When Kiran Met Karen

Next to “Neil/Neal,” which functions as an approximation of the Sanskrit “Neel,” “Kiran,” close enough to the Celtic “Kieran,” is the most over-used American-Born Desi name.

Now there’s a movie about a lesbian love affair--When Kiran Met Karen--being shot in New York with Purva Bedi. And how meta--it starts off on a movie set.

More about the movie (that I’m convinced is secretly dying to be called a ‘film’) here.


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HIV Risk Cut by Circumcision says Kevin de Cock

Important news certainly.

But seriously, who can resist that headline?


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SNORKELING

Everyday for breakfast
She had spoonfuls of sky
Nothing close or nearby
Ever seemed same again.

So in another land,
In some softly alien sea
They consent to band
In lithe experimental ties

With elongated limbs,
And buckled lungs,
Talking of walking water
Minus primness or miracle

Finding the sea suddenly
Small as a lapping pet,
Animated in assault,
Circling them for treats.

Then too soon, in ten or so days,
Their rules and goodbyes unsaid,
They fly; the red of an airline blanket
Flowers, in her lap, like a miscarriage.


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Clutching at Straw Men

There's a “Save Darfur” ad on TV.

Her banter trickles to a stop.

“It's OK, Puppy,” he says, stroking her hair. “President Bush will save them.”

She turns to him, her eyes magnified by tears, “Really?”

Not that she’s ever had faith in this President--but she always has faith in him.

His laugh is embarrassed now, but it still burns.



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The Weighting Game

Everyone expects to see me all frail and waifish after surgery. Instead I look happy and bouncy. The latter may be rationalized as follows: happiness at my reprieve and a no-exercise caveat coupled with my legendary, all-day noshing habit.

And I've checked--it's a gain of approx. three and a half pounds. It doesn’t sound much, except that I’m not very tall and my bones are pathetic--my wrists and ankles, for instance, are undersized even for most nine-year-olds. So… although this sounds terribly body-dysmorphic, a difference of three pounds shows, and I can feel it in the fit and fall of my clothes.

Or as the numbers at the bottom of this show, BMI is a whole different game where south asians are concerned. (Thanks, TMB.)

Glad it’s back to the weights room now.



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MARGINALIA

She never allows herself to think
About those she may have wronged.
Those misrepresented in constant
Circuitry of hostility.

In thinking about
Those she has wronged
She squiggles excuses
As easily as excess
And writes the commitment
To discomfort as apology.



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THANJAVUR BRIHADEESWARAR

Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar

Stone, bald from piety,
Burns the soles of unshod feet.
Snaking through the lamp-lit alley,
Offerings and flowers arrive
Through the centuries
Ending here, this year
Small, tawdry, and plastic.

Little surprise then, that
Sweeping dead dust and dry leaves,
Into a prayerful mound, his spine
Curled and knobbed like a rosary,
He asks me in--reflex hush--
(While still in plain sight of the idol)
Is anyone else here?


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