Why I Heart the Mutiny?

Probably not, but just in case you were wondering, I wanted to let you know that I’m still around, writing regularly for Sepia Mutiny, the biggest, baddest, brownest, most belligerent South Asian blog on the net. I forget to cross-post sometimes most of the time, which is probably not a good thing, but just a reminder that you can catch some of my stuff on Sepia Mutiny. Here’s a quick checklist of the stuff I’ve blogged for them since I began in August, starting from the most recent post.

• Khan Signs Nudie Pics. (self-explanatory)

• Q&A with @PorkAdventurer aka Abdullah Saeed. By far one of my most favorite interviews ever. Abdullah and I met at the Brew Ha Ha cafe near 12 and Walnut. He had Earl Grey, I had mint tea. (No bacon, alas.) I predict great things for this one, folks. Great things. And he’s a Philadelphian, profiling Philadelphia places! Love it!
• Khan Takes on Manhattan. Getting the chance to cover an actual Bollywood press conference was definitely a dream come true. And I didn’t trip (too much) over cables and whatnot. And I asked a question and my voice didn’t shake! I can haz be professional? Perhaps. See? Blogging for SM has it perks :P
• Zardari Tells Crowd to Shaddup. Hmm, either we don’t have a lot of Pakistani readers, or I just didn’t write anything thought-provoking. Guessing it was the latter.
• Tea with Chachaji. Event listing. Send me your events, yo.

• Could Scott Brown be any Browner? I think I offended the politicos with this one, but oh well. I thought it was funny. (Sure, you think EVERYTHING is funny, don’t you, PG? Why can’t you take life more seriously?) Bite me.
• Peter Jackson and Patrick Christopher Sing ‘Indian Girl.” This song was stuck in my head for days afterwards. The suffering I undergo for you readers, sigh. I know.
• Daisy Rockwell at Twelve Gates Gallery. Just found out tonight that they may have removed some of her artwork from their website because it may be offensive to former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf. Drama.
• SRK on Twitter. Funniest feeling in the world to actually have SRK say “Thank you for following me on Twitter, btw,” especially knowing I don’t follow him on Twitter, heh.
• Q&A with Hassan Malik. This was a great interview. I <3 Hassan. I can see him going far. Unfortunately there was a situation where I was asked by his former band to remove the post. Apparently I am “unprofessional” and “full of shit.” Once again, bite me. I hate when people think they can dictate what I write and who I write about.
• Bollywood Breakdown. I promised some folks I would bring some lighthearted stuff to the blog, so I threw in a little Bollywood fluff. Good times, good times. Then I went to my Indian store and THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY OF THE FILMS. #planfoiled
• Philadelphia Meetup. First ever meetup! So exciting! And we all still talk. So great to meet a few of the Philly readers. Can’t wait to do it again, eh, Amardeep?
• Daily Show on Salahis. Nobody likes video. Whatever, I laughed :P
• Thanksgiving Post. Um, yeah. So narrative doesn’t go over well at SM. Re-phrase, badly-done narrative doesn’t go over well. Ugh, quality over quantity. #postfail I can hardly read that without wincing. Wondering if anyone would notice if I deleted…
• Are You Sari Yet? I got yelled at by my lawyer-peeps for writing this instead of studying, but it was worth it. Kinda. I loves the clothes and you can tell I’m enjoying myself, I think.
• Desi Lawyers Behaving Badly. I try to throw in a lawyerly post now and then. Can’t always talk about Philly :)
• Slackistani. I still want to watch this movie. As the token Pakistan, I kinda avoid posting about Pakistan. First of all, I know hardly anything about it. I  know more about New Jersey than I know about Pakistan. (And I hardly know anything about Jersey.) Second of all, if I mention Pakistan, there’s usually a couple people insisting I’m biased. Bite me. Once again.
• Mira Nair’s Amelia. Still have to watch this movie, sigh. I should buy a TV. And a VCR. Or find friends who go to movies. Embarrassed myself by misspelling Amelia’s last name. I wrote my coworker’s last name by mistake, ‘Arehart.’ Confused the hell out of the Mutiny.
• Salman Rushdie’s Arm Candy. Is he still with her? I totally forgot about this. Oh, Salman. I love you anyway.
• Foursquare. I thought for sure I would join Foursquare after this, but thankfully I didn’t. One less web addiction.
• Another Tasteful Post. I am a prudish sort, which is okay. I’m okay with that. This was a personal dare to myself, to see if I could write about sex-stuff publicly without wincing. I can. Good to know.
• Pakistani Vampire. I can do this entire dialogue, just so you know. It scares people sometimes. Really.
• Padma Lakshmi=Pregnant. I still hate myself for freezing when I wrote this post. I couldn’t write more than three sentences. Sometimes you just have to know when to stop.
• Boston Meetup. Fellow bloggers Taz and Ennis convinced me to go to this and I’m glad they did. It was amazing. I love Boston. I love my Boston friends.
• Glee’s Principal Figgins. I love this character. He is hilarious.
• Das Racist Q&A Part I. Part II. This was kinda funny. I think I was messing with them via Twitter and they were all ‘Why don’t you interview us, PG?’ So I was like, ‘Why not? Okay.’ Good times. I heard the word ‘hipster’ way too many times after this though. I still don’t know what a hipster is…
• Lushlife. Thanks to an SM commenter, I found out there was a talented desi singer/artist right in Philly. Lushlife is a sweetheart. If I’m not mistaken, he’s on a tour in Europe right now.
• The Good Wife. I heard this show is awesome. Eh, no TV.
• The Desi Nursing Home. This was difficult to write. I re-wrote it a couple of times, sweated over it, but I think it facilitated a productive discussion. Now I miss my grandparents. Should visit them on V-Day.
• Anand Jon. I happened to get obessed with Jon when his verdict came out. I read everything about him that I could get my virtual hands on. Sick, sick man. *shudders
• Dark is Beautiful. This post has been in me for years. I’m sure it won’t go away. I still need to think about it when I’m with my family. I heart shani-o on the blog PostBorgie for using it in a recent post. Great images! Well, not great, but certainly thought-provoking.
• M. Night Shymalan. Made the mistake of putting a local topic on a national blog. Oops. Trying not to do that again.
• Puppies! Totally forgot about this one. Gosh, I want a puppy.
• SRK Detained at Newark. I “met” Ennis writing this post. Totally worth it. Turned out we were writing on the same topic at the same time. Sorry, Ennis!
• SRK to Meet Obama. My first (and at the time I thought last) post on SRK. Little did I know I would meet him six months later thanks to SM.
• Domestic Violence in Pakistan. I wrote this while training to volunteer at WAA. I would come home from WAA emotionally exhausted and lie on my bed and cry. Writing this post made me cry as well. Maybe I just cry a lot? Not really.
• Rachel Roy. She’s still amazing.
• Foodcarts. This was my first post. I was absolutely, without a doubt terrified. I postponed it for weeks. I couldn’t find a topic to save my life. Abhi had to ask me twice before I finally posted and when I did, my fingers were shaking as I typed. It was terrifying for a couple of reasons.

First, I grew up reading Sepia Mutiny. My brother and I read it all throughout college. (*Dorks.) Second, I hero-worshiped the writers on SM for um, about five years and I never in a million years thought I would write along-side them. But thanks to Twitter, I found Anna John and Amardeep (or we found each other) and now I’m writing for SM. Crazy, crazy, crazy world. Third, knowing that a girl sitting in a chair in North Philadelphia is potentially reaching thousands of readers all across the world is…intimidating to say the least. You bet I sweated over every second of those first posts. Still do, sometimes. The best part about SM isn’t really the posts I write, it’s the people I’ve met. To think I have mentors who lived my life before I’ve even lived it!

Let me explain. When you’re a dorky desi kid going to high school in America, you think you’re alone. Even when you live in one of the most diverse cities in America and attend one of the most diverse universities in America, you think you’re alone. Because everyone’s either Muslim, or South Indian, or Hindu or Indian Orthodox. Even in this melting-pot of a land we live in, school cliques are divided by color, creed and any number of things. I still remember the first brown classmate I had and the disappointment I felt when I realized we had little in common except for parents who emigrated from South Asia. I still remember my first ‘Pakistan’ friend, who got married right after high school, etc, etc, etc. I still have trouble finding South Asian friends whose background includes the type of alienation I experienced growing up. It’s hard. But with the Mutiny, I found dozens. In fact, I think it’s one of the ties that binds us SM bloggers together. More often than not, we know what it feels like to be the only one of your type in a situation where everyone has everything in common. Perhaps I’m transposing my own theories on them. But I have to say, it’s a blessing to have peeps who got my back. And the Mutiny has my back. Thank you folks, for all your help and guidance. I may not have found my blogging niche yet, but at least I have plenty of friends who make the journey worth the while.