– NEW YORK The American India Foundation raised over $1.35 million at its annual Spring Awards Gala at the Sheraton New York on May 10. Chanda Kochhar, the managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank from India, and John B. Veihmeyer, chairman and CEO of KPMG LLP from the United States, were honored at the gala for their service to the community, a press release from the foundation said.

President Obama enjoyed a Himalayan-inspired meal prepared by renowned Indian American chef Vikas Khanna at a high-profile fundraiser held May 14, at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. Some of the city’s hoi polloi paid more than $35,000 for the multicourse meal that Khanna told Desi Talk, was inspired by the values the President espouses.

Mumbai, May 15 (IANS) Actress Nandana Sen and producer Madhu Mantena have ended their nine-year-long relationship. The former is shifting to New York and the couple felt that a long-distance relationship is impractical, but they admit that they will work together on a movie. This, coming in the wake of Mantena's marriage proposal in Paris last year, is a rude shock.

Kolkata's red-brick secretariat was built more than 200 years ago for Britain's East India Company, which used trade in opium, cloth and tea to colonize the subcontinent. Distrust of foreign merchants lingers still.

– LAHORE, Pakistan In an auditorium at a luxury hotel here the other day, an artistic spectacle unfolded that once would have been unimaginable: Women and men danced together. The occasion was International Dance Day, and to celebrate it, the Pakistan National Council of Arts put on a cultural show in which young performers displayed different ethnic dance traditions.

She ruled Bollywood in the 1990s, but gave up a flourishing career after marrying Delhi-based businessman Sanjay Kapur in 2003. Last seen in the 2006 film “Mere Jeevan Saathi,” the glamorous Karisma Kapoor now hopes to return with a bang with Vikram Bhatt’s supernatural 3-D thriller “Dangerous Ishhq,” where she is cast opposite fairly unknown faces and will be seen in different avatars.

Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan has been voted as the ultimate style icon in an online survey conducted by Yahoo! India, while Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan were declared the most stylish celebrity couple. On the list of ultimate style icons cricketer M.S. Dhoni features at number two and superstar Shah Rukh Khan is third. Hrithik got 18 percent votes, while Dhoni bagged 16 and SRK 15 percent votes, said a Yahoo! India statement.