TIME OUT NEW YORK - The 33rd annual India Day Parade (fianynjct.org, Aug 18 at noon; starts at Madison Ave and 38th St) isn’t the only way to celebrate India’s Independence Day. Find authentic Indian home decor at Roberta Roller Rabbit and Layla’s new location inside ABC Carpet & Home, experience threading at Shobha, and adorn yourself with baubles from Satya Jewelry and Tejani...continue to the full article here.
Golden Age →
VOGUE INDIA - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni ~ I was a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, a fairly recent immigrant to America, swinging between extremes of elation and trepidation. That was when my grandfather in India passed away. I could not go home for the funeral; there was no money for me to make the expensive journey. My grandfather was the first storyteller in my life...continue to the full article here.
Code Breaker →
VOGUE INDIA - As a bright-eyed software engineering student in Coimbatore almost a decade ago, Aarthi Ramamurthy regularly put herself through rickety bus rides around South Indian villages. Her goal? To teach kids how to code. It’s how she met her husband, Sriram Krishnan, explains the 29-year-old tech wizard. "We were student ambassadors," she says. "Super romantic,"...continue to the full article here.
Rajnath Singh's Congress Party Dare →
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - As his visit to the U.S. drew to a close last week, Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh refused to be drawn into revealing a prime ministerial candidate, instead daring the ruling Congress party to do so first. In an address at the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce in New York, Mr. Singh said the BJP had consensus and unity and then listed various potential contenders for the Congress party, including...continue to the full article here.
Making The Flying Sikh's Biopic →
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra says he’ll never forget the day he received a signed contract from Milkha Singh, granting him the rights to make a film about the athlete’s life. Mr. Mehra had couriered the contract to Mr. Singh’s home. A blank space was left for Mr. Singh to add a fee for the rights. A week later, the film’s producer came to Mr. Mehra’s office with the contract, and suggested he take a look...continue to the full article here.
Adventures of a Former Indian Army Captain →
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Amin Ahmad, author of “The Caretaker,” says he received no shortage of “beautiful rejections” as he sought American publishers over the last few years. Mr. Ahmad, 45 years old, attributes the trepidation to the fact that his debut novel is neither a traditional thriller nor a typical piece of literary fiction. Instead, it exists in a curious in-between space—rather like Mr. Ahmad himself. The architect...continue to the full article here.
Miss India vs. Hindu Fundamentalists →
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - When Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja set out to document the glitzy Miss India pageant, she didn’t expect to simultaneously cover the Durga Vahini, the female wing of a Hindu fundamentalist movement. While conducting research for her film nearly four years ago, the India-born, Toronto-bred director encountered one of the movement’s fiery young leaders, Prachi Trivedi....continue to the full article here.
The Making of 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' →
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - In “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” India-born director Mira Nair exposes all sides of the American Dream, from its star-spangled face to its sinister underbelly. Adapted from Mohsin Hamid’s acclaimed 2007 novel, the film, which hits U.S. theaters Friday, is told largely via flashback in a gritty, Lahore University teahouse. Here, a seemingly radical Pakistani professor, Changez (Riz Ahmed)...continue to the full article here.
In 'Powerless,' India's Electricity Crisis Pits Maverick Against State →
THE NEW YORK TIMES - The first character we meet in Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar’s film, “Powerless,” is not a person at all – it’s a menacing tangle of wires, looming over the gritty northern Indian city of Kanpur. The documentary, which is showing at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival this week, is a jarring glimpse at India’s rampant energy crisis through one town: Kanpur and its more than 3 million residents, at least 400,000...continue to the full article here.
Gujarat is Yours, Modi Tells Indian Americans →
THE NEW YORK TIMES - Gujarat’s controversial chief minister, Narendra Modi, unfurled his definition of secularism, addressing hundreds of Indian-Americans in New Jersey and Chicago through a live telecast from Ahmedabad on Sunday. “India first,” he bellowed in English, during a speech that he was delivering in Hindi. "We must never let India, her honor, or the dreams of the people be adversely affected – our country is above all religions,”...continue to the full article here.
Minority Report →
VOGUE INDIA - Over the weeks that followed the gut-wrenching massacre at a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August—a tragedy that left seven (including the gunman) dead—a brave, young voice filled American airwaves. Even as she spoke for the rights of Sikh-Americans on a dizzying array of media platforms, Valarie Kaur propelled members of her grieving community to organise vigils, draft op-eds...continue to the full article here.
Big City, Big Love →
VOGUE INDIA - With a disarming chuckle, Sreenath Sreenivasan, 42, chief digital officer at Columbia University, declares he's the world's best behaved husband—a requirement when you're married to a competitive rifle shooter. "She can shoot, her dad can shoot and her mom won a state shooting championship when she was pregnant, reveals the tech journalist, sharing a smile with his Arjuna Award...continue to the full article here.
Space Savers - Domestic Lab →
VOGUE INDIA - When New York-based designer Suchi Reddy embarked upon an apartment hunt approximately three years ago, she didn't expect to fall for a former dentist's office. "The listing said, 'needs a therapist'," shares Reddy, recalling her very first encounter with the minuscule 375 sqft studio, tucked in a pre-War bulding on the tony periphery of Manhattan's Greenwich Village...continue to the full article here.
Captain Cooks →
VOGUE INDIA - To eat well: the resolution that’s firmly tied to the start of every year. This time, we’ve upped the ante and consulted a kaleidoscope of culinary heavyweights across the globe, ranging from Ferran Adrià to Vikas Khanna, to spotlight recipes that will define 2013. Some chefs, like Delhi-based Ritu Dalmia, claim that earthy, comfort food will reign supreme while others...continue to the full article here.
Best Fitting Rooms in NYC →
TIME OUT NEW YORK - Try on clothing in comfort at these NYC stores, which replace unflattering lighting with free champagne and fluffy robes in their swank dressing rooms. Between the unflattering fluorescent lighting and cramped confines found in most dressing rooms, trying on clothes can be less than enjoyable. We tracked down NYC’s best fitting rooms with exciting extras, such as Kiki de Montparnasse’s adjustable lighting, C. Wonder’s...continue to the full article here.
Sounds Tracker →
AFAR - Q. You started your own record label, Cumbancha, in 2006. How did you get interested in world music? A. When I was a teenager, I spent a year as an exchange student in Reykjavik, Iceland. I went with a choir to what was then the Soviet Union. I had my guitar with me and found that music was the gateway to meeting people. After completing my master's degree in ethnomusicology at UCLA, I felt the academic side was too stodgy...continue to the full article here.
The Interpreters →
VOGUE INDIA - Between them, they have tackled everything from war-torn Iraq to a valiant South Asian adaptation of a Shakespearean classic. Playwright Rajiv Joseph’s awe-inducing debut, Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo, set at the height of the Iraq invasion, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2010, and theatre director Tim Supple’s star studded career has included a Best Director award from England’s Theatrical Management Association (TMA) and stints at the Royal National Theatre and Young Vic...continue to the full article here.
The Crossovers →
VOGUE INDIA - She’s the sultry, straight-talking bisexual private investigator on legal drama The Good Wife. He’s the bumbling, sweater-vest-clad astrophysicist on acclaimed comedy series The Big Bang Theory. As Kalinda Sharma and Raj Koothrappali, actors Archie Panjabi and Kunal Nayyar are certified scene-stealers. Both are imports to America: forty-year-old Panjabi, as indicated by the soft English lilt she slips into off-camera, was raised in London...continue to the full article here.
Cast of "Won't Back Down" Reflects on the State of Education →
METRO - Director Daniel Barnz recalls coaxing actress Maggie Gyllenhaal to star in his inner-city school drama, "Won't Back Down." "She was concerned about the long summer shoot and being away from her children -- which is funny, because this movie is all about a great mom who sacrifices so much for her kid," he says. "But I was like, 'No, Maggie!"...continue to the full article here.
From Islamophobia to Squat Toilets →
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - While the city of New York somberly marked the 11th anniversary of 9/11, a more unorthodox commemoration unfolded at the Chelsea outpost of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop last Tuesday. On stage, performer Pushkar Sharma, clad in an electric blue jumper and fedora, flipped through a tattered, leather-bound notebook. “Ode”— he paused, surveying the 35-person audience — "to the squat toilet."...continue to the full article here.