Category — Politics

I was surprised the First Lady Michelle Obama did not try a sari in India. After all her husband used to hang with the Indian crowd when he was known as Barry and cooked Dal with his roommate Vinai Thummalapally (now the Ambassador to Belize). But so many other Western women try on this versatile garment when they visit India. Here are some celebrity photos

Actress and Indian-Englishman's wife Elizabeth Hurley in sari

Pamela Anderson was wildly popular for the TV Show "BayWatch"

Russian born tennis player Anna Kournikova in Sari

Tennis players visiting India seem to prefer saris, perhaps because no one will ask them to play, once they don this garment. Here are sisters Venus and Serena in a sari

Tennis stars Venus and Serena williams in Saris

Super Model Naomi Campbell in Black Sari

The New York Times conducted an interesting series of interviews in Shanghai and New Delhi asking Chines and Indians what they think of their own countries and each other’s countries.

As one Indian says in the video, “We have gone from Bhai Bhai (a period of friendship and brotherhood in the 1950′s) to Bye-Bye (from the 1960′s due to the Chinese invasion of 1962 and the long tail of hostility ) to Buy-Buy (or expanding trade).”

Click here to watch the video.

According to SoCal Tech, Los Angeles- and Austin-based GameSalad, the iOS game creation software firm founded by Michael Agustin, Dan Treiman, Tan Tran, and Joshua Seaver, has an unlikely hand in the anti-corruption issues facing  India, and Indian activist Anna Hazare: a video game called “Angry Anna”.

The game–a takeoff the popular Angry Birds smartphone games–was developed with GameSalad’s software, and runs on HTML5 browsers and smartphones. GameSalad said the game has become a “viral hit” and has been played over 225,000 times since launching a week ago. The game was developed by Delhi area game development firm Geek Mentors Studio. Instead of birds, the game includes Indian anti-corruption figures Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and Kiran Bedi.

What this means:

The Jon Stewart/Daily Show form of news/entertainment is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Young people in India don’t see the boundaries that newspaper-reading pre-GenXers grew up with.

People in India are often fascinated by attractive women from across the border, whether in entertainment or in politics. In 1972, Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto brought his gangling daughter Benazir (who went to graduate from Harvard and to become a leader herself before being assassinated) to the Simla Summit.  On the agenda was a peace agreement between the countries, in the wake of the liberation and creation of Bangladesh, a brutal war and the capture of 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war. But the media and the Indian public went gaga over Benazir, whose presence seemed to limit coverage of far-reaching issues.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabanni Khar

Hina Rabbani Khar was born five years after Benazir’s visit to Simla (now called Shimla).  Last month Mrs Khar, mother of two and a hottie in the eyes of most South Asians, became Pakistan’s youngest ever Foreign Minister, also the first ever female to hold this office. One of her first official actions was to visit New Delhi. And the media went wild. “All eyes on glamorous Pak minister,” said the Rediff website. “She is clearly being looked at as a perfect combination of beauty and brains.” Journalist and author Seema Goswami saw a link between the monsoonal downpour that struck the Indian capital Wednesday morning and the generally fawning coverage of Khar. “Even the Delhi skies are drooling,” she wrote.

Khar’s was a remarkable contrast with her Indian counterpart, S M Krishna, who at 79 is  probably the oldest foreign minister in the world. Both were educated in the United States, Krishna in the 1960s and Khar at University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2001. She is the co-owner of the Polo Lounge, an upscale restaurant located on the  Polo Grounds in Lahore.

According to the Wall Street Journal, her ensemble and accessories became the talk of fashion and media circles on both sides of the border. The Hermes Birkin black bag that Khar was seen carrying as she touched down  in New Delhi, remained one of the top trending items on Twitter last week.

Birkin Bag by Hermes in Khar's hands

Hermes’ new store in Mumbai’s Horniman Circle area follows its others in Pune and Delhi, but the Mumbai outlet is the first to be opened directly on Indian streets. The Pune and Delhi stores are tucked away in luxury hotels Ista and The Oberoi, respectively. Hermès has taken up residence in Mumbai in a grand two-storey building. The store has been designed by Parisian architecture agency Rena Dumas Architecture Interieure.

A delegation led by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in New Delhi on Monday, July 18 evening for Round 2 of the US-India Strategic Dialog.  Her delegation includes the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; Assistant to President on Science and Technology John Holdren; Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman; Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, Jane Lute; as well as a number of other senior officials from various Departments of the US Administration. (American secretaries are generally presidential appointees)

She meets with India’s  National Security Advisor and has delegation-level talks with the External Affairs Minister.

The Indian delegation will be led by External Affairs Minister Dr. S.M. Krishna and will include Deputy-Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia; Sam Pitroda, Advisor to Prime Minister; Foreign Secretary(and Ambassador-Designate) Nirupama Rao; Foreign Secretary Designate Ranjan Mathai; Other India Civil Service officers in the meetings will be the Commerce Secretary; the Secretary, Department of Science and Technology; the Home Secretary; the Secretary, Education; the Secretary, Environment and Forests; the Director of the Intelligence Bureau.She will also have meetings with the Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, call on Chairperson UPA Sonia Gandhi; call on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The delegations will hold a joint press conference. Secretary Clinton will visit Chennai on July 20, where she will visit a plant run by the Ford Motor Company. She will then leave for Djakarta, Indonesia for a regional summit.

What this means:

Clinton has visited India several times, starting during her tenure as First Lady.

The strategic dialog between the countries is now maturing and being pursued on many economic, security and cultural fronts. This is good news for alignment between the world’s two largest democracies. The fact that is she is stopping in Chennai will highlight south India and the city that is home to much of India automotive and electronics manufacturing.