Apprentice: Let's talk about Raj

Cafe Society
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Raj.

First off, what a f**king cool name. That’s always a bonus. I’m trying to figure out if it is short for something, or where it comes from. Who knows, perhaps he’ll be the namesake of my first born. A quick google search reveals that it is a Hindi name, an alternative to Raja. But I still wonder if it is a self given name or how he came to it.

Yes, I could edit this post before submitting it, but I prefer to add and not delete. A google search reveals that Raj is the son of a Hindi father and an Irish mother. Interesting indeed. Raj Bhakta.

In any case, let’s begin with the obvious. His attire. Bow ties, canes, unusual suits. He’s branding himself.

Outside of the Apprentice, even if he does get fired, he’s become the Omarosa of this show in that his name is known to any who watched it (even for one episode) and thus his business will get a boon.

Inside the Apprentice, he’s stuck himself into the Donald’s mind even without making any major actions or decisions. Yes Donald is a bit curious about his attire, and if he got hired he’d probably have to go much more conservative. But until then, his dress is his signature.

One mistake which leapt out at me was that he didn’t stick to his guns with Empire. He knew that Mosaic was going to garner a laugh from Mr. Trump and instead of pushing with the strong name he favored he quickly assented and Mosaic was born.

The second ‘mistake’ is closely tied to the first, when Mr. Trump took a comment on the name and had some obvious info from the producers concerning the slight dissent in the name. Raj immediately stepped up to say he disliked the name. I mean, he leapt into it saying he didn’t like it. One the one hand, he was agreeing with Donald Trump, usually a good thing. And on the other hand, he was outside of the crowd, no longer part of the team and in agreement with the team.

This game is built on entirely too many chiefs and no indians. But when it comes time to work, the PM is the Chief, everyone else should be the indian, or else trouble is sure to follow.

Raj has quickly become a crowd favorite, for his unusual dress and manners. Eccentricity has always bode well for the wealthy, and it is also equated with above average intelligence. So he radiates intelligence to the viewers at least.

From the clips on the NBC website, we also see that he is supremely confident in himself. This is a very important attribute for people in this game, but if he touts it as religiously as others on the show do then he’s going to lose. He’s an icon of the teams, he doesn’t blend in (on purpose as I’ve noted) and so his confidence will be his downfall if he is not careful.

Will Raj go all the way? I can’t yet say. I haven’t seen his leadership yet. I just don’t know. But I think he’s one of the mainstream competitors, one of the ones who is going to have to watch his back and keep his nose clean.

The article I found about him notes he is a fan of Napoleon Bonaparte, not all too surprising, but let’s hope he doesn’t make an Napoleonic mistakes.

I definitely say Raj is my pony for this all. Comments, criticisms, discussion of course welcome.

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PS - Found his personal website: http://www.rajbhakta.com/

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I have been so torn on the whole Raj thing.
During the first episode, I found him pretentious and too deliberately “odd”.
During the 2nd episode, I decided that he was, underneath it all, a decent person and businessperson, and he kind of grew on me.
Now I have clicked on the link you provided and my opinion of him is lower than ever. He reminds me all too well of pretentious guys I have known, many of whom were also fans of Napolean (go figure) who use big words simply for the sake of hearing themselves use big words and adopt an accent when really they have none, and the like.
Yep, I’m back to hating him.

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I thought I would hate him, but I actually like him.

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We really haven’t seen much of him in action yet – the main impact he’s made was the double fashion statements in week 1.

I think he’s a hoot, though. I like him.

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I like him, too. I sent him this message:

You are very cool. I love your stuffiness and melancholy temperament. I thought you might want to know that the sentence on your front page, “With respect to the text, it may be long-winded, but it is me,” should read, “…but it is I.” Predicate nominative. Good luck.

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Raj means “king.” It’s a pretty common boy’s name.

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Among Indian people, I mean. Likewise, Rohan/Sameer/Nikhil/Neel etc. I think some of these names have even made it on to the Social Sec. Administration’s “Most Popular Baby Names” list.

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I think in the end his pretentiousness and affectation will not hold him in good stead. Yes, it did bring him to the immediate notice of Trump, but if you’ve ever looked at the way Trump personally dresses, or Carolyn and George, he seems to prefer classic business-like dress for himself and his closest associates. Trump, for all his wealth, doesn’t need affectations. And I think that he’ll look down on anyone who does to make themself special. As far as trump is concerned, I think the job you do should speak for itself.

StG

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Raj bugs. In addition to what was so nicely phrased as his “affectations” by St.Germain, he comes off to me as supercillious and egotistical. His website comes off as a pathetic attempt to impress its readers with his vocabularym which honestly sounds as if he was constantly consulting a thesaurus, and is needlessly verbose. I think I’d probably want to smack him if I was on the show.

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Looking at his educational background and his self proclaimed lack of knowledge of anything TV-ish (he never watched), he is as smart as he sounds.

If he wasn’t as smart as his multi-syllabic and high brow allusions indicate, he would be a poser.

If he said he was better than others (which he never did) because he’s smarter than most, than that would be prideful.

He’s smart and he knows it and doesn’t hide it. So, I guess the only reasonable thing to do to tear him down, or, at least pray that some great misfortune befalls him.

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So, no TV for Raj. At least he watches movies (LOTR reference on his web page).

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Is Raj short for something? The text-over on picture on his web page says ‘Rajer.’ Is that an answer to the question? I don’t know.

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So, after the big thing with the bow ties, why is the lead picture with a standard tie?

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His crest: A bit busy with Indian and Irish Catholic and military devices. (If you have a Celtic Cross, you don’t need a shamrock, too.) The Latin, as near as I can figure is either “My power (is) for (my) country,” or, “Power for my country.”

Peace.

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I’m leaning towards liking him. Though he is definitely trying too hard, he is genuinely funny–a rarity in the reality TV world. His imitation of Pamela selling ice cream was priceless. He seems quite British in his humor and in many of his behaviors. (Not surprising, given his parentage.)

On his website, I found something cool: “I find it particularly gratifying to breathe new life into older buildings. Unlike building strip malls on farmland, redevelopment projects contribute to the betterment of the commonwealth while placating my ambition.” I’m very interested in urban planning and curtailing sprawl, so I liked that.

But whether he turns out to be great or a total tool, I’ll always appreciate the fact that he was entertaining at least.

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You’ve seen his Trumpartment, and his hair, and you say this??

:smiley:

The Donald, as a person, is fairly pathetic. I respect the hell out of him as a businessman, though.

Raj is horribly pretentious. Sorry, there it is. I wish I’d never seen his website.

As far as the name itself, doesn’t “Raj” refer to the British rule of India? As in “The Raj”? I’m not doubting it’s a common first name, but those Empire associations don’t just vanish.

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He’s still a poser. I’m smart, too, but inserting fifty dollar words where five dollar words will do is the sort of thing people do when they’re trying to hide an inferiority complex.

His love of citing dictators and generals as his examples is also a classic sign of dorkdom. It’s a sure giveaway that a man is obsessed with the relative size of his dick.

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I enjoy watching Raj. He’s a great reality TV “character” and he doesn’t seem pretentious to me at all. On the contrary, I think he’s having some fun with how he presents himself to viewers and to The Donald. It’s a schtick and a pretty good one at that.

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And so? Even if there is an imperious connotation to his name (which I doubt, given how common it is), that would hardly be his fault.

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Exactly.

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Okay, here’s a data point illustrating how common the name Raj is. At my old firm (in NJ), there was a 4-person department. 3 out of the 4 people were named Raj Patel.

Maybe Raj is extra-common because it’s short for a couple of different names? I’ve known Rajahs and a Rajil and some just plain Raj’s.

Maybe one of our Indian dopers will be in to confirm or deny.

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Man, I must be invisible.

As I said upthread, Raj is a very common first name among Indian people. It’s a word, probably from Sanskrit, and by itself it means “king.” The British used the term the “British Raj,” I no longer remember why. However, Indians, freely name their children “Raj” and it has no imperial connotations to it. My sister’s fiance is named Raj. I have a cousin named Raj. LOL. Raj can also be shortform for other Sanskrit names that include it, like “Rajesh” or “Suraj” or “Neeraj.” My parents call me “rajah” which means princess.

and I am Indian FWIW

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Thanks for the input anu-la. I saw it and appreciated it :slight_smile:

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Now at risk of taking this to the pits, I have to stand and say that I find it quite annoying that people assume anyone who uses big words is doing so to be pretentious. I use big words. I use big words because it is the beauty of the English language. No I’m not a genius. No I’m not a millionaire (or even a thousand-aire) but I know the words, so why not put them into use.

Is Raj a bit over the top? Hell yeah. But does his using big words merit the stink of pretentiousness? I don’t think so.