“Nature has been revered in Vedic scriptures for thousands of years, and all Indian festivals and traditions are closely linked to nature. I grew up celebrating those traditions and singing folk songs about rivers, trees, rain and nature.”
Author: Lavina Melwani
Lavina Melwani
Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist who writes for several international publications. Twitter@lavinamelwani & @lassiwithlavina Sign up for the free newsletter to get your dose of Lassi!
Indeed, the time of rising Indian American political engagement is ripe as they are part of the Asian American demographic, the fastest growing voting bloc in the country which made such a difference in suburban house seats in 2018.
The tea had a special earthy flavor in this cup and the fact that the clay container would once again become one with nature seemed a beautiful idea. After all, aren’t ancient civilizations traced out by the clay remains of their days?
Our civilization of course will probably be remembered by the piles of plastic containers and garbage stuffed landfills we will leave behind! So the idea of the reborn clay utensils really appealed to me.
Meet Chef Roshni Gurnani who often showcases her Sindhi heritage in her cooking
Lovely video by Bill Gates celebrting Warren Buffett’s 90th birthday – “Warren has the mental sharpness of a 30-year-old, the mischievous laugh of a 10-year-old, and the diet of a 6-year-old. He once told me that he looked at the data and discovered that first-graders have the best actuarial odds, so he decided to eat like one. He was only half-joking.”
Dev Patel is David Copperfield in a modern retelling of the Charles Dickens’ classic – a wonderful color-blind casting which reflects present day Britain
A world-class music concert, a major dance festival, a film festival are the delights of summer, must-see events on our social calendar. In years past each was a much anticipated real life event, with dressed-up crowds meeting their friends and rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Here we share the past memories and how each event has been reborn, reinvented this year.
“We were the first Sikh family in Bamberg. It was a small town in South Carolina, a closed community at that time,” recalls Ajit Randhawa of the 70’s. “Our daughters Simmi and Nikki entered the Little Miss Bamberg contest but the school selected only a White Queen and a Black Queen. So Nikki and Simmi were not eligible as contestants. Nikki was five years old at that time and sang, ‘This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to New York Island’ and received a resounding applause.”
Fast forward to 2010 and Nikki Haley (nee Randhawa) is not only a contestant in the most powerful contest there is – US politics – but has won big time. Forget black and white, she has shown that an Indian-American can be a game changer where race and gender is concerned in the Deep South.
As New York City slowly recovers from the Coronavirus pandemic, you really can’t meet or talk to real people – but there are lots of fake people in the show windows of the elite stores to whom you can connect!
By binding the past and the present, Birendra Pani’s gorgeous art creates a new way of thinking for the visitors to the gallery: He says: “Relooking and revisiting our local culture and re-establishing a new relationship with the positive aspects of our tradition will sustain us in a situation of loss in a disoriented and homogenizing world.”
Last minute reprieve for international students who may have had to leave the country if they were enrolled only in online classes during the pandemic
The New York Indian Film Festival is coming to you at home and bringing the best of indie films including regional films, women directed films as well as gay perspectives and social themes.
For Joe Biden, it’s very personal – it’s a batte for the soul of the nation
Indian Matchmaking on Netflix turns a magnifying glass on the traditional Indian arranged marriage with modern couples.
Pooja Bavishi is the CEO of Malai.co – an ice cream company with flavors inspired by aromatic, South Asian spices and global ingredients.
A chance to see the fabulous Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in collaboration with The Chitrasena Dance Company perform Nrityagram: Samhara Revisted, in the Temple of Dendur at the Met Museum
At a time when the coronavirus has caused chaos in many parts of the world and decimated businesses in towns and cities, tech entrepreneur Sree Sreenivasan has started a new venture.
New York, which was the center of the Coronavirus pandemic, is slowly re-opening in what Governor Cuomo calls ‘New York smart’ ways. Several Indian-Americans have been enlisted in this re-birth of New York.
Ten days ago nobody had heard of him but now googling Rahul Dubey generates 17,000,000 results. This Indian-American has got inextricably linked to the unfolding events in America in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, and shows that actions speak louder than words.
In a reprieve for the Dreamers, as they are known, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision finding that the Trump administration’s termination of DACA was judicially reviewable and done in an arbitrary and capricious way that violated federal law.