Author: Lavina Melwani

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.

Can biryani save the world? As life-long fans we certainly hope so!

Recently Varli Singh of Diya Foundation for Children and Gaurav Anand and Shagun Mehandru of Awadh came together to host a Biryani Festival, which not only tasted good but did good.So now there’s a way to eat your biryani and have it too! Enjoy a great meal and at the same time help kids in need.

How would you like to hobnob with the ever charismatic, ever friendly President Bill Clinton at a gathering of power people? Meet First Daughter Chelsea Clinton on board the battleship Intrepid? Perhaps rub shoulders with Indian-American business superstars Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo and Ajay Banga of Mastercard? Chat with superstars like Mira Nair, Shabana Azmi or Jhumpa Lahiri? Pose for a picture with Miss America?

If you’re on the gala fundraiser circuit in the US, you would have met them all – and helped raise millions of dollars too…

Do you have a weakness for burgers? What if you could eat the burger – without the bun? McDonalds has come up with a creative idea, substituting the high calorie buns with low-calorie lettuce. Can this work or will eaters get withdrawal symptoms hankering for the substantial, filling bread? Well, this has been introduced only in Australia yet – let’s see how it catches on!
Lettus see!

The images are searing. Images of children who’ve lost their innocence, their childhood in the harsh world of bonded labor. Their eyes stare back at you without emotion, their lips frozen in a non-smile. This is art but art painted with the colors of true life. Each image by British portraitist Claire Phillips is of a real child, a child slave rescued by Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi’s organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan. Meet the artist who journeyed to India to document the lives of these children.

Watch out, the wild Gangs of Wasseypur have come to New York and no one’s going to be spared! Anurag Kashyap’s stunning mafia odyssey will hook you, grab you and get you.
It is the very heart of darkness, a revenge saga where there’s no business like the don business and where firing a gun is as normal as brushing your teeth. Every random unknown on a scooter, armed with an AK47, is a killing machine.
As a visitor to Wasseypur, albeit in the theater, you need to have a high tolerance for bloodshed – after a while even your popcorn seems to be tinged with blood.

Farewell 2014! It was the year Madison Square Garden became Modison Square Garden! A collection of the year’s stories from Lassi with Lavina, from politics to art and cinema.
Share a thoughtful, insightful rumination by Sharmila Tagore on women in Bollywood; See the breath-taking remains of ancient Hindu and Buddhist art in South Asia; read the powerful ‘Family Life’ by Akhil Sharma; enjoy the poetry of Meena Kumari; and celebrate the wedding of Kunal and Michael, a uniquely NYC love story. Check out these stories and more!

He came, he saw, he conquered.

In popular desi lore, even the name of the venue was transformed from Madison Square Garden to Modison Square Garden. The chants of ‘Mo-Di! Mo-Di!’ were more fevered, more fervent than that for any rock star.

Yes, the rock star of Indian politics is undeniably Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and with his American visit he was on the international world stage. He was in New York and Indian-Americans headed out by the thousands to Madison Square Garden to greet him, to hear him, to just be on the same ground that was beneath his feet.

Happy Holidays everyone! Nothing says Christmas quite like Patience and Fortitude, the two wonderful marble lions outside the New York Public Library, with their holiday wreaths! I always love taking a break from work and stopping by to pat them and sit by their side for a while. Having seen them and the holiday crowds swirling around – it really does seem like Christmas!

Well, here’s a Xmas gift for you from the literary lions – the NYPL’s Holiday Book List Generator!

Vikas Khanna has scaled new gastronomic heights with his latest cookbook, ‘Return to the Rivers – Recipes and memories of the Himalayan River Valleys’, written with Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn. This is a wonderful read not only for passionate cooks but also for those newbie chefs whose idea of cooking is heating up the remains of last night’s takeout. The stories will draw you into the kitchen…

Designer Manish Arora’s creations are the fashion equivalent of getting drenched in Holi colors – there’s exuberance, joy and sheer chutzpah. Colors which you thought would never, ever go together are locked in a raucous embrace in his gorgeous ensembles – and look perfect together. Ask about his outrageous color alliances, and he says with a twinkle in his eye: “It’s all very natural and normal. Yellow, pink, green and turquoise in one garment is very normal! For me, I don’t think twice – it just comes!”
His vibrant colors, striking fabrics and east-west silhouettes have won many fans around the world from celebrities like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, MIA and Kate Perry to all the fashionistas across continents.

Win a $600 Longchamp carry-on bag full of goodies from British Airways. We Have a WINNER!
To start an immigrant journey, someone has to leave home. It might have been your grandparents or your parents or perhaps even you who migrated to foreign shores. Now these shores are not foreign any more – they are home. Yet there is that other home, that far-off home where loved ones, long remembered places, the tastes of childhood still exist. So you in essence have two homes – and a plane flight is the shortest distance between these two loved places, two dots on the map of the world.
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Booked! Big Apple turns into the Big Read! Move over Jaipur Literary Festival – New York is joining the fray with its first ever South Asian Literary Festival, organized by the Indo-American Arts Council. (IAAC),
The opening day had the literary daddy of them all, Sir Salman Rushdie, being interviewed by Professor Akeel Bilgrami, Director of the South Asia Institute, Columbia University, at the Smithsonian’s fabulous National Museum of the American Indian. Top it with wine, food and music by Zoya – and what more do you need?

“Cancer is a roller coaster, I have oft heard it been said. While you are comfortably navigating the undulating rails of an expected life, you suddenly find yourself dropping in a deafening speed that jerks and rattles you to your very core. The only difference is that unlike the carnival line you willingly join, waiting to board the ride, analyzing and preparing for its every loop and dip, this ride is murky, unexpected and you never really know how it will end until you reach the other side. All you can do is hang on and hope you’ll arrive safely back at the platform.” – Ayesha Hakki

“My first performance was at Birla auditorium at the age of 5,” recalls Poonam Kay. ” I had to stand on a folding chair and sing a duet with my mother’s male duet singer, Jethalal. The song was Yeh parda hata do, zara mukhda dikha do.” Many years later she is a recording artist, producer and TV personality. This year she released her new album ‘Nachle Ve’ with music composed by noted Bollywood film music director Anand Raj Anand. Yet she has another avatar, that of business entrepreneur.