Recently Meera Gandhi launched her book, Giving Back at the Leela Palace Hotel in New Delhi. As Fareed Zakaria writes, “The act of giving is twice blessed, touching the recipient but also the donor. We are at the beginning of a great revolution of giving. Meera Gandhi describes and celebrates it in this beautiful, heartwarming book.”
I missed it. This beautiful festival of Indian dance in the middle of Manhattan’s bustling downtown business district. A pretty surreal event, I’m sure, looking at the pictures of bedecked dancers striking poses, surrounded by skyscrapers rising against the New York skyline. Yes, the temples of Khajuraho are very far away.
Traditional Brahmin values, sex and rock n roll and drugs, caste and class, British missionaries, forbidden love affairs and murder, Indian schoolgirls playing British – all in the same India of the 70’s. ‘Miss Timmins’ School for Girls’ is a lush coming of age story and a murder-mystery rolled into one, set in an all-girls school in the sleepy hill station of Panchgani in India.
It also happens to be Nayana Currimbhoy’s first novel – and that is surprising for the writing is seasoned, evocative, taking you into a compelling yet insular universe.
Q and A with the author.
It was the night of maharajas and maharanis, of pomp and splendor. The occasion was Children’s Hope India Royal India Gala and Pier Sixty in Chelsea Piers, Manhattan had been transformed into a royal retreat with life-size peacocks, golden sculptures, rich silks and gorgeous live mannequins draped in Mughal couture. Yes, hookahs and turbans too!
Photo: Shaun Mader
With all the fashionistas in New York, this was bound to happen. Against the grand canvas of New York Fashion Week, a group of young South Asian women entrepreneurs created their own hurrah, a showcase of the sparkling talent of desi designers from the US and the Indian-subcontinent.
At the Fashion for Compassion event at the Ritz Carlton honoring Ranjana Khan, there was a happening buzz with lots of star power on the red carpet : Abhay Deol, Preeti Desai, Archie Punjabi, Samrat Chakrabarti, Janina Gavankar, Anusha Dandekar, Pooja kumar, and Shenaz Treasurywala.
This Spring there were hugs and handclasps galore as New York’s rich and powerful mingled in the beautifully lit up Cipriani Wall Street which is located, appropriately enough, in the Financial District where so many fortunes are made.
Over 500 movers and shakers had gathered to applaud another great performance in the art of giving. The occasion was American India Foundation’s 10th year Gala to felicitate not the biggest spenders – but the biggest givers of them all, the leading philanthropists.
Asian Garden of Many Delights – every table was decorated by a different designer and the dinner menu was designed by Chef Hemant Mathur of Tulsi and his wife, the equally talented pastry chef Surbhi Sahni of Bittersweet NYC.
Bold-face names and big accomplishments amid the opulence of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria – the perfect place for The Light of India Awards, the first ever major recognition of NRI movers and shakers by Remit2India, a Times Group company. Over 200 of the who’s who of the South Asian community gathered to pay tribute to their own, the doers and dreamers of the corporate, business, arts and technology world
Anand Giridharadas’s ‘India Calling’ – evocative and insightful – is almost a road map to the New India which has so much of the old India mixed in it. The book has been re-introducing young Indian-Americans to the land many left as children or may have never seen. Then there is the older generation of Indian-Americans who came as immigrants many years ago and still see the India they left decades ago, frozen in time.
Americans had gone Indian for a day and there were enough turbans, kurtas and jewels to outfit a Bollywood film production as over 250 guests, clad in Indian outfits and headgear, danced to the music of Om Shanti Om and Jai Ho with the Bollywood Axion dancers.
One of the most eye-catching sights was the Imperial Court, a fundraising group for gay and lesbian charities, fabulous entertainers resplendent in over-the-top Indian finery and jewels, clad in sarees for the first time. This fantasy evening was Bollywood Gala, the biennial fundraiser to support the cause of HIV/AIDS by Red Ribbon Foundation which is one of the top 25 grantmakers for HIV/AIDS organizations worldwide.