It was the night of maharajas and maharanis, of pomp and splendor. The occasion was Children’s Hope India Royal India Gala and Pier Sixty in Chelsea Piers, Manhattan had been transformed into a royal retreat with life-size peacocks, golden sculptures, rich silks and gorgeous live mannequins draped in Mughal couture. Yes, hookahs and turbans too!
Photo: Shaun Mader
Is Madhuri Dixit, Bollywood Superstar, really moving back to India?
Economies and nations can fall, but there is frenzied speculation in the Indian media about this earth-shattering move. The reasons for the move are being analyzed with much indepth analysis by media seers and gossip columnists. Chill, folks! This is the new global age when anyone who can buy an air-ticket can fly wherever they like and for whatever reasons they like!
Meanwhile, one lucky fan in Denver managed to come face to face with the Superstar – in the shoe store! And she heard it right from Madhuri’s mouth – yes, she is moving back to India! This story has all the old-fashioned magic of a fan meeting an unreachable star…truly the world is full of random surprises….
While most of us clamor for ‘Me-Time’, a fresh-off-the-boat (FOB) immigrant shares how frustrating and lonely time alone can be for someone in a new country, caught in limbo without work, friends or a big supportive family clan. At times like this ‘Me Time’ can be almost a curse. Guest Blog – Chatty Divas on the view from two continents
“When our parents got married and migrated to America, marriage was a necessity – now it is choice – a choice to live happily – or unhappily – in holy matrimony.
My parents migrated to America so that I would have a better chance at life – to make my own choices and to discover a life and personality that is my own.
I mean, personally, why would I want to go back to tradition, when I am so used to living on my own terms? For me, I have just seen too much to go back and live a life where I haven’t seen enough.”
Guest Blog (Photo: Eole)
‘The ‘Emperor of All Maladies’, subtitled A Biography of Cancer, won the Pulitzer Prize for Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. This week it won the 2011 PEN/E.O Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. An interview with this award-winning author about the writing of the book.
The challenge of ‘The Emperor of All Maladies’ was that in taking on such a formidable foe, Mukherjee had to create a complex tapestry which was by no means linear. It went all over the map, backwards, forwards, even sideways, zig-zagging between the impersonal and the very personal, between a clinical trial with 10,000 patients to the emotional tale of one particular patient. “The challenge was to take all that and make narrative out of it – it really is the most invisible thing in the book, it is the bones of the book,” says Siddhartha Mukherjee.
What makes India incredible? Is it the magnificent tigers, the palaces, the ancient temples, the unforgettable landscapes? A returning NRI discovers India’s true beauty lies somewhere else. Join Kriti Mukherjee on a ride through traffic clogged streets and uncaring mobs on a voyage of discovery. (Photo: Wili Hybrid)
“Salman was my first boyfriend. I had a huge crush on him as a teenager. The crush led me to leave Florida and move to India and join films just so I could find him and get married to him. You have a license for doing idiotic things when you’re 15. However, I do not have a single regret of pursuing my first love.”
Somy Ali chats about Salman Khan, the Single Life, and her non-profit No More Tears on ‘Sex and the Single Desi’
Are you a lover of contemporary Indian art who always thought collecting art was beyond your means?
Did you think you’d have to mortgage your house – and sell your soul – to obtain an MF Husain?
Were you always intimidated by the art auctions which seemed so elitist and such a closed club?
Well here’s Anu Nanavati Chaddha, Director of Saffronart in New York, to show the path to newbie collectors and to answer all the questions you had about contemporary Indian art – but were afraid to ask.
Project Chirag began as a student-run organization in Free Enterprise at H.R. College of Commerce & Economics in Mumbai. Since its inception, the Project has purchased solar equipment, trained and hired paraplegic Indians to assemble the parts, and then installed the panels and lanterns in thousands of households across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.
“One of my friends in the States is a head turner. Not only is she unrealistically stunning but is also an extremely bright and successful lawyer. She is just the woman we all aspire to be. But what meets the eye is in sheer contrast to the life she leads.
At home with her husband she is a subdued woman who does not dare speak – her life is run more in fear than in the worship she so obviously deserves.” – Chatty Diva
Anand Giridharadas’s ‘India Calling’ – evocative and insightful – is almost a road map to the New India which has so much of the old India mixed in it. The book has been re-introducing young Indian-Americans to the land many left as children or may have never seen. Then there is the older generation of Indian-Americans who came as immigrants many years ago and still see the India they left decades ago, frozen in time.
“Ink to paper is thoughtful
Ink to flesh, hard-core.
If Shakespeare were a tattooist
we’d appreciate body art more.
~Carrie Latet”
M.F. Husain – Goodbye to an Icon. (September 17, 1915 – June 9, 2011)
The great artist died of a heart-attack in London, far from his homeland of India. He was a giant of the contemporary Indian art world and there are as many colorful stories about him, about the controversies swirling about him, as there are unmatchable pieces of art which encapsulate the complexities of India. New York gallerist and collector Kent Charugundla shares some untold stories about the flamboyant artist. Join in sharing your comments and memories of M F Husain.
An NRI discovers time is a very different commodity in New Delhi and New York
EST – Eastern Standard Time – Or I must Eat and Sleep so I am in Time for my meeting.
IST – Indian Standard Time – Or I will Sleep and take my own Time because my Time is only mine – no one else owns it…
No wonder IST is also known as Indian Stretchable Time!
Kriti Mukherjee in The Chatty Divas blog…
“As I get older, I find myself trying to rediscover some of the values of our Indian culture which shaped my childhood and still run as an uneasy undercurrent through my adult psyche, but for the most part have been suppressed in the desire to adapt to the New York lifestyle.
As with all value systems, of course, not everything is desirable and it’s necessary to pick and choose the best of both Indian and American values in order to be truly happy.” – Sanjay Sanghoee
On a hot summer day a stranger intrudes into an air-conditioned private home in Delhi and leaves food for thought about old age, pride and the dignity of labor.
First blog post on The Chatty Divas.
How are friendships created? What attracts very different people to each other? This blog introduces two fast friends who lived thousands of miles apart, one in New York, the other in New Delhi. They got to know each other through Facebook and have now actually met. Meet Sulekha aka Lucks, and Kriti who will both regale you with tales from their own frenetic worlds. Sometimes you will see your own lives and your own truths reflected in there. They chat a lot so be prepared to listen…
As we, the New Americans, mature and root ourselves further in the sacred and secular landscape of America, we see a need to build national and local organizations focusing on serving — with Seva Bhava — contemporary needs of our growing community and the community at large.
Seva or service is an integral part of our culture and traditions, an inside-out approach to life. Many individuals and organizations volunteer and serve in soup kitchens, shelters, health camps, and disaster relief. But few Dharmic – Hindu, Jain,Sikh, Buddhist – institutions have the capacity to provide sustained social services and do seva as is prevalent in other faith based institutions in America. GUEST BLOG
“There is a stark disparity between the rich and the rest of India and the wealthy try to insulate themselves from the unpleasant realities of their homeland.
There is a parallel between what’s going on in India today and what we are witnessing right here in the US – a rapidly widening gap between the haves and have-nots and a division into distinct ‘classes’, although in this case driven by economics and not race or culture.” GUEST BLOG
The only job he ever applied for was at McDonalds – and he was turned down! He is a high school dropout who at the age of 16 went on to create ClickAgent, an Internet business which sold for $ 40 million.
He sold his next start-up, BlueLithium, to Yahoo for a whopping $ 300 million. Now he’s on to his third start-up, RadiumOne, and is having the time of his life.
Meet Gurbaksh Chahal, the kid from Tarn Taran, near Amritsar, who has gone on to become a major serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. He has been on Oprah before millions of viewers and has written a best selling book. Worth over $100 million, he’s got the fabulous penthouse and the Lamborghini and all the perks. He was proclaimed as the most Eligible Bachelor in America in 2009. Now, at 28, he’s still single!