Author Archives: vpdot

South Asian Fundraiser for Senator Obama – August 17, 2008

Leave a reply

Note to the curious – Barack Obama has the perfect politician’s handshake – soft, warm and dry. This broke blogger found out for herself thanks to a friend who couldn’t make it to the South Asian and Pacific Islander fundraiser at the Fairmont on Sunday( thanks, Madie!)

Leaving the kids with a babysitter, I set off with some trepidation towards San Francisco. I just hate those steep streets and sure enough on Pine I was gripping the steering wheel really hard and praying that I wouldn't roll backwards into the Bay before I met Obama.

At 3 p.m. there were already a bunch of Obama supporters outside, cordoned off across the street by the police. They carried mostly Obama '08 posters, though there were some on impeachment and some home made ones (O yes, O yes, O yes, O bama). Continue reading →

Book review – The 3 mistakes of my life

6 Replies

By Vidya Pradhan

“Books like these,” huffed a friend, “expose the vacuum in entertaining Indian literature.” He was referring to One night @ the call centre, Chetan Bhagat’s second book, and it was in response to an assertion by the New York Times on the blurb that the author was ‘the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India's history'.

After a sensational debut with Five Point Someone, a lighthearted look at life at the Indian Institutes of Technology, Chetan Bhagat became an overnight celebrity with the Indian reading public (the book completed 190 weeks on the India Today bestseller list in January 2008).

The first print of One Night.. , published in 2005, was snapped up in less than 3 days. But critics lambasted this offering. I remember thinking it was a rather maudlin and sentimental effort, with undesirably heavy doses of spirituality weighing down what could have been a satirical look at call centers and what the sudden push to prosperity has done for the Indian middle class. Still, a movie based on the book (tentatively called “Hello”) is in the works.

The 3 mistakes of my life, his third book, is equally mawkish.

Continue reading →

Hurray for the fabulous forties!

2 Replies

By Vidya Pradhan 

Last night, as I watched Dara Torres furiously anchor the 400 meters medley relay, I could hear my heart pounding. I’m pretty sure I forgot to breathe that last lap. The last time my heart announced its presence that loudly was a couple of months ago, when my 40-year old body was suspended at a 60-degree angle on the sides of Half Dome, my hands holding a death grip on the steel cables.

41-year old Dara seemed to outswim her competitor Libby Trickett in that particular lap, but the Australian lead before the freestyle was just too hard for even this spunky competitor to overcome. Earlier yesterday, Dara again won silver in the “Splash and Dash”, the 50 meters freestyle, losing by a fingertip.

What a phenomenal achievement, as Ms. Torres became the oldest woman to ever medal in Olympic swimming! Even if veteran reporters like Ann Killion doubt her achievement (shame on you Ann, for casting aspersions without evidence), I would like to believe that Dara Torres’ win was a function of substance rather than substances. Because, as my own experiences have shown me, that is little that a 40 year old woman cannot do, if she just chooses to. Continue reading →

Movie review – Persepolis

1 Reply

By Shreyasi Deb

On a moist work evening in Mumbai, on my way home I decided to drop by at the mall next door without any great purpose. I walked to the multiplex area and while I was wondering how ‘The Vagina Monologues’ would feel in Hindi (our emotions have language?) I hit upon the wonderful poster for ‘Persepolis’ almost hiding apologetically behind its blatantly colorful cousins which spoke of movies I’d turn in my grave to watch.

“I must do this” I said and soon I went in (my stomach sorted with a quick sub and a quicker coffee) expecting a ‘private viewing’ of the movie on a weekday late evening show. The theater didn’t have a single soul (although a dozen odd co-viewers did walk in after a while) and what began is a great show about life.

Persepolis is based on a graphic novel( or comic as we call them). An autobiographical account of author Marjane Satrapi's childhood, the comic is inked in black and white and tells of her coming of age in the turbulent times of the Iranian revolution. The movie, animated to resemble the book, is co-directed by the author. Continue reading →

Tulika – feeding minds is important too

Leave a reply
By Vidya Pradhan

Bay Area residents are quite familiar with Ray Mitra – if not personally then through the terrific Bollywood parties and cultural events his non-profit organization Induz organizes. Induz's mission has always been to use events to generate funds for deserving non-profits within the community and back in India. A significant part of the proceeds is donated to organizations like Sankara, Bring-a- Book Foundation and CRY. “Our tag line used to be ‘Great events, greater causes’,” says Ray.

After planning several successful events, it started bothering Ray that he and his fellow organizers could not see the use the funds generated were being put to. The non-profits supported by Induz were working in the necessary fields of health and education of underprivileged people and children in India, but Ray wondered if anything was being done to give these children exposure to the healing power of art and music. “Studies have shown that involving kids in art at a young age improves focus and concentration,” says Ray, who belongs to a family steeped in both performance and graphic art, “and it made sense for me to start a venture that would pay attention to this neglected area.” Continue reading →

Obama vs. McCain – Health Care

Leave a reply

By Vidya Pradhan 

Health care has always been the domain of the Democrats, in particular, Senator Hillary Clinton, who got herself in political hot water after her abortive attempts at health care reform during the Clinton presidency. Democrats have always attempted to craft a health care plan that makes it possible for every individual to be covered by offering access to a variety of plans. By contrast, Republicans build their health care plans based on individual choice and personal responsibility. GOP conservatives have traditionally opposed legislation expanding government funded health care on the principle of smaller government. In 1965, when Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law by President Johnson, it was a bitter loss to the Republican fight against a nationalized health care system.

Today there is general consensus that the American health care system is in serious need for reform – on one hand, 47 million Americans do not have any medical insurance; on the other, crippling health care costs are making American industry uncompetitive. The path to reform is where the candidates diverge sharply. While Senator Obama talks about expanding coverage to include most Americans by way of a national health plan, Senator McCain emphasizes Health Savings Accounts, accounts to which families and individuals contribute to save towards medical expenses. The idea is that the burden should be lifted from employers and transferred to the individual, who would take control of his or her own health plan.

UPDATE: An article from the NYT about the McCain Health Care Plan.

UPDATE II: The conservative Wall Street Journal (!) comes out with an article entitled "Why Obama's Health Care Plan is better" An excerpt –

Sen. Obama's proposal will modernize our current system of employer- and government-provided health care, keeping what works well, and making the investments now that will lead to a more efficient medical system.

The McCain plan is a big tax increase on employers and workers. With the economy in recession, that's the last thing America's businesses need.

…Mr. McCain does nothing to bend the curve of rising health-care costs downward. He does not fund investments in learning, rewarding and preventing. Eliminating state coverage requirements will slash preventive service availability.

Here is a chart from the Urban/BrookingsTax Policy Center that breaks down the impact each candidates' plans would have on the uninsured.( H/T to Yglesias at Think Progress)

Continue reading →

The Support System

2 Replies

By Isheeta Sanghi

I read The Namesake when I was in my first year of college. It was a very delicate time in my life, as it is in the life of any college going student. I was separated from my parents, not simply by state borders but by countries and oceans. College is a very important time in life because we can reflect, and really think about what it is that we want for ourselves and our future. After reading The Namesake, however,  I didn’t think so much about myself relating to the character depicted by Kal Penn in the celluloid version of the story, but rather I thought more about Ashima and her story, and how I could relate all of her experiences to what my Mother must have experienced, moving to a different country after marriage.

Though my Mom grew up in the metropolitan city of Delhi, and had elder sisters who were married, two of whom had already made the journey westward, and was well educated, the fact remains that when someone is taken out from their natural surroundings naturally life becomes tough. I don’t know much about my Mothers past, but what I do know is that I could picture her standing by the stove cooking beef for the first time in her life, crying because she had grown up in a vegetarian household, and had to bear a smell that was devastating to her. I could picture her standing innocently by a street light not knowing that in order for her to cross the road she had to press the button on the pole. I had a sinking feeling in my heart throughout the book because Jhumpa Lahiri has so beautifully depicted those emotions that I’m positive had been felt by my own Mother. Continue reading →

Summer crafts for kids: Mixing Colors

Leave a reply
By Rennu Dhillon

Craft/Experiment 1

Goal: To learn about primary and secondary colors.
Materials: food coloring (red, yellow, blue), corn syrup, 2 paper plates (not
the plastic plates but paper plates)
Procedure:
1. Mix each food color with the corn syrup so you have 3 colors – red,
yellow, blue in 3 separate dishes or bowls.
2. Take each plate and using a pencil divide the plate into 4 parts or
quarters – e.g. like an apple into 4 parts.
3. Using finger painting techniques you will spread the paint in each
fractional part.

Plate 1 – finger paint red into one part. Now mix red and blue and paint thisinto the other part and see what color you make. Now mix red and yellow
paint into the 3rd quarter. See what color you make. Now mix all 3 colors
into the 4th quarter and see what color you make.
Repeat the steps using blue and then yellow.
Look at the different colors you have created. To be really adventurous, take
some white paint and mix in to create different shades or tints of the same
color. Write down the colors you make.
Yellow + Blue = Green
Red + Blue = Purple
Red + Yellow = Orange

Craft/Experiment 2


Goal: Make a Color Wheel using primary and secondary colors
Materials: Paper plate, red, blue, yellow paints, brushes, water.
Procedure:
1. Take a paper plate and draw a circle about the size of the plate. Now
divide the circle into 12 sections or slices.
2. Color code each section as shown in the picture.
R- red
RO –red Orange
O- orange
OY – orange yellow
Y – yellow
YG-yellow green
G-green
BG – blue green
B- Blue
BV- blue violet
V- violet
VR – violet red
3. First paint the main primary colors into the sections – Red, Yellow
and Blue.
4. Then mix equal part of red and yellow into the RY section and see
what color you get? It should be orange. Take that new color and paint
it into the section labeled O.
5. Repeat the exercise with each color and color combination.
6. You will create a color wheel that you can dry and keep forever.
Bonus: Experiment mixing several colors and create your own shades
and tints.

Rennu Dhillon is the founder of Genius Kids Inc, “Never 2 Little 2 Learn”. Dhillon has a
BSc. in Pharmacy, DSc. Naturopathy. She has combined her education and experience to
develop an award winning curriculum at Genius Kids, a very hands on learning program
incorporating a full academic curriculum to include public speaking, drama, science, art
and cartoon art to children ages toddlers to K.

Generation "O"

5 Replies
By Vidya Pradhan

Her grandmother is Indian; grandfather Jamaican. Her father is Italian/Caucasian. No prizes for guessing who she’s supporting in this year’s Presidential elections in the US.

23-year old Meena Harris is part of Generation Obama, a media and technology-savvy group of young people who are changing the dynamics of politics and political campaigning in this country. Continue reading →