Author: Lavina Melwani

One of the most anticipated festivals in the Hindu calendar is Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan, the Festival of Threads. This is the day when brothers and sisters renew their bonds and sisters receive money and gifts from their brothers. Now which little girl can argue with that? Lucky are the sisters who have several brothers!

Indeed, if you are Hindu and have a brother, no matter where you are, you will try to meet up with him on Raksha Bandhan which falls this year on August 29. This is an ancient Hindu festival which occurs in the month of shravan on the full moon. Sisters pray for their brothers health and well-being, tying the sacred Rakhi thread on their wrists, and brothers pledge to protect their sisters.

Creative Rajni brings the flavors of Kerala cooking to American food – so you can say it’s as American as Dosa Pie! Check out the novel recipes which bring East and West together.

Amar Nath Sehgal Private Collection is one of only two single artists museums in India and is a tribute to the master modernist

I did an interview with Mayor Eric Adams back in May and this first ran in The Week, one of India’s leading newsmagazines. I am now posting the profile and interview on Lassi with Lavina.

Home and exile are two of the most evocative words in the English language, and they are seared into the work of Zarina Hashmi, noted printmaker and sculptor, who was born in Aligarh in India. Zarina, who goes by only her first name, has been a nomad, a transient who has taken many journeys, crossed many borders. The floor plans of past homes, the many stories of dislocation and the sweet lost language of Urdu are embedded in her prints.

Having worked in relative anonymity for 35 years from her small loft in Manhattan, NY, Zarina, 75, is now suddenly on the international art world’s radar. The prestigious Guggenheim Museum is showcasing “Zarina: Paper Like Skin”, the first retrospective ever of an Indian woman artist, featuring 60 works dating from 1961 to the present.

Mahindra Blues Festival & Jazz at Lincoln Center Collaborate

Meet Uma Paranjpe who plays the first female Pi in ‘The Life of Pi’ on Broadway. She headlines a big Broadway show in her debut performance.

A celebratory dinner was held for the success of Mughal-E-Azam by Aroon and Indur Shivdasani who are friends of Director Feroz Abbas Khan.

If it’s summer, can a big fat Indian wedding be far behind? The wedding which is creating the most buzz this season is Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding!

Mughal-e-Azam the musical has come to America – meet the director Feroz Abbas Khan and hear the story behind the epic which has won acclaim in India and the Diaspora.

To bite into a mango and get that sweet, sticky juice squirting all over your chin and clothes is to drift back into blissful childhood, into days that seemed to have no beginning and no end.

A Mughal Evening in New York’s only Indo-Persian Garden…

Monsoon Wedding comes to the stage at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn – the hottest Indian wedding of the year created by Mira Nair

NYIFF –  The Stories of Our Lives on the Big Screen Cinema, Cinema and Bollywood Stars too! [dropcap]M[/dropcap]issing the joy of endless cinema, conversations about films and brushing shoulders with stars, directors and film people? You’re in luck – the much loved and anticipated New York Indian Film Festival is happening right now! This is an annual feature as welcome as Spring and outdoor dining in New York! So get yourself to Angelika Theater to see some really thought-provoking cinema curated by Aseem Chhabra, director of NYIFF, and his team. [dropcap]F[/dropcap]or those used to streaming movies, this is a real…

Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy’s Ragamala Dance Company, now in its 30th year, is an independent dance company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the years it has had a dance dialogue with national and international artistes

A Fireside chat with Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee and Prof. Priya Natarajan at the Bathouse

What was special this year was that for the first time India has a president from the tribal community ( she is the second woman president in India – Pratibha Patil was the first) and Rashtrapati Bhavan is her home. Prebsident Droupadi Murmu renamed the gardens, which were created by the British in 1929, as ‘Amrit Udyan’ meaning ‘Garden of the Holy Nectar’.

Hanuman Chalisa is one of the most beloved texts of Hinduism and consists of 40 verses (40 is chalis in Hindi) in praise of Hanuman.  It is written by Tulsidas, who is also the author of Ramchaitmanas or the Tulsi Ramayana.

A visit to YO1 Longevity and Health Resort in the Catskills

The South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction at Christies achieved a total of $11,978,670.
The top lot of the sale was Manjit Bawa’s Untitled (Durga), which realized $1,980,000, a new global auction record for the artist