Author: Lavina Melwani

The Mayor’s Diwali Reception at Gracie Mansion on Oct 17, 2023

With the upcoming holiday season begins the Indian community’s tryst with tradition in America. Both Garba and Dandiya Raas, folk dances, have found their way to America and everyone from heart surgeons to hip-hop kids are taking to the large dandiya raas arenas during the festival of Navrati which heralds a season of upcoming festivals from Dusshera to Diwali. How has the interaction with America changed Garba and Dandiya Raas?

They spin round and round, going faster and faster, but never breaking the sacred circle, as they clap their hands rhythmically, dancing around the Garba or earthen pot. They smile as they twirl around for in these nine nights they are celebrating the Goddess that is enshrined in all of us.

This hugely empowering dance is called the Garba and it is the centerpiece of the celebration of the Hindu festival of Navratri or Nine Nights.

CHI Gala 2023 was all about people and the power of giving with Grammy nominated Chandrika Tandon, the Young People’s Choir of NY and surprise guest Mayor Eric Adams of New York who gave a powerful speech.

Our Communities Women Achievers Shine at BAPS – Festival of Inspirations As a journalist dedicated to covering the Indian Diaspora and documenting the struggles and successes of our community for several decades, I was content to keep writing in anonymity, with people only knowing me by my faceless byline. Now in this age of social media things have changed. So I now step out to be recognized with other women achievers, for my writing in Lassi with Lavina and several international publications over the years and for being one of the co-founders behind Children’s Hope India, a non-profit dedicated to…

Naeem Khan brings a touch of India to his 2023 Collection at NYFW

Mahatma Gandhi, with his simple khadi loincloth and chappals, was the absolute antithesis of the avid consumer, yet the luxury brand Montblanc has chosen to honor his memory with a gold pen priced at $23,000.

Ben Kingsley nothing is ever forgotten or lost – just filed away for the future.
“I am fascinated by people. I love watching them. I do have a vast memory bank and I can access them,” says Kingsley. “It’s a very lucky gift that I have, being able to absorb things.

International foods at the Vegan Night Market in Central Park on Tuesdays!

When the writer Gita Mehta was growing up in Orissa, a small ancient image of Ganesha was unearthed in a mound of dirt as the foundations of their family home were being laid. “I’ve always kept the Ganesha which came out of my parents’ home,” confided Mehta when I interviewed her once in New York. “That is the one image that goes with me wherever I go. He came out of the Indian soil so to me he’s like an umbilical cord that connects me to India. So it doesn’t matter where I live – he is my India.” A lovely book from 2009, to check out this Ganesh Chathurthi.

Chandrika Tandon’s new album Ammu’s Treasures has Ganesh chants celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi

The opening of the Jaipur Literary Festival at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York

The event was a private dinner at Sona to celebrate the presence of Assamese designer Tara Bhuyan in the New York Fashion Week

Janmashtmi – Lord Krishna is the Cosmic Cowherd, the mischievous deity that Hindus love the most for his pranks, for his butter-thievery, for his melodious flute, for his romantic interludes with Gopis, the milkmaids.
He fought demons, danced on the mighty serpent’s head and lifted Govardhana Hill with his little finger, using it as an umbrella to protect the people from torrential rains.

Shah Rukh Khan has many personas in his latest film ‘Jawan’ and you’ll get to see them all this month in this action thriller

One of the most anticipated festivals in the Hindu calendar is Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan, the Festival of Threads. This is the day when brothers and sisters renew their bonds and sisters receive money and gifts from their brothers. Now which little girl can argue with that? Lucky are the sisters who have several brothers!

Indeed, if you are Hindu and have a brother, no matter where you are, you will try to meet up with him on Raksha Bandhan which falls this year on August 29. This is an ancient Hindu festival which occurs in the month of shravan on the full moon. Sisters pray for their brothers health and well-being, tying the sacred Rakhi thread on their wrists, and brothers pledge to protect their sisters.

Creative Rajni brings the flavors of Kerala cooking to American food – so you can say it’s as American as Dosa Pie! Check out the novel recipes which bring East and West together.

Amar Nath Sehgal Private Collection is one of only two single artists museums in India and is a tribute to the master modernist

I did an interview with Mayor Eric Adams back in May and this first ran in The Week, one of India’s leading newsmagazines. I am now posting the profile and interview on Lassi with Lavina.

Home and exile are two of the most evocative words in the English language, and they are seared into the work of Zarina Hashmi, noted printmaker and sculptor, who was born in Aligarh in India. Zarina, who goes by only her first name, has been a nomad, a transient who has taken many journeys, crossed many borders. The floor plans of past homes, the many stories of dislocation and the sweet lost language of Urdu are embedded in her prints.

Having worked in relative anonymity for 35 years from her small loft in Manhattan, NY, Zarina, 75, is now suddenly on the international art world’s radar. The prestigious Guggenheim Museum is showcasing “Zarina: Paper Like Skin”, the first retrospective ever of an Indian woman artist, featuring 60 works dating from 1961 to the present.