Ask any traveler who has been to India, and they’ll tell you—it is like no other place in the world. The land and its people jolt every one of your five senses and stay in your heart forever.
On November 26, 2008, India felt a very different kind of jolt. Residents and visitors, leaders and institutions were shocked to the core as they witnessed death and destruction aimed at the heart of India, at Mumbai.
As New Yorkers, we know this pain. However, we also know love, the feeling that the whole world is standing beside you, as it did after September 11, 2001. As India and its people suffered, we wanted the citizens of Mumbai to know that, even if we were thousands of miles away, they were in our hearts and in our thoughts. We could think of no clearer way to say this than “We got your back.” We founded MUMBAI WE GOT YOUR BACK to raise spirits, awareness and funds, leveraging the creative arts to draw attention and travelers to Mumbai and India’s beautiful people and places.
To India With Love harnesses the immense creative powers of people who are passionate about India. We reached out to friends in film, art, music, fashion, design, and business, and we asked them to share their memories, the stories of their first trips and their everyday lives, and their experiences of the country’s beauty, joy, and passion.
Their heartfelt tributes highlight solidarity, community, and life’s similarities across the globe, and celebrate the differences (and even eccentricities) that make India so singular. Each page urges you to appreciate and to come and visit Mumbai and India, to choose centuries of hope and beauty over momentary chaos.
Our portion of the proceeds from the book will go directly to the Taj Public Service Welfare Trust, about which you’ll find more information at the back of the book. We hope you will join us and our esteemed contributors in supporting this cause, and that together we can show the world that the pen (and the camera) are mightier than the sword.
Faithfully yours,
Mortimer Singer, Waris Ahluwalia, & Tina Bhojwani
Waris Ahluwalia creates objects of beauty for the House of Waris, acts in movies, and is an aspiring activist. Born in India and raised in New York, he hopes to share with the world the impact India has on his heart and soul.
Tina Bhojwani is a New York-based fashion executive specializing in international business development. She currently is Senior Vice President at Link Theory Holdings (US) Inc., overseeing the globalization of the Theory and Helmut Lang brands. With deep family roots in Mumbai, Tina has spent considerable time there over the years and has a profound and passionate connection with this vital city.
Mortimer Singer is Senior Vice President of Marvin Traub Associates, a New York-based management consulting firm, focused on advising retail and consumer goods companies on their strategy and business development needs. Morty is also a founding partner of TSM Capital. Among other projects around the world, he has advised Indian retailers on bringing Western brands to India. Morty, and his wife Amy, adore India and their Indian friends, and keenly await the day when they can bring their newborn daughter, Daisy, to visit both.