Now in the 2020’s, we are certainly seeing more action. It’s a groundswell with Indian-Americans in the corridors of power, in think-tanks, political campaigns, in community organizations and often as commentators on national television.
Browsing: Indian-American
Meet Senator Elizabeth Warren’s India connection – her Indian-American son-in-law from Uttar Pradesh and her three grandchildren of mixed Indian-American heritage.
Six of the eight winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee had used a coaching service called SpellPundit and the result was big success.
It was a packed audience at the Minetta Lane Theater, an intimate off-Broadway house in Greenwich Village. Everyone was waiting for the show to begin; the lights had been dimmed. A man with a suitcase suddenly strutted up the aisle, wide-eyed and with an innocent, open smile, waving to the audience.
It was Azgi, immigrant restaurant worker from India, on his way to the America of Dreams.
elanie Chandra is a South Asian actress who has been seen in several Hollywood movies and TV shows including ‘Code Black’. She currently is producing and acting in ‘Surina and Mel’ with ‘Outsourced’ actress Surina Jindal.
So what is ‘Surina and Me’l about? As Melanie Chandra describes it, it is loosely based on the real-life friendship of Surina (brash, non-committal) and Melanie (poised, type A) the show follows this odd-couple duo as they unsuccessfully navigate their lives as grown-ups, one micro-aggression at a time.
So there we all sat at an elegant black-tie dinner at Pier Sixty in Manhattan with the movers and shakers of the tri-state area, all listening in pin-drop silence to Mamta Mahato, a 28-year-old sahiya from the village of Dasiyadih in Jharakand. She totally believed in herself and her work and dressed in a simple white and green sari, she related how she, a 10th class pass married wife and mother, got the courage to change the village for the better and actually save infants from ill-health and death.
News That You Can Use: You could get an annual scholarship of $4000 to study…
The US has several Indian-Americans doing important work in academia. Meet Beheruz. N. Sethna, President of the University of West Georgia with a budget of $ 100 million and 100 programs of study through the doctoral level.
He’s a Parsi who’s got some important firsts affixed to his name: he is the first person of Indian origin to ever become the president of a university anywhere in the US. He’s also the first person from any ethnic minority to become president of a predominantly white or racially-integrated university or college in Georgia.
If you thought Miss America had to be blonde and blue eyed, you have to meet Nina Davuluri, the current Miss America. Not only did her dark almond shaped eyes and dusky complexion showcase her Indian roots but she also won big with her rousing Bollywood dance number from ‘Om Shanti Om.’Yes, Miss America is of Indian origin – and proud of it!
Indeed, this Miss America is the first with Indian roots and really shows what’s special about America: you can be of a different heritage, speak a different language, pray to a different god, yet you are American. A chat with Nina Davuluri to find out how’s she’s doing.
“It is that time of year again…Diwali, the festival of lights is upon us….those of you who are just graduated college and are 20-something women probably have a lot of family and friends that they celebrate with.
Those of you 30 or 40 year old single women are probably trying to figure out a way to keep the spirit alive in your heart and soul without the frequent trips back to India and the constant reminder that India lives inside of you.” Guest Blog – Single Desi
It’s the biggest block party in America with a desi touch. In fact, it’s become an American tradition – the AIA Deepavali Mela at South Street Seaport where thousands of people of Indian origin gather to celebrate their most important festival – Diwali. Having been to many Diwali Melas in India, I can attest this is as big, as grand and as fun as the ones back in India.ndians are also famous for making and breaking records of all kinds and this year you also get to dance with DJ Rekha and set the Guinness World Record for the largest Outdoor Bhangra party!
By winning the Miss America title, Nina Davuluri has scored big for all those little brown girls who were always the outsider and had to answer the taunt “But where are you really from?” Generations of kids were often asked why their mothers had dots on their heads and whether they lived in huts and about their connection to tigers, snakes and elephants.
The title of Miss America makes Nina Davuluri as American as apple pie, as American as American can be. In fact, you can dance the bhangra, eat dosas and sambar, worship any God you choose – and you’re still American. Davuluri’s win shows Indian-American children that their many differences are what make America rich and special, and don’t make them any less American
“Once in the US, much like in most Jhumpa Lahiri stories, my husband plunged into his work leaving me to figure out the foreign land and how much we would like each other.
Well, we had our tussles but America finally gave in and I made a place there. All this took a little more than a year. I finally found a job and discovered a life I could actually fall in love with. However, I remember us being really stubborn about our resolve of returning to our country ‘no matter what.'”
Guest Blog – Chatty Divas
It was a power-packed evening with over 580 people from the worlds of business, arts and philanthropy. AIF, whose honorary chair is President Bill Clinton, has impacted the lives of more than 1.7 million of India’s poor. This evening raised big bucks – $ 1. 5 million – for AIF’s Market Aligned Skills Training (MAST) Program which provides underprivileged youths skill training in India.
“The Indian community in America has certainly ‘arrived’. Indians are everywhere, from finance to politics to media, and they are not just treading water either – they are rising to senior positions and directing the destinies of industries. They are also greatly involved in philanthropic work, not just for the homeland but right here at home as well, and they are truly assimilated into the American culture and values.
And that is what makes Gutpa’s fall even more problematic. He represents everything good about being Indian-American – educated, polished, humble, generous, statesmanlike – and yet his choices later in life throw all that away for the sake of money and in his quest for even higher status.” – Sanjay Sanghoee – Guest Post
Desis are a dynamic, evolving breed who are constantly surprising themselves and others with their creativity, success, and growing place in the world. And yet, despite all this, there are some things about desi culture that never seem to change, such as our craving for spicy food, our inherently musical nature, our extremely dry sense of humor…and our work ethic.
No matter how much we evolve, desis just cannot seem to give up the laissez faire style of working that we have long practiced in our motherland and which we import with amazing tenacity to the new world. So mind-boggling is this phenomenon, in fact, that it is difficult to express its essence in plain prose and requires an imaginary conversation between two desis to be communicated effectively. Guest Blog.
Can you appropriate two worlds? Or to put it less elegantly, can you eat your cake and have it too? The Sa Dancers once again prove that you can, shifting effortlessly as they do between the world of business and the world of fabulous dance.
Their latest showcase at the Alvin Ailey Theater showed how effortlessly they mix their roots and faraway homelands with the here and now of frenetic New York.
The SA Dance Company took an audience of over 200 people on a journey into Indian villages, sitting on an imaginary slow-moving boat, then to Mughal India, and yes, out into the pouring Indian monsoon. The music was a wonderful blend of folk and Bollywood, modern and pop and the dance steps spawned from many different choreographies created a pattern all their own.
“This is really my account of a year of returning to India. It’s strange how eight years of living somewhere else changes your entire outlook. I came back thinking I was coming home and home it was but it was eons away from where I had left it.
It is only when more than a year has gone by in a place that it starts spreading its tentacles around you, shaping you to fit to its contours, nipping you a little here and molding an extension there.”
Guest Blog: Chatty Divas
One never knew there could be so many shades, so many textures and so many patterns in black and white! At the Children’s Hope India Black and White Ball, over 450 guests had come dressed in these two stark, striking colors and created a surreal, stylish world. This being an Indian event, the color red had been thrown in, and even the decor, right down to the table linens, was black and white with a touch of red.
Pier Sixty in Manhattan was transformed into a stunning black and white universe in celebration of CHI’s 20th year of service to children. Two decades ago this New York-based non-profit started as a small group of women professionals hoping to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged children.
Trends sometimes turn into traditions. For the immigrants who came from India, Christmas was often a lonely time of the year. Fast forward a few decades and many of them will tell you it’s now a favorite time of the year, with non-stop shopping, social get-togethers and yes, even a tree and lights, thanks to their American-born children. Now these same American Born desis are starting a new Christmas tradition – their very own desi Christmas Carol!
‘Bumbug the Musical’, produced by LAUGHistan, is a hilarious rock musical playing in Manhattan, and it could become the next holiday tradition with a desi twist to it. Created by New York actors and writers Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri, it’s a joyous celebration of immigrant life where everyone seems to bring their own traditions to be mixed up in the giant blender of America.