Author: Lavina Melwani

There are not too many chefs who can cook for humans and the gods with equal panache but New York chef Vikas Khanna is certainly one of them. He has helped cook langar at the Golden Temple, exchanged hugs with Amma and also created gourmet dishes at the high-end New York restaurant, Junoon. Not to mention cooking a Satvic meal at the White House!

Yet this celebrity chef started out unsung and unknown in a simple, middle-class family in Amritsar. Growing up, Vikas’ life was different from that of other kids who would be running around, playing cricket and climbing trees. He had a disability as his feet were not aligned.

“Where I found my shelter was in the kitchen. Simple, home-cooked meals became like prasad for me, and Biji, my grandmother, my priest. She didn’t teach me recipes, she taught me the power of food to heal, to connect people.”

Summer is here and it’s a great time to indulge in the beauty of Central Park or just window shop in the dream stores down Fifth Avenue. There’s also a delightful place, a hidden gem, to sit down and rest your tired feet, chat with friends and grab a drink. The place is the Two E Bar and lounge at the Pierre, which is part of the Taj Group. Few people know of this intimate spot in the city where you can enjoy cocktails away from the madding crowd. Now every Tuesday you get to hear Jazz and drink cocktails inspired by Mad Men.

“How many of us like to go to social events? Let’s be honest. A bunch of strangers standing around, some have their friends, some don’t; some are nice; some are not. Finding your place at a bunch of single networking events can be daunting, especially if you are on the introverted side.”
Guest Blog – Single Desi

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Like any good movie, the five-day festival had lots of action, drama, side stories and even back stories. There were panels, discussions, parties and after-parties, all a shorthand for absorbing the diverse material and networking with film buffs.

It was in many ways a New York story, with the opening day red carpet taking place outside the historic Paris Theater (a favorite of the late Ismail Merchant), right opposite the glitzy Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue. Horse carriages trotted by near Central Park, horns honked as cars sped and pedestrians rushed by in frentic NY fashion, a few stopping to see what the hullabaloo was about.

It was a power show of Indian success in America and so it was quite symbolic that an Indian flag flies proudly outside the historic hotel where the event was held on Fifth Avenue. The hotel of course is the beautiful Pierre, owned by the Taj Group, and was the venue of The Light of India Awards honoring Indian-American achievers.

The red carpet where the celebrities walked was not really red but the royal blue of the Taj and the guests who walked on it were royalty too of the NRI breed, including Shashi Tharoor, Amitav Ghosh, Lisa Ray, Sabeer Bhatia, Padma Lakshmi, Jagdish Bhagwati, and Siddhartha Mukherjee, to name a few.

Take away Bollywood from the masses and there would probably be a national uprising! Indian cinema has something for everyone: the emotional storylines, drawn out romances and musical numbers soothe the soul, and the comedy, often unintended, can bring a smile to the grimmest life.

It is amazing to see how all of India awaits the release of a Bollywood movie with bated breath. The film is ‘Bol Bachchan’ from Rohit Shetty who hit box office gold with the Golmaal series and the Ajay Devgn starrer ‘Singham’ last year.

Now he’s brought all those fail-proof elements and combined them with the Bachchan factor – not one, not two but three Bachchans! Junior Bachchan plays a dual role in the film and dad Amitabh Bachchan features in a rousing musical number in the movie with the two hunks Ajay and Abhishek and hordes of sexy dancers. Now trending on Twitter!

“Delhi was once a paradise,

Where love held sway and reigned;

But its charm lies ravished now

And only ruins remain.”

So wrote Bahadur Shah Zafar, poet and art patron, the last of the great Mughal emperors, as the mighty empire of his forefathers dissolved and the new rajahs arrived in town, the East India Company traders who were fast evolving into the new Colonial masters.
Those times are long gone, and Delhi, the spunky never-say-die city which re-invents itself after each invasion, is thriving once again.

The beautiful Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan was the venue for the launch of Meera Gandhi’s coffee table book ‘Giving Back’ hosted by Barbara Tober, Chairman Emerita of the museum, and Chris Meigher, publisher of Quest Magazine.

What can be more American than the motels which dot the vast expanse of America? They are a part of the road journeys which almost every American takes, the summer vacation memories that are part of the collective experience of the nation. Small mom and pop places, bigger franchises of known names and of course upscale hotels – and often they have an Indian-American connection. It is a well-known fact that Indian-Americans are very dominant in the hospitality industry in the US. In his new book ‘Life Beyond the Lobby’ , Pawan Dhingra explores the Indian hand in these rest stops which we all are so familiar with.

It was a day of celebrating women’s inherent potential and success stories. Over 260 women came to Children’s Hope India annual Spring Lunch to support vocational projects for the girl child in the urban slums and rural India. Designer Ranjana Khan spoke eloquently about her journey as model, wife, mother and entrepreneur in the dizzying world of high fashion.

“Let’s be honest – many Indian women want sons, not daughters,” she said. “And yet here we are in this beautiful room filled with beautiful women who are all doing such interesting things with their lives. Today, I have meet salsa dancers, kick boxers and successful businesswomen.”

The verdict is in – Dharun Ravi gets 30 days imprisonment for spying with a webcam on Tyler Clementi, his roommate having a sexual encounter with a male, and then tweeting about it. Clementi later committed suicide. Did the punishment fit the crime or was it too light?

2012 marks the 100th year of Indian Cinema, so what better time to go on a filmi marathon?
Luckily, the 2012 New York Indian Film Festival is just around the corner, so we can eat, drink and dream cinema for 5 days!
But Indian cinema is so much more than just Bollywood and here are 10 tips to help you get the best of this multifaceted festival which brings you a rich mix of regional and Hindi cinema.
The 12th annual New York Indian Film Festival is presented by Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) and runs May 23-27

Ah Indians! They love nothing more than to hear of desis succeeding big time, be it in the homeland or in the Diaspora. So it’s that time of the year again when the hunt is on to recognize excellence of Indians Abroad across different fields.

Each year the search gets a bit more challenging: In the sphere of business excellence, how do you choose between Ajit Jain and Anshuman Jain, among other noted names? In science and technology, among others, you have three noted physicians who also happen to be writers: Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, Dr. Atul Gawande and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

If the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was really a hotel in Rajasthan, I think I’d like to spend a few weeks there for there’s just such a kookie charm about the going-to-seed establishment and the young manager Sonny Kapoor, played by Dev Patel with maniac energy and chutzpah, is such an exuberant, happy host.

Indeed ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ gives outsourcing a whole new dimension. What if old age could be outsourced – to India? The film follows a group of British retirees who decide to move to India to get more bang for their buck – and discover a whole new world at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ‘for the elderly and beautiful’. Recently the stars of the film were in New York and weighed in on their experiences in India.

Can’t get to South Beach? Come to the next best thing – Children’s Hope India’s much anticipated annual Spring Lunch – Miami Beat! Over 250 women are expected at this fun event poolside at the beautiful Crest Hollow Country Club in Long Island. Ranjana Khan, the noted designer, will be honored as Woman of Distinction for having achieved success and balanced the worlds of work and family perfectly.

Who are Shah Rukh Khan fans? No anthropological thesis this, but anecdotal evidence and what my eyes saw at the recent Yale event where the Bollywood Badshah was honored with the Chubb Fellowship, I would have to say SRK fans are an ageless lot, going all the way from babyhood to Golden Oldies.

Actually maybe it starts even earlier with Shah Rukh-mad moms watching his movies during their pregnancies, giving their unborn babies a taste of Chammak Challo while still in the womb!

For many Indians living in America, India is the talisman, the sacred thread around their wrists, which connects them to the past and their changing tomorrows. Visit any Indian American family and there are bound to be keepsakes which link them to their lost homeland.

For some it may be a frayed album of photographs frozen in time, for others it may be a much loved folk painting or a pair of tablas, percussion drums. For me it is my silver icons of Krishna and Radha, on their own carved throne, which sits is in my home in Long Island, NY.

I look at it and I am transported back to my home in New Delhi in the India of decades ago. My mother would bathe the many Gods in her home shrine and carefully put new clothing on these mini figurines, cutting holes in silken cloth with a small pair of scissors.

“Before touching ground, I had already decided that this film would be about children. Eye disease is an affliction commonly associated with the old. But, one fifth of the world’s blind children live in India. In my mind, it’s a demographic that still has their whole lives ahead of them. I needed a Director of Photography who was a master at artfully capturing children.

Marcelo Bukin, who had shot and directed many award winning films (Dreaming Nicaragua), was originally from Argentina, but had spent time shooting films for foundations in Latin America. His reel of a little cobbler boy named Joseu speaking about how his father beats his mother, got me.” – Joya Dass, filmmaker, ‘First Sight’

It was quite a celebration of women during Women’s History Month at the Indian American Forum in Long Island. Although lots of supportive men had turned up for this gala dinner, it was very much a women’s grand hurrah.

‘Indians, We’ve Got Your back!’ That could well be the message of a recent press briefing at the Indian Consulate in New York where the Consul General of India, Prabhu Dayal announced a weekly open day for all Indian citizens in the US where they could bring up their problems to the attention of consulate officials, and seek redress.