Om Malik

Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. Read More

Dilbar Dilbert

Outsourcing is not fun, though DIlbert is making it seem so.

Jokes apart, the ongoing backlash in the US against job losses to Indian techies has found a place even in the famous cartoon strip Dilbert . In a new series starting September 15, cartoonist Scott Adams’ cult strip goes on to take a dig at IIT grads from India. In the first episode, Asok, the brilliant but naive Indian trainee, the cynical Wally and the ever-sceptical Alice are sitting in the boardroom with the pointy-haired Boss. Asok says that though he was the project manager, nobody replied to his e-mail.

Meanwhile the cartoon backlash continues in UK as well! Daily Telegraph has this crazy new strip as well.

The September 11 Alex strip finds Rupert and a colleague discussing various ways of sacking their overpaid head of research, Chris Sullivan. Rupert says : “In the post Enron regulatory climate,

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Chopra bends it like Beckham!

Now this is a first kick of a kind

Michael Chopra, the gangling 19-year-old son of a shopkeeper, has become the first British Asian to play in the high-powered world of English Premier League football, and he might well set a trend. Chopra, who went to school where former England captain Alan Shearer learned his trade and dearly hopes to follow in his hero’s boot steps, came close to scoring a goal for Newcastle United against Manchester United last weekend. (Economic Times)

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When the Lama speaks, 65000 listen

“The very concept of war is out of date. Destruction of your neighbor as an enemy is essentially a destruction of yourself.” Dalai Lama speaking at the Central Park as part of his 20-city tour. The New York Times has a full report.

The numbers make him one of the park’s biggest nonentertainment draws, in a category with the Rev. Billy Graham and Pope John Paul II, although those religious leaders have attracted far more people to their park events.

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Brick Lane, the movie?

We knew it was only a matter of time! Monica Ali, bookies’ favorite for winning the Booker Prize this year, is now being chased by the evil Hollywood types with mega-million dollar offers, reports the Independent of UK.

Her bittersweet debut novel, Brick Lane, is the object of a fierce bidding war between rival film-makers eager to capitalise on the buzz surrounding her status as the publishing industry’s closest thing to a “new Zadie Smith”.

One thought we share with the Independent…

On the face of it, Brick Lane is hardly the stuff of blockbuster movies. It tells the story of Nazneen, a teenage girl from Bangladesh who ekes out a painful existence in the shadow of a domineering husband twice her age in a cramped flat in London’s Tower Hamlets.

But what does Ms. Ali say?

Ali, who is currently touring America promoting Brick Lane, was unavailable for comment,

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Bollywood goes international

BBC reports that many overseas film companies courted the lucrative Bollywood movie industry at a two-day conference in Bombay (Mumbai). Companies from countries such as Australia, Finland, Germany and New Zealand met to discuss ways of drawing productions abroad.

What we did not know that

  • Since the first Indian film to be shot in New Zealand – Sanam Harjai – was released in 1995, 90 films have been produced in the country.
  • Indian tourist numbers had risen from 400 in 1995 to 25,000 in 2001 – all because of Bollywood
  • The first Indian film is now being shot in Germany, a movie about Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, a revolutionary who fought British colonialism in India.
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Britney goes bhangra

Shania Twain, Madonna, Rishi Rich – they all have dabbled with Bhangra and Bollywood rhythms. Now Britney Spears has a Bhangra-flavored comeback strategy, according to Beeb. She is being helped by Rishi Rich …

The song features Spears singing and rapping over music and rhythms from rural India and has been remixed by British Asian producer Rishie Rich – himself celebrating a top 20 hit in the UK this month with Dance With You (Nachna Tere Naal).

One word Britney – thank god you are finally getting some help.

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