A team from the Washington Redskins has landed in Bangalore to train India’s first cheerleading squad for the Indian Premier League. Twelve cheerleaders and two choreographers will spend 18 days touring the country for a “national audition of Indian women” to set up a squad of “indigenous pom-pom wielders” for the Royal Challengers.
Tunku Varadarajan, a former editor at the Wall Street Journal, writes in the New York Times that it is paradoxical in a delightful sort of way that Bangalore which leapt into global prominence on the back of outsourcing is itself outsourcing from America. But Tunku makes a more provocative point (while giving us a nice photo-op):
“With the Redskins cheerleaders on Indian soil, one can safely declare that the British cultural influence in India has been entirely replaced by an American one, cricket notwithstanding. India’s relationship with the United States — economic, strategic, diasporic and cultural — is now its primary external alliance, with a complex nuclear deal at one end of the spectrum and 12 cheerleaders and two choreographers at the other.”
Photograph: courtesy Washington Redskins
Read the full column: India’s game, US spice
Also read: CHURUMURI POLL: Are Twenty20 cheer girls obscene?
churumuri 
Who is complaining :)
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We need to customize the eroticism of the cheerleaders into the localized Indian Vareity. Maybe we should have some kind of Mujra dance. This can turn out to be a creative exercise and a trendsetter.
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who said mujra is Indian?
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@subbulakshmi
Aashadabhoothi
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Somebody will file a PIL on this one as well…. as Odd-Man-out says.. who is complaining…
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Subbhalakshmi avare
From the Wiki
“Mujra is a form of Kathak dance usually performed by north Indian Tawaif during the Mughal era until the late 1800’s at weddings.”
“Kathak is a classical dance form from South Asia (originally from North India)”
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Nice picture. One thing is missing–the Ring on the belly button!
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This looks like a photo of a girl who recently had a boo0b job done
:)
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Dang! That chic looks like a her name could be Destiny or Mystique after 9:00 pm. And those boobs are definitely paid for.
Is this the best the Redskins could come up with?
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Sir VA,
You are absolutely right? Straight out of a Night club of any american downtown. But the larger question is, if these chicks are training our indian girls to do what they do in cheerleading, will indian girls be able to be as agile and perform all the twists and turns required during cheerleading after having a sumptuous meal of aloo paratha, rajma,panneer masala etc.
:)
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Indian girls may or may not be able to do a good job cheerleading, but it doesnt matter too much. The little leching pot-bellied Indian guys who want to relegate girls to the kitchen wont do anything which will need any cheerleading…
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Mayura avare, it is the fried stuff – pakodas, bhajjis, samosas, bhel, etc. which makes them agile in a rotund way. Anyway, this whole idea of redskin girls being flown to India to teach cheerleading to Indian girls smells of fresh fish!
On another note I can only hope that all the redskin girls are not as whorey-looking, fake-titted and anorexic as the latina featured above.
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After the cheerleading squad, will the mud and peanut butter wrestling squads be far behind? We are waiting :-)
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Not a good idea. There are families and kids watching the matches and such acts are not acceptable.
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santham papam santham papam .
heNNu makkaL bagge yintha keel manabhavanae .
Alli Suhas Gopinath heNNu makkaLna heeyaLisdha antha Mettu Thogondu Odiri antheera.
Yilli bandhu ‘JoLLU’ surus theera ….gandas janmakkostu
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Timely attempt at analysing a ripple on the social landscape. But I felt Tunku’s tone was too exulting…as if there has been a conquest of sorts. An American influence in the ways and means to egg on players cannot be denied. Well, did Indians and others in the world not take to the Mexican wave? Is an industry that serves the world on the same platform as a mere form of cheering? There is no reason for comparing the two and to draw drastic conclusions in the context of outsourcing –especially in that tone of “the giant is kneeling.” I mean, it is a total mismatch. As for cheering, well that’s a good practice. Its nice to have cheerLEADERS, not just cheergirls. Cricket fans have innovated many ways to cheer (and boo) down the ages.
I dare say, in time to come Bangalore, Bollywood, cable TV and “Indian” culture may together teach the world a thing or two about a new class of cheerleaders who will not be minutely dissected by male bloggers, spectators and others for all the wrong reasons.
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What’s the big deal? India greatest national pastime is Bollywood anyway-nothing but soft porn. So what’s the big deal with American cheerleaders?
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