Mango Bites 🥭

Looking for something meaningful this Earth Day? 🌼🌱

Author

Shaunak Kulkarni
April 01, 2025

If you’re new here, welcome to Mango Bites - a newsletter featuring the best South Asian professional events happening in NYC. Reply and say hi!

🌱 Hello Spring…sort of?

As someone who despises the cold, April is usually my favorite month. But, with this forecast, it looks like the weather didn’t get the memo… 🫠

But let’s focus on the brighter side. April also means Earth Day - a reminder that with the state of our planet, it’s more crucial than ever to consider how we can contribute to preserving it for future generations.

To celebrate, we’re hosting a planting event aimed at making a small but direct impact to a NYC neighborhood. After we sharpen our gardening skills, we’ll head over to brunch to keep the festivities going.

While anyone’s welcome to register, we’re keeping this one intimate and are especially encouraging folks with a background or passion in energy and climate - whether through work, projects, or extracurriculars. 🌍✨

P.S. Thank you to those who attended our South Asians in Startups Event a few weeks ago! We brought together over 100 South Asian founders, operators, and investors, and our incredible panelists shared thoughts on emerging trends, successes, failures, and most importantly, how to convince Desi aunties to participate in your friends and family seed round 😬. If you missed the fun, check out the highlights below -

Upcoming Mango Events 🎇

Register at the link below! 

The Scene 🪔

Other South Asian events I’m keeping an eye on in NYC

Date

Event

Link

4/4/25

Nepal & Co + Khoob Girls Night Out

Here

4/5/25

Prito Sounds Show

Here

4/9/25

Drunk Bollywood Presents Kal Ho Na Ho

Here

4/12/25

Bollywood By The Decades Party

Here

4/13/25

Chai and Paint NJ

Here

4/17/25

Network is Your Net Worth Creatives and Community Event

Here

4/21/25

Chai and Paint NYC

Here

4/23/25

American India Foundation Sip and Socialize Mixer

Here

Cool Desis Doing Cool Thing 🐘

Highlighting people in our community making strides in diverse fields!

Divya Gunasekaran is a New York-based writer and standup comedian who has previously been seen on the Netflix is a Joke Festival, the NY Comedy Festival, and PBS. She has also been part of the Warner Bros. Comedic Voices Program and The Onion’s writing program as part of the Diverse as Fuck Festival. She is currently a sketch writer on a house team at the Upright Citizens Brigade. 

Outside of comedy, Divya’s life goals include cage diving with great white sharks and winning a pie eating contest.

Why do you do what you do?
A lot of people consider comedy a calling, but I consider it a compulsion! Even when it’s bad, it’s good -- except when it’s really bad. Ultimately, I love exploring new ideas and helping audiences see things from a different perspective, while making them laugh. And the ability to connect and share joy with a room full of strangers feels so important now more than ever.  

What does your Desi identity mean to you, and how has it influenced your journey?
Growing up as one of the few people of color in a very homogenous, white town, I often felt like an outsider and experienced my (un)fair share of racism. Those experiences helped me understand the importance of community and made me strive to uplift and showcase other marginalized voices. There are audiences out there that want to and should hear from us. 

What advice do you have for those entering your field?
Just get out there and do the thing! Take a class, go to an open mic, write something (anything!). Focus on learning, getting funny, and making friends. It’s going to take time and hard work, but the process is the fun part. Also, the most underrated piece of advice is to be kind! Being the type of person that others enjoy working with goes a long way. 

Divya’s favs 🌟 
🎬 Bollywood Movie: RRR (not Bollywood but I love an unapologetically anti-British movie!)
🍛 Desi Eat: Aloo chaat
🌶️ NYC Restaurant: Johny’s Luncheonette (I’m from Jersey, I’m legally obligated to pick a diner)

Meme Bazaar 👳🏽‍♀️

Happy belated Holi!! 🎉🪅🎨🎊🔫

Random Stuff 💃

  • Mango Resume Drop - if you’re looking to make a career switch!

  • Love what Mango is doing? 🥭 Buy us a coffee - any support would go a long way and let us keep hosting events!

  • Want to sponsor an event or host something with me? Get in touch!

  • Have a friend who’d want to be on this newsletter? Sign up for Mango Bites here!