* Happiness, Health, Success .. blah blah blah

More importantly:

* Money. Lots of it.
* Sex. Lots of it, all kinds, shapes, sizes, and sexualities.
* Dancing. It's the year of music and disco fever.
* EGO! The team is determined to make 2006 a great year for indulging the interests, curiosities and moods of all our readers.

So write to us and for us. Be Desi but also be Italian, Romanian, Australian, British, Brazilian, Nigerian, Japanese, Estonian ...

Oh yeah baby!

Ciao.

She is now officially 'Sweet Angelina'! Oh, and she took that cute turkey Brad with her.

According to a recent article in the New York Times entitled Sex and Chess, Kass' interest in chess is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hot chicks flexing their mental muscles. Kudos to women who can reinvent themselves, do interesting things and still look hot. Checkmate?!

But the cutest thing is the latest addition: Punjabi. While the button below the textbox says "Google Search" when the language preferance is English, it says (in English) "Google Te Labho", which means "Find in Google". You kind of have to have heard it in Punjabi all your life to be tickled silly by it.

Anyway, check it out and enjoy!

Some of us at EGO personally know Shahzia, and have seen her rise to the top of her game with hard work, unparalled talent and a modest charm that is incredibly sexy.

Check out Shahzia's work on her website for starters, and when you finally get to making those millions, we recommend starting your virgin art collection with one of her stunning paintings.

The Islamic Reformation has to begin here, with an acceptance that all ideas, even sacred ones, must adapt to altered realities.

Usually, we at EGO stay away from religious chit chat [honestly, who wants to live in a basement for years a la Rushdie himself?]. But when a man makes a lot of sense, we have to pay attention.

It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it.

Does this mean his next book, Shalimar the Clown, may actually be good, a salute to the old Rushdie we liked and adored? Think we'll check it out!

Wishing the new family the best.

Love, EGO Team

Just a little memo to thank all our readers for their support. We hope we've provided you a home away from home. We think of EGO as a members-only club housed in a large loft in New York, with dark maroon velvet couches and a long bar full of exotic cocktails served by hot bartenders, rocking international music, sexy strip dancers and a myriad of personalities milling around - desi, non-desi, and all variations in between - and we're happy to give you a VIP pass.

It's a lot of naughty fun with a little angst-ridden reflection thrown in.

Ciao.

Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints explores the dialogue between the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989) and classical art, in particular late-16th-century Flemish Mannerist prints, through the engravings and woodcuts of Hendrick Goltzius, Jan Harmensz. Muller, Jacob Matham, and Jan Saenredam.

Mapplethorpe, one of America's greatest photographers, is famous for his stylized, black and white portraits, often of S&M-related subjects, and comprising nude (usually homoerotic) photographs. The erotic nature of his work often stirred controversy, but there is no denying their pleasing aesthetics and beautiful compositions. EGO highly recommends this exhibition [running till August 24th].

"I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence." Robert Mapplethorpe

I believe Musharraf is probably sincere in his desire for "enlightened moderation" — for, in other words, a more widely respected and tolerant Pakistan. But he is undermining this goal by failing to shed attitudes he has inherited from the Pakistan he wishes to leave behind.

Musharraf's tendency to forget that one civil liberty ignored, as in the case of denying rape victim Mukhtar Mai her passport to travel to the US, can tarnish an already fragile, and often, incorrect image of Pakistan. Pakistan is changing, according to Hamid, for the better, for the smarter and for the more liberal. And if Hamid, the author of the quintessential enfant terrible novel Moth Smoke, says that, then we take it seriously. Good thing Hamid takes his job as a gadfly seriously as well and reminds the President that consistency is the key to good governance, and more importantly, good PR.

Padma is the 28th most beautiful lady in the world! That is, according to England-based Harpers and Queen. Check out the July issue now!

Now one can't help but wonder the difference between beautiful woman and beautiful lady ... is there even one? Maybe that's blue-blooded Brit talk.

Anyway, we agree that Mrs. Rushdie is one hot cookie. If you're wondering what a day in Padma's life is like, check out a page from her diary. Some priceless quotes:

I feel...like a grasshopper.

We got to basement bhangra at SOB's and we have fun in spite of the fact that S. is cut in on while dancing with me by young Sikh boys. I tell him to not let them cut in anymore and he laughs.

Why is S. laughing? Could it be from happiness at having this beautiful lady or from watching his reflection doing bhangra in the mirror?

Photograph from Padma Lakshmi's Website

According to Junoon's press release:

Junoon's Salman Ahmad spoke with Bob Geldof over the phone to accept the invitation to perform alongside international artists like U2, Sir Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Sting, Coldplay and others.

This is truly exciting for all us desis who always wanted to see one of us perform alongside the bigwigs of music. Thanks to Junoon, the chair of South Asia has finally been occupied at this table!

Also, keep a look out for Salman's first solo album Infiniti to be released on July 1st, with songs like Ghooma Tana (a collaboration between Salman Ahmad, Subha Mudgal, Naseeruddin Shah and Nandita Das).

Album Website: http://www.junoonis.com/

We've already pre-ordered ours; what are you waiting for?

"Today is a magnificent day for me, I'm engaged to a magnificent woman."

Cheesy is not that bad. Maybe the man is truly in love. Although a 42-year old Hollywood superstar falling for 26-year old Katie Holmes so madly that he proposes to her after six weeks seems a little bizarre. The media shy Cruise has done nothing but promote his love for Katie Holmes (best known for her role in the TV serial Dawson's Creek and now in the summer blockbuster Batman Begins), repeatedly calling her "magnificent."

He even jumped up and down on Oprah's sofa [left], apparently to express his love, which according to him is very "cool". Oprah looked too shocked to be cynical, but others have not shied away from suspecting that the whole 'romance' is a publicity stunt by Cruise to promote his movie War of the Worlds. Also, there is that quiet suspicion that he wants to forever stamp out other rumors about his love interest, which no-one (including us) dares to write about lest we be stripped and sued to hell and back by Cruise's lawyers.

But are we just being too cyncial? Maybe true love is possible in six weeks and Katie really had him at hello.

China's most celebrated modern dancer is fabulously talented - a world-class dancer and choreographer - and is fluent in five languages. Jin Xing, (which means golden star) has acted, directed, choreographed, and danced into people's hearts and to much public acclaim everywhere from New York to Rome to Brussels. TG Media

Jin Xing’s mother helped her adopt three young children and last year, Jin Xing met and married a German businessman.

She is now one of the best known creators of culture in a society which has keenly been sampling new values, life-styles and aesthetic forms of expression. CultureBase

Look out for EGO’s full article on Jin Xing. We are huge fans of this incredibly talented, charismatic dancer who is also China’s most famous transsexual.

It's utterly unacceptable. Aishwarya Rai is the blue-blooded rightful queen of desi hearts. Yet, according to a report, she thinks people have been unfairly critical of her appearances on US television recently.

“Ash-bashing is what's going on constantly over here. Someone asked me why am I politically correct even when people hit out so openly at me. But the truth is I've never been brought up to behave any other way. I can't say anything hurtful about anyone.” Ash told IANS while responding to the criticism directed at her.

It's really quite petty. The poor woman is jetting between two continents keeping up with her committments to movies (Ash will begin shooting for Jagmohan Mundra’s film ‘Provoked soon. In Bollywood, she is at present committed to two projects: Rajkumar Santoshi’s Saamna with Ajay Devgan and Yash Raj banner’s Dhoom 2 with Hrithik Roshan) and all people can do is criticize, criticize, criticize.

It's always a love-hate relationship with Ashwariya Rai ...