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Your Diwali plans if you needed some! 🪔
Shaunak Kulkarni
October 13, 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! 🪔
Welcome to Q4 🍁 Cold rainy weather right on cue 🥲
Over the past few months, I’ve learned that nothing speaks to Desi people quite like food from back home. To celebrate Diwali in a way that feels true to us, we’re back at Madam Ji this weekend - teaming up with Shivam once again for a Desi street food–inspired brunch.
Think food stations with unlimited dosa flips, chaat, kebabs, and the like - plus mimosas and great company. A perfect brunch intro to Diwali (and a chance to meet some awesome new people 🙂).
🎟️ Sign up here. Last time we did this, we were oversubscribed almost 2x — so don’t wait until the end to grab your ticket (we might not have any left).
Upcoming Mango Events 🎇
Register at the links below!
Diwali Brunch (10/19) - Open to all!
The Scene 🪔
Other South Asian events I’m keeping an eye on in NYC
Date | Event | Link |
|---|---|---|
10/17 | Mirchi ft South Asian Fem DJs | |
10/22 | SAFANY Chai and Paint | |
10/24 | Chai and Chocolate | |
10/25 | Masala Milers Running Workshop | |
11/6-11/23 | Broken Images by Girish Karnard | |
11/9 | The Kitchen of Resilience |
Cool Desis Doing Cool Things 🐘
Highlighting people in our community making strides in diverse fields!
Vaidehi Kinkhabwala is a New York–based painter and printmaker whose work explores the unseen labor, resilience, and intimacy of everyday life — particularly through the lens of womanhood and migration. Rooted in her bicultural upbringing between India and the United States, her paintings blend empathetic realism with bold, abstracted fields of color, transforming domestic moments into quiet acts of endurance and grace. She holds an MFA in Studio Art and is the founder of The Potato Farm Project, an Artist Residency Program in The North Fork Wine Country that provides Artists with the time, space and freedom to create without boundaries.
Why do you do what you do?
I make art to explore the layered realities of migration, identity, and gender — themes shaped by silence, resilience, and the quiet endurance of everyday life. My work illuminates the unseen labor and emotional worlds of women, particularly mothers.
Through the Potato Farm Project, I create space for artists to work freely, while its extension, the Food Project, celebrates creators whose practices and cultural expressions — including regional cuisines — are often left outside the definition of art, yet carry equal depth, memory, and artistry.
What does your Desi identity mean to you, and how has it influenced your journey?My Desi identity is the foundation of who I am and how I see the world. It connects me to the colors, textures, and traditions I grew up with in India, where creativity was part of everyday life. Moving to the U.S. added another layer — learning to navigate belonging and difference. That balance between the two worlds continues to shape my work and the stories I tell through it.
What advice do you have for those entering your field?
My advice is to stay true to your story — Your truth is your strength. Every struggle you face becomes part of your language as an artist. Don’t shy away from it; let it shape your voice.The honesty that comes from your own journey will always speak louder than perfection.
Vaidehi’s favs 🌟
🎬 Bollywood Movie: Andaaz Apna Apna
🍛 Desi Eats: Gajar ka Halwa, Vada Pao
🌶️ NYC Restaurant: Angel
Meme Bazaar 👳🏽♀️
Random Stuff 💃
Mango Resume Drop - if you’re looking to make a career switch!
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