Author Lavina Melwani

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The dawn of 2015 – it’s the time for resolutions and advice from the experts! So here are New Year tips from Mumbai! No, not from the city but from the canine. This little bit of fluff, a Havenese, is as tiny as the megacity is big.
Mumbai’s philosophy of life is something we should all emulate – apart from chasing pigeons, that is. So usually you have Influencers and Movers and Shakers giving you their tips about living the perfect life in the new year. Well, let me tell you something – we all would be better individuals and have a better 2015 if we were all a lot more like Mumbai, the Philosopher-Dog.

Cinema
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Watch out, the wild Gangs of Wasseypur have come to New York and no one’s going to be spared! Anurag Kashyap’s stunning mafia odyssey will hook you, grab you and get you.
It is the very heart of darkness, a revenge saga where there’s no business like the don business and where firing a gun is as normal as brushing your teeth. Every random unknown on a scooter, armed with an AK47, is a killing machine.
As a visitor to Wasseypur, albeit in the theater, you need to have a high tolerance for bloodshed – after a while even your popcorn seems to be tinged with blood.

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Farewell 2014! It was the year Madison Square Garden became Modison Square Garden! A collection of the year’s stories from Lassi with Lavina, from politics to art and cinema.
Share a thoughtful, insightful rumination by Sharmila Tagore on women in Bollywood; See the breath-taking remains of ancient Hindu and Buddhist art in South Asia; read the powerful ‘Family Life’ by Akhil Sharma; enjoy the poetry of Meena Kumari; and celebrate the wedding of Kunal and Michael, a uniquely NYC love story. Check out these stories and more!

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He came, he saw, he conquered.

In popular desi lore, even the name of the venue was transformed from Madison Square Garden to Modison Square Garden. The chants of ‘Mo-Di! Mo-Di!’ were more fevered, more fervent than that for any rock star.

Yes, the rock star of Indian politics is undeniably Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and with his American visit he was on the international world stage. He was in New York and Indian-Americans headed out by the thousands to Madison Square Garden to greet him, to hear him, to just be on the same ground that was beneath his feet.

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‘Family Life’, Akhil Sharma’s new novel, is devastating – about the unpredictability of life, of how 3 minutes can change it forever.

Yet it is also about the resilience of the human spirit and how we can keep raising the bar on the amount of grief and pain we are able to tolerate – all for love. And sometimes for guilt.

Deceptively small, ‘Family Life’ comes with a lot of turbulence packed into it – each page takes you into human lives which are raw and conflicted.

The Buzz
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Happy Holidays everyone! Nothing says Christmas quite like Patience and Fortitude, the two wonderful marble lions outside the New York Public Library, with their holiday wreaths! I always love taking a break from work and stopping by to pat them and sit by their side for a while. Having seen them and the holiday crowds swirling around – it really does seem like Christmas!

Well, here’s a Xmas gift for you from the literary lions – the NYPL’s Holiday Book List Generator!

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Vikas Khanna has scaled new gastronomic heights with his latest cookbook, ‘Return to the Rivers – Recipes and memories of the Himalayan River Valleys’, written with Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn. This is a wonderful read not only for passionate cooks but also for those newbie chefs whose idea of cooking is heating up the remains of last night’s takeout. The stories will draw you into the kitchen…

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At Hanukkah, Indian-Jews remember the homeland which nurtured their faith. “India has been the only country in the world where Jews have never been oppressed or suppressed or discriminated against,” says Romiel Daniel, who is Jewish-Indian-American. Indeed, India has been nurturing home and haven for generations of Jews whose ancestors fled from persecution centuries ago. At its peak there were about 37,000 Jews living in India. “Discrimination is something that has never happened in India for 2000 years and that is something we are very proud of, and that is why we go back to India so often,” he says.

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Win a $600 Longchamp carry-on bag full of goodies from British Airways. We Have a WINNER!
To start an immigrant journey, someone has to leave home. It might have been your grandparents or your parents or perhaps even you who migrated to foreign shores. Now these shores are not foreign any more – they are home. Yet there is that other home, that far-off home where loved ones, long remembered places, the tastes of childhood still exist. So you in essence have two homes – and a plane flight is the shortest distance between these two loved places, two dots on the map of the world.
(Sponsored Content)

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Booked! Big Apple turns into the Big Read! Move over Jaipur Literary Festival – New York is joining the fray with its first ever South Asian Literary Festival, organized by the Indo-American Arts Council. (IAAC),
The opening day had the literary daddy of them all, Sir Salman Rushdie, being interviewed by Professor Akeel Bilgrami, Director of the South Asia Institute, Columbia University, at the Smithsonian’s fabulous National Museum of the American Indian. Top it with wine, food and music by Zoya – and what more do you need?

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