Comments on: The spices speak to me

By: ThirtyGs

ThirtyGs — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 22:37:54 +0000

Heh, I sound like my dad many years ago when he took me to see "Karate Kid III" (Macchio and a Japanese girl in Okinawa, with eeevil Japanese young guy who keeps trying to fight Macchio for the girl).

That was Karate Kid Part II, KKIII was Daniel back in the states getting trained by evil sensei Terry Silver, to fight against his own competitor, Mike Barnes.

By: John

John — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 15:05:02 +0000

I have the same opinion. I love espresso.

By: espressa

espressa — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 05:24:32 +0000

i just wanna lend my voice to the "this is an awful book" chorus

and raise it to give love to the many many shades of brown

and to Siddhartha M for catching that blackstar reference on the Sepia Destiny thread

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 04:16:39 +0000

I just watched “A Fond Kiss” tonight and I was impressed. As a member of a white/brown relationship that was sunk by parental disapproval (on both sides) the movie rang very true to me.

By: puneet

puneet — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 04:02:55 +0000

it's the self-haters i got problems with. yeah, i said it.

The thing is that everyone got a different definition of self-hater. I would say that someone who only wants to see sexism, colorism, prejudice in his own culture would have some issues with his identity.

Peace.

By: Jai

Jai — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 11:26:31 +0000

ProgessiveTypeGuy,

Holla! I think we found Chadha’s next screen-writing partner.

Someone's already beaten them to it. Aishwarya's next English-language film is "Provoked" -- and although it is based on a true story, and the issues concerned certainly need to be addressed, it's yet another mainstream film which further perpetuates certain negative stereotypes, ie. of desi men being wife-beating misogynistic thugs.

Again, these matters definitely need to be publicised and the culprits condemned, but -- as someone further up this thread already mentioned -- the problem is the lack of a counterbalance with regards to correspondingly positive depictions of South Asian males.

The only film in recent years I can think of which didn't show desi men as being jerks was the movie version of Meera Syal's novel "Anita & Me".

By: brownfrown

brownfrown — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 00:10:45 +0000

Tashie, You’re brave! And because I agree with you, I’ll throw my two cents in… I’m always wary of “new brilliant South Asian authors”. All too often, they seem to repeat the same tropes about desi culture over and over and over and I have to think that somewhere, there’s a quota that supports it. I do love, for example, Ice Candy Man or Midnight’s Children – and of course a large part of it has to do with their insight into desi culture – but those glimpses are such skillful tools in Sidwa’s or Rushdie’s hands and there’s such a complex political message that’s wrought from those images that you can see the intention and the point of what they’re doing. Novels like that are bigger than just a colourful tapestry of truisms. All too often though I feel like the

exotic, kaleidoscopic, epic, crazy, a great dramatic stage of humanity, overly-emotional, full of grotesque caricatures, colourful beggars/old ladies/eunuchs etc etc.

is just a way for second-rate writers to peddle thier wares of shiney new baubles. I always get asked if I’ve read the latest brown author and as much as I’d like to support a sister’s or brother’s efforts – yeesh. And then I have to spend a bunch of time qualifying everything I say because all of a sudden there’s a hurt or bewildered or just plain offended look in the other person’s eyes – like I’ve just trashed their daughter’s or spouse’s novel or something. But sometimes, no matter how exotic or recognizable-by-default the novel is, it it’s banal, it’s banal. I’ve stayed away from the Mistress of Spices exactly for that reason and since it made you want to eat your fist – perhaps I’ve made the right decision

By: cicatrix

cicatrix — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 22:54:24 +0000

it's the self-haters i got problems with. yeah, i said it.

no, you di-int!!!

Ha..I love it. Stop apologizing for it. I agree.

By: Jinal Shah

Jinal Shah — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:42:39 +0000

Whose God is it anyways -

True. I can digest the fact that parent’s spend 10K – 20K for ivy-school “coaching,” but I couldn’t digest Kaavya’s depiction of the Mehta’s. The Mehta’s apparently set up websites, encourage Opal to kiss, get wild oh.. and hide behind trees to watch Opal kiss a boy and take pictures of high school kids partying. So unreal.

By: ProgressiveTypeGuy

ProgressiveTypeGuy — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:00:23 +0000

the sexual assault threads from a few days ago are full of testimonial about boorish and ignorant behavior by desi young men, enabled by patterns of gender privilege and preference within the community -- and family -- that can be subtle or strong but never completely fade away.

Holla! I think we found ChadhaÂ’s next screen-writing partner.