Clap Your Hands Say Yaar

The New York Times and Newsweek magazine have both decided she is one of the most influential South Asians in the US. She has performed with Outcast, Rah Digga and The Roots, but is perhaps better known for putting Bhangra on the map (of New York City—at 200 Varick Street, to be exact).

DJ Rekha (née Rekha Malhotra) is the powerhouse behind Basement Bhangra—a popular desi dance destination, and what New York magazine has called “the best party in NYC.”

Last Sunday Rekha was featured on CNN where she dished on identity (“to me it’s a shifting idea”), the future (a CD featuring collaborations with Bikram Singh and Panjabi MC) and what it’s like to be a woman in the male-dominated world of DJs.

The first Thursday of each month you can catch Rekha holding down the decks at the club SOBs—lower Manhattan’s address for Basement Bhangra.

Check out www.sangament.com for details.

Pink is the New Black

October might previously have been known as a time for ill-fitting polyester Halloween costumes and Columbus Day furniture sales, but now there’s something you can really look forward to.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

That’s right—’tis the season for fab pledge drives, spirited 5Ks and an endless stock of pink ribbon pins–all for a terrific cause.

So lace up your sneakers and start spreading the message: annual mammograms for the over-40 crowd are an absolute must and monthly self-examinations are critical for women of all ages.

Remember that breast cancer can hit anybody—and South Asian women are certainly not exempt (according to a recent public health study conducted by a team at UCLA, breast and cervical cancer rank as a top cause of death amongst Asian American women).

For information about events near you, check out the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer site (http://makingstrides.acsevents.org/ ) or the Susan B. Komen Foundation’s Race for the Cure (www.komen.org).

A note from Ismat: Thanks for bringing this up, Hilal! Nirali actually did a story on breast cancer in South Asian women back in October 2004 (oh, how the time flies!). Read “Breast Left Unsaid” in our old (and soon-to-be-converted) archives.

Disha Theatre Dishes up Three Nights of Sex, Drugs and Mothers

Reena Dutt, Disha’s Director of Development, and Purva Bedi, its Artistic Director and Founder (www.dishatheatre.org)

In Sanskrit and Hindi, Disha means direction. Expanding in a new direction, Disha Theatre, the South Asian theatre company originally founded in New York City, has arrived in Los Angeles. Starting next week, Disha brings us a collaborative reading festival of works by emerging South Asian writers, at various Los Angeles theatre companies. This fall’s lineup includes a mix of comedy, sex and angst featuring performers who you may recognize from tv and film. Read the descriptions below to whet your appetite for Disha’s offerings.

ON THE ROCKS: A Staged Reading Series

Three Nights of Sex, Drugs, and Mothers.
Featuring Ravi Kapoor (Crossing Jordan), Meera Simhan (Date Movie), Reena Dutt (Medium), Rizwan Manji (Transformers), and Purva Bedi (Boston Legal) among others.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jhumpa Lahiri in Chicago

Jhumpa Lahiri

The city of Chicago’s One Book, One Chicago program attempts to “cultivate a culture of reading and discussion in Chicago by bringing a diverse city together around one great book.”

After choosing such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Night and Pride and Prejudice, the city has picked Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies for its latest selection. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author visited Chicago to discuss her work and her Indian-American identity.

I read and enjoyed Interpreter of Maladies, but I haven’t attempted The Namesake. Should I go for it, or wait for the movie starring Kal Penn and Tabu?

Sabyasachi Mukherjee for Olympus Fashion Week

Designs from Mukherjee’s Fall 2006 collection at Lakme Fashion Week.

Love seeing Indian designers get buzz in the days leading up to the Olympus New York Fashion Week. One of these designers is Calcutta’s Sabyasachi Mukherjee who is showing in the tents for the first time this year. Known for his deconstructed style and habit of redefining traditional khadi, the designer has a fresh look on fashion. Love his uses of color and volume and enjoy that he has a great eye for proportion.

The Times article in today’s Thursday Styles introduces him with a short bio, also mentioning his recent win for costume design for the movie, Black. This year’s Fashion Week will also bring the likes of Ashish N Soni… watch for him as well.

Suphala in NYC Tonight

Suphala is a tabla master.

One of the most interesting people I’ve met through Nirali is tabla player Suphala. If you’re in New York City, you have a chance to see this amazing musician tonight. She’s performing at midnight with cellist David Gotay and violinist Yuko Naito at the Spiegeltent at Fulton Fish Market. After her set, King Britt will take the stage. Tickets are just $15.

New York Magazine writes, “Ultrahip tabla player Suphala shares a bill with King Britt, a D.J whose realm spans from jazz to Afro-tech.” What an endorsement! Go for me and enjoy the show, if only because I’ll be dealing with the unenviable task of moving into a new apartment instead.

A Night at the Roxy

One of our talented staffers, Roxanna Kassam, is getting married this weekend. Congrats to her and the soon-to-be “Trusty Husband!” In honor of her impending nuptials, I want to feature two wonderful stories Roxy wrote for us during Nirali‘s first run:

“Finding a Thoroughly Modern Male” from our April 2005 issue was one of our most-discussed pieces. Read it again and share your thoughts here. Is Roxy right? Does the successful, modern, progressive South Asian male exist?

After you’re done discussing that one, settle down with a cup of tea. “High Chai” is a gorgeous piece on the ubiquitous South Asian tradition that binds our complex and varied cultures. And where else will you find a recipe for Chai Creme Brulee?

Rise with Anoushka Shankar

Courtesy of Amazon.com

Chicagoans attending the final concert in the city’s Music Without Borders series were treated to performances by talented sitarist Anoushka Shankar and DJ Karsh Kale. I considered myself a lukewarm fan of Indian classical music at best, but after sitting in the open air Pritzker Pavillion of beautiful Millennium Park in the shadow of Anil Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture, the sounds of Kale’s innovative stylings and Shankar’s sitar blended with electronic music quickly changed my mind. I’m going to check out Shankar’s Rise and Kale’s Broken English and I suggest you do the same.