By Vidya Pradhan

For Hindus, the single syllable “OM”, repeated the right way, represents the creation of the universe and the sum of all existence. Om is a mantra, a hymn( shloka) or phrase that is supposed to raise consciousness when recited over and over. Mantras have power and meaning independent of the understanding of the person chanting them if chanted the right way, so say the scriptures. Nina Patel has experienced this for herself.

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When my 12 year old first heard Sheena Melwani sing, his response was, “I never knew an Indian American could sing that well!” Sheena’s clear, dulcet voice, once reserved for friends and family, is now broadcast worldwide thanks to YouTube.

Sheena Melwani has been a singer “for as long as I can remember.” After singing in competitive choir while in school, Sheena joined a jazz band in high school and later went on to do her graduate studies in music. “I was singing all the time,” she says, “at choirs, weddings, functions. It never occurred to me to look for a professional gig.”

When her husband’s job took them to Tokyo, Sheena fretted because of the inactivity and decided to get a keyboard so she could resume singing and songwriting. She got herself a Macbook and a special microphone and decided to record some of her songs so she could send them to friends and family back home. More »

By Vidya Pradhan 

“I was in India recently, traveling from Chennai to Mumbai by train when a little girl came up to me begging for food,” says the rapper named Ajaxxx. “She told me her story, how she had been singing on the trains to earn something. It really shook me and inspired me to write a song about not taking what we have in this country for granted.”

Ajaxxx, or Ajay Dani, is an Indian American of Sindhi origin. He is also a seasoned rapper, well known in Orlando, Florida, with several CDs to his name. More »

You might not think the two go together, but the earthy, energetic, loud and lusty sounds of the Raghu Dixit Project make for a perfect harmony between folk and rock, between contemporary and traditional, between the overproduced sounds emanating from a recording studio and the simple but powerful tunes of a street musician.

The lungi-wearing, junk jewellery-sporting singer wows listeners with a pan-Indian sound that is difficult to classify and easy to listen to. What is clear is the gusto and the enthusiasm of the musicians collaborating with Raghu on his debut album as they use acoustic instruments to give a vibrant feel to the foot-tapping numbers. More »

 By Vidya Pradhan

Sometimes you have a dream that is so big, so absurd, that pursuing it is like tilting at windmills. But if you happen to be that rare person who will stop at nothing, sometimes that sheer force of will can turn that dream into reality.

Aman Boparai, a project manager in the software industry, nursed his dream to make a full-length Hindi film for years. He tried his hand at short films and eventually wangled his way into assisting a Bollywood film company when they were in town. His experience convinced him that he was ready to tackle the rigors of his own production. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

First there was the single. Those of us over a certain age (ahem!) can remember stacks of shiny black vinyl discs with songs by Donny Osmond and Cliff Richards scratching away at 45 RPM on our parents’ LP players. As technology improved and made it possible to fit more than one song per side, the album was born.

Ever since, customers have been bound to this format, even as the delivery mechanism moved from an LP to a CD. Released from the constraint of quality, record labels have been bundling mediocre pieces with hit songs, to the utter frustration of the buyers.

No longer; thanks to the internet, the music industry has done a 360. Today the single, in the form of the mp3, has made a comeback as distributors like ITunes and Amazon Music make single songs available to the listening public.

This method of marketing music and the role of the internet in disseminating it have opened the doors for struggling musicians as they reach a wider audience without the support of established record labels. One such Indian-American musician, Ananda Sen, has taken the movement to its logical conclusion. On his website, he offers one free song per week for download, committing to a 52-week cycle of songs. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

Let’s face it..to many Indians, exercise for exercise’s sake is often considered a waste of time. After all, our agrarian ancestors depended on hard work in the fields and back-breaking efforts in maintaining the household to work off the lassi and ghee. Middle class homes featured simple, low calorie food, rich in seasonal vegetables and local grain. Options for eating out were limited to the local dhaba or udipi joint.

Today, our environment has had an explosion of food choices, from processed to fast food, but alas, our mindset has remained the same; which may explain why the South Asian Heart Center in El Camino Hospital is chock-a-block with young Indians with heart disease.

Shobha Reddy, fitness guru from Mountain View, is doing her bit to shatter this mindset and get us sedentary Indians off our couches and on to the gym floor. Once a portfolio manager with a mutual fund company in Mountain View, Shobha traded in stocks and bonds till a meeting with a personal trainer in 1998 made her focus on an investment in the health of the body rather than the health of her client’s finances.

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By Vidya Pradhan

Half-Indian, half-Japanese, stand-up comedian Dan Nainan has an act that is considered second only to Russell Peters. An ex-employee of Intel, Dan took a comedy class to help him lose his stage fright during technical demos and found his calling.(scroll down for a video of his act)

WNI caught up with Dan when he was in town recently to perform at the Home of Hope’s 10th annual fundraiser. In person, the comedian is affable, unassuming and approachable. More »

Geeta Padmanabhan, Chennai writer, journalist and blogger, met with maverick director Nagesh Kukunoor who also writes his stories and screenplays. In the following interview, he discusses ‘Iqbal’ and the trouble with portraying people with disabilities.

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By Vidya Pradhan

Reshma Dordi is the host and producer of the popular weekly Bollywood program ‘ Showbiz India’. WNI caught up with her when she was in town showing her support for Ruchika, an organisation that supports schools for homeless children in India.

Gorgeous and gracious, Reshma spent a few minutes talking about her career track and plans for the future of her successful show.

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