When the weather gets warmer, I naturally begin feeling less active, more sluggish. Right around three in the afternoon, I crave something yummy and energizing to give me that second wind I need to write more posts for The Ajnabee, as well as edit my articles for Chic Today… So, lucky for me, I live in the East Village, where coffee houses and neighborhood joints abound. But, lucky for you, I got my favorite Moroccan restaurant to share their Turkish Coffee recipe, which is quite simply divine. If you have it in you, do turn your tiny demitasse over once you finish your coffee and try to read the grounds… I saw horses and camels in mine today. Not sure what that means, but hey, it was good enough just to find anything at all at the bottom of my cup! 

The “equipment” you’ll need are two demitasses - small espresso coffee cups, ideally made of thin porcelain - and an ibrik, typically a copper pot which can be heated over your stovetop. If you lack the ibrik, do use just a regular saucepan. It’s not the point to end up broke in the process, especially not during these crucial financial times. The only point is to enjoy a delicious treat! Simply. Oh, and if decide you don’t want to share it, well one cup will do, even if coffee always tastes better with someone else…

The ingredients are:

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon of very finely ground dark roasted coffee, so fine that it feels like powder

1 teaspoon of sugar, if you like your coffee medium sweet, or to taste

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

Preparation:

To the cold water, add the powdered coffee and sugar, stirring until all the coffee grounds sink and the sugar is dissolved. Remove the teaspoon and never stir the coffee mixture again, or you’ll risk destroying the desirable foam that is meant to form on top of your coffee. Heat up the mixture, bringing it to a slow boil and then removing it from the flame. Add the cardamom powder and heat up the mixture again, bringing it to a boil once more, then remove from heat. Your coffee is ready! Pour it and enjoy it, with a glass of room temperature water to cleanse the palate and refresh. N-joy!

To say that I am an Indian cinema aficionada would be an understatement. While I typically shy away from — and vehemently discourage people from using, in my case — the word “Indophile”, I do fit the dictionary description to a T: “A person with more than a passing interest in all things Indian”. The problem I have with the term Indophile is that it personally feels too much like an exclusion. I would have to add Moroccophile, Italophile — wait, if you are Italian is that still the correct word?! — Jamaicaphile and Flamencophile… Well, you get the point, the list goes on and on. And on! 

But as far as my love of Indian cinema goes, there is one organization responsible for spreading the word across the oceans and to the four corners of the earth and that is FilmKaravan, based right here in NYC. Founded by two well-respected film industry professionals — and fantastic women! — Pooja Kohli and Payal Sethi, FilmKaravan is at the epicenter of the movement to bring the best of independent films made by South Asian filmmakers to the rest of world. The ladies have a huge fan in me and I seem to be in very good company… (see photos!)

For their first year anniversary party, they chose Cain, in hip Chelsea, as the venue to host a bash which was a perfect blend of interesting talk, wonderful meetings, great discoveries and professional achievements. Yes, because during this lively and lovely party, the powerful duo behind FilmKaravan launched the Karavan Kollective, a program to distribute South Asian independent cinema online, through various venues and portals, such as partners to the venture Netflix, AVS and Amazon.

The Karavan Kollective will allow for easy viewing of films like “Bong Connection”, “Via Darjeeling” and the Mira Nair produced “Aids Jaago” quartet of shorts. For those of us who have been desperately seeking a copy of these films to see, the initiative comes as a godsend. For Indian cinema and South Asian filmmakers, this is the beginning of all good things to come. You know I will continue to point this out in my writing until I can no longer type the words, the world is now beginning to look to the East for their entertainment. And it was all started by two little words: Jai Ho!

For a fantastic video of the evening, check out the masterful editing technique of Raju Sethi at Asian Variety Show, with some thoughtful comments by the likes of Abhay Deol, Dev Benegal — Deol stars in Dev Benegal’s upcoming and highly anticipated “Road, Movie” - and Mira Nair. Oh, and even a snippet of my broken-record prediction, shot by a masterful cameraman! The video should be up by the end of the week, if you still cannot access it through FB. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a fun shot. I wonder if I got the joke, eventually… Oh, and don’t forget to go to the FilmKaravan site and sign up to receive their fantastic monthly newsletter!

Photos courtesy of FilmKaravan

I didn’t think much of the film when “Last Chance Harvey” was originally being promoted for its cinematic debut a few months ago. Actually, what I mean is I wasn’t given enough time to think about it as the Dustin Hoffman/Emma Thompson starrer was gone before I could walk up to the box office at my local cineplex and say “Give me two tickets to Last Chance Harvey”!! Then - again before I could think about it - the film was released on DVD and if it weren’t for Mother’s Day, I probably would have missed it once more. See, how it went is that Mom expressed an interest, I am always a sucker for love stories and the rest, as they say, is history.

I am sooo glad I got to watch this film! Finally, a mature clever love story which does not show the female lead as a complete neurotic wreck and the male lead as the hero - sans the white horse - come to save her from her pathetic life! What a relief, that there are still writers - like the film’s writer/director Joel Hopkins - filmmakers out there in Hollywood writing scripts like this, directing them and hiring amazing actors like Ms. Thompson and Mr. Hoffman. Of course, the film would not be the tender poetry I found it to be without the masterful work of its two beloved stars. Stars that never act like stars but simply shine without attitude and without trying to outdo each other. Stars simply working together for the success of the story.

Tissues were definitely deployed during the viewing of the film. I’m a sucker for a good love story and if the woman is a tough cookie, smart, interesting and not the luckiest in love, well, the tears flow even more freely. I kept thinking of my dear friend’s words, while we were riding together in a rickshaw in Bombay a few months ago: “Nina, you must find yourself a man who is at least 10 years older than you.” OK, so double that for the age difference between Mr. Hoffman and Ms. Thompson, but still… More tears, more tissues, unsure now if it was from missing my faraway friend or simply from wishing such intelligent love into my life…

Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details of the plot and you know I am not your girl if you wish for spoilers and those pesky accompanying spoiler alerts. I’ll leave watching the film and deciding how you feel about the story to you. But I highly recommend it for a good evening of intelligent conversation, the kind perhaps you might be wishing into your life these days as well.

Europe Day is probably a day that is not marked on your calendars. Why would it be? It wasn’t on mine and I’m a daughter of Europe, but I was introduced to it by a dear friend who works for the European Commission and was posted to NYC last year. It’s a blessing to have her here and, it turns out, Europe Day is actually great fun. 

Kicking off on Thursday, May 7th, with a big bash inside the main hall of the NY Public Library on Fifth Avenue, the event was bigger and more lavish than I expected. I mean, you gotta love a party crowd so influential that the NYPD has to close off a whole section of Fifth Avenue smack in the middle of rush hour traffic for them!! The cocktail reception was hosted by Ambassador Fernando M. Valenzuela and his wife, Mrs. Rocio Valenzuela. For those who may be unfamiliar with Ambassador Valenzuela, he heads the Delegation of the European Commission at the UN.

The guests were truly universal, from Kuwaiti diplomats, to NY socialites to European expats. It was clear from the moment one stepped into the Library that this was a worldly affair. Even the guard at the front door greeted us in perfect French upon entering. And don’t even get me started on the multicultural caterers who were truly fantastically welcoming and offered such divine delicacies as shot glasses of chilled cucumber soup, mini viner schniztel, tiny potatoes drizzled with caviar and even meringue pastries with a raspberry/whipped cream filling. Need I say more?

For those who wish to celebrate their own Europe Day in style, on Saturday, May 9th, NYC’s very own Empire State Building will be lit up during the dark hours in the colors of the European Community flag, blue and yellow. It’s a site to behold, as you can easily catch in this photo from last year’s celebration. So, join me in saying “Jai Ho Europe!”

So Ram Gopal Varma, no stranger to controversy and wild press, planted a brand new minefield back in May. The Indian media was all abuzz for his use — and possible misuse — of the lyrics from the Indian National Anthem for the trailer of his latest film ‘Rann’. The filmmaker of ‘Satya’, ‘Company’ and ‘Sarkar’ was heating up the presses once again and way before the film was even slated for release…

After all was said and done, the Indian Censor Board had its say and asked — OK, forced — the filmmaker to remove the incendiary song and alter the lyrics. I have included below the original video so you can see, and hear, what all the hoopla was about. 

I will reserve my opinion of the film until after I have seen it. But a story about the evils of sensationalistic media in India — the land of ‘Breaking News’ — sounds just about perfect and the film is slated to open on Jan 29th — not a day too soon for me, I tell you!  

I have a feeling that — unlike what happened with ‘3 Idiots’ (high expectations, story lost in the end) — this is one movie I won’t be disappointed by… Too often I crave a film for what I’ve read about it and end up being disappointed by the actual content and treatment of the subject. But RGV definitely has an interesting approach and he boast Amitabh Bachchan in his cast, along with Paresh Rawal and personal favorites Rajat Kapoor and Riteish Deshmukh. I know my interest is definitely peaked.

The whole problem the courts had with his use of some of the lyrics of the National Anthem — which was composed by Nobel Literature Prize recipient Rabindranath Tagore -- is the addition of such incendiary phrases as “By shedding blood, we have turned the tricolor into just one bloody color” and “Dead is our conscience. Who knows when it will come back to life”. I can see how some people would be touchy about the new addition to this old standard, yet on the other hand, lets get real with lyrics that still include the since long lost region of the Sindh… But really, don’t take my word for it. Check out the film’s website for the complete story as well as a fun interactive experience.

 I’ll leave you with the words of RGV from a press conference on May 6th: “I have not tinkered with the anthem or treated it in a disrespectful manner. The song is just a medium to express the angst against the current situation in the country. Please do not try to create a controversy where there is none…” From his mouth to your ears. See you at the movies for this one!

All images courtesy of the filmmaker