“Pride was so powerful for many of us. We Bhangra’d and garba’d our way through the gay district of Chicago, Boystown. Not only has it been 50 years since the riots at Stonewall, but it is the first pride for me after IPC 377 was overturned,”
Author: Lavina Melwani
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!
“we’re both fighting for something universal and something specific, and the specificity is about being an Indian-American, a desi Muslim American running to represent our communities which have been shut out of the conversation for far too long.”
New York Diary: The Yogis of Times Square Celebrate Summer Solstice Every year on June 20, thousands of yogis descend on Times Square, lay out their mats and turn the streets of Broadway into one giant yoga dham. These are mainstream Americans, mothers and grandmothers, teenagers and schoolkids all happy to do their asanas and sun salutations with honking traffic and buses on surrounding streets. The event is Solstice in Times Square: Mind Over Madness Yoga and experienced yoga practitioners as well as newbies come together for free yoga classes on the pedestrian plazas of Broadway. There are…
Mahabharata: A Retelling of a 4000 Year Old Family Feud Mahabharata’s epic journey asks, “When everyone believes they are right and their opponents wrong, how can one end a spiral of revenge?” Mahabharata, India’s epic tale in Sanskrit is 4000 years old but its story is relevant ever more in today’s challenging world. It is a story heard by Indians from childhood, and has been told and retold by families, made into books, films and serials. At its heart it is about profound spiritual and moral ideals which are universal and touch us all. Now this saga of…
NYIFF – A Feast of Award-Winning Indian Films in New York Anupam Kher, Anurag Kashyap, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and More! Yes, it’s that time of the year when the long-awaited New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) lights up the city with a collection of the most buzzy festival finds as well as award-winning films not only in Hindi and English but a riot of regional languages. In fact, it is an empowering festival where many regional languages of India, from Tamil to Bengali to Marathi, can be enjoyed by all, thanks to subtitles. It is a chance…
From Chennai to Harlem: Breaking Barriers Meet Dr. Anitha Srinivasan, First Woman CMO of Metropolitan Hospital Talk of woman power! She is the first woman Chief Medical Officer at Metropolitan Hospital, currently one of only two female CMOs across the 11 NYC Health + Hospitals hospital facilities, and the only woman of color in that role. Dr. Anitha Srinivasan, born and brought up in Chennai, found herself in Harlem at the age of 23 – and instantly felt connected to that essential part of New York – and has now spent the last 20 years caring for this often-forgotten…
What is Indian genius? Does it exist? A look at the meteoric rise of the Indian-Americans It’s the photograph that defines Indian-American success, big time. On the cover of the book Indian Genius by Meenakshi Ahamed, 16 of the celebrated Indian success stories seem to be posing side by side, beaming, as if sitting for a class portrait. There are the demi-gods of the tech world – Kanwal Rekhi, Vinod Khosla, Shantanu Narayen, Satya Nadella, Suhas Patil, Nikesh Arora; there are celebrated names like Dr. Deepak Chopra, Grammy winner business dynamo Chandrika Tandon, Fareed Zakaria, Dr. Vivek Murthy.…
New York Diary Photo of the Day The Sky is Blue, the River is Blue, but We don’t have to be Blue There’s a crazy, nippy rippling breeze on the East River waterfront; the unsettling cacophony of the news and the drumbeat of the world seems very far away. Life is just this moment. It’s just the here and now. This moment is to be savored in gratitude for all of life’s blessings. The river flows on, calm and peaceful. Unperturbed, unmoved, non-judgmental. It has seen many dreamers and strugglers like you and me through the ages. And still, it…
New York Diary An Evening with Indian Genius: Deepak Chopra, Chandrika Tandon and Fareed Zakaria In New York anything is possible, and you may find yourself rubbing shoulders with the likes of Deepak Chopra, Chandrika Tandon and Fareed Zakaria and some very stimulating and high-powered guests at a private book party hosted by Carol and Timothy Geithner. The celebration was for the launch of Meenakshi Ahamed’s thought-provoking book ‘Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America’. At this sparkling event, she had a conversation with Andrea Elliot, Pulitzer award-winning NYT journalist and author of ‘The Invisible Child’. …
Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp Wins £ 50,000 International Booker Prize 2025 This collection of twelve short stories by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, has won the International Booker Prize, at the Tate Modern, sharing the £ 50,000 prize between author and translator. It’s a deceptively tiny book but packs a powerful punch. This stirring collection of 12 short stories take you into worlds which you didn’t know existed: you knew about their place on the map, their vague geographies but you didn’t know how invested you would get in the people in these…
To bite into a mango and get that sweet, sticky juice squirting all over your chin and clothes is to drift back into blissful childhood, into days that seemed to have no beginning and no end.
Come Celebrate Cherry Blossoms in New York’s Central Park. I wanted to see the cherry blossoms but couldn’t get to Tokyo. So I saw the gorgeous cherry blossoms, not with an airline ticket but with my MTA card! I just walked to New York’s Central Park where the beautiful cherry blossoms are in full bloom. To honor the season, I wore my pink cherry blossom shirt and strolled the Reservoir in Central Park with my friends Aiko and Nita, and hundreds of others on this beautiful, windy Sunday. Everyone was out there, taking selfies and family pictures in…
New York Roots is sculptor Steve Tobin’s towering public art installation in Manhattan
Widows have had a hard lot in India and other South Asian countries. The breadwinner is the male and the whole community revolves around him.
New York DiaryArtist Alert! NYC Artist paints Spring into the cold East River Waterfront The cold winds are still blowing in New York but an early Spring has come to the NY waterfront by way of watercolors of the neighborhood painted by Japanese Bossa Nova artist, ukulele virtuoso, singer-songwriter Masafumi Sakai who lived in the Mt. Fuji area in Japan and has always loved to paint his surroundings. Usually I get to meet joggers, babies and dog walkers on the East River waterfront, but this being New York City – an al fresco art show is also…
Eye on Art Asian Art, Past and Present, Meet in Asia Society’s ‘(Re)Generations’ 04 March 2025 – 10 August 2025 Catch the show at Asia Society Contemporary Asian art stands on the step-stool of pre-modern art from the past and draws its inspiration from the work of past artists from different parts of Asia to continue the dialogue of how art can tell us about our world. This exhibition reintroduces key works in Asia Society Museum’s Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of pre-modern Asian art through the lenses of three leading contemporary artists, Rina Banerjee, Byron Kim, and…
Indian-Americans Love Hollywood and the Oscars! Indians love cinema, drama, music and they also love gold so it goes without saying that they deeply love the majestic golden man who symbolizes the best that world cinema can offer and which every film artiste dreams of one day taking home – Oscar! It’s now the eve of the Academy Awards and everyone is caught up in Oscar celebrations – either big ones close to the power people in Hollywood or smaller, intimate ones celebrating their own personal links to the Oscars. New Yorkers Gitesh and Rohi Pandya of Box Office…
The world may be in a sorry state right now but at the Indian Consulate it was all about joy and a commonality amongst people as India in New York in collaboration with Shanti Fund, commemorated #BlackHistoryMonth by celebrating the many contributions of the African-American community to society.It was a packed hall which showed the solidarity and caring between the two communities.The speakers included Consul General Binaya Srikanta Pradhan; New York State Senate Majority Leader, Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins ; Dr. Bernard Gantt, Vice President of Bronx Community College; Dr. Danielle Lee, Associate Dean at SUNY Old Westbury ;…
New York Diary – Photo of the DayIt’s a Dog’s Life! Sometimes a click of the camera tells you the whole story and gives a bit of emotion to bland signs that set the rules everywhere. ‘NO DOGS ALLOWED” – and then we see the cute little fellow who’s excluded waiting patiently outside – he may be a prince at home but rules are rules!
This is your chance to be a granter of dreams! Today is India Giving Day and Children’s Hope India asks you to remember those who need your help the most – the vulnerable children in our projects across India. No amount is too small, no dream too small. It is also HOLI, when good overcomes evil, light dispel the darkness of ignorance. Help us bring a splash of color into the lives of children in the form of books, pictures, arts, crafts and much more. Give children the tools they need to soar and reach for the stars! India…