What happens when there is a massive power cut and Mumbai’s trains stop running? The buses are jam-packed and cabs are at a premium. Can one walk three hours to the suburbs? On a dark and rainy night, nameless people become friends and it’s all about the kindness of strangers. Guest Blog post from The Chatty Divas.
Browsing: India
While the new world continues to discover brand new diseases with fancy names, we haven’t quite been able to cope with the existing ones plaguing us for years now.
Water borne diseases have become an all pervading evil around us at present times. Humanity is being made to become cowards like never before. We are made to fear not just the age old demons but things that were close to our hearts always ; blessings like food, water, fellow human beings, darkness, school, transport are now also things to fear!
Ah – social media – amazing space! You never know whom you’re going to meet! Today I was introduced to someone who is, among other things, in his own words, a very good bad boy, a brain eater, a back bencher, a heart stealer, a true liar, a truth finder, and “very anger – but I know it’s very danger.”
Bad English, wacky lyrics, home-grown philosophy – I really don’t know what to make of him! Meet Vennu Mallesh, a pop singer from Hyderabad who’s had 3,995,102 views on Youtube for his Vennglish song “It’s My Life whatever I wanna Do ”
In moving from LA to Mumbai, actress/writer Tori Roy discovers many truths: That heat stroke is real, so is heat rash. That cockroaches DID inhabit the earth long before mankind and will outlive us by any years by hiding out in India. That when Indians do the ubiquitous head-wobble, it means ‘I hear You’ – nothing more. Read on – Guest Blog.
Sometimes entire worlds disappear yet art survives and tells us the stories which would have remained untold. Fabulous life-sized images of Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesha, and a pantheon of Hindu Gods have been unearthed in Southeast Asia and they look not quite like the deities as we know them in India. The features seem Southeast Asian, the headgear is different but there is no doubt as to their Supreme Power. Though the inspiration is Indian, local aesthetics and local artists have given these vibrant, exquisite masterpieces of Hindu and Buddhist icons a flavor all their own.
For the first time, the cream of the cream of the treasures have been gathered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: – ‘Lost Kingdoms – Hindu Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia’ which brings to light this long-forgotten world.
These things were probably not in your formal education but really useful stuff to know if you’re traveling to India!
Did you know the top ten phrases Mumbai cops use to ask for bribes?
Did you know bagpipe music is played at Indian weddings?
Did you know this luxury bathroom showroom existed in India where millions don’t have access to toilet facilities?
Did you know there’s a town where you can get training if your life’s ambition is to be a disco bouncer?
Read on for bits and pieces of wisdom from the web…
You have to give it to South Asians for out-of-the-box thinking. No access to a school bus? An auto-rickshaw will do.
No budget? How about a bicycle with seating made out of a plastic crate which fits two school kids and gets them where they have to go?
Not the ideal solution and certainly not the safest but typical of what is known in India as ‘jugaad’.
I was in the fabulous Udaivilas in Udaipur, enjoying the morning breakfast feast, when my eyes lit up. No, it wasn’t some grand Rajput jewels which had so excited me, though these gems I speak of were a rich golden orange and came wrapped in a delicate outer covering of gossamer beige.
‘Anti-rape jeans’ – the term seems to have gone viral on social media. A link to an article that I posted about this phenomenon was seen by over 190,114 people on the Lassi with Lavina page, over 22,126 have clicked on the shortlink and 228 have shared it. The result to articles in the Guardian and Daily Mail are even more mind-boggling – with over 9660 shares.
Clearly, this is a topic which strikes a chord with everyone. According to statistics, a rape occurs every 22 minutes somewhere in India and each case diminishes us all. Everyone is sick to the heart, is looking for solutions and every new idea is welcomed because it brings hope for change.
“In India, traveling by air is no longer a monopoly of the elite, but has instead become an affordable and convenient way to travel for all. When we were younger only the rich and famous could afford air travel. The average, middle-class Indian citizen had only one option: the train, and that too either the sleeper class or the third AC.
Thanks to the low cost airlines in India, now everybody makes a beeline for the airport, and many have forgotten the way to the railway station – including me.” GUEST BLOG
If you thought Miss America had to be blonde and blue eyed, you have to meet Nina Davuluri, the current Miss America. Not only did her dark almond shaped eyes and dusky complexion showcase her Indian roots but she also won big with her rousing Bollywood dance number from ‘Om Shanti Om.’Yes, Miss America is of Indian origin – and proud of it!
Indeed, this Miss America is the first with Indian roots and really shows what’s special about America: you can be of a different heritage, speak a different language, pray to a different god, yet you are American. A chat with Nina Davuluri to find out how’s she’s doing.
Our wishlist for PM Narendra Modi – Make it a totally inclusive country where people of all religions, castes, colors, genders and sexual persuasions can live peacefully together. Make it a more compassionate nation where every child, irrespective of his background, has a level playing field.
Try to change the patriarchal mindset of the country, a place where women have always been less than men, and the birth of a girl child is a time for sadness. Yes, I know that centuries old biases can’t be changed in a day but so much depends on the tone set by the man leading the nation.
What constitutes an Indian? Are you Indian if you are born in India or is it your Indian genes which make you Indian? Are you not Indian if you are of a different religion or pray to a different God? Are you seen just as a vote bank by conniving politicians in the great tumult of the Indian Elections?
Sabina Himani, an Indian artist who is Muslim and lives in New York, reminisces on a comment which has dogged her through the years and now she hears once again, due to the ongoing elections.
“All Muslims should leave India and go live in Pakistan ..”
Here’s her answer to all those who make that statement.
It is indeed telling that while the elections are being played out in India, some of the most avid watchers are thousands of miles away and separated by oceans and continents – in America. Indeed the Indian Diaspora from Africa to the Middle East to Europe are all deeply involved in the outcomes but nowhere is the connection so deep as in America. Men and women who left their homeland over 30 to 40 years ago, still are moved enough to catch all the details on television, Indian newspapers and by phone calls to the family in India. (Photo – Narendra Modi supporters in Silicon Valley hold a tea rally in California)
When in India, do as the Indians do! Kentucky Fried Chicken, known globally as KFC is the latest American food chain to have undergone a transformation in India.
The chickens are still coming home to roost but it has introduced a substantial vegetarian menu with its ‘So Veg So Good’ campaign to reel in lots of new customers who eat neither egg nor chicken nor meat.
East is increasingly meeting West on the red carpet. It’s great to see couture by an Indian designer showcased on New York red carpets – especially by the sizzling Padma Lakshmi.
The host of Bravo’s Top Chef and the must-click subject of every photographer in NY, Padma was seen at two NY events in Payal Singhal’s elegant yet fun outfits which debuted recently in the Lakme Fashion Week.
Could there be a filmi success story brewing in here? We saw some young unknown and aspiring filmakers with cinematic dreams – and we saw how far they went! We’re talking M.Night Shyamalan and Nagesh Kukunoor here.
Well, meet Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad, a young filmmaker from Detroit with a passion to stir up a devilish hell with his supernatural thriller ‘Jinn’. The film had a glamorous premiere in the fabulous Detroit Institute of the Arts with a packed hall. Get ready to get goose-bumps and some sleepless nights for ‘Jinn’ releases nationwide tomorrow and in Canada.
“As most of you know, I’ve written a book about Bombay called ‘Maximum City’. If Bombay is the maximum of the urban experience, India is the maximum of the democratic experiment.
What does it mean to be ‘maximum’? By the middle of the century, India will be the world’s most populous nation, overtaking China. Biologically, at least, we will be number one. But ‘maximum’ isn’t just about population. It connotes generosity, openness, large-heartedness. It is about striving for the limits of what is possible. And it’s what characterizes the age-old cultural traffic between the country of my birth and the country of my nationality.” – Suketu Mehta.
(Photo: L to R: Salman Rushdie, Suketu Mehta, Tunku Varadrajan & Amb. Dyaneshwar. M. Mulay.)
Gods and kings, past and present, tradition and modernity all merged in ‘Mystic India: The World Tour’ at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, New Jersey. This was the first Broadway style Bollywood inspired extravaganza to debut at NJPAC.
For many young Indian-Americans the show was a reaffirmation of their culture and for mainstream Americans it was an introduction to the vibrant colors, dance and music of India. The show, created by Amit Shah and the Aatma Performing Arts, features passionate dancers, musicians, and acrobats.
She is Alice in Fashionland – a young designer lost in the surreal magic world of French fashion.
Christine Philip, an up-and-coming Indian-American fashion designer, had always been enamored of Paris and its legacy of ground-breaking fashion. This season she basked in the unparalleled world of French style, soaking in the rhythms and romance of Parisian haute couture. Shows that she attended included Corrie Nielson, Issay Miyake, Chanel, Hermes, YDE, Chloe, Amaya Arzuaga, and Fatima Lopez.
Not totally an insider, this young designer reveled in her entre to a fabulous world. She says: “Paris produces ‘the mother’ of all fashion weeks. There is no other fashion capital that does it like they do and I wanted to be a part of it.”