The Chatty Divas bring you their insights on East and West, and on India and America. Here are some of the best posts from them – witty, friendly and almost always, wise! Kriti Mukherjee and Sulekha Rawat take you into their world and show you Modern India as it is lived by everyday people.
Guest Blog – The Chatty Divas
Browsing: Indians
I also invite you to add your voice to the daily blog, 24/7 – Talk is Cheap. I hope this will be a fun Tower of Babel, with many voices discussing many topics. In the beginning I tentatively bring one solitary voice – my own – and hope many others will join in. Be it Indian art, movies, books or spirituality – do bring in your point of view.
This Dusshera the Goddess Durga herself descended to earth in a powerful tableaux at the Children’s Hope India Gala – Viva Calcutta on October 13, 2013. Over 430 guests who came to this fundraiser for children’s health and education at Pier Sixty in Chelsea Piers, New York, saw this breath-taking 200 1b idol seated in a pandal of radiant hues of red, gold and orange.
A day of celebration indeed as it was not only Dusshera and the last day of the Bengali Puja holidays but also an evening to enjoy the seductive charms of the city of Calcutta, now known as Kolkata. The festive evening, which had a keynote address by Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, raised $450,000 for CHI projects.
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!
Where does that gorgeous Indian outfit go after you’ve worn it? I think all of us have faced this dilemma – spending a fortune on an Indian ensemble and not wanting to repeat it again. What do you do with such ornate outfits and how do you get new ones without spending more money?
Dina Patel, a very successful investment banker has used her business smarts to come up with the perfect solution for you! Turning entrepreneur, she’s created Didi’s Wardrobe – a reseller of new and gently used Indian clothing and accessories – in America!
This is what we call reincarnation – the American way! (Sponsored Content – Tips You Can Use)
“Anyone that knows the desi culture knows that it is primarily male dominated…men control the household, make the decisions, and decide on the direction of the family. Does that formula still apply to a woman in her mid-thirties, who has exited her past and created a whole new personality to gel with her environment?
A woman who has lived independently for a few decades and experienced life in the way she sees fit. She has gone to the bars and clubs, enjoyed the music, watched the latest movies, experienced different fashion statements, and met a variety of people. All in all, she has self healed her wounds, picked herself up and moved on repeatedly.”
Guest Blog – The Single Desi (Photo: alvarotapia hidalgo)
“In the Hindi language, there are no sweeter words than ‘Muh Meetha Karwaho’ – ‘Make Your mouth Sweet’ – and any occasion of joy needs a sweet ending. Something about the idea of how no meal was truly complete without a sweet bite and how every major celebration, gathering and even religious event is commemorated with sweets has resonated with me.
I can’t count how many times I’ve heard someone say, ‘Make your mouth sweet’, but I do it happily every time. However, it is Diwali that I especially remember from my childhood because it featured an abundance of sweets.”
Sponsored Guest Blog by Shefalee Patel
Hard to believe but true – a whopping three billion cups of tea are consumed daily worldwide. Indeed, if there’s one drink that no South Asian can resist, it’s a cup of steaming hot desi chai! Festive snacks and sweets need the perfect sip to magnify the celebrations. Now Lufthansa has brewed just the perfect holiday campaign – a dedicated micro site which is a platform to bring together family and friends for the holiday season.
Here are the top 10 reasons for visiting Lufthansa’s Virtual ChaiLounge…
(Sponsored Post)
September 6, 2012 was no ordinary day – it was the day that fashion became thoroughly democratized with Fashion’s Night Out taking over Manhattan. Every man and woman even remotely interested in style was invited to the citadels of couture for an open party.
The streets of Manhattan were over-run by hordes of fashionistas – all dressed to the hilt, many in designer dresses, others in their own unique styles and they had taken over the city. It was like one big, glorious feista, especially in lower Manhattan. Women in groups, women with boyfriends, generational groups too – everyone out to celebrate something as whimsical, as fleeting as fashion.
The very first party I stopped at was at Soigne K, the luxury boutique on Madison Avenue owned by Soigne Kothari. It was pure carnival as crowds gathered to see fiery dancers in the store windows and indulge in shots of tequila, rose and white wine, and dainty little finger foods.
“I remember my mother’s cooking and how the entire house used to smell like a culinary heaven then. She used to wash our clothes by hand because we didn’t have a washing machine; the only help she had was a cleaning lady who used to sweep and mop the floors daily. Rest of the chores were her responsibility which she performed lovingly and without complaint.
Fast forward to me now, I can’t think of managing the house like my mom and need a lot of help from a lot of people to survive. I have a lot of like-minded friends who are as hopelessly inefficient as I am.
But the domestic help has also evolved with us, and are no longer the docile, simple kind. Their lifestyles have undergone a transformation too and sometimes they are even more advanced than their employers. It’s now all about cell phones and designer labels!”
Guest Blog – Chatty Divas
On this golden summer afternoon, it seemed quite a good option to be jobless, a tourist or a window shopper browsing the Financial District rather than a hedge fund guy or a banker immersed in a dry office!
In a surreal juxtaposition, sparkling Bollywood, Indian music and dance had come to NYC’s downtown business area, with costumed dancers doing high kicks against the skyscrapers and bringing the ‘nakras’ and ‘chakras’ of Indian dance to this rather sober part of town.
Tourists gaped from the top of open double decker tourist buses which rolled past the plaza with its unexpected celebration of Bharat Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kathak and ‘filmi’ Bollywood dance. Right on One New York Plaza was Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance, a free event co-presented by the Indo-American Arts Council and Battery Dance Company as part of the 31st Downtown Dance Festival.
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.
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.
“Delhi was once a paradise,
Where love held sway and reigned;
But its charm lies ravished now
And only ruins remain.”
So wrote Bahadur Shah Zafar, poet and art patron, the last of the great Mughal emperors, as the mighty empire of his forefathers dissolved and the new rajahs arrived in town, the East India Company traders who were fast evolving into the new Colonial masters.
Those times are long gone, and Delhi, the spunky never-say-die city which re-invents itself after each invasion, is thriving once again.
” Chances are that anyone who has stayed in motels in the last decade has stayed in at least one owned by an Indian American, even if that is not apparent to the guests. Indian Americans own almost two million rooms with property values of well over $100 billion.
About a third of Indian American owners have independent properties, typically all lower budget. Indian Americans own about 60 percent of budget- oriented motels generally and over half of some motel chains. Of franchise motels built in the last few years, those owned by Indian Americans comprise more than 50 percent. The motels can be found nationwide. They are in major cities, suburbs, and exurbs, and off interstate highways. This accomplishment is all the more remarkable when one considers the small segment of India from which most owners descend. Seventy percent of Indian American owners share the same surname, Patel, although they are not all related.”
Pawan Dhingra on this American phenomenon
Ah Indians! They love nothing more than to hear of desis succeeding big time, be it in the homeland or in the Diaspora. So it’s that time of the year again when the hunt is on to recognize excellence of Indians Abroad across different fields.
Each year the search gets a bit more challenging: In the sphere of business excellence, how do you choose between Ajit Jain and Anshuman Jain, among other noted names? In science and technology, among others, you have three noted physicians who also happen to be writers: Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, Dr. Atul Gawande and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
If the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was really a hotel in Rajasthan, I think I’d like to spend a few weeks there for there’s just such a kookie charm about the going-to-seed establishment and the young manager Sonny Kapoor, played by Dev Patel with maniac energy and chutzpah, is such an exuberant, happy host.
Indeed ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ gives outsourcing a whole new dimension. What if old age could be outsourced – to India? The film follows a group of British retirees who decide to move to India to get more bang for their buck – and discover a whole new world at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ‘for the elderly and beautiful’. Recently the stars of the film were in New York and weighed in on their experiences in India.
Who are Shah Rukh Khan fans? No anthropological thesis this, but anecdotal evidence and what my eyes saw at the recent Yale event where the Bollywood Badshah was honored with the Chubb Fellowship, I would have to say SRK fans are an ageless lot, going all the way from babyhood to Golden Oldies.
Actually maybe it starts even earlier with Shah Rukh-mad moms watching his movies during their pregnancies, giving their unborn babies a taste of Chammak Challo while still in the womb!
It was only 8 pm on Dec 31st in Mumbai but already the drums were beating wildly outside my window in an apartment close to the Gateway of India. People are packing the streets here and I’m struck by the sheer energy of the crowds. The vitality of Mumbaikars is catching, their passion to live, to succeed. I’ve been in the city just three days but already I’ve met so many ordinary people who take each day as it comes and pack a punch into it.
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….