How are friendships created? What attracts very different people to each other? This blog introduces two fast friends who lived thousands of miles apart, one in New York, the other in New Delhi. They got to know each other through Facebook and have now actually met. Meet Sulekha aka Lucks, and Kriti who will both regale you with tales from their own frenetic worlds. Sometimes you will see your own lives and your own truths reflected in there. They chat a lot so be prepared to listen…
Browsing: The Buzz
The buzz around us about trends and events
“An important asset to have in any relationship, whether it is with your friend, boyfriend, lover, marriage partner, parents or siblings, is effective communication skills. I really feel that as a generation we lack respect for each other. I am not sure how you feel about this but it seems that when the tough get going, the going gets rough.
More and more people are checking out of their relationships because they aren’t able to communicate what they want or how they are feeling. They aren’t feeling as if the other person is listening to them and hearing what they have to say.”
“There is a stark disparity between the rich and the rest of India and the wealthy try to insulate themselves from the unpleasant realities of their homeland.
There is a parallel between what’s going on in India today and what we are witnessing right here in the US – a rapidly widening gap between the haves and have-nots and a division into distinct ‘classes’, although in this case driven by economics and not race or culture.” GUEST BLOG
“Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Friendster have definitely made the world a smaller place but they’ve also made it more open for everyone to peek into our lives. Today we are defined by the number of friends we have on FB, by how many people follow us on Twitter, and how many people subscribe to our blog, rather than by the number of true friends that we can sit with and have a cup of chai.” GUEST BLOG
“A sexy desi women knows her mind, says what she feels and is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in. Being single and fabulous can be exciting and enjoyable as long as you make the best of every moment given to you. No apologies; no regrets…just you, facing off against the world.
Sure, life doesn’t go as planned, but at least you tried and you did what you wanted to do. We have no control over who we meet or who drags us to a dark place but we will always survive because we are survivors. We are our biggest supporters and our worst enemies tied up in one pretty package.”
“When Bobby Jindal first exploded onto the national scene in 2007, the Indian community was rightfully proud. A boy genius had become the youngest governor in American history at the jaw-dropping age of 36. The subsequent buzz about him being a potential presidential candidate in 2012 made him into an even bigger star. At least for Indians, he was truly the anointed one. That, however, was then.
Cut to 2009 when he delivered an extremely awkward, meandering, ideologically driven Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech. Even people in his own party were disappointed and suddenly there was doubt about Jindal’s readiness for a larger platform.”
– Guest blogger Sanjay Sanghoee
“When it comes to relationships and dating, I have seen and heard it all. Desi men and desi women relate differently in the dating world and it is high time someone analyzed and read between the lines instead of taking everything at face value.
Desi men mainly use their left side of the brain, which is focused and to the point, which is why they are so direct. Here are some dating scenarios that could come across as confusing if you aren’t sure how to read correctly…”
Guest Blog: Sex and The Single Desi
” Phew – Welcome to India, the land of colors, exaggeration, opportunism and couch patriotism.
I witnessed India’s second World Cup Cricket win last night very differently from the way I had done in 1983. In 1983, I was a kid who had fallen asleep out of exhaustion, in the middle of the night, in the living room of neighbors who were the proud owners of the only coveted Sony color TV in our whole apartment building.
Last night, 3/4ths of a Johnny Walker Black Label could not knock me out as I sat, eagle-eyed in front of my TV set. Biting my nails in anticipation, whistling in glee, trying to add my bit to my nation’s couch potato-ism, I gratefully witnessed that Midas Dhoni was up to his pranks yet again, and was steering his wobbly ship home yet again, as he has been doing for a number of times in the past five years.”
Guest Blogger Ayon Banerjee.
” I don’t quite remember how old I was. Seven, maybe eight…too young to remember every single episode of my life but old enough to recollect the one that traumatized me for a long time.
I was molested by a live-in help. A man who was perhaps in his early twenties. A villager who my parents took in to take care of household chores, including my ailing grandmother who lived with us at that time.”
Guest Blogger Sukanya Bora shares her story to raise awareness about a taboo subject.
Why did I marry this person, when God knew that our marriage wouldn’t last more than two years?
Why did I hook up with this guy and get dumped afterward when God knew it would happen, what was the point?
Why did my best friend in the whole world steal my boyfriend, why did God introduce her to me and why did we click so well?
Why did my loser ex-husband take my children and money, when all I did was give him my love and support?
Why did I study so hard for a career that landed me unemployed and/or unhappy?
Guest Blog: Sex and the Single Desi
She’s probably the sexiest mechanical engineer around, and by her own admission, she’s also a bit of a geek who loves all things techie. And yet, Melanie Kannokada, 24, is so much more than a geeky mechanical engineer.
Her debut film ‘Bicycle Bride’ won the best feature film award at the South Appalachian Film Festival, and she was nominated Best Actress in this, her very first role. ‘Love, Lies and Sita’, her second film, has three guys madly in love with her – and it’s set for a summer release. In this recurring post spotlighting emerging South Asian talent, Lavina Melwani checks out her story…
For Indian food lovers, this is the equivalent of Foodie Heaven! An opportunity to taste the food of not one, not two but 13 noted Indian chefs – all under one roof. The noted chefs include names which are familiar to fans of Indian cuisine – Floyd Cardoz, Vikas Khanna, Jehangir Mehta, Hemant Mathur, Prasad Chirnomula, Hari Nayak, Maneet Chauhan ,Walter D’Rozario and Peter Beck, with Sanjeev Kapoor flying in from India.
This would have been an unimaginable scenario a few decades back but now is a done deal, thanks to the Varli Food Festival being held in New York City on April 7 at the Altman Building in Chelsea.
The Personal God who is brought home shrinks the distance between heaven and earth. He becomes an exalted part of the family, sharing his Children’s joys and sorrows, exuding hope, providing inspiration and courage. Since concentration of mind is the main issue, the seeker focuses on the image to get beyond imagery.
A householder or a beginner vedantin’s journey may start from the matter to the abstract. Initially, he may take the aid of an image or an idol of a Personal God to engage himself in soul searching exercises. This involves cultivating the power of the mind and the intellect. The intellect is the scriptural “charioteer to control the senses that are restive horses.” Guest Blog on Spirituality
Love a good food fight? Then you’ve got to watch Bravo’s Top Chef Masters which has a dozen award-winning chefs battling it out for the title of Top Chef Master and $100,000 for their favorite charity. This includes, for the first time probably, two noted Indian celebrity chefs – Floyd Cardoz and Suvir Saran.
In each episode the Lords of the Kitchen sharpen their knives for cooking encounters and dish out their specialties. For celeb watchers it should be quite a treat – Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks, Pop/Rock Group Maroon 5 and Pop Star Kelis serve as Celebrity Guest Judges. Celebrity chef Curtis Stone hosts the series and judges include James Oseland and noted food critic Ruth Reichl. Celebrities and food – a potent mix!
“Unable to get a visa that would allow him to start a company after he graduated from Wharton in 2007, Kunal returned home to India. In February 2010, he started SnapDeal—India’s Groupon. Instead of creating hundreds of jobs in the U.S., Kunal ended up creating them in New Delhi.
At a time when our economy is stagnating, some American political leaders are working to keep the world’s best and brightest out. They mistakenly believe that skilled immigrants take American jobs away. The opposite is true: skilled immigrants start the majority of Silicon Valley startups; they create jobs.” – Vivek Wadhwa
“As a single desi, one really great way to establish your independence and live vicariously is to pick some hot destinations and explore. Check out the bars and clubs, talk to locals, sight-see and get a sense of how everyone else lives in different parts of the world. As a school psychologist, I am lucky to have spring break, Christmas break and summer vacation. I use that time to travel and see the world. Here are tips on traveling on your own and making the best of your given circumstances.” GUEST BLOG
Archana Patchirajan, Puneet Mehta and Sonpreet Bhatia, the three entrepreneurs behind MyCityWay really seem to be on a roll – they’ve just managed to raise $ 5 million in financing from BMW i Ventures, First Mark Capital and IA Ventures. Yes, you may be seeing the innovative MyCityWay app in BMW cars in New York in the future!
Mobile services are very much on auto-makers minds and the BMW Group has founded BMW i Ventures — a New York-based venture capital to provide early- and mid-stage investments in the area of Mobility Services, and MyCityWay is the beneficiary.
GUEST BLOG: There are millions of women out there who find themselves drawn to the dysfunctional relational patterns of the past, unknowingly repeating the vicious cycle that drained their mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins of their emotional freedom. Feel empowered and know that you can break this unhealthy cycle and be a pioneer of change.
India has a secret weapon in its continuing ride to success and wealth – the Goddess Lakshmi! All the billions of prayers offered to this deity of prosperity in business offices across the world must be paying off for all those successful entrepreneurs.
Now even all the wanna-be-wealthy folks in far off Mexico are realizing the value of having the Goddess of Wealth on their side. The National Lottery in Mexico had the image of the Indian Goddess on some of the lottery tickets – and the grand prize went to – you’ve guessed it!
In the tech world, patents don’t foster innovation; they inhibit it. They are like nuclear weapons in an arms race, in that companies use them to hold competitors back or to extort license fees from companies that can’t afford the time and cost of litigation.
These battles play out every week in Silicon Valley: among the behemoths—Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, and SAP—and between behemoths, startups, patent trolls, and large corporations. Startup entrepreneurs live in constant fear that behemoths or patent trolls will bankrupt them with frivolous lawsuits.