American in theme, Sex and the City has been devoured by Asian women who all secretly desire to be like Carrie Bradshaw and her entourage. Living vicariously, single in a cosmopolitan city, Manolo heeled and smart-talking, the girls are envied by Asian women who have watched the episodes endlessly and see a glimmer of themselves in at least one character.

“I was surprised to find that Carrie and I shared so many problems as career women in big cities. I also met my Mr Right, but love and marriage don’t seem to be as easy as they were for my parents generation,” a Shanghai woman in her thirties told the Shanghai Star.

But can Asian women live the same lives? “Compared with women in New York, I think love affairs in Shanghai are more complicated. Unlike Carrie many local women take whether a man has an apartment, job or good education into consideration when they pick boy friends. I think in Shanghai few female lawyers would date a bartender like Miranda did in the show,” she added.

Across the Himalayas, society is no different. Although many Indian women claim they live life on their own terms, 30-to-40 year-old, successful, smart, sexy equivalents in India live a different reality.

Mumbai and Shanghai may be like Manhattan when it comes to the real estate index, but look at the relationship index, and what goes on here might make Miranda go on a stiletto-stabbing spree - Times of India.

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Continuing on yesterday’s theme of Asian fashion fetishes and luxury brand indulgences here’s a look into how the biggest brand in tennis - Wimbledon is cashing in on Asia’s nouveau riche, and how China and India, with their fast-growing economies, have provided a fertile ground for Wimbledon in an ambitious bid to export its distinctive brand right around the globe.

“Europe is a very mature market and it is very difficult to introduce the Wimbledon brand in depth there. Asia is a land of opportunity,” McCowen told Reuters.

“This is the fastest expanding market in the world for merchandising. Asia is booming,” said Wimbledon marketing director Robert McCowen.

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Oil, politics, poverty, enviromental and security issues aside, the most absurd story dominated headlines of the worlds largest read english daily - the Times of India today. Headlines read - “1,500 manholes stolen, BMC says olympics to blame”. The BMC or Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation , is the corporation in charge of the city’s civic maintainance - responsible mainly for the building and maintenance of roads, streets and flyovers, water purification and supply, hospitals, street lighting, maintenance of parks and open spaces, sewage treatment and disposal etc.

So what bizarre connection do India’s sewage covers have with the glory of global sportsmanship at the olympics? The paper quotes civic officials saying that the massive construction activity undertaken for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing has increased demand for iron ore globally. As a result, they claim, organised gangs are now operating in Kurla, Bandra, Mankhurd and parts of Byculla (parts of Mumbai city) to systematically steal the manhole covers. A staggering 1,500 covers have been stolen in the past few months—each costing a handsome Rs 5,500 (US$128) in the grey market.

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If its not politicians and huge trade volumes that bond countries in Asia, its got to be films.

After 43 years of not a single Pakistani film being screened in India, Shoaib Mansoor directed “Khuda Kay Liye” (“In the Name of God”) was released to rave reviews in India. Its the first Pakistani film to have crossed the border since the India-Pakistan war in 1965, when Pakistani films were banned in India. 

The effect has been a cultural two-way mirror dividing the countries, with Pakistan able to observe India (or a gaudier Bollywood version of India), but with Indians unable to see beyond their own frontiers.

The film gives many Indians their first glimpse of Pakistan.  In a New York Times interview after the first screening of his film in India, Mansoor said “They had very surprising ideas about Pakistan. They asked: ‘Do you have taxis there?’ ‘Can women drive?’ ‘Are women allowed to go to university?’ Besides the initial shock of Pakistans development, the viewers were also amazed by the unexpected beauty of Pakistani houses 

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Indian football has just recieved a shot in the arm. After pouring in millions of dollars into European clubs and more recently into Chinese football clubs, Chelsea, one of the Premier League giants is playing center field with India.

“Our credentials are well known in the area of grassroots development and if we can find a way of working together in India as well, there is a real opportunity of making Vision India come true as partners,” Peter Kenyon, Chief Executive, Chelsea football Club told AFP.

India and China are two of seven pilot countries in the Vision Asia development project, along with Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Oman, and Vietnam.

Under the Indian program, Chelsea could be involved in developmental projects in Manipur, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where the AFC’s Vision India project has already been launched.

It is also likely to send instructors to India for coaching young footballers at the school level, and hold workshops for clubs on all aspects of the game, including dealing with the media and the commercial aspects.

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On Friday, Hindu’s, Muslims, Christians and Parsi’s all celebrate Spring. On this holy holiday, India will be celebrating four festivals at once - Chhoti Holi, Navroz, Good Friday and Eid-e-Milad.

A street vendor sells Holi colours

A festival of revelry and colourful mirth, Chhoti Holi is a build-up to the main festival - Holi that will be celebrated on Saturday. Holi is a very joyful occasion. By smearing colour on someone’s face, its believed you wipe out all feelings of hatred or misunderstanding.

Navroz, the first day of the Zoroastrian calendar, will be celebrated in a big way by the Iranis and Parsis.

Good Friday, a day for mourning, will be observed by the Christians to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This will be followed by the Easter celebrations on Sunday.

Eid-e-Milad, observed by the Muslims, is the birth as well as the death anniversary of Prophet Mohammad.

While Holi and Navroz are occasions to celebrate, Good Friday and Eid-e-Milad are not joyous occasions. Nonetheless, as in all Indian festivals, sweets, special foods and family gatherings will dominate the day.

 HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

People gather to watch a lion dance performance during Chinese new year in Kolkata’s Chinatown. Kolkata in east India boasts the country’s largest Chinese population. Indians and Chinese together brought in the year of the Earth rat.

The year of the golden Pig which finished yesterday was truely a golden period for China’s superpowered growth. In 2007, the economy grew by 11.3%, the fastest rate in 13 years, stock prices on the main Shanghai bourses hit a record high of 6,000 having risen six fold in two years, foreign exchange reserves surged over $1.4 trillion thanks to booming exports and PetroChina became the planets most valuable company - one of five Chinese firms in the world top 10.

In contrast, the year of the Earth rat starts with more expectations as the west looks to China to anchor it against recession. Inflation is at a 10 year high, share prices have fallen 25% from their peak last year, export growth is under pressure from a rising currency and the coldest winter for half a century has paralysed large parts of Central and Southern China. ~ lets just hope the worst is already behind us and the Olympics later this year bring China and all our readers a lot of warmth, wealth and happiness.

Of late racism seems to be dominating a lot of space on Indian Tv channels and in newspapers. While Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood actress was ridiculed out of the Big Brother show early last year, famed Indian cricketer Harbhajan was recently accused to calling Austrailian cricketer Andrew Symonds a monkey on the field. Racism it seems is built into the Indian way of speaking.

Though, not isolated to India only, China too faces its fair share of racism, with the population often being termed ‘Chinki’. Within China too several of my friends from Xinjiang who live in Shanghai feel like they are looked at differently. Even I, as an Indian teacher in Shanghai have faced racism when I was asked to feign British nationality in order not to perturb parents of students who only wanted their little emperors to learn English from a UK or US citizen.

So when is racism ok? when Indian’s call eachother names, or when friends say chinki in jest its ok, but used in a broader perspective, in a globalised world, in malice its definately not. Where do we draw the line? and how do we make sure we don’t hurt national, regional, caste, class or gender sentiments especially at a time when the world is shrinking?

The Global educational slide show “Shift Happens” which we first unveiled on this site in May of last year has just been updated and provides a lot more data and statistics about China and India, and their impact upon the global economy and development.

Shift Happens originally began as the “Did You Know” PowerPoint presentation for a faculty meeting in August 2006 at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, United States. The presentation “went viral” on the Web in February 2007 and, as of June 2007, had been seen by at least 5 million online viewers. Today the old and new versions of the online presentation have been seen by at least 10 million people, not including the countless others who saw it at conferences, workshops, training institutes, and other venues. As the people who made it comment: “We do not view the growing importance of India and China as negative but rather as additional opportunities for everyone in the world. We do not mean to gloss over the very real issues that countries such as India and China face, and we recognize that globalization and “flat world” factors have downsides just like other societal shifts. We prefer, however, to focus on the positive benefits.”

It’s a fun and thought provoking presentation and will take just 6 minutes of your time. If you haven’t seen it before it is something you should take a short break to watch.

If you scoffed at the last time someone told you not to cut your nails at night or to beware of bad luck because a black cat had crossed your path or to hang three green chillies, a lemon and a small peice of coal on a string for good luck because you thought you were ‘modern’, and didn’t believe in superstitions, think again. 

If you thought the global recession or US sub prime rates led to the bloodbath on the Asian bourses on Monday and Tuesday, think again.   

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s big bad black bull.

While rational behaviour is generally not expected from the stock market, 300 stock brokers on Tuesday protested outside the Bombay Stock Exchange against the newly installed ‘panvati’ (disaster) bull.  At five feet high, eight feet long and weighing over a tonne, since it was installed at the begining of this year,  the black bull was blamed for causing turbulance and leading to the ultimate crash of the BSE, on Tuesday.

Superstitions still run rife in modern day India and China. While some radio, print and Tv journalists blame the black colour of the bull, others blame the day it was launched as numerically inauspicious.