The fertile fields of Indian villages and the bustling streets of its cities have been the breeding grounds for many a world class cricketer.
It was only some time before somebody figured out that the same soil which produces great cricketers can produce great baseball players too esp. given the strong similarities between the 2 games. That's why I was pleasantly surprised by a small news item in the WSJ recently about the first Indian players- Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel being hired as part of Major League Baseball (Pittsburgh Pirates) : Game-Show Winners Earn a Place in Minors
And in the land of the Slumdog Millionaire is it not apt that these players were selected after winning a game show "Million Dollar Arm" ? A victory that transformed their lives moving them across the globe from small hamlets in Uttar Pradesh, India to the bustling ballpark of Pittsburgh.
And obviously as Cricket tries to make inroads into the uncharted waters of the US sports marketplace, Baseball would also be planning similar moves in India: "Indian hurlers' inking opens new market:Contracts for Singh and Patel could pave way for their countrymen"
Watch these "Baseballers" in action: "I don't know who Babe Ruth is" . Neither of them knew what baseball is or had ever touched a baseball before they took part in this contest.
Maybe this will open the floodgates......What next, Indian cricket teams hiring ball players from the wheat fields of Kansas?
Showing posts with label Indian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indian. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The Indian Spelling Bee Hive at Washington
A year ago I had blogged about :"Indian spelling "bees" swarm Washington . Looks like those bees have continued to swarm the Washington event in even greater numbers.
Today the Wall Street Journal carried an interesting opinion piece on the phenomenon by James Maguire : "How to Win the Spelling Bee. You don't have to be Indian. But it seems to help."
I would ascribe the success of the kids not to their being "Indian" but on the Indian value of "Focus on Education". Anybody who subscribes to the same value can achieve similar success. Cultures which focus on sports find similar successes for their kids in the sports arena (a place where Indians are often noticeable by their relative absence - 1 Billion people, 1 Olympic Gold at the Beijing Olympics).
Today the Wall Street Journal carried an interesting opinion piece on the phenomenon by James Maguire : "How to Win the Spelling Bee. You don't have to be Indian. But it seems to help."
I would ascribe the success of the kids not to their being "Indian" but on the Indian value of "Focus on Education". Anybody who subscribes to the same value can achieve similar success. Cultures which focus on sports find similar successes for their kids in the sports arena (a place where Indians are often noticeable by their relative absence - 1 Billion people, 1 Olympic Gold at the Beijing Olympics).
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Super Bowl XLII - "Indian" themed ads
Did you guys watch the Super Bowl ? I bet almost all would have. Pretty exciting game and a nailbiting finish
Did you catch all the ads ? Seems like the Indian community has finally "arrived". The rite of passage being becoming the focus of racially stereotypical jokes. The Italian, Irish, Latinos , Chinese have all been through it and now it's our turn. Some would say being noticed in a funny manner is better than not being noticed at all.
1) Salesgenie.com did it twice. One ad, "Sales Hero," featured an Asian Indian salesman ("Ramesh Chakrapani") with a stereotypical accent being threatened by his white boss, a short, white man with a mustache, to boost his sales or else. After the Asian Indian employee checks out Salesgenie.com, he wins an award for best salesman of the year and accepts it on a stage standing next to his wife and seven children. The other commercial, "Panda," featured a panda-bear couple speaking with strong Asian accents, worried that their business, Ling Ling's Bamboo Furniture Shack, might go under. They call a panda psychic who refers them to Salesgenie.com. Both ads, produced in house, were found offensive by more than half a dozen ad execs, reports The Wall Street Journal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJyQcDUIDYo
2) Bud Light relegated most of its ad time to horses, Dalmatians, beer and Will Farrell, but one spot, "Language of Love," produced by the LatinWorks agency, offended some people. This commercial featured a group of men of multiple races/ethnicities trying to court women at a bar. A macho-looking Latino man was trying to get them to stop talking with their stereotypical accents--teaching an Asian man how to say hi, for example--and then trying to seduce a woman with his accent sounding like Antonio Banderas, but she's already taken by a short, Asian Indian man who says "Bud Light" in a thick Asian Indian accent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao0x4zsb724
These descriptions are from DiversityInc.com
Did you catch all the ads ? Seems like the Indian community has finally "arrived". The rite of passage being becoming the focus of racially stereotypical jokes. The Italian, Irish, Latinos , Chinese have all been through it and now it's our turn. Some would say being noticed in a funny manner is better than not being noticed at all.
1) Salesgenie.com did it twice. One ad, "Sales Hero," featured an Asian Indian salesman ("Ramesh Chakrapani") with a stereotypical accent being threatened by his white boss, a short, white man with a mustache, to boost his sales or else. After the Asian Indian employee checks out Salesgenie.com, he wins an award for best salesman of the year and accepts it on a stage standing next to his wife and seven children. The other commercial, "Panda," featured a panda-bear couple speaking with strong Asian accents, worried that their business, Ling Ling's Bamboo Furniture Shack, might go under. They call a panda psychic who refers them to Salesgenie.com. Both ads, produced in house, were found offensive by more than half a dozen ad execs, reports The Wall Street Journal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJyQcDUIDYo
2) Bud Light relegated most of its ad time to horses, Dalmatians, beer and Will Farrell, but one spot, "Language of Love," produced by the LatinWorks agency, offended some people. This commercial featured a group of men of multiple races/ethnicities trying to court women at a bar. A macho-looking Latino man was trying to get them to stop talking with their stereotypical accents--teaching an Asian man how to say hi, for example--and then trying to seduce a woman with his accent sounding like Antonio Banderas, but she's already taken by a short, Asian Indian man who says "Bud Light" in a thick Asian Indian accent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao0x4zsb724
These descriptions are from DiversityInc.com
The ads are funny but seem to be creating/reinforcing some weird stereotypes :
- South Asians are communication challenged , have thick accents and have very large families.
- South Asians are socially challenged
And such stereotypes are always dangerous……...
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Games Indians Play: Why We Are the Way We Are
An interesting and sometimes scathing, self-introspective look at "Indians" by an Indian,V. Raghunathan . Some may call it supercilious and others self-flagellating, but there are no doubts that it is controversial and thought-provoking.
Comments like this are sure to raise a few hackles : Privately, Indians are reasonably smart -- in fact, we are as smart as anybody else -- but publicly we are dumb. Our ability to understand the need for cooperation is very low. We believe that cooperation and selfishness cannot go together -- which is not true. We also tend to be very fatalistic in our outlook. We give excuses such as, "What can I do alone? Everybody else is looking out for himself, so why shouldn't I?"
But then, a little introspection and self-criticism shouldn't hurt.
An interview with the author published at IndiaKnowledge@Wharton :
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4222
In his book Games Indians Play: Why We Are the Way We Are, V. Raghunathan writes about a farmer whose corn won top awards year after year. When a reporter asked about the secret of his success, the farmer attributed it to the fact that he shared his corn with his neighbors. Why, the reporter wondered, would the farmer want to share his seed when those neighbors also competed with him for the prize? The farmer's reply was, "The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grew inferior corn, cross-pollination would steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors do the same."
That Indians often fail to act like this farmer is the principal theme of Raghunathan's book. Using examples as varied as their tendency to drive through red lights to their failure to protect the environment, Raghunathan argues that Indians often act in ways that focus on winning immediate gains at the expense of long-term benefits. What makes Raghunathan's approach unusual is that his argument isn't a moral diatribe: He employs game theory -- a branch of mathematics -- and related concepts, such as the prisoner's dilemma, to present his case. A former professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Raghunathan in 2001 was named president of the ING Vyasya Bank. He now works for the GMR Group as managing director of GMR Industries, the group's agri-business division, and CEO of the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation. Raghunathan also teaches game theory and behavioral economics at the University of Bocconi in Italy. To relax, he repairs mechanical clocks.
Comments like this are sure to raise a few hackles : Privately, Indians are reasonably smart -- in fact, we are as smart as anybody else -- but publicly we are dumb. Our ability to understand the need for cooperation is very low. We believe that cooperation and selfishness cannot go together -- which is not true. We also tend to be very fatalistic in our outlook. We give excuses such as, "What can I do alone? Everybody else is looking out for himself, so why shouldn't I?"
But then, a little introspection and self-criticism shouldn't hurt.
An interview with the author published at IndiaKnowledge@Wharton :
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4222
In his book Games Indians Play: Why We Are the Way We Are, V. Raghunathan writes about a farmer whose corn won top awards year after year. When a reporter asked about the secret of his success, the farmer attributed it to the fact that he shared his corn with his neighbors. Why, the reporter wondered, would the farmer want to share his seed when those neighbors also competed with him for the prize? The farmer's reply was, "The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grew inferior corn, cross-pollination would steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors do the same."
That Indians often fail to act like this farmer is the principal theme of Raghunathan's book. Using examples as varied as their tendency to drive through red lights to their failure to protect the environment, Raghunathan argues that Indians often act in ways that focus on winning immediate gains at the expense of long-term benefits. What makes Raghunathan's approach unusual is that his argument isn't a moral diatribe: He employs game theory -- a branch of mathematics -- and related concepts, such as the prisoner's dilemma, to present his case. A former professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Raghunathan in 2001 was named president of the ING Vyasya Bank. He now works for the GMR Group as managing director of GMR Industries, the group's agri-business division, and CEO of the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation. Raghunathan also teaches game theory and behavioral economics at the University of Bocconi in Italy. To relax, he repairs mechanical clocks.
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