with me. Everybody is, basically from the Bollywood film industry. And it is a tribute to them really. And more widely to everybody in Mumbai who helped us make this film whether knowingly or unknowingly, in a way. Once we made the movie, we were very proud of the movie. There is whole different universe you enter, which is trying to get the movie on the radar as you put it. For that you need the support of your distributors and in Europe that is Path , a company called Path and in America, it is called Fox Searchlight. Fox Searchlight in particular, have done an extraordinary job since we first premiered the film in Telluride and in Toronto in September and had grown very very slowly and let it work by word of mouth, by not huge advertising, but by a kind of word of mouth, you know. And people talking to each other about the movie — that they are finding a movie that they want to recommend to friends. You cannot buy that kind of word of mouth. It is the only thing, it is the only really free, democratic thing that remains in this huge film industry and it is extraordinary the way it works. We have benefited from that enormously and when you appear in the award season and that one thing leads to another if you are very lucky. But you need a lot, a lot of help all along the way. (more…)

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(A version of this article was originally published in Open Magazine, June 6, 2009.)

(Charlie Chaplin is an icon in India. Curiously in the state of Uttar Pradesh in North India Chaplin is often referred to as “Chaliss Chaplin.” Like many kids I grew up watching Chaplin movies. Every time my dad saw Chaplin he would invariably comment: “This is a bioscope.” I filed away that piece of information and did not realize that one day I would be living close to the area where Chaplin shot his famous film The Tramp and that it was in the San Francisco bay area that he met his leading lady  Edna Purviance.)

The large white letters spelt ‘N-I-L-E-S’ reminded me of that other famous sign: ‘H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D’. I often wondered about the startling similarities between these two signs, both perched on hillsides, and if there were any deeper connections. I finally gave in to curiosity and took a detour to venture into a street that looked straight out of an old western. Niles Boulevard, the main street, had mostly antique stores on one side and a railway track on the other. And way above the track was the sign I’d come to know so well: N-I-L-E-S. My eyes caught the Charlie Chaplin figures on the lamp posts. Why Chaplin? Intrigued, I drove on, looking for clues, and found my answer. The sign read: ‘Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum’. It wasn’t open. (more…)

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Aziz “the bored” Ansari is a rising star in the world of entertainment. Within a short span of time Aziz has carved a name for himself. He  currently appears on NBC’s sitcom Parks and Recreations. He has appeared in a handful of Hollywood films and is working with Hollywood Director Judd Apatow on 3 films.  Last month he released his hour long Comedy Central special Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening. The title of the album I suspect is inspired by his love for smooth R& B music.

As you may have noticed in the video clips Aziz’s mind runs at 64,000 RPMs and there is a certain edginess to his style of speaking. He started exploring a career in the entertainment field while he was studying marketing at New York University. A quick study Aziz is deft at answering those questions about his nationality. When asked where he is from his studied response is: “From the South,” and that is the truth. He is from the South in two ways: he was born and brought up in South Carolina, and his parents are from Tamil Nadu, South India. Often, he will mention in passing how he can speak a little bit of Tamil. (Don’t miss his hilarious reference to the singer M.I.A.).  I guess it is kind of expected for desi stand-up comics to mention their cultural heritage. Russell Peters does it, Aasif Mandvi does it, and now Aziz Ansari does it.

Like many young people Aziz  leads a highly networked life (is that the right term?) and is connected either to his Blackberry or laptop. He constantly makes references to his Blackberry, Facebook and Twitter in his stand-up routine, and then there is the reference to his young cousins, whom he likes to tease mercilessly on Facebook and IM.

Keep your eyes on this rising star. In the meantime check out Aziz’s website or Twitter for updates. He is prolific.

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That is a demo of Cisco’s TelePresence, which provides an incredible “true-to-life” experience. Sitting around the table at this virtual meeting were people from  different parts of the world. There was no lag and the quality of audio and video was superb. Using Cisco’s TelePresence is a delightful customer experience.

Currently Cisco’s TelePresence is deployed in 50 countries. Earlier this week Starwood Hotel and Tata Communications rolled out Cisco TelePresence meeting suites at W Chicago City Center and Sheraton on the Park Sydney, Australia. Starwood plans to launch TelePresence suites at other properties properties in Manhattan, LAX, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Frankfurt. You could almost feel the infectious enthusiasm from the Starwood team during the press conference hosted via Cisco’s TelePresence. In this age of frenetic travel and 24/7 connectivity it seems a good fit for Starwood to offer Cisco TelePresence solution to its business guests.

Tata Communications has provided the service layer over Cisco’s TelePresence. Cisco TelePresence suites are available in India through its partnership with Taj Hotels.

It was over 3 years ago that I saw a demo of Cisco’s TelePresence at the inauguration of Cisco’s new campus in Bangalore, India. That first demo of Cisco’s TelePresence by John Chambers, CEO and Chairman, left an indelible impact on me. It demonstrated the power of virtual live communication using high-definition audio and video and IP technology. Watching Chambers talk with his team member sitting thousands of miles away in Silicon Valley was surreal. It was as if the person was right there live on stage standing right next to Chambers. I understand this was a demo and folks must have worked frantically to make the experience flawless. That is how technology should work I thought to myself. Just flip a switch and then there is that instant magic of a rich, interactive virtual meeting.

Since that initial demo I have attended a handful of Cisco TelePresence conferences and events and continue to be impressed with the quality and level of interaction that takes place. Is it any wonder that I have been craving to get my own Cisco’s TelePresence ? You would too if you saw it. Apparently Cisco is working on a consumer edition.

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The Dalai Lama is currently on a tour of the United States, and held a low-key meeting with President Obama last week. He is now traveling around the US meeting and speaking at different cities.

Last evening when Evan Williams, co-founder, Twitter wrote that he met the Dalai Lama and pitched him to join Twitter, the spiritual leader laughed in response. But, within hours of Ev Williams’ pitch to the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama officially launched his Twitter account. The news about the Dalai Lama on Twitter broke out earlier this afternoon (California time) and  within hours he has garnered over 16,000 followers and is included in almost 800 lists. (Update: make that over 21,000 followers and included in over 1000 lists.)

Twitter is banned in China.

The Dalai Lama is fond of technology, especially all things related to clocks.

Often dubbed as a realist the Dalai Lama has been living in exile in Dharamsala, India since 1959. For the past 50 years he has been fighting for the autonomy of Tibet, and does not subscribe to the view that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Two years ago author and essayist Pico Iyer wrote a book about the Dalai Lama. In this interview Pico talks about the Dalai Lama, China and the future of Tibet.

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Mr. Sidney Poitier turned 83 today.

An actor, director and a diplomat, Mr. Poitier’s story reads like a textbook case of a person going from rags to riches. He grew up poor in Bahamas with little education, and came to the US when he was 15 years old. He worked in a series of menial jobs to support himself and by the time he was in his early 20s he got his first break in theatre, and thus was born a gifted actor.

His story is an inspiration and reminder that if you apply your mind, energy and time you can succeed. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Mr. Poitier did not set out to become an actor, but once he put his mind to becoming an actor, he applied himself to becoming an excellent one and got the right breaks.

He was the first major male black actor, who went on to win an Oscar for his performance in Lilies of The Field. “It was amazing, amazing, amazing,” he said in an interview about winning the Oscar. But, the movie that stands for many is Guess Who Is Coming For Dinner that addresses inter-racial marriage in the 1960s, when it was not exactly a topic that was widely discussed.

His other movies include To Sir, With Love, Paris Blues, In the Heat of the Night and The Greatest Story Ever Told among others.

If you missed watching Mr. Poitier’s film, it might be worth checking them out. May I recommend Guess Who Is Coming For Dinner?  Besides Mr. Poitier the movie stars Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, and is directed and produced by Stanley Kramer. Hepburn won the best actress award for the film in 1967.

There is something about Mr. Poitier that inspires you…

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The very first question that Eisner asked Hastings was about the unlimited leave policy that Netflix supposedly extends to its employees. And  that question set the tone for the evening, where Eisner constantly probed, prodded and questioned Hastings about Netflix, its strategy, whether it is a content company and how it plans to work in the changing digital environment (think streaming movies).  You could immediately sense the faultlines between the two people through the sub-text of the conversation. It seemed like Eisner was trying to understand the startup and innovative culture of Silicon Valley, and what makes Silicon Valley companies different. It does not seem like Eisner is a big fan of free massages/flex hours and options. But that is what people tend to focus and not on the long, interminable work hours, the broken promises to your family to attend a birthday party or your child’s first show that is so common in Silicon Valley. Those long hours, those broken promises are the unspoken parts of what goes behind the success of Silicon Valley companies. But how do you bottle the essence of Silicon Valley culture and help folks understand the power of ideas and dreams?  As an observer to the conversation between Hastings and Eisner you could  spot the difference between Northern (Silicon Valley) and Southern (Hollywood) culture and the difference between old  and new media world. I don’t think  Eisner would be very flattered to be referred to as a member of the old media since his current company creates content for the online world.

I digressed. Back to the conversation between two very different CEOs and their views on how content should be served to the audience.

Hastings talked about the culture at Netflix, which in many ways is a reflection of a unique work culture that exists in the valley. He defined Netflix as “a specialist firm” that has adapted itself to changing business scenarios and went from renting DVDs to streaming content online. Netflix started by renting out DVDs in the 1990s and currently has about 12 million members in the USA.

Eisner was curious to know about Netflix’s strategy for streaming content, and pointed out to Hastings that “unless you get the rights for the first run of the films” for streaming it might be difficult to break into Hollywood. Hastings replied that Netflix’s  strategy is to stream and pay big checks to the companies. Hastings believes that the new model for viewing content will be click and view and that is what they are focused on working. He was also quick to point out that their DVD mailing business continues to grow simultaneously.

Do you change strategy as you grow asked Eisner?  Hastings responded that innovation is key to their strategy and pointed out that companies in Silicon Valley fail when they stop innovating (he offered Sun Microsystems as an example). Which is when Eisner shared his experience of Disney’s acquisition of InfoSeek, and how that acquisition did not work out for them. “InfoSeek was McKinsey’s fault,” said Eisner, who clearly stated that he is not a big believer in acquiring companies.

Throughout the conversation at various points Eisner kept going back to how Netflix was going to acquire original content besides Hollywood movies. At one point he told Hastings that Netflix has made a better mousetrap and then quickly tagged on a question about content. At the end of the conversation Eisner made this pronouncement: “My take is you are way too close to content than you are admitting.” And added that Netflix is right now in the licensing business but “you are totally in the environment of content.”

Listening to the exchange between Eisner and Hastings it was interesting to get a feel for the kind of conversations that might be taking placed behind the closed doors of many, many companies in Hollywood, Netflix, HBO, NBC, Hulu, Amazon and others as they struggle to figure out what is the right model/strategy for serving content online. These are early days and nobody has the right answer on how to tap into this growing opportunity. Eisner was right in emphasizing in creating quality content, and Hastings was right in saying Netflix will pay big checks to stream content. But do either of them have the answer to this question: What does the audience really want?

What I tried to say in my post was brilliantly captured in less than 140 characters by @Wildgw #churchill club event…reed hastings and michael eisner was like two 747s passing in the sky… many great points… different plans……

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It came as a shock to hear that Nirmal Pandey passed away earlier today. He apparently suffered from a heart attack earlier this evening in India and lost his life.

A talented actor and an alum of India’s National School of Drama, Pandey made his mark in theatre before migrating to the silver screen. It was in the mid-1990s that Pandey made his mark in Shekar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994) based on the life of Phoolan Devii, a well-known dacoit, who later became a politician. Two years later in 1996 he once again made his mark as a transvestite in  Amol Palekar’s Daayara (1996). But like many talented actors Pandey was typecast and mostly acted as the “bad guy” in a handful of Bollywood films and was reportedly tired of being slotted as the bad guy. Who can blame him? Perhaps that might explain why he may have become selective and turned down offers to play such roles. We will never know the answer to that question since there are barely any lengthy interviews or Q&A of Pandey. Even though he acted in a handful of films, his powerful presence on the silver screen left an indelible impression on many people.

Pandey’s last film to open in theatres was Kedi a Telugu movie starring Nagarjuna. Next month his new Bollywood film Lahore is slated for release.

Besides acting, Pandey was also a singer who released  a couple of albums. Who knew that the opening line from his song applied to his fans when he said “Maar dala, pehle naazar pe maar dala.” It was Pandey, who had us mesmerized from the first time he appeared on the stage, silver screen or the TV set.

Our heartfelt condolence to his wife and family.

Thanks Pandey jyu (juu is the Kumaoni term for “ji”) for entertaining us.

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This is an excellent  2-part interview of Kabir Bedi by Riz Khan that is definitely worth watching.

There are very few actors like Kabir Bedi in Indian cinema. Bedi has all the trappings of a polished  film star. He has the dashing looks, the deep baritone voice and the elegance. As if that were not sufficient, he is a polyglot, who can effortlessly switch from English to Hindi to Urdu to Italian. And the icing on the cake  is the respect and courtesy he shows to others during his interactions, which I bet scores a lot of brownie points for him.

Bedi began his  career in Indian theatre and Hindi films in the early 1970s. He was one of the early Indian actors, who crossed over to International cinema and TV, much before other Bollywood and other Indian actors did. He acted in a series of English films, including the James Bond movie Octopusy. But it is in Italy where that Bedi made his mark with Sandokan, a popular TV series, where he played the title role.

Bedi has also acted in a string of American TV dramas and soap operas including The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital and One Life to Live.

An under-appreciated actor, just imagine if Bedi had started his career during the Internet era. Imagine the access he would have had to social media tools like  Facebook and Twitter and the kind of virtual fame he would have achieved.  He has a Facebook account. Wonder if Bedi is thinking of jumping into the Twitter bandwagon. I bet his tweets would be far more interesting than some of the prosaic and non-interactive tweets from some of the stars, who make their home in Mumbai.

(Note: The title for the post was inspired by the Hollywood film ”There is Something About Mary.” I was trying to come up with a catchy headline for the post.)

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Ideas and inspirations transcend physical and geographical boundaries as history has shown us time and again. While most of us recognize the power of ideas, it still comes as a pleasant surprise when you  actually see and hear people talk about who inspired them like this short video clip of Martin Luther King where he talks about how he  first heard of Mahatma Gandhi.

“While the Montgomery boycott was going on, India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of non-violent social change. We spoke of him often,” wrote King. Although King never got to meet Gandhi, he went on a month long trip to India in 1959. He wrote an article on his India trip, which is definitely worth a read.

But, I wonder if King knew of his influence on young Indians? His powerful oratorical skills with that unmistakable rich cadence and rhythm is (was) familiar to many young Indian school and college kids. At least it was when I was growing up in India. Take a listen to this last speech King gave in 1968 before he was assassinated.

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Steve Jobs clearly recognizes the power of storytelling.

A consummate marketer Jobs known the art of storytelling, and this Stanford Commencement address is a great example. “I have 3 stories to share,” he says in his introduction. The 3 stories seem to map to birth, life/love and death. The cycle of life. Jobs apparently subscribes to Buddhist teachings and perhaps that informed his storytelling?

In the commencement speech he talks about his birth, adoption, attempts to study in college (thanks Hare Krishna temple for the free food), getting fired from Apple and fighting cancer. Note how he uses simple words to get his point across.

Here is what resonated with me, and I am sure if you listened to the speech you will find these to resonate with you too.

“You have got to find what you love.”

“None of this would have happened if I had been fired from Apple.”

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you have not found yet, keep looking…Keep looking, don’t settle.”

And finally here is the punch line: Stay hungry, and stay foolish.

Great advice, a bit difficult to follow, but good points to hang on to when you are going through a rough patch.

“Don’t let other opinion to drown out your inner voice.”

So, I am staying hungry, and staying foolish and listening to my inner voice and continue to explore and find those stories that remain untold. These are stories of inspiration, motivation, and of how someone got started, who influenced them and why they do what they do. My goal is to tell stories with a context or to use an oft-repeated marketing term: 360 view of the person. It is hard, it is challenging, but I love it. I know creating long content pieces is not fashionable or “the thing” to do, but I also know that a good, absorbing conversation always resonates with people. Thanks for listening and for your support.

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He has done it once again. He did it with Bollywood films, he did it with his role in Danny Boyle’s Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire. And he has done it with making the crossover from mainstream Indian cinema to mainstream American TV. We are talking about Anil Kapoor, who made his prime time TV debut in the wildly popular show: 24.

In 24, Anil plays the role of Omar Hussain, the president of a Middle Eastern country. He will appear in 16 episodes of 24, which basically means you can catch him on almost every episode of Season 8 of 24 Anil is perhaps the first Bollywood actor to migrate from the big screen to the small screen in the USA. Kabir Bedi set the precedent when he moved from Hindi cinema and to the small screen in Sandokan, a wildly popular TV show in Italy. Kabir also appeared in the American soap The Bold and Beautiful.  But, Anil is the first Bollywood actor to appear in a prime time American TV show.

Slow and steady is the term that comes to mind when you look back at how Anil started his career and slowly built it into a successful one. Growing up in Chembur, home of the famous RK Studios, Anil was surrounded by films and film personalities. His father was related to “the Kapoor” family of Indian cinema.

Anil first worked as a production crew member in the mid-1970s before he decided to become an actor. He got his first break as a leading actor in South Indian films. He worked in Mani Ratham’s first film Anu Pallavi Anu, a Kannada film  followed by Vamsa Vriksham that was directed by Bapu, a well-known Telugu writer/director.

His early success in Hindi or Bollywood films were Hum Paanch (directed by Bapu and produced by Boney Kapoor, Anil’s brother) where Anil had a small role, and this was followed by blockbuster success of
Woh Saat Din, Tezaab and Mr. India. In the 1990s there was Beta, Lamhe, Taal, and Virasaat. The list continues and Anil has acted in over 100 films so far.

After 20 some years of facing the camera, Anil decided to try his hand as a producer and has made a handful of films including Badhai Ho Badhai and Gandhi, My Father.

But, it was his role in Slumdog Millionaire that catapulted Anil to international fame and brought him to the attention of Hollywood producers and directors. Ironically, Anil almost passed up the opportunity to act in Danny Boyle’s film and it was his son, who persuaded him to act in Slumdog Millionaire.

After spending 30 years in mainstream Indian cinema, Anil decided to take the plunge and move to the small screen and the result is his appearance in 24. While he is busy with this American TV schedule, Anil is also busy acting and producing Bollywood films. He is doing all this without much of a fanfare or hullabaloo. And I suspect that is the kind of person he is: a low-keyed professional, who enjoys what he does and listens to his children’s advice with an open mind. If it were not for his children Anil might not have been on Slumdog Millionaire or 24.

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As many of you may already know 2009 was a very interesting year, where my show was featured on Mint and NDTV’s websites. I had an exiting mix of guests: Ninja Srinivasan, Editor-In-Chief at Yahoo!, Guy Kawasaki, Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco, Oscar winners Danny Boyle and AR Rahman and Bollywood filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra among others.

As some of you may know I took a sabbatical in mid-2009. I went on a quest. As I discovered there  is a lot to learn from traditional media. Creating those one minute news package for TV was both challenging and exhilarating. Writing and polishing the news copy just minutes before going live had my adrenalin pumping. Learning how to engage with your on-air (radio) audience in a 10 second spot in-between songs was an invaluable experience. I have new respect for camera people, floor directors and video editors, whose painstaking work often goes unnoticed. I have new respect for radio DJ’s and program directors and the hours of hard work they put in to create that unforgettable radio experience.

During the break I stayed connected with all of you via Twitter.

I am back now and look forward to sharing new content every week.

I look forward to your continued support, feedback and suggestions.

Thank you.

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What you can’t do in real life, you can do in movies commented Bollywood’s film writer Jaideep Sahni in an interview. Sahini’s stories reflect that line of thinking in movies like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Chak De! India and now Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year. For the second time Sahni teamed up with director Shimit Amin to create a winner. Their first project was Chak De! India.

I went to see Rocket Singh simply based on the song Pocket Mein Rocket Hain that I saw by sheer chance. I was instantly drawn to the song and my husband nailed it when he commented that whoever made this film had lot of fun making it. There was something fresh and appealing about the song and I simply had to see the picture. Plus, having worked in marketing and sales in a previous avatar I was curious to see who this Rocket Singh: Sales of the Year was? How did Rocket Singh survive in the shark tank, which is what sales teams are often referred to. How did he become the salesman of the year?

May I say that I was not disappointed with the movie even though it had no songs (I mean duets) and no running around trees, no vamp, no sick mother or grandmother… in short many of the important ingredients of a Bollywood film? Each character in the film was fleshed out pretty tightly and delivered a fine performance. Both the director and the writer clearly respect their audience and that shows through in the film. I liked the way the film was edited and I suspect that Amin, who has worked as an editor for American TV & movies paid special attention to this aspect.

I will refrain from sharing the plot and instead focus on why this film appealed to me at different levels.

The film underscored what it takes to build a company and be an entrepreneur ,who has integrity and ethics. (I maybe looking at the film with a biased eye because of my interest in startups.) Ethics, Warren Buffett famously pointed out cannot be taught in schools, but is something that is learned at home. That message shines through clearly in the movie. Ethics and integrity matter and you adhere to it even in the face of deep disappointments. (Yes, I know it is idealistic, but such people do exist and operate successful businesses.)

The film also showed that being smart and being at top of the heap does not automatically translate to success in the real world. Ever wondered those who graduate at the bottom of the class and go on to make a successful career? We don’t hear such stories very often, and Rocket Singh is one such example.

The movie also highlighted the notion of an incorruptible young Indian, who want to build business the right way and play the game by the rules. (Yes, I know this is treading on that dangerous “ideal world” scenario.)

The movie is an old story recast and tailored to meet and appeal to the sensibilities of young India, where 500 million people are under the age of 30. And I think Rocket Singh has delivered a product that will appeal to its target demography. Watching Ranbir Kapoor on screen reminded me others who portrayed such characters - Balraj Sahni and Raj Kapoor, who played similar roles in a different period.

Just like Chak De! India became a case study for business schools, I think Rocket Singh is on its way to becoming a new case study on how to become an entrepreneur with integrity and ethics. Once a business person losses his/her integrity it is very difficult to regain it and that struggle is clearly highlighted in the movie (You will have to see the movie for that.). “People matter.” “The chemistry in a team matters,” is a refrain that you hear very often in Silicon Valley, but you don’t realize the importance of it until you start working on your business or work for a startup, which is when it becomes blindingly clear why ethics and integrity matter. Why working with a team that subscribes to a shared value system matters and this is once again highlighted in the film .Yes, I know this is a movie that ends just like a fairytale does, where everybody lives happily ever after.

Rocket Singh delivers an effective message without become preachy. Now, that is a rare feat to accomplish in Bollywood, and very few filmmakers have been able to achieve it.

Let me know what you thought of the movie? What was it about the movie that appealed to you? Would you recommend this movie?

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Accompanied by his entourage the Mayor’s short trip was to seal the sister city relationship between San Francisco and Bangalore, and also announce San Francisco’s partnership with Cisco for sustainable urban development.

Three years ago, Cisco opened its first Globalization center outside the US in Bangalore, India that is currently headed by Wim Elfrink. Smart connected cities is Wim’s favorite phrase. For over a year now Wim has been  tirelessly promoting Cisco’s smart-city initiative and how Cisco’s technology can be deployed in monitoring and efficiently using resources.

In a virtual press conference from Bangalore using Cisco’s telepresence,  the Mayor and Wim fielded questions from journalists from around the world.

I had sent out a Twitter wondering if people had any questions for either Wim or the Mayor and I got a mixed bag of questions through tweets, DM and emails. This question sent by @PaulWiggins in Australia was the one that I asked the Mayor: What did the Mayor of San Francisco see in Bangalore, India? “I have seen the future here,” was the Mayor’s short and pithy answer. And the video captures the rest of his response including if people from Bangalore are on Twitter.  The Mayor never misses an opportunity to talk about Twitter, the small startup that has changed the way we communicate online. And of course, the Mayor has a twitter handle.

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In 2006 I was lucky to meet both the musicians individually and interview them in person. Both were terribly gracious with their time, especially Rudresh since I missed my subway stop and landed up at Coney Island instead of getting off at Brooklyn! I remember Vijay babysitting his little daughter and putting her to sleep so that there was some quite time to do the recording.

You can listen to the individual multi-part interviews with Vijay and Rudresh, and one where they both speak about their collaboration. Rudresh describes their first meeting as “bizzare,” where both were seizing each other up to see how Indian each of them was, and what they knew about Indian music. They were introduced at Stanford by jazz musician Steve Coleman in the late 1990s, when both were attending a jazz workshop. Interestingly, until then neither of the musicians had met each other.

Both musicians spend time traveling to various schools and colleges to talk on career days and help students (esp desi students) understand that they can make a career out of music. Both serve as important role models for a community that is obsessed with their children making a safe career option in medicine or science.

In this video clip you can catch a glimpse of Vijay playing that irresistible, foot tapping and catchy tune called Galang from his album Historicity.

Rudresh pays homage to his South Indian roots in this album called Kinsmen that he co-created with Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath. Here is a short refrain from their track called Ganesha, where you can listen to the artists perform a “jugalbandhi” of sorts focusing on the western and the Indian musical traditions and how the saxophone is utilizedwithiin each of these traditions.

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Robin Williams is back: big time, to use his current favorite phrase. Last week he was on Charlie Rose’s show (link to the interview) where he spoke about his heart surgery, bounding back, his new show and his mentor Jonathan Winters. Don’t miss his spot-on imitation of Jack Nicholson and and Marlon Brando.  Just for fun keep tabs on how many times he uses the phrase big time.

A trained actor from Julliard, Robin first made his mark on the small screen, and then moved to the big screen. But it was  stand-up comedy scene that keeps drawing him back over, and over again. He has a gift for picking up accents and all you have to do is watch any TV show, movie, standup routine or TV interview and he is a riot, who at the drop of a hat can seamlessly move from one character to another complete with accent.

Check out Robin hijacking a TED conference.

He is currently on the road for his new show called Weapons of Self Destruction.Don’t know why Robin is not playing  in his hometown of San Francisco.  We would love to see him live on stage. Could we get him to perform in the bay area, please?

Hats off to this great entertainer who never fails to bring a smile or laughter into our lives. Wonder who brings laughter in his life?

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There was almost unanimous consensus that the luxury of having a big marketing staff with a big budget is a thing of the past. Donna’s marketing staff at Mint consists of 4 people, while Mark Wilson has a staff of 40 people.

Donna said that Mint they did not do any paid advertising. Prior to Mint, Donna worked at Expedia and Intuit. At Mint she operated with a small team of 4 people and a small marketing budget. Her twin marketing weapons of choice were PR and Social Media that gave them lots of ROI as she put it. ” PR and Social Media is the new advertising,” she said. “I love SEO” declared Donna and stressed that at Mint they were big fans of SEO. Her lean marketing department spent time creating good content and did lot of SEO and social media outreach and ”We did not do any paid advertising,” she said. Good content is essential to marketing and she shared 3 points about what she meant by good content:

• Know your audience.

• Develop a voice for your company.

• Keep to a timeline and deliver content on a regular basis. Often at Mint they published 2 blogs posts a day.

Mark talked about content-based marketing. Creating good piece of content whether it consists of  webcasts, videos or blogs was crucial in achieving their marketing goals he said. He also pointed out how good content can be re-purposed and effectively used for internal, as well as external marketing. Sybase recently built an in-house studio and they create video content at a steady pace, which has been a big hit internally, as well as with his customers. Mark stressed the importance of creating simple and sticky content.

Vince made a telling point when he said that creating good white papers is crucial to marketing and that it is still a basic prerequisite for effective marketing. He also pointed out how companies are starting to outsource some of their marketing needs and that in turn has helped trim the costs.

Donna captured the heart of the debate when she said that in the last 20 years what was missing was an intimacy with the customers. In the old days the corner hardware store owner interacted and knew his customers on first name basis and was often privy to their stories, but that intimacy got lost over the years. By effectively using social media and web 2.0 tools you can recapture some of that lost intimacy and create a brand for your product she pointed out. And that I think is the core of marketing in this brave, new world, which is a 2-way, interactive channel.  Storytelling is back, and there are many touch points available today for a company to reach out and interact with their customers and find out what they want and need.

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For three days people around the world witnessed the brutal carnage unfold on their television sets. In hindsight, it appears that the 10 young men were receiving instructions from a source in Pakistan on how to execute the attack.

Earlier today on the eve of the first anniversary of 26/11 the Government of Pakistan announced that it has charged seven suspects for organizing the attack. The seven arrested men have not pleaded guilty to the charges according to reports.

Madhavi at The Trajectory blog writes that Pakistan’s actions comes after a year of “vehement denial” of the attacks. She continues:

“The most high profile name among those charged is Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, head of the banned militant group Laskar-e-Taiba.”

Madhavi’s post has an interesting twist in the end when she asks:

“Pakistan has handed India an anniversary gift for 26/11 in the form of Lakhvi & company’s verdict; the people of India are still hoping to receive forgotten anniversary gifts. March 13th 1993, December 13th 2001, July 11th 2006, November 26th 2008…how many more strikes do we need before even a single mastermind of these terrorist attacks is punished by the Government of India?”

Nita at A Wide Angle View of India wonders why are the foot soldiers (the Mumbai police) being blamed for doing an effective job in staving off the attack? It is not the foot soldiers that need to be blamed, but the top politicians and security folks of Mumbai. She writes:

“So many died in vain, but not a single person has taken responsibility for the carnage. We need to mourn the dead, but we also need to ask for the answers. It is the top cops and the politicians who are to blame. For the lack of coordination and action. It is really pathetic and in really bad taste to see television channels blast the foot soldiers. Try and shame those poor unequipped men who had rifles that were rusted, men who ran helter skelter because they had no leader to direct them. Men who weren’t even sure where the terrorists were, how many there were, what they were up to. […]

The foot soldiers in Mumbai had nothing. If some of them ran, let us not blame them.”

While there were lots of articles written and many recommendations made in the immediate aftermath of 26/11 not much progress has happened, notes Filter Coffee. He writes:

“Sadly, barring a few cosmetic rearrangements, not much has changed in India, and no one, least of all Mumbaikars seem to care.”

Nyaypati Gautam of India Story appears to echo the feelings of Filter Coffee about the lack of change in the past year. But, he wonders what it is that he can do to bring about some change? He writes:

“We continue to be as apathetic as before. If any terror strike were to happen today I fear that the same things would get re-enacted. I hope I have got it wrong but I have a dirty feeling that I am not. It is so frustrating. What can I do to channelise this anger in a meaningful way?”

Many people used Twitter to share news and express their opinions. Here are a few examples of those messages:

RodrigoRMorais: USA Today is saying “Mumbai commemorates one-year anniversary of terror attacks”. What is there to commemorate about?

aniljayakumar: A minute for Mumbai………….

NitinNDTV: all of us will forever remember 26/11,but let’s not forget victims of earlier attacks & the brave men who continue to die in defending India

madhavgk: Politicians abused after 26/11 last year… politicians abused after 26/11 this year… nothing changes in Indian politics!

nsohanlal: 26/11 Jingoism on twitter today… Alas will be forgotten as a mundane Monday come Sunday!

This post was cross-posted in Global Voices.

26/11 collage from Keerthi’s Flickr photostream and used under a Creative Commons License.

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Here is a round-up of some of some recent commentaries, analyses and news on Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington & the future of the US-India relationship.

Josh Rogin of NPR offers a sneak peek into Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington with comments from Ashley Tellis and Stephen Cohen. This piece paints the big picture and gives the context of Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington.

Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria offers his perspective in this piece aptly titled The Prize Is India and drives home the point that the Obama administration has a strong chance to strengthen its relationship and regain its strategic focus with India. Zakaria points out that South Asia is a failed tarpit that consists of dysfunctional states except for the long-functioning Indian democracy. But the question is will the Obama administration bag the prize called India?

Prof. Raja Mohan writes in a Forbes opinion piece that President Obama has a good chance of improving the US-India relationship, but cautions against the Pakistani army’s role. He highlights the powerful role of the Pakistani army and writes:

“The only institutional force that remains hostile to India in Pakistan is its army; it is a pity, then, that the Obama team is ready to buy into its new story about the link between Kashmir and Afghanistan. The sources of the troubles of the United States, Afghanistan and India stem from the unwavering dominance of the Army over national security politics of Pakistan.”

There are many dimensions to the US-India relationship and an important one is the US relationship with China and how that will impact India. The recent joint statement between the US and China has created quite a bit of storm in India. Lydia Polgreen of The New York Times captures the mood in India and describes what the mainstream media and analysts think about Mr. Singh’s visit to the USA. Predictably, the US-China questions seems to be on the minds of many people. Polgreen writes:

“The vague statement (US-China)  has been widely interpreted here as an invitation to China to meddle in India’s backyard, and prompted howls of dismay across the political spectrum. Mian Ridge of The Christian Science Monitor writes “pundits in India are more interested in the question of where the US’s new friendship with China, as well as its relationship with Pakistan, leaves India.”

Perhaps, one of the strongest pieces urging President Obama to seize the opportunity and improve its tie with India comes an opinion piece in today’s The Wall Street Journal . Written by Walter Ladwig and Anit Mukherje the duo offers their suggestions to President Obama. They highlight how the Obama administration maybe squandering an opportunity with India. President Obama needs to harness the current opportunity and  put the India-US relationship back on track is their primary piece of advice.  President Obama’s administration should not view India as a player, but as future power in this region the authors point out. The US needs to “first needs to clarify where India fits into both its Asia policy and its broader vision of the world. A statement supporting India’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council would send a reassuring signal to New Delhi.”

They go on to write that the Obama administration needs to do something meaningful on the first anniversary of 26/11 and they write:

“..the Obama administration should send an unequivocal message on terrorism by supporting India’s demand that Pakistan bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice. Islamabad’s delay in prosecuting the alleged plotters of these attacks has not only held up the peace process between the two nations but has also prolonged India’s national trauma. The attempted compartmentalization of terror groups on the part of U.S. and Pakistan—by differentiating between Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, or between sectarian and Kashmir-focused militants—needs to stop. The U.S. and India must present a united front against all these groups and their benefactors.”

Will we get a clearer picture of where President Obama’s administrations stands on India? We’ll hopefully know that by this weekend.

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This was the first time the reserved and thoughtful Mr. Singh shared his views on 26/11 the, day Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, was attacked by 10 terrorists from Pakistan. This Thanksgiving weekend will mark the first anniversary of the attack on Mumbai. Besides the foreign policy and domestic issues, Mr Singh spoke about the importance of the economic development of India and how  if it succeeds the Indian economy could prove to be an International public good. Being a brilliant and lucid economist  and thinker, Mr. Singh laid out the assumptions that India needs to fulfill to succeed economically.  Some of these include cracking illiteracy and poverty. If these issues are cracked then India has a good chance of succeeding, which in turn could serve as an effective economic model for the poorer third world countries he said. Two-thirds of the world is still poor and they are dealing with similar issues Mr. Singh underscored.

Zakaria’s prelude and concluding remarks were rather telling. He pointed out that President Obama’s administration appears to be making a small series of fumbles in its South Asia policy, and seems to have adopted the world view of the Pakistani army, which is that Pakistan needs a pro-Pakistani government in Afghanistan. He added that the urgent is driving out the importance in the policy being pursued by the administration. The US would have missed an opportunity if it does not build on this opportunity he remarked.

What are Mr. Singh’s expectations of his visit to Washington? The ever-pragmatic economist turned politician apparently has none. Even though at a personal level Singh and Obama might get along swimmingly, when it comes to foreign policy each leader subscribes to their own national self-interests. That national self-interest might partially explain why the US government might (is) subscribe to the Pakistani Army’s world view in South Asia. Having two failed states in South Asia would destabilize the region and will not contribute to the success of USA’s Af-Pak policy. (Then there is China and the difference in the way the US and India deal with China. The Tibet question adds an interesting wrinkle to the whole issue.) But, does the success of Af-Pak policy require that India be sidelined as questioned some of the observers? Moving forward can the Obama administration fix the small fumbles in its South Asia policy that Zakaria spoke about?

India, as many observers have pointed out, has shown enormous reserve and restraint especially on 26/11. Hopefully President Obama’s administration does not miss this historical opportunity in effectively engaging with India.

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Looking at the developments in the last few weeks it appears that India is back in the spotlight and the buzz is all about Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington later this week. This will be President Obama’s first state dinner, and I suspect there is some symbolic significance to that. Mr. Singh’s visit comes at a crucial time: on the eve of the anniversary of the Mumbai attack, also known as 26/11. Just a year ago on Thanksgiving weekend 10 Pakistani men crossed the waters from Pakistan to India in a small boat and terrorized  India’s financial and entertainment capital for over 3 days.

Interestingly, what appears to dominate the current buzz of Mr. Singh’s visit to Washington are not issues, but is instead about the social aspects surrounding the upcoming, all important first  state dinner on Tuesday. The buzz appears to have originated in the beltway region, but has since percolated to various media outlets.

We will know the outcome of Mr. Singh’s visit a few days later when it gets sliced and diced by various analyst, observers and news media organizations. In the meantime, the chitchat is all about the who, what and where of the state dinner for Mr. Singh. Who is being invited? Who is the chef that is going to whip up the dishes for this state dinner? According to various reports it could be Marcus Samuelsson of New York’s Aquavit that might cook the dinner. Will there be curry, or should I say Indian-inspired food on the menu? President Obama is partial to “desi khana” and is supposedly partial to dhal and can whip up the dish in his kitchen. (Remember the 60 Minutes interview with candidate Obama where he talked about desi khana?)  Oh, and let us not forget the fashion angle to this whole social event. What will Michelle Obama wear for this event and what clothes should others wear?

Mitra Kalita of The Wall Street Journal writes in Desis in White House that an invitation to this prestigious White House dinner is at the top of the list for quite a few movers and shakers in the desi community.  In spite of the supposed embargo on the menu, guest list etc somehow news has trickled down on who will be at Obama’s first state dinner. Politico reports that the Republican Governor of Louisiana  Bobby Jindal will be there. However, the Republican minority leader has apparently  declined  the dinner invitation. Rumors have been floating around that talk show queen Oprah might be there for the dinner. Of course, Kal Penn Modi, the Hollywood actor who has is on a hiatus from his acting career and working with the White House will be there for the diner. Hillary Clinton will be there, minus President Bill Clinton according to some reports.  We will know the details of the guest list, the menu, entertainment and all other social aspects of the dinner only on Tuesday. In the meantime, Politico has come up with its top 10 dream-list suggestions on who should be invited for this much talked about dinner event.

The last time Mr. Singh came to the White House for a dinner was in 2005 when he was hosted by Mr & Mrs. George W. Bush. The question is: could this state dinner hold a recipe for success? We will know next week and in the months following that dinner.

But, before I sign off let me offer my 2-cents of what to expect in the menu.I suspect there will be more than one Indian-inspired dish, but I can say with some degree of confidence that these ingredients will be used for sure: cilantro, ginger, rice, yogurt, and maybe mango. What do you say? Have any ingredients to add to this list?

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I picked up this delighful collections of essays on a whim, while browsing through the always interesting book shelves at Kepler’s in Menlo Park. Once I was in possession of the book, I  put it away with the intention of reading it at some indeterminate future date. For the moment it was sufficient that I had discovered an interesting and eclectic book that promised to be a good read. Then, late one evening sometime in the year 2001 I picked up the book, and casually started reading it. I was instantly hooked. I continued reading till the wee hours of the morning, and only put it away after I read the last page. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

This slim volume with about 160 pages has about 18 essays. In this book Fadiman share her on-going love affair with books. And as Robert McCrum of the London Observer put it, “Witty, enchanting, and supremely well-written, one of the most delightful volumes to have come across my desk in a long time…” Need I say more?

This collection of personal essays is a celebration of the written word. After reading this book I have become a carnal lover of books and boldly make notes on the margins of the book. Fadiman says that there are two kinds of book lovers: courtly and carnal. For courtly lovers the “book’s physical self was sacrosanct,” but for the carnal lovers “a book’s words were holy, but the paper, cloth, cardboard, glue, thread, and link that contained them were a mere vessel, and it was no sacrilege to treat them as wantonly as desire and pragmatism dictated.” To some Fadiman’s observations might come as a bit of a shock, but I think her thoughts on approaching your books as a carnal lover makes a lot of sense provided you don’t deliberately deface the pages of the book. I find that jotting comments or thoughts on the margins of the book helps me a lot. It helps me understand what my first impressions or if there was a tangential thought that popped into my head. I bet you would do the same once you read Fadiman’s book.

Fadiman is no common reader. She grew up in a house surrounded by books. Both her parents were accomplished and well known writers. Her father, Clifton Fadiman, was a critic, anthologist and a judge of the Book of the Month Club and her mother Annalee Jacoby Fadiman was a distinguished war correspondent during WW-II and worked with Time.

She is the editor of The American Scholar and a National Book Critics Circle Award. She currently teaches at Yale University.

Related Link: Shefaly’s review of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader By Anne Fadiman, Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998

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This month Sarah is traveling around in the UK, Austria and Australia to show her film. I have listed  the date, time and venue where you can catch the film at the end of the post.

Last month I saw The Sky Below at Stanford. Like many people in the audience I was amazed to how Sarah put together this documentary. She was the producer, director, camera person and editor of the film. That is a lot to do for one person and happily for her the final product is one that prompts you to stop and think. I also got an opportunity to talk to Sarah briefly about how she made the film. She had over 100 hours of film footage and it took her over 4 months of intense editing before the first version of the film was born. Sarah’s dedication and passion to tell the story is clearly reflected in the film.

A couple of years ago Sarah quit her job New York and went to the Indian sub-continent. It appears Sarah’s goal was to chronicle and understand what really happened 60 years ago. What memories and perspectives do people to have and remember of that horrible event? She traveled from Kutch to Kashmir and to Pakistan to understand what historical residues have been left behind? What memories do people have of that event, especially those who had to leave their home and go elsewhere to make a new home, identity and life? How did that event shape the history and politics of India and Pakistan?

And if you are wondering about the title The Sky Below here is an interesting historical tidbit. Sir Cyril Radcliff, the British officer who was in charge of partitioning the India sub-continent never physically visited the region by foot. Instead, he did an aerial sortie and got a quick look of the region from above. What Radcliff missed and failed to understand are the consequences of his actions that took place below the sky in August 1947. In an ironical twist, it appears that Sir. Radcliff had poor eyesight.

Sarah is traveling around in the UK, Austria and Australia in the next month.  Listed below are the date, time and venue where you can catch the film.

UK PREMIERE:

Nov 15th (London) http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/maharaja/events.html

Oxford: Nov 17, 2009

London School of Economics: Nov 19th (London)

Glasgow Film Theatre: Nov 22nd  http://www.gft.org.uk/content/default.asp

Showroom http://www.showroom.org.uk/inet/visMovieInfo.aspx?MovieName=The+Sky+Below&CinemaID=10001

Nov 24th (Sheffield): School of Oriental and African Studies

Nov 26th (London

AUSTRIA PREMIERE: Dec 2nd (Austria)  http://forumstadtpark.at/index.php?idcatside=273

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE: Dec http://qag.qld.gov.au/cinematheque

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Stephen Alter is a second generation Pahadi American just like his first cousin Bollywood actor Tom Alter.

Born in the hot and dusty plains of Uttar Pradesh, Alter grew up in the foothills of Himalayas, where he went to school at Woodstock, in Landour, Uttarakhand. Ask him where his home his, and Alter replies, “Mussoorie in Uttarakhand.”  He confesses that he is happier living in India than anywhere else, and visits his family home in Landour, near Mussoorie, twice a year.

“Pahadi” means someone who comes from the mountain in Hindi.  Although he speaks Hindi, and can read it “slowly,” Alter wants to take a year off and spend time learning Garhwali, the language spoken in the hills of Garhwal.

The Alter family has lived in India for more than 80 years. In 1916, Alter’s grandparents, Emmet and Martin Alter, came as missionaries to Mussoorie, but spent most of their time in Abbotabad and Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan). Alter’s father, Robert, was born in Kashmir, and studied at the American Missionary School Woodstock. Both, his father and grandfather were principal of Woodstock. Chris Anderson of TED is an alumnus of Woodstock.

Alter completing his college in the US, Alter went back to India where he spent the next ten years. In 1987 he moved to Cairo, Egypt to teach writing at the American University.  “Cairo is like India, and reminded me parts of Darya Ganj in Delhi,” says Alter. After spending 7 years in Cairo, Alter moved to Massachusetts where he taught  creative writing and fiction at MIT.

A couple of years ago Alter and his family moved back from Boston to Mussoorie. However their happy time in Mussoorie was marred by a horrid incident. In 2008  Alter and his wife were attacked by 4 unknown people in their own home. You can read about the attack and its aftermath in an essay that Alter wrote. The essay clearly reflects his bewilderment and his resolve to continue to stay in Mussoorie in spite of this incident

This Q&A is about Alter’s book “Sacred Waters” published in 2005. Alter’s book is a welcome addition to the few goods books that exist about this region. The book is a wonderful introduction to understanding the history of this Himalayan region (which has often been ignored) and the central place the River Ganga occupies  in the lives of  many Indians.

“Sacred Waters,” is a beautifully written narrative of Alter’s journey to the sources of River Ganga (also sometimes referred to as Ganges) in the Garhwal Himalayas.

Alter paints a fascinating picture of the changing moods and nature of the river as it bursts from the mountains and courses down to the dusty Gangetic plains, and into the ocean. The book provides a fascinating mix of facts and myths of River Ganga whose source is hidden in the beautiful and rugged mountains of Garhwal, often called as “Dev Bhoomi,” – the land of the gods.

Surprisingly, there exist very few good books on the rich myths, and natural history of the hill districts of Garhwal and Kumaon. Till date probably the best known figure from the region is Jim Corbett of the “Man Eaters of Kumaon” fame followed by Ruskin Bond, who continues to live in Uttaranchal and diligently churns out a delightful stream of essays and short stories.

“Garhwal has been a part of my imagination,…” writes Alter in the book.

KB: How did you come up with the title “Sacred Waters: A pilgrimage up the Ganges River to the source of the Hindu Culture.”

SA: I feel somewhat uncomfortable with the subtitle, largely because I have used the word “Ganga” throughout my book, but the American publishers felt that the anglicized “Ganges” was more recognizable.  The Indian edition is titled, “Sacred Waters: A Pilgrimage to the Many Sources of the Ganga.”

KB: How did you come to choose to write on the Ganga and the char-dham yatra?

SA: Growing up in Garhwal, I was aware of the epics and myths, and had heard about them. I went back to those places, and connected the stories to the physical landscape.  I tried to make a connection between the myths, the natural history and my experience.  I did not set out to debunk or argue any of the myths, but simply to hear the stories and what they meant to me. Some stories resonated within me. There is something in nature that does effect us sometime or the other.

KB: What kind of myths exists in Garhwal region?

SA: There are 3 different myths: epic, colonial and localized. I was at one level working with the Hindu myth but also the colonial myth like the Pahadi Wilson, Jim Corbett. But I could not get much information was the myths of the Garhwalis, especially the gram devattas (village dieties).  Also, the primal myths of the mother goddess have been overlaid by other stories. There is a whole movement in Garhwal to reclaim the myths; with the creation of Uttaranchal the people are re-assessing their identity.

KB: Did you verify these myths?

SA: I did not verify these myths, and made no efforts to verify these myths. There are many versions, and when I re-told them, I tried to blend them as I heard them. Ultimately, when it comes to myths, there is no true myth or false myth.  For instance in Western Garhwal the Kauravas are the heroes, and not the Pandavas. You cannot pin down these myths since they change with each telling.

KB: Describe the Ganga to us.

SA: They myths do a wonderful job of describing the Ganga springing from the matted locks of Shiva. Ganga is made up of different streams coming out of different places, and when you go upstream you see the tributary itself.  The Ganga in the mountain is different; it is volatile, and it is as if the mountains are trying to contain it, restraining it, but it cuts through the Himalayas. It fights its way out of the mountains. And when you see it in the monsoon, it is swollen. The Ganga is physically profound and there is a hypnotic quality to it when you listen to the sound of the river.

KB: How much do people know of these myths when they go on the yatras?

SA: It varies – some know the myths, others go with marginal knowledge. Before the roads, the pandas (priests), often accompanied the pilgrims along the route, so it became a narrative. The myths were told, and the physical landscape was identified. But, now the narrative is broken up but the stories are still told. Technology is disrupting the char-dham yatra. One panda said, “They want to sit in the video coaches, and watch Hindi films. When they reach the destination, they come out and do darshan.”

KB: In the book you lament about motor-roads being laid in the Garhwal region. Why do you think motor road is not a good idea or development?

SA: Wherever motor roads go, destruction follows. Wherever they went, there was environmental destruction.  It brings the culture from the plains, and many of the people who benefit are not the Garhwalis, and it tends to corrupt their culture. And I think if the motor road comes, the temples will accommodate a deity that is known throughout India.

KB: How many trips did you make to India to collect information for the book?

SA: I made 4 trips at different times of the year and used public transportation every time. I walked the route of the char-dham in 4 sections: Rishikesh to Yamunotri during the monsoons; Yamunotri to Gangotri during the winter, Gangotri to Kedarnath in late May, and Kedarnath to Badrinath in late May.

KB: Which leg of the char-dham did you enjoy the most?

SA: The first one, the Rishikesh to Yamunotari was enjoyable. This is because it is a less-traveled route. I was walking through sections of Garhwal that did not have many motor-roads, like Dodital. The winter pilgrimage from Yamuntori to Gangotari was important because I could see many of the places without the clutter of the pilgrimage season. And it has its own charm and power.

KB: How did you take notes for the book?

SA:  I stripped myself of distraction when I went on my travel. There was no computer, no audio cassette, and no camera. I carried a regular notebook that I kept in a zip lock bag to protect from damage. I made notes in the book.

At the time of the interview Alter was already busy working on his next project, which is about elephants in India. “I have always been fascinated by the elephants,” says Alter. That book on elephants titled “Elephas Maximus: A Portrait of the Indian Elephant.” His latest book is titled “Amritsar to Lahore: A Journey Across the India-Pakistan Border.”

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Even though I did not blog much, I was pretty active on Twitter, where I have had lots of interesting conversations and met a lot of new people. Additionally, Twitter has been a great source of new and interesting information that I would have missed out otherwise.

Keep  your comments, emails and suggestions coming. It is always such a pleasure to get new emails, comments and suggestions from you all.

Thank you so much for y our support.

Keep in good spirits and good health and be happy.

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It is  interesting that along with sending congratulations to the PRC leadership, the US also chose to announce that it has appointed a special coordinator for Tibet. While the symbolism is not lost on foreign policy observers and researchers, the question being asked is what does this move really mean?

US Secretarty of State Hillary Clinton named Maria Otero as the special coordinator for Tibet. Otero is currently the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.

Otero’s role will be to coordinate and manage all Tibetan related issues within the context of US-PRC relationship.

Last month China strongly protested the visit of President Obama’s senior advisor to Dharamsala. Valerie Jarrett, accompanied by Otero met with the the Dalai Lama, whose government in exile is based in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama left Tibet about 50 years ago and came to India, which is where he continues to live.  China does not recognize the Dalai Lama’s government in exile.

Tibet is labeled as an autonomous region of China. China’s central concern is to preserve its territorial integrity and minimize any problems it faces from its minority population, including Tibetans.

The Dalai Lama is currently traveling in the USA and next week will be in Washington DC. This will be the first time in 19 years that a sitting US President will not be greet the Dalai Lama according to The Washington Post.

Some observers point out that President Obama appears to be following a middle-path and does not want to rock the boat for next month’s high level meeting with China.

Related link: In case you missed, you might want to listen Pico Iyer talk about Dalai Lama, Tibet and China in this interview.

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Shantanu also sits on the board of Metavante Technologies that was recently acquired by Fidelity. He sits on the advisory of Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. He received his MBA from Haas School of Business.

Shantanu replaces Sallie L. Krawcheck, who joined Dell’s board in 2006 and resigned earlier this week. She is President of Global Wealth and Investment Management for Bank of America (BOA). Krawcheck joined  BOA in August, and prior to that she was with Citi Group.

Links: You can listen to a wide-ranging interview that I did with Shantanu Narayen in 2007 a week before he became CEO of Adobe. Listen to Part-1 and Part-2

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The Toss of a Lemon is a multi-generational saga that revolves around Sivakami, who gets marries at 10 years and becomes a mother at 14 years and a widow  by the time she turns 18. The novel and the central character are based on the personal stories of  Padma’s great-great-grandmother. It took Padma years to produce this 600-page novel and was published in 2008.Here is a Q&A that I did with Padma via phone and email.

KB: What does the title The Toss of a Lemon mean?

PV: The title refers to an incident early in the novel. Sivakami, my central character, is married to an astrologer, Hanumarathnam, who has predicted his own death. He is hoping, however, that the birth of a son might change his fate by altering his horoscope. Hanumarathnam wants to calculate his children’s horoscopes himself but needs the exact birth time to be able to do that. Since he’s not permitted in the birthing chamber, though, he gives the midwife a lemon, and tells her to toss it out the window the moment the baby’s head appears. Hanumarathnam waits in the garden beside the house. The first child is a girl and he calculates her horoscope, which has enormous significance in the novel, but doesn’t affect her father’s fate. The second child is a boy, and also a breech birth. The midwife, seeing a bum instead of a head, hesitates to toss the lemon. She eventually does, but the time Hanumarathnam uses to calculate the horoscope is inexact. Worse, the resulting horoscope, instead of averting his death, confirms it. Much of the rest of the story proceeds, in some way, from those two tossed lemons.

KB: As a child brought up in Canada how did you react to the stories that your grandmother related? Did you find the raw materials culturally alienating or shocking like for example child marriage and the complex caste system? Or, did it connect with you in some historical or cultural way?

PV: Both versions are accurate, in a way! I visited India many times while I was growing up and as a young adult, for as long as 4 months at a time, often in rural areas and in relatives’ homes where much—about people’s values, or the way the caste system was enacted—was as it had been for centuries. So although I’m staunchly opposed to casteism and sexism, I am close to many people who feel differently from me, including my grandmother. I also understand that these matters, while distant from me, are inextricable with my own history and my family culture. It is this understanding—and this affection—that gave me an “in” when I began to write the book.

KB: What methods or literary device  did you use to refrain from coloring the narrative with your observations or reactions?

PV: I didn’t refrain: the novel is entirely composed of my observations and reactions! Sorry…  I think what you’re asking is how I wrote a novel about people whose beliefs are so different from my own, and even potentially abhorrent to me, without seeming to judge them. This was very important to me: portraying this world from the inside, seeing my characters’ relationships and decisions as they would have seen them. It’s easy for us, from the vantage point of a different era, to think that our value systems and ways of living are best, but I really enjoyed the imaginative challenge of getting inside the skins of characters like Sivakami, a Brahmin widow who denies herself all physical contact, despite the emotional consequences for her young children, and Muchami, her servant, a homosexual man who is also Sivakami’s staunchest ally and closest confidant. Both are firm defenders of the caste system, though both are, in different ways, on the receiving end of its oppressions. The contradictions, the tragedies and the often inadvertent comedy I discovered in investigating this world and creating these characters were far more interesting than any pat judgments I might pass.

KB: What kind of a relationship did you have with your grandmother? How did she trust you with all the information?

PV: I’m very close with my grandmother, and, when I finally asked her to tell me about our family history, the stories poured out. Neither of us knew, when we first started sitting together to formally record her memories, where I was headed with this project, but I suppose she trusted me implicitly. I did assure her, because she was worried that some of the things she told me were controversial, that I would keep the tapes and transcripts of our conversations under lock and key for twenty-five years. I think she had wanted one of her grandkids eventually to make a formal record, and she told me, some years after we finished, that, since passing on the stories, which she did in incredible detail, she had begun forgetting them. She knew I had them, so didn’t need, any longer, to retain them herself.

KB: Writing is a lonely pursuit and writers need space and time to write. What was the experience like for you?PV: My temperament craves solitary time to fiddle around with my ideas and live in my head. That’s probably a necessary quality in a writer of books. It is hard to clear that space out of the business of life, which always makes contrary demands, but I have managed, at least for stretches of time, courtesy of grants, awards, and now a book advance, that have let me take periodic breaks from jobs such as teaching and freelance journalism. Childcare is now another must, and my parents have come on board for that, looking after our kids during the academic year.

KB: What kind of reactions have you had from your readers to the book?

PV: I get a couple of letters a week from readers who have been moved by my story, which is enormously gratifying to me, both that they have loved it and that they made the effort to let me know! Some are Westerners with no personal or cultural connection to the world of the story, and many have told me that they found themselves in the uncomfortable position of sympathizing and even identifying with characters whose lives and worldviews could not be more different from their own. I find that very flattering: I think it is in that kind of discomfort that real insight arises and I would like to believe that my story challenges and transcends a number of received ideas, about child brides, about widows, about India’s narrative in the early 20^th century.

Many Indians have also written to me, some to say that the story brought back stories and sense experiences from their pasts. Occasionally, I have gotten a letter to inform me that I got something wrong, and it becomes clear that the “mistake” arises from regional or even familial distinctions. One of my uncles by marriage, for example, while very complimentary about the book as a whole, told me that I that widows cannot go to the cremation grounds as my character Sivakami does. When I asked my grandma about this, she said, “Oh, no, that’s true in his district, but not in ours….” all of 300 miles away!

Someone else criticized my choice of names, saying I should have done my research better: Brahmins of that era, this person said, would never have a name such as “Thangam.” Well, that was actually my great-grandmother’s name, one of the few I transferred directly into the book! I was expecting such criticisms, because I think Indians often do not appreciate how profoundly diverse our country is, how imperfect our knowledge, and how often what we believe to be a cultural regulation is confounded by individual idiosyncrasy. That particularity was, in fact, one of my motivations for writing the book.

KB: Who are some of the writers that have inspired you?

PV: The contemporary author of greatest importance to me is Salman Rushdie. He has been an enormous influence on me as a writer, though no one would guess that from my prose. Midnight’s Children breaks my heart over and over. On a technical level, the one element of Rushdie’s (Ann Marie MacDonald also does this in Fall on Your Knees; so does Faulkner, in a different way) that I admire is the way he creates an image, rotates it, inverts it, and puns on it, until it becomes equally a visual and a verbal metaphor, infused with humor and pathos.  I think it’s a wonderful way to sew a narrative together and have tried it on in The Toss of a Lemon.

KB: What are you working on next?

PV: I’m working on a second novel, under contract with Random House Canada. It’s called Losing Farther, Losing Faster, and takes place in contemporary western Canada. The story centers on an Indian man named Seth, a devotee of a very popular Indian guru. He became a devotee in the course of comforting a friend through the death of the friend’s wife and son in the Air India bombing of 1985. The story actually hinges, though, on a highly ambiguous sexual misdeed committed by Seth’s guru. Seth must come to terms with his faith in light of that revelation. And there are a few other mysteries, which will be revealed in time…

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Badmash, Ishaara, Dil Se, KYA, Zamana, Dhamaka, Tamasha. No, these are not names of new Bollywood movies. These are the names of  Hindi Film Dance (HFD) or Bollywood dance groups from various US universities, and this list does not include the names of  ras gharba or bhangra teams that exist in many of these universities.  

In this article we are focused narrowly on HFD or fusion dance groups in US universities. Over the past few years there has been a sudden explosion of these HFD teams, and almost every Ivy League, well-known state or private school has a Bollywood dance team. And new teams are born every year. as old ones are revamped and get a total makeover with a new name like the one from University of California Irvine did last year.

The newest team to hit the HFD circuit is Tamasha that was born last year at Tufts University, and the oldest team is Penn University’s Dhamaka. Interestingly, Penn’s Dhamaka is one of the few all-male dance teams, and Tufts Tamasha is an all-girls dance team. These two teams are the exception since most of the dance teams tend to have both male and female dancers. It is not uncommon for many of these teams to have non-desi members.Before we go any further let us get the labeling and definitions straightened out.

Some colleges use the term HFD, while others use the term fusion, and rarely do any of the teams’ use the term Bollywood to describe their dance group. On drilling down further I uncovered that West Coast schools prefer to use the term HFD, while East Coast teams largely prefer to use the term fusion. What is the difference you ask? There is plenty depending on which team you talk to and where they are located geographically.  The labeling determines what category you are slotted in a dance competition. The labeling also determines the content of your show. Broadly HFD teams tend to have a 7-8 minute routine with a plot and a theme, and are often described as a mini Bollywood or Broadway show. Even though the final routine is just 8 minutes long, the amount of effort, energy, thought and analysis that is put into the production is enormous and I suspect beats the efforts put in by the original Bollywood choreographers themselves.

“Ten years ago the term Bollywood was not used,” points out Nickesh Vis of Berkeley’s Ishaara, who prefers to use the term HFD. Ishaara was ranked as the top HFD team for 2009, and is recognized by other dance groups as a team to reckon with. HFD’s tend to “have a storyline and there is a plot. It is Bollywood compressed in 8 minutes,” points out Vinitha Rangarajan of KYA, UC San Diego’s HFD team. “You build a storyline and select songs that embody those feelings. The tempo of the songs should fit the theme and get the audience excited,” adds Nickesh.

Both Vinitha and Nickesh grew up in the bay area and danced together in various events as teenagers, which is where both of them got their taste and love for Bollywood movies. While Nickesh is a big fan of Hrithik Roshan, Vinitha is a fan of Madhuri Dixit.

Besides the story line and the songs what distinguishes a HFD team is the elaborate use of props, backgrounds and costumes. HFD teams typically have 4-5 costume changes for their 8 minute routine, and they barely get 15 seconds to change says Vinitha. “California teams have pretty high levels of showmanship where costumes, props and choreography are big,” she adds.  “We basically look like shining disco balls. We need to make sure our team and clothes stand out when you have 1200 people in the audience” adds Akash Shah of Zamana from UC Irvine.  “Every year new team members will look at the costumes and say we are not wearing this. And when they see they have to wear make-up their response tends to be ‘You are kidding me, right?’” Akash points out with a laugh. But eventually the new team members come around to donning those shiny, glittery costumes and wearing make-up when they realize what is in stock for the team, and how committed each one of them is to putting their best foot forward.  

Other HFD teams on the west coast include Stanford’s Dil Se, UC Davis’s Toofan and Zindagi (Yes, UC Davis has 2 teams), UCLA’s Naasha, UC Santa Barbara’s Aashiqi among others.”Stylistically there is a difference between East and West coast dance teams. And yes, there are two different dance styles” agrees Ashwin Pushpala, President of Penn Dhamaka, the all-male dance group. Ashwin pegs Dhamaka as a fusion team. “HFD blew up in the west coast,” adds Ashwin.  Since Dhamaka slots itself as a fusion team they use a mix of hip-hop, salsa, bhartanatyam, bhangra, and ras gharba in their routine. “Our focus is on different dance forms,” says Ashwin. One of their lead dancers is Dean Johnson, “who is an amazing salsa dancer and we learnt salsa from him and incorporated it in our dance,” he adds. Just like Penn Dhamaka, Tuft’s Tamasha slots itself as a fusion group. “We mix bhangra, bhartanatyam, bollywood and hip hop to create our own fusion,” says Tina Jumani of Tufts University.

Penn’s Dhamaka, Tufts’ Tamasha and Brown’s Brown Badmash are all East Coast based University dance teams, who seem to prefer the term fusion to HFD.

Regardless of what label these dance teams use to describe themselves they all pretty much follow a similar routine to forming their teams and figuring out their dance routines. When the new school year begins it means audition time. Dance teams across the country hold audition and choose the new members for their dance team. Once their team is formed they get busy working on their dance routines by selecting songs, learning new steps, building props and making costumes. On an average most members spend anywhere between 10-15 hours each week during a semester. Predictably the number of hours increases on the eve of a competition.

“I watch 1-2 movies in a month and watch YouTube clips for dance sequences,” says Chad Alexander Sitgraves of Stanford’s Dil Se. YouTube seems to be the favorite teaching tool for many of the dancers.”Sean is a very good dancer and we taught him some moves. But, he also spent time watching lot of YouTube videos,” says Rahul of Brown Badmash. “YouTube is a fantastic source that tells us what kinds of moves will work for us,” he adds.While there are many dance competitions held every year there are four that stand out.

The aim of many dance groups is to be invited to participate in the annual Best of Best Competition for South Asian Dance. This is strictly by invitation only competition. The schools with top rankings are invited to participate in the Best of Best competition. Then there are the 3 must-attend competitions: The Philly Fest by Penn State, Bollywood Berkeley by Cal Berkeley and Jhoomthi Shaam by UCLA. “Each team sends an audition tape, and the organizers place you in a category. Not every team makes it to the competition. More teams get rejected than they get selected,” describes Nickesh of Berkeley’s Ishaara.

Dance teams spend anywhere from $15-20k each year to organize and participate in various competitions. How do they raise money? Some like Penn State get funded from their school, while others like UC Irvine raise money through corporate sponsors or organizing charitable shows.

An upshot of organizing and raising finances for their dance team’s means students get to apply what they learn in school. For instance, many point out they have honed their skills at managing finances for their organization.

“I learnt how to manage a team and finances,” says Akash of UC Irvine, who graduated this year. Because of the intense involvement in their dance groups it is unsurprising when you hear that some of the members are seriously thinking of pursuing a career in the entertainment industry like Akash is. And some teams like Berkeley’s Ishaara are working towards appearing on national dance competition on TV. Berkeley’s HFD is all set to appear on “America’s Got Talent.”  (Update: Ishaara made it to the semi-finals in America’s Got Talent.) 

Others members like Rahul Banerjee and Ashwin Pushpala are focused on their professional career. Rahul will be joining Brown Medical School, while Ashwin is interning at a financial institute this summer before heading back to school to finish his studies. But, both of them plan to be involved with their dance groups until they graduate from school. Rahul’s goal is to see if Brown Badmash can qualify for a couple of the dance competition later this year.Interestingly, many team members feel a strong sense of belonging and pointed out that most of their friends are from the dance team. “It gives me a sense of belonging and 90 percent of my friends are from Badmash. Some people have called us a fraternity minus the alcohol and partying,” says Rahul.

“Lot of my friends think I am a quasi desi,” says Chad of Stanford’s Dil Se. “They call me Chad Singh, Chadwinder,” he adds with a laugh. “The team became my closest circle of friends. Dance sort of fuses my extracurricular and social activity,” explains Vinitha Rangarajan. In the meantime, school has just reopened, and that means a fresh round of auditions to recruits freshers and new dancers to various teams. This year I suspect will turn out to be an interesting and challenging one given that Bollywood has gone mainstream on US TV, and this means more opportunities for the various school teams.

Jai Ho!

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On July 25th 2009,  the 43rd Annual Rath Yatra was held in San Francisco’s  Golden Gate Park. Over 40 years ago San Francisco became the first American city to hold this  annual Rath Yatra by ISKON.I wrote an article about the Rath Yatra for Open, where I tried to capture the transformation of the phrase “Rath Yatra” (a procession of chariots) and what the term has come to signify for young Indians. Today, the term Rath Yatra  is automatically associated with politics. Today, the term ‘Rath Yatra” brings to mind LK Advani, BJP and the Hindutva movement.This in in stark contrast to the Rath Yatra I saw in San Francisco, which had no political underpinnings. As one wise onlooker during the Rath Yatra put it: “This one was found on loving and not hating. This one was found on giving and not taking. Maybe the India that we knew has found refuge in San Francisco?” Perhaps, it has.

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Slumodog Millionaire’s success is proving to be an inspiration for this American production of a Bollywood mini series aptly titled Bollywood Hero.

Bollywood Hero is a 3-part mini series that will air on IFC on August 6th throught 8th 2009 and is presented by Palm. The series stars Chris Kattan, Pooja Kumar, Neha Dhupia, and Maya Rudolph. Others that appear in the film in guest or cameo roles include Keanu Reeve, Jeniffer Coolidge of American Pie and David Alan Grier.

Kattan and Rudolph are former members of the hugely successful show Saturday Night Live. Kattan’s characters love dancing.  Remember Kattan’s character Mango? Or The Roxbury Guys with Will Ferrel What is Love?

Kattan plays an actor who fails to make it big in Hollywood and turns to Bollywood. He lands up in Bombay to star in a film called “Peculiar Dancing Boy,” and realizes that he needs to learn the song and dance routine that is the secret sauce of  Hindi films. What happens next is the stuff of the mini-series. I won’t be surprised if Kattan’s character in this series is inspired by his former dancing characters in his Saturday Night Live episodes. Here is a clip of Kattan learning how to do the jhatka from his heroine Lalima Lakhani played by Dhupia.

In true HIndi film fashion the mini series is studded with songs that are a mixture of old and new ones. Interestingly, the new songs are written by Michael Penn.

Bollywood Hero was shot in Mumbai over a period of 10 weeks and you can catch  Kattan talk about the series with late night show host Craig Ferguson. Don’t miss Kattan makes it a point to mention that he got the crew of Slumdog Millionaire for this mini series.

It is hard to judge what Bollywood Hero will turn out to be based on the trailer. I hope it does not fall flat like Albert Brooks film Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World or Mike Myer’s Love Guru. The trailer for Brooke’s film was very entertaining, but the film was very disappointing.

Some of IFC Films releases include My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Y Tu Mama Tambien.

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All things Bollywood-related or should I say Indian (remember the Burger King boo-boo in Spain?) has caught on in the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal). Portugal should not come as a surprise when you consider the long and consistent presence of Portuguese in India starting with Vasco Da Gama in the 15th century.  Until 1962 Goa was still under the rule of Portugal and there is a small, thriving group of desis that live in Portugal. But, Spain? Now, that is interesting. Chess champion Anand Vishwanathan lives in Spain, but I don’t think he had anything to do with importing Bollywood culture into Spain. I guess it is a combination of things: desis in Europe may have acted as cultural pollinators combined with the desire of the Spanish government to attract Bollywood filmmakers to come and shoot in their country. Switzerland is the defacto choice for many Bombay filmmakers, and other European countries are trying to woo the filmmakers to come to their country.

Besides Bollywood, bhangra appears to be quite the favorite dance form in Spain. Earlier this month when I spoke to Sarina Jain of Masala Bhangra about Bollywood and bhangra inspired exercise in the US, she mentioned about her trip to Spain and the popularity of Bollywood and bhangra there.I wonder which Bollywod filmmaker is plotting to make a film in Spain? It will be interesting to see a fusion of kathak and flamenco. Both dance forms have lots of common elements: the stamping of the feet, the hand gestures and the twirling.

(Thanks to Debashish Paul of Bangalore for sending me the link to the Jai Ho performance in Spain.)

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Ishaara, University of California’s Hindi Film Dance aka Bollywood dance group appeared on NBC’s primetime show American’s Got Talent. They clearly wowed the audience and are moving up the ladder and participate in the next round in Las Vegas.

Currently, Ishaara is ranked as the number one dance group in the Bollywood or Hindi Film Dance category at the University level. Interestingly, I just did a longish story about the growth of Hindi Film Dance group in US universities, which has seen a sudden explosion in the last 5 years and is emerging as a new dance category. Will share the link once the article is published.

Last year I saw Ishaara perform live at Cal Berkeley and these guys outstanding. It is amazing how much energy, time, money and above all analysis goes into the creation of each show. I sometimes think even the original Hindi or Bollywood production folks don’t put in so much time and effort.

Wishing Ishaara the very best.

Disclosure: Our nephew is a member of Ishaara.

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There is a new trend in the US: Bollywood inspired exercise routines. While some may consider this new and attribute it to  last year’s Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millioniare … the truth is that this trend has been around for a few years. I first heard about it almost 10 years ago when Sarina Jain introduced her Masla Bhangra exercise routine in US gyms.

For over 10 years now Sarina has been tirelessly promoting this new fusion form of exercise, where she added her own desi masala steps to spice up the old aerobics routine.In the past few years there has been a rapid growth of Bollywood inspired exercise routines that were often available as Bollywood dance classes in the local community centers around the country.  Many of these classes were not certified by any fitness organizations in the US, but that did not stop the growth of this new exercise trend.

The new dance exercise became the new “in” thing in many desi communities around the country. Then with last year’s success of “Slumdog Millionaire,” the new exercise trend got a shot in the arm.While I have watched the growth of this phenomena from the sidelines, I had not written about the popularity of this desi exercise dance form. But, when I did I discovered a whole new world of why, what, when and where this new Naachercise, Bollycercise all began and that in turn became the subject of an article: Masala Grove in Open magazine. I had to distill all the research and squeeze into a 1,000 word article.  You  will get a pretty good  idea of why Bollywood inspired exercise is the “new in” thing in the USA and has now crossed the borders (or should I say the oceans) into Europe and Asia?

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Burger King Corporation (BKC) values and respects all of its guests as well as the communities we serve. This in-store advertisement was running to support a limited-time only local promotion for three restaurants in Spain and was not intended to offend anyone. Out of respect for the Hindu community, the in-store advertisement has been removed from the restaurants.

To my question if their advertising agency Cripsin, Porter and Bogusky was involved in the campaign in Spain, I got this reply:

It was produced by a locally-based Spain agency and not by BKC’s U.S. advertising agency of record, Crispin Porter and Bogusky.

Update: I asked Burger King’s PR folks if they had responded to the Hindu Community leader’s call for an apology.

Burger King’s response: “We have not received a formal letter from the Hindu community leaders.”

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Probably the company was looking to create  a shock value points a marketing professor in the news clip. I guess the ad campaign did provide shock value not only to the customers, but to Burger King itself. It does not sound like the creators of the ad-campaign remotely thought this marketing campaign would backfire on them. This is not the first time Burger King has made a cultural boo-boo in its ad campaign points out AdAge. (more…)

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McNamara was President of Ford Motor Company, served as Defense Secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and was head of the World Bank. But, what he is best remembered is for his role as Secretary of Defense in the 1960s. (PBS Newshour on McNamara.)

There was nothing in McNamara’s early career to indicate that he would become the Secretary of Defense. McNamara belonged to what was described as “best and brightest” group of people from the 1960s, who worked for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. When Kennedy was elected as the President he appointed McNamara as his Defense Secretary and it is for that role he is best remembered. He was dubbed as the “Architect of the Vietnam War.” (more…)

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35-year old Key, a lawyer, set sail from Baltimore in 1814 and was on his way to release one of his good friends from the British, when he wrote the words for this famous American patriotic song. While aboard the ship Keys, often described as an amateur poet, wrote what was originally titled as “Defense of Fort McHenry,” which later came to be known as The Star Spangled Banner. This patriotic song was officially adopted by the US navy in the later 19th century and it was only in 1931 that it became the US national anthem under President Hoover.

Key is a distant relative of Scott Fitzgerald, the famous 20^thc American author, whose work highlighted the Jazz Age and Gilded Age of America in the 1920s and 1930s.

The India Connection: In the late 18th century once the British established their foothold (from a toehold) in India they were focused on expanding of trade between India and other countries. It was the lucrative trading opportunities that brought the British to the shores of India. Initially, it was spices and later on went to include cotton, jute, and opium among other commodities. Cotton, opium and jute were huge revenue generators, and by one account opium was one of the most important revenue generators for the British. Hong Kong was founded by the British in order to carry on their opium trade to China. An Imperial Chinese decree forbade any foreigners from trading directly with China, but they could carry on through the cohong merchants. I digressed, so back to the British in India. In order to carry on the trade it was essential to have a good shipping infrastructure, including dry-docks and ship-building capabilities.

During the British rule the Parsi and Baghdadi Jewish communities were granted special privileges and benefits to carry on trade with the Far East and China. And members of these two communities travelled extensively to Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong and China (Shanghai, in particular).

Members of the tightly knit and educated Parsi community played a key role during the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries. The Wadia family originally from Surat, Gujarat played a significant role in the building of Bombay (Mazagaon) dry dock and the ship building industry in India and later on played a key role in the textile industry (Bombay Dyeing Textiles).  Bombay Dyeing is owned by Ness Wadia, grandson of MA Jinnah.

In the late 18th century the Wadias were involved in repairing and fixing ships for the British during their wars with the Dutch and the French and the family went on to build  Bombay’s  first dry-dock, which was the first in Asia in 19th century.

In the early 19th century the family was commissioned to build HMS Minden, a 74 gunship, which was later on deployed to the Baltic to fight against the Russians. But in 1814 the ship was in the USA, which is when Frances Scott Key sailed on it and penned those famous lyrics.

It must be pointed out that there is some dispute as to whether Key sailed the HMS Minden or not.  But, the fact remains that India and US had maritime trade connections during the 18th and 19th century.  Another little factoid: Yale, a well-known Ivy League university, is named after Elihu Yale, who was the British governor of Madras in the 19th century. Yale gave a sizeable donation to the school and is not the founder of Yale University.

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