Rude People or Racism?

This post deviates from my usual content, but I feel like I need to talk about it somewhere. 

Recently, prior to the Boston Bombings, I was flying back home from Canada. As we were taxi-ing to take off the announcement for switching electronics off came on. As someone who flies nearly every other month I knew I had a time to send a quick message to my parents before shutting off my phone. I also know that many people do not turn off their phones while taking off and their flights go perfectly alright. Anyhow I was sitting next to a middle-aged (on the older end) couple and the wife, next to me, turned to me and rather curtly said "hey, you're supposed to turn that off." I politely replied with a half chuckle to lighten the situation and said "haha yes, just sending my mom a message." Her husban on her left leans over looks at me and says "you better turn that off, I don't want to die because of you."

Uh.

I understand the fear that comes with flying in general, but I couldn't help but wonder if the couple was being rude/nervous due to my skin color or if they were just rude people in general? Being born and raised in America, I've grappled with this situation many times "are they equally rude to everyone or am I being targeted" fortunately this crossed my mind more later in my life than earlier. 

I hate playing the "racism" card because I like to believe that people who are rude are just rude in general... equal opportunity rude, if I may. I am an American through and through (so American my favorite dessert is apple pie) so it is frustrating when people of my own country (America) are potentially targeting me for not being one of "them." A year or so ago a letter was sent to my home (with horrific spelling, might I add) asking my family to go back home. How do we go back to America? My siblings and I were born here while my parents have spent more than half of their lives here. I often say immigrants/children of color have a better understanding of the beauty of America and its rights because we get to exercise it.

 I love this country. 

And that's my little rant for today. I'm not even going to get started with the misconceptions of Muslim Americans (a demographic I fall into).

God bless America, y'all.  

Miss Malini Thanks You

After doing my blog adoption and writing a post on Miss Malini, I got really good follow up feedback from the blogger herself and wanted to thank you guys! She even retweeted me, which made me feel like a pseudo pseudo celeb. Here is a screenshot of her tweets to me.

AN INDIAN EASTER

In light of Easter being celebrated this past weekend, I wanted to bring light to a demographic in India the world often doesn't realize exists.

Christian Indians.

Christianity is the third largest religion in India, and was brought to the subcontinent much earlier than most think around 52 AD. Because South India has a peninsula that juts out into the Arabian Sea they were the first people missionaries came into contact with therefore the Christian population is heavier in the South, though now they can be found all across the country. Kerala, a state furthest South has a high literacy rate and it is often accredited to Christianity. Another area of India known for its Christian is Goa. Goa is an incredibly popular beach vacation destination because of its culture break from India. The Portugese brought Christianity and European flair to Goa which makes it far different from the rest of British influenced India.

Some notable Christian Indians are, Mother Teresa and Freida Pinto, the actress of Slumdog Millionaire.

 

Miss Malini- Blog Adoption

MissMalini.com

v Miss Malini: Bollywood, The Bombay (Mumbai) Party Circuit, Fashion, Lifestyle, Personal quips

v Background Info

o   Socialite to the core

o   Began in 2008

o   Find a voice and fill the gap

§  Immense following

o   Financial aspect to business/branding

v What makes it unique

o   Seamless combination personal voice and entertainment news

v Strengths

o   Strong voice for the vast audience

v Criticism

o   Too commercial

o   Need to distinguish not journalistic content

v Influences

o   Be interactive, optimistic and maintain your voice

HOLI

***UPDATE***

Here's a video of the biggest Holi party ever. Maybe it will give you an idea of what it's like:

Guys! It's Holi season.

THIS is holi.

It's exactly what it looks like. A bunch of people having a water fight in the form of colorful powder, colored water, colored anything on the streets and basically just Throw. It. Down.

A little background info on its origin and significance. It's a Hindu holiday which celebrates the colorful season of spring hence the colored powder. Simple/awesome, right? There's actually a deeper, more detailed explanation regarding Hindu mythology so if you're curious check it out here.

So pretty much Holi consists of singing, dancing to music blaring throughout the streets and a whole bunch of water attacking. Oh and a good chunk of people are inebriated. The holiday features a popular drank called "bhang" which pretty much is a cannabis drank. It's made up of cannabis leaves, milk, butter and other varying ingredients depending on the maker. So everyone (mostly men/grown folk) is high and/or drunk and they play in colors. Basically a countrywide legal rave in which participants range from young to old.

Okay, so I'm kind of making it sound like a trash fest, but it's not. It is, after all, a religious holiday and there are spiritual traditions involved and not everyone is maniacal. Holi is just another example of deep rooted traditions that India affectionately preserves. A lot of places here in the U.S. celebrate Holi even our very own UCO puts on a Holi event every year.

It's such a festive, exhilarating holiday that I think the world should just celebrate Holi. Really though, America is so wonderful at adopting other cultures' holidays for the sake of partying e.g. St. Patty's day and Cinco De Mayo that this would be a great addition.

In a sense, America has adopted Holi with the popular "Color Me Rad Run." So if you really find yourself wanting to participate in Holi, but have no opportunity just sign up for the Color Me Rad 5K which incidentally will be in Oklahoma on May 11.

Happy Holi, y'all! May your life be full of colors of joy, colors of love, color of friendship and colors of peace.

Confession: I've never actually celebrated Holi. Okay bye.

Famous Indian Americans

American Indian. Indian American.

Same words, different meanings all thanks to a genius of a Christopher Columbus.

American Indian- Native Americans

Indian American- Americans of Indian (India) descent. 

I fall into the latter category. 

Staying true to this blog, I bring forth to you famous American Indians. 

My first, foremost and absolute favorite representative is the hilarious Minday Kaling, most famous for her role as Kelly Kapoor on The Office (she also was a writer for the show), her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns) and her latest tv show "The Mindy Project."


Next we have Kal Penn, better known as "Kumar" of the Harold and Kumar series. Penn also was a part of the House cast, but left for a position as Director of White House Office of Public Engagement. He had a stint on How I Met Your Mother and returned back to his political calling.


I'll leave at these two for this post and will continue later on. Plus these guys are who I like to boast most about (cause they're the most recognizable, let's be real.)

Double the Hotness

One of my favorite things to do is find similarities among Hollywood and Bollywood. It's totally not intentional, but when I make the realization, it's delightful.

Today I bring forth to you double the hotness. 

Remember when Tom Cruise was hot? Pre-jumping the couch, Scientology wackeroo, of course. What would life be like if there were two? I introduce to you Akshay Kumar (left).

    
(disregard the labels, not my doing)

 Mr. Cruise actually went to India for Mission Impossible 4 promotions, but sadly Kumar and him did not meet.

Though the two look the same and married famous ladies, they certainly do not carry the same reputation.

Does this mean there are more Tom Cruises hotnesses roaming this world, possibly, undiscovered?? Makes you wonder if your own lookalike is lurking in the other corner of the world.

Do you think the two look alike? 

Blog Post Concocting

Here are a few things I took away from the four links posted in blogblogUCO's post.


1) I loved the tab about the four pillars of writing. Being reader conscious is a key element I'll certainly consider. It's going to be a creative challenge to get the average reader to be pulled into reading about India. The second pillar regarding great headlines was useful because... uh, refer to previous post. The other two pillars which touch upon concise writing and scannable material will definitely be helpful.


2) "Keep it personable so as to invite interaction through blog comments" is a sentence which basically sums up how to maintain the tone of my blog.


3) The third link discusses blog formatting. I will admit I never consider the format of my post when I write. I do go back and a do a hidnsight edit, but planning before seems like it will be more effective.


4) In the fourth link I like the idea of re-introducing concepts. It's easy, with a conversation tone, to assume your readers are on the same page (pun unintended) as you and there is never any harm in repeating yourself even if some of your readers are already aware of certain things.

Please prepare for takeoff

Guys, I don't even know if my post title is clever/related or what, but let's just go with it. I had this idea of making a cool metaphor about my perspective of India/its culture/Bollywood and compare it to a flight?

Like I said, let's just go with it.

In "preparation for takeoff' (I am cringing, why are we going with this?) I realized... I'm not entirely sure what direction I want to take this blog. Several routes are available like I mentioned above. Do I discuss...

 A) An American born's take on India/its culture
 B) Compare India and America
 C) Compare specifically the pop cultures of both countries
 D) All of the above?

As I draft this out, I realize D might be the best option as it presents the most opportunities for content. Suggestions are welcome, y'all.

This flight isn't taking off just yet 'cause the pilot is still configuring the GPS. (Seriously, worst metaphor in life. I'll do better next post. I promise. I hope. We'll see.)

Blog Critique

The blog I chose to discuss was www.Tomandlorenzo.com

The blog is very clean, organized and easy to navigate. Instead having several posts for one topic (e.g. The SAG Awards) they created different links within one post (with preview images) to save space and make it navigable. All a reader has to do is read a headline and look at the picture to decide if it's a post they want to read.

I love how their captions under the images were brief but hit the point and I hope to do something similarly on this blog. They inject humor into their little quips which I think would work well on this blog.

The downside to Tom and Lorenzo is their pro is also their con. With the multiple tabs as easy it is to navigate could also overwhelm users. Many people are "link lazy" and the idea of having to jump to another window is not tempting.

Ten Blogs I Fancy

Here are ten blogs I find interesting. In no particular order, my eclectic list. 

*High Heel Confidential

*Go Fug Yourself

*The Sartorialist

*Miss Malini

*Bag Snob

*Shoe Blog

*Red Carpet Fashion Awards

*Mashable

*Tom and Lorenzo