A perfect ensemble of Cinema and Stage fused with enthralling theatrical dance performances.

Presenting an unique concept for the first time in the Bay Area.

Don't miss an expressive and spell-binding cinematic fusion show!!!

Part of the proceeds from this show will benefit Vibha and child development projects supported by Vibha

Where:Louis B Mayer Theatre ,Santa Clara University,500 El Camino Real,Santa Clara,California,95053
When:Aug 9 2008 2:30p.m., 6:30 p.m. Aug 10 2008 2:30 p.m.
Contact Details:Prathima Venkatesan Phone : 650-576-9622 Project Pulse Phone : 765-532-7616

By Isheeta Sanghi

College in India is something that would never enter the mind of an Indian American. Because really, that’s why our parents moved to the States, (besides the whole ‘chasing the American dream’, that is). My parents moved to California for that, well that and the great weather in Sunny San Diego. The thought of college in India sounded twisted to me; it was like some sort of joke that just wasn’t funny at all. When my Dad drove me out to the Integrated Institute of Learning Management in Delhi I remember just thinking about the my situation in total disillusionment and disbelief. I kept telling myself that it wasn’t happening, that I was going to go back to the States and finish my degree, that my parents were just tricking me trying to see how hard they could push me into saying that I wanted to stay. More »

How refreshing, that a movie about upwardly mobile young people should actually cast upwardly mobile young people! Jaane Tu…ya jaane na, a romantic comedy about privileged South Bombay kids, is the ultimate multiplex date movie, a sweet confection that entertains even the most jaded of Hindi movie viewers.

Abbas Tyrewala, who has written for movies like Munnabhai M.B.B.S and Main Hoon Na, is one of the few original and talented scriptwriters in Bollywood today. He makes his directorial debut with Jaane Tu…and brings the same sparkling dialogues and sense of joi de vivre to this movie. More »

By Enakshi Choudhuri

(Continuing a discussion on Integrated Math ) 

In the past month I have had the opportunity to delve a little further into the realm of fuzzy math. I must say, I have yet to meet a parent who thinks that the integrated math curriculum is the next best thing since disposable diapers. On talking to parents the common refrain that I heard repeatedly is that supplementing math education is not an option, it is a necessity whether the child attends the local public school or the toniest private school in town. So, in this post, I thought I would touch upon some of the more common options for supplemental math instruction that are available to parents. More »

By Vidya Pradhan 

Is there a market that will pay to watch Indian TV online? That is the crux of the problem S.G. Sangameswara( Sangam) and his team at GluTV are trying to figure out.

Despite the popularity of online videos on sites such as YouTube, television online is still a nascent idea, thanks to the stranglehold that networks impose on their content. Some shows are available, but watching on the computer is as much a matter of surfing between channels as it is on the television. A few players like Hulu, Joost and Miro have attempted to jump start the idea of the aggregated provider but apart from Hulu, which offers shows from Fox and NBC, the content is hardly mainstream. More »

Short review – Silly movie, ridiculous plot, kids loved it.

Now for the longer one…… More »

By Jaya Murthy 

When they hit a midlife crisis, men buy cars; women hike!

At my 43rd birthday this February, Meena, another 40+ friend asked "So what are we going to do different this year? Let's climb Half Dome!" The rest of us, who have run no marathons, half marathons, triathlons or bike races, looked at her like she was nuts and told her so. That evening we laughed it off as an impossibly high goal and forgot all about it.

The Prep

But my friend persisted. And before we knew it, a bunch of us, convinced we were absolutely crazy, were shivering at the base of Mission Peak(MP) in Fremont on a freezing March morning in the pitch dark at 5:30 a.m. It was a nose-numbing 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Huffing and puffing, with some motivational spiel and lots of chattering, we made it up the boring switchbacks to the top of MP. The 360 degree views of the Bay Area communities, the water and its bridges and the verdant hillsides made the climb worthwhile. The near 4-mile hike did leave our untested muscles achy and tired the next day. More »

By Vidya Pradhan 

Manjula Gupta is no stranger to philanthropy. Once a software entrepreneur in the valley, she became involved with the American India Foundation (AIF) in its nascent years. As a volunteer Chair for the India Community Center, she worked to bring the community together by starting programs such as the weekly karaoke club. In the course of her varied experiences, she tapped into the rich vein of philanthropy that runs through the successful Indian American community in the Bay Area. “There are so many Indian Americans doing amazing work,” she says. “I found that there was a need to give them a platform.”
When the mayor of Milpitas approached her to start a community based program, she found her calling. "Chai with Manjula", a TV show focusing on Indian American good Samaritans, now airs in 11 cities throughout the area.( More cities are being added.) More »

By Priyanka Gupta 

Walking into the Aicon Gallery in Palo Alto (previously Arts India West) I was confronted with numerous heads all staring back at me. Some mounted on the wall and some on the ground. The works of Mayyur kailash Gupta explore the inherent beauty in the most feature-filled personality-laden form of the human body: the face.

The artist Mayyur speaks of his works, ‘I always arrive at my work from my own temperament and environment. Faces always attract me. I pick features and faces from people I pass by everyday or during my travels. I believe in the tactile quality to my work. I want people to want to touch my works.’ He goes through the process of constant sanding and resting and sanding again to get the exact feel that he wants. His material too invites the viewers to touch them. The soft wood heads like ‘Apsara’, ‘Guardian’, foil covered heads like ‘two friends’,  graphite painted ‘for her’ and ‘head on head’, they all invite touch. More »

By P.R. Ganapathy 

Like lots of Indians, I was brought up vegetarian by my vegetarian parents. When I reached adulthood, I stayed vegetarian, and even experimented for a few years with its more extreme version - becoming vegan. My wife is vegetarian too, so our 5-year-old son doesn't have much of a choice in the matter. At this time. Or so we think.

The first big dilemma we faced is whether we should bring him up vegetarian or not - at least till the age of 18, at which point he's free to make his own choices. Several friends (most of them non-vegetarian) feel we're being unfair; denying him choices and biasing him so that he's more likely to stay vegetarian at 18 than turn non-veg. If fact, for this same reason, some of our vegetarian friends allow their kids to eat the occasional Chicken Nugget.

The second, more frequently faced dilemma, is how to answer his innocent question about why he can't also get a plate of Chicken Nuggets when we're eating with friends at a restaurant. We grope for an answer that his 5-year old mind can grasp, and yet one that does not cause him to judge his meat-eating friends harshly.

There were several approaches available to us, ranging from diktat ("This is the way it is") to empathy ("We like animals and don't like to kill and eat them"). Explanations based on distant religious diktats ("We don't eat meat because we're Hindus") were unlikely to cut much ice, given that we're not at all religious in the first place. The health benefits are perhaps too complex for a 5-year-old to grasp.

We chose the empathy argument, and thus far, it has worked well. He showed a natural affinity for animals in general, and farm animals in particular. The occasional trip to Ardenwood Farm, Happy Hollow Park or Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay to gaze at the benign goats or chicken reinforced that affection. It also increased his recognition that these animals were sentient beings with feelings and emotions and therefore, killing them was wrong.

If fact, Vegan society websites recommend this sort of approach, but their tone strikes me as being too strident, too righteous. I fear that when he views his and his friends' actions through this lens, he'll end up judging himself "good" and his friends "bad". That's not the sort of judgmental attitude I'd like him to develop. I try to keep emphasizing that his friends are free to make their own decisions, but I dread the day when he asks a friend "How can you kill and eat an animal?"

Suggestions, anyone?