Browsing: Features

Her transformation from an “It” Style Girl to a Buddhist nun is so complete that people who knew her earlier do a double-take. She admits, “It was hard at first because your sense of identity is tied to how you look and your look determines your self-worth. As a renunciate you shave your head, use no makeup, perfume or high heels – but the beauty of wisdom that adorns you is far more beautiful than any couture dress.”

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Vaccinations have certainly made this dream scenario possible. “This year, the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration, for we are emerging from the darkness of years; a year of pandemic and isolation; a year of pain, fear, and heartbreaking loss,” said President Joe Biden

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For movie buffs, it’s been hard to get Sushant Singh Rajput out of our collective heads. I’ve taken to Youtube to catch bits of his life and try to piece together the reasons for that abandonment of life and living. It’s hard to think of a person in that state of mind, alone in the pandemic.

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Film journalist Aseem Chhabra is a great believer in the power of cinema to heal and rejuvenate. Instead of an apple a day, his mantra is a film a day and he often watches 365 films in a year. The veteran of several film festivals, he has traveled to many across the globe, and has captained the ship of New York Indian Film Festival

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How can it be summer without the New York Indian Film Festival?  Through ups and downs, its cinematic wisdom has seen us through good times and bad, and showed us the better sides of our nature. The good news is that NYIFF – one of the pure delights of NY- is back

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If you grew up in India you will remember the magic of myths and folklore which was passed on to you by your grandparents, loving aunts and grand-aunts and their loquacious  helpers. There were stories for all occasions: stories at meal-time, stories at bed-time and even stories for monsoon evenings. Stories for sad times, and stories for happy times.

As you grew up and left home, either for further studies, to find work or to get married, you haphazardly packed these childhood tales into your suitcases, in-between the spice boxes and the photo albums and the clothes. And then you forgot about them. Until you yourself became a parent – in a new land, in uncharted waters.

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Longing to go to a real live theater, surrounded by real live people?  Tired of being glued to your television set? If you’re caught in pandemic hesitancy, there’s a better way – the all-American drive-in! You get to see movies on the big screen from the safety of your own car and you get to take off your mask for a breather!

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At a time when most of us are trapped in the pandemic blues and survive in our grungy tee-shirts, sweatpants and sneakers, can there be a place for high fashion? The beautiful and beguiling surreal world of NY Fashion Week seemed to be from a galaxy far, far away until I received an invite for New York Fashion Week, to check out the Fall/Winter 2021 Collection of Bibhu Mohapatra, one of NY’s noted designers.

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Meet Dr. Chetna Singh, emergency care physician at Ocean Medical Center in New Jersey. For the last year she has grappled with the unending coronavirus pandemic, working the frontline in the emergency room.  Right from the first beginnings through the first wave to the second wave life has been lived out with the somber reality of packed hospitals, with patients on ventilators and near death, fighting against a relentless virus.

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There are many young women who agonize about starting a family during their child-bearing years and are searching for solutions. In an earlier feature we had explored the route of adoption which can create families where none existed. For others, there is the less traveled way of surrogacy – conceiving their biological child through surrogacy.

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In a year of being marooned at home, our televisions and our laptops became family, giving us solace and comfort and the laughs we desperately needed. Our streaming services were especially cherished as they ensured the latest blockbusters and hot serials came to us when we couldn’t go to the theaters.

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