Designing Beyond Bollywood

Beyond Bollywood postcards. Click to enlarge.

By Masum Momaya, Curator

As I write this, Smithsonian exhibition designers are putting the finishing touches on the gallery design for Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation.  Come December, the 5000-square-foot exhibition on the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History will be adorned with artifacts, images, and works of art showcasing Indian American history.  Contextualizing these items with visual elements to transform the gallery into an Indian American space has been a yearlong undertaking.

Last summer, I chose paint colors for the exhibition walls, deciding on marigold yellow, deep purple, and bright magenta to convey the vibrancy of material elements of Indian American culture, such as our garments and spices. Smithsonian designer Lynn Kawaratani and I visited an Indian clothing shop, grocery store, and my very own closet to identify visual elements to include in the gallery design. We photographed textile patterns, matched colors with a very large book of Pantone swatches, identified recurring motifs (such as paisleys), and chose the trusty, ever-present stainless steel thali as a frame to be used throughout the exhibition.

New York-based designer Minjal Dharia gave an Indian-inspired treatment to the exhibition title, which will be carried in all the exhibition text panels, and designed various postcards to help us spread the word using a few of photographer Preston Merchant’s images.  Recently, we put out a call to the community to collect both Indian and American shoes, many of which will grace the exhibition entrance.

Colors, patterns, motifs, fonts, and commonplace items such as the thali will merge to create the backdrop for  telling our history.  We look forward to sharing both the educational and aesthetic experience of Indian America with you later this year.

Click to enlarge and view more photos.

 

“My Thali” – The Indian American “Plate”

A traditional Indian thali plate.

By Kumu Gupta

As a President’s Challenge Advocate, I would like to introduce “My Thali”, a concept equivalent  to USDA’s MyPlate program, a fun way to eat healthy for the Indian American community.

MyPlate was introduced in 2011, as a replacement for USDA’s My Pyramid program. The Food Pyramid was introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture in the year 1992, and was updated in 2005 to MyPyramid. A food guide pyramid is a pyramid shaped guide of healthy foods divided into sections to show the recommended intake for each.  Using the new USDA plate icon, basic suggestions of MyPlate food groups are to:

• Balance calories (reduce portions)
• Increase certain foods (vegetables, fruits and whole grains)
• Reduce other foods (sodium and sugary drinks)

Thali (Hindi: थाली [t̪ʰaːli]) meaning “plate” is an Indian meal made up of a selection of various dishes. Thali dishes vary from region to region in India and are usually served in small bowls on a round tray. Sometimes a steel tray made with multiple compartments is used.

An Indian American diet is similar to the American diet in that dairy, vegetables and fruits constitute most of what is eaten in the course of the day. But the Indian American methods of cooking or preparing food can be a fun experience for one to enjoy the pleasures of the culture while adopting healthy eating habits. For example, mango, a favorite Indian fruit, can be enjoyed as mango lassi, a popular and traditional yogurt-based drink (can be substituted with low fat yogurt) of India. It is made by blending yogurt with mango juice. This would take care of the fruit as well as dairy requirements for the day. Dal (also referred to as dahl or daal, or dhal) is a preparation of pulses (dried lentils, peas, or beans) and is a ready source of proteins for a balanced diet containing little or no meat. Similarly, chapati is unleavened flatbread and is made of whole wheat flour and cooked on a tava (flat skillet). This is a low-fat to no fat alternative for the grains food group.

This fun and easy way of enjoying an Indian meal also applies for breakfast. With today’s 1 Minute Cream of Wheat, you can alternate upma (a hot breakfast dish) one or two days of the week with toast, eggs, pancakes, and fruit for a not-so-boring 7-day plan for a fresh start to your day.

Thus “MyThali” combines healthy and delicious alternatives of Indian American cuisine in conjunction with the guidelines of MyPlate and goes a long way in helping you stay fit in your new home away from home.

Kumu Gupta is a guest contributor to our blog. She is a President’s Challenge Advocate with the President’s Challenge Program, a premier program of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition.

 

Donate Shoes to the “Beyond Bollywood” Exhibition

Donate a pair of shoes to the exhibition Beyond Bollywood: Indian American Shape the Nation.

Want to be part of Beyond Bollywood? Donate a pair of new or gently worn shoes. They can be for any season, style, age, and gender. But please do not mail us your shoes, first send us photos of the shoes to indianamerican@si.edu. You will be contacted via email if your shoes are selected.

Please note that submissions are not guaranteed in the exhibition. There is no compensation for the donation and shoes will not be returned if they are chosen.

 

A Taste of India at Trader Joe’s

Indian frozen food dinners at Trader Joe’s. Photo by Emily Vallerga

By Emily Vallerga, Spring 2013 Intern

In preparation for the exhibition Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation, I was asked to catalogue all the Indian foods sold at Trader Joe’s. The presence of Indian food offerings at Trader Joe’s represents one way in which Indian food has taken root in American cuisine as a mainstream staple.

Here are some reflections on the experience:

A sign from a Trader Joe’s store.

For those who are not familiar with Trader Joe’s, it is a grocery store that prides itself on being the trendy, food conscious, neighborhood store. Originating in 1967, in Pasadena, California, Trader Joe’s now boasts 395 stores in 30 states. The products range from organic cage-free eggs, frozen stir-fry vegetables, eggplant palak paneer, and more.

In fact, I was surprised to learn that Trader Joe’s sells around 30 different Indian food products from simmer sauces to frozen dinners. I found boxes of “Indian Fare: Jaipur Vegetables” (which are ready in only five minutes), bags of presumably freshly made tandoori naan, and jars of mango ginger chutney. The products range from simply placing the item in a pot and boiling it, to a product that will enhance any home cooked dish.

From left: mango ginger chutney, Indian Fare – jaipur vegetables, and tandoori naan. Photos by Emily Vallerga

But what makes the Indian food at Trader Joe’s stand out, besides its affordable price, is that it sits on the shelf next to the Indonesian curry, Chinese stir fry, and Spanish sauces. While cataloging, I had to scour each aisle just to find all the little pockets of Indian food throughout the store. I found it particularly intriguing that there was no “Indian Food” or “Hispanic Food” designated areas, but rather all of the ethnic food was intermingled with other foods.

It seems to me that Trader Joe’s believes strongly in bringing tasty, healthy, and flavorful food options from around the world to its customers. In fact, the design of the store suggests a mingling of cultures and food that is non-discriminatory. It creates an environment that is welcoming to all adventurous food lovers.  What do you think?  Is this a sign that Indian food is now American food?

Emily Vallerga, a recent graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz, is an intern with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s Indian American Heritage Project.

 

Call for Art Submissions

The Indian American Heritage Project of Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center is looking for artists to create works that use the visual of the H1-B visa as a motif or inspiration and comment upon the experience of temporary and tenuous immigration status for Indian immigrants in the United States. Themes such as migration, transnational identity, diaspora, economy, outsourcing and the role and reach of technology can also be explored.

Final works should be no larger than 6’ by 6’ and must mount on a gallery wall. All media are welcome, including:

• Graphic Design
• Painting
• Drawing
• Printing
• Collage
• Photography
• Mixed Media

Interested artists should submit a concept, including a detailed written description and sketches/images by midnight EST on Sunday, March 31, 2013 to Curator Masum Momaya at MomayaM@si.edu with the subject line “H1-B”.

Upon review of concept submissions by Smithsonian curatorial staff, a small number of artists will be asked to create the final work and submit digital representations of it by 5pm EST on Friday, May 31,2013.

Digital representations will be displayed by Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center in an online gallery, and the winning work will be featured in an upcoming exhibition, Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation at the National Museum of Natural History from December 2013 through January 2015.

 

Event: Book Talk with Dr. Nalini Natarajan

Friday, April 5th, 2013

12:30 p.m. — 1:30 p.m.

CFCH Conference Room
Capital Gallery, 2nd Floor

600 Maryland Ave SW
Washington, DC 20024
Google Map

Metro: L’Enfant Plaza

Free and open to the public.

The Indian American Heritage Project at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH) present a brown-bag book talk by Dr. Nalini Natarajan, Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on her new book Atlantic Gandhi: The Mahatma Overseas.

Atlantic Gandhi examines Gandhi’s experience as a traveler moving from a classic colony, India, to the plantation and mining society of South Africa and argues that his diasporic life resonates with recent perspectives on the Atlantic, as an ocean that not just transported the victims of a greedy plantation system, but also saw the ferment of revolutionary ideas.

 

Video: Event at the Consulate General of India in New York City

The Indian American Heritage Project was recently in New York City promoting our project and upcoming exhibition, Beyond Bollywood! Check out this video featuring some highlights from a presentation event at the Consulate General of India in New York City on February 28, 2013.