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There was a time many years ago when Indian-Americans had to travel to India to get their holiday outfits, music and jewelry – or at least drive down to the nearest Little India, which may have been miles away, depending on which part of the US you lived in. Now times have changed and your India fix is a click away, thanks to eBay.
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Browsing: Indian Americans
If there’s one thing that Indians across the world share, it’s their love for movies. As newborns, they are weaned on cinema by star-struck parents and as toddlers, their first steps are mingled with dance steps learned from Bollywood movies on video. School kids can rattle off famous dialogues from Hindi films and as young adults, they often take their cues from the romantic sequences in their favorite films. Even patriotism and national integration are often invoked by Bollywood’s rousing lyrics and over-the-top emotions.
This year marks the 100th year of Indian cinema and this vibrant industry seems to be gaining in momentum and strength across the world. Immigrants have brought their love of cinema to America, carrying memories of the golden age of cinema of the 50’s, the wonderful films of V. Shantaram, Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, and Guru Dutt.
Young Indian-Americans have acquired this passion for film from their immigrant parents and in this essay, which first appeared on the Smithsonian’s blog, a look at their dreams and aspirations.
“Being Indian myself, it has always puzzled me when fellow Indians express their support for the Republican Party, which has rarely shown concern for the interests of minorities. Then why do some support them?
A big reason is financial. Republicans are big on free enterprise and low taxes, which plays well with immigrants who are insecure about their financial future in the new world and with those whose priority is wealth-creation. But another factor, equally powerful, is the need for acceptance in mainstream society; and nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in Dinesh D’Souza, the President of King’s College in New York, an author and a prominent Republican mouthpiece.
Dinesh D’Souza, of course, is Indian.” (Guest Blog – Talkback with Sanjay Sanghoee)
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.
‘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.
Some things never change. Lord Krishna played holi with Radha and her sakhis in the lush groves of Brindaban in timeless time – and now we are still playing it in the 21st century, not only in India but across the diaspora – even on board a ship anchored off New York city, no less!
Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, is here heralding spring, joy and togetherness. In India, the streets are turned multicolored with every hue imaginable. At private parties there are pichkari-fights as revelers get splashed with color, dunked in pools full of colored water, and splurge on sweets and gets intoxicated on thandai, often laced with bhang. We share a wonderful video of the late great showman Raj Kapoor whose Holi parties were legendary. Enjoy!
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
What happens when you manage to gather critical thinkers like Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s Chairman and CEO, the many faceted Fareed Zakaria, Kapil Sibal, India’s Union Minister for Human Resource Development and Richard C. Levin, President of Yale University all in the same room?
You get some thought-provoking conversation about where India is going, and the challenges along the way.
What is India doing right – and what is it doing wrong? Can it beat China? And what about privatizing public works to fix the infrastructure? Will India have enough teachers? What about the health challenge?
So come be a fly on the wall and listen to where India is headed.
According to a Pew Research Center &Time Magazine survey, only half of Americans are getting married, which is down from 72 percent in 1960. And 40 percent of US adults think marriage is obsolete.
While there are no statistics on desi co-habitation, anecdotal evidence suggests that this is happening. A big surprise since Indians – and Indian-Americans – are generally marriage-obsessed.
“So often when we talk about trade and commercial relationships, the question is who’s winning and who’s losing. This is a classic situation in which we can all win. And I’m going to make it one of my primary tasks during the next three days to highlight all the various ways in which we’ve got an opportunity I think to put Americans back to work, see India grow its infrastructure, its networks, its capacity to continue to grow at a rapid pace. And we can do that together, but only if both sides recognize these opportunities.” – President Obama
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.
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.
“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!”
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.
Still got a bitter taste in your mouth from the Indian passport surrender saga which took place a few months back? Well, the Consulate General of India in New York has taken the agitation and stress of Indian-Americans to heart and is working on smoothing the path where the issuance of Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards is concerned.
By now you’ve all probably read Joel Stein’s ‘My Own Private India’ in TIME magazine – his tirade against Indians in Edison, NJ and heard of the big hullabaloo that’s ensued. The bloggers, Indian media as well as regular folk are quite upset about Stein’s seemingly bigoted views.
“All that needs to be done is Indian merchants should stop selling TIME in their news-stands, and c-stores,” fumes Nayan Padrai, a reader of this blog. “Indian doctors should cancel their subscription for waiting room copies, and Indian CEOs of Fortune 500 companies should instruct their marketing managers not to advertise in TIME! Joel is surprised at the ‘non-Gandhian’ response on Twitter. So please send a ‘Gandhian’ response of boycott!”
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Lord Shiva danced the world into existence with a shake of his mighty damru, it is said, and we’ve been dancing ever since.You had to be at ‘Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance’, a three day festival of dance in NYC to see how boldly the ghungroo bells ring and how feet and hands and bodies meld into a thing of beauty. What was eye-opening was the sheer diversity of the dance vocabulary and how it’s being interpreted by a whole new generation of dancers.
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They may live in American cities, go to American schools but Bollywood runs in their blood. We’re talking of young Indian-Americans, thousands and thousands of them, scattered across American towns and cities. Weaned on Bollywood movies on DVD since babyhood, they learn the Shah Rukh moves, the Madhuri moves, the Shahid moves, almost by osmosis in family living rooms.
Later many of them learn dance, classical and Bollywood, at the scores of Indian dance schools that have sprouted up in towns and cities. They dance at family events, birthdays and weddings, as naturally as if they were in a Bollywood movie and it was written into the script of life.
Looking to find the perfect restaurant in your area online or via mobile phone? Searching for videos to check out the best tips from celebrity chefs?
Well, there’s good news – behind each of these culinary experiences, there’s an innovative company launched by young Indian-Americans who probably have food and hospitality etched into their DNA! Sidestepping traditional careers, these entrepreneurs have followed the pungent aroma of spices and flavors of food to start their own businesses.
Whether it’s the California text books decision or the passage of the Congressional Diwali Resolution, these are not free gifts which have been dropped into the palms of Indian-Americans but rather hard-won victories by advocates, including a band of young second-generation Indian Americans of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF).