A major trend that I have been following this past year is the growing political awareness among South Asians aka desis.  Like others, I  noticed there was an increased involvement from the desi community during the 2009 US Presidential elections. Not only was there an increase in the number of desi candidates running for elections at various local and state levels, but there was also a clear spike in the number of people involved in election campaigns of the candidates. What was clear was the involvement of the desi community at the grassroots level. In a way the desi community had come of political age in the 2008 elections as one political observer put it.

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I have been on a long break as some of you may know from my tweets. It was good to take that much needed break. Being chained to a laptop for extended period of time means that you don’t get time to go out and smell the roses or make time to meet friends and family.

During my downtime I got to spend time with friends and family, travel, read and watch some wonderful movies that were on my “to-watch” list.

Thanks all for your tweets, emails and phone calls.

Arjun Janah left this poem about Shashi Tharoor as a comment on one of my blog posts. I am taking the liberty of publishing it. Arjun is based in New York, and is a graduate of St. Stephen’s just like Mr.Tharoor, who is running for elections from his home town of Trivandrum, Kerala.

For the past few years Arjun has been involved in helping his father Sunil Janah, a well-known photographer.

Yon Shashi Tharoor attended my college,
A year or so senior to me.
He wrote for the paper, that was called Kooler Talk,
But was shortened to read just “KT”.

He rose, or descended, to be Kofi Annan’s
Right hand man, and had even a shot
To be UN sec gen, but the Bushies, you see,
Decided they wanted him not.

Now he’s off to Trivandrum, where he is trying
To win a true Lok Sabha seat,
With the CPI, BJP, he will be vying,
But he’s got it all figured out neat.

For Tharoor’s a smart cookie, he’s good with a pen,
And he knows what to do, and what not.
And now, he’s gone high-tech, and all of his men
Are computerate, which I am not.

The 15th Lok Sabha elections in India is through its half-way point and as expected turnouts in the various constituencies have been pretty strong bordering 50 percent and above. Young voters (t 18-28 years) might hold the key in some of the constituencies.

We bring you a series of digital vignettes that will hopefully give us a peek into who are these young voters, and what issues do they support?  Most of them profiled here are white collar professionals with degrees in engineering or marketing, live in large cities and work for an IT company. It goes without  saying that all of them are tech savvy, who either blog or Twitter.

Nikhil Narayanan is a marketing consultant, who works in Bangalore and is a registered voter in his hometown of Trivandrum , Kerala. In early April Nikhil traveled to Trivandrum to vote in a 3-cornered election between the Congress, Left and BJP. Kerala is traditionally considered as a stronghold for the Left party.

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Bollywood actor Feroz Khan (70) passed away earlier today according to The Hindustan Times. He was suffering from cancer. He is survived by his son Bollywood actor Fardeen and daughter Laila.

Khan was the oldest of the original “Khan brothers.” His younger brother are Sanjay (his daughter Suzanne is married to Bollywood Hrithik Roshan), Akbar and  Sameer Khan. 

Born and brought up in Bangalore Feroz was born to a Pathan father and an Iranian mother and maintained close ties with the city, which is where he had a sprawling farmhouse. Apparently once he was discharged from the hospital, he wanted to come to his farm house to be close to his horses.

Khan made his debut in 1960 in the Hindi film “Didi,” and continued to act in a series of movies. It was in 1975 with the release of “Dharmatma” that Khan reached new heights in his career. Dharmatma was perhaps the first movie that was shot in Afghanistan. (Subsequently a couple of other Bollywood films were shot in Afghanistan). Five years later Khan’s film Qurbani starring himself and Zeenat Aman became a box-office hit and the song “Laila, Main, Laila,” became an instant hit.

Khan went on to produce and direct more films and also starred in a couple of them including Welcome in 2007. 

Are IT workers and marketing folks considered as toxic assets in the Indian marriage market? Well, if you read this latest article by The Financial Times it seems that appears to be the case. Here is what they write:

Since the recession, Indian families have been increasingly cautious about marrying their daughters off to overseas Indians because of the bad economy in the west. Now they are becoming wary of their own country’s “techies” and bankers.

This is not the first article on this subject. A few months ago NDTV.com had a similar article on how Non-Resident Indian workers were not considered a good catch by Indian parents. The reason? The US financial meltdown.

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