Lassi with Lavina, India on My Mind….

Hi, my name is Lavina Melwani and I’m a New York-based journalist. I’m here to tell you about Lassi with Lavina – and its ingredients!

I wonder how many of you remember that old Hindi film ‘Anand’ in which superstar Rajesh Khanna played Anand, who is dying but loves people so much that he wants to touch the life of every single person that he meets. He stops strangers on the street, involves himself in their dilemmas and tries to bring some joy or connectivity into their lives.

Lavina Melwani in the Lassi with Lavina avatar

Well, I can relate to that urge to connect! I’ve been writing about people since I was ten (honestly – getting 10 bucks from the Statesman newspaper in Calcutta for my articles) and I’ve always been curious about human beings and intrigued by the stories of their lives.

Byline:  Lavina Melwani

A history major in college in Delhi, I often pondered on what made people tick, and this led to experiments with fiction which appeared in Femina, The Illustrated Weekly of India and The Times of India. After living in India till the age of 23 I moved to Hong Kong where I won the  award for best  short story in the China Mail.

Gradually I moved to non-fiction and after living and writing in Hong Kong and Africa, I came to the US. As an immigrant in America who returns home often to India, to the Mothership, I am intrigued by There – and – Here, by people’s lives, and the journeys immigrants undertake as they remake themselves in a new world.

Over the years my work has appeared in 78 publications including India Today, Newsday, Hong Kong Standard, Asia Magazine, Asia Inc., Avenue, Bride’s, Art and Antiques, AM New York, The Week, Worth, Beliefnet and The Indian Express.

This has included regular columns in India Today and Hindustan Times about the immigrant life, over 70 stories in Newsday covering the South Asian community, and articles in several inflight and travel magazines, such as Winds, Namaskar and Jetwings.

I have been fortunate to meet so many unique, wonderful people through my interviews – from gurus to celebs to cabbies – and introduce them to readers whom I’ve never met. Now, thanks to the Internet, it is possible to be a virtual Anand, to connect with so many more people and share their stories.

So welcome to Lassi with Lavina! There’s no koffee around, and I’m no Karan Johar, but it will be fun to create a kind of Delhi ‘chaat’ shop ambience where we can share some virtual lassis, analyze people and passions, and discuss what’s on our minds! Every month I will be posting live interviews with ordinary and extraordinary people, as well as my new work appearing in international publications.

I also invite you to add your voice to the daily blog, 24/7 - Talk is Cheap. I hope this will be a fun Tower of Babel, with many voices discussing many topics. In the beginning I tentatively bring one solitary voice – my own – and hope many others will join in. Be it Indian art, movies, books or spirituality – do bring in your point of view.

As you all know, our community in the US is over 2.5 million strong, and millions more globally are just a mouse click away. We need no longer be strangers, ships which silently cross each other in the night, but Anand-like, wave out to each other as we pass, and sometimes even connect to each other…

- Lavina Melwani

Lavina Melwani

‘Wordsmith’ – I like the feel of the word, its heft. It has echoes of blacksmith, silversmith, goldsmith – someone hardy and dedicated, working with raw material over fire, shaping it and transforming it into something which didn’t exist before.

My father was a jeweler in Lahore, Sind, in undivided India. Every day he and his artisans worked with diamonds, emeralds and rubies, grading, selecting and setting them in fabulous ornaments of gold for housewives, sweethearts and brides-to-be.

In the bloody Partition of 1947, he fled with his family as a refugee to Delhi with nothing – and started all over again. By the time he died, his shop in Connaught Place, Girdhari Lal Jewelers, was the gold standard for Delhites, and its motto was ‘Reputation.’ Even now, decades later, I meet people who remember his commitment to quality.

I wouldn’t know how to grade diamonds or appraise gold. I’m an aspiring wordsmith and my gems are words – many sizes, many colors, and cheaper by the dozen: words shared with me by people, words pulled out of dreams, out of memory, out of nothing. I polish and shape, arrange and rearrange, juxtaposing them to tell a billion stories.

Sometimes, when they are aligned perfectly, I get as much pleasure as my father did from creating those jeweled baubles.

BIO:

LAVINA MELWANI is a New York based writer who has lived in India, Africa and Hong Kong. She has written for an eclectic bunch of publications including India Today, Worth, Newsday, Asia Inc., Hong Kong Standard, The Hindustan Times, Bride’s, Art and Antiques, The Week, Beliefnet, Winds – the Japan Airlines in-flight magazine, Gafencu, the Shanghai-based lifestyle magazine, AM New York, Hinduism Today, Tehelka and The Indian Express.   

Wrote monthly columns, Foreign Letter, in The Hindustan Times, and A New York Minute for India Today.

Her column, Lassi with Lavina, appears currently in the North American edition of The Indian Express.

· Features on food, travel, trends and people for lifestyle and travel magazines including Hi!, Travel Plus, Tatler, in-flight magazines Namaskar, Corporate, Swagat, Jetwings, and Inside Outside, which is India’s leading design magazine. Some of the articles have been translated into Chinese, Dutch, Gujarati and Hindi.

· Won seven IPPIES and two New America awards for her 5000-word feature stories.

· Lavina  has written over 70 stories for Newsday, covering the South Asian beat on everything from immigrant struggles to Indian sweets.

· Article about collectors of South Asian art appeared in the Asia issue of Art and Antiques which won the Folio Award for Editorial Excellence in 2000.

· Outstanding Achievement Award from the South Asian Women’s Collective in 2000 and was nominated for the South Asian Media Award 2005.

2009 Award for journalism from the Association of Indians in America.

2010 Community Service award from the County Executive, Nassau County, LI

2010  Panelist   ‘Online News: How To Do It Better’ conference for ethnic media at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

Co-founder, past president and board member of Children’s Hope India www.childrenshopeindia.org , a NY non-profit organization which initiates health and education projects in India.

· Member of South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) and The Newswomen’s Club of New York.