Shakuntala Devi,  mathematician and astrologer, passed away earlier today  in Bangalore. She was in her early 80′s. Often  dubbed as the “human computer,” she earned a name for herself in the Guinness Book of Records for her mathematical prowess. She wrote a number of books, including a cookbook. Like any non-mathematically inclined person from the desi community in [...]

Mindy Kaling, Jonathan Ive, Aamir Khan and Elon Musk in the same sentence? Is this a case of entertainment meets Silicon Valley?  What do these folks have in common you may ask in case you missed seeing the list? What list is that? Why, the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the [...]

Disconnect by Chennai-based Anupama Chandraskhar made its West Coast debut in San Jose in March 2013. The play runs through April 14th, 2013 and this is perhaps the first time that a play by an Indian playwright is being staged at the San Jose Rep. Disconnect had its American premier in Chicago. Set in a [...]

San Francisco bay area folks are in for a wonderful cultural treat of films, music and food att this s year’s Asian American Film Festival. The 10 day long festival starts today -March 14th and continues till March 24th, 2013. Films, music and foods are the 3 strands that bind the various Asian-American communities across [...]

  Y’all saw the 55th Grammy awards this year right? Remember We Are Young from Fun? They went on to win to the song of the year Grammy award. Turns out the producer of Fun’s album is Jeff Bhasker. Name ring a bell? Perhaps not because Bhasker generally likes to keep a low-profile and  sits  [...]

Madhur Jaffrey is an actress, author and a cook, who seems absolutely indefatigable. Now in her late 70s she continues to write, act,  and is back on the BBC this year with a new TV series  Curry Nation that looks at the impact of Indian curry in the UK. In the 1980s her BBC series [...]

Wikipedia. Chances are that when you want to look up you look it up on Wikipedia. Need that information in French, Spanish or Tamil on Wikipedia? That is not a problem, you can read that information in those languages. Need that information served in your latest smart phone? That is not a problem either. There [...]

San Francisco is getting ready for its 10th year celebration of South Asian films. 3rd I Film Festival featuring South Asian films opens today in San Francisco and runs through the 23rd of September 2012.  And  for the first time they will show films in San Jose on September 30th. Here is the link to [...]

  Murphy radio and Radio Ceylon mentioned in Ala Barfi song  from the upcoming Bollywood film Barfi  have probably opened the  floodgates of happy radio memories for millions of people that grew up in India.  Swanand Kirkire  brilliantly captures a slice of Indian life that is probably disappearing. There was a time when  Murphy radio and [...]

According to one estimate there are about 22 million people of Indian origin in the UK, US, Canada, UAE and other countries. Many of them migrated  after 1947. However in the 19thc there was a mass movement of Indians to countries like Fiji, Mauritius and the Caribbean islands. This happened during the British rule in [...]