"Desis in ""Prime Time"" " Date 04/09/2007

It has almost been 5 years since I have been living in US. But during last 2-3 years I have seen a number of desi actors/reality show participant on quite a few primetime show. It actually started around when Raj Bhakta participated in The Apprentice, and I think around the same time Parminder Nagra (you know her from Band It like Backeham) started starring in the ER. I have seen Anupam Kher and Kiran Kher do a guest appearance in one of the ER episode too. And ofcourse right after that Navin Andrews started starring in Lost. And yeah when all the desi actors recieved a great response, not all the reality show participants were able to make same waves as Raj Bhakta - Currently Sanjaya is making quite a few waves at American Idol. Even though I don't watch the show regularly I know him because there has been so much written and showed about him in the media. Though it is not new for Asians to be part of the prime time in US it is for sure a new trend for Indians. And definitely Raj Bhakta has played a hugre role in opening up the Reality show doors for desis too. After him I have seen quite a few desi participants on reality show - be it the national level shows like Apprentice or America's next top model or Beauty with the Geek or the current wave maker American Idol or the local KTLA search for the new News show Anchor. Though sometime I think the current American Idol thing could just a publicity stunt to attract more Desi Audience (ofcourse I think the same was about Shilpa's appearance and win in the British Big Brother show) - though I am not the best person to judge that because of not being a continual viewer. But it is for sure nice to see more and more Desis during the national prime time show - I can't wait to see a Desi contestant/participant on The Dancing with the stars or Deal or no Deal. Let us see if and when that happens.

PS - Forgot to mention a very important character on the new series Heroes - Mohinder Suresh played by Sendhil Ramamurthy - and there are many more who have done a guest appearance in different series. Wikipedia entry for the word Desi-Click Here

How do you define a successful life? - Date 03/20/2007

These days when the definition of success is being more or less related to the wealth and fame, I came across a great novel by Kajal Oza-Vaidya which gave a whole new definition of a successful life - and hats of to her for that. Well let me tell you the name of the book, before I begin to dwelve in to details - the name of the book is Yog-Viyog and it is pretty much a story of a family of a dynamic lady Vasuma - I would say who ever can read and understand Gujarati should read the book - towards the end it becomes a little lengthy and makes you think where is it going but belive me the way she has concluded the story is worth those extra few last chapters. The highlight of the book apart from conclusion is the way Kajal introduces the impact of straight thinking in life. Some of the dialogues are so great and worth introducing into your life. I know you would say there are a lot of those thoughts which are philosophical and is tough to use in practical life - and that is where the beauty of this novel is - here all those philosophical thoughts have been used in their practical life - and believe me it is not easy to do so and that is why the author gets extra marks for that. I am not sure if Kajal has the straight thinking that she has defined in the story line but for sure to be able to develop the character like Vasuma you have to be very broad minded and clear in your own thinking. And there are a lot more interesting and strong characters, a lot of dramatic situations - but the solution to those all are pretty simple. A lot of tough situations are made to look so easy and handled so easily - and if you can handle your life that way - then well it will be all happily ever before and after.. And now leading back to my title how do you define a successful life - I am not answering this question here but I will say go read the novel and at the end of it, you will agree with me on Vasuma lived and is living a great successful and envious life!!! And did it map out to what fame and wealth she had? Well I am going to let you decide on that!!! I would say one thing I am totally looking forward to the next one from Kajal :) -oh and this novel is available on www.chitralekha.com - just subscribe and go read the Navi ne maniti section under novel(Navalkatha).

Moral Victory for Ireland? - Date 03/15/2007

Most of us would have considered Ireland - Zimbabwe match a low profile one, and wouldn't even have cared to take a look at the scores - but some of us who did, would agree with me on one point - it was by far the best world cup 2007 match to watch (or follow the scores online) - Frankly I didn't care about the match either but when I wanted to update my world cup page on the web site I went ahead to check the scrores and at that time Ireland had scored 221/9 wickets and Zimbabwe was batting at 147/5 in 33 overs. Clearly it looked like Zimbabwe will make it with 5 wickets in hand,and 74 more runs to go in 17 overs - the required runrate was around 4.35 - quite an achievable target - but hats of to Ireland bowling and fielding attack!! They made it happen there were 3 run outs in last 5 wickets, what a turning point!! Though it still looked like Zimbabwe will make it when Zimbabwe scroed 9 runs in 44th over with a fall of wicket- but after that it was all down hill as the new batsman in GB Brent couldn't get his act together, with only only 1 run coming in 45th and 2 in 46th-47th, and he was sent back to pavillion in the 47th over. Again a new batsman on the field and Zimbabwe only managed to score one more run with a fall of 2 wickets in the 48th over!!! Zimbabwe now required 9 runs from last over with only one wicket in hand, but they did start off good with scoring 8 runs in first 5 ball, it came all down to 1 run required in 1 ball with 1 wicket in hand - doable, but the last ball came with a runout - and Zimbabwe was all out for 221 and Ireland managed to tie the match - what a spirit!!! Only the third match in World cup which resulted in tie - I would say it is a great moral victory for Ireland and an amazing team performance !!!