Tiffinbox

100!

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Back on January 21, 2004 I exulted in the fact that I had received 50 subscribers to this blog – Tiffinbox. Well today, thanks to you all, I have reached another milestone when the 100th subscriber joined this list!

Your site “TIFFINBOX” received 1 new subscribers today.
It has 100 total subscribers and is ranked #196 on Bloglet.

What would make this experience even richer is if you all could take the time to comment or email me your suggestions. During a recent panel on blogging, I lamented that most of those comments I do receive (and have to delete) are from spammers. Well, let's change that around shall we? It would be great if you could keep your eyes peeled for content that would make for an interesting read for everyone.

Some of you have already told me that the site needs a redesign and badly. I am working on that, I assure you. My friend Arindam Mukherjee has designed a new logo. I'll be releasing both the logo and the site in the next few weeks. If there are features you would like to see on this site that you have seen elsewhere, do let me know. I'll be happy to see if it will make or break the site.

While 100 is a great round number, this site isn't just about increasing traffic. It's about involving each of you in this experiment in such a way that we can raise our collective awareness of the similarities and differences within South Asian culture and its ultimate relationship with rest of the world. It's a tall order, no doubt, but it can be done through thoughtful dialogue and an exchange of ideas which could take shape as photography, writing, art & design.

So, if you know of people involved in any of these endeavors, send them my way – email me at: tiffinbox {at} pipalproductions {dot} com. I'll be happy to post a blog about them and link to their website, if they have one.

I welcome all of you to participate and to let others know about Tiffinbox.

Desis In The Mix

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“I don't know how long that's going to last. But I can't escape it; this is what I am. And I'm going to be with this forever.”

That is jazz pianist Vijay Iyer in today's New York Times article, India Resounding New York.

Time Out New York, Newsweek and now this about South Asians coming into their own in careers other than medicine, law or computer science. Refreshing, to say the least. These new vocations – in the Arts – are not easy choices to make and they certainly aren't by far the safest ones, considering the state of the economy and the fickle nature of the art world. Yet, it had to happen. While the article speaks of only South Asian music, I suspect other genres of art will also see a resurgence. Only a matter of time when we see sculptors, dancers, photographers making their way into the spotlight, if only for 15 minutes.

Speaking of desi culture pervading the Western landscape, my wife and I have tickets for Bombay Dreams. I'll be sure to post my thoughts here on that spectacle.

SAJA Photoforum Exhibit

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Via Saheli

“The Gala featured a wonderful slideshow of SAJA members' photography set to music by Seshu Badrinath's Pipal Productions–keep an eye on his site for it to be posted. It made me hungry to travel.”

Well, I am not entirely sure if the entire show will reside on my professional wedding photography site or here on Tiffinbox, or on the SAJA Photoforum site. Perhaps the latter as the images were ostensibly submitted to be shown at the SAJA convention and ultimately published on a SAJA sanctioned website.

It isn't so much as to WHERE but HOW the slideshow will be published. Right now I am grappling with bandwidth and storage space issues. If I were to show the entire show as a Quicktime movie, it comes in at a whopping 400 megabytes. At that size, I will quickly exhaust my monthly (or perhaps annual quota). So, that's not going to work.

I am looking to convert the slideshow (which was made using iViewMediaPro) into a lighter, Flash based slideshow. If you have any suggestions, do chime in. I am all ears.

]Thresh[

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At the Joyce SoHo (in NYC) this week (June 25/26) Preeti Vasudevan and Thresh, a Brooklyn-based dance theatre company she founded will perform “Strings Unattached.”

“Strings Unattached, inspired by ancient texts, involves three contemporary pieces linked not by theme, but by musical instruments, violin and cello.”

For more information, go to Thresh's home page.

Blogging @ SAJA

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I sat with an august group of bloggers last Friday at the SAJA convention in NYC. Jen Chung of Gothamist sat to my immediate left. Others who made the lineup were Prashant Kothari of Finding My Voice, Anil Dash of Six Apart, Mark Dery of NYU, Nimesh Patel of Mahoot Media (and Badmash fame).

While I conceived the panel on blogging for the convention, Mimi Hanaoka of InTheFray.com moderated it with great dexterity, pinching us from time to time to think about how blogging figures in the grassroots mobilization of society (if it does at all), as a part of the democratic process.

There are so many aspects of blogging that I am just discovering. Issues on privacy, advertising and the general lack of access for the majority of people to the kind of technology that makes blogging possible was discussed. It made for an interesting experience.

Rupa Datta, a recent Columbia University J-school grad in the audience sat upfront with her PC laptop propped up on her lap … blogging! The wi-fi signal at Lerner Hall made it possible for her to post her thoughts on her own blog as the panel on blogging unfolded.

ArtWallah

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“ArtWallah is an annual festival of South Asian arts. Held in early summer of each year, the four-day Los Angeles-based event presents artists from around the world, showcasing their expressions of the South Asian diasporic experience through film, literature, spoken word, music, dance, theater, and visual arts. The festival is made possible by the combined efforts of the Indo-American Cultural Center (IACC) and the South Asian Artists' Collective, the dedication of numerous volunteers, and the generosity of supporting donors and sponsors. ArtWallah's mission is to serve as a platform of expression and a channel of communication between South Asian artists and their communities.”

The dates are July 8th through 11th at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre and Art Park in Hollywood, California. I have always wanted to submit my work but the deadlines have escaped me. This year was no different. While the organization is not accepting any more submissions, I'll try and do my best so that next year I won't be asleep at the wheel.

Padma & Salman @ SAJA

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salmanpadma_w2

Here they are – Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie – at the SAJA convention last Friday.

What was asked of them or said by them is a bit of a blur as I was working on the annual SAJA Photoforum exhibit all day. Add to that my friend Arindam's insistence on drinking a Sam Adams. Head abuzz, I slid through gawkers to make this image of life's most improbable of couples. But who am I to judge love's infinite loops?

More on the SAJA convention real soon. Look here in less than a week for a slide show of the best photography exhibited at the convention.

Gone To SAJA

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The next several days I will be attending the SAJA convention in NYC. Will do my best posting about the events at the conference.

Today, in a couple of hours actually, we will be meeting up at Columbia University for the first day-long photography workshop. It will be led by David H. Wells, a photojournalist and a teacher. We are headed to Jackson Heights for the day. I'll make a link to some of the best images produced today soon available here.

SAJA'er and Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria will address us tonight at the Asia Society. Salman Rushdie and his wife Padma Lakshmi will grace us with their presence tomorrow at a reception. Other heavy-hitters in the business of journalism will be present as well.

Should be fun (and naturally all bloggable!)

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