Author: Lavina Melwani

As spring turns into fall, we should be seeing a lot of excitement and action in the fashion arena. Will more and more Americans be seduced by Indian fashion through travel to India, through cinema, and through Indian-American friends in an ever increasing Asian population?
Will American designers continue to find inspiration in India’s myriad delights of color, crafts and couture? Will Indian designers make it big in America? Will new mega-fashion stores dedicated to India ring up the sweet music of cash registers?

Advertisers really know how to pull on your heartstrings, and sometimes they get it right.

The work of mothers is so undervalued – it carries no pay, no certificates and no awards. Yet daughters are so strengthened by the unconditional love, the drive and determination of mothers to make the lives of their daughters so much better than their own. A touching tribute to mothers everywhere.

If you’re a mother or a daughter, you’ve got to watch this emotional video. It will make you want to call your mom immediately. Enjoy!

“I don’t know dance but my soul dances while singing in concerts. Many times I fly in void, my audience’s energy becomes the surface…Every pore of my body becomes the vent for breeze to pass through. I am weightless…in samadhi.”- Kailash Kher
Kailash Kher’s unique voice which makes you lose yourself – and also find yourself – in his soul-stirring music. Indeed, if you want to discover truths about life and humanity in a tornado of music, there is no better venue than a Kailash Kher concert.
The Sufi singer is now coming to the heart of Manhattan, to Times Square, and audiences are going to hear his raw, fabulously powerful voice at Town Hall, in concert with his band Kailasa on May 3.

What would be a filmiholic’s idea of heaven? A week full of back-to-back viewings of the most intriguing films, a mixed bag of drama, suspense, comedy and chills – by some of the most noted directors in Indian cinema. Think Vishal Bharadwaj, Shyam Benegal, Mani Ratnam, Aparna Sen, Hansal Mehta and Shonali Bose. Then there is the joy of seeing the work of so many regional filmmakers as well as getting to know so many new directors. Lots of films by Indian-American filmmakers too, including ‘Miss India America’ and ‘Meet the Patels’.

All this is happening at the upcoming New York Indian Film Festival with over 30 films, 30 alternate worlds to get lost in. You’ll find love, loss, laughter – and life…

In India, skin color seems to dominate all else. In this land of ‘wheatish’ skin, why is white skin so cherished and so desired? Why is black denigrated?
A new ad for jewelry features the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, white as can be, and a small dark child slave holding an umbrella over her head. What were the creators of this ad thinking?
Will colonialism and the British Raj continue to dominate our lives in free India? And how many more young people will associate dark skin with failure and repression. Is the solution in life a tube of skin whitening cream?

A six figure job, a trophy spouse, an earth-shattering romance – we certainly think all these things will make us more happy – and isn’t happiness what we all seek and hunger for?

Yet listen to this: “There is nothing that you have to get, do, or be in order to be happy. I repeat, nothing. In fact, happiness is your innate nature. It is hardwired into your being, It is part of your DNA. It is always with you.”
These words of wisdom come not from some spiritual text or soothsayer but from Dr. Srikumar S. Rao, the very practical and philosophical professor who has made happiness an achievable goal…

Yes, it’s that time of the year when Asian art takes over New York City and art-lovers from all over the world come to the Big Apple. Just before Asia Week opened (March 13 -21) I spent a day with a group of bloggers and journalists in hot pursuit of hidden treasures.

Spring seems to be in a very confused state of mind. It’s officially Spring today but my backyard is still looking like a beautiful Christmas card!
It’s almost as if Spring decided to go to a masquerade ball dressed up as Old Man Winter. Or is Spring a frivilous kid costumed in winter white for Halloween?
I took a picture for the cool memory of this during the heat and humidity of a New York summer when the blazing sidewalk bites through your sandals and no amount of lemonade can quench your thirst!

Kamal Haasan, the enigmatic actor and director, is coming to New York City and you have a chance to meet him and share his thoughts and ideas.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art invites you an informal talk with one of India’s best-loved actors and directors.

City women enjoy all kinds of fashion – here’s a story about the bindi which has been rural women’s style mantra (as well as cultural underpinning) for decades. Now comes a new twist to it, thanks to city slickers!

What is the Jeevan Bindi? One which saves lives – and here is a thinking out of the box idea from an advertising agency which could have an impact on the lives of women in rural India. Hope that it won’t be a flash in the pan and will become a part of daily life… This from Ecouterre.

‘India’s Daughter’ is banned in India but Jyoti Singh’s story cannot be put under wraps, it cannot be muzzled. It is all over social media, and it needs to be seen and seen by a lot of people, especially the gatekeepers of patriarchy.

What happened in Delhi on 16 December 2012 has come back to haunt people, and to see that justice gets done. It is said that a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes and the time is not for complacency. To those who say the documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ should be banned, there is only one thing to say – watch it and then decide.

Enjoy the joy of Holi, the festival of colors, with this delightful video from Hindustani vocalist Ila Paliwal. This beautiful Indian raga embraces the world with its power of celebration and inclusiveness. Indeed, Holi is increasingly becoming a reason to dance and connect with color in many parts of the world and this video by Bharat Bala shows that dance and music have a way of erasing differences and accentuating what we humans have in common.

Sometimes there’s a film so emotionally wrenching and yet so life-affirming that you just have to see it. Such a film is Shonali Bose’s ‘Margarita with a straw’ which opens the New York Indian Film Festival. In this unusual love story, a middle-class Indian teenager with cerebral palsy longs to experience that most basic of human desires – a love relationship. Sex and the disabled are hardly ever talked of in the same breath, and this brave film takes on this taboo topic

Life has many pressing questions but for Bollywood fans it has to be – which is the greatest Bollywood film of all time? It’s a highly subjective question and there can be no one clear answer but wonder of wonders, 30 Bollywood gurus have come together to agree upon a clear winner! It is ‘Sholay’ – Ramesh Sippy’s action thriller from 1975.
Check out the 100 greatest Bollywood films, according to Time Out.

There’s information overload on the Internet and many great stories are missed altogether! So every week I’ll do a roundup of the must-reads, the controversial stories, and the fun posts that I have found across the Net.

Check this one out! All your Facebook friends – are they really who they seem to be? With photos floating all over social media, how do you know who people really are? What would you think if you found your photo on diverse social media sites with a different name and a different life story?

Imagine entire streets, neighborhoods drenched in color. Imagine people so immersed in red, purple, green and yellow powders that you can’t distinguish one from the other!
Yes, Holi, the Indian festival of colors is here, heralding Spring and the exuberant love of Radha and Krishna in Mathura. There’s joy, playfulness, a reaching out to friends and strangers. The festival has traveled well to America, brought in as part of the traditions of Hindu immigrants. And on May 2nd it’s being celebrated in a free fun festival by a group of young Indian-Americans in Manhattan.

Aasif Mandvi is the quintessential immigrant – he belongs nowhere and everywhere. He has knocked around three continents – Asia, America and Europe – and appropriated a bit from each of his hometowns – Dhule in Gujarat, Brampton in the UK and Tampa and New York in the US. Being brown, being different, being Muslim, he’s had a tough time and so many of us will identify with his story because in many ways it is our story too.

For all those who loved ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’, there’s more – ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel! The joy of sequels can be akin to comfort food – getting involved in the lives of favorite characters once again and seeing how they are all doing since you saw them last. And this one even has that quintessential desi pleaser – a Big Fat Indian Wedding! Dev Patel and Tina Desai – and those powerhouses Judi Dench, Maggie Smith – and Richard Gere too!

The wonderful A. R. Rahman is coming to New York and you actually have the opportunity to meet him in the flesh, hear him speak and ask him a question or two!

The occasion is the world premiere of Jai Ho, a documentary about the iconic musician and composer. He’s won every award there is including an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe and has legions of fans around the world. So it’s about time his work was chronicled. Jai Ho, which is directed by Umesh Aggarwal, is premiering at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York on February 25.

Who would have thought that the princely state of Awadh exists in Manhattan? The flag of Dum Pukht has been unfurled by Gaurav Anand, a passionate culinary crusader, and the crest of the royal house is embedded right on the door of Awadh on the Upper West Side. This is an outpost of old Lucknow with its famous Galouti kababs, Lagan ki Raan and Kakori Kababs. Recently the Village Voice, the NY chronicle of everything cool, declared Awadh the best new Indian restaurant in New York.