Spellcheck needed – or you won’t get a coat, pant or shirt, says Lassi with Lavina during this jaunt in a Delhi market. You may end up with a cot, paint and something called a sirt!
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!
Lassi with Lavina Video of the Day – TinderIndia Tinder Comes to India The West is rushing into the East -and probably traumatizing a whole lot of people. The latest entrant is brave, bold Tinder! Watch this video to see it treading on social eggshells as generations react to it in the land of prudery and the Kama Sutra. Can they live together in harmony with Tinder? Indian parents expect you to marry someone if you so much as look at him – and now suddenly things are getting racy! Can Tinder become a comfortable part of the Indian household, as…
Predictably, the 16th Annual NYIFF (May 7 -14) is going to play havoc with your sleep cycle and your work life (and maybe even your love life) because you’ll want to sit zombie-like and see all the unexpected 40-plus offerings. You may as well give up your real life for a week!
The well-off population is the one gaining the most from subsidies on gold, train fare, aviation fuel, kerosene and small savings schemes in India. The rich get richer!
Trumping Up the White House What would a Donald Trump White House look like? Will it be the end of history as we know it? Will it be Trump Redecoration 101? I’m sure he can’t rebuild and put the Trump logo on the White House head, but a great many changes will seep in. As Patricia Leigh Brown wrote in The New York Times, “Trump is like a one-man Gilded Age, carrying opulence wherever he goes. We’ve never had someone running for president who is a bling artist.” Would love to know what you think are the changes one would…
Without language, there is emptiness, a void. Each of us has a unique memory of our earliest words, the numbers, nursery rhymes. In invoking those we get a word picture of our childhood, our deep joys, our irrational fears. The language that we speak gradually becomes a layering, a part of us, an extension of everything we do. ‘In Other Words’ is Jhumpa Lahiri’s first book in Italian.
Lassi with Lavina Guide to Upcoming Events: 2016 Asia Week Celebrates the Best of Asian Art [dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith the new year lying ahead of us as an exciting blank slate to be filled in, it’s good to know that you can pencil in some exciting art activities in the month of March! Yes, for all you Asian art lovers, March 10-19 is Asia Week, with its big celebration of Asian Art. A recent press cocktail announced that 46 international galleries and 5 auction houses – Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle New York, iGavel, and Sotheby’s – will once again be…
On International Women’s Day, we share this wonderful inspiring video from Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy which shows that men can be women’s best friends and strongest allies. It is with such simple, quiet stories of courage where people do what’s right, where men and women encourage each other and share the traumas of the world that a viable way of life, a decent society can emerge.
Maha Shivaratri – “Himself creates. Himself preserves. Himself destroys.”
For millions of Hindus Mahasivaratri is a very meaningful day, a day of oneness with the Supreme Being. Why do Hindus observe it? What is the Sivalinga? And do believers fast or feast on this day?
If you’ve ever wondered what the different rituals signify, the editors of Hinduism Today share an all-comprehensive report with readers of Lassi with Lavina, dispelling the myths and clarifying the power behind this observance.
Manning the cash register at a 711 or a gas station is no laughing matter – especially at night when the crazies and the desparadoes come out. Many an immigrant tale of striving and dreams has ended in a hail of gunshots. Here is one fiercely brave Indian immigrant who changed the outcome – but was she foolhardy or just plain lucky?
9786 people reached on FB Lassi with Lavina Atul Tolia, Jyoti Marwah and 6 others Like it. Lassi with Lavina Video of the Day Priyanka Chopra in her many avatars… Few of us would have thought that a Bollywood actress would one day be on the Academy Awards red carpet in Hollywood, coolly bantering with an HBO Asia reporter – in Hindi! The full of surprises Priyanka Chopra who’s pulled off so many tough things from beauty queen to Bollywood superstar to pop performer to super model to the lead in a hot new TV series, is capable of doing…
Are you all Oscar-ed out with the talk of black, white and brown, who said what, and who wore what? It’s been a real blitz on social media with the coverage of the 88th Academy Awards but one thing is certain – desis were really tickled to finally see South Asians at the Oscars. Yes, there was an Oscar for Asif Kapadia’s ‘Amy’ and for Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s ‘Girl in the River’, and Sanjay Patel’s short animated film ‘Sanjay’s Super Team’ was nominated for an Oscar.
Looking to do something fun and rewarding with the whole family this weekend? Check out Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘Dhanak’ which won the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International jury at the Berlin International Film Festival
Wonder what Charles Dickens would have thought of this Bollywood adaptation of his work? ‘Great Expectations’ which I read while in high school has now been brought to the big screen by Abhishek Kapoor and stars Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif and Tabu.
Who is the Indian Bollywood star with a huge mainstream fan following in Spain, Germany and France? Amitabh Bachchan? No. Aishwarya Rai? No. Shah Rukh Khan? No. It’s Sally Bollywood!
Who would have thought a time would come when there would be a Bollywood movie made by a totally non-Indian team, and its heroine Sally Bollywood would become a super-star with French, German and Spanish fans, her own series of books, stationery line, a comic strip, a luggage and textile line. WATCH THE VIDEOS!
The ritual of New Wave Indie films from India continues at the Museum of the Moving Image – so keep the last Sunday of the month free for some must-sees!
The phone line crackled across the Atlantic Ocean. I was in New York, and renowned artist Sakti Burman was in his country house in Anthe, near Toulouse, 650 km from his home in Paris. Thanks to satellite communications, the dialogue was as crystal clear as if we were sitting in the same room. Burman, 74, told me his 13-year-old grandson was with him, while his wife and the other grandchildren had gone for their daily walk.
Faculty members Eugene Friesen and Annette Philip flank A.R. Rahman during final bows at the end of the October 24 concert. Performers from the Berklee Indian Ensemble stand in the back row. Will You be the Next A.R. Rahman? The Next A.R. Rahman? That may seem impossible to imagine but wouldn’t you like to walk in his footsteps? Now, there’s a chance to be anointed by the Master Musician himself for a scholarship at Berkelee, to get your musical career started. Yes, the most yearned for dreams may come true – read on! A. R. Rahman Scholarship at Berklee [dropcap]W[/dropcap]orld-renowned…
Prashant Bhargava 1973-2015
Deeply sad to share this news – it’s a loss for all of us. Today the world has lost a wonderful human being and filmmaker – Prashant Bhargava, 42. We remember his brilliant filmmaking, his great potential and his unfinished stories. He gave us many gifts, from ‘Patang’ to ‘Radhe Radhe’ and the last, ‘Ammaji’ – a small meditation on the power of love.
The aspirations behind ‘Patang’ made everyone a part of Prashant Bhargava’s world, his humanity and his caring.
In this exhibition you get to see the unclothed form in all its avatars – sensual, erotic, aged, sorrowing, even in anguish. The nudes takes many forms, with inspiration drawn from the ancient sculptures, bazaar pin-up calendars as well as those done by many artists of nude models in their early years as part of their art school training.