There is no place like Los Angeles.
Abundantly endowed by nature with over 300 days of warm sunshine, 75 miles of idyllic shoreline, snow-capped peaks in the distance, and enchanting beaches stretching from the famed Malibu to lively Manhattan Beach, the palm-studded Los Angeles is a dynamic, ever-evolving city. This is where Hollywood was born and the city became the global creative capital and the epicenter of the sports universe. Los Angeles hosts the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Emmy Awards, and the Grammys every year. Home to the Dodgers and the Lakers, the city will host the Olympics for a record third time in 2028. It has more museums, performing arts venues, and tourist magnets than any other city in the United States including Universal Studios, Santa Monica Pier, Third Street Promenade, Chinese Mann Theatre, the Disney Centre, and the Getty Museum. It is also an academically inclined city investing in cutting-edge education at Cal Tech, American Film Institute, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, UCLA, and USC. The famous residents of Los Angeles’ Bel Air and Beverly Hills districts include media czars, Hollywood moguls, film stars, business tycoons, iconic musicians, political luminaries, sports legends, social media celebrities, and former royalty. Known for its distinct vibe, health food fads, automobile mania, surfing, and shopping at Rodeo Drive, Los Angeles welcomed 49.1 million visitors in 2023. Despite the traffic snarls and the occasional tremors the quality of life Los Angeles offers is among the best in the world.
Swami Vivekananda arrived here in 1899 and he was followed by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda who set up the Self Realization Fellowship here. Over the last century, many Indians have made Los Angeles their home including the famous Indian American Congressman Dalip Singh Saund, as also Sabu, the Elephant Boy, the globally known musician Ravi Shanker, prominent dentist Dr. Amarjit Singh Marwah, tech billionaire, Sirjang Lal ‘Jugi’ Tandon, and Bhaskar Menon, the first Indian to break the glass ceiling in corporate America. Now music conductor Zubin Mehta, Tennis champions Vijay and Anand Amritraj, Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj, Netflix topper Bela Bajaria, filmmaker Smriti Mundhra, inventor entrepreneur Deepak Chopra, philanthropist Navin Doshi, historian Sanjay Subramaniam, restaurateur Deep Sethi, legal luminary Navneet Chug, journalist Noel DeSouza, plastic surgeon Raj Kanodia, TV producer Rashmi Goel, and India actors Pooja Batra, Priety Zinta, Kashmira Shah, Neetu Chandra, and Priyanka Chopra are among the leading lights of the Indian community in Southern California.
On Tuesday 7 January 2025, the residents of the city saw smoke and flames rising in the hills around Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. Within hours the erratic wind gusts blew embers multiple miles ahead causing unimaginable devastation. The Palisades fire is the most destructive fire event in the history of Los Angeles. Entire neighborhoods were left burnt down to their concrete foundations. The small town of Malibu became a ghost town and numerous homes, businesses, and landmarks have been burnt wiping out multimillion-dollar ocean-view homes along Pacific Coast Highway, toward Malibu. Parked cars stood reduced to charred hunks of metal and upturned telephone poles littered the roads. Parts of scenic routes and iconic sights of Southern California are now unrecognizable. As the fire powered by wind gusts of 70 miles per hour raced from one neighborhood to another, it resulted in health hazards as the tiny particles of the dangerous soot (PM2.5) floated in the air. Several important events during the current award season now stand postponed and some are cancelled.
Television news screens, social media posts, and the front pages of newspapers worldwide were filled with images of flaming houses, buildings, and automobiles and focused on famous celebrities losing their homes. However, the real heroes were the several teams of brave firefighters, first responders, and pilots who battled five active fires (Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth, Sunset, and Hurst) in the Los Angeles area and its neighboring suburbs. Military and civilian air assets including six air tankers and 31 choppers (three Boeing CH-47 Chinook helitankers capable of carrying 3,000-gallon water tanks, plus a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter) were deployed to fight the out-of-control fire. The National Guard has been called out to suppress violence and burglaries in the disaster-hit districts. The devastating fires have torched thousands of structures across the county and an early estimate has put the potential damage in hundreds of billions.
The nightmare of nightmares that engulfed Los Angeles has continued unabated for a week. The blaze has now grown to even more unimaginable proportions. Despite all efforts in the Palisades fire spread over 23,713 acres only 14% of the fire is contained. In the Altadena area, near Pasadena, more than 14,000 acres and as many as 5,000 structures are burnt down. The fires have already claimed the lives of at least 24 people. Many parts of Los Angeles are under mandatory evacuation orders or warnings. Power outages and night curfews are in place in the fire-prone zones. A red flag warning is in effect through Wednesday across Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The next two days are crucial and the city is bracing for impact.
Los Angeles has never witnessed anything like this in its history.
Often dismissed as a city of glamour seekers, frivolous, and self-obsessed people, the citizens of Los Angeles have sprung up to the challenge of their lifetime. Rising above the issues of wealth, race, or age in this time of extreme crisis the city is seeing an outburst of generosity. Amid the catastrophic situation, tens of thousands have poured out on the street with all kinds of donations for the wildfire victims. The donated items include grocery items, medical supplies, toys, clothes, and even furniture. Volunteer food stalls cooked up hot dogs, burgers, and tacos for the evacuees and distributed N95 face masks. American entrepreneurship is on display in Los Angeles as Elon Musk has set out his Cyber Trucks outfitted with Starlink for internet service for anyone without an active connection and Superchargers to assist electric car owners who are stranded due to power outages. Rick Caruso, the real estate developer and former candidate for Los Angeles mayor deployed a team of private firefighters in Pacific Palisades to protect a major outdoor retail space, Palisades Village. Airbnb, Lyft, and Uber are offering free housing and rides to Los Angeles wildfire evacuees. Metro fares have been reduced. The operators of Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner are offering one-way $10 fares between any two of the train’s 29 stops from San Diego north to San Luis Obispo. Several celebrities and companies including Apple have taken to social media to express their support for those affected by the wildfires and to reinforce Los Angeles fire recovery efforts.
In these very difficult times, the residents of the city were comforted by the words of His Holiness Pope Francis, “I am close to the residents of Los Angeles County, California, where devastating fires have broken out in recent days. I pray for all of you.” Amazingly, amid the ravages of the wildfire, the Self Realization Fellowship temple and lake that is situated in the Palisades remained intact and an official statement confirmed, “…that all of the legacy structures around the perimeter of the Lake (which we reported on earlier today) are indeed intact. In addition, we now have confirmation that the Lake Shrine Temple and Retreat buildings are completely undamaged. With regard to the meditation gardens surrounding the Lake, there has been no major loss to the beautiful landscaping. One large tree has been lost, but otherwise, only minor damage to some small vegetation was sustained. And we can happily report that the swans and fish that reside at the lake are safe as well.”
Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins’ $6 million four-bedroom colonial-style home in Pacific Palisades was destroyed in the fires. In a social media post Hopkins wrote, “As we all struggle to heal from the devastation of these fires, it’s important we remember that the only thing we take with us is the love we give.”
The emotional wounds of the 2025 wildfire will remain for generations but the city will reboot, rebuild, and rebound in a matter of months.
For there is no place like Los Angeles.