Day 1157: Happy Deepavali!
October 27, 2008 - Filed Under desi / india, photographs
Deepavali, originally uploaded by magiceye.
Once again, the story goes that Lord Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu and the embodiment of dharma, vanquished all evil south of the border, rescued his queen and returned safely to Ayodhya to rows and rows of lights. Happy Festival of Lights! May the year ahead be lit with happiness and success for you.
Since everything comes from India, Ultrabrown presents the Joe The Plumber - Desi connection. 1 comment #
Day 1136: Unemployed Man Kills Family, Self
October 6, 2008 - Filed Under culture-society-history, desi / india, health
Authorities said [Karthik Rajaram] had an MBA in finance but appeared to have been unemployed for several months and had worked for major accounting firms, such as Price Waterhouse, police said.
… the victims included Rajaram’s mother-in-law, Indra Ramasesham, 69, and his 19-year-old son Krishna Rajaram, a Fulbright Scholar and honor student at UCLA. Also dead were Rajaram’s wife, 39, and their two other sons, 12 and 7.
This eloquent statement by the deputy police chief stuck with me:
“This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair, somehow working his way into believing this to be an acceptable exit.”
In desparation, Rajaram would have taken solely his own life. Killing his whole family was nothing short of all-out madness.
How humans, including and especially Indians, go about the very real malady of mental illness shows that we have not arrived as a species. Why is it generally something not to be talked about with a friend or an expert and as treatable, or at least bearable, with a combination of counseling and short-term or permanent medication? What good is a taboo to be pushed into the pit of one’s stomach and overcome through Denial and Will Power? What makes mental illness somehow a flaw in the Strong Genetic and Moral Fibre of an Upstanding Person and not something all too normal in creatures made of chemicals and emotions?
Don’t get me wrong, I do not advocate talking about your depression or anxiety with everyone who will listen. Privacy and propriety are important to a lot of people, and for that matter, the “liberated” West itself has a long way to go in widely accepting mental illness as just that, an illness. Also, as someone who thinks modern Americans are an overmedicated society, I will not suggest that every bout of ennui should immediately be followed up with a double dose of Xanax. What I do recommend is an accepting society that encourages a person to confront his or her demons with the right amounts of the right tools.
What if Mr. Rajaram hadn’t felt all alone in the world and not considered this a way out? What if being man enough to confront his problems was not by killing himself and his family, but through a support system of friends, relatives and the knowledge that he was not the only one in his predicament? What if he had shlepped himself to the nearest clinic and just talked to someone? What if he had felt sure of himself as a man to do that? What if human interdependence were alive and well? What if? For starters, his wife, three children and mother-in-law may still be alive.
A few years ago, a brilliant woman I went through college with killed herself after a lifelong battle with depression. She was not one of the nicest, but definitely one of the smartest and most passionate, people I have known. In lieu of flowers, her family asked that we donate to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I am not asking that you do the same, but suggest we learn more about mental illnesses and support legislation that, at the very least, treats them as an individual and societal problem which warrants respect and more research. With the economy doing poorly and all of these pink slips and home foreclosures, I can’t help but wonder if there’s going to be more gruesome news like today’s. For this and more, we need all the mental health we can get.
Day 1094: Oh Yeah, The Convention
August 25, 2008 - Filed Under desi / india, funny, government
Exhausted from the great Rising Tide weekend, it took turning on NPR this morning to jog my memory that there’s a Democratic convention underway in Denver. In honor of Obama’s vice-presidential choice, Sepia Mutiny and Ultrabrown have teamed up once again for this t-shirt design:
If you’re unaware of the backstory, see here and here.
From the convention floor: Athenae (looking lovely today in an FYYFF shirt) is liveblogging and live-Twittering while Abhi and Ravi of Sepia Mutiny serve it up on the blog, Tumblr and Twitter. If there are liveblogs or Twitter feeds you think I’d find interesting, please leave them in the comments section.
Day 1091: Desi DNC Tees
August 22, 2008 - Filed Under blogistas, desi / india, government, louisiana
Abhi Tripathi of Sepia Mutiny will attend and liveblog from the Democratic National Convention in Denver next week. Since a desi guy in a button-down shirt and khakis will most likely be mistaken for IT support staff, Manish Vij of Ultrabrown helped Abhi design t-shirts, which Abhi will sport at the convention. You can see all designs here and ORDER THEM HERE (more coming), but I want to point out two that may amuse my Louisianan friends.
The reference for the above design is available here.
I love the placement of India (the outline of which sorta resembles Texas) alongside Louisiana. “India Louisiana bhai bhai!” Which leads us to the next t-shirt design of relevance:
All Louisiana netheads should get this reference, especially since our very own Jeffrey broke the news way back in 2003 and The Daily Kingfish has covered it since.
The Mutiny could try sending some shirts to Obama and see if he will wear them. After all, he did just tell a gathering of South Asians in San Franciso that he considers himself one of us.
“Not only do I think I’m a desi, but I’m a desi,” he said, using a colloquial term that describes South Asian immigrants. The remark was greeted with laughs. “I’m a homeboy.”
… To applause, he said he became an expert at cooking dal and other ethnic dishes, though “somebody else made the naan,” the trademark Indian bread. “Those are friendships which have lasted … for years, and continue until this day,” he said. “I have an enormous personal affection for the people of South Asia.”
Surely a far cry from McCain who probably thinks a Desi is Lucille Ball’s Spic husband.
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