Visiting India


This week Let's Travel Radio visits India, a destination we've all heard about, read about, and seen in the movies. Slumdog Millionaire has nothing on this. Today's guests will tell us what we've been missing. You'll hear from the Deputy Consulate General of India, Dr. A.M. Gondane, Narendra Kothyial, Director for India Tourism in New York, Air India's Regional Director, Ms. Dilshad Gogia, Newsweek International's Contributing Editor, Ms. Vibhuti Patel who knows something about the cuisine of India and noted journalist on India Affairs, Mr. Aseem Chhabra.








Guests

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Dr. A.M. Gondane, Deputy Consulate General of India
New York Office


Dr. A.M. Gondane, Ph.D., joined Indian Foreign Service in 1985. He has worked in Indian Embassies in Damascus, Baghdad, Vienna and Ankara in various positions. In New Delhi, he was Director of West Asia and SAARC Divisions. He also was responsible for training foreign diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute. He was Joint Secretary (Coordinator) for the 14th SAARC Summit held in April 2007. He also worked as Officer on Special Duty to the Deputy Speaker of Indian Parliament.

Dr. Gondane has been a Visiting Fellow at the Henry L Stimson Centre, Washington, DC in 2006, where his Paper on "Terrorism in South Asia" was published. Dr. Gondane has edited two books and written articles on social development issues earlier. His book "The Arrival" was published in 2006.









Naresh Kothiyal, Information Officer
India Tourism in New York


Naresh graduated from the University of Delhi, and is a Tourism Professional with a Diploma in Tourism Management. He also has a diploma in Spanish and has taken a certificate course in the French Language. He carries more than 30 years of experience in Tourism industry.

His professional career started in 1975 with India Tourism, Delhi. During a tenure with the Ministry of Tourism he was associated with the Regional Office in Delhi and the Headquarters at Delhi. He worked in areas of Hospitality/Publicity and International Co-operation for the Ministry of Tourism while at Delhi. He was on deputation to Spain (1992) and was later posted at India Tourism, Paris (2000-2004) and since May 2007 he has been working at the India Tourism Office in New York.

At India Tourism NY, he is responsible for Marketing, Publicity and Promotion of Tourism to India from the Americas (North and South America) and Canada. He has traveled extensively in India, Europe and the United States.


Naresh can be contacted at nareshkothiyal279@gmail.com









Aseem Chhabra, Freelance Journalist


Aseem Chhabra is a freelance writer in New York City who writes on a variety of topics, including arts, entertainment, social and political issues stories. Aseem has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Courier-Journal, Time Out, New York. He writes a weekly column for Mumbai Mirror – a Mumbai based daily newspaper and also contributes regularly to two Indian-American outlets — India Abroad and Rediff.com, the leading news portal that originates from Mumbai. His by-lines have also appeared in India in Outlook, and the Indian editions of People and Cosmopolitan magazines. Aseem has been interviewed on film and popular culture by several media outlets, including ABC's Good Morning America and Nightline, National Public Radio, Associated Press, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times and New York Daily News.

Aseem is an elected member of the board of the South Asian Journalists Association and the New York Chapter coordinator of SAJA, where he often chairs panel discussions on social and political issues, hosts book reading events and other arts discussions.

Aseem has also worked in the publishing industry in the US, managing the businesses and finances of magazines at several leading companies including Reader’s Digest, American Express, American Media Inc., and Rodale Press.

He holds an MS degree in Journalism from Columbia University and an MBA from Boston University.


To read Aseem's blog, check out The Aseem Chhabra Show








Vibhuti Patel, Contributing Editor
Newsweek International


Vibhuti Patel, a Contributing Editor at Newsweek International, lives in New York City where she writes on arts and culture, teaches contemporary Indian fiction and cooks for friends and family. Before the arrival of authentic Indian restaurants, the late Craig Claiborne, food critic of The New York Times, invited her to cook for him in his East Hampton home. His article on her vegetarian regional Indian cuisine ran on the front page of the Living Section of the Times with a full page of her recipes inside. More recently, she was invited to cook and share her recipes at the Culinary Institute of America, in Napa Valley, California.












Dilshad Gogia, Regional Manager
Air India, East Coast


Dilshad has been working with Air India for the past 38 years, with experience in various departments. She has worked at airports in Mumbai and Dubai, in the Revenue management division, in sales, marketing and pricing, as well as conceptualizing and starting up of India's first low cost International carrier Air india Express. Currently she is the Regional Manager of East Coast USA.


Her views on India:

It is land so diverse with so languages and cultures that even people living in India cannot absorb and experience it all in one life time. It is country with many smaller "countries" within. It is a traveler's paradise. There are so many different languages and dialects spoken and yet English is spoken and understood all over the country. There is a huge diversity of race, religion culture and yet a blissful co existence between all the people who are so diverse in their thinking and cultures.

Whilst the cities and urban India is developing at a rapid pace in keeping with the other metros of the world, the villages are now beginning to feel the outside influences. The women in urban India and more so in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore etc. are on a equal footing with men with regard to jobs etc. Inspite of modernization family and traditional values still are a very strong force and one of the major strengths of the country.