Author Lavina Melwani

24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
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I wouldn’t want to be in this valet’s shoes! One false move and hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain! No one knows exactly what happened but he managed to crash a $400,000 white Lamborghini Gallardo at Le Meridien Hotel in New Delhi. A very expensive evening out for the owner. Check out the video.

The Buzz
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Holy cow, the world get’s crazier by the day! This veggie burger is made with 100 percent beef. Where’s the logic?

Vegetarians who wouldn’t even dream of breathing on fries which were cooked in beef tallow are now expected to eat vegetarian burgers made of beef? Aggrieved parties who eat these 100 percent beef burgers masquerading as veggie burgers may insist on plane tickets to Haridwar so they can dip for atonement in the sacred Ganges!

24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
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It costs nothing and you can’t buy it in a store. Yet we all hanker for it. We are talking, of course, about “Happiness” and everyone wants it. There’s nobody who says “I want to be unhappy. I want sorrow.” Yet, happiness is elusive. We all think we will be happy if only we could change our job, our spouse, our status, our lives. If only, if only!

The change happens and initially we are happy but very soon we are once again needing some other change to be really happy.
But what is real, lasting happiness – and how do we find it?

24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
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These things were probably not in your formal education but really useful stuff to know if you’re traveling to India!

Did you know the top ten phrases Mumbai cops use to ask for bribes?

Did you know bagpipe music is played at Indian weddings?

Did you know this luxury bathroom showroom existed in India where millions don’t have access to toilet facilities?
Did you know there’s a town where you can get training if your life’s ambition is to be a disco bouncer?

Read on for bits and pieces of wisdom from the web…

24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
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You have to give it to South Asians for out-of-the-box thinking. No access to a school bus? An auto-rickshaw will do.
No budget? How about a bicycle with seating made out of a plastic crate which fits two school kids and gets them where they have to go?
Not the ideal solution and certainly not the safest but typical of what is known in India as ‘jugaad’.

Travel
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I was in the fabulous Udaivilas in Udaipur, enjoying the morning breakfast feast, when my eyes lit up. No, it wasn’t some grand Rajput jewels which had so excited me, though these gems I speak of were a rich golden orange and came wrapped in a delicate outer covering of gossamer beige.

24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
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She is Bollywood’s Sweetheart for everyone in the cinema halls, from front benchers to the elite. But don’t let those dimples fool you – Preity Zinta is one of the smartest women in Bollywood who takes on tough challenges, is fearlessly outspoken and is the proud co-owner of the IPL Kings XI Punjab, along with ex-boy friend industrialist Ness Wadia.

The two are very much in the news, due to the FIR lodged by Preity Zinta, accusing Ness Wadia of molestation. The media is agog with all the details. While all that works itself out, I thought I’d share a chat I had with her some years back.

24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
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‘Anti-rape jeans’ – the term seems to have gone viral on social media. A link to an article that I posted about this phenomenon was seen by over 190,114 people on the Lassi with Lavina page, over 22,126 have clicked on the shortlink and 228 have shared it. The result to articles in the Guardian and Daily Mail are even more mind-boggling – with over 9660 shares.

Clearly, this is a topic which strikes a chord with everyone. According to statistics, a rape occurs every 22 minutes somewhere in India and each case diminishes us all. Everyone is sick to the heart, is looking for solutions and every new idea is welcomed because it brings hope for change.

Art
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This mesmerizing image by the artist Anil Revri is called Ram Darwaza – and you wonder why.
“These works pay homage to my mother. A leading exponent of the classical Indian Dance forms of Bharat Natyam and Kuchipudi she had, in her final days, expressed a great desire to be able to enter into one of my geometric compositions, and, accompanied by Lord Rama, dance her way into the distant horizon.”
This painting has just been acquired by the Asian Art Museum in Berlin.

24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
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Calcutta was once known as ‘City of Palaces’ and in the days of the British Raj there were opulent buildings built by the rulers as well as the Bengal elite. Today many of these grand structures are in decay and a passionate chronicler of these disappearing stories is Prabir C. Purkayastha, award-winning photojournalist who tells evocative tales through his camera.
Purkayastha was recently in New York where the Sundaram Tagore Gallery showcased Stories in Stone: Colonial Calcutta, images which tell the story of grand edifices in decline.

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