Browsing: Features

Dr. Atul Gawande, in today’s lingo, is one cool dude. After all, which other noted surgeon listens to Bruce Springsteen as he performs surgery in the operation theater? As the lanky iconic writer-physician told a room full of fans at the New York Public Library, he’s in surgery twelve to fourteen hours and music helps him and his team get through the day.

“For me music is an important tool for doing that,” he said. “Number one, if I pick the music really well, then the nurses and the anesthesiologists that I want are likely to pick me for my room and I get known a little bit for my playlists, and get certain people I want coming in the door if I pick the music well. You do five cases in a day, it’s a long day. It definitely keeps me going. It’s great!”

Fathers leave children an inheritance of whatever they’ve acquired during their lifetime. But how is a musical legacy passed on? For fans of these master musicians, there is good news – the children of some legendary musicians are carrying on the legacy of their musical riches and New Yorkers had an opportunity to hear this new generation of performers at Symphony Space.

We talk to these emerging sons of famous fathers. What is it like to grow up in the home of a famous maestro like Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia? In this post, Rakesh Chaurasia talks about his famous ‘babuji’ and how he transformed his life. He says with heartfelt conviction: “I’ve not seen Krishna or heard the magic of his flute. So for me Hariji is Krishna.”

The brothers wanted us, the audience, to note that we can no longer listen and watch those whom they have, there are only a few who remain from a generation that was devoted to listening and learning. It is now up to us to sit with them, to learn from them.

We’ve all known and loved her – Meena Kumari, the tragic beauty who brought so many wonderful films to life. Many of us have seen her films in crowded theaters in India while another generation has experienced the power of her work via videos, catching on to her life after it was already over.

Most of us don’t know that she was a poet too, writing in Urdu. Now her words have been lovingly gathered into a book, ‘Meena Kumari, the Poet – A Life beyond Cinema’, and fans, poetry lovers and the merely curious will be able to see what made her tick, what were her innermost thoughts

‘Yadvi’ is the story of Princess Yaduvansh Kumari, daughter of Bhupinder Singh, Maharajah of Patiala, told by her two grand-daughters Jyoti Singh, who acted in it and directed it and Gauri Singh who wrote the script. I

 11,431 people reached on Lassi with Lavina FB page – 1214 post clicks – 111 Likes  Rita Sharma, Sonika Pal…

Our Priyanka Chopra at the fabulous Met Gala – tickets are just $30,000 apiece! It is the fashion event of the year and the gold standard by which all benefits are judged.

Yes, it’s that time of the year when New Yorkers get wrapped up in intriguing cinema from the Indian sub-continent, wonderful stories of the diaspora and varied lives – thanks to the New York Indian Film Festival  (NYIFF) which has been a gift of the Indo-American Arts Council and Aroon Shivdasani to New York City

This Mother’s Day, we look at what happens when children grow up and become parents for the first time. Sarina Jain grew up in America in the 70’s when kids were embarrassed by the ‘curry’ smells of their lunch and the Indian-ness of their names.

In the 60’s this bitter-sweet story about changing times and a changing India became a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and was made into ‘Shakespearewallah’ – a winsome little gem of a film by the intrepid team of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant – just their second venture after ‘The Householder’.

The New York Indian Film Festival, organized by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC)  has always prided itself on being about real people, ordinary people, and at the cinematic table there’s room for stories from every kind of independent film maker, in every format and in every regional language.

Ten ticking minutes which won’t ever come back are a valuable commodity.
You could spend them waiting for the subway train to arrive or watching your chicken biryani cook on the stove.
Or you could spend ten minutes having a most happening conversation with the very happening Kumail Nanjiani! Well, that’s what I was lucky enough to do – and I tried to squeeze an hour’s conversation into those ten minutes – and we really talked fast!

Remembering legendary actor Omar Sharif on his 86th birthday through a Google Doodle, some video interviews and one’s own memories of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘Dr. Zhivago’ and other films.

NYIFF 2018 promises tributes to Sridevi, Shashi Kapoor and a Merchant-Ivory Retrospective besides independent films, documentaries, shorts and regional films. A film buff’s dream!

I have had mixed feelings all day – a sense of sadness that children have had to lose their innocence, their childhood to take on such large, ugly issues. Issues of life and death, of morality and cowardice, of justice and standing up for their rights

They are superwomen who can fly and carry thousands with them to distant lands. I speak of course of Air India’s magnificent women pilots, the largest such force in the world.

Art is often about aesthetics and beauty but in Chittaprosad’s work it was about the ugliness of life and the horrors of the Bengal famine. This retrospective of Chittaprosad’s work is a not to be missed event for it illuminates the life of a little known artist whose searing body of work is being seen for the first time in New York.

Celebrities may wear the armor of success but as Anupam Kher shows they all have human failings and frailties and he shares ways to deal with everything from stress to fear to failure. And that is why readers will catch glimpses of themselves in the pages of his new book, find strength for the days they lose confidence or feel useless. Says Kher, “They need to discover that the best thing about them is them. It is the truth, it is not just a catchy title. I believe in it.”

you know that there’s another showman named Raj Kapoor – a young Indian-American in Hollywood who’s on the Oscars production team? His company, Raj Kapoor Productions, designed the screen content and performances for the big night.

Superstar Rekha shares pictures of her friend the late great Sridevi