Letters: May 2009
| A bit of advice for Bindu Mathur who after a long discussion with her French husband decided to name her newborn daughter “Nayana” (“Hello My Name Is…,” April 2009).
When Indian parents name their newborn children based on their cultural and linguistic heritage, the spelling and pronunciation of names should also be kept in mind. My name is Jyoti. However, Americans cannot pronounce it correctly and they often call me “Joy-ti”; so I changed my nickname to Joy. Thus, Bindu should spell her daughter’s name “Naina” to make it easier for Americans to pronounce it correctly. It’s such a relief to see Little India focus on realistic issues affecting the Indian American community. In the past, I have often faulted both Little India and other Indian media for focusing excessively on the so-called Indian American success story and turning their back on the lives of ordinary Indians. Your recent cover stories on laid off Indian workers (“The Fading American Dream,” January 2009) and most recently on Indian businesses struggling during this economic recession (“In Good Company,” April 2009) were excellent. As you rightly say in your editorial, “Fasten Your Seat Belts,” (April 2009), we are facing some really challenging times and both the Indian community and media should wake up to that realization. I hope you will keep focused on the struggles of ordinary Indians and not be preoccupied with the indulgences of the rich. The article on Indian businesses in the midst of a recession was excellent. But the real price is paid by laid off workers at these businesses and also Indians who have lost their jobs in mainstream businesses. I found S.S. White CEO Rahul Shukla’s desire to “preserve the dignity” of the workers he was forced to let go touching. It goes against the grain of human resource professionals in this country, who think it is unwise to be sympathetic toward terminated employees. In fact, at many companies the attitude toward laid off workers is downright humiliating and insulting. Terminated employees are asked to clear out their desks with two hours notice and are often escorted out of the building. It is bad enough that the company is letting them go for no fault of their own, but to treat them in such an undignified manner is reprehensible. I was glad to read that Shukla was humane in his communications and I wish other companies followed his example.
After reading so many reviews in the news media about Slumdog Millionaire, I finally decided to watch the movie. Raj Kapoor had shown poverty and slums in his movies before, so I was not as much disturbed by the images of kids stealing and killing, as much I was by the exploitation of homeless poor kids by the bad guys, such as cutting off their limbs or plucking out their eyes so they could beg for more money for them. I could not believe that a game show host would play dirty tricks, such as misleading the contestant by suggesting a wrong answer. Also, this must be the most boring acting role for Anil Kapoor, because he had to sit on a chair the whole time and unlike Bollywood films there were no fighting or romancing scenes for him. The most annoying part of the movie were the constant flashbacks throughout the movie, which confused me a few times. I am still wondering why A. R. Rahman won the Oscars for best music and best song, because the music was nominal in the movie and the “Jai Ho” song was shown at the very end as the credits scrolled and had nothing to do with the story. In a nutshell, the movie is nothing but an infomercial for the game show Who wants to be a Millionaire, whose producers are also British. Why all this hue and cry about people of Indian origin who cannot represent India (“Not Required Indians,” February 2009). Why should they? They have taken up citizenship of other countries and they should be good citizens of that country. They want the best of all worlds. There are millions of people who are willing and ready to represent their country. These Non Required Indians want to represent India because they are mediocre and can’t make it in their current country. Get to the end of the queue or get out! I never cease to be amazed at the arrogance and pomposity of some overseas Indians. They are unable to qualify to represent the countries whose citizenship they have acquired. They have given up Indian citizenship for greener pastures, but then have the gall to sniffle that they should have the right to represent India in international competitions. Some of them even believe they are doing a favor to India by enhancing its global competitiveness in sports. I suggest these arrogant snobs focus on improving their sports skills so they can qualify for the teams of their adopted countries and leave Indian sports to real Indians. How dare they! They are not required Indians here. Return to your astro turf tennis courts and improve that backhand return so you can get a chance to play where you belong. |
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