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!

“I am convinced that if more of us could spend a few minutes every day trying to develop a sense of inner peace, eventually it would become part of our lives; then everything we do will contribute to peace in the world.”

These were the words of the Dalai Lama about The Missing Peace project which took place in 2007 at the Rubin Museum, sponsored by the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation. The exhibit may be long over but here as we browse some of the images and the text, re-walk the galleries in memory, the exercise becomes both a meditation and a benediction.

Richard Gere, Mira Nair, Salman Rushdie and more…star spotters had a field day at the special preview of ‘Amelia’

New York City was abuzz with the launch of Mira Nair’s new film ‘Amelia’ which comes from a big studio and stars big names Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. Directed by Nair, the film follows the fabled adventures of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. The film, while different from Nair’s recent India-related films, stays true to her fascination and empathy with strong women. It is a film about woman power, about a woman before her time, ‘a flying yogini’ as Nair likes to call her.