Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, delivered the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture at Cornell University on Feb. 13. Arun Gandhi, who lived with his grandfather in South Africa in his early teens, said he learnt his first lesson in nonviolence when he was throwing out his pencil, an occasion his grandfather used to instil awareness about the environment.
– NEW YORK For more than 30 years, he has fitted the city’s wealthiest and famous residents, and now, Mohan Ramchandani is using his skills and foothold in the custom tailoring market to dress some of New York’s underprivileged. He has partnered with the Hope Program to provide suits worth $1, 000 each to 17 recent graduates entering the job market.
– NEW YORK Padma Lakshmi , host of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” will host the second annual Varli Food Festival scheduled for April 5. Hosted by Varli magazine, the festival features over 60 Indian restaurants and 20 award-winning celebrity chefs from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and India.
British Indian origin MP Keith Vaz said he will speak to the parents of student J. Praveen Reddy, who was critically injured in a brawl at a party in London, but stressed there was nothing to fear for Indian students in his country.
Comedians are rarely known for their diplomatic skills, but three South Asian-American stand-ups may just prove to be the exceptions. Rajiv Satyal, Hari Kondabolu and Azhar Usman recently concluded a seven-city India tour sponsored by the State Department. Their itinerary took them to Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Patna, Kolkata, Durgapur and Mumbai from Feb. 4 to 17.
– BUFFALO, N.Y. An Indian-American physician at the University at Buffalo is the first in Western New York to carry out a successful heart valve transplant. Dr. Vijay S. Iyer, assistant professor of medicine at the university’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has successfully led a team of highly trained physicians to implant aortic valves in four patients over the last few weeks.
Prosecutors want to raise the level of a charge they are making against a former Rutgers student who is accused of spying on his roommate’s gay sexual encounter and relaying it over the Internet. The roommate later committed suicide. The Star-Ledger reported Feb.
