dippu.com

It's a lie. All of it. We have spent the last year or so, living a lie. All at the behest of a mandan whose hearing disorder has resulted in a combination of syllables that may be the perfect malayalee name, but is actually the result of faulty hearing.

dippu.com. Does it sound like a real name for a website?

and yet it is us.

dippu.com.

I finally heard the truth from Decruz. He broke down completely and wept. "It's all a lie. How could they do this to me? Is everything I've ever believed a lie?" In the midst of this soul searching, I had the temerity to ask him what the problem was and found out the whole sad story. A story which puts the very existence of dippu.com at risk. Yet, in the best interests of journalistic integrity, I leave this story with you.

He was sitting at his ancestral home in Kerala when his world crumbled around him. Feeling very proud of himself, he mentioned that he had a website which provided a unique perspective on the south asian christian movement. And he added a kicker. "I named it after that dog we used to have here. Dippu."

He got blank stares.

"You know, Dippu, that little black and brown mongrel that used to bark incessantly whenever people came from foreign."

A lone voice piped up,"We didn't have any dogs named Dippu."

Indignantly," What? Of course we did, and we called him Dippu, Dippu."

Comprehension seemd to dawn on a few faces. There were "Ohhh"s and some of them started laughing. "That wasn't Dippu. That was Tippu. You thought your grandmother called it Dippu, so you always called it that. Now we know why." Decruz wasn't ready to let it go, so he had his grandmother come out and asked her what the dog's name was. Sure enough, she said "Tdippu" with the T silent.

This is a moment of loss for all of us. We are mourning the loss of a dog's name, a name that defined who we were. A name that inspired my slogan in better days.

We dippu in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

What can we do with Tippu? On a related note, why are there so many dogs in Kerala named after kings and generals. Tippu, Raja, Kaiser, Captain, Rex, Sultan, Rani, the list goes on.

We must find new meaning in dippu. No matter the cost, we continue to dippu. I Dippu. We all Dippu. Mad love, and much respect to the memory of our lost dippu. Pour some out for the name. We keep the faith.

We haven't had a Desi of the Week since George Andrews a few months ago, but I thought it was finally time after reading this on BBC this morning. I don't know much about the condition of Dalits in India, except that it's pretty bad and there is alot of backlash against their community after numerous members converted to Christianity in the past few years. K.R Narayanan was a man who beat the odds to become the first Dalit caste member to become the President of India. A quiet unassuming man, he had turned upside down the notion of caste identity in the nation. While many individuals patronize the lower castes of India (many Christians do it also), this fellow worked hard his entire life to get rid of the stigma of "untouchablity".  My mom remarked today that she had voted for him as he was an amazing politician. K.R Narayanan was someone who actually was impeccably clean politically and deserves all the accolades he is sure to get in the coming days. An excerpt from the BBC obituary:

 But it was during 2002, his final year in office, that President Narayanan was drawn into political controversy after inter-communal rioting in Gujarat left at least 1,000 Muslims dead. He had wanted the army to intervene to protect the minority Muslim population.

Any man who stands up to the Fundies in Gujurat is a man I admire. I am hopeful, yet still very pessimistic, about the likelihood that we'll find another like him in India.  For the Malus out there, this fellow is from Kottaym district in Kerala.

Oh yeah, I also admire a guy who didn't let the fact that he's from Kottayam get him down. He definitely beat all the odds!  

Dippu.com is back and we are here with a vengeance... Ok.. no we're not really. But I, Daycruz, am back to offer you another new feature from the hardworking staff here. We have been on a semi-hiatus while Ashish went on vacation to India. Bobby was offered the guest-blogger spot but he hasn't really been producing anything.. surprise surprise! But I have added a new feature to dippu.com as it grows to fit your needs. The Desi of The Week. If you know any Indian that happens to be a newsmaker, just plain cool, or funny drop us a line at dippuadmin@gmail.com . We'd love to hear from you. To kick of this new feature, I have selected George Andrews out of San Jose! For those of you who were at the Western Pentecostal Conference a few weeks ago, you probably met George at the church. He was the young man with the perfectly knotted tie who happend to have excellent teeth. Dippu honors George, or as he is affectionately called by his friends in San Jose, "Georgie". While I myself am related to Georgie through marriage, I have gotten to know him in the last few years and this is one dude that is going somewhere. He graduated from UC Davis with a degree in political science and is very distraught at the fact that I never talk about politics on this website. He currently does the evil work of the Republican party in Sacramento for a private company. So why all this fuss about Georgie? He happens to be the only Malayalee Pentecostal that I know that has appeared on Comedy Central;
Georgie's first claim to fame.. shh! His parents don't know!!thus he earns a special place in our hearts. His antics at UC Davis as a member of the College Republicans have also earned him widespread fame in the area around UC Davis as he is seen as the alternative voice in a sea of liberal moonbats. As George does the bidding of Karl Rove, he never fails to remember that he will always be in the service of our true master-- George W. Bush...just kidding... our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Georgie was a critical tool in the hands of the GOP during the California recall elections which helped elect our favorite Austrian-born governor, Arnold  Schwarzenegger. There is a picture somewhere on the internet of Georgie shaking hands with the Terminator.  Mr. Andrews was born in the United States, thus he has what many of us do not have-- the capability of running for the office of President of the United States. George also happens to be a great tour guide, if you happen to go to San Fransisco at some point in your life, make sure you visit him. He will take you around and show you the best places and take you into resteraunts where drunk Mexicans ask you for spare change. He will also, at some point, talk in Spanish with the locals while making you look like an idiot...but I digress.. Most of you may remember George from the classic Burrito picture taken in South San Fransisco as he was on  a typical conversation with his mother. But there are even more incriminating pictures of him all across the internet. Be sure to google him when you get a chance and you shall discover more wonderful treasure chests. Georgie has become so popular that his fellow UC Davis colleagues created a wiki page for him
We LOVE the Burrito George!.  On this site, you will find interesting information about this dynamic young fellow who offered "Free hugs to Liberals on the quad during a Bush Hate Rally" This sort of iniative is impressive. Currently George is also fearful of his prospects of marrying a Malayalee woman because of the fact he got an entirely worthless degree. Here's hoping that his soulmate is reading this right now and falls in love with him. Oh, by the way.. If you happen to talk to George Andrews, ask him about his Prom Experience. If you thought yours was bad.. wait till you hear his. While Georgie is on his way to accomplishing great things and making all of us proud-- let's just pray that nothing hinders him on his way to the top-- like more incriminating photos.. Like that one... or this one...
We struggle to decipher this..