Browsing: Indian

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.

To bite into a mango and get that sweet, sticky juice squirting all over your chin and clothes is to drift back into blissful childhood, into days that seemed to have no beginning and no end.

While Christmas is important to Indian Christians as a celebration of faith, many non-Christians enjoy it as a secular holiday in ways small and big. Indeed, Christmas is such a huge, high voltage commercialized event in America that few can escape its allure, be they Christians or not.

The khadi that the Mahatma wove on his charka is the inspiration behind the collection of the iconic Japanese avant-garde designer Issey Miyake. So it is appropriate that in the month of India’s independence, the noted design house has launched ‘Khadi: Indian Craftsmanship’, an exhibition at its sleek Tribeca store which will run through August 22nd.

What can you, an immigrant who came with nothing but a battered suitcase filled with bits and pieces of a disappeared life, offer this new country? What gift can you give America on its Independence Day celebration? A Punjabi immigrant love story.

Her transformation from an “It” Style Girl to a Buddhist nun is so complete that people who knew her earlier do a double-take. She admits, “It was hard at first because your sense of identity is tied to how you look and your look determines your self-worth. As a renunciate you shave your head, use no makeup, perfume or high heels – but the beauty of wisdom that adorns you is far more beautiful than any couture dress.”

New York is a place of new beginnings and something innovative is always happening in the Big City. The digital age may have sounded the death-knell of the printed word but we are in Manhattan, celebrating new books in a new country. Indian writers and books, long unsung in the mainstream, are getting their moment in the limelight with the Wonderland@IAAC Literary festival which is the fifth literary festival organized by the Indo-American Arts Council.

The word ‘home’ immediately conjures up images of comfort, security and peace – yet for many women, perhaps there is no more dangerous and frightening place than home. Behind its closed doors and curtained windows can be a whole litany of horrors from domestic violence to psychological traumas, intimidations and beatings to molestation by family members.

As spring turns into fall, we should be seeing a lot of excitement and action in the fashion arena. Will more and more Americans be seduced by Indian fashion through travel to India, through cinema, and through Indian-American friends in an ever increasing Asian population?
Will American designers continue to find inspiration in India’s myriad delights of color, crafts and couture? Will Indian designers make it big in America? Will new mega-fashion stores dedicated to India ring up the sweet music of cash registers?

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!

Yes, Bollywood in all its avatars is eternal and continues to take audiences on a seductive, addictive emotional roller coaster ride. Long live the 800 pound gorilla!

“When Katrina Kaif was photographed in Ibiza, Spain over the summer in a bikini, I was surprised by the amount of media attention that it got. Having been an avid follower of Hollywood my entire life and seeing paparazzi take invasive photos of my favorite celebrities, to me Bollywood is very tame in comparison. There is more privacy; the focus is more on the work and less on scandals and private lives.

When everyone else is doing a thing of their own, can you maintain a conservative mindset in your 20’s, 30’s and beyond? Most of us were born into conservative families because India was engraved in us. Can we maintain that thought system through life or do we get influenced by the western world?” Guest blog post – The Single Desi

The fireworks still explode in the memory, and the taste of nuts and cream and sugar still linger on the tongue. For immigrants from India, the childhood memories of Diwali are strong, for it is a time when India transforms into one glittering celebration. Public buildings are illuminated with neon lights and every home, no matter how humble, is ablaze with earthen lamps. In fact, entire villages are turned into fairylands, dotted with millions of lamps, glowing in the dark of night.

Visiting family and old high school friends is a part of life – especially if you are settled in a city away from them.

This blog is for those of you in your 20’s and 30’s that live far from your family and have spontaneously made a trip down and decided to spend some quality time visiting with your parents and high school friends.

“Spending quality time with your family does not necessarily mean you have to compromise the person you are today. Let’s face it, you are all grown up. As soon as you left your parents’ home you changed. Dealing with generation X and Y, working different jobs, making friends, balancing your relationship with your current boyfriend has all led you to a more grown up you. No matter what anyone wants from you, you will never return to your high school identity. It is your life now and you create the rules.”
Guest Blog

“It will be almost 20 years since I left an Indian household and became an individual entity. I have now turned into myself. I run my own household, follow my own rules, pay my own bills and travel to the destinations of my choice.
Whenever I talk to people of my parents’ generation they always point out that they went from their parents’ household to their husband’s household. They didn’t get the freedom that we seem to have in the middle of life.” Single Desi Blog

“Meet Amma, 85, who sits all day smoking weed! She has a farmhouse and lives in a lavish set up with some 12 -15 rooms. She grows weed in her backyard, tends to it in the morning with immense love; orders her tea and carries it to the lawn where she smokes up some of her creation.
She puts on her thick rimmed glasses and controls her shaking hands till they settle on the page of her diary where she writes a new story every day! When I heard that, I knew immediately who I wanted to be when I ‘grew up’.” Guest Blog – Chatty Divas. Photo: Marilena Benini

“Being first generation isn’t easy for anyone. However, once you finish the first 30 years, you begin to understand life a little bit more. Being in my mid-thirties, I am able to pass on some wisdom that might help other first generation desis on their life journey.”
22 Tips to a More Productive Lifestyle from The Single Desi

Meet Dr. Neha Sangwan, a young physician based in San Francisco, CA. She has been on the precipice and seen just how traumatic burnout can be. In fact, Neha Sangwan was her own first patient!

Ah – March! Comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb – not! Just yesterday New York was suddenly blanketed in snow even as the floral buds were beginning to bloom in our backyards.

Today it’s supposed to be officially spring. So let’s think positive and prepare for a glorious golden season. And if spring is here, glorious summer and the barbecue season can’t be far behind!

Hemant Mathur, the noted chef of Tulsi, creates classic Indian tandoor dishes in the Homdoor, a Made in America tandoor.