Tag: Indian-Americans

NEW YORK CITY (TIP): A Sikh subway driver who saved countless lives by reversing a train headed for ground zero on 9/11 and a decorated Sikh-American Army veteran are among the several men and women from the community profiled in an art exhibition to showcase their perseverance in the face of backlash against them after the terror attack.

As the US commemorates the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Sunday, September 11, 2016, the photography exhibition ‘Sikh Project’ will run from September 17-25 here to highlight the aesthetic of the Sikh articles of faith, including the turban and beard.

The exhibition is a collaboration between civil rights group ‘The Sikh Coalition’ and acclaimed British photographers Amit and Naroop.

Featuring nearly 40 powerful portraits of Sikh-Americans of various ages, the exhibition will tell the story of the triumphs and perseverance of the community that has overcome great challenges in the 15 years since the attacks in 2001.

Among those featured in the exhibition are Sat Hari Singh, a New York City train operator who saved countless lives on the fateful day of 9/11 when he reversed the train headed for ground zero, sending it in the opposite direction.

It also features renowned Sikh-American designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia, who was not allowed to board a plane from Mexico City in February this year because of his turban.

Also profiled in the exhibition is Ishprit Kaur, a nursing student in Connecticut and Major Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, a Bronze Star Medal recipient and the first Sikh American to be granted a religious accommodation to serve in the US military since the ban on Sikhs in the 1980s.

Amit and Naroop, in an email response to PTI, said through the exhibition they want to “break the ignorant stereotypes made in the US that all Sikhs look like terrorists.”

“In this day and age, with all the technology, information and resources available to us, for someone to still make that assumption is unbelievable. But yet it happens. It’s shocking,” they said.

The duo added that the exhibition wants to enlighten people about the Sikh faith and encourage them to embrace their identity with pride, celebrating diversity.

“We have become a society that conforms to trends dictated by celebrities or what we see on social media, TV and magazines. People are too afraid to be who they are. We have tried to show each individual with a sense of pride in their appearance, in who they are,” they said.

The duo said it was left inspired by the subjects of the exhibition.

“The Sikhs we have photographed have all faced abuse, some verbal, some physical, and yet their resolve to keep their identity has not wavered. This inner strength was inspiring,” they said.

Those featured in the exhibition wanted to send the message that they proudly wear a turban and are patriotic Americans.

The Sikh Coalition said the Sikh Project, the first-ever Sikh-American photography exhibition in the US, comes not only as America commemorates the 9/11 anniversary, but at a time when minority communities face divisive rhetoric and hate because of their faith and identity.

While there are an estimated 5,00,000 Sikh-Americans in the US, who have been an integral part of the American fabric for generations, the first post-9/11 fatal hate crime victim was a Sikh.

Two teens of Indian origin shone at the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows, N.Y., defeating their opponents and moving forward in the rankings.

Natasha Subhash, 15, won an exciting match in the US Open Juniors against 12th seed Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, on Sept. 5.

Pranjala Yadlapalli of India beat Wiktoria Kulik of Poland, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. She goes on into the round of 32.

Subhash came into the limelight last year when she got a Wild Card from the U.S. Tennis Association and became the youngest #IndianAmerican to play a #GrandSlam as per media reports.

She earned three straight wins last year beating higher ranked players and moving up to the 2nd round which she lost due to an injured knee.

Subhash is currently the number one ranked player in the under-16 girls in the U.S. and in the top 60 in the world in singles and doubles. She lost the French Open and Italian Open qualifying rounds this year.

Born and brought up in the U.S., Subhash trains at the 4 Star Tennis Academy in Washington, D.C. Pranjala Yadlapalli, 17, is from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh and is the 2015 Asian Tennis champion, was selected to the International Tennis Federation Touring Team soon after in May 2015, competing in a series of junior tournaments in Europe. She is coached by Ilyas Ghouse at GVK Tennis Academy in Hyderabad, according to a Press Trust of India report.

Before meeting with Poland’s Kulik on Sept. 5, Yadlapalli qualified for the Junior main-draw with a decisive straight sets victory over American Kariann Pierre-Louis, 6-4, 6-4. In the first set the Indian was 2-4 down before winning the next four games and the set.

A University of Montana professor is the 2016 recipient of the Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award, bestowed by Campus Compact, a national network of colleges and universities dedicated to advancing the public purposes of higher education by deepening their ability to improve community life and educate students for civic and social responsibility.

Robin Saha, University of Montana associate professor of environmental studies, was selected for his exemplary leadership in student civic learning and conducting community-based research, fostering reciprocal partnerships, building institutional commitments to engagement and enhancing higher education’s contribution.

The award is named in honor of Thomas Ehrlich, former chair of the Campus Compact board of directors and president emeritus of Indiana University, and is generously sponsored by the KPMG Foundation.“Campus Compact’s programs and thought leadership continue to advance progress in pursuit of higher education’s public purposes,” said Bernard Milano, KPMG Foundation president. “We applaud their work and the work of their member campuses, the best of which is exemplified by the 2016 Ehrlich Award winner, Dr. Saha.”

Saha’s deeply engaged scholarship intersects environmental justice and health policy, emphasizing advocacy for marginalized communities. His nationally recognized work shed light on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and has been cited in Fortune Magazine, the Boston Globe and Huffington Post. He also has been recognized for his local, community-based participatory research involving the empowerment of disenfranchised communities to take active roles in data collection and advocacy to achieve significant environmental management improvements.

In addition to being a leading scholar in the environmental justice movement, Saha has spent his career integrating partnerships into his teaching, research and community activism. He consistently engages his students in real-world environmental problems and connects them with affected communities.

“In my experience, civic engagement makes all types of academic endeavors – whether in teaching and learning or carrying out research – relevant and meaningful to all involved,” Saha said. “I especially enjoy enhancing the capacity and commitment of students, our future leaders, and community and university partners to work collaboratively to effect positive and lasting change.”

Beyond his work in the classroom, Saha also advocates for the importance of community-engaged scholarship within the Montana University System. He strives to create opportunities for both faculty and students to promote community engagement, including being a founding member of UM’s Service Learning Advisory Board, as well as being involved in the creation of UM’s climate change studies minor, which is known for its engaged curriculum.

“Robin is an incredibly insightful and community-engaged professor,” said Andrea Vernon, Montana Campus Compact executive director and UM academic enrichment and civic engagement director. “His research and teaching and the work of his students have had profound impacts on the health and well-being of people in the most rural and underserved areas of Montana.”

Vernon said Saha also contributes to the leadership and development of community engaged scholarship throughout the state and beyond by inspiring and supporting colleagues to do this work.

“Professor Saha demonstrates every day that there need be no distinction among teaching, research and service to the public,” said Andrew Seligsohn, Campus Compact president. “His scholarly practice engages students and community members in knowledge creation and action to challenge environmental injustice and produce a more equitable society. We can all learn from Professor Saha’s career.”

The award is bestowed annually to recognize one faculty member and up to four finalists for exemplary leadership in advancing student civic learning, conducting community-based research, fostering reciprocal partnerships, building institutional commitments to engagement, and enhancing higher education’s contributions to the public good.

NEW YORK CITY (TIP): Designer Archana Kochhar showcased, September 8, the rural art of India in New York City as part of New York Fashion Week with her collection, “A tale of two travels”. The collection was inspired by her travel to the Taj Mahal and the village of Banjara tribe. Sunny Leone, the first Bollywood actress to ever walk the ramp at NYFW, looked resplendent as the showstopper in an ivory Archana Kochhar gown. Reshma Qureshi, an acid attack victim who made worldwide headlines for her story, opened the show for the designer in a beautiful ivory gown, which was offset with digitally printed motifs, to create awareness of the initiative “Bring Beauty Back”.

“I am so excited. It’s unbelievable that I just walked at New York Fashion Week for Designer Archana Kochhar wearing her Banjara Collection. The energy here was superb and the response we received was phenomenal”, shared Actress Sunny Leone immediately after the show. “I love this gown; it looks so ethereal. Archana is my favorite Indian designer. She is someone who inspires me as a woman. She has a strong will and goes after what she wants and she is here at New York and has done a spectacular job. Very few Indian designers have reached New York Fashion Week, but she has”, she further added.

“It was a surreal experience. This is arguably, the largest fashion platform in the world. It is a great honor to be one of the few Indians to have showcased at New York Fashion week, for the second time. It is one of the most professionally run events in the world. As the NYFW organizers had told me, they don’t talk fashion – they own fashion”, said designer Archana Kochhar. “I am very grateful to Sunny, who’s a dear friend, and I think she looks stunning in whatever she wears. Also I am very honored to have Reshma Qureshi walking the ramp and showcasing different facets of beauty to the world. Beauty should not be affirmed by a certain height, color or size, it is beyond that. It should be an all-inclusive concept. We need such acceptance in society and I think such endeavors of mine will increase sensitivity towards this concept in our society”, Kochhar further added.

“I was very excited. This was my first time at New York” said Reshma Qureshi. “I am hoping that my participation in this runway will inspire hope and confidence in other acid attack survivors, that they can lead a normal life”.

“A tale of Two Travels” is a thoughtful creation that imparts royal individuality of the surreal Taj and gleams in the colorful essence of Banjara. The first inspiration of the collection is by the nomadic tribe of India called Banjara, known for the craft of the vibrant mesmerizing colors and rustic mirror work in India. The color pallet of this collection is ivory offset with colorful digitally printed motifs, which is further highlighted with multi-color thread work and mirror work. The second inspiration of the collection is by the magnificent Taj Mahal. Depicting a dreamy vision, the collection is an exclusive range of colorful intricate digital prints depicting the vibrant symbolic motifs of the amazing Taj Mahal, the beautiful lotus flower, the mighty royal elephants balanced with geometric motifs. The new line is a foci of contemporary silhouettes fused with a glimpse of Indian conventional cuts to bring forward the concept of the east meets the west. The silhouettes comprised of cold shoulder crop tops, caplets, flared bellbottoms, flared skirts, pencil skirts, high waist shorts, paper bag skirts, dhoti pants, structured gowns, key hole gowns, flowy drapes and jumpsuits.

NEW YORK (TIP): Mother Teresa, who was declared a saint by Pope Francis on Sunday, September 4 has been hailed as the “Saint of the Gutters of Kolkata.” But her sisters find they are needed as much in New York, the richest city of the US.

Suffering and want know no national boundaries. And neither do compassion and charity as the international brigade of Mother Teresa’s sisters bear witness in NYC.

Barely five miles from New York’s fabled “Billionaire’s Row” overlooking Central Park, sits the nation’s poorest area, the South Bronx where Park Avenue sheds its glitz for grit. Clad in blue-bordered white cotton saris, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity toil there tending to NY’s unwanted, the homeless and the rejects.

“We do feel Mother Teresa’s presence here in these sisters,” Nancy Rivera, who grew up in the area, told IANS. Rivera has since moved up and now lives in a well-off area, but still returns to her childhood neighborhood to volunteer at a church near Mother Teresa’s sisters.

She said that when she sees them pick homeless people off benches on the streets to clean and feed them, she senses “the invaluable presence of Mother Teresa.”

She added, “I am one of the lucky ones to have met her in person.”

Considered the poorest area in the US, census figures have pegged the percentage of people below the poverty line in the South Bronx at 38 per cent — and it rises to 49 per cent for children.

Sister Regipaul, the head of the convent in the South Bronx, said that 20 sisters from the US, Canada, Poland, France, Argentina, the Netherlands and India work there running a shelter for 18 homeless men, a soup kitchen that provides ready meals for the needy and a service that distributes food supplies to about 200 poor families, many of them immigrants adrift in an alien land.

Another convent in Manhattan’s Harlem has a shelter for homeless women with a soup kitchen, and in Brooklyn the sisters provide a home for unwed mothers, she said.

A more remarkable service is the home run by the sisters for AIDS patients in downtown Manhattan. The sisters were among the first to step in to care for AIDS patients in the early 1980s when the newly-discovered disease spawned fear and prejudice.

The sisters clean, feed and provide for the patients at the center, Regipaul said.

The Missionaries of Charity are organized into three regions in the US. In the East Coast province headed by a Korean, Sister Rose Clara Lee, over 100 sisters work in 17 centers, three in Canada.

Mother Teresa began the New York mission in 1971 and the late Sister Nirmala, who succeeded her, worked here for a while.

Regipaul, who hails from Thrissur in Kerala, worked in Kolkata and Mumbai before coming to the US 35 years ago. A difference between India and here is that the poverty of the spirit is greater in the US, she told IANS.

“In India, it is easier,” she said, adding “If the people are hungry you give them bread to eat, and it satisfies the need. Here the poverty is greater; they need food, but they are also very lonely. The loneliness is greater suffering than poverty.”

NEW DELHI (TIP): Designer Vaishali Shadangule is all set to showcase her collection under the label Vaishali S at the New York Fashion Week for the very first time, says an IANS report

To be presented on Sept. 8, the designer will be showcasing the brand’s new Spring Summer 2017 collection aptly titled ‘And Quiet Flows the Thread’.

“Showcasing its SS’17 collection at New York Fashion Week, September 2016 will be Vaishali S’s first step towards building the bridge between India’s century old hand weaving tradition and introducing it to the world,” Shadangule said in a statement.

The label will be showing this new collection amongst the renowned international designers like Tom Ford, Vera Wang, Micheal Costello, Anna Sui and Alexandra Wang.

The collection is an attempt to find the fine balance through knots and threads depicting the flow of life. The inspiration is to carry this flow through the garments. The inter-woven threads floating on the garment create a confluence of a free-spirited flow. The knots culminate at a point which holds the entire garment together.

The designer says showcasing the collection at the New York Fashion Week will open an avenue for the entire community of Indian textile makers.

“This opportunity will open an avenue not only for me and other designers but also for the entire community of Indian textile makers and handloom weavers to get their craft noticed and acknowledged in the international fashion industry,” she added.

The color palette used in the collection consists of off-white, beige, shades of blue, grey and black, subtly compliment to the progression of the flow. Textures ranging from knots and cords to loose, freely hanging threads are the essence of the collection, giving life to the concept of flow and form.

The lightness and versatility of the fabrics like silk, khadi and Jamdani will give way to unique, individualistic silhouettes such as those of jackets, dresses of varying lengths and aesthetically constructed drapes, each of which are created with an unconventional perspective.