It’s taken a century of lobbying – both formal and informal, organizational and personal – to arrive in the America of 2010 where Bobby Jindal sits in the Governor’s Mansion in Louisiana, Nikki Haley is poised to become the next governor of South Carolina, and where scores of Indian-Americans are serving in the Obama White House and many more are standing for political office.
Browsing: India
It’s not often that you run into Bollywood biggie Karan Johar at a makeshift Chowpatty or chat with Mira Nair while eating kulfis at a fake Pasta Lane – and that too in the heart of New York, inside the Grand Hyatt Hotel!
The event was An Evening in Mumbai, and like the real Mumbai, this imitation Mumbai glittered. Every one of the guests was dressed in Bollywood glam, a mad medley of colors and jewels. For a day, every guest was a star and walked down the red carpet.
“My father was a CEO, so I grew up in a family that gave me a very real sense of the positive impact that business can have upon society – from providing goods and services to creating jobs to building entire communities,” says Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School.
“You know what it is with me – I’m all heart. I can’t do anything else. Everything I do, for every decision I make – of course I use my brain – but my heart kind of takes over, and I can’t fight it. So music was just something I couldn’t give up.” – Jay Sean
“Outsourced” is a loaded word, particularly in today’s economic climate, so NBC’s new serial is creating quite a buzz. A comedy about a Mid-Western novelty company that outsources its call center to India, it’s a showcase for Indian-American talents.
So is this the big one? “Absolutely,” says Rizwan Manji. “Correct me if I’m wrong but I think it’s the first time that there’s been a television show on a major network that has a primarily Indian cast. So I think it’s a huge deal – it’s scary but it’s a big opportunity!”
More than three million students travel outside their home countries to study—a 57 percent increase in just the past decade. What’s more, those extraordinary numbers are projected to nearly triple, to 8 million by 2025, says Vivek Wadhwa.
Sometimes you buy a piece of contemporary Indian art and get a love story too in the bargain! Cinq Sens (Five Senses) by M. F. Husain is a powerful work originally gifted by the artist many, many years ago to film director Roberto Rossellini and his Bengali wife, Sonali Dasgupta.
It was a love match he helped bring about, for at that time Rossellini was married to the noted actress Ingrid Bergman and Sonali was the wife of a documentary film-maker in Calcutta. The painting is estimated at $500,-700,000 and is being auctioned by Sotheby’s, and here’s the story behind it.UPDATE – IT SOLD FOR $782,500
At I-View Film Festival 2010 , a powerful band of cinema warriors is coming to town – imagine directors like Vishal Bhardwaj, Aparna Sen, Onir, and Rituparno Ghosh in the flesh along with wonderful actors like Rahul Bose, Rituparna Sengupta, Konkona Sen, Raima Sen, and Juhi Chawla.
This year on 10/10/10 everyone is a Mumbaikar at heart and together we celebrate that great city by the sea which has shown a lot of courage and resilience under attack. Children’s Hope India presents An Evening in Mumbai Gala
Ten years down, who knows what we’ll find. Dosas being served in American schools and college campuses? Dosas in vending machines? Dosas-to-Go at fast food outlets?
He’s designed togs for Jay Sean, Fugitive, Mumzy Stranger, Juggy D, Ameet Chana, Bikram Singh and several other musicians and actors. Now he’s designing for the new film ‘London Town’ and soon the staff of Bloombury Hotel in London will be wearing uniforms styled by him.
Meet Saran Kohli, 24, a fashion designer from London who translates musicality into a fashion statement with an urban collection of menswear launching in New York.
Will students be heading to American universities to get their degrees as Ayurvedic doctors? Will patients seek out practitioners of this 5000 year old system of medicine from India when next they have health problems? And will Ayurveda form the basis for new health and beauty products, even of restaurant menus, in the US?
GUEST BLOG by Alex White Mazzarella
“It’s occurred to me that the way we measure what people want and need to be happy, healthy and fruitful is relative to the context and messages our world delivers to us. But one thing seems certain to me, and that is that people who live as part of a genuine community larger than themselves can identify their individual humanity.”
For once, the gregarious Shah Rukh Khan didn’t have a word to say. He stood as still as a statue – oh, what am I saying – this Shah Rukh Khan was a statue – a wax one at that! The famous tourist attraction Madame Tussauds in Times Square has now immortalized superstar King Khan in wax, and throngs of fans came to see him holding court in the Bollywood Zone.
India is serenity, beauty, calmness. India is noise, pollution, crowds. India is irony, humor, drama. India is sharp contrasts, extreme wealth and extreme poverty.
India is a billion people and you get to see many facets of their lives in Clive Limpkin’s book,’India Exposed: The Subcontinent A-Z’ (Abbeyville Press)
Who would have thought Osama Bin Ladin could make you smile? The face that gives one nightmares becomes central to ‘Tere Bin Laden’, a good-natured, cheeky comedy which is almost a fable about America’s war on terror.
What would the real Osama say if he saw ‘Tere Bin Laden’? Says director Abhishek Sharma, “I think even he would be amused to see the way we have used Bin Laden tapes to show the madness in the post 9/11 world.”
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“It is the devotees who humanize Guruvayurappan, investing Him with characteristics and traits that bring Him into their lives at a level where He ceases to be a distantly enshrined divinity. They display an intimacy with Him that in no way diminishes their reverence, expressing emotions that speak volumes about their sense of His accessibility and understanding.” – Pepita Seth
The incidence of prostate cancer amongst South Asians in the US is just 4.6 per 100,000 population as compared to 104.3 per 100,000 amongst non-South Asians. Yet when they come in for treatment, 85 percent of them are usually in the late stages, as compared to late stage prostate cancer diagnosis for non-South Asians which is around 15 percent.
Given the sheer numbers of the South Asian population around the world, it is imperative they get checked early. Dr. Ashutosh K. Tewari, an expert on prostate cancer and robotics, discusses the hard facts.
‘Giving Back’ is Meera Gandhi’s cinematic tribute to all her friends in high places and the good that they do for others through organizations for women and children, addressing everything from human rights to micro-credit. In the film she interviews Cherie Blair, Kerry Kennedy, U2’s singer Bono, Peter Raj Singh, interior designer Clodagh, Steven Rockefeller and others.
Watch the video.
Thousands tread the crowded pavements of Times Square, surrounded by the glittering, psychedelic signage which includes the world-famous NASDAQ billboard.
New York City is certainly the place where wild dreams can come true. As Archana Patchirajan, a fairly new transplant from India, recalls, “Exactly 5 months back the three of us were walking in Times Square and said to each other, ‘We will be on the NASDAQ billboard one day!’ – and here we are!” And this dream did come true.