Tag Archive for ‘Cheerleaders’ at Asian Window

Tag Archive for 'Cheerleaders'

Cheerleading: Going the whole nine yards

Published

on November 17, 2008

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Cheerleaders dressed modestly in saris await the Indian cricket team when they play a one-day international against England in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, next week. Stephen Adams has the story in The Telegraph (UK).

The Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) has called in the dancing girls to boost crowds and give the home side a little extra support.

But rather than decking the dancers out in American-style bikinis they are being given much more modest attire to wear.

They will be dressed in a full nine yards of silk cloth, the OCA has insisted.

Ashirbad Behera, secretary of the OCA and the organising force behind the cheerleading idea, told The Times: “This is the first time a one-day international will feature cheerleading girls.

“But I will not have them dressing up in short skirts, as it would be against our culture and traditions. Our audience won’t accept it.”

And, see The Times take on the same issue here.

On the record: Jeffrey Archer

Published

asianwindow

on June 2, 2008

in Books

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Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer is a man of many parts — he was captain of the athletics team at Oxford, he ran for his country, and was a Conservative MP at 29. He wrote his first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in 1976. Since then he has kept producing works that always topped the charts. His stint in jail for perjury saw him write a well-received prisoner’s diary, and, adapting the tales he was told by fellow prisoners, he put together a short-story collection called Cat O’ Nine Tails. Archer was recently in India to promote his latest book A Prisoner of Birth. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24×7’s Walk the Talk, he speaks about cricket, of which he is an avid fan, about politics in the UK, and about getting on in life without being in the dumps over the mistakes one makes.

Wonderful to have you here in a bookshop in Gurgaon, Landmark, in a mall.

Yes, which wouldn’t have been. When I first came to India 15 years ago, there wouldn’t have been a mall.

•You said you never came to India because you were never invited. You need an invite to come to India?

I thank Landmark very kindly. They said, ‘We would like to do a proper tour. We know you have been to India, but we would like to take you around the country because you’ve got a lot of fans here.’ And I said, ‘Well, I have seen the figures from the Kane & Abel days, which is 30 years ago. And they said, ‘Oh, they are buying more now that you are even more popular. So we would like you to come over.’ So I had just done Australia for the fifth time, and I had just done America for the seventh time.

In the flip of a hip

Published

asianwindow

on May 13, 2008

in Culture

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The art of cheerleading is not that different from Indian classical dance. So, what’s all the fuss about, asks Renuka Narayanan in the Hindustan Times

The furore over imported Indian Premier League (IPL) cheerleaders and that they are ‘indecent’ is incredibly funny, especially because some American foreheads wrinkle exactly the same way when confronted with Indian classical dance. Where’s the comparison between “Rah-rah-rass! Kick’em in the ass!” and “O Appalamswamy Pappadam Perumal, I pine for you, come to me!” you ask? For one, Kansas City Catholics take a dim view of a man dancing Bharata Natyam as a ‘liturgical dance’ to God, especially if the dancer happens to be Father Saju George, an Indian Jesuit. “Ignatius Loyola, founder of the order, would be rolling in his grave,” fumed an offended American on a Catholic blog just a few months ago.

Just as funny are the NRIs at the biggest Carnatic diaspora festival, the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana. Says a Bharata Natyam dancer, back home after a dozen years in the US, “Some parents in Cleveland object to the more ‘sensual’ padams (devadasi love songs) being taught to their daughters. They seem to have retained the mindset of the last century.”

No cheerleaders, please. We’re Indians

Published

asianwindow

on April 25, 2008

in Cricket

. 2 Comments

[Updated on May 2]

Namita Bhandare in Mint

Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that the moral grandstanding on the Indian Premier League, or IPL, cheerleader controversy has the elements of a pre-written script with the dramatis personae mouthing predictable lines? First, the cast of characters: Siddharam Mehetre is Maharashtra’s minister of state for home. He finds cheerleaders and their performance “absolutely obscene” and out of place in a country where “womanhood is worshipped”.

Maharashtra’s moral police wants to ban cheereaders from IPL matches played in the state for their ‘vulgar’ and ‘obscene’ performance. Some conservative politicians would not like these girls to perform at the Indian Premier League’s upcoming matches in the state’s capital city, Bombay (Mumbai).

Many IPL franchisees have brought in foreign cheerleaders to add a bit of US-style glitz to the popular game. While cricket fans are not complaining, these politicians are not amused. They say that in a country where “womanhood is worshipped,” cheerleaders are “an affront” to Indian culture. And they ask: “How can anything obscene like this be allowed?”

Result? The state government gives in to the moral police. The franchisees will have to apply for permits before cheerleaders can be allowed to perform in Mumbai. If the cheerleaders “indulge in obscenity,” the franchisees will be fined.

However, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, who owns the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, does not find anything vulgar about cheerleaders. “I am also a family person, I do not see anything negative in it,” he said

National Commission for Women Girija Vyas said “we should promote our culture by bringing folk dancers and musicians in these matches.”

More here, here, here and here

And as for the cheerleaders themselves, they have some harrowing stories: “It’s been horrendous,” Tabitha, a cheerleader from Uzbekistan, told the Hindustan Times. “Wherever we go we do expect people to pass lewd, snide remarks but I’m shocked by the nature and magnitude of the comments people pass here.” Another cheerleader, Christy, told The Telegraph, Calcutta, “If they want us to be fully clad, we don’t mind.”

More here:

Body politics: bahu okay, others bawdy

From The Telegraph, Calcutta:

From the Indian Politician’s Dictionary, edited by Amar Singh, Amitabh Bachchan’s “younger brother”:

Single standards: If Mumbai bar girls are banned, so should be the Indian Premier League’s pom-pom girls.

Obscene: What the Washington Redskins wear, but not what “bahu” Aishwarya Rai wore in Dhoom:2

[Photos: Left, a cheerleader at an IPL match in Bangalore; right, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the movie Dhoom:2]

India’s game, U.S. spice

Published

asianwindow

on April 15, 2008

in Cricket

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Tunku Varadarajan in The New York Times:

In the blink of an eye, India has gone from faith, prudence and chastity to … Brittany, Courtney and Tiffani. On Sunday, a team of Washington Redskins cheerleaders landed in Bangalore to help create India’s first cheerleading squad.

According to the Redskins’ Web site, the cheerleaders will “conduct a national audition of Indian women.” The aim of the exercise is to set up a squad of indigenous pompom wielders for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, one of eight teams that will play in the Indian Premier League, a rich new Indian cricket league.

The story on the Redskins’ site:

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