Author: Lavina Melwani

You’ve heard of the gun-toting sheriffs of the Wild West but did you know the city of Mumbai has a sheriff too?

The Network of Indian Professionals is a national organization which has 22 chapters across North America and a reach of 25,000 South Asian professionals.

Fondly nicknamed Jaikishan Heights, this gritty Little India has been the salvation of new immigrants for decades, bringing them a sweet piece of their lost homeland. It is here that they find the remembered tastes and sounds that make them feel whole again.

Yes, all the high drama, the tall tales of tall cities like Bombay and New York started on a narrow balcony on a narrow street in Bada Bazaar in an old and densely packed part of Calcutta.

Little India has everything from precious stones to rich silks to aromatic spices. If you’re craving for a paan or a kesar kulfi – and you’re a continent away from India, this is the place you’ll find it. A photo gallery of the Little India in Jackson Heights.

These Global Warriors share with you their secrets for success in hard times… Risk. A scary word, especially in these scary economic times. Yet there is an elite band of super-successful global entrepreneurs and change makers who have always thrived on this four-letter word, battling uncertain times and uncharted waters to set up world class companies, challenge old worlds and create new ones. Meet Bharat Desai, Chairman and CEO of Syntel, a global provider of information technology headquartered in Troy, Michigan, which today employs 12000 people and has a market capitalization in excess of $ 1 billion. Forbes listed Desai…

As director of the AIDS program, Sunanda is committed to Child Life therapy, which is play therapy for children with chronic diseases. She finds art invaluable in diagnosing emotional disorders in children and a great therapy.

A rustic Gujarati meal; a perfect lacy masala dosa; a Jain meal without a hint of onions or garlic; a katyal biryani as aromatic as the one your mother makes. Wait, there’s more! A Pad Thai brimming with vegetables; a Korean vegetarian feast inherited from ancient temples; and an organic Zen meal which is as soothing as it is satisfying. Nor do you have to travel to India, Thailand, Korea or China for these pure vegetarian delights – they are all available in New York! Indeed, if you’re a diehard vegetarian and have been a bit nervous about potentially starving…

At Devi, Suvir Saran and Hemant Mathur, who is a tandoori chef, have found the perfect canvas for their food creations.

In recent days Dr. Abraham Verghese has been boarding jets at breakneck speed, shuttling between countless cities and towns in North America, not for medical conferences or research but for that quintessential ritual of an author’s life – the book tour…

She has put into words what millions of immigrants would find hard to articulate, especially the dilemmas faced by women who move from the confines and traditions of home into the brave new universe outside.

In the collection there is a pair of tiny sandals for a deity, made of sheet gold with rubies, diamonds and pearls. There are also gold accoutrements for a Krishna shrine – umbrella, rattles, peacock and parrots as playthings for Baby Krishna.

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Listening to my old tape, I found there were intriguing glimpses of what moves both mother and daughter and the perspectives on the world they share, the values that help them create these very real, very imaginary worlds.

‘Midnight’s Children’ freed other young emerging Indian writers to be bold and unleash the Story Waters and be accepted on their own terms by the west.

This historic townhouse once belonged to Eleanor Roosevelt and her spirit is till very much there, with pictures of the iconic First Lady during her India trip on the walls of the foyer.

If there’s something five generations of Rockefellers have been fascinated by – it is Asia. They were into Asian art and culture long before it became fashionable and certainly long before Asia became a major emerging global power.

With deft, intricate brush-strokes Jhumpa Lahiri creates characters that are so real you could swear you recognize them, you know them, or at least people like them.

Manish Arora, who’s designed for celebs and society divas, was one of the noted names invited to design for this client who really is the cat’s meow!

He is quite the rock star in the world of cigars because he is the creator of one of the hottest selling cigars in the US and many other parts of the world – the Rocky Patel.

The Mumbai native, who came to the US with just $10,000 in 1977, has been building luxury condominiums in New York for over three decades worth over $600 million