Author: Lavina Melwani

Recession? What recession?

An untitled painting by M.F. Husain just sold in auction in New York for over a cool million dollars – $1,058,500 to be exact, over five times the estimated price. ‘Gestation’ by H.S. Raza, which was estimated at $600,000 – 800,000, fetched $ 1,202,500. An untitled Manjit Bawa sold for $602,500, double the pre-sale estimate.

Contemporary Indian art is certainly the comeback kid if the auction results at Christies, Sotheby’s and the online auction house Saffronart are any indication.

We know about halal chicken and kebabs but halal pasta and salad dressing? Halal Guacamole and halal Swedish Crab Canapés?

You’ve heard about the Old Boys’ Network – so how about something for women? Reema Rasool, a young entrepreneur, has come up with Say We, an organization that brings together mentors and emerging entrepreneurs. The launch event at Vermilion brought in over a hundred women to mingle and brainstorm and listen to some savvy women who’ve established successful companies.

“I am convinced that if more of us could spend a few minutes every day trying to develop a sense of inner peace, eventually it would become part of our lives; then everything we do will contribute to peace in the world.”

These were the words of the Dalai Lama about The Missing Peace project which took place in 2007 at the Rubin Museum, sponsored by the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation. The exhibit may be long over but here as we browse some of the images and the text, re-walk the galleries in memory, the exercise becomes both a meditation and a benediction.

The tragedy of Partition is almost Shakespearean in its fallout. It’s been over sixty-three years since this catastrophic event occurred yet its effects continue to unfold, like seismic aftershocks. No one on the Indian sub-continent has really escaped its scathing wounds as the two countries carved out of undivided India in 1947 – independent India and Pakistan – reel even today from the legacy of hatred and suspicion unleashed by the Partition. In reality, one people, one culture, today stand on opposite shores – We and They – talking in tongues which neither understands.
One would think that everything that had to be said about the Partition has been said but along comes Sarah Singh, an intrepid film-maker who has boldly gone into this troubled, calloused territory.

Meet some of the Big Apple’s hottest and happening Indian chefs…

They are the interpreters of Indian Cuisine, the innovators who aren’t afraid to experiment and create, adding new dimensions to the food they grew up with, giving an exciting buzz to the ho-hum chicken tikka masala and palak paneer which has become the norm of Indian restaurants around the world. Some of them are at the helm of New York’s most noted Indian restaurants and bring in the foodies.

Are you into yoga? What about your dog? If you didn’t know this already, there is yoga for dogs, known as Doga and it’s beneficial to your pets.

“A celebration of glamour with a touch of American Classic sportswear and a hint of love, sex and Rock & Roll” is how designer Naeem Khan described his Autumn/Winter 2010 collection which showed in the tented city of Bryant Park during New York Fashion Week.

If you’ve ever wondered how the Internet can change lives, you have only to hear the story of John Ullman, an architectural designer in Brooklyn, NY. Since doing community service was a requirement for obtaining his American architectural license, he keyed in two words into the Google search bar: ‘India’ and ‘volunteer.’

The name of Manjushree Orphanage in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh came up, and now three years later, this is where Ullman’s destiny lies and where he is building a brand new school for the children of this village.

Indian filmgoers have endured through much to see their favorite cinema, right from projections on a sheet in the open air in villages to screenings in ramshackle halls across the Diaspora. Early immigrants tell of renting small tattered theaters or community centers for a single showing of an Indian film to which starved filmiholics would drive from miles to get sustenance. Now they finally have a theater chain of their own.

So powerful is Dr. Atul Gawande’s writing that Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s partner, sent him a $20,000 check without ever having met him, after reading ‘The Cost Conundrum’ his piece about healthcare in The New Yorker, the Huffington Post reports.

Gawande, being Gawande, did not accept the check personally but donated it to Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Surgery and Public Health for an international project.
Gawande’s passion and commitment comes through in his latest book.

Guess what, Lassi with Lavina is being followed on Twitter by someone from the White House!

No, not the President, not even the First Lady. Not even the First Children but by the First Dog, Bo Diddley Obama! Of course, I wasn’t aware that dogs could read or keyboard, much less get on to Twitter. But then again, you have to remember it’s the Obama dog and he probably has a great IQ to match the rest of the Obamas.

Would you like to import an elephant or a rhino perhaps? Ornaments of jade, lapis lazuli, crystal and carnelian?

We may think of global trade as a modern day invention but way back in the ancient world there was a brisk trade and rich cultural exchange going on between far-flung countries. ‘Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea’ is an intriguing new exhibition at The Asia Society in collaboration with Museum of Fine Arts Houston, which shows the interconnections which existed between Viet Nam and many countries, including India.

It was the Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week and Sabah Mansoor-Husain was one of six student designers from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco who showed their debut collections at the tented extravaganza. For Sabah, the destination was particularly thrilling for the journey to Bryant Park had started all the way in Bangalore, her hometown.

Think of home, and for many Indian immigrants it evokes memories of cool interiors, a whirring fan and the street sounds floating from the outside. Inside was a cool, domestic heaven, outside was the chaos, the traffic, the ugly realities of the work world, of political upheaval, of price cuts. It was always about inside and outside, two very different worlds. And now in our new global world it is about India interacting with a larger, more complex world at its doorstep.

New Yorker Meera Gandhi was appointed a centennial councilor for RNID which will be completing a hundred years in 2011. She is one of six centennial councilors who will serve for a year and highlight the mission of RNID in the US, India and China.

There it stood in all its bright yellow glory, an icon of style, right in the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design on Fifth Avenue! Yes, the Tata Nano is causing a buzz in Manhattan as museum goers circle it and peer at its many features, its cute shape and its various assets. There was a rope around it and no one was allowed to touch it, giving it even more of a celebrity status.

All you fans of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, looking for a job that satisfies your passion for social networking? Well your country needs you, President Obama needs you! Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, is looking for a Tweeter-in-chief.

Life seems to be turning into a Bollywood movie and you won’t even need to lip-sync as you sing and dance your way through life with your romantic hero – just wear a musical sari! Yes, you’ve seen those Made in China Christmas cards which sing, autos from everywhere which talk and clocks which nag you to wake up. Now you have a Made in India intricately embroidered sari which comes embedded with a digital player in the ‘pallu’, 8 micro-speakers on the border and can play over 200 songs for four hours.

All aspiring dancers probably fantasize about one day starring in a Bollywood movie, in a big musical number dancing with their favorite movie idol. Well, for Sapna Rohra and Shivani Thakkar, both from Los Angeles, this became a reality when they won Verizon’s Bollypop contest. The grand prize? Round trip tickets to India and a chance to dance with Shahid Kapoor in the Bollywood movie, ‘Chance Pe Dance.’ What’s it like to move from the audience to the big screen?