Author Lavina Melwani

The Buzz
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It’s that time of the year again and one’s mind turns to a day twelve years ago, to that clear blue sky and quiet morning which exploded into the horror of 9/11.

On this day, I always have this surreal sense of foreboding, of calm before the storm but life goes on and people are moving on.

Seems strange but yes, it is Fashion Week in New York and the city is full of beautiful people, designers, models and media. Art events are happening and the city is teeming with tourists. Working, dreaming, creating and deal-making, frenetic New Yorkers move on. Yet they do not forget, as the scores of memorial services around the city emphasize.
I myself am headed out to New Jersey for the memorial of a dear family friend, Rajesh Mirpuri who lost his life as the burning towers collapsed around him.
Every year for the past decade, hundreds of friends and family have gathered around his grieving parents at the Sadhu Vaswani Center, finding solace and strength in prayer. Time passes but can one ever forget?

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Where would you expect to see the Durga Puja Pandals, beautiful Bengali fashions, eat kati rolls and puchkas, and check out the Victoria Memorial and the Howrah Bridge? Calcutta, you say? You’re right – but this is all happening in Calcutta – in New York!

You’ll be in wonderful company as you’ll get to meet and listen to Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, a superb speaker, who is being honored with the Impact Award at the October 13 gala organized by Children’s Hope India. Other honorees are human rights activist Mallika Dutt of Breakthrough, gallerist Sundaram Tagore, Member of the Rajya Sabha Derek O’ Brien and the noted fashion designer Rachel Roy.

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This isn’t Kashi or Prayag but thousands of devotees clog the streets, dancing and chanting as Ganesha’s Ratha Yatra takes place – in Queens, New York. Yes, this pilgrimage spot happens to be in Flushing, Queens, and people came to celebrate Ganesha Chaturthi from as far as California, Florida, Texas, Atlanta – and even India!

It is Lord Ganesha’s birthday and everyone is invited to this giant block party. Over 50,000 lunches are prepared; there are hundreds of pounds of sweets and hundreds of gallons of rose milk. About 20,000 people turn up over the course of nine days at the Hindu Temple Society of North America. (Photo: Chirag D. Shah)

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Imagine sitting across the table from the iconic Amitabh Bachchan as he tells you – and only you – in his rich baritone about his daily life. Imagine the one and only Madhuri Dixit chatting with you about who does the cooking in her family as her husband Sriram Nene gamely shoots a picture of her and you together. Imagine the wonderful A.R. Rahman actually bringing you a glass of orange juice when he hears you are fasting that day.

Yes, all this actually happened to me!

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It was about the beautiful city of Varanasi, of endangered silks and a way of life that is under threat. Barneys New York with Freida Pinto, David Adjaye and Wendy Schmidt hosted a private dinner to celebrate the the luxuy brand Maiyet Varanasi Silk Capsule Collection and the nonprofit Nest Varanasi Silk Weaving Facility which through an innovative partnership are bringing new hope to weavers, helping them to redefine and rethink their craft production. It’s all about preserving the centuries old tradition of handloom silk by creating high demand products and a whole new market.

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We all know that Christopher Columbus was looking for India and its tangy spices when he took a wrong turn and stumbled into America instead. Now some enterprising Indians have brought India and its cache of cardamom, cloves and peppers right into America. These immigrants have brought not only spices but entire kitchens, cooking pots and chefs along, opening hundreds of restaurants, takeaway joints, mithai shops and Indian supermarkets. Americans are now eating spicier food, ‘samosa’ is an English word now and right in the middle of Manhattan there are ‘dosa’ carts!

Yes, the Big Apple is fast becoming the Big Mango! So how has this big change come about in American food habits?

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Don’t you just love fashion shows? It’s a whimsical dream world where real problems are forgotten in a whoosh of youth and beauty and style. It’s a world inhabited by beautiful people and perhaps no one does it quite as dramatically as designer Manish Malhotra. It’s a world of rich Chantilly lace and velvet, of yards and yards of antique silk and the moon is made of gold.

Manish showed his fabulous 1930’s inspired collection at Delhi Couture Week, and he had some heavy hitters modeling his couture – SRK himself and Deepika Padukone. The royal canvas was nothing less than the princely states of India, a time of opulence, of unparalleled riches and a wondrous mix of east and west.

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She’s sung for President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, the Dalai Lama and Oprah Winfrey. She’s also sung for hardened criminals in the maximum security Sing Sing Prison.
She’s performed with noted names like Yo-Yo Ma, A.R. Rahman, Wyclef Jean, Philip Glass, Ricky Martin, and Blues Traveler. Her songs have also been featured in Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut A Place in Time.
Meet Falguni Shah, popularly known as Falu, a singer from Mumbai who has generated a devoted fan following in New York, and who has blurred the line between different genres of music with her signature style.

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A majestic decorated elephant lumbering down the streets of Washington DC, with an Indian bridegroom ensconced like a maharajah on top; scores of chanting, dancing wedding guests causing a traffic jam on New York streets as they accompany the bridegroom in the ‘baraat’ or wedding procession, dancing the bhangra to the beat of village drums. Hundreds of guests in a man-made Gujarati village in New Jersey especially set up for a wedding celebration, with stalls, carts and even mud huts!

Yes, all this has come to pass as Indian immigrants have brought their Big Fat Indian Wedding to America.

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