Browsing: 24/7 Talk is Cheap – The Blog

24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
0 The Power of One: 5 Special Indian-Americans

The Lassi Awards?!! No, no, I would never be so presumptuous! I’m not exactly giving out the Oscars but it’s a humble recognition of five people who are special, people whom you’d definitely want to have a beer with, or at least a lassi. They have all the wonderful qualities that we wish we had, have overcome difficulties to succeed in a complex world, and in turn made it a more humane world.
Well, here are five of these special people – Sheena Iyengar, Jasmin Sethi, Eboo Patel, Pratima Dharm and Leila Janah. As the year ends, it’s worth revisiting their inspirational stories and realizing that even with just the power of one, each one of us can make a difference.

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24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
0 Classical Indian Music: Being Vilayat Khan's Son

Fame is ephemeral. Nobody knew that better than Ustad Vilayat Khan, the legendary sitar player who passed away in 2004. His youngest son Hidayat Khan, growing up as the son of this famous musician, was used to many comforts and luxuries. Hearing his son one day brag to his friends in Maryland, the Ustad packed him off to a small neighborhood Indian restaurant to play the sitar for people eating tikka and kebab. Some guests would even shout out to him “Bhaiya zara rokoge to main khana kha sakaunga!” ( Stop, so I can eat my food!)

Living through the humiliation, the young musician learned to take all life has to offer, and even became friends with the waiters and patrons. Today Hidayat Khan, based in New Jersey, has come a long way but he remembers the main lesson his father taught him: “Humility.”

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24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
0 Devyani Khobragade Case: In the Court of Public Opinion

Talk about Devyani Khobragade in New York, and you get many opinions, some vociferous, some guarded. While Khobragade has not yet been tried, she has certainly been tried in the court of public opinion in the US. As one Indian-American notes, ” Who knows what the real facts of the case are but people bring their individual background perspectives to what’s happening. I do understand and identify with India’s feelings and I think this rush to judgment is very simplistic. You have to see what are people’s motives – everything is not what it seems and to be taken at face value.”

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24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
1 Khobragade case: Did Preet Bharara Go Too Far?

He’s been mocked as Uncle Tom on Twitter, asked if he uses Fair and Lovely and accused of being more white than the whites. This for someone who was earlier lauded as being the Sheriff of Wall Street and appropriated by Indians as their own Blue-Eyed Boy.

In the escalating drama of the Deyvani Khorbagade case, one figure who has gone from great acclaim in India to great notoriety is Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. So the question arises: Did Preet Bharara Go Too far?

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24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
0 Devyani Khobragade: A Missing Maid & an International Incident

The last time I saw Dr. Devyani Khobragade the setting was festive, the event a celebration of the newly installed India Chair at Stony Brook University in New York. Since the consul general of India was out of town, Khobragade as acting consul general was one of the chief guests at this gala event, feted at the head table with all the major donors.

It was indeed the lull before the storm.

Four days later the storm broke and what a turbulent storm it’s been!

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24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
1 Meet the Priyanka Chopra You Didn't Know!

Superstar. Bollywood Royalty. Miss World. Guess model. Fashion Icon. International Recording Star. Highest Paid Actress in the Indian Film Industry. Queen of Endorsements. UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. The Empress of High Heels.

Yes, Priyanka Chopra is all these but she’s also something you would never, ever have guessed in a hundred years.

She’s an FOB – Fresh Off the Boat!

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24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
2 Manish Arora – Indian Fashion's Sorcerer

Designer Manish Arora’s creations are the fashion equivalent of getting drenched in Holi colors – there’s exuberance, joy and sheer chutzpah. Colors which you thought would never, ever go together are locked in a raucous embrace in his gorgeous ensembles – and look perfect together. Ask about his outrageous color alliances, and he says with a twinkle in his eye: “It’s all very natural and normal. Yellow, pink, green and turquoise in one garment is very normal! For me, I don’t think twice – it just comes!”
His vibrant colors, striking fabrics and east-west silhouettes have won many fans around the world from celebrities like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, MIA and Kate Perry to all the fashionistas across continents.

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24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
9 Jhumpa Lahiri: The Next Rushdie?

Without a doubt, she’s a literary rock star.

Jhumpa Lahiri receives the kind of frenzied adulation reserved for celebrities. Her new novel ‘The Lowland’ has created a buzz in the US, with reviews carpeting every media from The New York Times to the most obscure little blog.

She was nominated for both the Man Booker and the National Award – and ‘The Lowland’ had hardly even hit the stores! Her book tour took her to several American cities and social media lit up with Jhumpa talk.

Few writers of Indian origin command this kind of fanfare – except perhaps Salman Rushdie. So is she the next big Indian writer after Rushdie, in terms of international standing?

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24/7 Talk is Cheap - The Blog
0 Bollywood & Contemporary South Asian Art – A Love Match?

Bollywood may be loved by the frontbenchers in Indian cinema halls but it has friends in high places too – the elite world of contemporary art. There is just something about the surreal, over-the-top world of masala films and item dance numbers that strikes a chord in the more rarified world of contemporary Indian art.

A new show ‘Cinephiliac’ at Twelve Gates Art in Philadelphia, PA, checks out this phenomenon with the work of emerging as well as noted artists, a creative dialogue between art and film. This new exhibition reinforces these influences and shows the work of both Indian and Pakistani artists, for the effect of Bollywood cheekily crosses borders and permeates different cultures.

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