I heart Rishi

Most of you know how miserable I was when we first moved to Sri Lanka. After a rough start to the year, I just wanted to stay in America with friends and the familiarity of home. We arrived in Colombo just as their 30-year civil war came to a close. Of course, for a political science nerd like me, it was an ideal time to be here, and Nate came home every night with fascinating stories. But, he came home late every night-- really late. And he was the one coming home with fascinating stories, whereas I was creating makeshift child safety gates with some combination of china cabinets and sleeper sofas or hauling two kids and their car seats in and out of taxis (and on one occasion pushing the taxi in the monsoon rains, but that is another story). So in addition to acclimating myself to the inferno climate and the new culture, our family dynamic was undergoing a huge change. It was a lot all at once for me, a lot to be going through when feeling truly alone. It was a hard time for me.

One night, Nate ran to the local video store to pick up a movie for us to watch. He ended up buying one the store owner recommended, a Bollywood flick. I really believe watching this film was the turning point for me. There was so much to love: the colors, the costumes, the pop culture and the dancing. There were still several nights (usually Mondays) when I would cry and wonder what kind of life we had signed up for, but for the most part I was starting to find things I could love about living in this far away place.



This movie is a Who's Who of Bollywood. An Ocean's 11 perhaps-- everyone who is anyone in Indian cinema is in this movie. If you are into pop culture, you may be interested to know that the older man (Sexy Sam) is Amitabh Bachnan, the most famous man in India (according to Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire), the younger man dancing (Rishi) is his son in real life and happens to be married to the actress Aishwarya Rai (famous to American's thanks to the Bollywood's version of a Jane Austen novel, Bride and Prejudice--check out that movie's dance scene here).

Most importantly however is Shahrukh Khan. He is the first man you saw in the clip above, talking to the woman. He is the most visible celebrity in South Asia. He is on soda commercials, cable tv commercials, and Tag Heuer ads. If a movie was popular in India in the last five years, he was in it. You can't turn on the tv without knowing Shahrukh Khan. Which is why his detention for questioning at Newark Airport this last August caused a huge uproar throughout India. It would be like Brad Pitt being detained for two hours in Delhi because the Indian government was worried he posed a potential terrorist threat. To make matters worse, Khan (a muslim) was in the US to promote his newest film "My Name is Khan"-- which is about racial profiling of Muslims post September 11.

And that ends today's session of "Do you know your Bollywood Stars?"

Local News: Clip of the Day

The local press reported that the US Embassy in Colombo filed a war crimes report with Congress this week, which is not true. Here is a clip from today's newspapers, please make sure to read the last line:

The JHU is planning to collect one millions signatures for a petition urging the United Nations Secretary General to look into human rights violations by the United States, Western Provincial Council Minister Udaya Gammanpila said yesterday.

Mr. Gammanpila a senior member of the JHU told a media conference that his party was challenging the UN to establish the Permanent Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations by the US.

“The US which portrays Sri Lanka as violating human rights itself violated human rights when it hunted and killed Africans and caused mass destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Mr. Gammanpila said.

“If the UN adopts a deaf and blind approach towards our petition, we will launch an anti-American campaign with countries such as Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Libya and others which have been affected by human right violations of the US,” he said .

Mr. Gammanpila warned that President Barack Obama ran the risk of losing the next presidential election if he believed in the misinformation provided by former US ambassador Robert Blake.

If only re-election depended on NOT listening to an Assistant Secretary.

Fall

By far, the hardest part of living overseas, for me, is missing all the fall premieres. I am always grateful for friends who tell me I must get my hands on the season premiere of the Biggest Loser because it was tear inducing inspirational and for sending me links to gems like these from new fall shows that I can only hope arrive in my local video store once the season is over in May. I especially love this clip: football and Beyonce, it just doesn't get any better.

Heartbreaker

Sina and I can spend hours looking at old photos on our computer. Tonight we found a gem from back when our friends Tad and Rebecca visited us in France.


Or wait, was that when Robert Plant visited us? So hard to tell...

That's some serious toothbrushing

Fishing and horses

So one picture you'll almost always see if you happen to be looking at pictures from Sri Lanka, is of the pole fishermen. No, not fishing poles, pole fishermen. Why this has developed in Sri Lanka and apparently nowhere else I'll never understand, because it's a pretty simple idea. What's not necessarily simple is getting us out of bed in time to see them in the morning. It took a couple days of trying, and in the end I think we just got lucky with one guy who had nothing else to do that day. He was more than obliging for a photo shoot, especially after I gave him a dollar's worth of rupees. I figure it's like a donation to cultural heritage, on a very direct basis.







Ruby still loves, loves, loves riding horses. We stopped by a playground that was built by USAID after the Tsunami, and they had a pony to ride. Gavin wasn't so sure about it, he might need a better cowboy hat before he does any more riding.



But Ruby was of course still right at home.

Gavin's paparazzi

Our kids seem to get a little extra attention around these parts, what with the blonde and red hair and all. But this time it reached a high point when we were walking along the ramparts of the old fort in Galle. One woman basically took Ruby from my arms and held her so her friend could take a picture of them together. Gavin was the biggest hit, as you can see from this: