Kumbh Mela USA is being celebrated from January 13 to February 26 across various locations in Northern and Southern California.
The festival began with the first grand Amrit Snan (holy dip) on January 13 at Kailasa San Jose in Milpitas, followed by the second snan on February 2 in Los Angeles.
Curator Sonia Dhami’s 2nd exhibit ‘Nanaka Ive Janie: Contemporary Janamsakhi Paintings’ opened at the William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles on February 1. It’ll go on till 31 March 2025.
Janamsakhi’s are the legendary stories of the life of Guru Nanak (1469-1539), the founder of the Sikh faith. They offer a fascinating glimpse into the life and teachings of the Guru, blending historical narrative with sacred storytelling.
Once you delve into the history of Indian cartooning and search for the location of the International Cartoon Festival in India, the answer is Hyderabad.
From 2000 to 2002, Hyderabad hosted international cartoon competitions focusing on themes like gender discrimination, water issues, and cyber humor. Former President K.R. Narayanan launched the Indian Ink cartoon anthology on globalization in Hyderabad as well.
It was not a fortunate day for an Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia and Indian fans at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards 2025.
Held January 5 at the iconic Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, the Golden Globe Awards is an annual awards ceremony for excellence in film and American television productions.
Her film ‘All We Imagine As Light’ received two nominations, for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film and at the Golden Globes 2025.
Since this is the Christmas season, it may interest many to know of India’s ancient connection with Christianity.
The first connection began with the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem, when an Indian named Caspar (or Gondophares), was among the three wise men coming from the East, who visited that manger, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the infant Jesus.
Standing by a boulder on a TV set inside Bombay’s Film City studio, “Jawaharlal Nehru” seemed shorter in real life than what he appeared in pictures and newsreels. That was because he was not the real Nehru but the actor Roshan Seth portraying him in 1987 during the shoot of the iconic television series “Bharat Ek Khoj” based on the first Indian prime minister’s celebrated book ‘The Discovery of India’.
Earlier this year, I had extra recycling to handle—batteries, bulbs, plastic bulk items, cardboard boxes—and decided to drop them off at the main recycling center for my city. What I encountered there left a deep pit in my stomach. The sheer size and volume of the operation for just a couple of cities was overwhelming.
Family, friends, disciples, artistes, and representatives of the Indian government paid emotional tributes to the legendary tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain, who died on December 15. He was buried Dec 19, at the Fernwood cemetery in Mill Valley, near San Francisco, California, nestled with oak and bay trees mixed with the historic eucalyptus trees and is one of the country’s first environmentally conscious green cemeteries.
At the world-renowned Art Capital Paris, held under the soaring architectural splendor of the Grand Palais Éphémère, history and innovation converge. Into this storied realm steps Aaradhya, just 11 years old, and now the youngest artist ever invited to present her work at the venerable Salon des Artistes Français. For nearly 350 years, this institution has celebrated icons like Auguste Rodin, Édouard Manet, and Camille Claudel. Aaradhya’s inclusion not only marks a profound generational shift but also heralds a world in which art embraces new voices, fresh visions, and deeper spiritual currents.
Hailing from Delhi in India, and spending her formative years amid Singapore’s cosmopolitan landscape, Aaradhya took her first steps into creativity by painting the walls of her home. Encouraged to explore her instincts, she grew into an artist who effortlessly transcends borders. Her spiritual connection to art further enriches this tapestry.
Zakir Hussain, one of the world’s most transcendent musicians, passed away at 3:42 pm PST, spokesperson informed Indica.
He was 73.
Colors, products, and cultural heritage from across India mesmerized Bay Area residents at a vibrant celebration of Indian State Formation Day, hosted by the Consul General of San Francisco, Dr. K. Srikar Reddy, on November 22 at the India Community Center, California. The event brought together the Indian American community and showcased the rich diversity of India’s states and union territories.
To strengthen the connection between India and its diaspora abroad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Indians residing abroad to participate in the ‘Bharat Ko Janiye’ quiz.
Reacting to renaming the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library to Prime Minister’s Memorial and Museum, the All-India Congress Committee said the following: ‘Mr. Modi possesses a huge bundle of fears, complexes, and insecurities, especially regarding our first and longest-serving Prime Minister. He has had a single-point agenda of denying, distorting, defaming, and destroying Nehru and the Nehruvian legacy… But he can never take away Nehru’s gigantic contributions to the freedom movement and his towering achievements in building the democratic, secular, scientific, and liberal foundations of the Indian nation-state, all of which are now under assault by Mr. Modi and his drumbeaters.”
iNDICA NEWS BUREAU- The Aligarh Muslim University Alumni Association of Northern California (AMUAANC) celebrated Sir Syed Day with a sold-out event held on Saturday, November 11, at the India Community Center in the City of Milpitas, San Francisco Bay Area. The vision of Sir Syed (1817-1898) is very much alive at this annual program which […]
Several Indian-American artists have received nominations for the 67th Grammy Awards. The prestigious event will take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on February 2, 2025.
The nominees of Indian-American and Indian heritage are Ricky Kej, Anoushka Shankar, Chandrika Tandon,Varijashree Venugopal, Radhika Vekaria, and Noshir Mody.
Each year BAPS Swaminarayan temple celebrates Diwali by offering thousands of varieties of home-cooked food to God, goddesses, and the gurus they worship. The offering is called ‘Annakut’. Annakut, which means ‘a mountain of food’, is traditionally offered to God to celebrate the beginning of the Hindu New Year. However, this year, it was a little different. BAPS offered not just Hindu meals as part of the Annakut, but also included Mexican cuisine.
“We started this exercise three years back when our current guru, Mahant Swami Maharaj, said that our mission should be to extend the circle of global harmony. And that will not happen by just BAPS doing their own things. We have to bring everybody together,” Rajesh Rathore, who heads community affairs for BAPS, told indica while highlighting the celebrations and the transformative presence of BAPS in the US. “I think the common theme we have seen is a lot of people find value in learning how BAPS engages people of all ages. We are trying to unite east, west, north, and south.”
It was a full house at City Hall as more than 250 Atlanta residents gathered with Mayor Andre Dickens to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights primarily celebrated by the Hindu community. Organized by the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), the event brought together a distinguished crowd from the Atlanta Hindu community, alongside prominent lawmakers and diplomats.
Attendees included Congressman Rich McCormick (R-GA), Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA), Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), State senators Shawn Still and Nikki Merritt, House Representative Esther Panitch, and Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman. Also attending were the Consul General of India, Ramesh Babu Lakshmanan and Deputy Consul of Bahamas, Tyson McKenzie.
U.S. President Joe Biden would celebrate Diwali on Monday evening, October 28, with a large number of Indian-Americans from across the country at the White House, his last as the President, the White House said in a statement.
The day promises to be a memorable tribute to Indian heritage and culture, emphasizing the growing bond between the U.S. and the Indian-American community.
With Diwali around the corner, the Indian diaspora is gearing up for celebrations and a string of fun events are being organized. The Indian American community members gathered in large numbers for festivities at Times Square in New York.
The fifth annual South Asian Literature and Arts Festival (SALA) with a theme ‘Plurality in community’ began with resounding applause at the Bechtel Conference Center, the historic Encina Hall at the renowned Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
Held this year on September 28 through 29, SALA’s two-day festival, for the past five years allows artists, activists, poets, authors, scholars, and literature enthusiasts to exchange open thoughts.
Here is some good news for film enthusiasts, 3rd i’s 22nd annual SF International South Asian Film Festival – Beyond Bollywood will bring cinema from India, Pakistan, France, the UK, Canada, and the USA to the Roxie Theater in San Francisco from October 18-20.
More than 8,000 miles separate the small, impoverished village where Vinodhini Duraisamy grew up and the Bay Area where she lives now.
It is a distance so vast, geographically and culturally, that her father, a weaver who struggled to support his family, didn’t want her to come.
“Do patan ke bich mein sabut bacha na koi” [Caught between two stones, no one survives].
With that couplet from Kabir, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali described the events surrounding the death of singer Chamkila. Ali, known for blockbuster movies like “Jab We Met,” “Highway,” “Tamasha,” and “Rockstar.” Ali was one of the keynote speakers at SALA 2024 in Stanford, California, where he talked to indica about his recent biopic, “Amar Singh Chamkila,” the Punjabi singer who was mysteriously killed.
Culture, traditions, and mental health are all at play at the upcoming South Asian Literature and Art Festival, SALA-2024, to be held at the Encina Commons at Stanford University, September 28-29.
The SALA committee (Art Forum SF) has partnered with the Stanford Center for South Asia to bring together the event that will feature contemporary South Asian Art collections, and panel discussions on art, literature, poetry, and cinema. With ‘Plurality in Community’ as its theme, the festival is celebrating its fifth year.
The much-awaited South Asian Literature and Art Festival, SALA-2024, returns to Northern California. The mega event is scheduled to take off soon at the Encina Commons, Stanford, California. The Bay Area festival will feature highly acclaimed contemporary South Asian Art collections, and panel discussions on Art, literature, poetry, and cinema. Authors and artists from across the globe will represent their experiences through keynotes, panels, and live presentations.
