Author: Lavina Melwani

    JLF Spotlight: Are Immigrant Writers the Outsiders in America?   While the Jaipur Literary Festival USA happens only once a year, a new initiative now brings the JLF to New York every month in a special reading series. This is the start of year-round literary salons that will bring together readers and new and noted authors. This reading series had its inaugural in Dumbo, Brooklyn at the cozy Fontainhas which is named for the famous Latin Quarter in Goa, India.  It is a natural gathering place for young South Asian-Americans with its desi-inspired vibes and eats like Bhel…

  New York Diary  A Mountain of Books for Book lovers at Jaipur Lit Festival USA If you can’t get to the iconic Jaipur Literary Festival in India, the festival is coming to you! Like a traveling caravan, the writers, poets and dreamers of JLF are crossing continents to various parts of America, bringing exciting new fiction and nonfiction to readers.  Last month at the SreeRoopa Salon – Sanjoy K. Roy, Suraj Dhingra and their team announced the tenth JLF USA. Registrations are now open 29 – 30 September 2026 for JLF New York   Jaipur Literary Festival USA Schedule…

  New York Specialty Food Show Sense-Maxes Flavors, Heat and Spice For the American Consumer  The 2026 Summer Fancy Food Show from the Specialty Food Association (SFA)  brought thousands of specialty food innovators, buyers and distributors for three days in June. This massive event at New York’s Jacob Javits Center was almost a graph of the changing tastes of the American food consumer, celebrating the current hot trends of ethnic tastes, spices and global flavors along with a demand for healthy and organic foods. According to Fancy Forecast Specialty Consumer Outlook 2026 from SFA, the 2026 trend is sense-maxxin: “Sense-Maxxing…

I came to the US in the 80’s, as an immigrant via India, Hong Kong and Africa, and landed in Astoria, a gritty Greek neighborhood in Queens. I fell in love with the prosaic neighborhood with its heart of gold, and it was here that I discovered my own private America.The part which never fails to amaze me is that when I take the N subway from Manhattan to Astoria – glancing at my fellow passengers I see a virtual United Nations – Latinos, Chinese, South Asians, Blacks, whites all wedged together, sitting side by side on the Great American Journey. If Lady Liberty was to see them, she would definitely shed a tear – because this is exactly what America is all about. And on this day after the Fourth of July, with the firecrackers still ringing in our ears – we can say amen to that.

    The Michelin-starred Musaafer bursts onto the New York Fine Dining Firmament  Meet Musaafer’s Fabulist Food Narrators Mithu and Shammi Malik   By Lavina Melwani   Musaafer, the Michelin starred restaurant, is a noted marker of Indian culture and cuisine right in the midst of bustling New York City. It’s like traveling in a time machine to an ornate palace where an authentic feast from many regions of India awaits you – if only you could get a reservation!  Since its opening, diners have been lining up for the unique ambiance and tastes. As one who has been there,…

Yoga and Yogis Take over Times Square Have you ever laid yourself down in the middle of bustling Times Square with traffic flowing furiously all around you? Well, I have!  Lying flat on the ground, looking up at the swirling clouds, the towering skyscrapers, and giant billboards above me, it was truly surreal. Normally this kind of behavior could get you arrested!  But on Sunday it was all legit – even the cops were smiling! This was because Times Square was in the midst of its annual yoga fever, and thousands of people had come to indulge, to participate, and…

Op Ed: India Asks: Will You Return Home Via PMRC?  By Adil Zainulbhai “What PMRC is asking is whether the people who trained in India, built careers abroad, and carried that question about contribution somewhere in the back of their minds are ready to do something about it. Not someday. Now, while the window is open and the positions are real.” The Prime Minister Research Chair (PMRC) Scheme, launched this month by the Ministry of Education, is asking questions about age-old dilemmas and answering with possible solutions. India has spent decades watching its best scientific minds build careers abroad. It…

THE NEW YORK KNICKS ARE NBA CHAMPIONS! New Yorkers are feeling united and unbeatable due to the new NBA Champions – the New York Knicks! “THE NEW YORK KNICKS ARE NBA CHAMPIONS! Yes, you read that right. The Knicks just won their first NBA championship since 1973!1973.That’s 34 years before the iPhone was invented! Richard Nixon was president the last time the Knicks won a championship! (I barely even know who that is!)Anyway, you get it. It’s been a long time. Knicks fans have suffered long enough, and the wait is finally over!Shoutout to Jalen Brunson for saving the franchise.”-…

    New York Diary Meet the Amazing Queen Behind ‘The Lion King’ – A True Fan Moment!   Sometimes you meet a genuine celebrity when you least expect it – among the nameless crowd in the push and tumble of a packed theater foyer. Julie Taymor is the Queen behind the magnificent Lion King which continues to draw audiences to Broadway. She is the Academy Award nominated and Emmy and Tony Award winning director whose productions range from musicals and Shakespeare plays to classical operas and films. We have all seen The Lion King and her creativity and magic…

New York Diary Jack Kennedy Schlossberg Meets and Greets Desis Believe in Something Again Yes, there’s another idealistic young changemaker from Camelot and his name is Jack too. Like his iconic grandfather, JFK, he too wants to bring about change in troubled times. Jack Schlossberg, son of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and Edwin Schlossberg, is running for Congress in the Democratic Primary. Recently, long time New Yorkers Aroon and Indur Shivdasani had a Meet and Greet for him in their Upper East Side townhouse for about 60 of their friends. Meet and Greet for Jack SchlossbergMeet and Greet for Jack Schlossberg…

  New York Diary The Sa Dancers RISE Again In A Strong Performance. Some things just get better with age. The Sa Dancers are one of them. Started in 2008 by Payal Kadakia Pujji, the Sa Dance Company came at a time when Indian immigrants and their children were still finding their bearings, long before all things Indian become cool.  Payal, a spunky Indian-American brought contemporary Indian dance to the stage, often in mainstream settings. It celebrated all movements Indian from classical to folk to Bollywood and helped give them a space in the American landscape. I had last written…

  How are Immigrants Doing in Zohran Mamdani’s New York? By Lavina Melwani A hundred days have come and gone – but is there any definitive verdict on how Mayor Zohran Mamdani is doing? Just as he won with a mixed mandate so too the verdict on how he is doing seems to be mixed. The rich have not fled the city as it was feared, nor have the illegals or the homeless taken over the city. Israel and Palestine have not become dynamite issues, and New York remains New York – bold, nonchalant and with a spirit all its…

  Celebrating Girl Empowerment and Women’s Entrepreneuship at CHI Spring Luncheon  This year’s CHI Spring Luncheon marks the 20th year of this fundraising event – it has become an institution in itself! Supporters look forward to gathering after the cold of winter with friends and family to celebrate the power of helping children get an education and to especially empower the girl child. Close to 300 women come together for a cause close to their hearts. This year we raised funds for She Shine, our project in community centers in India. CHI, as usual, did it in a fun way…

      ‘Rabindrath Tagore’s legacy is lived, felt and practised in our daily lives’ : Sundaram Tagore Sundaram Tagore, the great-grandnephew of Rabindranath Tagore, champions global art and diversity through his galleries, marking 25 years of fostering east-west dialogue Home and the World: Sundaram Tagore goes Global In an America which is increasingly insular and inward-looking, there is an Indian immigrant from Calcutta who celebrates diversity and embraces global cultures in New York. A descendent of the great Rabindranath Tagore, Sundaram Tagore is an Oxford-educated art historian, gallerist, and an award-winning filmmaker. This year marks 25years of ground-breaking work,…

  From an Unknown Cook to Time’s 100 Most Influential People Vikas Khanna has been selected by Time magazine among this year’s 100 most influential people in the world. Maybe it’s his winning smile or his loving involvement with every human being who comes on his radar, but the award-winning chef of Bungalow has definitely got a secret magic talisman which makes him a total crowd pleaser. I first met Vikas Khanna in the 1990’s when he was still working in a small restaurant called Poornima. His saga is a story of struggles, a rags to riches fairy tale but…

Surrender to the Joy of Music with Grammy winner Falu Shah   It is her inborn language from birth and it comes from the heart. She learned the language of Hindustani music in childhood and has introduced it to major international stages from the Grand Ole Opry to the White House to Carnegie Hall. Meet Falguni Shah, known to the world as Falu, who comes from an unbroken lineage of 11 generations of Indian classical musicians. She has won Grammys and has performed with major names like Yo-Yo Ma and Philip Glass. In her newest concert Surrender which premiered at…

New York Diary Meet Zohran Mamdani in Union Square in Manhattan If you’re a Zohran Mamdani fan/believer or merely hankering for a connect with the new mayor, take a subway to Union Square. You won’t actually see him there, but you’ll get all the Zohran merch your heart desires – from sweatshirts to caps to stickers to Hot Girls for Zohran tees!  Yes, amongst the art vendors, fruit sellers, street musicians and chess players, now there is a Zohran store catering to the walkers, dawdlers and lovers of the historic Union Square Park and the surrounding area. Hard to believe…

    Our Communities: Gender Equality – an Aspiration for India and the Diaspora Women were centerstage this month and women from India and Indian women from the Diaspora had come together at the Consulate of India to celebrate International Women’s Day together. The special guest was the Honorable Minister of State (WCD) Smt. Savitri Thakur, and her delegation from India, who gave a report card on the progress Indian women had made over the years and celebrated their empowerment. The literacy rate, which was 8 percent in 1951 is now 75 percent and women’s life expectancy has increased from…

International Women’s Day – Women Standing Up for Women….   I was on my walk on the New York waterfront, when a young woman handed me a tulip. It was a lovely feeling to be recognized and seen by another woman – not as a Valentine, not as a mother but as just another woman on a journey to create happiness, face struggles and understand the world. The young woman was Urmi from Uzbekistan and she had two other friends carrying bags of tulips, giving them to random women for being women, and so special. Well, of course we became…

People Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit – The Missing Woman – Do We Know Her at All?   We’ve all seen that famous photograph of Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru – but did you know that there was a third person in that picture who was edited right out of the picture?   In the original photo, you will see the person who was left out, and who remained just a footnote in history. This being March, Women’s History Month, I should tell you that this canceled person was, of course, a woman – Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Nehru’s sister,…