Author: Lavina Melwani

The gallery at the Rubin Museum in Manhattan is hushed with silent screams, copious tears, with catastrophic events as they happened, with real life receding into the realm of the past. Witnesses from the present watch as Mahatma Gandhi lies fasting, shrinking into himself with concerned followers all around him; they watch hundreds huddled on the refugee trains from Pakistan to India; they are at Gandhi’s funeral with inconsolable masses flooding the landscape.

‘Wordsmith’ – I like the feel of the word, its heft. It has echoes of blacksmith, silversmith, goldsmith – someone hardy and dedicated, working with raw material over fire, shaping it and transforming it into something which didn’t exist before.

Shah Rukh Khan, actor, producer and activist, recently gave a TED talk – smart, witty and life-affirming.

Who is Mac Duggal? You could say he’s the world-famous designer you don’t know anything about – although Americans from celebrities to prom queens swear by his creations.

4150 people reached on FB Lassi with Lavina page Opening Night at the New York Indian Film festival 2017 [dropcap]F[/dropcap]ilm fans came out in full force for the opening night of the New York Indian Film Festival, the oldest and most reputed South Asian cinema events. They were drawn by the tantalizing prospect of being the first (and only) people to see ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’. This was the New York premiere of a controversial film which has been banned in India, and hence was doubly enticing. Alankrita Shrivastava, the outspoken director of the film was there, along with one…

dmit it – sometimes you just want to run away from mundane real life!

Well, here’s the perfect antidote, the perfect escape route… you get to follow four feisty Indian women and their secret desires, meet a famous sibling pair of filmmakers, encounter the truth about the controversial politico Arvind Kejriwal, come face to face with Satyajit Ray’s fascinating detective Feluda and check out two of your favorite stars who are picking up the megaphone and turning director! You even get to see the life story of a porn star turned Bollywood actor!

‘For Here or To Go?’ is the anxiety-driven roller coaster ride of H1 B visa holders in America as they wait to find out where home and their life is in uncertain times.

India is the land of many cultures, many people – and many foods. Vikas Khanna’s ‘Utsav’ captures the many festivals of India and the unique dishes associated with each religion and region. Here’s a chance to experiment with different dishes and celebrate all the wonderful festivals of India!

“As creative people, I think we get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. I’m a firm believer in the idea that excellence exists everywhere,’ says Antonio Ciongoli, director of Eidos, whose Spring 2017 menswear collection is inspired by Jaipur in India, and who used all Indian models in his NY collection.

Ritesh Batra proves himself adept at distilling people’s lives, no matter what their background. He captures, as in his previous film ‘The Lunchbox’, the minutiae of ordinary lives superbly, the subtle touches, a glance, a gesture. He manages to convey the complexities of the novel in the short span of the movie

‘From Today I have No Future’ – A solo show by M. Pravat at Aicon Gallery in Manhattan is almost a blueprint for loss, life and living – it is about streetscapes and mindscapes, of memories and the past but also about re-imagination, and new layerings added to the scaffolding of what we remember.

Sometimes ads do get it right such as this United Colors of Benetton one which touches upon equal rights for women. Sometimes images convey what words alone cannot, and sometimes commercials can sell more than clothes or jewelry – they can promote ideals and ideas.

“I wanted to have a story behind the dress, and the story to point to the environmental work that we were doing.” These dresses use sustainable and innovative material, constantly pushing boundaries.” – Suzy Amis Cameron, founder of Red Carpet Green Dress Eco-friendly initiative at the Oscars

Did You Know? Lassi with Lavina’s Fact of the Day Mumbai is the richest Indian City with 46,000 Millionaires & 28 Billionaires… Well, well – the Maximum City is also the city with the maximum wealth, maximum billionaires and maximum millionaires – and that’s the maximum truth! Mumbai has become the richest Indian city with around 46,000 millionaires and 28 billionaires, and a combined wealth of US$ 820 billion, according to a report by New World Wealth quoted on ibef.org Delhi follows next with 23,000 millionaires and 18 billionaires, and Bengaluru with 7,700 millionaires, eight billionaires. The full list is…

‘Growing Up Smith’ will surely hit a sweet spot – almost every Indian immigrant child has a memory of being the only brown-skinned student in the class, the one with the unpronounceable name and a lunch box from which emanated curry smells. ‘Growing Up Smith’ is a love poem to all those little kids who struggled to become ‘American’ and tried to straddle two cultures.

Strolling through the Chocolate Show in Manhattan (and munching as I went) I thought I had seen it all – chocolates with a hundred different flavors, chili chocolates, chocolates mixed with bacon, even chocolate lotions, lip glosses and potions. – until I came to the most unexpected – camel milk chocolates!

4902 people reached on Lassi with Lavina  Pooja Vishwakrma, Aeayat Khan and 71 others  Like it on Lassi with Lavina Barack Obama, Thank you for the Memories… [dropcap]W[/dropcap]e were all together when you pulled off that first victory, that wondrous miracle. It showed us that America had a vast heart, there was place for reconciliation, for change, for new beginnings  – and hope. We smiled a lot, even when things were tough. Together we would pull through all those nightmarish days, days of crisis and financial problems. [dropcap] W[/dropcap]e had got so accustomed to your voice, your smile, your…

Published articles by Lavina Melwani in The Hindu, Scroll, Quartz, Outlook, Beliefnet and other publications.

Once upon a time there was a young Indian-Canadian porn star who decided to reinvent herself and see if she could make it in Bollywood, India’s vaulted film industry where heroines are chaste and where even a kiss is forbidden. Meet Sunny Leone!

Some of the most poignant testimony of a culture in flux is Thomas Kelly’s ethnographic work of marginalized, landless communities. He has lived with the Badi people where the young women have had to sell themselves to keep their families out of poverty. Once they were singers and dancers and entertainers at weddings and other ceremonies – now these women have to use their bodies as a source of income.

Using a Gates grant, Kelly looked into the lives of fallen angels in various parts of Asia, from ‘maalish’ or massage boys in hotels to sex worker communities, analyzing what drove them to this work and how they could be helped by the organizations.