Chicago

Chicago-area Hindi theater group Ekjut called for local talent — stand-up, shayari, and one-act plays — for its May 2015 event.

A 2014 Diwali dance party at Saffron Restaurant in Westmont, IL — a slice of Chicago-area desi community life, from the TI archives.

In 2014, 18-year-old Ravi Jagadeesan of Naperville won a $50,000 Davidson Fellow Laureate award for original mathematics research on Galois invariants.

The 5th annual Chicago South Asian Film Festival ran September 18–21, 2014, launching the SAFA Awards with Nawazuddin Siddiqui as its first honoree.

In November 2013, Parivaar founder Vinayak Lohani visited Chicago — the story of the IIT/IIM graduate who became a father to hundreds of street children.

A preview of the 2013 Chicago South Asian Film Festival: Shahid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Club 60, Chor Chor Super Chor, and opening-night film Oass.

Two New York wine collectors sued Chicago chef Charlie Trotter in 2013, claiming $46,000 bottles of 1945 Burgundy were counterfeit.

Eye on India's 2013 festival ran June 7-July 14 across Chicago — Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Shubha Mudgal, Amish Tripathi and 25+ events.

Chicago's Silk Road Rising staged the world premiere of Rajiv Joseph's 'The Lake Effect,' a family drama about an Indian American brother and sister.

Two Chicago teenagers, 14 and 15, were shot dead hours apart on January 11, 2013, in Humboldt Park and Little Village, in separate attacks.

Chicago lottery winner Urooj Khan died of cyanide poisoning a day after collecting his check. Police suspected foul play; no one was ever charged.

On Election Day 2012, President Obama made a surprise stop at a Chicago field office, congratulated Mitt Romney, and phone-banked volunteers himself.

For Dhoom 3's long Chicago shoot, Aamir Khan and Abhishek Bachchan moved into rented apartments for three months — making the Windy City a second home.

Dhoom 3: Back in Action started filming in downtown Chicago on August 8 — Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra in a YRF buddy-cop blockbuster.

The July 2012 heat wave pushed Chicago-area heat-related deaths in Cook County to 18 — surpassing the previous year's total in a matter of days.

Summer 1989: an all-day date from the Art Institute to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing to a Baskin-Robbins curb — and a chocolate first kiss.

New Year's Eve in the Chicago suburbs: family-friendly early celebrations, hotel packages, restaurant planning tips, and First Night options for young kids.