Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri is a joy to read.

We enjoyed reading Namesake. And we thoroughly enjoyed watching the eponymous movie starring Irrfan Khan and Tabu.

Jhumpa, who lives in Brooklyn, has now come out with her new collection of short stories Unaccustomed Earth.

Today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has an interview with Jhumpa.

Here’s an excerpt from the WSJ interview:

I love stories. But I don’t distinguish so much between a short story and a novel. Personally, when I sit down to read a novel or a Chekhov story I’m seeking the same thing: I’m seeking that same rich portrayal of life in words. What I do find frustrating, having written another collection, is this idea that people don’t regard short-story collections as substantial. They think of them as a chocolate box, an assorted thing. You present it, and readers can say, I like that one, that was my favorite, I like the orange cream. Whereas with a novel I think they regard it more as a thing of substance, an entrée, if you will, they don’t pick it apart in terms of the mashed potato part of it and the peas and the meat part, it’s all this thing in concert. It’s not something I can control. I’ve written the book and that’s it.

Indian conglomerate Tata has acquired Ford’s ailing brands Jaguar and Land Rover for $2.3 billion.

For years, Jaguar has been a millstone round Ford’s neck.

We find it hard to accept that this is a smart business move from the Tata Group.

For several years, Lexus, BMW and Mercedes have made mincemeat of Jaguar.

Jaguar has not had many takers for years and it seems doubtful that rich Americans and Britons will flock to buy a luxury car owned by a third world company.

Would wealthy Indians buy a luxury car made in Bangladesh?

The transfer of ownership to Tata Motors is expected to happen by the end of the second quarter of 2008.

Founded in 1922, Jaguar has been amongst the worst premium brands for luxury saloons and sports cars.

Land rover’s first design appeared in 1948.

Jaguar and Land Rover have been under Ford’s ownership since 1989 and 2000 respectively and together have about 16,000 employees.

As part of the deal, Ford promised to continue to supply Jaguar and Land Rover for differing periods with powertrains, stampings and other components.

No kidding. 

Bollywood DVDs from Eros Entertainment will soon be available at Wal-Mart stores in Canada.

Bollywood movie distributor and producer Eros Entertainment has entered into a tie up with Wal-Mart Canada to peddle its collection of Indian movies.

Initially, Eros’ Bollywood DVDs will be available in 27 Wal-Mart stores and subsequently the entire Canadian Wal-Mart network.

Eros plans to make a large number of titles Continue Reading…

DVD and CD manufacturer and distributor Thomson’s Technicolor Division plans to launch a DVD Compression & Authoring Operation in the South Indian city of Bangalore.

Set to open in May 2008, the new DVD Compression & Authoring  facility will be managed by Sumit Malik.

The new DVD Compression & Authoring facility will focus on the domestic Indian market and also function as an off-shoring location to boost Techinicolor’s capacities for worldwide DVD services.

The upcoming DVD Compression & Authoring  facility will be co-located in Thomson’s Paprikaas Animation and Game Design facility in Bangalore.

The Compression & Authoring operation will be based on Thomson’s research and development efforts for high-definition Blu-ray Disc and standard-definition DVDs.

The Supreme Court of India today put Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the dock by ordering a fresh investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the 2002 communal riots that led to the massacre of over a thousand Muslims.

Comprising a total of five members (three senior IPS officers from Gujarat, retired CBI Director RK Raghavan and retired Uttar Pradesh police officer CB Satpathy),  the SIT is expected to complete its probe in three months and submit a report. The three IPS officers from Gujarat are Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia.

Today’s order for a fresh probe into Gujarat Communal riots was a result of a petition made by Human Rights Groups expressing fears of bias in investigations.

The probe would focus on cases related to Gulberg, Ode and Sardarpur massacres, and the Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya, Baranpura, Machipith, Tarsali, Pandarwada and Raghovpura killings.

BJP leader and current Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was at the helm of the state government during the massacre too. But like the Roman Emperor Nero, Modi’s government was fiddling while the wholesale massacre of Muslims was happening.

Compared to Jodhaa Akbar (Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai) and Om Shanti Om (Shahrukh Khan-Deepika Padukone), Race has not done that well in the opening March 21-23, 2008 weekend at the U.S. box office.

According to the March 21-23 weekend box office numbers, Race grossed $802,254 and came in at No-18 at the U.S. box office.

In their opening weekends, Jodhaa Akbar grossed $1.3 million while Om Shanti Om grossed $1.76 million. Om Shanti Om debuted at No-11 and Jodhaa Akbar at No-19.

Released in 96 theaters in the U.S., Race had an average gross per theater of $8,356, which again was much lower than Jodhaa Akbar and Om Shanti Om.

Jodhaa Akbar released in 100 theaters and Continue Reading…

What an irony!

When Indian IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro are stepping up their investments in the U.S., VMware is going the other way.

Virtualization software house VMware joined the hordes of U.S. corporations that are screwing American workers with its just-announced plans to boost research and development operations in India through an investment of $100 million.

VMware’s Easter gift to struggling American workers include:

* Investing U.S. $100 million in India by 2010
* A new, state-of-the-art 82,000 square foot development center in Bangalore
* Doubling VMware’s India-based engineering organization to more than 1,000 people in the next two years

VMware already has a significant presence across India with offices in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, and Mumbai. The company entered India Continue Reading…

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Anil Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Sameera Reddy
Director: Abbas-Mustan
Story & Screenplay: Shiraz Ahmed
Music: Pritam

When you have too many meaningless twists in a story, the end result is an ugly twisted movie called Race.

Even Saif Ali Khan’s sterling performance cannot save Race from the garbage heap of trashy Bollywood movies.

Akshaye Khanna, a fairly decent actor by Bollywood’s lowly standards, seems hopelessly lost when cast in the unusual role of a scheming, forever boozing younger step-brother. Or was Akshaye petrified about being cast alongside actor extraordinaire Saif Ali Khan, who is getting better with each movie just as most of his Bollywood peers are sinking with each new film, that he just lost it?

With the exception of Saif Ali Khan’s intense performance, Race is a dud in every department - story, screenplay, music and action.

The Race story is hardly unique. A wastrel of a young man Rajiv Singh (Akshaye Khanna) wants to bump off his elder brother Ranvir Singh (Saif Ali Khan) to lay his hands on a big pot of insurance money. To carry out his nefarious plot, he enlists the assistance of a fashion model Sonia (Bipasha Basu) with an ugly past.

The movie is set in South Africa, where you see Ranvir as the passionate owner of a struggling horse racing business. His personal assistant is Sophia (Katrina Kaif), whose only job for the better part of the movie seems to be handing papers to her boss to sign. And she’s also supposed to be secretly in love with her boss, who blithely ignores her. Hey, we’d do the same if she were our underling!

Hell-o, is this a story?

As for Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif, don’t get us started on these two horror shows masquerading as actresses. The cruel water torture of watching Bipasha Basu on the big screen is a punishment that has no parallel.

Is there such a paucity of talent in a country of 1.2 billion people that we, the suffering Bollywood fans around the world have to endlessly endure the pain of hideously horrible vampires Continue Reading…

Karan Bhatia has been named a GE Officer, a prestigious position in the diversified multinational corporation.

Worldwide, GE has just 197 GE Officers, who lead large revenue generating businesses or occupy critical functional roles.

The 39-year-old Bhatia was named GE’s new VP and senior counsel, international government relations and policy recently.

Before joining GE, Bhatia was the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative at the Office of the United States Trade Department in Washington D.C.

Previously, Bhatia held several key positions in Washington Continue Reading…

Popular South Indian film actor Raghuvaran died of cardiac arrest in Chennai at the age of 60.

Originally from Palakkad area of Kerala, Raghuvaran acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films in supporting roles like the doctor in Sivaji or as villain like the criminal gang leader in Bheema. 

One of the better actors in the Tamil film industry, Raghuvaran’s last film was the Tamil movie Sila Nerangalil.

Raghuvaran is survived by a son and his ex-wife actress Rohini.

Click here for a filmography of Raghuvaran.

With the U.S. economy in complete meltdown, the party is over for Indian outsourcing firms like Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Infosys, Polaris, Satyam et al.

Some Indian software firms like TCS have already reported delays in orders from their top clients.

U.S. financial services firms that have taken a severe beating and borne the brunt of the recent carnage on Wall Street are among the major clients for several Indian software houses.

The big question now is when will Indian firms - that staffed up in the go-go days of hyper growth - start laying off employees, Continue Reading…

In the distance you can see Lincoln Memorial (white building) while in the foreground are the many tombstones of fallen American soldiers.