Sewa International’s Volunteers Walk for Health
With the aim of promoting an active lifestyle and physical and emotional wellbeing, Sewa International volunteers in Atlanta, Houston, and the Bay Area in California welcomed the new year by walking five miles and resolving to stay fit and healthy. Organized as part...
Pink and Pollution at 4 O’Clock
I’ve begun applying hot coconut oil on my hair again every Saturday. I search for the little footprints I left back in the streets of India playing football. I seek that warm sun and humidity in Hyderabad on Saturday evenings. I’ve begun reminiscing about the pink and...
Your Featured Life
Chennai Ran Out of Water: Part 1
India Currents, in collaboration with bioGraphic and the California Academy of Sciences, is publishing a 3 part series on Chennai's relationship with water. To reduce flooding and bridge droughts, India’s southern coastal metropolis is using ancient knowledge,...
It’s My Future: Climate Change Reform
Nearly two years ago, Greta Thunberg declared that “our house is on fire” at the World Economic Forum. She wasn’t the only one who saw that fire. Here in California, we could see the flames quite literally. As wildfires tore through the state, many teenagers felt a...
Fatal Fallout of Fossil Fuels
At the Front Door: Renewable and Carbon-Free Energy – a column on climate change in our lives Renewable and carbon-free energy is cheaper than fossil fuels! Don’t believe me? Look at your energy bill. San Jose has a program called San Jose Clean Energy, which is one...
Community
Sewa International’s Volunteers Walk for Health
With the aim of promoting an active lifestyle and physical and emotional wellbeing, Sewa International volunteers in Atlanta, Houston, and the Bay Area in California welcomed the new year by walking five miles and resolving to stay fit and healthy. Organized as part...
Unlocked: Eight Monologues. One Lockdown
The lockdown has affected us in different ways – introspective, illuminating, irritating, igniting, isolating. Needless to say, we’ll never be the same again. So, why not combine theatre with technology and capture our lives during the lockdown. EnActe Arts attempts...
New White House Could Remove Public Charge Rule
The incoming Biden-Harris administration has an opportunity to immediately revoke implementation of the public charge rule, easing anxiety for millions of immigrants who have denied themselves federal benefits over the past three years for fear of losing their ability...
Rural Tales of India With a Purpose
Award-winning independent publishing house, Karadi Tales, launched a new series of chapter books under its new chapter book imprint, Minmini Reads, that targets readers from ages 10 to 15, at the Delhi Book Fair on October 31st, 2020. This series is done in...
Voices
The Queue: A Story About Loud Music & (Un)civility
Desi Roots, Global Wings – a monthly column focused on the Indian immigrant experience My article on cancel culture was published a couple of months back. It highlighted situations in which private disagreements sometimes lead to permanent breaks in relationships....
A Story of Luck and Luster
Not a ray of hope, but a mountain of light emerged from the Kohinoor. A dazzling rock carved out from the Golconda mines. A mighty jewel for an emperor’s crown! I steal a look at her chiseled profile, head bent over a book. Black lashes cast sweeping shadows. A...
The Miracle of Christmas
Growing up Hindu in cosmopolitan Bombay, I looked forward to Christmas with a sigh of relief. Christmas for us did not have the bearings and pressures of other Indian festivals, so we could just enjoy its beauty in a laidback fashion through common symbols like the...
Looking At The Brighter Side Of A Pandemic Year
Desi Roots, Global Wings – a monthly column focused on the Indian immigrant experience. In December of each year, my family sits around a glass jar for our annual appraisal ritual. The ordinary jar purchased from Ikea and previously used for storing mango pickle,...
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Culture
Coolie No. 1, Another 2020 Disappointment
I interviewed the poised and reticent Shikha Talsania in mid-December for Coolie No 1, starring Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan in the lead. Normally I would have posted the review based on her comments but she did not reveal anything about the movie other than...
Rohini Chandra’s Beautiful Journey
On a recent visit to India, singer, actor, and filmmaker Rohini Chandra wrote, shot, directed, and hosted a travel diary called “This Beautiful Journey.” Chandra discovers the country where her parents were born and explores regions in Delhi, Haryana, and Kolkata...
Top 10 Hindi Movies That Got Me Through 2020
When we moved to Bombay from Amritsar in the seventies, my mother had her heart set on a bungalow on the Juhu beach but my dad did not agree. He wanted us to be far from the “Bollywood types''. We settled in the suburb of Chembur but as luck would have it we were in...
Here to Stay: Important Phrases of 2020
The year 2020 has been so dramatic that mere words are not enough to capture its uniqueness, absurdness, and plain scariness. It needs phrases. And not surprisingly, the top phrases of 2020 seem to fall into two neat catastrophic categories: health and politics. And...
Trending
Aberration: Chapter 5
This story is published every two weeks as part of the column – Legends of Quintessence – which interacts with Sci-Fi in a South Asian context. Recap: In the last chapter, Sneha’s truth is revealed to the others in the shelter. She also discovers that she has evolved...
Naturalization Fees Spike On Oct 2
If you are eligible for naturalization, or some other immigration benefits, now is the time to apply! After concluding their biennial review of fee collections last month, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a significant increase in filing...
Sponsored Articles
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Come Celebrate The Holidays At Filoli
Holidays at Filoli is the perfect season to make special memories with loved ones and friends. The historic House and Garden will be glittering and glowing with festive cheer every day and night of the week through January 3. Filoli is one of a kind. With its 16-acres...
Opinion
Is the GOP Worse Than Trump?
Forum – A column where you get eyes on both sides of a hot button issue. Is the GOP worse than Trump? No! The American voters have spoken and President Trump will vacate the White House. He will be relegated to a forgettable footnote in the history of our nation....
Hinduphobia in the Academy
This article is part of the opinion column – Beyond Occident – where we explore a native perspective on the Indian diaspora. A Harvard Kennedy School academic had recently tweeted saying, “Hindus are sick people of India, it is their religious books who (sic) train...
Desi Upbringing Prepares You For Rejection
Desi Talk – A column that works on embracing our brown background and unique identity using Coach Yashu’s helpful tips. Find her talking to IC Editor, Srishti Prabha on Instagram LIVE Tuesdays at 6pm PST/ 9pm EST! Are you brave enough to face rejection? Whether it's a...
Two States of America
To borrow from the vast vocabulary of my favorite Democrat - shellacking - that’s what the Republican’s delivered to the Democrats. No, dethroning Trump was not a victory, it was merely a natural phenomenon like a volcano that ran out of lava. But folks, please don’t...
Health & Wellness
An Unseen Epidemic: Indian Americans & the Opioid Crisis
On 5th July 2020, Ikonkar Manmohan Singh Sandhu, a young 23-year-old boy, died from an opioid overdose in Michigan just months before he was to be married. He is by no means an isolated case in the Indian American community. A small group of doctors are sounding the...
Why Men are Angry and Women Abused
What was startling about the two domestic violence (DV) videos that aired recently on TV and on social media was not just their disturbing subject matter featuring battered women, but the frequency with which such content appears on the news during this pandemic. On...
India’s Low COVID Death Rate Is Puzzling
Though the COVID-19 crisis hit India hard - over 9 million cases have been reported and more than 138 thousand people have died - the mortality rate from COVID-19 is inexplicably lower compared to other countries. For instance, while the US leads the world with more...
Can I Find Happiness?
Sukham Blog – A monthly column focused on health and wellbeing. I believe I’m a reasonably happy person, whatever that means. Sure, I’ve had ups and downs and dealt with disappointment, failure, illness, stress, loss, grief, and death. Most of us have. In retrospect,...
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Lifestyle
The Age of Religious Fanaticism: The Tonic
Newly released book The Tonic (Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd, 2020) is an intriguing story set in 1992, against the backdrop of the Babri Masjid demolition and the Bombay riots. Shuttling constantly between the past and the present, the story shares some vivid imagery...
Youth
It’s My Future: Climate Change Reform
Nearly two years ago, Greta Thunberg declared that “our house is on fire” at the World Economic Forum. She wasn’t the only one who saw that fire. Here in California, we could see the flames quite literally. As wildfires tore through the state, many teenagers felt a...
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