six of which have won the James Beard Award. She was also named to the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America by the James Beard Foundation. Photo: Sangeeta Jain.

We are starting to catch up as a nation, with shows like the Mindy Project and the rise of stars like Aziz Ansari and Asif Maandvi. And finally a major network, ABC, will air a primetime drama with an Indian female protagonist. That show, Quantico, is groundbreaking in its approach.

The weekend-long event also presented a session with Ram Jethmalani who talked directly about the current state of India under conservative prime minister Modi; panels on historical fiction, women's and LGBT stories, poetry, and -- most important for emerging and self-published writers -- a panel with publishers and literary agents who shared their secrets of how and why they choose what they do.

Chaya Babu moderated another panel close to my heart: Negotiating South Asian LGBT Identity. Authors Mala Kumar and John Burbridge joined her. They discussed how literature can be used to highlight critical gay, lesbian and transgendered issues that continue to be taboo on the Indian subcontinent.

My favorite panel was with social media maven Sree Sreenivasan who advised us all on how to publicize literature and the arts through social media. True to form, he streamed his session - which can still be seen here.

The festival was not restrained by its academic roots. This was evidenced by the Literary Pub Crawl in which local actors took visitors on a literary tour of Greenwich Village, visiting bars frequented by literati, listen to passionate recitations, and fantastic tales. As Aroon encouraged the attendees, "Imbibe! Gawk! Grin! Participate!"

Closing Night focused on a 'Page to Stage' session featuring Director Mira Nair and Writer Sabrina Dhawan in a fascinating conversation about the process of taking Mira's film Monsoon Wedding to Broadway. Mira and Sabrina discussed the process of page to stage (and screen to stage), as well as their amazing collaboration on both the film and the play.

Filmmaker, screenwriter, producer Sabrina Dhawan made her screenwriting debut with Director Mira's Monsoon Wedding which won the Leon D'Oro at the Venice Film Festival and received a Golden Globe nomination. Sabrina, who graduated from Columbia University's graduate film program in 2001, is now writing a script for the upcoming stage production of Monsoon Wedding.

Mira is the rare prolific filmmaker who moves easily between Hollywood and Independent cinema. I first met and wrote about Mira at The Asia Society in 2009, resulting in the piece Thought Leader and Global Citizen, India's Filmmaker Mira Nair.

Mira made a stunning entry onto the world stage with her debut feature film Salaam Bombay! in 1988. Her second film, Mississippi Masala (1991) won three awards at Venice. Since then she has made many films such as Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), and the Amelia Earhart biopic, Amelia (2009) starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere.

The Literary Festival was sponsored in part by India Abroad, LassiwithLavina.com, Neerja Sethi, the J. Luce Foundation, and TakkarHarriceNY-DreamsB4UAVSmoleculecommunications.

Literature is a window into the soul of humanity, and as the world becomes perhaps less humane, we need to focus on literature all the more. I was a Japanese cultural studies major focused on literature and although I went into finance and philanthropy, this background has made my life that much richer.

The J. Luce Foundation salutes thought leader and global citizen Aroon Shivdasani for her unwavering support of the Arts in New York City, strongly recommend that the Indo-American Arts Council be given a home to grow Aroon's vision, and look forward to supporting the Third Annual Indo-American Literary Arts Festival next fall!

A 501(c)3 not-for-profit secular arts organization dedicated to promoting, showcasing and building an awareness of artists of Indian origin in the performing arts, visual arts, literary arts and folk arts.