Browsing: Rujuta Vaidya

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!

Can you take a taxi or drive a car from the US to Rajasthan? Over 500 people did that when they came to the Grand Hyatt Hotel near Grand Central for the much anticipated Children’s Hope Gala, An Evening in Rajasthan. This was a social event with buzz and did not disappoint with the crème de la crème dressed in their royal best. The women guests were greeted with flowers, bindis and bangles, and the men were welcomed with bandhini scarves being put around their necks.
(Consul General of India Prabhu Dayal with Lotus Award honorees AJ and Poonam Khubani)

How do you recreate Rajasthan in New York? With a lot of chutzpah and a lot of friends! Ten of us at Children’s Hope India, a New York-based non-profit are trying to recreate the magic of the desert state in the heart of Manhattan. It all began with Satish Gupta’s magical painting ‘Peacock’ from the Thar collection. It inspired us to invent Rajasthan in the Big Apple – and the artist not only donated us his art for our invitation cards but also some beautiful work for the silent auction.