Author: Lavina Melwani

initial feeling when I spotted these very Indian hands laden with gorgeous red wedding bangles and mehndi was one of disorientation. I must be in a Bollywood movie or at some Big Fat Indian Wedding. Or at least in a street in Colaba or Kalbadevi! But no, I was not even in Jackson Heights or any ethnic enclave but in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Now you can read Lassi with Lavina in Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, French, Italian – almost a hundred different languages! Family members who don’t know English can now taste the lassi too!

Lassi with Lavina India Blog: An Idea for a Hungry World Feasting and Fasting I’ve been on a month-long visit to India and everywhere I go, there is food, food and more food. We’ve eaten so much at people’s homes, tasted so much of the famous Indian hospitality. We’ve been to parties and clubs and restaurants and always there is abundance, a surfeit of food. It’s hard to forget that we are in a country of great extremes – cities, towns and villages where there is great hunger – and great feasts.  You are at a wedding party…

“I wanted to write a film about the India I grew up in. A world with goodness where people knew the meaning of trust. A world where magic still exists. A world through a child’s eyes. Out of this desire emerged the magical journey of Dhanak.”

Little Black Book: Sharmila Tagore at a cocktail event by Sundaram Tagore in New York.

‘Family Life’, Akhil Sharma’s new novel, is devastating – about the unpredictability of life, of how 3 minutes can change it forever.

Yet it is also about the resilience of the human spirit and how we can keep raising the bar on the amount of grief and pain we are able to tolerate – all for love. And sometimes for guilt.

Deceptively small, ‘Family Life’ comes with a lot of turbulence packed into it – each page takes you into human lives which are raw and conflicted.

“Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d ‘handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.’

Lassi with Lavina Guide to Upcoming Events – TiEcon New York  In New York, it’s all about Invention – and Reinvention. [dropcap]C[/dropcap]alling all entrepreneurs and wanna-be entrepreneurs. Are you a closet inventor or disrupter? Do you think startups are something magical that only other people create? Do you have questions about mentor-ship, incubators and funding? Do you want to conquer the social media world? [dropcap]H[/dropcap]ere’s your chance to mingle with the best thinkers and creators at the TiEcon NY at Convene Conference Center. The theme of this full day conference is ‘Invention and Reinvention: A Celebration…

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is the city’s largest art museum, has always been New York’s crown jewel. Now along with its iconic Fifth Avenue space and the Cloisters, it has a new avatar, Met Breuer (pronounced Broy-er) on Madison Avenue.

806 people saw this on FB Lassi with Lavina The story of a Dark Village [dropcap]S[/dropcap]ome villages run on agriculture, others on craftwork. But this village survives and thrives on the sex work of its women.  Imagine an entire village running on prostitution with no future for its children. There are 1600 women who sell sex to 3000 men everyday. In the picture are 300 children who call this home. Check out this video, courtesy of The Guardian, to see a dark, stark life without too many options. Thankfully, there are NGOs which are trying to make a difference. But can…

Indeed this passion, this madness for excellence is what Jonathan Hollander has acquired from his many visits to India, and he has used this mantra globally – with varied countries, with young children and with dancers and musicians across the world stage, always with a New York sensibility.

1845 people reached on FB Lassi with Lavina page (All Photos: www.DigitalMemoryStudio.com ) Opportunity. Success. Compassion. Giving. Sharing.  CHI Woman of Distinction – Ritu Banga, co-founder  Zoomdojo [dropcap]O[/dropcap]ver 250 women came together at the annual Children’s Hope India Spring luncheon to celebrate warm sunny weather and the future of  children with a fun fundraiser which connected friends and allowed them to shop for a great cause- the education of children in the slums of Indian cities and the homeless in shelters in New York City. The afternoon featured a lively cocktail, luncheon, beautifully designed baskets of special gifts for raffle, and a lot…

Film festivals are always a draw – so say you come just for the movies but admit it, you’re also there to see the actors and the directors, to rub shoulders with celebrity and perhaps share a drink with the Starry Ones!

Over 250 women turned up for a fabulous Spring Luncheon at Swan Club organized by Children’s Hope India to support the children living in homeless shelters in New York City. A highlight of the 2015 spring luncheon is the Woman of Distinction Award, given to a woman who has managed to balance the challenges of the workplace, home and social responsibility. This year we honored Ila Paliwal who is a classically trained vocalist, song writer and producer. She was presented the award by Sadhna Shanker, wife of the Consul General of India, Ambassador D. Mulay.

Now comes a heroine of the road, Melba Pria, the Mexican ambassador to India, whose vehicle of choice is the humble phat-phatti or auto rickshaw. If a highly-placed diplomat can do it then why not our affluent Delhites?

Spellcheck needed – or you won’t get a coat, pant or shirt, says Lassi with Lavina during this jaunt in a Delhi market. You may end up with a cot, paint and something called a sirt!

Lassi with Lavina Video of the Day – TinderIndia Tinder Comes to India The West is rushing into the East -and probably traumatizing a whole lot of people. The latest entrant is brave, bold Tinder! Watch this video to see it treading on social eggshells as generations react to it in the land of prudery and the Kama Sutra. Can they live together in harmony with Tinder? Indian parents expect you to marry someone if you so much as look at him – and now suddenly things are getting racy! Can Tinder become a comfortable part of the Indian household, as…

Predictably, the 16th Annual NYIFF (May 7 -14) is going to play havoc with your sleep cycle and your work life (and maybe even your love life) because you’ll want to sit zombie-like and see all the unexpected 40-plus offerings. You may as well give up your real life for a week!

The well-off population is the one gaining the most from subsidies on gold, train fare, aviation fuel, kerosene and small savings schemes in India. The rich get richer!

 Trumping Up the White House  What would a Donald Trump White House look like? Will it be the end of history as we know it? Will it be Trump Redecoration 101?  I’m sure he can’t rebuild and put the Trump logo on the White House head, but a great many changes will seep in.  As Patricia Leigh Brown wrote in The New York Times, “Trump is like a one-man Gilded Age, carrying opulence wherever he goes. We’ve never had someone running for president who is a bling artist.” Would love to know what you think are the changes one would…