Author: Lavina Melwani

As a child growing up in New Delhi, India, my favorite pastime was watching the planes take off at the airport. Since my siblings and I had never traveled by plane there was a sense of wonder, even mystery. Where did these shining silver birds go and how would it be to ride off on their backs?

Years later, having migrated to foreign shores – Hong Kong, Africa and then America – I’m quite blasé about air travel but I still love planes. They are my way of getting back home, journeying to family, friends and picking up the threads of past worlds. Now learn how you can win two air tickets to India via British Airways Welcome of Home promotion!

Indian cinema is so much more than Bollywood, encompassing regional and independent cinema. What would you ask 28 of the top film directors if you had the chance? In ‘Not Just Bollywood- Indian Directors Speak’ Tula Goenka meets noted names from Shyam Benegal to Anurag Kashyap to Farhan Akhtar and gets the inside view on cinema and the film industry. So many personal stories abound in this book that it almost calls for its own big bag of popcorn to indulge in, as you read!

Life size peacocks, filigreed gold pillars and small pools of rose petals and lotuses – a little piece of Kashmir had been recreated in New York by Children’s Hope India with its Evening in Kashmir gala at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. Guests even got a chance to saunter near the iconic Dal Lake – in spirit at least as they posed for family photographs before a large image of this famous body of water.

The evening began with the noted Sufi singer Kailash Kher being spotlighted on a darkened stage as he invoked the Almighty for blessings with a powerful rendering of ‘Kashmir’ and following it up with much loved ‘Allah Ke Bande’. The Pride of Kashmir Award was presented to Kailash Kher by Ambassador D. Mulay for his unifying music and his involvement with social causes.

“But isn’t yoga an English word?”

This was the plaintive response one American had when she was told that yoga’s original birthplace was India. Indeed, this ancient practice from India has traveled so far and been so cut off from its moorings that many current day practitioners in the west seem to think it was always a part of American life.

Now comes a comprehensive art exhibition in America, the first of its kind, which through the language of visuals – paintings, sculptures and photographs – traces yoga’s roots back to India, back to Gods and Goddesses, back to spiritual and philosophical aspirations. It can be seen at the Cleveland Museum of Art from June 22 to September 7, 2014.

“The only way to work with India’s future is to work with children. India has the highest child population in the world at 40% of the total population. Hence, working with children is essential for the progress of India. In fact, if we solve any problems for the children of India, we can be almost certain that we would be solving it for the world just by virtue of the number of beneficiaries.”
The Sounds of Hope, an India inspired jazz concert on November 14, benefits the Salaam Bombay Fund which works with children in the slums.

What is Diwali without family? A lot of immigrants who are far from home and family will identify with this Diwali video from Pepsi. Get ready for some emotional tears this festive season – after all, who doesn’t miss home food and hugs and Diwali memories?

We Indians love a good 3 hankie sob to feel really happy!

There is a maniac energy about ‘Haider’ – and a maniac desire among viewers to immerse themselves in this film. Yes, a film scribe I know turned up at this advance screening, bleary-eyed and disheveled, suitcase in tow, straight from the airport – rather than miss this first screening of Vishal Bhardwaj’s much awaited film!

It is a brutal, blood-stained Kashmir, etchings of a brooding, bereft landscape, a city of disappeared people. It shows that Shakespeare’s tale of deceit and murder, of treachery and lost ideals is a universal tale and relevant to all humans. Bhardwaj has successfully transported the ill-starred Danish Prince to Kashmir, and made it an indigenous, very authentic Indian tale.

Goddess Lakshmi sits resplendent on a lotus; Lord Shiva strides atop a vanquished demon; there is Ma Kali, fierce and blood-thirsty, garlanded with the skulls of evil-doers; and Ganesha, calm and peaceful with a bowl of ladoos in his hand.

These are familiar images of Gods and Goddesses that Hindus have worshiped since childhood, and have seen in sacred texts, in temples, in homes, in bazaars and in calendar art.
Now what if I was to tell you that these are not paintings at all but life-size photographs of living human beings in the guise of Gods and Goddesses? That the ferocious Ma Kali is really an artist in real life, Hanuman is a body builder who works in a gym, Ma Saraswati is a television anchor and Lord Brahma is an architect? That Goddess Lakshmi went on to compete in the semi-finals of Miss India 2014, winning the titles of Miss Beautiful Smile and Miss Beautiful Hair?

‘Evening in Kashmir’ Gala on October 12 at Pier Sixty in Chelsea Piers recreates Srinagar in Manhattan. The funds raised will go to the over 20 ongoing CHI education and heath projects in different parts of India as well as to a new educational initiative at a school in Kashmir.

What better way to start the evening than with a heartfelt invocation for peace and well-being by the renowned Sufi performer Kailash Kher? The singer receives the Pride of Kashmir Award for his unifying music and his philanthropy. As Kher says, “You can live each day in fear of dying, or live each moment in celebration of life”

As the last days of summer fade away I did one of my favorite things – buy a street lunch from a vendor’s truck in Herald Square in Manhattan – and eat it while sitting in the public outdoor spaces which have sprung up in busy city areas. It’s hard to believe how these small parks have spruced up life and how easy it is now to catch a few moments of respite from the hurly-burly of Sixth Avenue with its endless crowds, its endless shopping and its endless drama.

This festive season, welcome to Nina Paley’s animated film ‘Sita Sings the Blues’, yet another retelling of India’s great epic, Ramayana. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it, as some have done, ‘Sitayana’ for it tells the tale from the perspective of Sita, not unlike the oral retellings through the ages by village women that made Sita the focus of the story. Only here the story is told through the jazz tradition of torch songs, of a lovely, smoky voiced lament more often heard in a dark New York lounge or bar, than in the rural outposts of India.

Lord Ganesha enters people’s lives in mysterious ways – sometimes it can even be just a chance encounter on a busy New York street! When photographer Shana Dressler passed a bookstore in Manhattan, she stopped in her tracks. In the window was a photography book which had on its cover a striking 20-foot high plaster of Paris statue of the elephant-headed God in the water, being splashed by a small army of men.

Anurag Kashyap. Aparna Sen. Buddhadeb Dasgupta. Gurinder Chadha. Nagesh Kuknoor. Nagraj Manjule. What if they all wandered into the New York night with megaphones and cameras and created their own tapestry of the city? While that did not happen, the combined star wattage of several talented directors certainly amped up the proceedings at the recent New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF).

It was quite surreal to sit just seats away from noted directors and dissect the movies with them after the screenings. What you realized was that all these directors were passionate fans of cinema and as anxious to catch new, offbeat films as the next moviegoer!

Lavina’s Picks – Cruising the Web. There’s info overload, so what do you read? Well, certainly about George Clooney’s upcoming wedding to Amal Alamuddin! Also about Zubin Mehta’s passion – chilies and his love affair with Indian food. And all about the young Indian-American who created E-Mail!

The most beloved god in the Hindu pantheon is surely Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati. He is the God of Auspicious Beginnings, the one whose presence assures the success of any venture. Whether it is the birth of a child, the opening of a new business or even the buying of a new car, nothing begins without the blessings of the Elephant-headed God. He is beloved by students too because a prayer to Him ensures better grades in an exam.
So it is no surprise that Lord Ganesha’s birthday is a time for great joy and celebration. Ganesh Chaturthi is the 9 day festival celebrating the birth of this joyful deity and is one of the most colorful Hindu festivals. This year the festival is celebrated from September 11 to 20th.

“For most of the dancers, our childhoods were tinged with nostalgia for a life we never actually had,” says Payal Kadakia, New York based dancer and artistic director of Sa Dance Company. “Our memories are lush with images, songs, stories we heard from our grandparents, parents, or picked up during extended trips to India.”

The dancers have varied dance experiences from Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Kathak, to folk dances like Garba, Bhangra, Rajasthani, as well as Jazz, Ballet and Hip-Hop. As she adds, “it’s about time we address this fragmented, dislocated subconscious. Through dance we are attempting just that; not to create a new identity but to shape the one we have.”

Forget sex, forget travel, the biggest fantasies people seem to have are about – Indian food! Yes, home-cooked comfort food just like mom made. The fantasy is to have such a meal whenever and wherever the urge arises – with minimal effort.

Well, that’ s a reality now thanks to Saffron Fix, a brand new creation by two entrepreneurs, Ankita Sharma and Madhuri Sharma.There is such a hunger for this that the duo, hoping to raise $10,000 on Kickstarter, were rewarded within days with $13,761 – and are still going strong.

I had just got out of my car when I came across two complete opposites, the big and the small, the tall and the short – a humungous stretch limousine and one of the tiniest cars I’ve ever seen, one of the frugal Smart cars.

The difference between the two was so dramatic that I couldn’t help thinking of the very different lives these two autos must be leading. One would need a huge garage, an unending supply of gas to guzzle and a chauffeur to pamper it; the other, no gas, no space, no fuss. One looked a star, the other a sparrow. A little like different human lives, of kings and commoners.

Indian cooking fans! Welcome to Lassi with Lavina’s blog which flies you to quite another universe – Foodiesphere! Alka Keswani of Sindhi Rasoi.shares some very authentic, typical home recipes for vegetarian Sindhi food which have been made by grandmas and mothers for decades. Sindh is the lost homeland of hundreds of thousands of Hindu Sindhis who had to flee as refugees in the Partition of 1947, and their food, culture and language are the anchors they hold on to.

Bollywood superstars hardly ever play second fiddle to anyone – be it heroines or villains. They dance with beauties who are often just icing on the cake and they bash carloads of villains. Yet now we have Bollywood biggie Akshay Kumar deferring to – a dog!

In ‘Entertainment’, a fun comedy being released this week, it’s a dog’s life for the swashbuckling Akshay as he competes with man’s best friend for his family inheritance – and what can one say but – may the best dog win! Yes, this dog does everything – even get married! And the Big Fat Indian Wedding is quite hilarious. An interview with Akshay Kumar on everything from dogs to dreams.