From there he migrates to Canada.
He marries a Polish woman.
A child is born.
This child grows up in Canada.
He migrates to America.
At the age of 37, he is featured by People magazine in their issue on the 'Sexiest men alive'.
Journalism students: How many permutations and combinations of headlines can you make with this news? And which of these combinations is technically correct??
Indian scientist among Sexiest Men Alive said DNA. It goes on to call him an 37-year-old Indo-Canadian geophysicist.
NRIs can't ask for more, Manga Sexiest Man Alive said HT. A geophysicist of Indian origin has been selected the 'Sexiest Man Alive' ... went their story.
PIO prof among world's sexiest men said TOI. It went on to observe - quite rightly - that the list came out some years ago but made headlines in India only after the delirium-stricken desi media (their words, not mine!) discovered that he had a remote Indian connection.
However the TOI web version was equally delirious:
SILICON VALLEY: An Indian geophysicist of Indian origin has been selected the 'Sexiest Man Alive' by People magazine along with Hollywood superstars Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt.
Meanwhile a Canadian TV station reported: A Canadian shares a page with Bono in People magazine's sexiest men issue but Michael Manga is a reluctant and unlikely heartthrob...
Further down it briefly observed: "Manga is 5-foot-11, has long, dark hair and his family background makes for an interesting DNA mix with ties to South Africa, India, Germany and Poland".
My question is: who or what is 'Indian'.
Had Michael taken more after his Polish mother and looked Caucasian with blonde hair, would we have rushed to claim him as one of our own?
Is being 'Indian' a racial characteristic ie defined by colour of skin? In which case no matter how many generations we may move away from the Motherland, its culture and customs - we will never be fully 'American' or 'Canadian'?
Science can be sexy?!
I know every newspaper needs a peg to hang its news on - so that's where the 'Indian' bit came in. But to me, the fact that a scientist made it to the 'world's sexiest men alive' was a far more interesting point.
As every write up mentioned: Manga was one of only two men in academia admitted to the ranks of America's dreamiest dudes. "That's why I agreed to do this..." he explains. I wanted to get information out to people who wouldn't normally hear or see anything about science."
Of course, I may be more excited about a 'scientist' being called sexy.
The category was 'Smart Guys'.
As one blog noted:
To celebrate the 20-year milestone, editors highlighted some "smart guys" (CNN's man of the hour, Anderson Cooper), a few "bad boys" (actor Russell Crowe) and a bunch of "funny guys" (Steve Carrell).
Glad to see that the definitions of sexiness are expanding! Point to be noted is that Manga was not smart in the regular "muggu" sort of way.
In September 2005, Manga was named a Mac Arthur fellow. The fellowship was described as 'an exclusive club of creative and original thinkers given $500,000 with no strings attached over the next five years'.
Manga, who combined theoretical geophysics with innovative laboratory experiments, intended to use some of the money to travel more and visit the subjects of his research: volcanoes.
Hot stuff.
But this was bound to happen. We as Indians are so starved for attention that anyone who has the slightest Indian roots is extolled by us far beyond any limit. Another case in point is that of Bobby Jindal. A guy who has relinquished his Indian roots totally, follows anti-Indian policies a la Republicans is held up as some sort of a hero because he won an election, especially by the expats. Same goes for Navin Andrews and Kal Penn, who have finally found fame with Lost and Harold and Kumar Goes to Whitecastle respectively. I consider people of Indian nationality Indian. All these examples are totally and completely American. Time we stopped fawning over them because of nationality and just appreciate them, if they deserve it, for their achievements.
This craze with Indian roots is because of lack of our own heroes who are internationally accepted. So few are they that anyone in these lists even remotely Indian will be big news. We always look forward for some motivator. Media always created them for us. So any person, with even a distant Indian Connection, if he does something good or bad, we call him an Indian. So its like Indians have become wrappers in which we want to pack new dreams..
We follow multiple standards while branding people as Indians. One classic case was labeling V.S. Naipaul as an Indian while he himself had said many times that he doesn't consider himself an Indian. Then we had the case of Mother Teresa and Dr. Hargobind Khurana. The former was born abroad and did work in India while the latter was born in India and did work abroad.
We Indians call both of them as Indians which should not be the case.
Thought for the day
Albert Einstein, Abdul Kalam, and then Michael Manga, being quizzed about their long dark mane. Is being a celebrity scientist all in the hair?!
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