Celebrity and society guests decked out in Indian-themed garb were welcomed with open arms by Meera and Vikram Gandhi into their posh Upper East Side townhouse for their second annual intimate dinner party benefiting the Asia Society. The event was one of 33 dinners in the “Asia on My Mind” series, held in New York, Houston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., to help spread awareness of the many facets of Asian culture and support artists from developing countries. Works by these up-and-comers will be displayed at the society building throughout the year.

Chairs of this NYC soiree were Monica von Zadora-Gerlof and Meera Gandhi, who told The Sheet: “The hosts do an amazing job, but the dinner guests are so accomplished, too. The people are a well-traveled, international group.” The exclusive 40-person guest list included: NBC4’s Ti-Hua Chang, CBS 2’s Cindy Hsu, Phyllis Rothschild Farley, Wölffer Estate Vineyards’ Christian Wölffer, Valentino’s June Haynes, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

Asia Society Prez Nick Platt (former U.S. ambassador to both the Philippines and Pakistan) welcomed guests and recalled how a once-fledgling Merchant Ivory Productions made its first movie using donations from the society. He confided that next up for fellow dinner guest (and Bombay native) Ismail Merchant was the production of The Goddess later this year in India, with the bold (and somewhat controversial) casting of legendary diva (and practicing Buddhist) Tina Turner as Shakti, the Indian goddess of universal feminine energy. Clearly, many fans of the big screen will soon have Asia on their minds, too!