Downsizing - Silicon Valley Style
In the article, How Silicon Valley families are downsizing their lives, Mike Cassidy sketches the portraits of a number of families in the Bay Area affected by the recent economic downturn. There's the story of the landscape architect, the occasional personal assistant, the butcher, and the low income couple, all struggling to get by. Then, there's this:
And even those well beyond middle class, like computer scientists Radha Chandika and Ravi Duvvuri, are discovering they've got it good, but not nearly as good as they once had it. Chandika and her husband, Duvvuri, moved to Silicon Valley in 1994 and joined the successful tech crowd.By early 2007, they had two kids and a house in Cupertino. Duvvuri was a software architect at Blue Coat Systems, and Chandika was a software engineer at Google. Their household income was about $300,000.
Duvvuri left his job to start an Indian social-networking company with a friend and former business partner, reducing the family income by about half. He says he would have done it no matter the economic conditions, but with rising prices the family has cut spending more than they anticipated.
Duvvuri, who draws no salary, says he's concluded the Bay Area is no place to live as a family on one income. At the end of the year, he and Chandika plan to move their family back to India, where their lives and prospects will be better.
"I have more reasons to go back," he says, "than to stay."
But more than all that, the Big Squeeze has Chandika and Duvvuri thinking about how lucky they are and how difficult tough times must be for those who have much less.
I suspect many eyebrows will be raised by this one, particularly as the income cut in here was purely voluntary. While it is true the Valley is becoming tougher for entrepreneurs due to rising costs, it is disconcerting to note $150K doesn't go as far as it used to. Or is it just the high standards to which we subject ourselves? If anything, there are similarities between another report in the NY Times which caused quite a stir in the blogosphere, particularly in the valley. Remember?
MENLO PARK, Calif. — By almost any definition — except his own and perhaps those ofMr. Steger, 51, a self-described geek, has banked more than $2 million. The $1.3 million house he and his wife own on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean is paid off. The couple’s net worth of roughly $3.5 million places them in the top 2 percent of families in the United States.
Yet each day Mr. Steger continues to toil in what a colleague calls “the Silicon Valley salt mines,” working as a marketing executive for a technology start-up company, still striving for his big strike. Most mornings, he can be found at his desk by 7. He typically works 12 hours a day and logs an extra 10 hours over the weekend.
“I know people looking in from the outside will ask why someone like me keeps working so hard,” Mr. Steger says. “But a few million doesn’t go as far as it used to. Maybe in the ’70s, a few million bucks meant ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’ or Richie Rich living in a big house with a butler. But not anymore.”
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- June 2, 2008 10:54 AM // Bay Area
Naatak (Re) Presents Sleuth
By popular demand, Naatak brings back their version of Sleuth. Details:
NAATAK
presents its twenty-fifth production
Anthony Shaffer's
SLEUTH
(English)
Adapted and Directed by Harish Sunderam Agastya
Produced by Soumya Agastya
8 pm, Thursday, Oct 25 2007
8 pm, Friday, Oct 26 2007
Cubberley Theater
4000 Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94303 .
TICKETS
General: $15 until Oct 10 ($20 thereafter)
VIP: $25 until Oct 10 ($35 thereafter)
(VIP tickets include preferential seating, official copy of Sleuth DVD & complimentary refreshments)
BUY ONLINE at http://www.naatak.com (ticketing by Sulekha)
or
SEND EMAIL to tickets@naatak.com
or
CALL 408.431.2318
ABOUT THE PLAY
Naatak is proud to present its 25 th production – Sleuth, a play in English - back on stage due to popular demand from our patrons. Critically acclaimed as one of the greatest stage thrillers ever written, Sleuth is a tale of two men from different walks of life entangled in a dangerous web of gamesmanship, manipulation, deception and death. Sleuth was originally written by British playwright Anthony Shaffer and was subsequently made into a movie of the same name with Oscar-nominated performances from Sir Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine. Our version of Sleuth, suitably adapted and Indianized by director Harish Sunderam Agastya (Italian-British Milo Tindle becomes Maharashtrian Milind Tindle for instance) retains the fast pace, comic wit and spine-chilling twists of the original. Sleuth was previously staged by Naatak in January 2007.
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- October 6, 2007 7:14 PM // Bay Area , Theater
Surya Dub Tonight
Surya Dub plays tonight at Club Six on sixth street in SF with special guests SoulSalaam and Dov. Surya's last engagement took place on a particularly damp SF night - Maneesh joked they should have renamed their group from Surya Dub (Sun Dub) to Varuna Dub instead. Varuna is the Rain God in the Hindu pantheon. Regardless, this night promises to be a sizzler inside the joint, just like last time, so check it out.
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- April 28, 2007 8:02 PM // Bay Area
World Cup in the Bay Area
The San Jose Mercury News writes:
Back in the day, Anupam Singh of San Jose would be among the hundreds of cricket fans lined up in front of Fremont's Naz8 Cinema, one of the Bay Area's biggest Indian movie theaters and one of the few places to watch cricket's world cup.But in today's tech-driven society, there are a host of ways to watch the world's biggest cricket tournament, which started Tuesday in the Caribbean. Singh watched the West Indies-Pakistan match over the Internet while at work at Oracle.
Hundreds of cricket fans were expected at the Naz, but only about 15 showed up. Just two popped into Britannia Arms, the British pub in San Jose. Both venues are broadcasting the games for free.
I feel somewhat bad for Naz and these other establishments, but as soon as I walked into Yahoo's Santa Clara campus cafe area the other day, I knew my days of tracking down cafes, theaters and pubs across California were over: in the bright plasma displays lining the seating area, Sri Lanka were busy thrashing a hapless Bermuda. Yes! Yahoo would be showing all the World Cup matches! Attendance has been a tad sparse thus far, but just wait 'til India starts playing :-)
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- March 17, 2007 9:40 AM // Bay Area
Keepin' It Surreal, Desi Style
From Valleywag/PEHub comes this sad tale:
Sequoia Capital obtained a restraining order against Anand Lyer Vaidyanathan, an Iowa man who repeatedly tried to gain access to investor Michael Moritz at the firm’s Sand Hill Road Offices and later claimed he worked there.Vaidyanathan went to Sequoia’s offices five times during the last week in October and the first week of November 2006, according to testimony from a private investigator hired by the firm. On his first visit, Vaidyanathan asked to meet with Moritz about an investment opportunity. On subsequent visits, he asked about employment at the firm. The receptionist asked him to leave, but he often remained in the lobby for extended periods of time.
Vaidyanathan returned on November 27, handed the receptionist his bank deposit slip and waited in the lobby while the Sequoia team called the police, according to the PI’s testimony. The police arrested Vaidyanathan for trespassing. At the time of his arrest, Vaidyanathan told police the receptionist had made a mistake: that he was actually an employee of Sequoia Capital, according to the PI’s testimony.
Given the rush of VC firms to invest in India lately, perhaps Mr. Vaidyanathan might have had more luck at Sequoia Capital's India offices in Bangalore. Uttering the magic words "middle class", "mobile" and "wi-max" seems to open quite a few doors in the overheated market down there ;-)
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- February 27, 2007 10:46 AM // Bay Area , Technology
Surya Dub @ Club Six
"When they'd strung the cables, according to some complex scheme of Molly's, they hung them with battered sheets of yellow plastic. As they worked, Case gradually became aware of the music that pulsed constantly through the cluster. It was called dub, a sensuous mosaic cooked from vast libraries of digitalized pop; it was worship, Molly said, and a sense of
community." - Neuromancer - William Gibson (1983)
Towards the fag end of last year, I received an e-mail from Maneesh The Twister. The gist of it was that the Dhamaal collective was coming to an end and there was something new in the works: an aggregation called "Surya Dub" (Surya meaning sun in Sanskrit). The focus of the new outfit would be on "Global Dubwize Vibes and Dread Bass Culture - more of a dub aesthetic but still incorporating a world element."
Honestly, I was bummed about Dhamaal coming to an end - apart from providing high quality night outs for those of us uninterested in the rest of the desiparty scene, the outfit genuinely pushed into new musical territories, particularly in the field of asian electronica. Check out their two releases if you haven't already. I pressed Maneesh for more detail and he would merely say he felt the outfit had "run its course." More's the pity.
In an interview with SFWeekly, Maneesh provided more info about his new dub direction:
Evidently, the definition of dub is open to multiple interpretations. The Surya Dub DJs share different ideas on the subject, but they all believe the music has universal qualities. To bhang ragga — a musical style combining bhangra and ragamuffin reggae — innovator-DJ-producer Kush Aurora, "Dub music is musical meditation." To dubstepper Kid Kameleon, "Dub is like a code word for experimentation, and a license to do things in a nonlinear style." DJ Ripley, meanwhile, says he feels that "Dub has always been ahead of its time, based in playful misuse of technology for creative purposes." And to hip-hop/reggae head Ross Hogg, dub is "as much about what's missing in the music as what's present. The silence, the dropouts, the echoes ... "To Maneesh, dub — usually defined in its original sense as an instrumental, remixed form of reggae — isn't just a musical genre or production style, but a culture in and of itself that's shared influences with other cultures all over the world. For example, "Indian music has had influences in the Caribbean; there's a lot of sociohistoric things that tie those things together on a nonmusical level," he says.
Dub's status as future music has been around for a while and while the Wachowski brothers co-opted the community part of it for their Matrix trilogy, I was curious to see how it would play out in real life. As the pics show, I needn't have worried. With block rocking beats and bowel loosening bass (well, nearly :-), Surya Dub is off to a flying start. Some snaps:
Yah mon! And here are some pics of Maneesh and Kush in action:
Note to the gentleman who left his shots on the speaker stacks: no one took them. It is usually not a good idea to park breakables on speakers generating deep sub bass. Said objects tend to vibrate and fall off :-)
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- January 28, 2007 8:06 PM // Bay Area , Diaspora , Music
Naatak Presents Sleuth
Hey folks, breaking my silence to announce Naatak is presenting its 25th production, Sleuth this weekend at the West Valley College Center in Saratoga, CA. From their announcement:
Sleuth is an Indianized adaptation of the play by Anthony Shaffer, one of the greatest ever thrillers performed on stage. It was also adapted into a Oscar-nominated movie starring Michael Caine and Lawrence Olivier. Sleuth is directed by Harish S. Agastya and features Harish Agastya, Ashish Joshi and Kal Pandya in the cast.This is the last week to get your tickets for this action-packed production. Don't miss out on this one for sure and please don't reveal the suspense to your friends until they've had a chance to check it out too.
I guess desi audiences aren't that good at keeping secrets then. I remember an anecdote about a group of friends sitting down to see Kaun, that Ram Gopal Verma thriller from a couple of years ago. Anyway, said friends had their experience ruined completely by a wiseass in their group who gave away the main twist just to score a cheap point. Sort of like going to a group of people waiting to see The Sixth Sense and yelling, "he's dead!"
Oops.
Anyway, here's the poster for the production:
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- January 16, 2007 7:50 PM // Bay Area , Diaspora , Theater
Summer Cleaning
Sometimes snaps are better than endless bloviating. So, here goes. First, summer cleaning:
Next, is the summer party. Jesse, our DJ friend, getting ready to rock the same backyard:
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- August 13, 2006 11:55 AM // Bay Area
Margaret Jenkins @ YBCA
Here are some pictures from yesterday's final performance of Slipping Glimpse from the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. This was a collaboration with the Kolkata based Tanushree Shankar Dance Company. Following an initial meet at Kochi last year where:
Many hours were spent trying to communicate concepts as well as steps. We were privileged to learn from Padma and the Indian dancers about their respective forms. We talked about making work, the nature of audience, the definitions and varieties of modern dance and the space that both our arts embrace. Western dance, more often than not, takes over space, moves through and around it: The more we have, the more pleasure abounds. The classical Indian forms look for center within and on the stage. Little space is needed to give voice to that art.
We spent most of our days creating the 13-minute work for our performances. Our goal was to explore how to share our vocabularies with an eye to the evening-length work premiering at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in May. The Indian dancers will travel to the United States to be part of this larger dance.
Subsequent choreography involved the exchange of video materials and DVDs across India and the USA between the troupes prior to the dancers once again uniting for the actual performances. Talk about globalization in action :-) Demand was unexpectedly high with nearly all the performances getting sold out. The images are from the 10 minute prologue of the show:
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- May 28, 2006 10:12 AM // Bangla , Bay Area , Dance
Local Productions
Catching up on local productions, we start with Hijra, a production by the New Conservatory Theatre Center . The Chronicle has the goods:
Ancient gender-bending traditions of South Asia reach into the New York of the Indian diaspora in Ash Kotak's "Hijra" at the New Conservatory Theatre Center. Sometimes funny, at times enlightening and generally engaging, the handsomely designed American premiere that opened Saturday is a mildly promising effort a bit too weighed down by sitcom ideas and filmic structures to take flight onstage.What's most interesting about "Hijra" is the extent to which Kotak sheds light on its titular subject. This is "hijra" not as one of the more common alternate spellings of the "hegira" of Muslim history, but as the ancient group of male-to-female transgenders of mysterious origin and long tradition who often appear, uninvited, to dance at and bless weddings in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The role of hijras in South Asian customs is apparently a blend of Islamic and Hindu traditions, and many held high positions in the courts of the Muslim kings.
Though the review of the production itself is lukewarm, Dishum Dishum patron Maya Capur escapes unscathed. To wit:
It isn't always easy to tell how much in love Nils and Raj are supposed to be. Kotak's dialogue is much more quip- and plot-driven than concerned with character or emotional development, and neither director Andrew Nance nor his actors have been able to fill in the blanks. From Venkatesh's boyishly standoffish performance, it's hard to tell whether Nils has any more real interest in Raj than Sheila until late in the second act. By then, Raj, disguised as a woman, has arrived in New York -- and so have Madhu, Sheila and her ferocious mother (crisply played by Sukanya Sarkar).With an exceptionally nosy neighbor (a very nice turn by Capur) stirring the pot, Kotak sets the stage for farcical complications he only partly develops.
Way to go, Maya!
Meanwhile, could Carma be the first indie film to promote itself using a Flash mob? The idea involved four women dressing up as one of the characters from the film and chanting:
Normie Burns took an axe
Gave his mother 40 whacks,
When she saw what he had done,
She said proudly, "that's my son!"
This went down at a screening in Stanford last weekend. Here's a picture of the mob:
Also, FilmThreat has a review of Carma here.
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- April 17, 2006 8:11 PM // Bay Area , Film , Theater
Cost Cuts
I received this notice recently from my city of residence:
In an effort to standardize and simplify the City's utility billing schedule, all bills will now be generated and mailed on the 28th of the month. Customers can expect to receive their utility bill at the end of the month, every other month. This change allows the City to take full advantage of bulk mailing rates in an effort to contain costs.
As far as cost cutting is concerned, they're off to a great start. In the space of two days, I've received five separate letters all proclaiming exactly the same thing. Perhaps some genius in City Hall is taking the "bulk" in "bulk mail" a little too literally.
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- April 14, 2006 10:45 PM // Bay Area
Carma Update #2
Carma, the Bay Area indie from Ray Wang, keeps rolling! From the festival circuit:
- Delray Beach Film Festival, Palm Theatre, Boca Raton Embassy Suites Hotel, 661 Northwest 53rd St, Boca Raton, Florida 33487, Tel: +1-561-994-8200 (Yelophant - Official Selection by Invitation, Carma - Official Selection by Invitation, Screening Back-to-Back on Friday, March 10, 2006 at 11:59 PM as a special midnight screening with FREE coffee, look out for legendary filmmakers Roger Corman and Julie Corman at the screening!). More news about Delray here.
- Stanford Alumni Association Special Screening by Invitation, Stanford University, Exact Venue TBA (Carma - 04/14/06 8 pm)
- Bare Bones International Film Festival, One of the "Best Truly Independent Film Festivals," Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide ( Carma - Official Selection - 04/22/06 10:30 PM, playing at the Roxy Theatre, in Muskogee, Oklahoma)
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- March 18, 2006 6:24 PM // Bay Area , Film
24th SF Asian American Film Fest
The 24th San Francisco Asian American Film Festival starts tonight onwards and it promises to be as manic and comfy as ever. What a roller coaster ride it's been!
Nine years ago the festival had a record four Asian American narrative feature films, with the rest of the slate filled with documentaries, shorts and a large number of international features. This year it has 12, culled from about 250 submissions, beginning with Thursday's opening night film at the Castro Theatre, Eric Byler's "Americanese," an adaptation of Shawn Wong's breakthrough novel "American Knees."
"There were twice as many (submissions) as last year," says Yang, the festival's director. "What's amazing is there is almost no market in the traditional sense for these films, yet they are being made. ... So we need to do a better job of getting the films beyond the festival. It's the only way that Asian American cinema is going to grow. That's so critical right now."
FYI, Third I will be co-presenting the following:
 |
3rd
i South Asian Shorts 2006 |
 |
Water
(Director, Deepa Mehta in person) |
 |
Parineeta |
 |
Punching
At The Sun |
 |
View
From A Grain Of Sand |
 |
Memories
in the Mist |
We hope to attend most of them save for Parineeta which I couldn't sit through, even at home. Enough with the hokey melodrama already! Writing the reviews should be fun, the better half (Shari) permitting of course :-)
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- March 16, 2006 9:33 PM // Bay Area , Film
Dhamaal Collective @YBCA
(Above) Maneesh The Twista (clot of darkness on the left of the picture), Samba Guisse (center), and Farhan Qureishi (on tabla) play at the YBCA Forum as part of the Young Artist At Work program. A lovely blend of dub chillout from vinyl with live vocals and tabla. Maneesh proved to be a really approachable, nice guy too. I'm hoping to speak more indepth with him in the near future.
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- March 3, 2006 9:14 PM // Bay Area , Music
Bay Area Bhangra
The San Francisco Bay Guardian has a nice writeup of the Bay Area Bhangra scene. First the intro:
Bhangra's heated dhol drumming and bomb-tastic hip-hop beats are emerging as a new force in the San Francisco club scene, fueled by a young crop of DJ-producers, in addition to wise promoters who've been around the dance music block. Bhangra didn't just drop out of the sky one night and land in San Francisco; rather, it grew from ancient field harvest songs in the Punjab region of northern India, danced through the UK via immigration, mingled with rap stars in New York in the '90s, and finally ended up at eclectic Bay Area parties.
Given the strong Punjabi presence in the West Coast, the strength of bhangra in the region is not a surprise. The article continues:
In 1990 I copped a copy of Indian producer Bally Sagoo's remix of Pakistani Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Jewel" (Oriental Star). The mix of reggae-dub bass, Soul II Soul-style hip-hop beats, and ecstatic singing was mind-blowing. But there's no way it prepared me for the nuclear bomb that is contemporary bhangra music and the incredible South Asian scene in the Bay Area.I knew little about bhangra's early roots as the music embraced by Indian and Pakistani immigrants to Britain in the 1970s and '80s. Then remixes like Jay-Z '03 remake of Panjabi MC's "Mundian To Bach Ke Rahi" sparked my interest.
It's interesting the author didn't come across Bally Sagoo's
Born in Oakland and based in Tracy, 20-year-old JT Bhachu, a.k.a. DJ JT, got started in music at age 10, playing dhol drums in school competitions. His family moved from the Punjab region in India and settled in the Bay two decades ago. JT mixes hip-hop with bhangra and spins everywhere from high school dances and weddings to the main rooms at clubs – even San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom, where JT and his BPR Promotions friends put on a show with Birmingham, UK, bhangra megastar Sukshinder Shinda last year.JT still relies on his kin for his creative projects, founding a record label (Sick 'Em Entertainment) with his uncle and recruiting his teenage cousins to play in his Explizit Dholies drum ensemble. "My mission is to bring bhangra into a lot of hip-hop clubs. In the future it'll be the next thing people are talking about when they go out every weekend," he says. His self-confidence and vision are shared by other young desi DJs in the Bay, including producer Kush Arora.
The old style bhangra parties (and we've been to some) could become, not to sugarcoat it, really juvenile affairs. Scuffles over women, not getting enough "respect" and rival gang posturings were not unheard of. Then there's the promos:
"Most bhangra concerts with big singers are in the South Bay," he explains. "These can be fun but usually very cheesy, with fliers that say 'Guys - dress GQ; girls - dress sexy/elegant,' with related bullshit like that, so I really wouldn't consider it a hot party."
There are many other regional music forms in India, but nothing has succeeded so well on such a global scale. Even in India, bhangra was fairly local even until say twenty years ago. The popularity of stars like Daler Mehndi
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- February 4, 2006 3:21 PM // Bay Area , Music
Carma
Anand Chandrasekaran, in addition to a scorching career as a Bay Area entrepreneur, is proving himself to be a real renaissance man. He is the executive producer of Carma, the feature debut of self-taught filmmaker and former Bay Area resident Ray Wang. The synopsis is as follows:
Taking place 04/04/04 over the course of four days, CARMA is a chilling American tale about an abandoned car haunted by psychopathic killer's dead mother. Trapped in the car, the spirit of the deceased Kate Burns (the voice of Academy Award nominee Karen Black) encounters four average Americans who each discover and use the car for their own personal gain. But Kate has other plans, namely a reunion with her son, recently escaped convict Norm Burns.
Sounds suitably chilling! You can find a teaser trailer here. The film is going on the festival circuit next year.
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- November 30, 2005 9:42 PM // Bay Area , Film
Naatak
Sandip Roy has a nice writeup on Naatak, the premier Indian Bay Area drama troupe and its latest production, "Everyone Loves A Good Tsunami":
During the week, they wear the uniforms of Silicon Valley -- jeans and shirts, often sporting the logo of the company they work for, from Oracle to Lockheed Martin.But on weekends these South Asians shed their engineer personas to indulge in their passion -- theater. Some actors have been part of Naatak, one of the Bay Area's most dynamic South Asian theater companies, for 10 years.
Naatak, which means ``drama'' in Hindi, has presented three films and 18 plays in Hindi, Tamil and English. ``Everyone Loves a Good Tsunami'' in English, opens Friday at the Eagle Theater in Los Altos. Sujit Saraf wrote the play after watching the post-tsunami outpouring of ``real and pretended grief.''
``It ridicules our long-distance armchair philanthropy,'' says Saraf. And it highlights how disasters can become ``an opportunity for mediocre artists to perform, and social climbers to socialize.''
In this play, he skewers the ``vanities of the Indian community in the Bay Area'' as two factions of the local India Association jump on ``a fortuitous tsunami'' to hold competing fundraisers.
Sounds like fertile material for a play. Anyone familiar with Indian organizations knows the level of infighting and backbiting present, particularly in the regional groups. Just consider the number of Bengali associations present in the Bay Area alone! Anyway, as the article points out, putting on a play is a significant investment of time and energy:
Many obstacles still exist: After grueling Silicon Valley workweeks, Naatak's all-volunteer cast and crew give up their weekends for two to three months at a time to practice their lines, build sets, design fliers, do makeup and lights, and sell tickets. An actor from one production might become the publicist for another.
From my experience with ENAD, I can attest to the levels of commitment required. The fun part is selling tickets - not! Getting audiences to come to a play in Bengali is a little like herding cats. Everyone has commitments, nemontonno (invitations) or huge work deadlines which just happen to fall on the day of the show itself. Bah! Anyway, on a brighter note, ENAD-ite Sayantanee Dutt gets a mention in the article:
``Tsunami'' is Sayantanee Dutt's first time performing with Naatak. ``My husband helps me,'' says Dutt, who has a 5-year-old. ``I encourage him with his football and cricket and he eggs me on with my theater.''
Congrats Sayantanee and best of luck! Of course, in addition to cricket and football, Sayantanee's husband also happens to be proficient in the small matter of set production and design. But he needs no encouragement there :-)
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- November 29, 2005 11:58 PM // Bay Area , Theater
Indians Dressing Badly
Why do so many desis dress badly in Silicon Valley? Shallow as this makes me appear, it's a question I can't help but ask. I don't think this is true for Indians in India at all - walk around in a major metropolitan area in India and you'll see folks wearing a mix of well attired, trendy, traditional and functional clothing (plus the usual share of eyesores just like anywhere else). One exception - bell-bottom pants stuck around a full decade longer in India than elsewhere but with the India fully plugged in to the global media network and a major producer for textiles, it's become fascinating to track fashion hybrids emerging from the subcontinent. This brings us back to our original question - when it's possible to find Indian-influenced clothes in your local Bay Area Macys, when your countrymen are nattily dressed at home and elsewhere, why do so many first generation Indians in Bay Area continue to putter around in jeans, t-shirts and sneakers?
Any of those elements could become fashionable statements in themselves - it's easy enough to find designer brands for all three. But no, the pattern is invariably the same: the jean pants are tapered and conical in shape, the tees have horrible horizontal convict-like stripes and the shoes are gleaming white tennis sneakers. And it's not always men we're talking about either. Desi women are invariably in that same uniform, barring occasional relief in form of the salwar-kameez and sneaker combo! I think it's stating the obvious when I say ladies hold themselves to much higher dress standards than men. Hence, it can be argued, this slippage by the desi sisters is that much more egregious.
What are the reasons for this? Is it financial? I think we can rule that one out, given the sheer amount of moolah in play in the Valley. Could it be the desire to conform to the geek chic present here? Maybe - after all, a portion of the first generation Asian population in the Valley also sport similar garb, so I suppose that's part of it. Could it be the eternal North-South divide? As stereotypes go, there's the one about North Indians being much more ostentatious and showy and the South being precisely the opposite. And it's my sense, the South has a greater presence in the Valley, so perhaps there's some correlation there. One last thought: consider the greater society in which we live. In India, there are norms, dress codes and expectations for Indians resident there. In this part of the world, that's not necessarily the case, particularly when it comes to the mainstream US media where desis are still mostly invisible. Has that led to a desire to "let go" when it comes to appearances, especially in a part of the world where your job skills supposedly count far more than the way you present yourself?
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- November 19, 2005 5:27 PM // Bay Area , Diaspora
There But For The Grace Of ..
I came across this incident in the papers and for some reason found it disturbing. It all started when a bozo, high on crystal meth, ran a four way stop sign on Skyline Boulevard in Millbrae. He then led the police on a chase down Interstate 280:
Boldt entered northbound I-280 at Millbrae Avenue and drove south at speeds of up to 110 mph in the northbound lanes, according to reports.
That's right - at 1:30 in the morning, he was going at 110 mph in the wrong lane. There was one lucky escape:
Upon entering the freeway Boldt's car struck 29-year-old Vincent Pascua's Toyota 4-Runner on the passenger side while driving in the slow lane of the freeway.`I noticed these two bright lights coming toward me,` Pascua said in San Mateo County Superior Court. `They just kept coming closer.`
According to Pascua, the collision could not be prevented and Boldt continued to drive after he sideswiped Pascua's Toyota.
`It just happened. It happened too fast,` Pascua said. `Then it was gone.`
But Boldt's run ultimately ended with tragic consequences for his co-passenger and the other driver:
The 18-mile pursuit didn't cease until Boldt's vehicle rammed into 28-year-old Redwood City resident Girish Wadhwani's 2000 Toyota Corolla on the highway at 1:45 a.m.Kleinheinz, who was reportedly not wearing a safety belt, crashed through the windshield onto the pavement and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Wadhwani, who suffered broken wrists, was stuck in his car until rescuers from the Palo Alto Fire Department extricated him.
A distant cousin of mine passed away in a front on collision under similar circumstances. This was in Flint, Michigan. She was sixteen years old. There was a difference though - she was the one driving on the wrong side of the road. Apparently, this was a mistake on her part as she'd just learned to drive. But the combination of events on I-280 coupled with the fact that it's a road I use frequently makes the whole thing pointlessly stupid, yet poignant. Instead of Wadhwani, it could've as easily been me on that highway. True, he escaped with his life. But I'm sure he'll be forced to go on disability - you can't type with broken wrists!
I don't particularly enjoy motoring in the Bay Area, particularly on 101. That's a road that's bristling with tension, especially on weekdays. I-280 is the only one that's bearable but, as we can see, not immune. On a related note, MC Masala writes about her experience on 101:
EVERY TIME I ride past the stretch of Highway 101 where it happened, I imagine it happening all over again. Traffic suddenly slowing down in front of me as I am merging. I brake too late.It was my first accident. My only accident, since I haven't driven since.
The insurance company told me, almost apologetically, that it was 100 percent my fault. It's more like 200 percent.
I should have taken BART to visit my friend, instead of driving. But he didn't have a car to pick me up from BART. He would have needed to ask his friend to get me, and I wanted to spare him the inconvenience.
You can read more here.
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- November 8, 2005 9:27 PM // Bay Area
Halloween At The Castro
Halloween at the Castro in San Francisco is always an occasion to marvel at the creativity of the costumes on display. In addition to the usual pregnant nuns, togas and vikings, we spotted George Bush in a flightsuit from the "Mission Accomplished" era. That was good as was the guy impersonating an iPod. One person in a Indian raja costume and a couple of folks in saris as well (two were authentic - no doubt aunties up here to see what the fuss was about). But we thought the following was the best of the lot. Click for a larger image:
These guys were going up and down Noe all night and getting a lot of attention - a tad icky if you ask me, but I have to give credit where credit's due! If you want other snaps of Halloween, the Chronicle has more.
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- November 3, 2005 11:44 PM // Bay Area
Domino and the Scavenger Hunt
Recently, we finagled free passes to a screening of Tony Scott's latest, Domino. That it was being marketed to an urban audience became abundantly clear when we arrived at the AMC Kabuki at San Francisco's Japantown. Bag search? Check. Extra security? Check. Hip hop playing through a separate soundsystem in the hall? Check. Hip hop and R & B stars present in the film? Check. The movie itself was dressed up Hollywood masala and not particularly memorable. Nice summary from Ain't It Cool:
Its biggest problem is that we can never see what the hell is going on. Every image Scott uses is toyed or tinkered with. Sped up or slowed down. Every shot is washed out colors, grainy images, or littered with those stupid flashes of light in the background, that would pose a problem to people with epilepsy. Tony Scott needs to just chill out for a little bit. Calm down. Take some Ritalin. Or a Xanax. And call his brother in the morning or something. Domino is so hyper-stylized it makes Oliver Stone look like Gus Van Sant. The other problem is that the film lacks a heart. It’s all sizzle and no steak. What’s the story really about? Three misunderstood misfits who join forces to eliminate the bad guys of the world? Why did Domino want to be a bounty hunter so badly? And why should we root for them? At no point in the film did Domino, Ed, or Choco feel like a hero.
We left when the film began showing diagrams on screen to explain the plot points. That's diagrams with a "d" complete with pictures and arrows. I kid you not! There's only so much dumbing down you can take.
Anyway, the most interesting part of the evening was prior to the screening. In the theater, an MC got up and asked for three volunteers to come onstage. Four folks (three guys and a girl) l did the bumrush. The MC then asked them to go on a scavenger hunt inside the theater. They had to find the following:
- A large shoe
- A quarter dated 1994
- A Palmpilot
- An old movie ticket
- A $100 dollar bill
The prize was a pair of tickets to an auto show. The person who collected the most items from the list would win. Of course, nobody parted with a 100 dollar bill! Or a palmpilot. But they did find folks willing to give up shoes, quarters and movie stubs. There was a tie which the MC broke by asking the audience to cheer and picking the contestant who received the most noise. The lone girl walked away with the tickets and I picked up some insight into "street marketing" techniques.
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- October 24, 2005 12:36 PM // Bay Area , Film
Man Of The Heart
We first met Drama Professor Sudipto Chatterjee when he conducted a drama workshop under ENAD's aegis about two years ago. It was an exhilarating experience and, needless to say, we were looking forward to his latest performance, Man of the Heart, on the UC Berkeley campus.
This was a one man show on the life and times of Lalon Fakir, a 19th century Bengali mystic and folk singer. Such minstrels, or Bauls as they are known, have played an integral role in Bengali folkore:
Bauls (Bangla: বাউল) are a group of mystic minstrels from the Bengal region, now divided into Bangladesh and West Bengal. Bauls are a part of the culture of rural Bengal. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas. Bauls travel in search of the internal ideal, Maner Manush (Man of the Heart). The origin of the word is debated. However, it is widely agreed that is comes either from Sanskrit batul, meaning divinely inspired insanity or byakul, meaning fervently eager.The music of the Bauls, bAul saMgeet refers to a particular type of folk song of sung by Bauls. It carries influences of Hindu bhakti movements as well as the shuphi, a form of Sufi song mediated by many thousand miles of cultural intermixing, exemplified by the songs of Kabir, for instance.
Baul music celebrates celestial love, but does this in very earthy terms, as in declarations of love by the bAul for his boshTomi or lifemate. With such a liberal interpretation of love, it is only natural that Baul devotional music transcends religion, and some of the most famous baul composers, such as Lalon Fakir have been of muslim birth.
The actual show itself was a blend of monologues, live singing and dancing, pre-recorded songs and sounds, video clips and projected slides. Nothing if not ambitious! However, while the technical production values were impeccable and Prof. Chatterjee a real live dynamo onstage, the show could have benefitted from a real narrative spine. There were many tantalizing nuggets buried in the material bespeaking the importance of Lalon in 19th century colonial India. For example, while the British were busy creating a buffer class of brown sahibs to better administer the sub-continent, bauls such as Lalon played a big role in resisting these divide and conquer tactics. I thought it was great for the production to contextualize Lalon's importance thus but I didn't really get a clearer picture as to how he really accomplished this. Instead, the bulk of the presentation was on how Lalon deliberately shrouded his origins in riddles and how, scholars on both sides of the Hindu-Muslim divide, went to great lengths to claim him as one of their own. Interesting stuff but I would have preferred to get an idea of why was gathering proof of this type so important. Perhaps an Indian audience would be better placed to understand the significance of this quest but, most probably, not an international one. Similarly, towards the end, we learned of some of the practices Lalon (and his female spiritual companion) perfected after years of sadhana. These techniques, which seemed to have tantric roots, were left unexplored after being hinted at.
Clearly, Sudipto Chatterjee and director Suman Mukherjee hold Lalon very close to their hearts - in the post-show Q&A, both spoke of discovering their mutual interest while roommates in NYC in the early '90s. Given what we witnessed was an edited version of a full length script, which reportedly ran to a couple of hours, its turgidity was understandable - as a matter of fact, the whole event was advertised as a work-in-progress workshop. Hence, I would expect the whole thing to take better dramatic shape with more performances. Nevertheless, there were many things to enjoy and learn here. As mentioned before, Sudipto held the audience's attention easily and, in addition to his other skills, possesses a fine singing voice. Of late, I've been noticing the technique of an actor or dancer using one's own robes to intercept the images from a projector - this distortion technique was used pretty effectively in the production. The musical accompaniment, lighting and sets were also good - mention must be made of ENAD-ites Sambit Basu and Bodhi Das who helped out so capably.
I have mixed feelings as to Baul music itself - in some sense, it is similar to the blues, and hence can be an acquired taste. Too much of it can end up sounding the same. Plus, Baul music has been all the rage in Kolkata of late and many Bengali rock bands (yes, they exist) have actually jumped on the bandwagon. So there's a bit of an overkill involved. It might be blasphemous to admit, but I actually prefer the hybridized version as practiced by bands like Bhoomi. But the standout in this genre is the drum'n'bass/baul fusion of UK based State of Bengal and Purna Das Baul's collaboration Tana tani. Anyway, overall, the show contains much to ponder over and our best wishes to Prof. Chatterjee and Suman Mukherjee in actualizing a dynamite final version.
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- October 9, 2005 4:49 PM // Bangla , Bay Area , Theater
Kronos/Asha at the YBCA
There have been many words of praise for Asha Bhosle over the years, some conventional ("most recorded artist"), some musical ("largest vocabulary of vocal techniques") and some offbeat ("grandmotherly Elvis"). To this I would simply add: she must take her share of blame for India's population explosion. The reason is simple enough. In her own words:
As Asha Bhosle struggled to make her mark, her biggest competition and mark for comparison was her own sister. "Didi [the elder sister] was singing the love songs, the sad songs, and I knew that if I did something different, something new, only then would people give me songs," says Bhosle.The "something different" was cabaret songs. At that time, in Bollywood films the heroine had a holier-than-thou virginal image that was made even more ethereal by Lata Mangeshkar's singing. But filmmakers also wanted a little masala to spice up their films. That was where the vamps came in. Some actresses, like the exotic-looking Helen, made an entire career playing the vamp in hundreds of films. And the voice behind the vamp was invariably Bhosle's. In the film "Taxi Driver" she sings "Jeene Do Jiyo" [Live and Let Live], probably the first cabaret song in Hindi cinema.
It clicked. "Many have tried to imitate Lata, and some have come close. But no one has tried to imitate Asha, because no one can," says music aficionado Arvind Kumar, the founding editor of India Currents magazine.
To date, the songs she sung under the aegis of R. D. Burman have probably been some of the most remixed/covered songs out of Bollywood. Additionally,
Instead of cringing at the remixes that were pouring into the market, she did the next best thing - she joined the bandwagon and brought out the remixed variety of own old numbers. She also came out with a video cassette entitled "Janam Samjha Karo". Then there is the new album "Rahul and I". Asha never ceases to amaze. She is constantly repackaging herself. And so the Asha magic continues to enthral.
However, the Kronos Quartet represented a new level of collaboration for Asha-ji and I was curious as all heck to see how it would turn out on September 22, 2005, at the Yerba Buena Center Theater in San Francisco, the first of a limited set of dates. I needn't have worried - Asha-ji sounds as great as ever. But first things first - the first half of the concert was devoted to Kronos premiering San Francisco based minimalist composer Terry Riley's The Cusp of Magic, a work in six parts. In tone, the parts varied from apocalyptic (The Cusp of Magic) to staccato (Buddha's Bedroom) to whimsical (The Nursery). The latter, in particular, was augmented by a backdrop of noises from stuffed animals, the last sound of the movement being that of a lone toy frog being wrung. Throughout, I was impressed by the sheer aural variety on offer, not to mention the virtuoso ensemble playing. In addition to Wu Man on pipa, the Quartet featured David Harrington on violin (and various percussive instruments), John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola and keyboards and Jeffrey Zeigler on cello. In addition, we had the wild and wacky samples being triggered from time to time. A good harbinger for the second half and the main event!
"Atithi Deva Bhava - the guest is god. You are my guests and I'll try my best to please you," were Asha-ji's opening words when she strode to the stage at the start of the second half of the show. Apart from a little feedback in the first song and perhaps the hint of a cracked voice in another, this was an audio sensory experience. That included Asha-ji's banter between shows. She apologized for her poor command of English and asked band leader David Harrington to translate the song titles. Her in-song banter quickly endeared her to the audience, an eclectic mix of desis and the San Francisco art crowd. The choice of songs was inspired - a mixture of Bollywood staples such as Dum Maro Dum ("Take Another Toke") and Chura Liya Hai Tum Ne ("You've Stolen My Heart") with more leftfield titles. "They picked the most difficult songs," she complained to the audience at one point, rather jokingly of course and that endeared her to us all the more. Of the more adventurous songs, we were particularly impressed by the choice of two Bengali songs of R. D. Burman. Asha-ji sang Ekta Deshlai Kathi Jalao ("Light a Match") with all the coquettishness of a sixteen year girl. For Nadir Pare Uttche Dhoa ("Smoke Rises Across The River"), she took a break, and Quartet played with all the might and passion of many times their number. Upon returning, she commented that, accustomed as she was to working with hundreds of musicians at any given time, she found Kronos' versatility to be simply amazing. Their arrangements sparkled as well - subtly extending Asha-ji's vocals in one song, setting up a counterpoint in another, they were always less than obvious. By the time she started Piya Tu Ab To Aaja ("Lover Come To Me Now"), the incongruous sight of a grandmotherly figure providing breathy, panting vocals had been replaced by that of a diva still in regal command of her faculties (if you closed your eyes).
I found the audience attendance for the first show to be disappointing but, in retrospect, it was to be expected given the eclectic nature of the musical marriage. I understand the attendance was much higher the next day and, overall, CD sales outside the hall were unusually brisk. A good harbinger of things to come perhaps?
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- September 28, 2005 6:27 PM // Bay Area , Bollywood , Music , Review , Select
Triptyque Sans Titre
When it comes to evaluating dance as performance, particularly modern ones, I am the first to admit my critical faculties are woefully short. In particular, the absence of narrative often forces me to gauge such pieces purely on visceral impact. And on that criteria, I have to say Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula's latest work, Triptyque Sans Titre. performed at the Yerba Buena Center on Sept 17th, is particularly effective. I can't say whether it's any good or not but I do know it left an impact. Loosely billed as the flashback memories of an amnesiac who has a story to tell (but has now forgotten it), the piece is an exploration of the horrors of colonialism and internecine warfare suffered by the people of Congo. As befits the title, there are three main parts each accompanied by a live soundscape from the musician Joachim Montessuis. Armed with a laptop, a mic and one or two electronic gadgets, he crouches on the floor amidst a landscape of naked electric bulbs hanging from the ceiling and plastic bags littered all over. The pattern is the same each time: a drone in the beginning which grows and ebbs and finally builds to a shattering crescendo (so much so that the Yerba Buena management provided earplugs to patrons prior to the start of the show), finally falling away to silence when we can finally hear the dancers chant. The dancers run to and fro, perhaps suggesting escape from external enemies, fight with each other, cover themselves with bags and then, at the end of it all, come together in unison, suggesting a rapproachment of some sort. A projector throws up pictures of babies and families, the real victims of the Congo war. Strong stuff.
PS - The San Francisco Bay Guardian has a review here.
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- September 26, 2005 6:01 PM // Bay Area , Dance , Review
Brimful of Asha II
Both the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News are carrying articles on the Asha Bhosle and Kronos Quartet concert at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts tomorrow. Both pieces are intended to be introductions to the music of Bollywood (and legendary music director R. D. Burman in particular) that will be performed tomorrow. What I find interesting, though, is the differences in the tone of the two articles, perhaps due to the gap in desi population between San Francisco (not very many) and South Bay (lots). The San Francisco Chronicle piece is more explanatory, although not necessarily accurate:
While Bollywood cinema is more visible in American pop culture today than ever before, the music of Bollywood, which millions of Indians just have hardwired into their brains, has a harder time crossing over. The West might have MTV, but "Indian films, each with 6-10 songs, are the original MTV," says Bhosle's son and manager, Anand. American audiences have difficulty relating to the songs, missing the cultural references and the poetry of the lyrics, fixating instead on the crescendo of 101 shrieking violins.
Of course the truth of the matter is shrieking violins have been out of vogue in Bollywood for at least the past ten years. In addition, of late, big budget films such as Black and Sarkar have eschewed embedding music sequences all together. They've been hits, thus showing films don't have to contain music for audience acceptance. And there is such a beast as MTV-India.
The San Jose Mercury News article is more concise, perhaps trusting many of its readers to already know about the basics of Bollywood and Asha Bhosle. But this way, you can miss some nuggets. Consider this graf on Asha in the Mercury News:
She also became the wife of R.D. Burman, who by Harrington's formulation stands alongside other giants of 20th-century music. The ingenious songwriter and film composer has some 330 film scores to his credit. In many cases, it was Bhosle who ended up introducing his songs, such as ``Dum Maro Dum'' (Take Another Toke), a giddy international hit from Dev Anand's 1971 study of the hippies drawn to Nepal and India, ``Hare Rama, Hare Krishna.''
This is expanded greatly in the Chronicle to:
Tongues wagged when she married R. D. Burman in 1980. In fact, the two had met years before: He was first a fan while she was singing for his father, himself a leading composer. "I remember he was thin and short, and I of course looked older and was also quite fat," she laughs. "He just took my autograph and left." Years later, when he quit his studies to become a composer, she scolded him for not graduating. "He didn't like it -- he got up and left," she recalls.Later, she became one of his best-known collaborators. When rumors bubbled about their professional relationship turning romantic, conservative Indian society frowned on this middle-aged mother of three embarking on a love affair. "People don't like it if you live honestly," says Bhosle with a shrug. "They like hypocrisy and lies." She married Burman to end the swirling gossip around their relationship.
But their collaboration set the music industry ablaze. Her son Anand remembers going to a concert in 1972 or 1973 where all the biggest stars of Indian music, including his aunt, Lata Mangeshkar, were performing. "Right at the end it was Mom's turn, and when she and R. D. Burman entered together the audience went berserk," says Anand.
At that time their biggest hit, "Dum Maro Dum" (literally, "Take Another Toke") from a film about hippie