Of Sanjaya Malakar and Punctuality

1/03/2007

By now everyone must have heard about this ABCD kid doing his thing at American Idol. At 17 years of age, I must say he’s a perfect MKS (Malnourished Kid (from) Somalia), and his voice is as bad as his hairdo. Whatever I’ve watched off him, he is the absolute worst singer on American Idol right now. Period. He needs to go. And maybe feed himself a bit more.


(img courtesy: americanidol.com)

But what I do not get is the judges comments to him after his performances. This week, Randy Jackson labeled his voice as one from a “High school talent competition”, Paula Abdul questioned the maturity in his “17 year old” voice and perhaps he is not ready yet, while, Simon.. was well Simon. Now here’s a thing judges – what came through from your feedback is not how bad Sanjaya is, but how much worse your selection policies are. You (the judges) were the one who liked him during auditions, you were the ones who qualified him through the group stage and you were the ones who got him to the big stage. American Idol literally gets hundreds of thousands of auditions, and you the judges are telling me that you did not find anyone better than Sanjaya Malakar to be on the show? He is bad, there is no question about it, but saying that there were no other better singers than him during the auditioning reeks of stupidity, idiocy, and general lethargy to find a real good singer.

Ultimately if the idea of the judges was just get him on stage and berate him on how bad he is, he should not have been on the stage in the first place. How dumb can it get?!

—-

That BBC’s standards are going from bad to worse is a given. Just how bad, I didnt know. Read this article today morning about different countries and their punctuality of time. The article discusses how people in some countries are less punctual, while people in other countries (namely Western, according to the writer) are sticklers to time. The article begins well mentioning about how people in some countries are more time conscious and punctual than others; and then comes the bombshell quote from some Mr. Klein:

“I think the common denominator is Protestantism, which imposes very strict ethics on time. It makes people believe that it’s almost a sin to waste time.”

Mr Klein says this view holds pretty much for all Protestant countries.

There. Next time you are late for something, conveniently blame it on your religion!!! How trite!!

There are 11 comments in this article:

  1. 1/03/2007Sudipta Chatterjee say:

    Wow, and they actually published (endorsed?) such a viewpoint on BBC?

  2. 2/03/2007GuNs say:

    Whats with these ABCDs? They are NOT Indian in any way so please ask these people to stop telling everyone that they have an INDIAN DESCENT or whatever shit like that. To most of us, all of these are just like other normal Americans. I hate it when these pigs abuse Indians and their typicalities in the American media and other public places like in that film American Desi. Its plain stupid and my message to such people “A simpe saying in Hindi – ‘Dhobi ka kutta, na ghar kaa, na ghaat kaa’ i.e. No one gives a crap about you in the USA and not the least, here in India”.

    There…

    -PeAcE
    –WiTh
    –GuNs

  3. 2/03/2007UberTechnophile say:

    err..
    As an aside, Have you ever thought of the remotest possibility of being sued by Mr. Ultra talented man you mention in your post? Especially, since America is the land of suits?

  4. 2/03/2007Supremus say:

    @Sudipta: Its amazing isnt it?

    @Guns: That was rather rude dude, labeling them as pigs and what nots. I know several ABCDs myself in this country who have been more genuine, and frankly more “indian” then some ppl I know who came here 3 years back and already talk like they’ve never been to India. Don’t blame an entire generation because of few bad apples. In any case, this post was not about ABCDs.

    @Uber: Suit? Hailaaaa – for what hehehe? Now you’ve got me scared hehe!!

  5. 2/03/2007silverine say:

    I agree with Guns, it is high time these americans of ‘Indian” descent stop brandishing their roots when it is convenient for them to do so. By saying they are Indians is akin to Bush saying that he is a Brit!

    p.s havent heard Sanjaya

  6. 5/03/2007UberTechnophile say:

    You never know dude. If Britney can go bald and stark raving mad, then anything’s possible :)

  7. 5/03/2007GuNs say:

    Well Stupendous man, you KNOW Guns never generalizes. When I call them Pigs, I SPECIFICALLY point to the few who are second/third/fourth generation Indians in America who’ve never seen what India is and somehow seem to hate everything Indian.

    They tell their friends they are American and that all Indians are a bunch of fools but wherever there is something to gain from being Indian, they jump up and say “here I am”.

    Specific eggjhampel – All the Bastardly Bastardious Amreeki/Brit Punjabi song singers releasing bullcrap Punjabi albums in India. Daler with his classical training and good old Gurdas Mann have been slowly pushed out by these idiots.

    Again, to clarify. Not all ABCD’s are pigs but a LOT of them sure ARE. Simple message to such – “Either be a good American and NEVER call yourself Indian and abuse Indian customs OR call yourself Indian and follow all Indian values well. Just dont do BOTH badly”.

    -PeAcE
    –WiTh
    —GuNs

  8. 5/03/2007Supremus say:

    @Silverine: I don’t think Sanjaya Malakar has ever claimed or talked too much about his Indian descent. In fact I have not seen him talk about it even once. I think its the media which is overdoing it.

    @Uber: U got me scared mate… is he someone u know… should I be careful hehehe :D

    @Guns: Thanks for the clarification mate :D .

    Cheers,

    S

  9. 7/03/2007jEDI say:

    Its nice of you to stick to one theme for a change! :P :P
    By theme of course I mean the blog template.

    Yeah man, as usual our thoughts are no different in this case. What was the point of selecting Saaanjaaaya? I remember when Sanajya and his sister came for auditions. The judges praised Sanjaya and remarked he was a “much better” singer than his sister. Was that the criteria for selection? :P

    Seriously its annoying to see him being berated by the judges like that. He needs to go!

    Protestant countries love Pop/American Idol :P
    Yeah, that was a pretty ridiculous article.

    Good to be back!

    jedi

  10. 15/03/2007Tu mama tambien say:

    I don’t understand why you couldn’t start your post with an obvious stereotype and metaphor. . . he is a perfect malnourished kid from India! Believe it or not, Africa is not the only CONTINENT in the world where there are starving people.

  11. 22/03/2007Mark Straub say:

    Suyog,

    Enjoyed this post. Thanks for your comment on my site. Glad you enjoyed the posts on Kashmir. I loved being there, it feels a bit like withdrawal to be back in Delhi now with the sun and the heat.

    I’ll keep checking your site from time to time. Hope you do the same for mine.

    best,
    mark
    (bankerinindia)