Author: Lavina Melwani

She was born in Mysore, Southern India in undivided India. She grew up in pre-Independent India but died in New York, an American citizen. Y.G. Srimati is one of India’s forgotten artists and a Renaissance Woman.

Along with the swaying fields of golden mustard and a folksy gulguppa philosophy ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, an official Indian adaptation of the iconic Hollywood film ‘Forrest Gump’, has its own colorful personality.

The khadi that the Mahatma wove on his charka is the inspiration behind the collection of the iconic Japanese avant-garde designer Issey Miyake. So it is appropriate that in the month of India’s independence, the noted design house has launched ‘Khadi: Indian Craftsmanship’, an exhibition at its sleek Tribeca store which will run through August 22nd.

With so many hot spots bubbling over around the world and with so many international tragedies taking place, Afghanistan is not always in the front and center of our minds. Now suddenly it’s right here with us, right in Times Square, as close as a seat in a Broadway theater – with its sounds, griefs and struggles enveloping us.

‘The Kite Runner’, one of the most popular novels about Afghanistan, is now on Broadway, playing at the Helen Hayes Theater through October.

Can the child of a security guard and a homemaker make it to medical school? Jyotsna, a student at CHI-Eklavya, became the first in the school’s history to be awarded a seat in medical school.

Can the daughter of a driver and a home-maker, mired in poverty, not only finish school but make it to college? Kaveri, also from the same school and with a scholarship from CHI, has gone on to win a seat in the prestigious NIT-Jalandar.

ow do we protect our youngest and most vulnerable children against COVID-19? An eye-opening video for parents of young children as health experts led by NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan and Senior Ambulatory Care Dr. Ted Long and other experts answer all the questions you may have had about COVID-19, vaccines and children 6 months and older.

Have you ever tried Makhana bhel or chaat? This low calorie health food can be quite an exciting edition to your menu!

We all know India has an infinite amount of wonderful products from spices to foods to crafts and textiles but do we know what part of the country they really come from?The Consulate General of India in New York, in partnership with the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Invest India, held a Roadshow on One-District-One-Product (ODOP) to showcase India’s best.

Indian doctors are everywhere but you wouldn’t have expected one to be right on the glittering stage of the 2021 Academy Awards!  Dr. Meena Makhijani was in the elite group receiving the Jean Herscholt Humanitarian Oscar. This year the winner  of this prestigious award was the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) where Makhijani is physician and the Chief of Staff. Yes, she actually held the iconic Oscar in her hand and recalls with delight:  “It had heft!”

Yes, we have a Miss World, a Miss Universe, a Miss America, a Miss India – so why not a Miss Immigrant?
Well, I found that title does exist and appropriately enough right in the Immigrant Capital of the World – New York!

123 people reached on Instagram – 13 Likes New York Diary Photo of the Day: Manhattan Sky and Waterworks  Nothing quite as powerful as the canvas of sky and water in the concrete jungle of Manhattan – walk away from the traffic and the rush of humanity and you see nature put on quite an electrifying show every day. Its calming and all-encompassing and makes you realize there’s more to life than our small wins and failures. The sky has always been there with its many colors and moods and the river flows on and on.  East River in Manhattan…

Here’s a delicious recipe for chaat from Maneet Chauhan – call your friends for an all hands on deck summer chaat party!

We hear of Indian-American success stories but there are other stories to be told too. So many forgotten immigrants labor in low-paying, thankless jobs: essential workers, restaurant staff, nannies and nail salon workers. The pandemic tightened the screws further as so many found their lifeline receding with loss of jobs, home schooling of children and the inability to pay rent or the grocery bills.

Ritwik Ghatak’s films are frenetic, heartfelt and heartbreaking, as agonized and without any final answers as life and existence itself. Yet with their tales of partition and loss, of refugees and homelessness, of changing families, of pain and ultimately hope, they touch a chord within contemporary audiences and are relevant even – perhaps especially – now.

What can you, an immigrant who came with nothing but a battered suitcase filled with bits and pieces of a disappeared life, offer this new country? What gift can you give America on its Independence Day celebration? A Punjabi immigrant love story.

Widows have had a hard lot in India and other South Asian countries. The breadwinner is the male and the whole community revolves around him.

New York is the city for reinvention, for doing old things in new places, unexpected things in unexpected places and so here was I, right in the middle of Times Square with about a million other unknown people standing and doing surya namaskar in the middle of traffic – honking cars, buses and an unending stream of pedestrians.

Women photojournalists highlighted at the Newswomen’s Club of New York Spring Photography Show and Auction.

Calling all yoga devotees! It’s the International Day of Yoga and your chance to learn more about this healthful life-affirming practice which is so highly regarded around the world.

“Pride was so powerful for many of us. We Bhangra’d and garba’d our way through the gay district of Chicago, Boystown.  Not only has it been 50 years since the riots at Stonewall, but it is the first pride for me after IPC 377 was overturned,”