Posts Tagged ‘US’
I posted this 3 years back and it seems like this issue has resurfaced again. It is funny how our celebrities can do anything to be in the news.
No news has grabbed the headlines in the past few days more than Shahrukh’s detention at the US airport. Even swine flu had to take a back seat on the Indian media. Was the Indian superstar making a huge deal of the incident to promote his upcoming movie which is based on the same theme? May be, but Shahrukh has denied such claims. Yeah it was bad that Shahrukh was detained at the Airport for couple of hours but it’s not a National disaster. It was funny when a famous Bollywood actress claimed that Shahrukh is a “World” figure and should not have gone through such treatment.
The above statement is all that is wrong in India. If she had said something like any Indian should not be subjected to such treatment based on his religion or race, I would have had more respect for her sentiments but that was…
View original post 421 more words
- In: Entertainment | General | Immigration | Languages and Politics | Music | Real Life
- 2 Comments

Shahrukh Khan was detained at the US Airport for 2 hrs for interrogation
No news has grabbed the headlines in the past few days more than Shahrukh’s detention at the US airport. Even swine flu had to take a back seat on the Indian media. Was the Indian superstar making a huge deal of the incident to promote his upcoming movie which is based on the same theme? May be, but Shahrukh has denied such claims. Yeah it was bad that Shahrukh was detained at the Airport for couple of hours but it’s not a National disaster. It was funny when a famous Bollywood actress claimed that Shahrukh is a “World” figure and should not have gone through such treatment.
The above statement is all that is wrong in India. If she had said something like any Indian should not be subjected to such treatment based on his religion or race, I would have had more respect for her sentiments but that was not what she meant. There were lots of reactions from Bollywood after the incident which only showed arrogance on their part. I know that there are millions of Indians who go through such hell everyday around the world and none of us complain. Maybe we should, but who will listen? If I had been detained at the Airport for any reason, it would have been difficult for me to even get hold of our Indian consulate.
The VIP, VVIP, VVVVIP etc culture in India is sickening. In know that the Indians are now used to that culture but why do you expect the same treatment in a foreign country. The comparison with Brad Pitt was another dumb statement by yet another Bollywood bigwig. If the Indians treat Hollywood superstars differently then it’s our problem and the US immigration should not be blamed for that. The Indian security check is a joke and lots of Americans (not only Brad Pitt) are let through without even being checked. The problem with this incident is that no one has spoken on behalf of the entire Indian community who undergo such checks and interrogations every other day, it’s all about one superstar detained for 2 hours for the first time in his life.
Since becoming a superstar in Indian cinema, he was made to feel human for the first time which the star did not like. Now the stars should realize the predicament of common Indian who goes through such scrutiny everywhere in the world. If Dr. Abdul Kalam can be stopped at the Airport then why not Shahrukh? Is Shahrukh bigger than our former President? Our defense minister had to go through the same problems, so is our Bollywood superstar bigger than the above two National leaders? No he is not, at least not for me.
Yeah I know that this is not an ideal scenario and discrimination based on caste, Religion and race has to be questioned but why only when a high profile star is detained. What about the common Indian man? I guess it’s okay that our over the top superstar was brought down to earth for couple of hours, I don’t care if that happened. Nothing is going to change here. Even if the US immigration apologizes for their act, Indians are still going to face these checks, so why worry so much. The incident is done and dusted and Bollywood has to realize that this is not India and the immigration officers across the world don’t recognize Shahrukh Khan.
I will be working on my yard today
Posted June 19, 2009
on:Well it’s a typical Friday morning at work, lot of empty seats, lots of free parking spaces and yes lots of OOO (Out Of Office) messages. I have been working here in the US for the past four years and this is my second client location and some things remain the same. The current client I work for is a giant corporation and is spread across the US.
I work for a typical “Desi” company where billing is everything. I have been amazed by the type of OOO emails we get at the client location. This morning my lead sent an email stating that since it was too nice outside and he wants to work on his yard. This was funny as working in an Indian company you would never even think of giving such a reason.
I work in a company where my manager told me that I shouldn’t take a day off when I was really sick. He said that having cold and fever is not a good enough reason to take a day off. Even though I was angry at that point when I think back it was really funny. That’s the difference between an Indian firm and an American firm.
I have seen so many different vacation emails with reasons such as “I am playing golf tomorrow”, “I am working on my Yard tomorrow”, “I have to collect Fedex package” and many others which will seem ridiculous to us coming from India. In India the only valid reasons for vacation or a day’s leave can be health or functions.
For us consultants at a client place it’s just a dream to be able to give such reasons for taking a leave. It will not be received that well from the managers of my parent company. Well even though I may never be able to work on my yard on a sunny day during a working day, the reasons for leave here in the US never ceases to amaze me.
- In: Airtel Super Singer | Music | Reality Show | Television
- 4 Comments
The Airtel super singer classical round begins today for us in the US. The problem is that in the US Vijay TV is delayed by couple of weeks, so we get to see it late. So coming back to the classical round it will be an interesting one. This round will be bread and butter for someone like Ravi who we know relishes singing classical based songs but what about the others?
We are down to top 7 now so the singers should be able to handle any challenge thrown towards them. I think that the two singers who might have some issues would be Prasanna and Vijay Narayanan. I say Prasanna because he has just started learning music and probably would have some issues pulling off a complete classical song. I would expect him to choose a Semi-Classical song which might suit his voice. He is a fantastic singer and an entertainer and I would like to see him progress to top 6.
Vijay Narayanan though is lucky to be in this round as he was the weak singer in the B & W round and got through as Rohit pulled out. But I think that he will be one of the strong performers this week. He is classically trained and should be able to give a better performance than the last round. I expect Vijay to go through this time. But this depends on how the rest of the group performs.
Raghini is another singer who has been relatively inconsistent in the previous rounds. She again should not have any problems in the classical round as we have seen here giving some good performances in the past. I remember she was in the safe zone with Ravi singing a classical based song in the “Duet Round”.
Ranjani again should be finding this round to her liking and so will Renu. Both these singers are classically trained and should be able to pull of a classical based song quite well. Renu has to work on her breathing issue this round as it might work against her as the rest of the singers are pretty strong.
Ajeesh I guess will be one of the stronger singers in this round along with Ravi. I tip him to get spot selected along with Ravi as he is a very good singer. I saw the rushes of the program last week and saw him singing “Aadal Kalaiye” from the movie Raghavendra and was sounding very good.
All in all this is going to be yet another riveting 3 days. This is the Top 7 of 2008 and we should expect a very close competition. I am sure that the judges will have a tough time eliminating any of the contestants. I think that Sudha Ragunathan is the chief guest of the show which will give some jitters to the contestants. Let’s hope that the best six contestants make it to the next round.