October was a good month to be Sikh in the Big Apple – there were enough films, seminars and socializing events to make you think you were back in Amritsar or Delhi! The 8th Annual Sikh International Film Festival took place at the Asia Society in Manhattan with a powerful array of films organized by the Film Chair Dr. Paul Johar.

Cinema can be a powerful way of creating awareness of culture and issues. The Sikh community has been very successful in doing this by telling stories about the community and the faith.

At I-View Film Festival 2010 , a powerful band of cinema warriors is coming to town – imagine directors like Vishal Bhardwaj, Aparna Sen, Onir, and Rituparno Ghosh in the flesh along with wonderful actors like Rahul Bose, Rituparna Sengupta, Konkona Sen, Raima Sen, and Juhi Chawla.

It was a book reading to which the books never made it, but if an image is worth a thousand words, then guests got a good idea of what they would get when they finally got the book.

If brainpower, great looks, accomplishments and sheer good intentions could be harnessed for solar energy, then you’d have quite a surplus at the AIF Awards Spring Gala held in the grand ballroom of Manhattan’s Hilton Hotel.

A quick glance of the crowded cocktail circuit and you spotted famous faces including Adi and Parmeshwar Godrej, Salman Rushdie, Richard Gere, Karan Johar and Madhur Jaffrey mingling with the brightest and most powerful of New York’s Indian-American corporate czars and entrepreneurs. Just the bold face names would have been enough to cause a surge in the NASDAQ numbers!

The surroundings could not have been better: the beautiful, peaceful Rubin Museum of Art was the venue for a gala fundraiser for a new school building for the children of Manjushree Orphanage in Tawang, India.

It was a chance to pull out the shimmering ghararas and heavy jewelry and go royal for a day. Well, the Manhattan Mughuls and nawabs made it out to Bombay Palace’s K Lounge not by horse carriage or on the backs of elephants – probably by a more mundane car, taxi or subway!

This event is one for the Little Black Book with a sizzling fashion show highlighting the collections of names like Naeem Khan, Padma Lakshmi, Amrita Singh, Payal Singhal, and Sachin+ Babli, White + Warren, Stephanie Singh, Sachin + Babi, Babita Malkani and Stephen Rahate.

“A celebration of glamour with a touch of American Classic sportswear and a hint of love, sex and Rock & Roll” is how designer Naeem Khan described his Autumn/Winter 2010 collection which showed in the tented city of Bryant Park during New York Fashion Week.

New Yorker Meera Gandhi was appointed a centennial councilor for RNID which will be completing a hundred years in 2011. She is one of six centennial councilors who will serve for a year and highlight the mission of RNID in the US, India and China.