'The Aerogram' Carves out South Asian-American Niche
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S A J A L I N K S « FOOD: Indian Cuisine And Wine Pairings-- A Delicious SUBSCRIBE Relationship | Main | Mohsin Hamid Is On A Roll: Latest 'Self-Help' Join SAJA now Book Is Just The Beginning » Enter your Email below to receive About SAJAforum, and MARCH 12, 2013 updates in your leaving comments inbox THE NEW BLOG ON THE BLOCK: 'THE AEROGRAM' CARVES RESOURCE: Covering Sri OUT SOUTH ASIAN-AMERICAN NICHE Lanka Subscribe me! Perhaps it is the Powered by FeedBlitz RESOURCE: Covering the 2008 Presidential Race Valentine’s Day gift that will SEARCH RESOURCE: Mumbai Attacks SAJAFORUM 2008 mend the broken hearts of Sepia RESOURCE: South Asian blogs Mutiny fans RESOURCE: The media scene around the Google Search in India country. The SAJAForum RESOURCE: Tracking South Aerogram, a Asian Heads of U.S. website created by three former ‘Mutineers’, launched on February 14 in Companies O U R T E A M hopes of re-energizing the South Asian American community. Tracking South Asian TV anchors on U.S. TV Strategically, co-founders, SAJA member Lakshmi Gandhi, Kishwer Vikaas and Pavani Yalamanchili, created a Twitter and Facebook page RECENT POSTS prior to launching the site. Mohsin Hamid Is On A Roll: Latest 'Self-Help' Book Is open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com Latest 'Self-Help' Book Is “That really showed us that there was a need for a site like ours,” Pavani Just The Beginning Arun Venugopal said. Currently they have more than 400 Twitter followers, and more than Reporter The New Blog On The Block: 150 Facebook page ‘likes’. WNYC radio *** ON 'The Aerogram' carves out SAJAforum HIATUS South Asian-American niche “We really wanted people to familiarize themselves with our voice and *** FOOD: Indian Cuisine And the topics that we were interested in before we rolled out the website.” Wine Pairings-- A Delicious Gandhi said. Relationship Three SAJAers Judging the Their blog posts aren’t small potatoes either-- since the site’s launch The Pulitzer Prizes Aerogram has written several widely-shared posts about various South PHOTOS: Ang Lee, director Asian topics. The writing is punchy and energetic, and shows a newfound Sree Sreenivasan of, among other things, "Life sense of what it means to cover the South Asian-American experience. Columbia prof & of Pi" contributing editor, DNAinfo.com SPORTS: Super Bowl 2013 and Monday’s blog post about HBO ‘Girls’ star Lena Dunham’s visit to India its South Asian connections and her sympathy for all the stray dogs rather than the “poverty-stricken MAGAZINES: Time covers people,” brought a lot of eyeballs to the website. And after a black and Imran Khan, Pakistani white photo of rapper Kanye West posing with comedian Aziz Ansari and politician and cricket legend his family surfaced around on the interwebs, The Aerogram posted a FILM: Shundell Prasad's delightful breakdown of who’s who in the photograph. Debut Feature Explores Indo- Guyanese Identity in America Preston Merchant We talked to the founders of The Aerogram shortly after the site Documentary SAJA Goes To Washington launched, to learn about how they came up with this new blog, and their photographer TV SPORTS: Negandhi and thoughts on blogging about South Asian Americans in a ‘post-Mutiny’ Virk explaining the biggest blogosphere. story of the day MOVES: Bobby Ghosh promoted to Time Editor-At- Q: How did the site come together? Large Anup Kaphle Atlantic Media fellow A journalist’s 12-year Kishwer: We were all writing together for Sepia Munity and we had all crusade finally leads to arrest kept in touch. In December I met up with Lakshmi at the Asian American in woman’s honor killing open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com in woman’s honor killing Writers Workshop and we talked about how much we missed writing for GLOBALIZATION: OWS in SM and how we really wanted to carve out a space on the web. South Asia Pavani: I was really excited to hear from them, because I really missed PAKISTAN: Umar Cheema contributing to SM, especially when I came across interesting and South discusses press freedom in Pakistan [AUDIO] Asian things from television and film. FELLOWSHIPS: New! Charles Q: How did you all come up with the name ‘The Aerogram’? Anil Kalhan Pick South Asian Fellowship Drexel School of Law for unpublished writers Lakshmi: We were all trying to find something that we could all identify prof with as South Asian Americans. Kishwer eventually came up with the CATEGORIES name 'The Aerogram'. We all remember getting the blue aerogram Academia Advertising envelope in the mail from India and your relatives filling in every inch of Afghanistan Af rica America space. So we thought this is like that, in that you are getting all your RECENT Spotting Animals/wildlif e news in one tiny space. COMMENTS Architecture Art Arts Asian America Audio Awards Kishwer: For me, I remember we would send these letters back and forth asheesh dimmmrrii Bangladesh Bhutan on BLOGS: Favorite from here to Pakistan. And we all remembered those little blue Blogs/new media Bobby Desi Blogs Jindal Bollywood Books envelopes--and we thought that would translate really well with our Goodindiangirl on Breaking news Buddhism audience. BLOGS: Favorite Burma by Anil Business Desi Blogs Kalhan by Ankita Rao by Anup Pavani: I remember my entire family would all write on the one envelope Kaphle by Arun Venugopal Sarish on and my mom would let me write a line in the letter to my aunt. It’s funny by Aseem Chhabra by Bibek WEBSITES: Time Out Bhandari by Jehangir Irani by because I looked it up on Wikipedia and in late 2006 the postal service Mumbai and Time Jyoti Gupta by Lakshmi Gandhi got rid of the areogram letter/envelopes-- so now this is a little bit of a Out Delhi Now Free by Maia Ef rem by Meena nostalgic thing that everyone can relate to. Organic Baby Thiruvengadam by Miriam Clothing on RETAIL: Berkley by Omar Kasrawi by Q: Was there a hesitation to start a South Asian American site like this My Little Pakora Preston Merchant by Ravi especially after the end of Sepia Mutiny? launches - organic Kumar by Sabrina Buckwalter children's clothes by Shef ali Kulkarni by Pavani: My first thought was, ‘Yes, there are other South Asian focused publications out there and there is a place for them, so why not us?’ A lot asheesh dimmmrrii Sree on MOVES: Bobby open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com Sree on MOVES: Bobby Sreenivasan by of the sites that are out there right now are segmented. I’m Indian- Ghosh promoted to Srila Nayak Byline Roundup American, but I’m interested in other South Asian Americans in the U.S. Time Editor-At-Large Byline Watch Careers So we make it a point to be focused on the broader South Asian Jaya Kamlani on Cartoons/Comics China community. MOVES: Bobby Christianity Controversy Ghosh promoted to Convention Convention Pix Kishwer: I felt like there needs to be a website that really reflects the Time Editor-At-Large Corrections Correspondents in South Asia Crime Current diversity of the South Asian-American culture. What you see now-- asheesh dimmmrrii Affairs Dance Desi 50 everything is so boxed up-- you have India Ink, India Real Time. As a on NEPAL: Protests Pakistani-American I didn’t feel like I fit into any of those boxes and I After Vice President Desi America Desi felt like something was missing. In the last seven months alone, you've Takes His Oath in Canada Desi had a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Sunando Sen pushed Hindi Spotting Desis off a subway platform in New York City and the Philadelphia Mummers Arjun Pokharel on In The News parade, where one group marched in 'Indianface.' While some of these NEPAL: Protests Diaspora Diversity Economic After Vice President incidents were hotly debated on Twitter and Facebook timelines, not all Crisis Education Takes His Oath in Environment Ethnic press of the media coverage included a South Asian perspective. Enter The Hindi Expert Watch Fashion Aerogram. A space to facilitate, curate and archive these discussions. Sneha Thakur on Fellowships Film Follow Up FASHION: South Food and Drink Freedom of Lakshmi: It's tricky because Sepia Mutiny had it's own distinct identity Asian Women's the Press Front-page Roundup and we all came onto Sepia Mutiny towards the tail of its time. So none Leadership Forum Fun stuff Gandhi General of us were part of those bloggers on SM that people really identified with. Hosts First Fashion Globalization Government Panel Guest posts Health So we all wanted to create our own identities in that respect. I mean the Hinduism History good thing is, is that Sepia Mutiny taught me how to be a blogger. It was asheesh dimmmrrii Holidays/Holy Days Hollywood probably the biggest audience I’ve ever written for as a blogger. So it got on DESI SPOTTING: Human Rights Humor me attuned to the issues that people really care about. In that way Sepia Bhut jolokia, the Immigration In the news world's hottest chili Mutiny helped shape this site to some degree. Inauguration India pepper Interviews/Profiles Iraq asheesh dimmmrrii Islam J-School Jobs on MOVES: Bobby Journalists In The News If you have a blog post idea for The Aerogram, send pitches to Ghosh promoted to Judaism Kids Labor Language Time Editor-At-Large Law Lists Magazines [email protected] Maldives Media Media Jaya Kamlani on Posted by Shefali Kulkarni at 02:15 AM in Asian America, Blogs/new Watch Members Middle MOVES: Bobby open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the