Author: Lavina Melwani

New York is full of surprises and unexpected treats, of twists and turns. You can take a detour and find yourself face to face with the cinema you loved in your youth, the films which gave you goose bumps and showed you the futility and heartbreak of life, films which took you into a deeper, more complicated world and made you disregard the bag of chips in your hand. Who can forget the aching pain of ‘Pyaasa’, the disillusionment of ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ or the churning emotions of a fading way of life in a changing world in ‘Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam’?

Can two Asian actors – one an Indian and the other a Korean – be regarded as All-American? And can Hollywood actually make a comedy with them in the lead?
They can – and it did.

If you can’t go to Salman Khan, Salman Khan is coming to you – by video conferencing! A press conference hosted by Studio 18 with the stars of the new movie ‘London Dreams’ linked New York and Mumbai with face to face interaction with Salman and Asin, the stars of the new blockbuster from director Vipul Shah . Ajay Devgan, the third angle of the eternal triangle, couldn’t be there due to a missed flight.

Looking to find the perfect restaurant in your area online or via mobile phone? Searching for videos to check out the best tips from celebrity chefs?

Well, there’s good news – behind each of these culinary experiences, there’s an innovative company launched by young Indian-Americans who probably have food and hospitality etched into their DNA! Sidestepping traditional careers, these entrepreneurs have followed the pungent aroma of spices and flavors of food to start their own businesses.

While Indian contemporary art has been on the international stage for a while now, the next big thing may well be Pakistani artists. These artists have been working steadfastly in their home country through war, terror attacks and the slow disintegration of civil society, and finally the international art world is becoming aware of their work.

Media may tend to dwell on the bad news, on the unraveling of Pakistani society, but the art tends to give a more nuanced picture of Pakistan’s rich culture and history, its complex and diverse people.

New York City was abuzz with the launch of Mira Nair’s new film ‘Amelia’ which comes from a big studio and stars big names Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. Directed by Nair, the film follows the fabled adventures of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. The film, while different from Nair’s recent India-related films, stays true to her fascination and empathy with strong women. It is a film about woman power, about a woman before her time, ‘a flying yogini’ as Nair likes to call her.

Can you take a taxi or drive a car from the US to Rajasthan? Over 500 people did that when they came to the Grand Hyatt Hotel near Grand Central for the much anticipated Children’s Hope Gala, An Evening in Rajasthan. This was a social event with buzz and did not disappoint with the crème de la crème dressed in their royal best. The women guests were greeted with flowers, bindis and bangles, and the men were welcomed with bandhini scarves being put around their necks.
(Consul General of India Prabhu Dayal with Lotus Award honorees AJ and Poonam Khubani)

What could be more British than a bulldog? An Indian! Indeed, there’s an Indian entrepreneur behind Bulldog London Dry Gin, an ultra premium gin which was named among the top 50 spirits last year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine which gave it a superb (90-95) rating and highly recommended it.

Krishna the Blue God and the Beautiful Names of Allah are both the work of the same artist, and each painting is suffused with a spirituality which cannot fail to move viewers. For Salma Arastu there is but one god and one humanity and she reiterates this belief in painting after painting.

How do you recreate Rajasthan in New York? With a lot of chutzpah and a lot of friends! Ten of us at Children’s Hope India, a New York-based non-profit are trying to recreate the magic of the desert state in the heart of Manhattan. It all began with Satish Gupta’s magical painting ‘Peacock’ from the Thar collection. It inspired us to invent Rajasthan in the Big Apple – and the artist not only donated us his art for our invitation cards but also some beautiful work for the silent auction.

In recent years, Kashmir has been a flawed paradise, a killing field where families have been torn asunder and homes lost forever. The timeless, idyllic place that visitors in happier times remember may well be lost, never to be experienced again. Yet there is a strength and beauty that lives on in the arts of diehard, resilient Kashmiris who, in spite of all the difficulties, continue to create crafts that blossom like the flowers of their native land. (This antique shawl above shows the map of Kashmir)

This ravaging disease is affecting more and more families, stealing memories, making people invisible and erasing meaningful lives lived, as if they never existed.

It is possible to encounter so many different worlds within one city because all these immigrants have brought echoes of their homelands into their new home – especially their food!

Gandhiji, with the passage of time, has become modern and totally relevant to our times. I think for the new generation he’s becoming cool, someone they can really look up to. No less an arbitrator of cool than Google had a tribute to Gandhiji today and millions and millions of Googlers saw that iconic, bespectacled face entwined with the Google name.

You don’t see this every day but the heart-throb of the sixties, Dharmendra, now a dad of two Bollywood hunks Sunny and Bobby Deol, walked the fashion ramp in New York, all for an important cause – the fight against cancer, which was initiated by his good friend Sunil Dutt. (Dharmendra seen here with Trishala, grand-daughter of the Dutts)

If there’s one panacea for broken spirits and hearts, it is cinema. Cinema, when done well, can heal wounds, probe motivations and even foster debate. It’s hard to believe that 25 years have passed since the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, for the hurts still linger. Over the past few years the Sikh community has worked to get the word out, and in a post 9/11 world, it’s become increasingly important to talk of the Sikh culture and identity.

In this festive season, as Diwali approaches, are you the perfect host?

Well, here’s a story that will make you re-evaluate your hospitality skills, for the host in this tale is none other than Lord Krishna. When his boyhood friend, Sudama – hungry, impoverished and in rags – arrived at the palace, the guards almost did not allow him in. But Lord Krishna, overjoyed to see his old friend, received him with open arms and joyfully led him to his throne. He personally washed his feet and fed him with his own hands.

(Ashok Amritraj seen here with Dustin Hoffman on the sets of Moonlight Mile)
When Ashok Amritraj was growing up in Chennai, he saw the Hollywood film ‘Ben Hur’ and was mesmerized. Watching Charlton Heston in that huge epic, he was hooked on to cinema forever. So it was particularly sweet, when decades later, as a big Hollywood producer, he was awarded a plaque at the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences by none other than Charlton Heston himself.

Whether it’s the California text books decision or the passage of the Congressional Diwali Resolution, these are not free gifts which have been dropped into the palms of Indian-Americans but rather hard-won victories by advocates, including a band of young second-generation Indian Americans of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF).

Check out this scenario: you’re in a new neighborhood, you’re hungry and don’t know where to go. You don’t want to overspend and you want to ensure that the restaurant you visit is not over-crowded. Well, if you have a cell-phone with you, the magic word is “Buzz’d!” This enterprising service started by entrepreneurs Nihal Mehta and Deepen Shah makes sure you get the most out of your dining experience.