By Vidya Pradhan

For those of us without satellite TV and needing a Bollywood fix on weekends, our only choices have been Showbiz India, anchored by the enterprising Reshma Dordi and to a certain extent, Namaste America, which covers weekly India news and entertainment.

Now a local mother-daughter team has put together a show called Sitaare( star) TV, that airs on Comcast and the Ohlone's network. The show, anchored by Kavita Arora and produced by her mom Poonam Bajaj, puts together Bollywood songs woven around a theme. Last Saturday, I enjoyed watching old Rishi Kapoor songs like "Ek Hasina Thi" and scenes from Bobby. More »

 By Vidya Pradhan

What do you do when you have a great idea for a book but no idea how to find the right person in the publishing world and how to market the idea? Why, publish it yourself! More »

By Rohini Mohan 

Simplicity is the one word that amply describes this timeless classic. Ashok Kumar, Pearl Padamsee, Rakesh Roshan, Bindiya Goswami, Deven Varma, Preeti Ganguli and David all deliver understated and natural performances in a very Desi remake of ‘Yours, Mine and Ours’. More »

By Vidya Pradhan  

The typical Silicon Valley success story has to do with chips, b(y)tes, outsourcing and lots and lots of dough. Well, so does our story, though not in the way you might think. It all started when the bottom fell out of the hardware market in the early part of this century. Mani Krishnan, who had been making a comfortable living exporting computers, printers and peripherals to India, suddenly found himself in the unfamiliar territory of having to hound his Indian distributors for collections.

Having made a resolve never to work for anyone else ever again, Mani was scouting around for ideas for a new business when a friend commented on the lack of good South Indian coffee in the Bay Area Indian stores. A tie-up with 777, a Chennai based company selling various Indian processed foods led to the seeds of a new business, now importing goods into the US instead of the other way around. Mani’s fragrant godown in Mountain View now stocks pickles, sambar powder, puliyogare paste and of course many different brands of ‘kapi’ but the secret to the success of his fledgling company is - batter!

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By Vidya Pradhan

An interesting article in the New York Times talks about how comments are becoming the new social currency on the web. “There are those who have blogs,” goes the article, “and then there are those who leave comments on other people’s blogs.” While the 2 groups may intersect once in a while, there is still a large population of comment writers who roam the web communities leaving their virtual footprints behind.

It is to recognize the impact of these unsung participants that Jitendra Gupta and his team developed SezWho, a “distributed context, rating and reputation system for social media sites like blogs, forums, wikis, video/picture sharing sites, discussion boards and anywhere else where people collaborate on the web.”

With the proliferation of social media sites, the quantity and democratization of user-generated content often makes it difficult for the lay reader to determine where to find the best quality. Who is adding value to the community and who is just venting? 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 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 Vidya Pradhan

Sonali Sahni Herrera had a problem common to Indians brought up in the United States. Husband Carlos was able to share his culture and Spanish language with their children with the help of many bilingual books and DVDs but she was at a loss when it came to Hindi, having grown up in the US since the age of 4. Not being very fluent in the Hindi script, she looked around for books, CDs, nursery rhymes that could bridge the gap between her knowledge and her culture but the offerings were limited and few met her quality standards. She turned to sister Sheetal Sahni Singhal, for help. After scouting around in India and here for material, the two decided that the only way to get quality books was to publish it themselves. They started MeeraMasi, a publishing company that focuses on Indian bilingual books for kids under the age of 6. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

First Joost, now Jaman. What’s with J names and internet entertainment anyway? What piqued my interest in Jaman was a news item that the company had signed a deal with NFDC for exclusive rights to their movies. So, about a month ago, I headed over to Jaman.com to check it out.

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By Vidya Pradhan

There may be considerable debate about the wisdom of high level academics for children under 5, but for Indian Americans used to the system back home, it is inconceivable that their children will learn their ABC’s only in kindergarten.

Like most Indian parents, if you are wondering if you are doing enough to educate your young child, look no further. In a humble strip mall in Newark is Safari Kid, a place that will satisfy the most rigorous desi requirements.

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