“American by birth, Indian by heart.” That’s what the people of Maheshwar, a temple town on the Narmada River in central India, say about their beloved Sally didi. 82-year-old Sally Holkar is a living embodiment of what Mother Teresa, Sister Nivedita, Jim Corbett, and Annie Besant did to India, their lifetime home away from home. While America became a most sought-after destination for Indians seeking prosperity post 1950, Sally Holkar from Texas made India her home in the 1960s and dedicated her life to reviving a dying craft – the Maheswari art of weaving.

Born in Dallas, Sally Holkar is not just an art preservationist but also a family member of the legendary Ahilyabai Holkar, the ruling queen of Indore and founder of Maheshwar in the 18^th century. The Government of India honored Sally with Padma Shri in 2025, alongside four Indian American awardees, for her lifetime contributions to empowering women weavers and carrying forward the legacy of Rajmata Ahilyabai.

PC: Womenweave.org

Sally’s journey to India from the US began with love. While studying political science at Stanford University, she met Richard Holkar, son of the last Maharaja of Indore and a descendent of Queen Ahilyabai. After tying the knot with him in 1967, she moved to India and became the first firangi bahu of the Holkar royal family without knowing the greater purpose of this cultural transition in her life. Restoring Ahilyabai’s fading craft – the art of weaving Maheshwari fabrics – to its glory at international level became the mission of her life.

“I was more at home in India than in Dallas,” she once said while recalling her early years in India as an American bride. “I was overwhelmed with the royal hospitality at the palace in Indore. A cup of tea meant that the whole table would be covered with food,” she fondly recalled. Just when Sally, who once dreamed of having a country life in Texas, started feeling at home amid the decorum of the Holkar family, they had to vacate the palace. In 1971, the Government of India abolished the privy purse system forcing the Holkars to leave the palace in Indore.

It was a blessing in disguise for Sally Holkar. They relocated to the 250-year-old Ahilya Fort in Maheshwar that Ahilyabai herself had established as the seat of the Holkar dynasty in Madhya Pradesh. One evening in 1978, as Sally and Richard were strolling to the river ghat, they crossed paths with an elderly weaver carrying a fine Maheshwari sari folded over his arm. The man humbly shared how the weavers community was struggling to survive due to the fading glory of Maheshwari weaving traditions that Queen Ahilyabai had introduced.

The chance encounter became a turning point for her. Moved by the sorry state of the weavers and the elegant beauty of the art form, Sally vowed to bring the age-old weaving traditions back to life and generate employment for the Maheshwari weavers.  She co-founded the Rehwa Society, a nonprofit weaving cooperative, with an initial grant of Rs 80,000 from India’s welfare board. The Rehwa Society started with 12 handlooms and a dozen local women weavers.

In those days, communication in the local language was a big challenge for Sally, a Padma Shri awardee. But language barriers with the rural weavers did not stop her. She set out on the mission with hope, humility, and patience. By ensuring fare wages, the Rehwa Society attracted women weavers to join the looms, and thus, Ahilyabai’s Maheshwar progressively regained its identity as a weaving hub. In 2003, she founded WomenWeave to support single mothers and widows from marginalized sections by training them in spinning and weaving.

Thus, Maheshwar became the final destination of her epic journey that had started from Dallas to India in 1967. Her journey continued with the launch of the Handloom School in 2015 to train young weavers from across the country, focusing on a seamless blend of Maheshwari traditions, contemporary designs and international standards. She has empowered over 5000 artisans, 90% of those are women. Their creations travel to not only premium exhibitions across India but also more than 20 countries.

Like Alfred Ford from Detroit, who spent years shaping his Guru’s vision of the world’s largest Radha-Krishna temple in India, Sally Holkar dedicated her life to the sacred cause of Maheshwar. The bride from America, who once knew nothing of saris, became a connoisseur of Indian handloom textiles. She even draped in nine yards of elegant Maheshwari silk saris for many years, blending in with the local culture. She became a most revered daughter of Maheshwar for the villagers, a transition from her being a daughter-in-law of Indore’s royal family.

This exclusive story is brought to you by Travel Beats, a leading overseas Indian community portal. Travel Beats is a subsidiary of Indian Eagle, the most trusted air-ticketing partner of Indians abroad for travel between USA and India. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest Indian community news and stories.

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In March 2025, the non-availability of pre-booked wheelchair assistance forced an 82-year-old traveler, among the passengers of Air India, to walk with difficulty. The octogenarian suffered a fall before she could reach the boarding gate for a connecting flight to Bengaluru from New Delhi. She was hospitalized, thereafter. This unfortunate incident at Delhi IGI Airport sparked a debate in all quarters, from media to the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Parliament) and brought a grim picture to the fore – the increasing number of wheelchair assistance requests and cases of misuse.

It got Indian Aviation regulators, including DGCA talking about whether all the requests for wheelchair assistance are genuine, why the available number of wheelchairs does not suffice to fulfil daily requests at airports, whether wheelchairs are available to passengers who genuinely need this on-ground support for age-related health problems or physical debility. It has opened up a much-needed conversation about not just airlines but also passengers who are equally responsible to ensure no misuse of wheelchair service, a free facility for those with genuine needs.

PC: Encalm.com

Stats of Air India passengers requesting wheelchair service  

Data from early 2025 shows that nearly 30% of passengers booking Air India flights to USA from India requested wheelchair assistance. On February 19, for instance, Air India’s nonstop Delhi to Chicago flight had 99 wheelchair bookings for almost one-third of the passengers on board. On March 20, the airline had to cater to a whopping 90 wheelchair service requests for passengers scheduled to travel on the Delhi-Newark flight. Precisely, Air India alone processes over 100,000 wheelchair requests every month from passengers, domestic and international.

Demand for wheelchair assistance has surged among travelers to the US, Canada, and the UK, as many elderly Indians visit those countries for medical care or a vacation with their children residing there. The scenario is more or less the same in the domestic sector wherein Mumbai CSMI Airport registered 750 wheelchair bookings for Air India flights within the country. The airport staff members reported handling up to 120 wheelchair support requests for a single international flight.

Misuse of no-cost wheelchair service

The recent spike in wheelchair requests has become a pressing concern for airlines and airports alike. Mumbai and New Delhi airports are too big and crowded to navigate for senior citizens traveling unaccompanied. Having wheelchair assistance is the easiest way for them to skip long queues and zip through various checkpoints, from security to immigration to boarding. That’s the root of wheelchair service misuse at Indian airports.

There’s no denying that wheelchair-bound passengers get preferential treatment like priority baggage check-in and boarding. That’s another reason why even able-bodied senior travelers are resorting to misuse airlines’ no-cost wheelchair service for the sake of convenience. Delhi and Mumbai airports’ wayfinding signage and information displays in Hindi and English make the non-Hindi and non-English-speaking elderly depend on the wheelchair support staff to access facilities in the terminal.

A shocking truth

The airport staff noticed on several occasions that nearly half of the passengers with wheelchair bookings walked normally once past security or immigration checks. Evidently, many travelers requesting wheelchair assistance on the pretext of necessity are depriving those with a genuine need for the service. In a bizarre incident of wheelchair shortage at Mumbai International Airport in 2024, an 80-year-old Indian American, who had arrived from New York, collapsed, suffered a heart attack, and died leaving his spouse behind.

The overbooking of wheelchair assistance service has raised safety alarms for airlines flying a significant number of senior citizens and medically unfit passengers. It poses logistical challenges during a mid-air emergency that often forces unplanned flight diversions, given the fact that each flight has limited staff and equipment. With passenger safety being a priority, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is investigating the misuse of wheelchair service at major airports and is looking to mitigate it.

Some aviation experts opine that aviation regulators should direct airlines to ask passengers for valid medical proof as evidence of their genuine need for wheelchair assistance. This would help segregate adults with limited mobility from healthy elderly travelers. This accountability measure would ensure even younger adults with medical conditions are not deprived of wheelchair support at airports.

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“Born into struggle, raised in limitations, but destined for greatness.” This sums up Seema Kumari’s journey from a remote Indian village where girls’ education is a taboo and child marriage is still in practice to a prestigious Ivy League university. Unlike the protagonist Anuja in the Oscar-nominated Anuja short film, Seema made it to Harvard University from the intersection of her small village and her boundless dreams. She earned a full scholarship to major in economics at Harvard.

Seema kicked off her legal journey to America with football. Hailing from Dahu, a small village in Jharkhand near the Indo-Bangladesh border, Seema had little access to education during her childhood. In her village of school dropouts, dreaming of higher studies is a daring act. Her parents had minimal schooling. Her father worked at a thread factory and struggled to make the ends meet for a joint family of 19 members under one roof. Seema once said,

“In my village, girls weren’t supposed to have dreams. They were supposed to help with chores, stay out of sight, and prepare for early marriages”.

In 2012, an unexpected visitor arrived in her village. Yuwa Foundation, an NGO, was looking for local kids for a football program aimed at empowering girls. Seema, only nine years old, didn’t hesitate to join the program. It was a decision that sent ripples through her conservative community. Between fetching buckets of water from a well and attending the local government school, she carved out time to join the team. What started as a simple game became a life-changing journey.

Football took her places. She played in local tournaments, then national championships, and eventually, international programs where she saw a world beyond Jharkhand. For her, football was more than a sport. It was a passport to possibility. “I just wanted to play. I never thought it would take me so far,” she once said in an interview.

While excelling in football, Seema had another battle to fight – education. Her class had 70 students, and learning felt distant and impersonal. Recognizing the potential of girls like Seema, Yuwa Foundation opened a school in 2015, reducing class sizes and bringing in teachers from across India and the US. For the first time, education felt personal, and the prospect of a brighter future felt real.

Determined to steer life to that future, Harvard’s Seema Kumari started working tirelessly. She became a football coach and paid her school fees from the salary, balancing academics and training with unwavering dedication. “There was the pressure of dowry and the cost of weddings in the village. Girls are a burden on their parents. You don’t get to live your education,” she had once admitted. But she gritted her teeth to change this narrative.

In 2018, she was selected for a summer program at Washington University and in 2019, she attended another at the University of Cambridge in England. Following Cambridge, she was one of the 40 students selected for a one-year exchange program in the United States. These experiences exposed her to new horizons, new cultures, new possibilities, and the epiphany that she was capable of much more than she had ever imagined.

Seema Kumari’s academic journey from India to USA culminated at Harvard University. It wasn’t even on her radar until one of her teachers encouraged her to apply. Seema hesitated. But with the support of her mentors, she took the leap and secured a full scholarship to Harvard. A divine blessing for a village girl for whom education is a luxury. Seema became a part of Harvard’s Class of 2025, majoring in Economics.

“I remember when I got the acceptance letter, I was happy, but my parents… they didn’t know what Harvard was. They had never heard of it.” She revealed in an interview. She became the girl who defied traditions and landed where no one from her village had ever dared to dream- the prestigious Harvard University in the USA.

When the news broke, it wasn’t just her village that celebrated. The world took notice. Actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas congratulated Seema. News outlets flashed her name. For the first time, Seema wasn’t just a village girl with a dream. She became an inspiration. “It was overwhelming. People I had never met before were talking about me. But deep down, I knew this was just the beginning,” she said.

As she prepares to graduate this year, she is thinking beyond herself. Seema doesn’t want to be the exception. She wants to be the start of a revolution. “I want to go back and create something for the girls in my village,” she says. “A place where they don’t have to fight to learn, where they don’t have to choose between dreams and expectations.” She envisions an organization to empower girls and women in villages through education and financial independence.

The post From Fetching Water in Village to Studying at Harvard: Seema Kumari Rewrites Her Life appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

“A ship is safe in harbor. But that is not what ships are built for.” Similarly, some people are born to break from household confines, cross the seven seas, and travel across geographies. This is true about Molly Joy, a humble grocery shopkeeper from Kerala. The 65-year-old granny, who had never gone out of her village before and after marriage, prides herself on being a globetrotter with grey hairs. She funds her international flights and trips with her modest savings from the grocery store that she has been running single-handedly since her husband’s untimely demise in 2004.

Molly has been to more than 11 countries, including the US, the UK, and Singapore, in the past 10 years. Bitten by the wanderlust bug in childhood, she used to feel elated at the mere thought of traveling the country. But her low-income family in a village near Kochi City could not even pay fees to send her on school trips. Misty memories of those days, though buried in the grave of the past, made her belief, “You can’t cross the sea merely by staring at the water.”

She was married off in 1986. There was a magazine stand in her husband’s grocery store. She would borrow the travel magazine to read travelogues and destination stories – which provided her a window to the vast world outside of her everyday life in the village. It fed her imagination about the faraway places and nurtured her innermost desire to visit those places. But her husband’s sudden death in 2004 did not let her wanderlust bloom. She alone had to shoulder the responsibility of running the shop and raising the children.

After her children grew up enough to stand on their feet, Molly got a passport for her first international trip in 2012. With her own savings, as well as the children’s support and financial help, she travelled to Europe. France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy were stopovers in her 15-day itinerary. “I was concerned about the expense a little, but my desire to travel mitigated the concern. The dream of standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, leafing through the history of Rome at the heritage sites including the Colosseum, and taking scenic train rides in the Swiss Alps was too overwhelming to be overshadowed by anything,” said Molly Joy.

The first trip to Europe was just the threshold that she had crossed to pursue her dreams. Her next travel was to Singapore and Malaysia in 2017. During the 5-year break, she accumulated savings by running the shop for extra hours even on weekends and holidays. Between her two foreign tours – one in 2012 and the other in 2017, she travelled across South India. Madurai, Mysore, Ooty, Kanyakumari, Kodaikanal, Puducherry, Gokarna, and Udupi found space in her travel album. Some tourist attractions in North India also became part of her travel memoirs.

A second trip to Europe happened to be her call in 2019. This time, she visited London, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Sweden. “I have not had enough of Europe. The countries are so beautiful and full of history that I wish to make another trip to Europe someday. Travel gives me an amazing sense of freedom. After every trip, instead of feeling exhausted, I feel reborn. I impatiently wait for the next journey,” she said ebulliently.

Early in 2020, the pandemic brought international travel restrictions. Meanwhile, she saved money and geared up for her first trip to the United States. After the second wave of the pandemic receded from India and before the cost of international air tickets shot up, she took a flight to the US in November 2021. The northeast US cities formed a major part of the itinerary. She visited Newark, New York City, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh and other cities during the 15-day trip. “The Niagara Falls near Buffalo, the Universal Studio in Las Vegas, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco are the best experiences I will cherish forever,” said Molly Joy.

“She is an ultimate travel inspiration. She reminds me of a most popular saying, ‘Never get so busy making a living that you forget to live’,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats, a leading overseas Indian community portal by IndianEagle.com, the most trusted travel-booking partner of Indians in America.

The post With Modest Savings from Her Grocery Shop, This Single Indian Mother Has Traveled to 11 Countries in 10 Years appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

Air India, which played a knight in shining armor several times for the countrymen stranded abroad during geopolitical conflicts and COVID-19, was struggling with an albatross (debts, losses, and threats of a shutdown) around its neck before the Tata Group welcomed the airline back home as the best-ever tribute to JRD Tata. Since its takeover by Ratan Tata, Air India has resurrected from its decades-long state of inertia, inefficiency, incompetence…to become “a world-class airline with an Indian heart” through its 5-year transformation plan, Vihaan.AI.

Air India Lounges

Being a Tata brand, Air India is betting on hospitality to elevate passenger experience from the height of 40,000 feet to ground. The flagship Air India Maharaja lounges at New York JFK Airport and New Delhi IGI Airport are currently undergoing a large-scale renovation. Currently, Air India’s domestic lounge network covers 26 airports, including tier-II Lucknow, Madurai, Vadodara, Indore, Nagpur, Mangalore, Patna, and Srinagar airports.

Opened in early 2024, the Air India lounge at Bengaluru International Airport is wooing premium travelers with its regal décor, modern amenities, swanky furniture, and best-in class hospitality. The convenience of flying in premium travel classes with premium economy or business flight tickets to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai doubles over Air India’s lounging hospitality at those airports. Plush couches, cozy sofas, complimentary Wi-Fi, dedicated nap rooms with recliners, showers, fully-stocked mini bars…are some of the benefits at third-party airport lounges in Air India’s global network.

Air India’s Fleet Upgrade and Modernization

Fleet upgrade and modernization is at the center of Vihaan.AI – Air India’s 5-year transformation plan, which is halfway to repositioning the airline as a world-class carrier. Air India has inducted brand new A350-900 planes into international service as part of its multibillion-dollar fleet expansion project, alongside absorbing Vistara aircraft into its fleet after the merger. A350-900 planes with Premium Economy seats and luxurious business class suites tick all the boxes, from elevated inflight dining to redefined inflight entertainment – for premium travel experience that Indian Diaspora had been waiting for.

Air India’s game changer – A350-900s are operating nonstop flights to India from New York JFK, Newark EWR, and London Heathrow. The Tata airline is looking to roll out top-notch First Class suites on yet-to-be-delivered A350-1000s for select intercontinental routes with demand shooting up for premium travel.

Among Air India’s goals in 2025 is improving travel experience on domestic routes for domestic passengers and international passengers having domestic connections to/from the gateway airports – Mumbai and Delhi.’ Air India has retained the erstwhile Vistara A321neo aircraft with Premium Economy for flights to Singapore from Delhi and Mumbai.

Air India’s Fleet Retrofit Program

Vihaan.AI – Air India’s ongoing transformation from a laggard to a TATA brand, will see completion of the US$ 400-million retrofit project by mid-2025. As many as 27 A320neo planes in the A320 fleet family of narrowbody aircraft that Air India describes as ‘a backbone of its domestic and short-haul international operations’ are upgraded with new cushy seats, carpets, upholstery, and amenities to turn around the airline for 80 to 85% of its total passengers on metro to metro and non-metro routes.

The retrofitted aircraft in Air India’s fleet will up the game with contemporary interiors and passenger-friendly upgrades such as USB chargers, portable electronic device holders, and Wi-Fi. The single-aisle fleet will progressively feature a three-class configuration: economy, premium economy, and business. Also, 40 Boeing 787 aircraft in Air India’s widebody fleet will be refurbished and retrofitted starting this year, under the same modernization program, to deliver a whole new flying experience, according to Nipun Aggarwal, Air India’s Chief Commercial Officer.

Maharaja Club: Air India’s Frequent Flyer Loyalty Program

One of the advantages of flying with Air India in 2025 is the opportunity to earn award flights, extra check-in baggage allowance, complimentary cabin upgrades and lounge access. After two years of its takeover by Ratan Tata, Air India launched the Maharaja Club, a unique frequent flyer loyalty program with a myriad of benefits and privileges. You can earn Maharaja points not only for booking Air India flight tickets but also for traveling with its Star Alliance partners, including Lufthansa, United Airlines, Air Canada, SWISS Air, Turkish Airlines, and Singapore Airlines.

Interestingly, Air India’s Maharaja Club lets you create a family pool of loyalty rewards earned by your family members by linking their Maharaja Club accounts. Whenever the family members fly with Air India or any of the Star Alliance partners and spend with Air India’s non-airline partners (hotels, restaurants, brand stores, etc.), their Maharaja points get accumulated in the family pool. As the family head, you can specify what percentage of their reward points would be added to the family pool. Your spouse, children, parents, siblings, and in-laws can join the family pool, but the strength should not exceed nine members including you.

You can redeem your own Maharaja points or the points collected in the family pool to book award flights to Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, Singapore, or Dubai in either of the two categories: Value Fare and Prime Fare. With Prime Fare, you can redeem points to book your travel during peak seasons or flight deals for last-minute travel. If reward points in your Maharaja Club account with Air India fall short of an award flight or a cabin upgrade, you can top up the account balance by buying points.

New Air India Hub in South India 

Taking the cue from the success of its nonstop flights to Bengaluru from USA and London, Air India is setting up a hub at Kempegowda BLR Airport for the vast South Indian Diaspora in the West. Central to Air India’s long-haul network expansion plans, the new Bangalore hub will streamline international departures and arrivals through Kempegowda Airport for any part of South India. Additionally, the upcoming Air India hub at BLR Airport would help open more international routes from south Indian cities.

Air India’s primary hub, New Delhi Airport, for most nonstop flights to India from USA and other countries has overgrown its capacity. The South Indian Diaspora connecting to their destinations via New Delhi has been vocal about inconvenient transit at Indira Gandhi Airport, especially during winters when dense fog causes flight delays and cancellations. Undoubtedly, setting up its second hub away from north India marks a watershed moment in Air India’s transformation as a most passenger-friendly airline.

Upgrade Plus: Air India’s Cabin Upgrade System for Economy Flyers

In the first year of its transformation journey, Air India introduced Upgrade +, an easy-to-use cabin upgrade system for economy travelers to fly in a premium class. Those, who are not Air India’s Maharaja Club members, can make the most of this program to upgrade their travel from economy to premium economy or business class for a little extra fare. Unlike the Maharaja Club, Air India’s Upgrade Plus facility is exclusive to flying with Air India, not any Star Alliance member airline. Check out Indian Eagle Travel’s guide on how to use Upgrade + for premium class travel on Air India.

Check-in Baggage Tracking on Air India Flights

Among the perks of flying with Air India in 2025 is end-to-end tracking of your checked bags in real time. Integrated to Air India’s website and mobile app, the luggage tracking feature provides real-time updates on your checked baggage from departure to arrival. It cover key touchpoints – check-in, security clearance, aircraft loading, transfer, and arrival – through your international journey with Air India. Read on to know how to use Air India’s checked baggage tracker for your peace of mind.

Air India’s Vision 2025 and Service Standards

Driven by CEO Campbell Wilson’s Vision 2025, Air India is committed to and focused on elevating its service standards, alongside the fleet upgrade and aircraft retrofit project in progress. There are some reports of travelers unhappy with the airline’s inflight service etiquette despite tangible improvements in onboard dining, seating, and inflight entertainment content on certain routes.

“2025 will see progress on many key initiatives, such as…elevating Air India’s service standards, raising the bar on what we consider ‘good’, and more consistently delivering to those new expectations. We will also strengthen and tighten our practices and processes so that we are not just consistent, we are also efficient and, ultimately, profitable,” said CEO Campbell Wilson in a company newsletter to the employees and stakeholders.

Wi-Fi on Air India Flights

Wi-Fi on select Air India flights operated by A350-900s and Boeing 787-9s lets you fly connected even above the clouds. Air India became the first Indian airline to introduce inflight Wi-Fi on domestic and short-haul international flights operated by A321neo planes. Air India’s Vision 2025 of customer service standards encompasses plans to roll out Wi-Fi across its network from America to Australia progressively. Inflight Wi-Fi is also part of the Tata airline’s $400-million aircraft refurbishment project (elaborated above). The travelers who got the best fare deals from IndianEagle.com, a leading air-ticketing partner of Air India, for their winter holiday trips to India from New York and Newark are all praise of seamless Wi-Fi service on board.

The post To Travel or Not to Travel on Air India Flights in 2025: Top 10 Compelling Reasons appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

Sometimes, blessings come in disguise. A layoff is not always the end of the world. Rather, it may be an opportunity to start a more fulfilling career, turn a passion into a fruitful venture, and unlock a hidden treasure of fortunes. Indian American Priyanka Naik’s success story started from a mass layoff at Twitter (now X) after Elon Musk took over the company in 2022 and axed half of the workforce in a week of his ownership. Priyanka Naik from New York, an award-winning chef and cookbook writer, was among the total 6000 layoffs at X.com.

Chef Priyanka Naik, who cashed in on her passion for vegan cooking and became her own boss with a six-figure income in US dollars after being laid off, has no regrets for her impressive 12-year career, from Bloomberg to Conde Nast to Twitter, which ended abruptly. She put on a chef’s hat, grabbed a blender, armed herself with a knife, sharpened her olfactory sense, took to vegan cooking, and started culinary blogging. The pink slip from Elon Musk laid her unconventional passage to fame and popularity.

Culinary experimentation is neither her newly found niche nor her new shot at success. When her professional career was peaking up, she won Cooks vs Cons, a cooking competition on Food Network, in 2017. It was her first recognition in the world outside the corporate sector and her first stepping stone to what she is today—a self-taught vegan chef, celebrated cookbook author, TV personality, globetrotter, and food columnist for The Washington Post.

With her roots in Maharashtra and a little down the south, Priyanka is a vegetarian. Food has been one of the few ways for her parents to stay connected to the roots and culture since they immigrated to America. Apparently, it was her mom’s kitchen where her destination was scripted, in childhood. Food gave her not only a second inning in her career, but also a baton to advocate for a plant-based lifestyle through her vegan cooking. She believes, “What we eat impacts not just our health but our planet.”

Just like her signature look, accentuated with a pair of glasses in burgundy color, her vegan recipes and cooking stand out for sustainable measures. Sustainability being her USP, Chef Priyanka educates her social media followers on the importance of the ingredients we choose and use in everyday cooking for environmental health. Whether it is her kitchen, a culinary event, or a live TV show, she sticks to environment-friendly practices, from sourcing local ingredients to using unprocessed food grains and ditching single-use plastic items.

Cultural fusion and experimentation, other than sustainability, are among the hallmarks of her cooking. She is not shy of doing experimentation even with everyday fun snacks like panipuri, a most versatile and adaptable street food in India. Panipuri with a tongue-twisting fusion of the Mexican flair and Indian spices is very representative of who Priyanka Naik is. The filling of panipuri with Mexican elote (grilled corn in mayo cream sauce, garnished with chilli powder, and seasoned with lime) elevates the taste a notch above the traditional taste.

Chef Priyanka Naik’s pledge to further her mission of sustainable vegan cooking across geographies took shape as a cookbook “The Modern Tiffin” early in 2024. The Modern Tiffin that documents her love of Indian vegan cooking and global cuisines seeks to broaden the prevailing view about vegan food and prove that easy-to-cook vegan recipes could make it fun to lead a plant-based lifestyle. One of the recipes in her debut cookbook shows how to make Chicken 65 vegan.

Her commitment to building a global community of vegan lifestyle aspirants and enlightening people on sustainability in the kitchen did no go unnoticed at the White House. “The Modern Tiffin” author, Chef Priyanka Naik was among the guests who were officially invited to attend President Biden’s last Diwali celebration at the White House this year. Her blog and Instagram page have piqued the interest of high-profile public figures, like Kamala Harris and Chrissy Teigen, in a vegan diet.

The post From Layoff to Six-figure Food Business: Indian American Chef Priyanka Naik’s ‘American Dream’ Story appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

The world’s first-ever inflight wedding was solemnized in Indian skies. Held on an Air India flight from Mumbai to Ahmadabad in 1994, it was the grand Indian wedding of the 20^th century before Asia’s richest business tycoon Mukesh Ambani stunned the entire world with sheer extravagance of band, baaja, baraat for his younger son’s Rs-5000cr wedding in June 2024.

Air India, the then national carrier, made it possible what was unimaginable in October 1994 before its fame and fortune turned for a descent. “The Sky is the limit” was Air India’s response to Laxman Popley, the owner of Popley & Sons (a high-end jewelry brand), who wished a most unconventional wedding for his son and heir, Dilip Popley. And, the first such historic event in the world of aviation was more than a destination wedding in those days.

It was out and out challenging for Air India, in terms of operations and logistics. With approval from the Director General of Civil Aviation and other regulatory bodies, an A310 from the airline’s fleet was chosen as the venue of not only India’s but also the world’s first wedding in the air. A two-hour round trip from Mumbai to Ahmedabad and then back to Mumbai was scheduled for the Popleys to solemnize the wedding on board.

The wedding on Air India went down in history as Hawai Bandhan. There was music and mirth, food and fun, rituals and revelry from ground to the air. Floral decorations, from check-in counters in the domestic terminal to the boarding area and the aircraft, set the ambience of a traditional Indian wedding at Mumbai Airport. A sculpture of Air India’s mascot, the Maharajah, and a huge banner featuring the would-be couple’s names were installed near the check-in counters.

A special boarding pass was designed for the guests to the Popley wedding in the sky, and it had the greeting, “Air India proudly welcomes you to a historic wedding in the air; a marriage that’s truly made in heaven. We hope you enjoy the world’s first airborne wedding.” D.S. Mathur, the Managing Director of Air India back then, was in attendance to greet the bride and the groom at the airport.

The cabin crew sprinkled rose water on the guests and greeted them with a rose bud while onboarding them. The melody of Shehnai transformed the inside of the aircraft into a setup of traditional Indian weddings. Eight rows of seats were removed to make space for the priest and the couple on the floor of the plane. The wedding ceremony started with the exchange of nuptial garlands between the groom and the bride after the plane took off.

PC: Airindiacollector.com

The priest went on to perform the rituals amidst a recitation of mantras and hymns, except the sacred fire for Saat Phere (seven vows). On the other hand, beverages and snacks were served to the guests aboard the flight. The Popley family and Air India left no stone unturned to make the first inflight wedding a lavish affair. None other than celebrity Chef Sanjeev Kapoor curated the signature meal that was served on Royal Doulton crockery to the guests. Even the huge wedding cake was baked and designed by him.

“1994 saw the release of Hum Apke Hai Kaun, the rise of Madhuri Dixit, and the emergence of big fat Indian weddings. The Popley wedding in the sky followed the release of Hum Apke Hain Kaun in August 1994. The movie became the biggest blockbuster of the year and set a precedent for meticulous wedding planning for picture-perfect ceremonies and romanticized union of couples. If the movie had released later, filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya might have shown inflight wedding in his magnum opus, Hum Apke Hain Kaun,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats.

Air India not only hosted Hawai Bandhan at 30,000 feet but also presented the newlywed couple with a honeymoon gift – air tickets to Switzerland. The guests in attendance also received a souvenir from the airline. Dilip Popley, who tied the knot above the clouds in 1994, made it a family tradition by marrying off his daughter in the same style in November 2023. The second Popley wedding in the sky was also held on a flight with 350 guests, from Dubai to Oman.

The post Hawai Bandhan: A Lesser-known Story of Air India Hosting the World’s First Big Fat Indian Wedding in the Sky appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

Kolkata Tram is one of the few historic entities without which Calcutta, the first capital of British India, cannot be pictured. It has witnessed the city’s uphill journey from the rebellious Calcutta to modern Kolkata. Though a thing of past in other Indian metros and an object of disdain to urbanites today, trams will continue to be on the heritage map of Kolkata and a reminiscence of Calcutta. The oldest operating public transport in Asia, Kolkata Tram has been on the run since 1867, through modifications.

In 2015, Dibakar Banerjee’s film “Detective Byomkesh Bakshy” featuring Kolkata trams with the 1940s’ black & white advertisements had revived the hopes to restore the tram’s faded glory. However, its jolted run and snail-paced service are facing discontinuation, as per the most recent reports.

Kolkata owes the glory of this heritage to Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India. Lord Curzon, whose name is infamous for the partition of Bengal (then undivided) in 1905, was the master brain behind the inception of Kolkata’s electric tram service in 1902. Swift transport of goods from ports to the spots of East Indian Company, and fast movement of police contingents to the sites of anti-British activities were his primary motives to set up electric tramlines across the city.

The first tram in Kolkata was a horse-drawn car. It was introduced to the then Calcutta in 1867. The horse-drawn tram cars were imported from England. – IndianEagle

Though tram is identified as one of the unique icons of Kolkata today, it was disregarded as a British import by revolutionaries of the colonial times. Many tram cars were set ablaze as a mark of protest against the British rule in Bengal. The then Calcutta police used the tram service for quick conveyance to the sites of Hindu-Muslim riots in the city during the pre-Independence era. Even mass agitation against increase of fares by only one paisa resulted in setting fire to many trams, after Independence.

READ MORE Calcutta in the 1960s

Electric tramline was the transport lifeline of Kolkata till 1920. Even after the introduction of public bus on the protest-hit streets of the then Calcutta (during the National Freedom Movement), tram was the most reliable public transport. Most of the tramlines were laid and extended that time. Kolkata’s tram service was smooth till the 1960s in the pre-Independence era. Around 300 trams used to run between Kolkata and Howrah till 1950.

With other modes of public transport hitting the city streets in both developed and developing countries, the dominance of Kolkata Tram began waning by the mid of the 1950s. India, too, caught the anti-tram sentiment which spread out to metro cities from Kanpur. Kanpur was the first Indian city to have closed the tram service in 1933. Chennai (then Madras), Delhi, and Mumbai (then Bombay) bade goodbye to tram in 1955, 1962 and 1964 respectively.

READ MORE Interesting Facts of Kolkata’s Hand-pulled Rickshaw

But Kolkata, the city of nostalgia, did not give in to the demand for removal of tramways from the surface. The tram in Kolkata survived throughout the period of automobile boom across India and is still active in some parts of the city. Though the tram service network has shrunk under pressure of urbanization, it cannot be uprooted from the being of the city.

Today, many do not know that the Howrah Bridge, the primary link between the cities – Kolkata and Howrah – over the Hooghly River (another name of the Ganges), used to have tramlines. Only 22 years ago, tram tracks were removed to pave the road for buses, cars and trucks on the Howrah Bridge, in 1993. Currently, 125 trams are operational for daily service.

READ MORE Best Street Food of Kolkata

The movie Detective Byomkesh Bakshy renewed the fame of Kolkata Tram across the country in 2015. The Calcutta Tramways Company was looking to leverage it for revenue generation by renting out tram cars for private tours and parties in the city. The state government of West Bengal was approached with a proposal to initiate tram services at Rajarhat, a satellite city cum IT hub at a distance of 15km from Kolkata International Airport. Unfortunately, the days are numbered for Kolkata Tram.

Travel Beats is an Indian Diaspora and Travel News portal by Indian Eagle, the leading travel-booking partner of Indians in America. Travel Beats publishes interesting stories and features on India and USA. Subscribe to our free newsletter and don’t miss the latest updates.

The post A Sneak Peek into 150-year-old History of Kolkata Tram, from Colonial Times to 2024 appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

At some temples in India, Venkateswara Swamy, Sri Ganesha, and Sankatmochan Hanuman double up as “Visa Gods” for hundreds of thousands of Indians wishing to study, work, live and settle abroad. Pesky paperwork, convoluted process, visa appointment delay, fears of rejection, and likes drive ambitious individuals with their passports in folded hands to the visa temples where the deities are believed to answer their prayers for visa approvals. After all, Indians are known for their steadfast faith in the divine power.

What makes India the largest beneficiary of H1B and L1 visas issued by the United States every year? It is the visa temples in India, and one of them is in Telangana. Hardly 25km from the IT corridor of Hyderabad City, Sri Chilkur Balaji Temple grants visa boons to STEM students and software professionals aspiring to live the American Dream. Though the temple is nearly 500 years old, it came to be known as Visa Balaji temple in Hyderabad only in the 1980s.

Hundreds of visa seekers from far and wide throng the temple daily, with the crowd swelling on weekends during visa seasons. Hyderabad’s Chilkur Balaji Temple is believed to expedite the visa paperwork, remove obstacles from the process, and minimize the visa interview delay (if there is any) for those who make 11 pradakshinas around the sanctum sanctorum, chanting ‘Govinda’ with devotion. They revisit the temple and perform 108 pradakshinas out of gratitude to the deity if they are blessed with their desired visas to travel/settle abroad.

No wonder why the twin states of Telugu-speaking people receive a majority of US student visas and US employment visas every year.

Let’s travel straight to Punjab where a village named Talhan near Jalandhar has one of the visa temples in India. Unlike other visa temples where coconuts and flowers are offered to the deity, the Shaheed Baba Nihal Singh Gurudwara receives toy planes from the visa seekers. Not only students aspiring foreign degrees or working professionals looking to have a better life overseas, but also parents seeking well-to-do NRI grooms for their daughters visit the gurudwara in Talhan.

Unsurprisingly, the market outside the gurudwara has several shops dealing in toy planes of different sizes, which sell like hot cakes. The prevailing belief is that those offering prayers at the Shaheed Baba Nihal Singh Gurudwara in Talhan are blessed with the increased likelihood of international travel to USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia. The 150-year-old gurudwara features a huge replica of aircraft atop its roof similar to various rooftop sculptures in some Punjab villages with NRI population.

Gujarat is no exception in the context of a visa god or goddess whose divine intervention is ritually sought to expediate visa approvals. Tens of hundreds of visa aspirants from across Gujarat and Rajasthan visit Chamatkarik Hanuman Mandir in Khadia, Ahmedabad every day.  The presiding deity of this modest temple is locally known as ‘Visa Hunauman’, as Lord Hanuman was the only one to have travelled overseas (without documents) in search of Devi Sita.

The visa Hanuman Mandir in Ahmedabad earned the moniker ‘Chamatkarik’ as it is believed to have done miracles even for those who had fewer chances for visa approval. The temple priests perform certain rituals to invoke Lord Hanuman and seek His blessings for devotees wishing to travel abroad.

The national capital, New Delhi, is home to two such temples granting visa boons to Indians, irrespective of caste, community, and economic status. One of the two is Pracheen Hanuman Mandir near the VFS Global Application Center at Connaught Place. Among the oldest and most popular temples in Delhi, Pracheen Hanuman Mandir is a go-to destination for those who dream of taking flights from New Delhi to USA and other countries for better opportunities.

Also, B1/B2 visa seekers visit the temple as their travel plans often take a backseat due to visa appointment delays at the US Embassy, New Delhi (where 475 days is the current wait time).

Located on IGNOU Road, Chamatkari Visa Wale Hanuman Mandir is another such place in Delhi for those awaiting coveted US visa stamps on their passports. International travel aspirants and visa applicants write their problems in red ink on a piece of paper and offer it at the feet of Lord hanuman in the temple. Interestingly, this visa temple keeps a register for those who write ‘thank you’ notes as a gesture of gratitude if their visa issues are resolved.

The trail of visa temples across India ends at the Sri Lakshmi Visa Ganapathy Temple in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Located within 10km from the US Consulate in Chennai City, the temple is frequented by troubled visa seekers with passports in one hand and coconuts in the other hand. Sri Ganesha, the god of happy beginnings, is revered as the remover of visa-related obstacles for one’s international journey at this temple. Since visa approval marks the beginning of an international trip, irrespective of the purpose, Tamil Nadu’s only visa temple in Chennai has become a beacon of hope for those anticipating visa delays or fearing visa interviews.

The post India is Home to 6 Visa Temples where Many NRIs Got Visa Boons to Live American Dream or Work in Other Countries appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

In an emerging social media trend, some Indians are bragging about their decisions to choose America over India, whereas some other Indians are proudly announcing their move back to the home country and reasoning why. Their posts are going viral from public platforms to private WhatsApp groups, inviting praise and criticism alike, with netizens at loggerheads over their individual views on living in America vs living in India.

In one of the recent X posts (formerly tweets), Viba Mohan, an O1 visa holder from Bengaluru, wrote, “I have been bouncing between Bengaluru and America. After lots of overthinking (and probably too much coffee), I decided America’s going to be my new home…”.  She listed and elaborated a little the vibrant tech scene, optimistic culture, outdoor safety in the US, along with her O1 visa, among the considerations that influenced her decision and put an end to her dilemma.

Both resident and non-resident Indians on X divided themselves into two groups over Viba Mohan’s X post. One group sided with her, while the other group schooled her. “Choosing America is a rational and low risk decision. Choosing India is an emotional and courageous decision” is one of the remarks that inundated her post. One user countered her, “You did not come here on H1B. Neither you studied here or borrowed a loan, so naturally everything appears green and optimistic.”

Another user went on to comment, “The US is good as long as you have a good job. U need to be extremely good to have your job. Craftsmanship can be experimented. Safety is a concern in USA. Plus, you are always treated as a 2^nd grade citizen. Divorce rate is high. Traffic is still a problem in San Francisco.”

“The recent mass shooting that killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia on 5 September raises eyebrows over Viba Mohan’s observation of safety in the US that she described as ‘living somewhere safer doesn’t just make you feel calmer — it makes you more productive too.’ The Apalachee High School shooting is the 30^th mass killing incident in America alone this year, according to USA Today and The Associated Press. If she meant the safety of women’s dignity in the US, then her observation becomes a different debate altogether,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats.

In July 2024, Niharikaa Kaur Sodhi took netizens aback with her perception of true quality of life in USA vs India after having spent only 11 days in the land of American Dream. She went uninhibited in her X post about the conveniences of living in India, such as affordable domestic help vs the fundamental necessities for a quality life in USA, like clear air and green spaces.

She opined certain conveniences that make daily life comfortable in India are sheer luxuries, not basic needs in America. Clean air, green pastures, good roads, uninterrupted electricity, and personal freedom, among the benefits of living in USA are far more valuable than material comforts, such as doorstep food delivery, 10-min grocery delivery, and affordable domestic help in India. Her perspective is that one does not need quick grocery delivery in USA where there are good roads to walk to nearby stores without the fear of getting hit by a car or stray animals. It is relatively easy to drive without ‘crazy congestion’ at crossroads in the US.

In her viral X post, Niharikaa listed “freedom to wear what you want to be comfortable instead of men ogling at you” as one of the things that have made her happy in the US, except family time in India.

Simple yet profound pleasures like morning walks in the calm environment, breaths of fresh air, chirping of birds, etc. took center stage in her definition of quality life – which elicited various responses from netizens who enjoy a plenty of such luxuries in rural India. But Niharikaa thwarted their arguments by citing the lack of basic amenities, such as power supply, clean drinking water, and accessible healthcare in rural pockets of India. While she asserted that even semi-urban areas cry for good infrastructure in India, some netizens voiced that no place is a utopia on earth; every place has its pros and cons.

Of late, Nayrith Bhattacharya and Rishita Das – a working couple and IIT graduates – shared their list of 10 observations one year after they moved back to India from America in August 2023. They referred to the list as an honest compilation of 10 differences between life in USA and life in India, with a disclaimer.

Contrary to Niharikaa’s picture of American streets without ‘crazy congestion’, Nayrith Bhattacharya observed in the past 12 months of his stay in India that downtown New York/San Francsico/Chicago has traffic no way better than his home country. At the same time, he unhesitatingly said, “Traffic in India is definitely irritating and slow because of the unpredictable driving practices and multi-modal transport.”

In his personal observations about the difference between USA and India, Nayrith said that making meaningful connections is a lot easier in India than in America. While staying in the US, he found it challenging to make connections beyond usual coffee meetups and mere work/sports related discussions.

“I beg to differ with him though it is his personal view. Being editor of a leading Indian immigrants community portal in the US, I have observed them closely. Every Indian community, be it Bengali, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, or Marathi, lives like a bonded family there. They celebrate their respective cultures, festivals and heritage together, ensuring no dearth of camaraderie among them. Maybe, Nayrith felt too nostalgic about the cultural milieu in Kolkata,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats.

The post NRIs Share Views on Comforts of Life in India and Benefits of Living in USA; an Emerging Social Media Trend appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.