Unfortunately, it’s that time in my life where I have to hang up The Urban Nerd cape and move onto the next chapters of my life. I had a great time playing this character/alter ego, and definitely have some great memories.
I will be still active on social media – but transitioned to more on a professional level.
Don’t worry – I will be still hosting some awesome events in the near future – and who knows – The Urban Nerd maybe making random appearances during those times.
If you still want to continue to support and follow me – here are the new info updates:
So, apparently the episode I did for Sony TV Asia covering the Varli Food Festival (as Raj Jhaveri..not “The Urban Nerd”) that happened in NYC aired in over 130 countries already…..and I had no clue. It was a 30 minute segment with three commercial breaks…and for those who does not have the Sony TV channel…well you can watch it here! The episode includes celebrity chefs such as Vikas Khanna, Sanjeev Kapoor, Floyd Cardoz, and friends like Parul “The Cake Designer” Patel, and 92.3 FM’s Jay Dabhi!
It seems like I started a trend to do charity events during birthdays. Two of my friends wanted to do something similar I did back in January, but wanted me involved in it, as well as host it. We ended up doing it on May 18th at SPiN NYC, and we had tons of sponsors this time (http://www.antibullygala.com), and the fundraiser was for Bullying.Org. In all honesty, it was a great turn out, and it was a lot of firsts for people coming to one of my events – but to those people, this wasn’t the best in my eyes. The Aquarius Charity Affair was quite something else – the quality of that event was close to flawless. I’m still learning, and I can’t wait until the next fundraiser event I’ll host.
Meantime, check out UrbanAsian’s coverage of the event!
I wanted to say Thank You for attending or supporting this year’s Annual Aquarius Charity Affair. I am truly grateful and genuinely amazed that over 600 people attended the event throughout the night! From all the bar sales, donation box, and my personal donation, we raised about $3000! That’s amazing! This will improve many children’s lives that has leukemia, fund water well drilling equipment in ourder to give clean drinking water to the poverty regions of Africa, and help fund SAMAR to help them organize multiple bone marrow drives – do you know how rare it is to find South Asian matches?! It’s kind people like you that shows so much love and support that inspires me to do as much as I can to make a difference in this world through the entertainment industry. Even though this is not my “day job,” you guys motivate me to spend as much time in improving and growing “The Urban Nerd” brand. Once again, thank you!
I want to thank all the people who helped me out, especially my sponsors to make this year’s Aquarius Charity Affair the best one so far.
I want to thank Shaadi.com, Luv the World Clothing, Luxemi, and Convey Clothing – without these wonderful companies, this event would not have been as successful as it was. Please check out their websites. Everyone knows about Shaadi.com – (all you single people out there!), and Luv the World Clothing and Convey Clothing have an amazing collection of clothes, t-shirts, and accessories. They have a great sense of fashion design, and for those who always see me sporting Convey gear – well now you can get them too! What’s amazing about these two clothing companies is that portion of their sales go to different causes and charity funds. This is the reason why I am a HUGE supporter for both brands. Also, check out Luxemi – they have an incredible taste in design when it comes to South Asian jewelry and fashion.
I want to thank Parul “The Cake Designer” Patel, for catering all those delicious cupcakes. Did you know those cupcakes were all EGGLESS!?!? Amazing, right? Also, she was the one who designed the Birthday cake as well, and I just recently had a slice of it not so long ago, and wow, it tasted amazing. Heck, I even preserved and froze a slice, acting like it was a piece of a wedding cake – that’s how good it was. Check her out at: TheCakeDesigner.com. I also want to thank Laurentino’s Pasticceria Caffe for providing all the Chocolate Covered Strawberries for the night, and also want to thank Kyotofu for providing their award winning cupcakes for the VIP room.
I want to say thanks to Manny Singh and the whole Indus Tuesdays team for booking Hudson Terrace as the venue for the event. I want to thank all the DJs for providing the amazing music: DJ Insomnia, DJ Bornswift, DJ Flawless (“Waseem Stark”). Special thanks to the photographers: Julian and Gene.
I want to say thanks to all the people that celebrated their Birthdays at the event (Tina, Maneesh, Neha, Farhan, Sabrina, Monty, Nimesh, Sam, Shazia). I want to thank my Event Planner, Rhea Ghosh, who took half my stress away for this event. If you ever need an event planner, I highly recommend her. I want to thank all the people who also helped out on the day of the event: Sarah, Nirav, Dhaval (for handling and running the Bone Marrow Drive), Akash and Omar.
The raffles were not announced at the party, so I will be contacting each of the names were picked from the raffle box for the giveaways. Thanks for everyone that donated and registered at the bone marrow drive in order to do the raffle! Also, Shaadi.com has given us a promo code to give out to everyone who supported the event – Use Promo Code: “JAN1512” for a 15% discount when signing up for their matrimonial services.
Wow! So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything. Figured I would write something that has been on my mind.
So about 6 years ago, I would have a get together and celebrate my birthday with a group of friends, and all of my friends would ask me what I would want for my birthday, and at the point in life – I really didn’t want anything nor need anything, so I would tell my friends to go donate to a certain charity, and my friends did just that. The year after, when it was the beginning of January, same question arose, and then it occurred to me – why not just have a charity party. A close friend of mine from Harvard, Maneesh, who happens to have his birthday the day before mine agreed with me to throw a big bash. Now each year, this bash has grown larger and larger in size, and now this year – it happens to be only 2 days away (wow – that’s close by..*getting nervous*) – happens to be the largest we’ve ever done.
I started planning this all the way back in October, knowing that I wanted to do something bigger and different, and was trying to figure out how can I top last years (I did it at Belmont Lounge). I’ve been only living in NYC for a little over a year, but I was confident that I knew enough people in order for the word to spread (plus being known for the viral Kati Roll Parody video was a plus!). My expenses were high, and I was really close to just paying everything out of pocket, until a friend told me that – the event is large enough to get sponsors. With all the planning, logistics, catering, sponsors, guest lists, design, etc. – I knew I needed help and I needed an amazing event planner. Luckily, I found an amazing person, Rhea Ghosh, who if it wasn’t for her – this event would not have really happened the way I wanted it to be. Usually, I give everyone a chance to prove themselves as an asset to me in regards to anything “Urban Nerd” related, and she really, really proved herself. She did an amazing job, and I highly recommend her if you need an event planned from anywhere in getting sponsors to fund your event to marketing strategy.
Another thing that has been on my mind is that the feedback I have received was unimaginable. In the beginning I was worried that we wouldn’t get enough people, but we have over 780 RSVPs (including waitlists) all thanks to everyone spreading the word about it (my wonderful friends in the entertainment industry – Melanie Kannokada, Payal Kadakia, Rohan Sheth from MTV, Jay Dabhi, DJ Insomnia, DJ Bornswift, DJ Karma, DJ Flawless (aka Waseem Stark), and of course the whole UrbanAsian.com Crew! Also, really big thanks to Dhaval Bhanusali, he organized the whole SAMAR bone marrow drive for the event, and definitely got the whole AAPI community involved. He also helped out on small things here and there that is actually crucially important to the event. Now I have to figure out how is everyone going to get in when the venue only holds 500 people…LOL!
Another thing, this event would not have happened if it wasn’t for the sponsors who believed in the event! Special thanks goes out to: Shaadi.com, Luv The World, Luxemi, and Convey. Also, a very special thanks to the Indus Tuesdays Team, especially Manny Singh. If it wasn’t for him – I wouldn’t have been able to book such an amazing venue.
Wow – I can’t believe it’s two days away. I’m nervous, but also anxious and excited. I’m not sure people realize how hard it is to throw a massive free party, and all the planning that is involved with it, but in the end I hope we raise a lot of money for the charities, so it will be worth it. =)
