This is a huge deal! Romila Thapar was actually a visiting scholar at UW's South Asia Center a few years ago... lucky us :)

Quoted: Historian Romila Thapar, whose body of work on India’s ancient past is characterized by a “pluralistic view of Indian civilization,” is a co-winner of this year’s $1 million “Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity.”

This movie looks like it could be really cute...

Quoted: Disguising herself as American, an Indian credit card phone operator (Shriya Saran) travels to San Francisco for a romantic liaison with a man (Jesse Metcalfe) she met through her work. Upon her arrival, however, she decides to keep her true identity a secret, which threatens to dampen the sparks between her and her potential beau.

Reading this for my next book club meeting - looking forward to getting into it, it sounds really interesting and I haven't seen a lot of other fiction on this subject.

Quoted: Hamid grabs hold of the American Dream as seen through the eyes of a young Princeton grad from Pakistan in a post-9/11 world. As the protagonist, Changez, finds moderate business success and romantic love in New York City, his heritage and identity will be lost in a sea of subtle and blatant bigotry as well as international politics.

My article on "A Dream in Doubt," a documentary on post-9/11 anti-Sikh violence in the U.S., and on an anti-Sikh hate crime that took place on I-5 in Seattle. Sad.

Quoted: In the years following September 11, 2001, America has struggled to make sense of a tragedy, turning a scrutinizing eye at the country’s role in world affairs and its immigration policies. In one form, this scrutiny has morphed into an attempt to seek out and retaliate against a tangible “enemy.”

I'm attending a screening of this film about post-9/11 anti-Skih violence on April 19th at the Northwest Film Forum for an article I'm working on. Click on the link about screening events to RSVP for the Seattle one... it's free and the filmmaker and one of the film's subjects will be attending.

Quoted: One of America’s first post 9/11 hate crime murders punctuated a growing wave of violence against Sikhs in retaliation for the terror attacks. Told from the perspective of the victim’s brother, A DREAM IN DOUBT travels to Mesa, Arizona to reveal a story of national tragedy, murder, community and the American dream.

Wow, this week marks the 49th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile from Tibet. Some great pictures in this slide show...

Quoted: This week in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, fleeing the Chinese suppression of a national uprising in Tibet, crossed the border into India, where he was granted political asylum.

Haha great interview with Shashi Tharoor (Indian fiction/non-fiction author & high-ranking U.N. diplomat) on the Colbert Report.

Quoted: Shashi Tharoor believes that Stephen would have been at the top of the caste system.

A good recap/analysis of what happened in the Pakistani elections.

Quoted: Heading into Monday's parliamentary elections, Pakistan desperately needed good news. Bombs, protests, and President Pervez Musharraf's authoritarian impulses have made almost daily headlines and created the impression of a country spiraling toward chaos.

Great PhD paper about parental involvement and spouse choice in urban India. She did a lot of her research using online marriage sites. I actually read a little blurb on this in the Atlantic Monthly - very cool.

Quoted: When parents are involved in mate choice, sons are significantly less likely to marry college-educated women and women engaged in the labor force.