Three NY-based Indophiles rope in over 80 contributors, including anand mahindra and james ivory for a book on India. proceeds of the sales will support 26/11 survivors
Three NY-based Indophiles rope in over 80 contributors, including anand mahindra and james ivory for a book on India. proceeds of the sales will support 26/11 survivors
If our environments mold us, then Mumbai has made me much of who I am. On its streets, I learned to stand up for myself; in its roadside stalls, I learned to bargain; in its commercial centers, I learned business; and in its cinemas, I learned to dream," says Mukesh Ambani in To India with Love: From New York To Mumbai published by Assouline. The book, that will be launched in Mumbai on December 1, launched in London last week and earlier this year in New York, is filled with moving accounts of what India and Mumbai means to the world. Editors Mortimer Singer, Tina Bhojwani and Waris Ahluwalia say that the book was born a month after the 26/11 attack out of a need to stand by Mumbai.
"When 9/11 happened, we felt so much love when everybody came forward to support us. We didn't see that from what was happening in Mumbai. There was talk of blame and of being more careful but no one was talking about the man on the street," says India-born NY-based actor Waris Ahluwalia. In fact, Ahluwalia, Bhojwani and Mortimer set up an organisation called Mumbai: We Got Your Back! (WGYB!) before they could begin work on the book
In case of his collaborator Tina Bhojwani, an NY-based fashion executive, whose parents are based in Mumbai, the 26/11 terror attacks were "beyond shocking." Says Bhojwani, "We wanted to make sure that people didn't forget that this ever happened so all three of us called on our respective contacts for this book which is a real collaborative effort."
It's a cross-country mash-up of thoughts and images with names from all walks of life from film to business to music to fashion to education. There are striking art works by Mumbai's MF Husain, Italian artist Francesco Clemente and personal snapshots from the lives of contributors such as actors Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson, film maker James Ivory and India Hicks, the grand daughter of Lord Mountbatten.
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"We wanted the book to be a bit like a scrapbook filled with so many different views, a bit like Mumbai really," says co-editor Mortimer Singer of NY-based management consulting firm Marvin Traub Associates, who was in the process of convincing two uber luxury brands to come to India before the 26/11 terror attacks. Singer has been visiting India every four months for the past five years says but the luxury brands are yet to be convinced about coming to India, a state-of-mind that Singer hopes to change soon. Bhojwani adds that the book aims to raise awareness about India and inspire tourists to come back.
The book, which had a print run of 7,000 copies, has already received orders for its second print run. "Our publishing company tells us that we sold the maximum number of books at a publishing event for them," says Bhojwani of the NY launch attended by about 300 people, where 300 books were sold. LA-based photographer Frederic Roberts, who has contributed his photos of India to the book, also donated his photos fo the project. "It's not just sales of the book that is generating funds. Several individuals have donated their personal funds as charity," adds Bhojwani.
As far as boosting tourism is concerned Ahluwalia feels that a trip to India is an adventure for most tourists in the West. "It's not like a trip to Europe or the Carribean. India is an adventure for all your five senses. The book hopes to spread the love and hope you feel when you come to India so what better way than to let people tell their stories?" says Ahluwalia, who spent time with filmmaker James Ivory at the latter's residence poring over old photographs that could be used in the book.
Drawing parallels to Mumbai and NY, Singer says, "Both are long islands, have multiple cultures and backgrounds. The book is a kiss to Mumbai from New York."
A pro-bono effort undertaken by the editors and the publishers Assouline books, To India with Love: From New York To Mumbai plays up Indian exotica with the vibrant artwork and oft-seen photos of rural India, but every page is filled with optimism. Proceeds of sales of the book will go to the Taj Public Service Welfare Trust in conjunction with Mumbai: We Got Your Back! (WGYB!), to support families and businesses, whose livelihood was affected by the 26/11 attacks.
Natalie Portman, Actor
I was in a local beauty shop with a friend who needed grooming while we were in Udaipur. It was one room with a floor-to-ceiling darkened window as the street-side wall. My friend had her legs perched on a table as the beautician curled hot wax around a popsicle stick and readied a ripped denim square to remove the unwanted hair. She spread the wax and patted down the cloth to adhere to it.
As she was about to pull, we heard devastated shrieks of pain outside the shop.
A dog had been hit by a car and was crying loudly, nauseatingly, dyingly in the road just outside. We watched as it lay on its side, crying on the pavement.
As if they were police responding to an alarm, the other dogs in the neighborhood came out from their repose in the shade, running toward the suffering one, a small black-and-white mutt. The dogs that ran toward its cries were larger, wolfish-looking ones.
"Don't look," my friend told me, even as she could not look away herself. "They're going to eat it."I shut my eyes, wondering, Do dogs cannibalize one another? I didn't think so. But then, I reminded myself, there was that saying: dog-eat-dog world. It must come from somewhere.
I opened my eyes just in time to see one of the larger dogs open its mouth and bite into the injured dog's leg. The poor sufferer still whimpered as the larger dog dragged it out of the street and into the shadow of a parked car. The other dogs swarmed around them, and my friend and I half-shielded our eyes, unable to look away from how the dog's fate might unravel.
But the larger dog simply licked the injured dog's leg until it stood up. He limped, but had by now stopped crying. The larger dog nudged the injured dog's sagging tail until it perked up, signaling wellbeing. Then the larger dog walked away, leaving the limping dog to its independence. He walked past the car and out of sight from the beauty shop window.
The beautician ripped off the denim that had still been adhered to my friend's leg, which was still perched on the table.
Steve McCurry, Photographer
The monsoon is the earth's most awesome climate event. It has spiritual weight in India, literally bringing resurrection as it turns brown earth green.
Monsoon weather is challenging for a photographer, but I am drawn to it. There are as many different kinds of rain-saturated light as there are storms. Writers can revise and rewrite their descriptions, but photographers' critical decisions are instant, and with monsoon light changing fast, the urgency of the photography can be intense.
The paradox of the monsoon is that there is usually too much or too little rain for the health and livelihoods of rural people, dependent on a force indifferent to them. It has little direct effect on the urban population, which grits its teeth and carries on.
James Ivory, Film Director
For me, at first, India was a never-ending feast of strange and beautiful new sights, tastes, and sounds, to which I was at once place inhabited by people I was ready to love at first sight. I couldn't speak their languages and often they had trouble with mine, but that never mattered. When I went back to New York I remained passionately faithful to New Delhi, the only city I knew well in India, and I made a film about it. Or rather, about the two Delhis, New and Old.
Then I met Ismail Merchant; and soon after Ruth Jhabvala and her husband, Cyrus; and then our first star, Shashi Kapoor. Their combined strengths formed the resilient superstructure of my life to come. They were joined by Satyajit Ray, who already was my filmmaking mentor, or guru. Every Indian
artist finds a mentor, and by this time I thought of myself as Indian. I had been born again, into another life. It was these five people, over the many decades of our friendship, who turned me into that man called James Ivory.
Zubin Mehta, Music Director, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Taj Mahal hotel was a focal point of my youth in Mumbai. My father, Mehli Mehta, performed there for more than ten years of dinner hours. His trio eventually grew into a sextet.
The Taj was always, then as now, known for the highest quality in both hospitality and cuisine. And it is an architectural wonder: like so many other Mumbai buildings constructed during the British Raj, it is a stylistic mixture of India and Europe that nevertheless stands out as a beautiful monument welcoming all those who approach Mumbai by sea. The proximity to the great Gateway of India only embellishes this majestic part of Mumbai that we all love so much.
The recent tragedy that the hotel, its staff, and its guests have had to endure is something that I condemn vociferously. I hope fervently that such acts of inhumanity are once and for all a thing of the past. I long to return and occupy once again the Rajput Suite, which my wife and I consider a second home.
I was recently at the Taj and stood with tears in my eyes as I read the names of staff members and guests who perished so tragically during those black hours last November. I pray that the Taj Mahal hotel, which is a pride and joy of Mumbai, will open all its doors once again, inviting the world to enjoy Indian hospitality at its best.
Silvia Venturini Fendi, Fashion Designer
India talks to me about the beauty of fundamental valuesu2026
Pureness, spirituality, simplicityu2026
Simple things full of meaning where anything can be everything Like the warm welcome of a bowl of Jasmine petals that scents the air Every time I come back from India I want to be a better person!
India Hicks, Mother, Model, Designer, TV Host, and Granddaughter of Lord Mountbatten, the Last Viceroy of India
My grandmother first visited India in 1921, long before she became vicereine:Edwina Mountbatten noted in her diary that she woke to an Indian early morning, listening to the sounds of unfamiliar birdsong, subdued laughter, and handmade brooms sweeping verandas.
Nearly a century later, I visit India and note the exact same Indian early morning. I wear my grandmother's Indian jewelry with pride. It always reminded her of the country and people she loved so dearly.
Padma Lakshmi, Actor and author
I was on my way to dinner in Jaipur with fellow actors, on a rare night off from filming Sharpe's Challenge, and we stumbled upon this wedding caravan.
There were rows and rows of people bearing electric lights, following the groom on his elephant. The mood was so festive and magical that we all somehow got swept up into his traveling party, and the groom's family invited us all to the wedding.
We ditched our dinner plans and tagged along, and danced up a storm, too. That night perfectly symbolized the inclusiveness of Indian culture, and my British friends never forgot how that moment of shared intimacy made them feel part of a larger, collective Indian family.
Anand Mahindra, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra
The most effective weapon we have against terrorists is to become even more steadfast in our resolve to band together as a community and ensure that no member of the minority cowers in fear of reprisals or discrimination after an attack.
We need to erect a wall interlopers cannot penetrate. Behind that wall will be a city that will eject them rapidly and forcefully even if they do manage to stray into it. When every street, every gully, is filled with informers and defenders of the peace, then Mumbai may in fact be held up as a template for battling terrorism. That would be a true victory for people power.
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