By Shana Dhillon

After traveling to and auditioning in the first session of American Idol auditions in San Diego, what I realized most is that American Idol is a television show before it is an actual singing competition.

I flew down and registered on Sunday, July 29, and received my wristband for the next day. I was told to return between 5am and 6am and not earlier because they would not allow people to stand in line earlier. I was handed a piece of paper with instructions and I was told to learn the two “crowd songs,” ”
California Dreamin’” and “Walkin’ on Sunshine.” My dad, uncle, and I drove around downtown San Diego for two hours, going from store to store, looking for CDs that had these songs on them.The first two stores were sold out. We went to Borders and the salesman said, “You are the third or fourth family to come in here asking for those songs. What’s going on?” We explained to him that the American Idol auditions were being held just down the road and they had advised us all to learn these songs. More »

By Vidya Pradhan 

US new home sales plunged 8.3 per cent in August of this year to their lowest level since December 1997 and well below analysts’ forecasts. While the ripple effect has been felt in other countries, the severity of the situation seems to be restricted to the US. But does that translate into good news for potential buyers in Silicon Valley and panic for mortgage holders(let’s not call ourselves owners just yet!) of million dollar homes?

Rohini Mohan is a first time home buyer in this area. “I have been looking to buy a home for two years, but I am still not over the sticker shock,” she says. “That I could have bought two 4000 sq ft homes about 40 minutes from downtown Toronto for the price of a <3000 sq ft in a decent school district in the Bay Area is not something I can stomach easily. As an Indian, it is rather difficult to overcome the fear of being in debt; and to get used to the idea of being in debt for close to a million dollars is daunting to say the least. Any hint of reduced prices will be like a breath of fresh air.”

WNI talked to Arti Miglani, an award winning realtor with Alain Pinel Realtors in Palo Alto. More »

By Rohini Mohan 

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, tiny immigrant populations moved to India from China and settled in big cities like Calcutta and Bombay. As time went by, these Hakka Chinese melted into the society, adapting with aplomb to the various ethnicities in their adopted country. So taken were they by the abundance of spice liberally sprinkled in Indian food, that they slowly started to introduce it into their own cooking; this gave birth to that most delectable of fusion cuisines; Indian Chinese. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

Our Indian community is known for its obsession with the education of its children and sometimes we make enormous personal and professional sacrifices to make sure our kids are in the right environment and the right school. While there are many public schools around the bay which meet the rigorous standards of Asian parents, when it comes to keeping the kids abreast on current events, even the best schools fall short. More »

By Arvind Srinivasan

Identity Crisis

Superman has Kryptonite, Batman has the Joker, Rama had Ravana, and President Bush has “nucular,” but none of these heroes, if we use a broad sense of the term, have antagonists that hold a candle to what I have had to deal with my entire life. The knife to my heart is not simply a fear of heights, snakes, tests, or a breakup with my invisible girlfriend, but much more profound. My complexity complex is…the idli. More »

By Gaurav Rastogi

The style, and other reflections

I noted last time that there are some very striking things about the Bhagavad Gita that leap out at the modern reader. The writing style is very mathematical and tight and relatively free of the “Indian mystical” style that seems all the rage these days. Also, there seems to be some solid science (and science fiction) behind the assertions in Chapter 2. More »

By Rohini Mohan

How long has it been since you wrote a letter in long hand and on a piece of paper?
Funny how we’ve wandered into an era in which we are more comfortable communicating with inanimate objects than we are in talking to live humans. We feel secure only if we are hooked up electronically 24/7. Laptop, Blackberry, and Cell phone, (read as I-phone), are as important for our sustenance as Dal and Roti. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

A plaintive mass email reached my inbox recently. “I am thila from Malaysia,” went the email(typos intact), “I have always been a movie freak since I was young. Somehow, since the past few years, I kept thinking of writing stories for movies especially Indian movies. In fact, I have written two movie stories and even send it to Revathy madam via e-mail. Unfortunately, there was no reply….I even send my stories to Hrithik’s mailing address three years ago but there was no reply. Send it to Vinu Vinod Chopra but no reply too. I am currently working but I know for sure that this Job is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I would really really appreciate it if you could help me on this matter.”

Whether Malaysia or Mongolia, the lure of Bollywood is getting irresistible. Can Silicon Valley be far behind? More »

By Rohini Mohan

Sunil Lala is a self published NRI author. American Khichdi is a collection of his musings in which he explores the life of the Desi who lives in America. From our obsession for Bollywood to our double standards when it comes to accepting our adopted culture, from the birth of an ABCD to the shock of the death of a loved one in a strange land, from life in India to the Khichdi that life is outside India; the book waxes eloquent on each of these varied topics. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

It is an immigrant’s tale as old as time. Rukhsana( not her real name) was brought to the US from her native South Asian country on a fiancée visa. Once she was married, her in-laws found many excuses not to proceed with her green card application. This ensured that the lonely and helpless girl would submit to other, typical, patterns of abuse - emotional, verbal and physical - without recourse.

With her spirit all but extinguished, Rukhsana made a last ditch attempt to escape. While being taken out of the state, she evaded her captors and asked a stranger for help. She was  taken to the police station, where she had her first piece of luck since coming to the land of the free, a meeting with a Narika representative. More »