Million Dollar Arm’s trailer hits screens. A new movie from Disney Pictures is based on the true story of Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel (played by Suraj Sharma and Madhur Mittal), who were discovered through the reality show The Million Dollar Arm. The show was the idea of a sports agent in the U.S., J.B. Bernstein (played by Jon Hamm), who figured that in a huge cricket-obsessed country, there must be plenty of young men who could throw 90 mph. Singh and Patel now play with the MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates, and the movie version of their story with Aasif Mandvi playing Aash, an associate of Bernstein, hits theaters in May 2014. [Sports Illustrated, Lakshmi Gandhi, Variety]
A Living Legend gets angry and speaks out. On December 14, a few days after the Indian Supreme Court’s December 11 ruling re-criminalizing homosexual sex under colonial-era Section 377, author Vikram Seth (A Suitable Boy) was honored by NDTV at the official home of the President (Rashtrapati Bhavan) as one of 25 Greatest Global Indian Living Legends. Watch his acceptance speech to hear him humorously compare his triangularly shaped award to a giant Toblerone bar and speak out against the Section 377 law in the presence of the President and senior political leaders from the Congress and BJP parties.
In all matters, whether it’s your profession, whether it’s your beliefs, whether it’s the person you love, you must go at heart with who you are. Not what someone else tells you, not what your clan tells you, not even what an unjust law tells you. Go with yourself. (YouTube)
Go on with your rad self, Vikram Seth. Seth wasn’t finished speaking out against 377 after taking the dais at the President’s home. He continued to visibly take a stand on the cover of India Today with a mug-shot portrait which said “NOT A CRIMINAL.” The magazine’s cover story offers a moving essay from the author: “Vikram Seth on Section 377 and gay rights in India”
To not be able to love the one you love is to have your life wrenched away. To do this to someone else is to murder their soul. [India Today]
Kashkari for California Governor? Politico reports that Neel Kashkari, former Treasury Department official who headed up the federal bailout program known as TARP and was recognized in 2008 by People in its Sexiest Men Alive issue, has a campaign manager — congressional campaign veteran Pat Melton. Kashkari is likely to run for governor of California as a Republican challenger to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. After his recent divorce, Kashkari has been living in Laguna Beach, and he reportedly left his job at PIMCO investment fund in January to assemble his campaign team. [Politico, Business Insider]
In Prison for YouTube Parody. U.S. citizen Shezanne Cassim, 29, who was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Dubai for work after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2006, was one of eight people sentenced Monday for up to a year in prison for producing and uploading to the web a satirical video about youth culture in Dubai. Titled “Satwa Combat School,” the video parodied affluent Dubai teenagers trying to adopt tough-guy personas. Cassim has been incarcerated since his April arrest by Dubai authorities. His family and supporters started the #freeshez campaign, which has been backed by the comedy website Funny or Die. [Huffington Post, NBC News]
Pavani Yalamanchili is a co-founder and editor of The Aerogram. Email her at editors@theaerogram.com. Find The Aerogram on Twitter @theaerogram.
