Hey, eat your words!

He had heard of it all. At every corner, the naysayers were there. They were free with unsolicited advice that he should not forget where he came from, that the pinky would only grow to the size of the thumb, and that a sparrow should not dream of flying majestically like an eagle. 

As if the road ahead was not uncertain enough, these doomsday philosophers jumped on the bandwagon to sow the seeds of doubt. Already in turmoil, trying to pull oneself by the bootstraps, the negative vibes are the last that anyone wants to hear. But they yak on...

He was raised in an environment where he was told to respect others and not to tell somebody off on the face; he would just smile it off. 

The element of doubt still lingered, however. The quandary was whether he was indeed doomed to fail. With perceived divine guidance, he persevered. He had the grace of his family as well.

The answer to his doubt must have been answered finally. Not only has he proved his critics wrong, but he now has proof of the whole world’s accreditation to show. All the naysayers can now eat humble pie. The journey to the pinnacle had been fraud with shrapnels and heartbreaks, but what the heck. Hoisting the trophy was all that worth it.

GOPIO, Global Organization of People of Indian Origin, in its continued journey to open cooperation among the people of the diaspora, during its annual conference, honoured POI icons from various industries - security, logistics, telecommunications, etc., from the world over. 

Dato M. S. Murthi
GOPIO International Business Excellence Award 2023
Legal Practice

                         

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What do Rishi Sunak, Freddy Mercury and Mississippi Masala have in common?

https://borderlessjournal.com/2023/01/20/what-do-rishi-sunak-freddy-mercury-mississippi-masala-have-in-common/

Rishi Sunak’s appointment to 10 Downing Street has made people aware of the significant presence of Indians in the African Continent. Indian-African cultural and trade exchanges had been ongoing as early as the 7th century BC. Africans are also mentioned to have significantly influenced India’s history of kingdoms, conquests and wars.

The second wave of Indian migration to Africa happened mainly in the 19th century with British imperialism via the indentured labour system, a dignified name for slavery. It is all semantics. What essentially happened at the end day is a large Indian diaspora in countries like South Africa, Mauritius, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and many more. Many of the Indians who made their way there as labourers, over the generations, began to play significant roles in the economy and professional representations in these countries...

https://borderlessjournal.com/2023/01/20/what-do-rishi-sunak-freddy-mercury-mississippi-masala-have-in-common/

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When you are down...

The Yellow Bird (Singapore, 2016)
Director: K Rajendran

How does one make a genuinely Singaporean (or Malaysian) movie? What language does he use to make it look authentic? Just look at the ground level. Stand in the marketplace in the heart of town and listen to the murmur. One hears a potpourri of languages spoken by different tongues and in different accents. It must be a treasure trove for a person like Professor Higgins (of 'My Fair Lady') to do his fieldwork. Hence, quite rightly so, the filmmakers decided to utilise a hodgepodge of common languages spoken amongst the characters in the film to make it look believable.

One can say this is a Singaporean Tamil film as the protagonist is Tamil-speaking. Still, otherwise, there are Mandarin, English, Singlish and Hokkien spoken laced with a liberal dose of profanity in keeping with the company of the crowd that the main character is associating.

When Singapore is shown in any setting, the views that often pop up are the Merlion statue with the spraying of water from its mouth or the infinity pool atop Marina Bay Sands. Here, we have the chance to see the dimly-lit back lanes, shady characters and not the usual spick and span fare of Singapore that we are accustomed to.

The extremely slow-moving story may be a turn-off to those who find the prolonged pause between dialogues irritating and a stern expressionless facies of the main character a put-off. Still, many feel that these slow drags are essential to set the tone and emphasise the helpless situations that everyone is in. 

Siva, a newly released convict for smuggling, is trying to reconnect with his estranged wife. His mother does not want to talk to him. She had rented out his room to Chinese immigrants. None of his friends wants to help him. Siva supports himself by playing the drums at a funeral band and as a helper in a coffee shop. He befriends an illegal Chinese immigrant who also works with the band. She is always short of cash as everyone seems to have cheated of her hard-earned money. So, she hires Siva as her bodyguard to venture out as a call girl. Even though not able to speak each other's language, the two build a relationship as Siva continues looking for his wife. 

It is interesting to see that when the lower one spirals down the economic ladder, the more he has to scavenge it out with the marginalised part of society. The state forgets him, or rather, is shunned as specific societal requirements are not fulfilled. Not only they have to deal with monetary issues, interpersonal frictions, substance abuses and housing facilities all piles up his list of unsolved problems. To top it off, they need to scavenge it out with those fresh off the boat. 

(P.S. Yellow Bird is a symbolism of joy and a positive outlook on life. Sadly, here, a yellow bird dies. Remember the 'Yellow Bird' song by Dicky Lee in the 70s? Now, it makes sense. It is not you think it is! It is actually an old Haitian poem written in 1893 titled 'Chouchone')

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Who are you really?

R Arumugam @ Spiderman in action

I remember a time in primary school when Malaysia was playing hockey in the World Cup, and we were hosting them. One of my friends, ignorant that he was, predicted that Malaysia would lose, not because India is a good team but because Malaysia had too many players of Indian ethnicity. The Malaysians would not play with as much zest due to allegiance to their ancestral roots. Of course not, I told him. It was like the national goalie Spidey R Arumugam letting in a few goals during Merdeka tournament to India for old times’ sake. No way that was going to happen.

In the same way, I fail to see why many individuals of the Indian diaspora are getting all excited, ad nauseam, after the announcement of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate. For the record, Kamala is half Indian on the maternal side and Jamaican on the other.

Kamala @ Momala with hubby and stepkids.

Kamala Harris is an American true and true. She was born in America, read in the American education system and lived the American Dream. True, the motivating factor in her life was her learned Tamil mother who migrated to the US for greener pastures. That is where it ends.

Beyond that, it is all politics. Ms Harris was initially riding on the African American ticket, but now that the Indian Americans are a force to be reckoned with and are mostly aligned to Trump and the Republican Party, there is a pressing need to woo the American Indians back to the Democratic Party.  

Charles Sobhraj

Whatever way the US election results swings out, it is not going in any way going to affect the day to day of an average person in the Indian diaspora. The leaders of any country have the best interest of the nation that elected to heart, not allegiance to the land that once bred their ethnicity but not kind enough to nurture them to full fruition that their ancestors had to fleet.

Funny nobody staked claim to proclaim Charles Sobhraj @ The Bikini Killer as an Indian when he hit the headlines four decades ago!

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Passed its sell-by date?

Contestants: Vartika Singh (India), Mohana Prabha (Singapore),

Mehr Elieser (Panama), Priya Serrao (Australia), 
Shweta Sekhon (Malaysia).

The female members of the clan were ecstatic to learn that they possibly shared the same forefathers of five of finalists who have been shortlisted at the 2019 Miss Universe contest. I did not want to be a spoilsport to dampen the spirit of achievement; they had no role at all. If anything, it only shows their hypocrisy.

On one end, they want to be assessed on their mental ability and tenacity. They feel slighted when referred to as the weaker sex or given leeway for under achievements. They would like to believe that their successes in life were purely via merit, not by merely being the fairer sex. They raise their gaze when the female gender is condescended upon or depicted in a negative light.

But it is quite puzzling that the parading of scantily clad females like livestock raises no concern at all to them. Sure, intellectual capacity, wit, personality and social consciousness all are tested to pick the fairest of them all. Physical attributes must surely give the window of opportunity for other subsequent successes to follow soon.

Have we not seen enough instances of how beauty queens being puppets of businesses and government acting under the guise of being a brand ambassador for a novel cause?

Ms Reita Faria, Ms World 1966.

Offhand, the story of Asia's first Ms World contestant and the 1966 winner comes to mind. Reita Faria, then a 23-year-old medical student from Bombay, went on to win the crown. (Note: Ms World and Ms Universe are different events). Her problems started after that. As part of her contract, she had to appear for the organisers, Mecca. She had to accompany Bob Hope to entertain GIs in the Vietnam War. As India opposed the Vietnam War, her passport was impounded by her Government, and she was stuck in the UK for a year, unable to continue her medical studies. Her happy ending came about when she secured a place in King's College to continue her studies. She now resides in Ireland married to her mentor in 1971 and moved to Dublin.

Many years later, in an interview, Dr Reita Faria Powell opined that beauty pageants had probably passed their shelf life. She thinks that there is no more a fairy tale ending.

Have you noticed that over the years how the selection of finalists is overtly biased toward the turn of events in the world political arena? And more contestants from the developing countries seem to capture the limelight. Probably that is where the target audience is and where the sponsors want to tap their resources from. Maybe their counterparts in the first world are over with burning bras and have nothing more to prove. They are more than mere eye candies or trophy toys to demand recognition. Points to ponder.

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