WTF is this?

**Please view the following trailer before reading this post**

Lo and behold… Here comes an exciting movie where a small town girl hits it big when a fashion guru thinks she has that exotic look. Girl innocently agrees to wear skimpy clothes and model around. Girl then falls in love with a guy who does not wish to take her for granted. Wow! Originality at its best… NOT!

Shubhra pointed me to the following trailer last night. All I have to say is: WTF is this about? Americanizing Shelley? What’s next? Indianizing Jennifer into Janaki? (Shubhra’s words.. not mine). Or Indian Born Ignorant Desi comes to a foreign country looking for opportunity, gets dissaPOOPointed? WTF?

Now, we have just HAD it with stereotypes। Upon watching the trailer, you will notice a few things। First the accent। FAKE! And not to mention annoying। Then come the stereotypes of the parents. Super traditional mummyjee and pappajee worrying about the aging of their daughter's youth. Moving on, there’s stereotypes about Indians living in America (ahem... what BCD again?). This is all just from the trailer people. Pukable!

Seems like Punjab is now located on top of the Himalayas.

"I'll go play with the goats." Who says that? Not to mention the pink fluorescent turban... I mean, that has not existed since Amitabh Bachan's comeback in Namak Halaal, which was not that fluorescent.

Oh, and note to everyone: girls do wear skirts in India. Just ask the sabzi wali (k! may be not her..) that comes by our house everyday to sell vegetables

. And what is so acceptable about Shelley when she is 'americanized'. Is this the trendy new word for assimilation?

All in all, if a movie is made (comedy, drama, thriller, whatever) in a direction where progress in society is a possibility, then we can welcome it with open arms. Fortunately, such movies have been made mind you. But we see movies such as this, that embrace typical stereotypes, and that makes us wonder, how far are we from a world where every race is defined entirely based on a particular trait:
Girls dress only traditionally in India and they need to be married before a certain age.
All homes in India have goats. We milk them and we play with them.
All Indians conform to corporate world by joining Information Technology..., or else they are doctors.

By looking at the trailer we obviously can't make out if shelley will turn back to Shalini. We are hoping (crossing our fingers and toes) that Shelley/Shalini will actually have the brains to realize that hollywoodizing yourself might not make the world into perfection. So there you have it, another attempt of throwing shit on the ceiling and seeing what sticks.
What the trailer did to our moods:

Ski Trip Log

What happened?	Why, When or where did it happen?
Dinner at La Victoria's	Cuz we were craving it
DWEM (Dead-White-European-Male)	game we played on the way to Reno, altercations that followed were DWEF (Dead-White-European-Female), DWAM/F (Dead-White-African/Asian-Male/Female)
Bubbles and Foam	Game that Deepa invented
Ultimate Dance Party '97	We broke it down in the car y0
Machiavelli	JJ's answer to any question asked for any game we played, he was not interested in our games, on our arrival to hotel, JJ finds "The Prince" book written by Machiavelli, strangely the name he had been chanting all along during the trip, coincidence ??? I know not.
Poker	Deepa was into it
A1 losing $20	He wanted to try out roulette
Texas hold 'em, we won $2	We weren't playing for money
Went to bed at 4am	Poker cont'd
Shubhra laughing hysterically	Texas and JJ were sharing the bed
Fresh Prince	Nothing else was on TV, it's always good to see Carlton dance.
Drove to Northstar	to Ski
Guy at the rental gave Deepa weird looks	his exact words were "did you bring anything at all??? (frustrated look)"Deepa had to rent everything including ski pants
Guy with boils around his ears	He was waiting in the rental line
Shubhra questioned R on everything Norway	Never met anyone from Norway
Chatty lawyers	They were discussing a case sitting opposite us on the lift on the way to Gondola
Ski Lessons	We needed them
B was sent off	He was too good for the lessons
Big fat burrito	is what we had for lunch, took us forever to find a place to sit
Random guy	As we got off the lift, some random dude asked Deepa if she could take his pics from our camera
Deepa's ski stolen and returned appropriately	someone took em and returned them to the rental
Couldn't walk down the stairs	Ski boots were really really tight
Whose shoes are these?!!	screamed the lady at the rental as she held up Shubhra's shoes, cuz they didn't have a tag, everyone at the rental knew what Shubhra's shoes looked like
Watched MIB	back in the hotel room
Deepa's eyes are red, glasses didn't help	Deepa wakes Shubhra up and forces her to look at her red eye while Shubhra struggles to catch some sleep
Deepa does yoga	Deepa ensists she must be in good shape before she leaves for the casino
Deepa and Shubhra complain about the bathroom	It was dirty
Sushi	took forever to get it, we were super hungry
Kids' area in the casino	who wants to lose money at Blackjack when we can easily win the stuffed toys at the kids' area
Whack-A-Mole	Shubhra is undefeated against other kids and their parents as she wins two teddy bears back-to-back only to exchange them with one big orange lion that shall be given to Texas
Other wacking games	Shubhra plays other games where she can whack stuff as she realizes she can win those easily
Anxiety Attack	Deepa suffers an anxiety attack as she finds herself surrounded with kids that have bucket full of tickets, waiting in the line to claim gifts, Deepa removes herself from the line, as she cannot handle the madness, Shubhra takes over
Dave notices Shubhra got an outdated gift	A figurine with a graduation hat and a message saying "Congratulations, class of 2000", he sighs at Shubhra's incompetence
JJ's present	Deepa and Shubhra give JJ a teddy bear they won (both JJ and teddy bear had a yellow tee-shirt on.. awwww.), it's cute therefore JJ does not want it, after repeated attempts he accepts the gift, the next morning the teddy bear is found in bed next to JJ
El Dorado	the casino Deepa and Shubhra walk into unnoticingly, not knowning all casinos are connected, they spot JJ and Texas, who ignore them since they are busy looking for a blackjack table
MAD TV	back in the hotel room, everyone enjoys a funny episode of MadTv, portraying something to the effect of the the dark side of i products, screeching Heidi Klum, the ferocious Yao Ming and a very distorted sketch of Condi Rice
Russell's on TV	Shubhra declares Russell's on TV, which surprisingly appeals to everyone so much that they get up and walk over to our room wondering if Russell is infact on TV only to find that it's Russell CROWE on TV.
Guys have left	The guys leave in the morning while Deepa and Shubhra are still getting there stuff together, only to discover A1 has left his ski suit in the room
Boomtown	it takes us 1.5 hours to get our food there
Hangman	D involves us in a game of Hangman, which is altered to various degrees (hangman with skii's on)
Shubhra loses Tic-Tac-Toe	it actually happened, don't know how
Deepa drinks Truckee river water	we stopped at the river to enjoy the scenery
Macarena	Deepa dances to macarena in the passenger's seat, while we are stuck in traffic, this disturbs the people in other cars around us
Stinkin' truck	everytime we stop in the dreadful traffic this one truck with the most unbearable stench passes by us....ugh, we speculate if it carries dead people
Guy walking on the freeway	apparently that one guy held up traffic for 2 hours
Sealand	A1, Deepa and Shubhra have discussions of philosophical nature during our trip back, the most fascinating is the one about Sealand.
Ferero Rochers	We finished 2 boxes of that candy during our trip
Lamborghini	there is one driving right next to us on our way back to Fremont, Deepa and I can't stop looking at it, and suddenly right when we least expect, it zooms past us with the craziest speed.

*Sigh* it was a fun trip