Where's the authentic desi accent!

For those of you who have ever watched Heroes, surely know that the series has a reasonably prominent desi angle-presented to you as a father and son duo, who are Professors in Genetics from Chennai University. Dad Chandra Suresh (played by Erick Avari) and sonny Mohinder Suresh (you know it girls, Sendhil 'heart-throb' Ramamurthy). The story has the Dad proposing a certain theory of evolution, with a strange touch of out-worldly mystique put together in a book named "Activating Evolution"-disappears and dear beta sets out to search for him. And nothing to your surprise, drives a cab once he lands in NYC. Streotypical, hmm, very much-but still significant footage is dedicated to Mohinder's character. Sounds good, yeah-well, no! That's the problem-they don't sound "good"!

So, Mohinder talks in an accent which is a very strange amalgam of desi, amreekan and Brit accents. By his own admission, Sendhil was asked to adapt a British accent.

“The producers wanted a very specific accent. I did an Indian accent, and I listened to tapes to develop it. Then they came back and said the guy was educated in English, so it should be a British accent, with a lilt of Indian. My accent changes throughout the pilot a bit, because then they wanted it to be predominantly English. It’s kind of been a work in progress. So now, it’s very English with Indian hints.” ( See Nirali for more).

Now, people like me who are born and brought up in India find this very perplexing. Most of the higher education in India is in English, but i haven't seen anyone educated in India in recent few decades, talk in British accent ever. What were the producers of Heroes thinking?

Further, y'days episode (and few more before that), featured Erick Avari playing Chandra Suresh, who very dreadfully pronounces his name as "Chaandraaa Surrreshh" with a distinct Amreekan accent. There is nothing Indian about his accent, whatsoever!! Few people even disputed if he looks Indian enough-well, to put those troubled minds to rest, he has Indian roots. But couldn't the actor have made some effort at getting the accent even a bit right.

From the desi perspective, Kavi Ladnier was the saving grace. She got her accent reasonably right and her dress and make-up were also very authentic. Wish there were more of her and wish she would inspire some authenticity :).

Hmm, so either we have the strange mutilated accents passed off for desi accent or forced British/Amreekan accent....."what is a desi accent anyway, with so many regional twists", says the critic. Grrrrrrrrrr, desi accent is one of the sweetest, got it-so better get it right.

Feels like :)

So said the weatherman-"feels like" so many degrees.....

what it actually "feels like" is very personal ;)

otherwise why would you see some people still in shorts and half-sleeve t-shirts, while others are dressed perfectly for a trip to the poles :)).

Whatever, i am loving the Cold but Bright (atleast today) SoCal weather-simply great.....

"feels like" Wonderful :))

Teesri Gali ka Vihar :)

The original motive of this post was to give some friends (who are currently enjoying their vacation elsewhere) an update of my extra-curricular activities, and that i WAS enjoying the holiday time. But as the day progressed, I realized that my excursion was turning into something blogworthy, a truly desi tunnel vision experience. Hmm, so here goes:

Its the Friday after Thanksgiving-6:00 AM, wake up with an interesting news on the TV (TV that’s been playing whole night, and usually does), about a new likeness based search engine like.com that would allow you to shop for your favorite celebrity style goodies. Quite “go-shop”inducing news. Even otherwise its been constantly drilled into my head by friends and colleagues, how I must go and avail the early bird discounts.....Well, so today I decide to go check it out. Hold on, but in the subsequent news, Chris Schaubel is reporting on how different stores arepotential wrestling zones.....Ohhhhhhh no, I don’t want to do that-the shopping bulb is dimming.....then, I have this brilliant flash. Go Santa Monica, Third Street Promenade. I assure myself that it wouldn’t be too crowded.....and thus the day begins. I get up, get ready, have breakfast and am off to SHOP.

10:00 AM, I reach Macy’s, avail some good discounts-buy a bag and a pair of ear-rings.....am completely emotional seeing ear-rings, they so remind me of Ms. E, one of my friends in Boston for whom my present always was a pair of ear-rings.....and no, neither I, nor she have and Henry Blofeld fixation. As I parade around, I hear some Marathi, she’s a really sweet Aunty ji and soon approaches me to ask if one or the other color would be better for the scarf she wants to buy for her daughter. We have a cute lil’ exchange, wish each other and move on.

11:00 AM, I walk out of the Santa Monica Place after spending some more time (and money) at my all time favorite: The Bath and Body Works . A block away I am greeted by two Indian guys, one of whom has a big Nama on his forehead. The guys say “Excuse me Maam,please take a minute to look through this book about meditation, its free, you can take it”.....and the dude hands out a book with the title “Bhagvad Geeta”. I wonder if Geeta has just been reduced to a book on meditation. I am a lil’ upset now, I politely refuse and walk on and keep wondering about it for next few minutes or more.....and I worry if this kind of preachiness is doing anyone any good-come on, if you really want to talk about it, put up a stall, keep the books, let the interested people come and do it for themselves.

11:20 AM, there is a sudden urge to hit the bookstore. I contemplate stopping by Borders on the way to lab, completely unaware that I am in front of one :). realization dawns upon me and I walk in and buy a couple of books (will write about them soon). BTW, I didn’t like this store much, they have very limited desi and psychology collection.....Westwood store is better, anywday. but I loved the lady who helped find a certain book.

Aha, and all this while I have also kept my camera-phone busy, clicking pics for whatever its worth. The pictures range from the really fake looking but cute X’mas trees, my favorite Poinsettias, balloons, flowers and what not :).

11:45 AM, I am at Express, and I am out within 15 minutes of idling around. I move on to Levi’s and soon realize that i am plain bored.

12:10 PM, am a bit tired and need something to charge me up-I decide upon Starbucks and get a Chai-at this moment am not interested in too much caffiene-just some warm liquid to soothe me. I lounge around a bit, reading one of the books I bought and listen to the music playing in the background. After Chai, its one more round of pictures, another lil’ walk to Santa Monica Place, and on the way am about to be greeted by the same bunch of guys, when they realize that I have been there before . they catch hold of a Japanese guy instead, who also politely refuses them and moves on. Inside the mall, I notice a shop named “India Arts”, am not sure if it refers to Indians from Asia or the Native Indians.

1:20 PM, hunger pangs.....I am in the food court now, and look around aimlessly. I know where I am headed to. I so feel like checking out the Indian corner here: Tandoor Cafe’. The owners are a cute Aunty ji and a gruffy Uncle ji. The girl on the counter is asking people to try out “samples”, she’s not Indian and so its a bit tricky to place the order as I end up ordering Palak instead of Spinach . Confusion sorted, I buy an onion naan with palak ka saag. I find myself a seat and sample the food.....The saag has got a lil’ sweet taste. I was hoping for something with my favorite ginger and a bit spicy fair.....its strictly OK. The naan smells fresh, its got a freshly baked home like quality (you know the smell of atta in tandoori rotis when you just take them out of tandoor, that smell)-its a big portion, has great texture, crispy outside and fluffy inside, but I strongly wish they had added some salt to the dough. and hope am not being too critical. I really wish them to be a hugely popular and succesful Desi food joint.

A picture of my khana

2:00 PM, am about to finish my lunch and I notice an Indian girl sporting Trojans t-shirt, as she sits close by and smiles. I smile back and we have the usual exchange-its sweet. She’s from Ne Delhi and I inform her that I am from Delhi too (well, that’s not completely true, I am from Amritsar, Delhi, Bangalore, Boston, New York City and Los Angeles equally). She is a graduate student doing Computer Science and claims that its very predictable. We exchange few more silly things, wish each other and I realize its 2: 30 PM and I have had enough masti for the day. I better go to the lab and do some work .

So, this is the story, full of Desiyana-ekdum interesting and enjoyable.....hai na Tunnel vision turning the Third Street Promenade into Teesri Gali ka Vihar.

Today's menu

Its a holiday, time to eat something yummier than usual.

The SoCal weather finally feels like a bit wintery, lil' foggy and chilly:).

So Chai n' mooli paratha for b'fast.
Pita Sandwich with hummus, sprouts, zucchini and tomato, with hot Cafe' Latte for lunch.

and the menu should not just be about food, today's menu must include calling up friends, listening to some great music, watching a good movie/reading a great book and thanking all the good people around.

May be its the corner grocery store people or may be the T, Subway, Blue Bus staff, may be the doorman in the apartment building, anyone who's doing something for others.....wish them a great holiday with a smile. Thats the nicest topping on today's menu.

Be cozy, happy and have a good time.....Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving :)

Great, so we have a long weekend coming.

To rest, enjoy, make merry and be thankful for all the good things we cherish....

Turkey or no turkey, cranberry or blueberry: enjoy it your way.....

Enjoy and be thankful, to God, family, friends, life and whatever else you may please.....

Often, i hear it from some people "Oh, we don't beileve in Thanksgiving"-well, you don't have to believe in something to be thankful.....if not tomorrow, be thankful sometime in your life.....

If nothing, be thankful for the long weekend and the sales afterwards........awwww! ;)

Indiawich!

Aha! the title of this post sounds strange. Many of us have heard of Naanwich, and i really heart this wonderful fusion khana, but Indiawich-well, that was a surprise, hehe.

So, the story goes, there is a sandwich place in West Los Angeles that goes by the name East-West Sandwich. they specialize, and you are right, in fusion sandwiches. and so they have Japanwich, Chinawich, Koreawich and INDIAWICH!

And this is one extremely popular place, popular among all sorts of people.
and here's the descrption of their INDIAWICH, reproduced here ad verbatim, for your reading pleasure.....

Our INDIAWICH™ sandwiches are prepared with madras curry powder which gives them spicy but not overpowering flavor.

and this interesting creation is presented in two glorious flavors:

Chicken yellow curry and yellow curry salmon!!!!!

Now, if anyone can answer the following questions for me "whats Madras Curry powder" and even if we assume that it refers to some spice mix with Southern Indian Spices that flavor our beloved Sambar, rasam, palyas and kootus, i certainly am left wondering, if yellow curry is an Indian dish i know of.....Go figure, this is your Thanksgiving homework :)).

Boston, Tea-party.

One of the things that i miss most about Boston is the tea-party.....and i am not talking about the Boston tea-party. Way past the midnight, Arshi and i would have our own little
tea-party :) .

Arshi attended Art School during the day and worked in the night at an apartment help-desk in Prudential. But there were days when she would have a day off from her work. and those were the days we dedicated to the mad tea-parties :). Sitting outside near the apartment entrance, in the cold midnight that Boston so lovingly presented us with, we would sip on chai.....we would share pakoras, namkeen/nimko and many a dream.....endelessly chatting about how we wanted the things to be and how they actually had been. We would passionately talk about the books that we had read, the movies we enjoyed.....and the songs we so loved.....we would play on the same songs again and again, and never be tired of them.

we would talk about her workshops and my experiments.....the nice and the mean people at work.....and about the things that bonded us the most.....like our language, Punjabi and our passion for food. She loved sooji-halwa and would often ask me to make some.....yes, that what we were upto, making halwas and frying pakoras in the wee hours.....she would sometimes bless me like an octagenerian Bebe ji "Tere bachhe jeevan".....and we would burst our laughing. sometimes she would just make some mehendi and would insist that i also apply some.....we talked about mehendi a lot and tried to recall the Punjabi wedding songs :). she was like an elder sister to me, always so caring.....

few days back i was looking for something in an old bag.....and i found some notes on yellow stickies.....i had saved them when i left Boston.....those were the notes Arshi used to leave me.....our schedules being so different.....one of them said "Dear, the daal and sabzi in the fridge were yummmmmmy, promise to make you some aloo-parathas over the weekend, and BTW, thanks for the book-its great." and a B'day greeting card for me, which had a picture of me that she had clicked.....and another note about missing the tea-parties (written during the days when she was working towards her exhibition at school). we had many tea-parties after that.....we moved on with life.....any clue when will there be the next tea-party.....

Why do i blog.....

i have been asking myself this question, "why have i started blogging". is it just to pour out whatever i have within me. to share few things, with myself or someone unknown. why is it that i am typing this.....
i have to still think of an answer. an answer that would give me some insight into my own mind. aha! ya forgot that certain things are subconscious?
is it to put down things that i have been saying to myself, and then hoping someone else who shares these thoughts would read them and tell me that i am right. or that someone would tell me that i am not.....
and who is that "someone" that i am writing for. is it just me or.....
do i really want someone to even read through some personal thoughts, or no.....silly question. its a blog, everyone can see it.
or is it just that i want to talk.....we all talk, chirp-everyday, all the time.
all i know is that right now, i feel like saying all that i am saying.....
yes, i blog bceuase.....i feel like it.....

I crave

The good things i am craving for right now

I crave.....

hot masala chai and mirchi bajji

warmth of the sunshine outside

mints and very strong ones at that

a warm coat (my sweat-shirt isn't warm enough for this room)

a great book to read when i go back home (something as readable as Anne Frank's Diary, that book really talks)

fragrance of the roses, no, my hand cream doesn't smell like roses - hence the craving!!

more sunshine and a winter like feel at the same time, talk about paradoxes