Skip the Tricks, We Want South Asian Treats! | Divanee – South Asian news and entertainment

10/31/2011Amina Elahi

Here in the US, we’re lucky to have an extensive selection of sweets year-round. And come Halloween, well, we end up acting like kids in a candy world. Grocery stores bombard us with mile-high displays as soon as we cross the threshold; local businesses put out “Help yourself!” bowls to tempt us at checkout; and, let’s not forget the secret stash of cheaper-than-dirt chocolates we keep stashed in our desk drawers.

In which I don’t like a book by one of the most respected Indian writers of our time.

10/27/2011Amina Elahi

In India, the word “Maoist” is thrown around like “terrorist” in America. Anyone who fits the profile–physical, geographic, socioeconomic–falls into the Maoist bucket, just another drop in the undercurrent of revolution flowing through the subcontinent. While some Americans peg people as terrorists for their looks and supposed faith, many Indians imagine that anyone who fights the system, for better pay or food or civil liberties, is a Maoist, no matter their actual political affiliation.

Zoom zoom.

10/20/2011Amina Elahi

Indian millionaires, take note: Lamborghini plans to open a second dealership in your country before 2011 crosses the finish line. The luxury supercar maker hopes the new stores will “meet increased demand for cars including the 36.9-million rupee $750,600 Aventador, said Mohan Mariwala, managing director of Lamborghini Mumbai,” according to Bloomberg.

In which I draw ingredients freehand and am pleased with the results.

10/19/2011Amina Elahi

Everyone says they have the ultimate chai recipe, but whose technique really takes top honors? To find out, we had readers submit their personal recipes and tested a variety of them to come up with this glorious concoction. Inspired by your submissions, this is an amalgam of the best ingredients and methods we were given. As healthy, easy chais go, this can’t be beat.

A book on Karachi more thorough than you would ever expect.

10/17/2011Amina Elahi 1 Comment

As a Karachi native, I consider myself forever connected to that tangle of a metropolis even though I moved to Chicago at a year old and have lived here ever since. It is a notoriously tumultuous city, a microcosm of mismanagement, violence and instability. Despite my deep personal interest in Karachi, its history and current state are difficult to unravel and daily changes impossible to follow. Having read Steve Inskeep’s “Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi,” I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This beauty book will answer your skeptical questions about natural skincare.

10/17/2011Amina Elahi

Books about beauty tend to suffer from a certain level of hokeyness that comes with reassuring readers that it’s okay to care enough about their appearance to read an entire volume on it. On top of that, books that push a certain beauty philosophy risk traipsing into marketing territory. Kristen Ma’s “Beauty Pure and Simple” skirts that line, but stays on the safe side with an interesting and educational read.

The newest South Asian fashion queen on everything from inspiration to her must-have accessory.

10/10/2011Amina Elahi

Every day for Azeeza Desai Khan is a new adventure. Between working in advertising and designing for Atelier AZZA, Khan has a lot on her plate and somehow finds enough time to juggle it all.

Enchantment I haven’t experienced since Harry Potter.

10/03/2011Amina Elahi

With people fighting to earn Foursquare badges by checking in to their apartment buildings and other mundane locations every day, it’s hard to remember that we do not live in a video game where our sole purpose is to make it to the next level. In a whimsical and truly playful turn, Salman Rushdie stabs at our desire to collect magic mushrooms through the eyes of a 12-year-old protagonist in “Luka and the Fire of Life.”

Turns out there really isn’t much you can get for 65 cents.

09/28/201109/28/2011Amina Elahi

Wolf Blitzer, you insult me.

09/23/2011Amina Elahi

“HRK interview on CNN. Smart and confident. Blitzer just said, ‘I want YOU to be careful when you go back.’ So condescending and misogynistic.”

Amina Elahi

Louisville-based journalist

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