Browsing: Features

A six figure job, a trophy spouse, an earth-shattering romance – we certainly think all these things will make us more happy – and isn’t happiness what we all seek and hunger for?

Yet listen to this: “There is nothing that you have to get, do, or be in order to be happy. I repeat, nothing. In fact, happiness is your innate nature. It is hardwired into your being, It is part of your DNA. It is always with you.”
These words of wisdom come not from some spiritual text or soothsayer but from Dr. Srikumar S. Rao, the very practical and philosophical professor who has made happiness an achievable goal…

Yes, it’s that time of the year when Asian art takes over New York City and art-lovers from all over the world come to the Big Apple. Just before Asia Week opened (March 13 -21) I spent a day with a group of bloggers and journalists in hot pursuit of hidden treasures.

‘India’s Daughter’ is banned in India but Jyoti Singh’s story cannot be put under wraps, it cannot be muzzled. It is all over social media, and it needs to be seen and seen by a lot of people, especially the gatekeepers of patriarchy.

What happened in Delhi on 16 December 2012 has come back to haunt people, and to see that justice gets done. It is said that a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes and the time is not for complacency. To those who say the documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ should be banned, there is only one thing to say – watch it and then decide.

Enjoy the joy of Holi, the festival of colors, with this delightful video from Hindustani vocalist Ila Paliwal. This beautiful Indian raga embraces the world with its power of celebration and inclusiveness. Indeed, Holi is increasingly becoming a reason to dance and connect with color in many parts of the world and this video by Bharat Bala shows that dance and music have a way of erasing differences and accentuating what we humans have in common.

Sometimes there’s a film so emotionally wrenching and yet so life-affirming that you just have to see it. Such a film is Shonali Bose’s ‘Margarita with a straw’ which opens the New York Indian Film Festival. In this unusual love story, a middle-class Indian teenager with cerebral palsy longs to experience that most basic of human desires – a love relationship. Sex and the disabled are hardly ever talked of in the same breath, and this brave film takes on this taboo topic

Life has many pressing questions but for Bollywood fans it has to be – which is the greatest Bollywood film of all time? It’s a highly subjective question and there can be no one clear answer but wonder of wonders, 30 Bollywood gurus have come together to agree upon a clear winner! It is ‘Sholay’ – Ramesh Sippy’s action thriller from 1975.
Check out the 100 greatest Bollywood films, according to Time Out.

There’s information overload on the Internet and many great stories are missed altogether! So every week I’ll do a roundup of the must-reads, the controversial stories, and the fun posts that I have found across the Net.

Check this one out! All your Facebook friends – are they really who they seem to be? With photos floating all over social media, how do you know who people really are? What would you think if you found your photo on diverse social media sites with a different name and a different life story?

Imagine entire streets, neighborhoods drenched in color. Imagine people so immersed in red, purple, green and yellow powders that you can’t distinguish one from the other!
Yes, Holi, the Indian festival of colors is here, heralding Spring and the exuberant love of Radha and Krishna in Mathura. There’s joy, playfulness, a reaching out to friends and strangers. The festival has traveled well to America, brought in as part of the traditions of Hindu immigrants. And on May 2nd it’s being celebrated in a free fun festival by a group of young Indian-Americans in Manhattan.

Aasif Mandvi is the quintessential immigrant – he belongs nowhere and everywhere. He has knocked around three continents – Asia, America and Europe – and appropriated a bit from each of his hometowns – Dhule in Gujarat, Brampton in the UK and Tampa and New York in the US. Being brown, being different, being Muslim, he’s had a tough time and so many of us will identify with his story because in many ways it is our story too.

For all those who loved ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’, there’s more – ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel! The joy of sequels can be akin to comfort food – getting involved in the lives of favorite characters once again and seeing how they are all doing since you saw them last. And this one even has that quintessential desi pleaser – a Big Fat Indian Wedding! Dev Patel and Tina Desai – and those powerhouses Judi Dench, Maggie Smith – and Richard Gere too!

The wonderful A. R. Rahman is coming to New York and you actually have the opportunity to meet him in the flesh, hear him speak and ask him a question or two!

The occasion is the world premiere of Jai Ho, a documentary about the iconic musician and composer. He’s won every award there is including an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe and has legions of fans around the world. So it’s about time his work was chronicled. Jai Ho, which is directed by Umesh Aggarwal, is premiering at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York on February 25.

How would you like to hobnob with the ever charismatic, ever friendly President Bill Clinton at a gathering of power people? Meet First Daughter Chelsea Clinton on board the battleship Intrepid? Perhaps rub shoulders with Indian-American business superstars Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo and Ajay Banga of Mastercard? Chat with superstars like Mira Nair, Shabana Azmi or Jhumpa Lahiri? Pose for a picture with Miss America?

If you’re on the gala fundraiser circuit in the US, you would have met them all – and helped raise millions of dollars too…

The images are searing. Images of children who’ve lost their innocence, their childhood in the harsh world of bonded labor. Their eyes stare back at you without emotion, their lips frozen in a non-smile. This is art but art painted with the colors of true life. Each image by British portraitist Claire Phillips is of a real child, a child slave rescued by Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi’s organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan. Meet the artist who journeyed to India to document the lives of these children.

Watch out, the wild Gangs of Wasseypur have come to New York and no one’s going to be spared! Anurag Kashyap’s stunning mafia odyssey will hook you, grab you and get you.
It is the very heart of darkness, a revenge saga where there’s no business like the don business and where firing a gun is as normal as brushing your teeth. Every random unknown on a scooter, armed with an AK47, is a killing machine.
As a visitor to Wasseypur, albeit in the theater, you need to have a high tolerance for bloodshed – after a while even your popcorn seems to be tinged with blood.

Happy Holidays everyone! Nothing says Christmas quite like Patience and Fortitude, the two wonderful marble lions outside the New York Public Library, with their holiday wreaths! I always love taking a break from work and stopping by to pat them and sit by their side for a while. Having seen them and the holiday crowds swirling around – it really does seem like Christmas!

Well, here’s a Xmas gift for you from the literary lions – the NYPL’s Holiday Book List Generator!

Vikas Khanna has scaled new gastronomic heights with his latest cookbook, ‘Return to the Rivers – Recipes and memories of the Himalayan River Valleys’, written with Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn. This is a wonderful read not only for passionate cooks but also for those newbie chefs whose idea of cooking is heating up the remains of last night’s takeout. The stories will draw you into the kitchen…

Designer Manish Arora’s creations are the fashion equivalent of getting drenched in Holi colors – there’s exuberance, joy and sheer chutzpah. Colors which you thought would never, ever go together are locked in a raucous embrace in his gorgeous ensembles – and look perfect together. Ask about his outrageous color alliances, and he says with a twinkle in his eye: “It’s all very natural and normal. Yellow, pink, green and turquoise in one garment is very normal! For me, I don’t think twice – it just comes!”
His vibrant colors, striking fabrics and east-west silhouettes have won many fans around the world from celebrities like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, MIA and Kate Perry to all the fashionistas across continents.

“Cancer is a roller coaster, I have oft heard it been said. While you are comfortably navigating the undulating rails of an expected life, you suddenly find yourself dropping in a deafening speed that jerks and rattles you to your very core. The only difference is that unlike the carnival line you willingly join, waiting to board the ride, analyzing and preparing for its every loop and dip, this ride is murky, unexpected and you never really know how it will end until you reach the other side. All you can do is hang on and hope you’ll arrive safely back at the platform.” – Ayesha Hakki

“My first performance was at Birla auditorium at the age of 5,” recalls Poonam Kay. ” I had to stand on a folding chair and sing a duet with my mother’s male duet singer, Jethalal. The song was Yeh parda hata do, zara mukhda dikha do.” Many years later she is a recording artist, producer and TV personality. This year she released her new album ‘Nachle Ve’ with music composed by noted Bollywood film music director Anand Raj Anand. Yet she has another avatar, that of business entrepreneur.

Indian cinema is so much more than Bollywood, encompassing regional and independent cinema. What would you ask 28 of the top film directors if you had the chance? In ‘Not Just Bollywood- Indian Directors Speak’ Tula Goenka meets noted names from Shyam Benegal to Anurag Kashyap to Farhan Akhtar and gets the inside view on cinema and the film industry. So many personal stories abound in this book that it almost calls for its own big bag of popcorn to indulge in, as you read!