Browsing: India

M.F. Husain – Goodbye to an Icon. (September 17, 1915 – June 9, 2011)

The great artist died of a heart-attack in London, far from his homeland of India. He was a giant of the contemporary Indian art world and there are as many colorful stories about him, about the controversies swirling about him, as there are unmatchable pieces of art which encapsulate the complexities of India. New York gallerist and collector Kent Charugundla shares some untold stories about the flamboyant artist. Join in sharing your comments and memories of M F Husain.

An NRI discovers time is a very different commodity in New Delhi and New York
EST – Eastern Standard Time – Or I must Eat and Sleep so I am in Time for my meeting.
IST – Indian Standard Time – Or I will Sleep and take my own Time because my Time is only mine – no one else owns it…
No wonder IST is also known as Indian Stretchable Time!
Kriti Mukherjee in The Chatty Divas blog…

“As I get older, I find myself trying to rediscover some of the values of our Indian culture which shaped my childhood and still run as an uneasy undercurrent through my adult psyche, but for the most part have been suppressed in the desire to adapt to the New York lifestyle.
As with all value systems, of course, not everything is desirable and it’s necessary to pick and choose the best of both Indian and American values in order to be truly happy.” – Sanjay Sanghoee

On a hot summer day a stranger intrudes into an air-conditioned private home in Delhi and leaves food for thought about old age, pride and the dignity of labor.
First blog post on The Chatty Divas.

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…

As we, the New Americans, mature and root ourselves further in the sacred and secular landscape of America, we see a need to build national and local organizations focusing on serving — with Seva Bhava — contemporary needs of our growing community and the community at large.
Seva or service is an integral part of our culture and traditions, an inside-out approach to life. Many individuals and organizations volunteer and serve in soup kitchens, shelters, health camps, and disaster relief. But few Dharmic – Hindu, Jain,Sikh, Buddhist – institutions have the capacity to provide sustained social services and do seva as is prevalent in other faith based institutions in America. GUEST BLOG

“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

The only job he ever applied for was at McDonalds – and he was turned down! He is a high school dropout who at the age of 16 went on to create ClickAgent, an Internet business which sold for $ 40 million.

He sold his next start-up, BlueLithium, to Yahoo for a whopping $ 300 million. Now he’s on to his third start-up, RadiumOne, and is having the time of his life.

Meet Gurbaksh Chahal, the kid from Tarn Taran, near Amritsar, who has gone on to become a major serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. He has been on Oprah before millions of viewers and has written a best selling book. Worth over $100 million, he’s got the fabulous penthouse and the Lamborghini and all the perks. He was proclaimed as the most Eligible Bachelor in America in 2009. Now, at 28, he’s still single!

Last year Vikas Reddy and co-founder Jeff Powers of Occipital, a start-up in Boulder, Co, were listed in the 30 under 30 – America’s Coolest Entrepreneurs by Inc. Magazine.

Vikas and Jeff came up with an innovative price checker called RedLaser, a free scanning application for iPhone and Android that has been downloaded over 8 million times. They sold RedLaser to eBay for an undisclosed amount, and now are creating and fine-tuning 360 Panorama, an exciting new product which enables computers to see like the human eye.

In the city of reinvention, what better way to stand out from the crowd than to reinvent yourself?
As the film festivals focusing on South Asian films have multiplied in the Big Apple, the oldest and most noted showcase of them all, the MIACC Film Festival, is now known as New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) and is focusing on independent and regional films, while still being open to Bollywood blockbusters. The opening film ‘Do Dooni Chaar’ is a Disney film with Bollywood stars but imbued with the indie spirit.

In our virtual world anyone can become an instant expert on any city – thanks to MyCityWay, an innovative mobile app designed by the team of Archana Patchirajan, Puneet Mehta and Sonpreet Bhatia, three immigrants from India who’ve made New York home and achieved the American Dream.

MyCityWay just raised $ 5 million in financing from BMW i Ventures, FirstMark Capital and IA Ventures and you may see this app in BMW cars in the future. This little app, which can be downloaded free on your mobile and offers you a comprehensive grid of the city, is currently available in 40 cities and the plan is to bring it to 40 more.

” 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.

Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, or M G Vassanji – who would be the one you’d vote for in the world of journalism and literature? Bobby Jindal, Swati Dandekar, Dr. Ruby Dhalla or Ameya Pawar – who would be your choice for political leadership? Would you be torn if you had to choose among Mira Nair, Russell Peters, Meera Syal, Sunil Nayar and Sanjeev Bhaskar in the field of entertainment?

Well, now you have a chance to vote for the most notable NRIS – and perhaps win free tickets to India in the bargain, with the upcoming Light of India Awards.

If you want to see Padma Lakshmi break into a smile, all you have to do is ask her about her little girl, Krishna. “She’s wonderful, she’s healthy!” she beams. “We went to the zoo today – it was such a beautiful day! She’s the light of my life and I am very thankful to have her!”

She adds, “And I might not have had her if it wasn’t for the fact that I was diagnosed by Dr. Tamer Seckin and I got the help I needed. I can’t stress that enough – I was told that I wouldn’t be able to have a baby and the fact that I have her is a gift of God and this is just my way of saying thank you.”

‘This’ was the Blossom Ball at the New York Public Library to raise awareness and funds for the Endometriosis Foundation of America, and Padma Lakshmi, who is the co-founder with Dr. Seckin, was on the red carpet at the gala, looking stunning in a Sabyasachi saree.

“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

A precursor to Asian Contemporary Art Week in NY, a recent group show: India and Pakistan may have been geographically birthed on the same subcontinent but they are relentlessly apart as nations. It is a question of so near – and yet so far. Once one people, they are now so far apart that can one understand the mindset of The Other?

Yet, art by Indian and Pakistani artists hung side by side in the Aicon Gallery in Manhattan – perhaps there were not even six degrees of separation between these canvases.

Looking at these powerful works of art one would be hard-pressed to say which artist was from India, and which from Pakistan. This only goes to prove that at heart, the dreams, the hopes and the fears are the same…

“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

This is the tale of The Three Chocolatiers. Once upon a time there was a hotshot financial wiz, a smart biochemist who loved to bake, and a savvy chef who had sailed the high seas on the Q E 2, each going their own way.

A steamy passion for chocolate brought the three together to create Co Co Sala, a foodie kingdom dripping in high-end chocolate, coffee and cocktails. This attracted legions of chocoholics, made the fortunes of the Three Chocolatiers, and they all lived happily ever after.

Now isn’t that a sweet ending?

The story, however, is fact and not fiction. Co Co Sala is a hot and happening chocolate lounge, bar, restaurant, pastry shop and boutique on F Street in Washington DC, and three young Indian-American entrepreneurs are behind its big success – Bharet Malhotra, Nisha Sidhu and Santosh Tiptur.

If you’ve been enjoying Lassi with Lavina, now it’s time to make some of your own too!

If you have insights, ideas, thoughts – provocative, funny or plain offbeat – you are welcome to be a guest blogger at the ol’ Lassi Guesthouse. We’d love to hear your perspectives on India and all things Indian or South Asian. Take an Indian thread and spin a silken tapestry!

When you are in your adolescence and twenties, you want to do what the norm is. If everyone around you wants to be more Indian, then so do you. If everyone wants to be more American, then so do you. It depends on where you are living, your social experiences and how much impact your family has in shaping your cultural life.