Author: Lavina Melwani

They gathered in the dark, in the biting winter cold in Union Square, Manhattan’s instinctive gathering place for protests and vigils, for remembrance and for times of loss.
Encircled by towering buildings and rushing, frenzied traffic, they had come together, carrying lighted votives which glittered in the dark of the disappearing day.

It was appropriate that they had gathered here for though Jyoti Singh Pandey’s story may have taken place in a street in Delhi, it has gone on to become a global catalyst, not just for women but for men of good will, for all human beings.
Looking at the somber faces, not only Indian but of every race, one realized that sexual violence is something everyone has to contend with. I could even imagine Jyoti Singh Pandey, huddled in a coat with a votive in her hand, standing in solidarity with the crowd.
She was us and we were her.
(Photo: Athanasia Kotopoulos)

‘India’s Daughter’ – that is hardly an endearment, a belated title of honor for the courageous young woman, a citizen of India Shining, who was left to fend for herself in the crowded, uncaring streets.

Where was India when its daughter waited, waited late in the night for safe public transportation? Where was India as six goons brutally beat and raped her in a moving bus with tinted windows and curtains on public streets? Where was India when she and her male companion were beaten senseless, stripped and thrown from the bus like unwanted commodities?

We did not know her first name nor her last name. We would not have recognized her if we had met her face to face in the marketplace. Yet in her terrible travails, in her slow, excruciating death, she is us. Every Indian woman who exists anywhere in any country is related to her.

As we begin 2013, I invoke Ganesha, the God of New Beginnings.

Let there be peace.

Let there be love.

Let there be happiness for all.

A very lucky 2013 for everyone and a lot of joy!

One never knew there could be so many shades, so many textures and so many patterns in black and white! At the Children’s Hope India Black and White Ball, over 450 guests had come dressed in these two stark, striking colors and created a surreal, stylish world. This being an Indian event, the color red had been thrown in, and even the decor, right down to the table linens, was black and white with a touch of red.

Pier Sixty in Manhattan was transformed into a stunning black and white universe in celebration of CHI’s 20th year of service to children. Two decades ago this New York-based non-profit started as a small group of women professionals hoping to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged children.

“But this week, they are preparing to bury 20 children, a wrenching task that includes helping secure tiny coffins and eulogizing lives that had just begun.” – The New York Times.

It was their time for toys and games, for fun and fairy-tales – not for coffins, eulogies and funerals. In fact, these four words – ‘children, schools, guns and death’ – should not even be in the same sentence together. Yet this is exactly what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT on that horrific day when Adam Lanza , 20, went on a violent rampage shooting 27 people, 20 of them children between the ages of six and seven. For these kids, life ended before it had even begun.

Does your family try to smuggle Tupperware containers filled with daal chaval into Disneyland?

Do your parents have drawers full of ketchup packages from McDonalds?

Do your parents yell into the phone even when they are not calling India?

Does your family own a Toyota or a Honda?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are definitely, really, Indian! These are part of a quick quiz by light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek ‘anthropologist’ Sanjit Singh whose book ‘Are You Indian?’ is a humorous look at growing up Indian in America. Singh checks out the Indian-American phenomenon right from infancy where the little bachas are being already prepped for the spelling bee by their anxious and ambitious parents to SAT and College Admission, right on to the traumas of finding a mate.

Trends sometimes turn into traditions. For the immigrants who came from India, Christmas was often a lonely time of the year. Fast forward a few decades and many of them will tell you it’s now a favorite time of the year, with non-stop shopping, social get-togethers and yes, even a tree and lights, thanks to their American-born children. Now these same American Born desis are starting a new Christmas tradition – their very own desi Christmas Carol!

‘Bumbug the Musical’, produced by LAUGHistan, is a hilarious rock musical playing in Manhattan, and it could become the next holiday tradition with a desi twist to it. Created by New York actors and writers Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri, it’s a joyous celebration of immigrant life where everyone seems to bring their own traditions to be mixed up in the giant blender of America.

‘Talaash’ has spawned a zillion reviews – in fact, reviewing the film seems to have become a mini cottage industry, and reading some of these reviews I feel I must have gone to a different movie than many of the reviewers. “Mesmerizing’ – ‘Amazing’ it was not, nor did I sit on the edge of my seat from start to finish as some have claimed they did. Nor does it deserve some of the negative comments spawned by movie-goers, after reading the reviews.

No, it’s not the greatest thing since ready-made rotis but it is definitely good cinema.

Fifteen years ago an art exhibition in New York was presented by a nascent organization called South Asian Women’s Collective (SAWCC). The exhibition was appropriately enough called (un)Suitable Girls. Fast forward fifteen years and I’m once again at an art exhibition, this time called ‘Her Stories’ commemorating 15 years of SAWCC. It presents the creative works of more than 100 diasporic South Asian women artists, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, and writers, with an installation of archival photographs, publications, and ephemera.

“New York is such a vibrant cultural city,” says Dr. L. Subramaniam, the master violinist. ” What I like most is that it’s receptive to all different kinds of music.” Indeed, that is the wonder of New York – the way it receives music from all over the world with open arms.

In fact, this is L. Subramaniam’s third concert here in a period of six months: the first was a global fusion concert at Lincoln Center, the second a collaboration with Stevie Wonder and now a classical concert at the Skirball Performing Arts Center on December 9. He will be sharing the stage with his wife, the noted playback singer Kavita Krishnamurti who will be presenting a new repertoire with some classics.

There was a time in America when Indian food, like Rodney Dangerfield, got no respect. Westerners (and some embarrassed Indians) tried to eat rotis with knife and fork, complained of the greasiness and the smell of the cuisine, and thought Indian food began and ended with ‘curry’.

That was then – this is now!

In our new global world, Indian cuisine is hot – and cool! Everyone seems to understand the language of Indian food, Indian chefs are stars and Indian cuisine has many fans, is anointed by Michelin and Zagat, and is the subject of great reviews. So it was inevitable that a glamorous award ceremony celebrating these successes would be next – the Varli Global Culinary Awards for the best and brightest in Indian cuisine…

Gunmen take over the city of Mumbai…fire engulfs the iconic 100 year old Taj… explosions at the Oberoi…people trapped in hotels forced to jump from the windows… a numbing stand- off with the terrorists… gunmen shoot indiscriminately in the crowded VT train station…dead bodies and grieving relatives.

All these terrible images flash in the mind’s eye because we’ve seen them so often. For Indians across the Diaspora, the chilling images played time and again on their television sets, stories flashed across the Internet and incessant phone calls to loved ones in Mumbai. The news played out frame by frame on Twitter, with videos and images on Youtube and Flicker. Technology has caused distances to melt away and made disaster touchable, personal and vivid.
Four years later, the lone surviving terrorist has been hanged. Is there closure? It is a day of high alert and added security. It is also a day of sadness, memories.

Get into the kitchen with noted chef Maneet Chauhan and it’s a daring marriage between Indian spices and ingredients from around the world. Chauhan, who’s cooked up a storm in India and the US, including the critically acclaimed Vermilion, is now working on two cookbooks and is a judge on Food Network’s Chopped. Here she shares some of her unusual recipes which pair the quintessentially desi masalas like Sambhar powder and pau bhaji masala with unlikely items like edamame and olives, which are rarely used in Indian cuisine.

Thought you had put the 2012 Elections behind you? Not so fast! You now have to make the big bird decision and we don’t mean that Big Bird! It’s that time of the year when the President pardons one lucky turkey to live out its life in comfort. On Wednesday, November 21, 2011, President Obama will pardon the National Thanksgiving Turkey in a ceremony in the Rose Garden.

The President will pardon Cobbler and his alternate Gobbler, both 19-week old, 40-pound turkeys. This year, for the first time ever, the American public decided which of the two turkeys – Cobbler or Gobbler – would become the 2012 National Thanksgiving Turkey by casting a vote via the White House Facebook page. And now there’s a winner!

Year of India at Queens College; Holiday Party at Asia Society; Intern at Pratham

Indian-Americans finally have a presence in the US Congress – Ami Bera, MD, is the new Congressman-Elect from California’s 7th Congressional District. I had interviewed him some months back when he was running a hard-fought race against the incumbent Congressman Dan Lungren, who conceded today.
For Ami Bera, serving people has been an important part of who he is, and he is ever conscious of the need to give back to a country which embraced his immigrant family. While he grew up in California, his father crossed the oceans from a farming family in Rajkot near Ahmedabad, Gujarat for a higher education in America. “My father was the first in his family to go to high school,” he says. “He got a master’s in engineering and my mother became a teacher.”

Like many immigrant families, theirs’ was a close-knit family with a lot of emphasis on education, hard work. His father ran a small commercial real estate business, and inculcated the values for a strong work ethic in his children. “There was a strong family support and strong community support,” he recalls. “And also a keen appreciation of the opportunities America offered.”

Today Diwali is being celebrated in the White House. And yes, ‘Happy Diwali’ is trending on Twitter in America. What more could a Hindu ask for? So before you do your puja and enjoy the jalebis and laddoos, listen to the Prez. And we will also share with you in another post the great work Hindus are doing with disaster relief for those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Here are President Obama’s thoughts on Diwali. “Many who observe this holiday will light the Diya, or lamp, which symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. As that lamp is lit, we should all recommit ourselves to bring light to any place still facing darkness. Earlier this year, we were reminded of the evil that exists in the world when a gunman walked into the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and opened fire.

In the wake of that horrible tragedy, we saw the resilience of a community that drew strength from their faith and a sense of solidarity with their neighbors, Sikh and non-Sikh alike. We also saw compassion and love, in the heroic actions of the first responders and the outpouring of support from people across the country. Out of a day of sadness, we were reminded that the beauty of America remains our diversity, and our right to religious freedom.”
– Barack Obama

What is art exactly? In a throw-away world where material things lose their value all too soon, the Brazilian artist Roberto Custodio celebrates art as reincarnation, art as renewal of the spirit. Old, discarded magazines become the building blocks of his art, as he picks and chooses images and bits and pieces of different worlds to juxtapose a totally new reality, a fresh take on things.

A ragpicker of the soul, Custodio creates a gorgeous puzzle of tiny shards from different lives and invites you into a whole new universe. His earlier work from found and discarded publications brought into existence a whole pantheon of Hindu Gods from Brahma and Shiva to Krishna and Kali. Now in his latest exhibition ‘Your Royal Highness’ he turns his attention to powerful women from queens to courtesans – and yes, even a maharani.

November 6. The big day is here – the day you get to write the future narrative of this country.

If you happen to be an American citizen, please do go out and vote. It’s no time for apathy. Hurricane Sandy may have exhausted you, recent events exasperated you but today you’ve got to pick yourself up and get to a polling station.
I know the last week has not been easy – my home is still without power and heat, and I know thousands are in the same situation with the cold weather coming on. Nevertheless, I too am headed back home from Manhattan, driving 3o miles to cast my vote at a nearby school where my polling station is located.
Never has one day been so important in setting the course of how life pans out for our families, for future generations.

She’s a svelte and golden goddess with a cooking utensil in her hand and she’s coveted by all those in the world of cuisine.

We’re talking of course of the Varli Culinary Award, in the form of a lithe sculpture – and now the most talented chefs are going to be able to take her home as a testimony to their cooking talent.

On November 15, foodies, chefs and restaurateurs will gather for the first Varli Culinary Awards at the Altman Building in New York City to honor the best talents in Indian cuisine. The chief judge of the evening is renowned cooking authority Sanjeev Kapoor whose show ‘Khana Khazana’ is a huge hit on TV. The hosts for the evening are popular New York actors Manu Narayan and Pooja Kumar.