Three Things Banned in Malaysia

1) suicide scenes in Indian movies
2) use of botox by Malaysian muslims
3) naming children after animals, insects, fruits, vegetables, colors, numbers, royalty or Japanese cars (Maruti, Ford and Hyundai have not been struck off the list yet).

What's next - green eye shadow? wiggling your ears?

Read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5229060.stm

Passports and Blonde Bangladeshis

I am renewing my passport ahead of time since I ran out of pages. Thanks to increased security measures following 9/11, Bangladeshis have to get transit visas everytime they pass through a country. So the pages get filled up very fast. Last year I travelled to 4 countries during a whirlwind trip but ended up having to get 6 visas! So taking a spontaneous vacation is not possible if you are the proud owner of a Bangladeshi passport.

As I was filling out the renewal form, I noticed that many of the questions are somewhat pointless. What's the use of asking someone about their eye and hair color when both can be changed so easily? Wearing colored contacts and dyeing one's hair is quite the rage in Dhaka.

Supah Stah

Remember Jeetendra? This Bollywood sex god pioneered the jumping-jack dance move and the "white shirt- white pant - white shoe - red tie" look. He did irreparable damage to an entire generation.

Media Bias


Here are two appalling statistics I saw in BBC articles that demonstrate the extent of media bias:

- During the Asian Tsunami the aid per person amounted to £3,850 but for the victims of the 2004 Bangladesh floods the figure was a mere £1.64 per person.

- The number of deaths in the Lebanon/Israel conflict is 30-40 per day compared to around 100 per day in Iraq and 1,200 per day in Congo. However, Congo hardly gets mentioned in the media.

George Orwell was right afterall. Today's media reflects that "some people are more equal than others".

I Want to be a Mother-in-Law When I Grow Up

In a landmark case in UK , a desi woman filed a harrassment law suit against her mother-in-law for her bullying tactics. She won the case and got 35,000 pounds in damages! (That would be gazillions in dollars)

Wikipedia claims the stereotype that mother-in-laws are "obnoxios, overbearing and unattractive" has carried on since Roman times! This image is now pervasive and universal. There's even a website that lets people vent about their mother-in-laws:
http://www.motherinlawstories.com/

It sounds like a lot fun. I can't wait to be one :-)

This is a snapshot from the Bollywood flick "Swades" (goddam awful movie). Is this a weird set up or is my brain in the gutter?

Close Call

It's a pretty dark night and I am blind as a bat to begin with. A shadowy figure emerges out of the alley and starts walking behind me. The only thing I can make out is that the guy is wearing a cap and smoking a cigarette. Then I notice something suspicious - the man slows down when I slow down and quickens his pace when I speed up. I clutch my purse (which has all of one dollar and twenty five cents in it) and play out the defense strategy in my head. First I will whack the guy on the head with my cell phone. Then I will gouge his eyes out and shove my pointed shoes up his ass (or a Zidane-style head-butt could work just as well). Suddenly the shadowy figure speaks out and catches me off guard. It's a woman! She apologizes for lurking behind me and then offers the most unusual explanation, "I am delibertely not walking in front of you since I ate a lot today and have gas problems." I thanked her for being so considerate and walked away briskly.

Drastic Times

I have never been the most fashionable gal in town but now things have reached rock bottom. In Bangladesh I took my "nice" clothes to the dry cleaners. Then I got caught up in a flurry of activity and had no time to pick them up before I left. As a result, these days I am reaching into the obscure corners of my closet and picking out outfits I had written off a long time ago (including the ugly brown pants). For now I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping there won't be any business meetings, since ALL my suits are half the way across the world.

More Lewis Carroll..........

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;

Ever drifting down the stream--
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?

Diehard Fans

Just got back from Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh had no stake at the World Cup, football fever gripped the whole nation. Fans proudly flaunted the flags of their favorite teams from their windows and rooftops. Out of sheer boredom, I decided to do a rough flag-count on my way from Mogbazar to Uttara. Here's what I noted - 21 brazilian flags, 18 argentine, 4 german, 2 italian, 1 saudi, 1 french. My Ukranian co-worker remarked that if he didn't know where he was, he would have guessed that he had landed in Brazil or Argentina. The disappointment was palpable after both countries bowed out before semi-finals.

Most of the diehard fans definately belonged to the Argentina camp. I read in the news that fans stormed an electricity office in Dhaka following a power failure during the Argentina-Germany quarter final match. The same day two people died of heart failure after Argentina lost to Germany in a penalty shootout.