Author: Lavina Melwani

She is Alice in Fashionland – a young designer lost in the surreal magic world of French fashion.

Christine Philip, an up-and-coming Indian-American fashion designer, had always been enamored of Paris and its legacy of ground-breaking fashion. This season she basked in the unparalleled world of French style, soaking in the rhythms and romance of Parisian haute couture. Shows that she attended included Corrie Nielson, Issay Miyake, Chanel, Hermes, YDE, Chloe, Amaya Arzuaga, and Fatima Lopez.

Not totally an insider, this young designer reveled in her entre to a fabulous world. She says: “Paris produces ‘the mother’ of all fashion weeks. There is no other fashion capital that does it like they do and I wanted to be a part of it.”

“First commitment as CEO: I won’t wait four years between tweets!” tweeted Satya Nadella, the newly appointed CEO of Microsoft, whose last tweet was back in 2010. There is indeed a hunger out there to learn more about him; he’s tweeted only 27 times since 2009 and yet has a whopping 108,000 followers.

While most of Nadella’s tweets are about Microsoft and Bing, two old tweets give us the desi angle: “Great evening to be watching some good old fashioned test cricket!” Another tweet will sound like deja vu to most Indian achievers: “I may break my continuous work day record!” Family friend and retired Microsoft executive Vijay Vashee recalls the time Nadella, who’s passionate about cricket, watched the 20-20 cricket match from midnight to 6 am at and then went straight to a full productive day of work.

That Indian sensibilities of style can merge seamlessly into the Western vocabulary of fashion has been proven by many international designers – but new Indian-American designer Sheena Trivedi puts her own stamp on this east-west marriage – and has tremendous fun doing it.

Trivedi presented her Fall/Winter 2014/15 Collection at the Empire Rooftop to a packed hall with models ensconced on top of light boxes, dressed in a collection which could be described as edgy New York with tribal Banjara touches – suitable for both Soho and the Rajasthani desert.

It’s International Women’s Day again and in a way, kind of grim that we still need to have a specific day set aside for women.
Why do we need one special day – why aren’t women treated like the special people they are every day of their lives?
The past year has been horrific with atrocities against women, young girls, even toddlers. When will all that end?

We do live in a brave new world where social media has made interaction amazingly easy. In the old days only media behemoths had power, now every little blogger has a piece of the empire! Facebook, Twitter and Google + have made it possible for ordinary people to nurture revolutions and push for the popular choice.

And now Bollywood actor Abhay Deol has come up with a creative innovation- First Release Cinema on Facebook!

Like a breath of fresh air from the Himalayan river valleys here are some mouth-watering recipes from Vikas Khanna’s new book ‘Return to the Rivers’ (with Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn). Vikas Khanna traveled to India’s Himalayan valleys as well as countries of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal to gather a taste of dishes rarely eaten in the West. Here are a few tantalizing bites – and recipes.

Yes, Bollywood in all its avatars is eternal and continues to take audiences on a seductive, addictive emotional roller coaster ride. Long live the 800 pound gorilla!

The Indian-Americans, now numbering a sizable 3.3 million, successful, entrepreneurial and with healthy, happy families behind them, seem to be at a crossroads for the demographics tell yet another story, a more sobering one. The Indian immigrants who came here in the 50’s and 60’s are now approaching their final years and many of these voices are disappearing – and with that, all the untold stories, the celebration of lives well lived.

Stories which are undocumented will surely be lost, silenced. Now is the time to gather these voices and record them for posterity. Some attempts are being made to do this, by institutions and individuals. A major effort is the Indian-American Heritage Project at the Smithsonian Museum in the nation’s capital which is launching a major exhibition spotlighting the Indian community in February 2014: “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation”

I also invite you to add your voice to the daily blog, 24/7 – Talk is Cheap. I hope this will be a fun Tower of Babel, with many voices discussing many topics. In the beginning I tentatively bring one solitary voice – my own – and hope many others will join in. Be it Indian art, movies, books or spirituality – do bring in your point of view.

Vishnu Vishwarupa: Sun and Moon Eyes, Blazing Mouth

Can one image encapsulate the essence of the entire universe? Check out this small masterpiece and discover the indiscoverable, the Cosmic Body.

Examine this delicate work with a magnifying glass and you see the gorgeous details, the worlds within worlds…
Catch it at the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian in DC through January 26.

Growing up in India, I found that the jharoo – broom made of grass – was ubiquitous in daily life. It was used in all homes, rich or poor, to restore order and beauty to the surroundings. Years have passed but the jharoo is still very much a part of daily Indian life, even being used in fancy resorts. In fact, it is even available in Indian stores in the US for those who still need their Indian broom! So it is fitting that the Aam Admi party has embraced this humble tool as a symbol to clean up the country.

The Lassi Awards?!! No, no, I would never be so presumptuous! I’m not exactly giving out the Oscars but it’s a humble recognition of five people who are special, people whom you’d definitely want to have a beer with, or at least a lassi. They have all the wonderful qualities that we wish we had, have overcome difficulties to succeed in a complex world, and in turn made it a more humane world.
Well, here are five of these special people – Sheena Iyengar, Jasmin Sethi, Eboo Patel, Pratima Dharm and Leila Janah. As the year ends, it’s worth revisiting their inspirational stories and realizing that even with just the power of one, each one of us can make a difference.

It is all about family ties, informal networks and community support. Small run-of the-mill motels have been transformed into mini hotel empires by the enterprising Gujaratis from India, UK and Africa in America.

Fame is ephemeral. Nobody knew that better than Ustad Vilayat Khan, the legendary sitar player who passed away in 2004. His youngest son Hidayat Khan, growing up as the son of this famous musician, was used to many comforts and luxuries. Hearing his son one day brag to his friends in Maryland, the Ustad packed him off to a small neighborhood Indian restaurant to play the sitar for people eating tikka and kebab. Some guests would even shout out to him “Bhaiya zara rokoge to main khana kha sakaunga!” ( Stop, so I can eat my food!)

Living through the humiliation, the young musician learned to take all life has to offer, and even became friends with the waiters and patrons. Today Hidayat Khan, based in New Jersey, has come a long way but he remembers the main lesson his father taught him: “Humility.”

Talk about Devyani Khobragade in New York, and you get many opinions, some vociferous, some guarded. While Khobragade has not yet been tried, she has certainly been tried in the court of public opinion in the US. As one Indian-American notes, ” Who knows what the real facts of the case are but people bring their individual background perspectives to what’s happening. I do understand and identify with India’s feelings and I think this rush to judgment is very simplistic. You have to see what are people’s motives – everything is not what it seems and to be taken at face value.”

He’s been mocked as Uncle Tom on Twitter, asked if he uses Fair and Lovely and accused of being more white than the whites. This for someone who was earlier lauded as being the Sheriff of Wall Street and appropriated by Indians as their own Blue-Eyed Boy.

In the escalating drama of the Deyvani Khorbagade case, one figure who has gone from great acclaim in India to great notoriety is Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. So the question arises: Did Preet Bharara Go Too far?

Bombay Duck? Chote Nawab? Thelewala? No, you are not lost on a Mumbai street nor are you watching a Bollywood movie – these happen to be the names of new casual restaurants which have sprung up in New York City.
Not fancy like the Michelin Star rated Indian restaurants like Tamarind, Junoon and Tulsi, nor no-frills like the many small eateries in Curry Hill, there’s a new breed of Indian restaurants, offering authentic Indian eats in a fun atmosphere with low prices. Many of them have come up in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and West Village, a gathering spot for students and tourists.

The last time I saw Dr. Devyani Khobragade the setting was festive, the event a celebration of the newly installed India Chair at Stony Brook University in New York. Since the consul general of India was out of town, Khobragade as acting consul general was one of the chief guests at this gala event, feted at the head table with all the major donors.

It was indeed the lull before the storm.

Four days later the storm broke and what a turbulent storm it’s been!

“These sadhus are like a living question that people have forgotten to ask,” says noted photographer Thomas Kelly. “Their painted bodies confront us with essential questions at the heart of existence…provoking the questions, ‘Who am I?’ ‘What do I need?’ ‘What is really important?’”

So as we ponder this, we can take a stroll through the beautiful Rubin Museum of Art situated in frenzied Manhattan and see how the sadhus are trying to make sense of the world.

I’m always intrigued by the fact that this gorgeous museum devoted to the soul and to spirituality was once a highly materialistic shopping heaven – Barneys! Now to walk through it is like being in a temple of peace, and each of us is free to find our own path to salvation.

When I was a kid, I remember going to the Ramleela for the very first time in the grounds in Old Delhi, full of excitement, anticipation, not knowing what I would be seeing. I came out, thoroughly mesmerized – the bands of monkeys, the giant Jatau bird, the ten-headed demon and the explosion of fireworks did it for me.

Now years later I went to another kind of Ramleela – Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Ramleela’, also known as Goliyon ki Rasleela, and I have to say, I was knocked out once again – but not quite.