f you can’t go to the Jaipur Literature Festival, the festival comes to you with its traveling caravan of writers and poets and raconteurs. It is good news for the many disaporic communities that this wandering festival now comes to New York, Boulder, Colorado and its latest stop is Toronto, Canada.
Browsing: New York
9/11. The day the world stopped. It’s not often that you feel your heart has stopped and your blood run cold. This is the feeling many people had, especially in NY, on that fateful day in September 2001. There was the indescribable pain of loss, the sheer fear of the unknown, the helplessness of seeing the world teeter out of control.
The healing process is still very much a work in progress.
Walking in Times Square, you suddenly realize something strange – everyone is taking selfies! What is it about this part of New York that makes you want to record your visit for posterity? It’s like the Taj Mahal – you feel it looks so much more meaningful when you’re standing in front of it!
When Chandrika Tandon first came to America at the age of 24 to interview for a job at McKinsey& Company, she had no American degree and no green card. She did not even own a western outfit, interviewing in a sari and chappals, wearing a borrowed coat. Yet within a few years she went on to become a partner at this prestigious company, the first Indian-American woman to be selected.
Hats may have disappeared from the fashion lexicon in modern times but on this one glorious day they make a triumphant return, like a descent of a fleet of multicolored exotic birds. Welcome to the ‘Hat Luncheon’ of the Central Park Conservancy!
Well, this nice middle-class girl from Bombay did follow the road less traveled. It led her all the way to New York City, the school of hard knocks, the elusive hunt for success and happiness. Did she find what she was looking for?
1897 people reached on Lassi with Lavina Rita Sharma, Nita Anand and Tej Gursahani like…
Once in a blue moon, these stars descend to earth and actually come and mingle – somewhat – with the common man, the diehard fan. This happened in the hot month of July, when IIFA came to New York and New Jersey with a whole gaggle of stars from Salman Khan to Katrina Kaif to Alia Bhatt.
Calling all Yogis and would-be yogis! International Day of Yoga is around the corner and it’s time to stretch into a new lifestyle! There are activities in all parts of the world but New York has some very special events in the beautiful Battery Park.
Jacques Torres is certainly building up good karma! After all, what can be more life-affirming than making humanity happy by feeding it chocolate every day? Torres, who is affectionately known as New York’s Mr. Chocolate, creates a massive 200 tons of artisan high-end chocolate in his 40,000 square foot factory in Brooklyn.
A few years ago, at a party hosted by an Indian in the New York suburbs, I chatted with the wife of a senior executive of a major American financial services company who is an IIT graduate. Both husband and wife are from Haryana. I asked if they knew a consultant with a major firm, an IIM graduate who is also from Haryana. She said “We meet at such parties. But we do not socialize. He is a Jat while we are Kayasths.”
‘From Today I have No Future’ – A solo show by M. Pravat at Aicon Gallery in Manhattan is almost a blueprint for loss, life and living – it is about streetscapes and mindscapes, of memories and the past but also about re-imagination, and new layerings added to the scaffolding of what we remember.
We are a city of immigrants. It is woven into our DNA, into our history and into the very concrete that binds our buildings. When you look at the skyline, think about the people who built it: working people who came here from every corner of the earth and made this a better, stronger place.
Rarely do you get to see that strong silent stunner Ajay Devgn in person. And when he’s accompanied by his wife, the wonderful Kajol, that’s a double bonus! The two celebrities were in New York in September to promote Ajay’s new film ‘Shivaay’ and the press got to meet them at a luncheon at the Pierre on Fifth Avenue
There’s guaranteed to be a huge thought explosion when Shashi Tharoor, Somini Sengupta, Suketu Mehta, Barkha Dutt and other major literary names gather under one roof!
Little Black Book: Sharmila Tagore at a cocktail event by Sundaram Tagore in New York.
Predictably, the 16th Annual NYIFF (May 7 -14) is going to play havoc with your sleep cycle and your work life (and maybe even your love life) because you’ll want to sit zombie-like and see all the unexpected 40-plus offerings. You may as well give up your real life for a week!
Want to get some colorful festivities into your Diwali? Head for the Met! The Metropolitan Museum of Art is celebrating Diwali on Sunday November 15 with a musical dance performance, children’s Indian dance workshop and art-making activities.
Many, many years ago, to catch a reflection of India in America was to be over the moon: a saree on the streets of New York, an Indian name in the phone book, a snatch of Indian music in a mainstream performance. Now of course India has become woven into the fabric of America, so it was no surprise to see the JFK Express – the train which takes you from the city to the airport – immersed in the images of Incredible India!
Jashobanti Mahanand is the nineteen-year-old daughter of a migrant worker from Orissa, India. Since she was nine she has worked in a brick kiln, tossing bricks in the blazing sun. So what was she doing in New York at a glittering event with some of the city’s most powerful and influential people?
The answer is just one word: AIF.
The American India Foundation (AIF) is the development organization which connects the dots between the poorest of the poor and affluent society, where funds are raised for a better future for the children in the slums, the forgotten villages and small towns of India.