Meet Geeta V. Patel, who directed and wrote Meet The Patels a documentary about one family’s quest fo find a suitable bride for their son. Beta, you have to get married is what Geeta’s parents tell Ravi, her sibling, who had just turned 30. Crisis, crisis, crisis is what I was thinking says Geeta. In Meet The… Continue Reading
I kept missing the various screenings of East Side Sushi in San Francisco Bay area. The film screened at the 2014 Cinequest Film Festival and I marked it as “must-watch” film, but never got around to watching it. It won the audience award at Cinequest. The film then screened at CAAMFest and I missed that… Continue Reading
What is the current status of US-India relations especially when it comes to business and joint venture opportunities in India? We spoke with Mara M. Burr, who is the Senior Vice President at Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington DC. She joined the company in 2014 when Richard Verma left the group to become the American… Continue Reading
Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk became the first people to ascent the central summit of Meru that is capped by a sheer granite wall called the Shark’s Fin. The trio’s difficult and challenging journey in Garhwal Himalayas in India is brilliantly captured in their film Meru, which won the audience award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival… Continue Reading
You know about best laid plans, right? They never go as expected. About 3 weeks ago my prescription reading glasses broke into two and that put me out of commission for a couple of weeks. Just as I got my new pair of glasses, my not-so-old Mac decided to act up and I had to… Continue Reading
This month marks the third anniversary of my TV show where we feature interviews and conversation with entrepreneurs, technologists, filmmakers and other news from the San Francisco Bay area. The TV show’s goal is to is to connect the various communities of the Bay area through stories and showcase the diversity of the area. I spent more… Continue Reading
Genetech’s Dr. Sara Kenkare-Mitra talks about drug discovery, cancer and women in leadership role in this TV interview that was aired in San Francisco Bay area. Silicon Valley-based Genentech was founded by a research scientist and a venture capitalist in 1976. Dr. Kenkare-Mitra is Senior VP, Developmental Sciences and so one of our first questions… Continue Reading
Meru is a stunning and inspiring film that captures the gruelling and difficult journey of renowned mountaineers Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk’s ascent of Mount Meru in Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand, India. The film won the audience award at the 2015 Sundance International Film Festival. How did the mountaineers prepare for their journey? What did… Continue Reading
In 2013 South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho released his first English film Snowpiercer in the US. The film is based on a graphic novel by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochelle, which Joon-Ho read in one sitting at a bookstore in South Korea. It took him a few years before he was able to make the… Continue Reading
Theodora Lee is a trial lawyer and a winemaker and owner of Theopolis Vineyards in Mendocino County in Northern California. Lee first discovered Northern California’s wine country when she was a young associate at Littler Mendelson law firm. She waited almost 20 years before she was able to buy 20 acres of land in the wine… Continue Reading
Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi are the directors of The Boxtrolls, a 3D, stop animation film from Laika Entertainment. The film is based on Anthony Snow’s book Here Be Monsters. Annable and Stacchi adapted the boxtrolls characters from Snow’s book and called it The Boxtrolls. In this podcast interview we spoke to Annable and Stacchi about… Continue Reading
Over the years I have had people ask why my podcast inteviews are not up on my YouTube channel. I heard them, but was unsure if I should mingle my TV/video interviews with my audio. In the last few months that request has only grown and I can no longer ignore them. So, starting today I… Continue Reading
Dr. Ashish Gupta of Helion Venture Partners is one of the earliest investors in India. About 10 years ago he moved from Silicon Valley to Bangalore, India and started investing in startups. Helion is one of the leading investors in Indian starups. Dr. Gupta has seen the evolution of the startup landscape in India and in… Continue Reading
This afternoon Google caught most of us by surprise with its curve ball that it has restrucutred and created a new company called Alphabet. Google is now part of Alphabet. And what is Alphabet you ask? Here is how Larry Page described it in his blog post today. Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies.… Continue Reading
It is always a challenge to figure out which shows to attend at the San Jose Jazz Summerfest. And this year was no different. On the last and third day of the festival I ended up watching Storm Large and her band. She is a sassy, no-nonsense singer, who effortlessly went from singing a… Continue Reading
San Jose Jazz is celebrating its 26th Summerfest (Aug 7-9, 2015). With a dizzying array of shows spread across 12 stages it is always a challenge to figure out which ones to attend. I ended up watching about 5 shows today that included a wonderful world premiere of Etienne Charles‘s San Jose Suite. The piece pays homage… Continue Reading
Best of Enemies is a riveting documentary film that takes you back to the 1968 Presidential elections and the intense politcal debate between William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal on ABC. Buckley and Vidal represented and stood for two different visions of America during this time. The debate was not a loud one, but a… Continue Reading
Pico Iyer talks about Iran and Asghar Farhadi’s film. The question stemmed from an article Iyer wrote on this topic. This is part of an extended and free ranging interview with Iyer that we recorded in San Francisco. Stay tuned for that interview. We will post it on our YouTube channel.
Best of Enemies is a new documentary film about the famous and sharp-edged political debtate between William F. Buckley (R) and Gore Vidal (D) during the 1968 Presidential elections. The debate took place on ABC television and was a hug success because of the sparks that flew between these two intellecutal giants of that… Continue Reading
Food startups are the new, new thing in the San Francisco Bay area. Many of them have received millions of dollars from ventrue capitalists. We spoke with Matthew Sade of Kite Hill about their plant-based cheese made from almond milk. Sade shares how they came up with the idea to make cheese from almond milk using… Continue Reading
These are interesting times in the San Francisco Bay area when it comes to food and technology innovations. We spoke to 3 different entrepreneurs from the food and wine industry to find out about their journey. In this video we bring you highlights of our interviews with Mathew Sade of Kite Hill, who shares… Continue Reading
Food is a wonderful way to explore and understand the cultural hertigate of community or a country. And that is precisiely what a new 6-part series on food called Lucky Chow does. The series debuted at this year’s Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) film festival. I watched a couple of episodes during the festival and… Continue Reading
Is Seattle-based Amazon opening a store in Silicon Valley? It seems that just be the case according to this article in Silicon Valley Business Journal. While Amazon has not confirmed this news, the paper reports that there is a new building coming up in Sunnyvale and that Amazon could be one of its “likely tenant.” … Continue Reading
It was 26 years ago that the San Jose jazz festival began and today it has morphed into a 3-day festival. This year’s San Jose Jazz Summerfest (Aug 7-9, 2015) will feature over 100 performers spread across 12 stages spread across 12 blocks in downtown San Jose. It is not just jazz that you get… Continue Reading
Medallia, a Palo Alto-based company raised $150 million yesterday and became the latest member of the Unicorn club. Unicorns are companies whose valuation is over $1 billion. Medallia’s valuation was over a $1 billion according to Borge Hold, CEO of the company. The latest round of funding was led by Sequoia Capital, which participated in previous… Continue Reading
Happy birthday Robin Williams wherever you are. And you were spot on when you said: “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” You changed my world and that of millions of people with your own, unique brand of humor. You brought us laughter, happiness and joy and made our… Continue Reading
Abhay Parasnis is the new Chief Technology Officer of Adobe Systems. The San Jose-based company announced today it has appointed Parasnis as their new CTO and senior vice president of platform technology and services. Kevin Lynch was Adobe’s previous CTO, who left the post 2 years ago to join Apple as Fortune reported. Lynch helped… Continue Reading
Meet Mr. Garlic aka Gerry Foisy. For 28 years come rain or sunshine you will find him at the annual 3-day Gilroy Garlic Festival. His wife, Jeanne put down his name as a volunteer and ever since then he has continued to play Mr. Garlic dressed in his trademark garlic bulb suit topped with a… Continue Reading
All Spice is an elegant restaurant located in the Nob Hill area of San Francisco. The brainchild of Chef Sachin Chopra and his wife Shoshana Wolff, it is not your everyday Indian restaurant as its name might lead you to believe, but one that serves New American Exotica – and, believe me, there comes a surprise with every… Continue Reading
Garlic. The smell of stinking rose will tickle your nose as you travel south on Highlway 101 from San Jose to Gilroy. Located about 25 kilometers from San Jose, Gilroy is often described as the “Garlic Capital of the World.” And it comes as a surprise to many people when they discover that Gilroy is… Continue Reading
The Kamla Show 