How are friendships created? What attracts very different people to each other? This blog introduces two fast friends who lived thousands of miles apart, one in New York, the other in New Delhi. They got to know each other through Facebook and have now actually met. Meet Sulekha aka Lucks, and Kriti who will both regale you with tales from their own frenetic worlds. Sometimes you will see your own lives and your own truths reflected in there. They chat a lot so be prepared to listen…

Americans had gone Indian for a day and there were enough turbans, kurtas and jewels to outfit a Bollywood film production as over 250 guests, clad in Indian outfits and headgear, danced to the music of Om Shanti Om and Jai Ho with the Bollywood Axion dancers.
One of the most eye-catching sights was the Imperial Court, a fundraising group for gay and lesbian charities, fabulous entertainers resplendent in over-the-top Indian finery and jewels, clad in sarees for the first time. This fantasy evening was Bollywood Gala, the biennial fundraiser to support the cause of HIV/AIDS by Red Ribbon Foundation which is one of the top 25 grantmakers for HIV/AIDS organizations worldwide.

Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, or M G Vassanji – who would be the one you’d vote for in the world of journalism and literature? Bobby Jindal, Swati Dandekar, Dr. Ruby Dhalla or Ameya Pawar – who would be your choice for political leadership? Would you be torn if you had to choose among Mira Nair, Russell Peters, Meera Syal, Sunil Nayar and Sanjeev Bhaskar in the field of entertainment?

Well, now you have a chance to vote for the most notable NRIS – and perhaps win free tickets to India in the bargain, with the upcoming Light of India Awards.

This is the tale of The Three Chocolatiers. Once upon a time there was a hotshot financial wiz, a smart biochemist who loved to bake, and a savvy chef who had sailed the high seas on the Q E 2, each going their own way.

A steamy passion for chocolate brought the three together to create Co Co Sala, a foodie kingdom dripping in high-end chocolate, coffee and cocktails. This attracted legions of chocoholics, made the fortunes of the Three Chocolatiers, and they all lived happily ever after.

Now isn’t that a sweet ending?

The story, however, is fact and not fiction. Co Co Sala is a hot and happening chocolate lounge, bar, restaurant, pastry shop and boutique on F Street in Washington DC, and three young Indian-American entrepreneurs are behind its big success – Bharet Malhotra, Nisha Sidhu and Santosh Tiptur.

Who is the Indian Bollywood star with a huge mainstream fan following in Spain, Germany and France? Amitabh Bachchan? No. Aishwarya Rai? No. Shah Rukh Khan? No. It’s Sally Bollywood!

Who would have thought a time would come when there would be a Bollywood movie made by a totally non-Indian team, and its heroine Sally Bollywood would become a super-star with French, German and Spanish fans, her own series of books, stationery line, a comic strip, a luggage and textile line. WATCH THE VIDEOS!

Warning: Do NOT Separate an Indian from his Onions! It’s the one ingredient that no self-respecting desi cook would want to be without; whether you are whipping up a Mughal feast or a poor man’s meal – onions are absolutely necessary. In fact, a shortage of onions can cause a near revolution in India!

What happens when you manage to gather critical thinkers like Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s Chairman and CEO, the many faceted Fareed Zakaria, Kapil Sibal, India’s Union Minister for Human Resource Development and Richard C. Levin, President of Yale University all in the same room?

You get some thought-provoking conversation about where India is going, and the challenges along the way.

What is India doing right – and what is it doing wrong? Can it beat China? And what about privatizing public works to fix the infrastructure? Will India have enough teachers? What about the health challenge?

So come be a fly on the wall and listen to where India is headed.

Ekta Kapoor is a self-made millionaire and, as the head of Balaji Telefilms, she’s produced over 74 hugely popular television serials which are said to make up about 80 percent of television programming in India. Recently the Queen of TV Soaps was in town for the premiere of the gritty, fast moving ‘Shorr’ which is as real and as different as you can get from the sugar coated melodrama of the television serials steeped in tradition and changing social mores.
(Ekta seen here with actor Sendhil Ramamurthy)

The US has several Indian-Americans doing important work in academia. Meet Beheruz. N. Sethna, President of the University of West Georgia with a budget of $ 100 million and 100 programs of study through the doctoral level.

He’s a Parsi who’s got some important firsts affixed to his name: he is the first person of Indian origin to ever become the president of a university anywhere in the US. He’s also the first person from any ethnic minority to become president of a predominantly white or racially-integrated university or college in Georgia.

Well, the big Obama trip is over but it’s something Indians will talk about for a long, long time. He seems to have won Indian hearts by correctly enunciating ‘Namaste’, ‘Sal Mubarak’ and ‘Jai Hind’.
It’s almost as if Obama has been adopted into the family, and is part of the Indian tribe.
Take a look at how anonymous Indians are paying him the supreme compliment of being one of their own!