Cover of the May 1998 issue of India Currents (Vol. 12, No. 2), featuring astronaut Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman in space. The headline, “Pioneers Don’t Have Role Models,” highlights Chawla’s journey from Karnal, India, to NASA’s astronaut corps, symbolizing the expanding visibility of South Asians in global scientific fields.
This issue also includes features on designer Prakash Bhalerao (“High Ambition”) and an inset segment on Mother Teresa, reflecting the magazine’s broad coverage of Indian arts, culture, and influential South Asian figures. The cover illustrates India Currents’ role in documenting South Asian achievements during the 1990s and inspiring a new generation of diaspora readers.
Photograph of the first-ever published issue of India Currents, dated April 1987, Volume 1, Number 1. Founded by Arvind Kumar and Vandana Kumar, India Currents began as a free monthly guide to Indian arts, entertainment, dining, and community life in the San Francisco Bay Area.
This inaugural issue features early hallmark coverage, including:
“Ali Akbar Khan Performs After Two Long Years”, celebrating the legendary sarod maestro’s Bay Area return;
“Rave Reviews for Raosaheb”, profiling a groundbreaking Hindi film at the San Francisco International Film Festival;
“Santoor Maestro in Town”, introducing Pandit Shivkumar Sharma’s local performance.
As one of the earliest South Asian American publications on the West Coast, this debut issue documents the beginnings of a thriving cultural and media ecosystem that served a growing South Asian immigrant community long before the digital era.
Photograph of the May 1987 issue (Vol. 1, No. 2) of India Currents, one of the earliest surviving editions of the Bay Area’s long-running South Asian community magazine. Founded in 1987 by Arvind Kumar and Vandana Kumar, India Currents began as a free monthly publication dedicated to Indian arts, culture, dining, and community life in Northern California.
The cover features articles such as “Ghazal Royalty to Play in Berkeley,” highlighting Jagjit and Chitra Singh’s performance, “Remembering Tagore,” marking the poet’s 125th birthday, and “Pandit Ravi Shankar Performs.” Early issues like this one reflect how India Currents connected immigrant audiences through culture and heritage coverage long before the rise of digital South Asian media.
Section B (cover) of the February 1997 issue of India West, an English-language South Asian American newspaper serving the San Francisco Bay Area and national Indian American community. This cover reflects India West’s role in documenting South Asian immigrant life, community news, arts, and cultural activity during a period of growing South Asian visibility in the Bay Area.
This article by Anahita Mukherji, published in The Wire on January 31, 2022, examines the experiences of Dalit students in U.S. universities who face caste-based discrimination, isolation, and social exclusion within academic and community settings. Drawing on personal testimonies, the piece highlights how caste bias travels with South Asian migrants and manifests in American institutions, calling for greater awareness and policy change.
An investigative feature by Arundhati Parmar published February 13, 2025 on MedCity News. The article examines the acquisition of care-navigation firm Accolade by Transcarent, questioning whether CEO Glen Tullman’s move represents corporate hypocrisy or systemic pressure and highlighting broader ethical tensions in America’s healthcare-technology industry.
In this November 4, 2025 article published on MedCity News, Arundhati Parmar explores entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s critique of employer health plans and PBMs in the U.S. healthcare system. The piece examines whether Cuban’s challenge to self-insured employers is realistic, highlighting conflicting perspectives from industry executives who argue employers lack the purchasing power he claims.
