Author: 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!

Indian immigrants who have spent time in the homeland will remember their childhood passion for Cadbury chocolates – the only big brand available in India in the good old days! In those days chocolate was a rarity and a treat. NRI relatives visiting India would always be asked to bring back  just about any kind of ‘foreign’ chocolate and as much as could fit into a suitcase. Now some of them are turning into chocolate-preneurs!

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Art

Art is often about aesthetics and beauty but in Chittaprosad’s work it was about the ugliness of life and the horrors of the Bengal famine. This retrospective of Chittaprosad’s work is a not to be missed event for it illuminates the life of a little known artist whose searing body of work is being seen for the first time in New York.

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A law degree has been the avenue for a number of Indian-American women who have done very well in corporate America and private legal practice. It has also been the building block for a handful of strong women who have entered public life via this route as judges, attorney generals and lawyers in the public sphere, this having an impact on the lives of ordinary citizens.

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Celebrities may wear the armor of success but as Anupam Kher shows they all have human failings and frailties and he shares ways to deal with everything from stress to fear to failure. And that is why readers will catch glimpses of themselves in the pages of his new book, find strength for the days they lose confidence or feel useless. Says Kher, “They need to discover that the best thing about them is them. It is the truth, it is not just a catchy title. I believe in it.”

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you know that there’s another showman named Raj Kapoor – a young Indian-American in Hollywood who’s on the Oscars production team? His company, Raj Kapoor Productions, designed the screen content and performances for the big night.

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The delight of New York is that it embraces every festival and makes it its own – and in a grand way. So it was that the mighty Golden Dragon in all its spectacular churning and beat of drums came to the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on February 20.

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eera Gandhi likes to do good – and always manages to have fun doing it.  Whether it’s a CD, a documentary or a coffee table book, she creates it and all funds go to the non-profit Giving Back Foundation which she founded in 2010 to help women and children.

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Can you be a film buff and not see ‘Padmaavat’? Like thousands, I too wound my way to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s saga starring the luminaries Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. I donned 3-D glasses and entered into the surreal, far-off world of medieval India which has been brought kicking and shouting into the 2018 conflicted world of Karni Sena and today’s India.

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