Shereen Bhalla News Today

Growing up in South Delhi, India, Diwali was easily my favorite holiday. In Christmas-like fashion, fairy lights enveloped homes and streets every year and presents for family, friends and neighbors sat in tall piles. If my sister, Kareena, and I didn’t put our things away, the Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha, the rulers of wealth and prosperity, wouldn’t visit our home, and my mother would scold us.

Diwali is known as the festival of lights for people of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh descent. Here are traditions, celebrations and customs for the holiday.

Shereen Bhalla is making the unusual transition from education director at the Hindu American Foundation to education director at the Anti-Defamation League.

Diwali has been celebrated in South Asia for 2,500 years. But in recent years, the Hindu Festival of Lights has resonated more broadly.

EXCLUSIVE Hank Azaria feels awful about his years-long portrayal of Apu — but there’s still a way he can get right with the Indian community which he, and others, feel has been harmed by the character. Shereen Bhalla — a rep for the Hindu American Foundation — tells TMZ … Hank doesn’t have to torment himself for his work on “The Simpsons,” or at least he doesn’t have to do it alone. Bhalla says she and the staff at HAF would love to have a sit-down with him. She tells us comin...

Hindu Organization Invites Hank Azaria to Meet and Discuss Apu Guilt Hank Azaria, the white actor who voiced The Simpsons‘ long-running Indian character, Apu, has been invited to meet with the Hindu American Foundation over his guilt for having voiced the cartoon character. Hindu American Foundation representative Shereen Bhalla told TMZ that Azaria is invited to meet with the organization and that the staff would love to sit down with him to discuss Indian people’s lived experiences, and...