CityMasala.com

CityMasala Team

Editor and Publisher

Chhaya Sanghavi
Bold and candid, Chhaya wears a different hat every minute of the day. "I want to add a little 'masala' to your life", is her response when asked what CityMasala is all about. Her vision is to make CityMasala an enjoyable necessity, an important part of every reader's life. With a background in journalism, sales, marketing, and public relations, her life revolves around her son, Shiv, and CityMasala. She is a positive thinking 'go-getter' who enjoys a chilled Sam Adams, a good book, shooting pool, and cheesecake. She swears that she does not ignore people; she just does not remember faces! Humble yet strong, quiet yet witty, Chhaya is a dynamic entrepreneur who wants to make a difference in the south Asian publishing world.

STAFF PHOTGRAPHER

Sanjay Puranik
Sanjay is the latest addition to CityMasala’s team and is our staff photographer. His photography interests range from product photography to fashion photography and has been known to spend hours wondering around town or in one of Florida’s state parks trying to get that shot. He is also a member of the Florida Museum of Photographic Art and is a regular volunteer at the downtown museum.

Junior Graphic Designer

April Stern
April loves to design. With an inherent eye for fashion, she tends to do really well with design even when she dozes off every few hours. April is a hard working girl and her creativity shows in her work.

Content Contributors

Shahnaz Husain
She became the first woman in 107 years to receive the World’s Greatest Woman Entrepreneur Award from the Success magazine in USA. The pioneer of Ayurvedic beauty care, Shahnaz Husain needs no formal introduction. She has taken India’s Ayurvedic tradition to every corner of the globe and her very name is the biggest brand in Ayurvedic Skin Care. Today, she heads the largest organization of its kind in the world, with a chain of over 400 franchise clinics, shops, schools and spas worldwide, as well as Ayurvedic formulations for skin, hair, body and health care. Trained for ten years in cosmetic therapy and cosmetic chemistry, she adopted the principle of “Care and Cure". Shahnaz Husain joins the CityMasala team to share her beauty tips and secrets for timeless beauty

Alpa M Patel
Alpa is a mother, wife, Indian-American, and travel enthusiast. Those four aspects of her life greatly influence her aspiring writing career from articles and essays to short stories and children's books. Born in New Jersey, she has lived in seven U.S. states and traveled to six continents and twenty-five countries. In addition to this nomadic lifestyle, she draws inspiration from her heritage from Gujarat, India, and her passion for exploring different locales and customs. She studied economics at Brown University and business at Columbia University. She thanks her parents for encouraging her along the non-traditional paths of life and CityMasala for promoting interest in the South Asian culture.

Ashish Jain
Ashish came to the US for his second Masters degree in Marketing and Business Management. He has been part of the restaurant/ hotel industry for a number of years where he has had the opportunity to enjoy and partake of a variety of brews, concoctions and potions. H e has been the proud owner of many different restaurants and has consumed every kind of alcoholic drink imaginable. He has even brewed his own beer, wine, liquors and flavored alcohols. This has given him the in-depth knowledge required to write the Daru Ka Nasha column. Coupled with the wealth of his experience at alcohol consumption and brewing, as well as the philosophies he holds dear at each stage of consumption, he hopes to refine, educate and expand the desi drinking palate through his column.

Asha Deshpande

Asha Deshpande is a long time resident of the Tampa Bay area. She has seen the area grow, and has grown with it. Writing is her hobby. Her articles have been published in newspapers and magazines locally as well as in India. In her column "Kal aur Aaj", she takes us through the journey of the Tampa Bay Indian community in more than a quarter of a century.

Judi "Simi" Silva
Simi is a true Indophile (in the apparel, music, food, culture, etc. departments) An avid Bollywood fan, she has even performed a couple of filmi dances with a local dance troupe. Her current enrollment in a Hindi language class has been a challenge but well worth it (someday she won’t need the subtitles!!). Expressing her thoughts (mostly through her writing) on everything Indian, is one of her favorite things to do.
She is the author of ‘Journey into the Soul’ and ‘Postcards from Goa’ (in the process of being published). She is also the co-author of the “Bollywood” script My India … Passages Through Time (currently with a producer).
Being an voracious reader of books written about India and by Indian authors, Simi has written reviews and interviewed several authors. She hopes that the readers of CityMasala appreciate the wit that she tries to mix in with her articles.

Maulik Trivedi
Dr. Maulik Trivedi is a board-certified psychiatrist. He has lectured audiences and authored articles on topics ranging from child-development and parenting to Meditation and Stress Management. He is a regular speaker for national and local civic organizations such as the Federation of Families, NAMI (The National Alliance for Mentally Ill) and CHADD (Children and Adults with ADD). Dr Trivedi enjoys helping people recognize and realize their innate potential. Through a holistic approach in his practice of psychiatry, he guides his patients toward happier and more successful lives. He treats children, adolescents and adults in the Tampa-Bay area. Dr. Trivedi is an avid student of yoga philosophy and particularly of meditation. He lives with his wife and two children in Valrico. In his spare time, he enjoys ‘learning how to play’ from his children.

Neelofer Syed
Ms. Syed obtained her law degree from Punjab University Law College in 1994 and her Masters Degree (LLM) with honors from the Stetson Law School in 2004 where she was awarded the Dean’s Award, the highest award given by the law school. Ms. Syed has also served as an Intern with the Office of Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.

While engaged in active practice of law in Pakistan Ms. Syed successfully argued cases all the way through the Pakistani Supreme Court. In addition, she was very involved in human rights activities, especially in the area of rights for women, children, and laborers. These included serving as the Human Rights Coordinator for the Province of Punjab, as Secretary of the Punjab Chapter of the Pakistani Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy, as a Director of Rugmark International, an organization dedicated to eradicating child labor, and as a collaborator with Fair Trade where she designed and implemented a micro credit program in Sialkot, Pakistan, designed to provide supplementary income to skilled laborers in the sporting goods industry to reduce the incidence of child labor.

Ms. Syed is listed in a Who’s Who of American Universities and Colleges and has been featured in the national legal magazine National Jurist as well as several newspapers. She is a recipient of the Woman of Achievement award from the Women on the Way organization.

Nidhi Chinani
Born in India and raised in California, Nidhi Chinani is a bi-cultural girl. She has been drawing since she was eleven years old, starting with lead pencil and moving onto pen and ink. Nidhi graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2002 with a degree in literature. She enjoys the combination of the written word and illustration from the Indo-American perspective. In her free time, Nidhi loves playing with Uma and Zimmy - her cats, volunteering, and listening to Wilco.

Roshni Mulchandani

Roshni was born and bought up in Hong Kong during the British rule but spent nearly every summer as a child in the city of Mumbai. For most of her adolescent years, she felt lost and unsure of what career path to choose. Her calling came to her much later than expected, but she is now happiest when she is lost in a world of words. Her areas of passion include politics, cricket, fashion and Bollywood. She believes that each day is a new opportunity to turn her life around and achieve a goal she sets every morning. She understands her social responsibilities as a citizen of the world and hopes to eventually migrate to India to help the country move forward. A good bag of chips, a soda and a good Hindi movie makes her day complete or a good win by the men in blue—the Indian cricket team. Yes, she is a glory fan!

Saurabh Kwatra

An IIT Delhi & Hero Global Designs educated industrial design engineer, Saurabh Kwatra currently owns and runs Revolutionary Designs. This organization registered with CCR & ORCA (US Federal Government computer systems) as an international small business, specializes in inventive aspects of STEM education, counter-terrorism engineering systems & sustainable living. www.revolutionarydesigns.org He has over 12 international publications to credit. Recent awards: director of (award winning) workshop on design about East Lake,Wuhan in 2009 as part of World Design Congress Beijing & Leadership & Coordination Recognition award, International Multidisciplinary Conference, Harvard University, March 2010. His initiation into occult and astrology happened slowly but surely ever since he was 17. From 1999-2003, he was senior expert (informally regarded as founder), astrology channel, Indiatimes.com, The Times of India Group. From 2004-2008 he was a senior columnist, Hindustan Times wherein he did a fortnightly piece 'past forward' in HT Estates' supplement. He was also channel head, astrology intranet, Airtel Bharti from 2004-06. Known for accuracy of forecasts and an analytical approach, he suddenly waned into hiding about 2 years ago. Reason: indifference towards over-commercialization of astrology. Saurabh lives in Weehawken, NJ & New Delhi, India. Email for astrology with one query complementary answered for all valued CityMasala readers: saurabhkw@gmail.com Astro-site: under construction! Other hobbies: hill tourism, serious and humorous films.

Savneet Singh

I discovered the world of freelance writing 4 years back and am currently exploring the endless possibilities associated with it! I am an author and editor of books on subjects like Science and Environment. I own post graduate degrees in both Environment and Education.

My niche is Science, Environment, Self growth, Health ,Yoga, Spirituality and anything else that interests me. I am currently located in Santa Ana(near LA). I have a strong inclination for spirituality and practices meditation & yoga everyday. I enjoy reading and writing about the environment and life related stuff.

I feel great to be linked with Citymasala. I wish Citymasala good luck.

Shahnee Zaver

Actress and producer Shahnee Zaver is a classically trained dancer and model who turned to acting and successfully carved out a niche for herself in the Film and Television industries in Canada. She then headed East to New York City to further her acting studies. She currently splits her time between New York and London working as a producer and an actress and has several projects in the works.

Sheniz J.
Sheniz Janmohamed is a young freelance writer, poet and spoken word artist. She holds an H.B.A. in English Literature and Religion from The University of Toronto, Canada, and she is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at The University of Guelph, Ontario. She has been published in a variety of journals and magazines, and is a regular contributor for Anokhi Magazine. Sheniz is happy now to be a part of the CityMasala Team as their Book Review Specialist. She is addicted to lattes, poetry books fashion,...and of course, Bollywood!

Tirusha Dave - Entertainment Editor
Having worked in the South Asian music industry for nearly five years, Tirusha Dave has created quite the name for herself. Not only is she a publicist for some of the biggest music names out there – such as RDB & Nindy Kaur – but she’s also had the opportunity to interview the “Who’s Who” of Bollywood like John Abraham & Malika Sherawat. And if that wasn’t cool, she’s also rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names in the music scene such as R&B sensation Jay Sean. A published writer in six different countries, Tirusha’s goal is to shed light on the South Asian media & entertainment industry – always keeping our readers in the loop of the hottest sounds, films, fashion, and much more!

Tracey Porpora
With more than 18 years of experience working as a journalist, freelance writer and editor, Tracey Porpora writes effective and engaging stories covering a wide variety of topics, from profiles about inspirational women, to how-to and feature articles about dating and relationships, to in-depth business and national real estate trend pieces. Since 1999, Tracey has enjoyed a successful freelance writing career that has included writing news, features and analysis for dozens of consumer and trade magazines, as well as major daily newspapers.