Slumdog Millionare won our hearts with its rags to riches love story. Watching a Bollywood dance sitting half way round the world was a dream way back when ....
You calculated that you could speak to your parents in India for seven and a half minutes - armed with a stop watch you knew exactly when to end the conversation so that the time would not be rounded off to that expensive next minute.
You bought gifts, soaps, perfumes for months before your trip to India, gifts that were appreciated because they were "American".
You transferred movie videos and wedding videos to the correct format to play them in "America". You had parties to watch a movie preciously transported from India on your last trip.
Today I can watch the studio audience on Good Morning America swaying in time with "Jai ho" with Bollywood steps and sashaying gracefully with yellow scarves fluttering in the wind! .......
I call family, friends to talk, gab, yap away with the far stretching dollar (thank goodness, it does on this case).
I make a list of gifts and things I want to bring back from India for months before the trip. I note the various styles in Desi parties and add to that list. Gifts to India - chocolates are still appreciated, other things, they not only get them locally in India, they are more into name brands than I am.
To watch the latest Bollywood hits, I search local movie theaters for really good ones. For the others, I walk into the closest Indian grocery.
I go to a sweet sixteen birthday party of a daughter of immigrant Indian parents and am amazed. The girls - regardless of skin color- sing along to Bollywood lyrics and copy the original dance sequence prefectly, dressed in snazzy ghagra cholis. And oh, next to Shahrukh Khan, they all agree the Punjabi DJ is such a heartthrob!
Indians are coming of age. With more globalization, cross cultural exchanges Indian culture is gradually becoming a heady ingredient in the melting pot of "America".
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Monday, February 23, 2009
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