Author: Lavina Melwani

Lavina Melwani is a New York-based journalist who writes for several international publications. Twitter@lavinamelwani & @lassiwithlavina Sign up for the free newsletter to get your dose of Lassi!

Longing to go to a real live theater, surrounded by real live people?  Tired of being glued to your television set? If you’re caught in pandemic hesitancy, there’s a better way – the all-American drive-in! You get to see movies on the big screen from the safety of your own car and you get to take off your mask for a breather!

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“Even 65 years after our independence, we find that India’s progress towards establishing an equitable society has been slow and disappointing. Discrimination against women thrives and cuts across religion, caste, rich, poor, urban-rural divides. Secure in their solid economic and social foundation, men are men, and we are the other. Today, women realize that unless certain fundamental issues that affect gender equality and justice are addressed, women’s empowerment will remain at the level of rhetoric.” – Sharmila Tagore

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2026 people reached on Lassi with Lavina FB page – 219 post clicks   Sonam Saxena, Navdeep Cheema and 62 others  like it on Lassi with Lavina FB page Nninja Singh, Jessy S. Moya and 22 others like it on FB An Indian in Italy: My Adventures in Rome, Venice & Tuscany… In these days of the pandemic as the cold days linger and travel still remains an impossible dream, I fly you on the magic carpet of the past to Italy! To Rome, Venice and Tuscany. Unlike most tourists, I also visit a surprising parallel world far from the…

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At a time when most of us are trapped in the pandemic blues and survive in our grungy tee-shirts, sweatpants and sneakers, can there be a place for high fashion? The beautiful and beguiling surreal world of NY Fashion Week seemed to be from a galaxy far, far away until I received an invite for New York Fashion Week, to check out the Fall/Winter 2021 Collection of Bibhu Mohapatra, one of NY’s noted designers.

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Remembering the Lost 500,000 Americans Grieving with President Joe Biden… Today is a somber day – America has reached a milestone – we have lost over 500,000 people – friends, neighbors,  unknown human beings  – all a part of the big American family. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been a year of horrendous loss, of masked strangers  passing n the street, each carrying grief and heaviness in their hearts. Today we passed over 500,000 Covid deaths in America. Each of these 500,000 had a name, a family, friends, loved ones and the collective loss weighs heavy on all…

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Meet Dr. Chetna Singh, emergency care physician at Ocean Medical Center in New Jersey. For the last year she has grappled with the unending coronavirus pandemic, working the frontline in the emergency room.  Right from the first beginnings through the first wave to the second wave life has been lived out with the somber reality of packed hospitals, with patients on ventilators and near death, fighting against a relentless virus.

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There are many young women who agonize about starting a family during their child-bearing years and are searching for solutions. In an earlier feature we had explored the route of adoption which can create families where none existed. For others, there is the less traveled way of surrogacy – conceiving their biological child through surrogacy.

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In a year of being marooned at home, our televisions and our laptops became family, giving us solace and comfort and the laughs we desperately needed. Our streaming services were especially cherished as they ensured the latest blockbusters and hot serials came to us when we couldn’t go to the theaters.

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