THE POWER OF INDIAN DIASPORA

A couple of months ago, I moved (yes... again !!!)... this time to North Carolina... Whenever I told about my move to this place, the standard reaction was... "Again???" to "Why?" to "Oh!!! North Carolina? Its a beautiful place !!!" to "Tired of snow? Moving South?"... But every reaction invariably used to end with "There are many Indians in that area..."

So, as a Least Common Factor (arithmetic anyone?) of all the reactions, I was looking forward to the Indian community in Cary... First few days, I really did not see so many Indians to shock me... But, then this happened...

I was searching on the net if any nearby theaters show Indian Movies... Usually, if there is any sizeable Indian population, then some theater giants occasionally show some (read Big Banner) Indian movies... Places like NJ have more than one such theatres... But then, these movies don't have intervals... Sometimes it can be a pain in some loooooong movies... Also, there is nothing Indian to eat in these theaters.. Not a very pleasant experience if u don't like popcorn and pretzels and candy...

But, this theater in Cary shows at least 3 Indian movies at the same time... And it does not show only Big Banner movies... It shows almost all the Indian movies which are released in the US... This gave me a pleasant shock... I mean, the sheer number of Indians in the area has forced a theater company to alter its policy to this extent... Its heartening to see this... But then when we went to the movie theater, it was really shocking... This is really a "INDIAN" movie theater... There is a 10 minute interval where one can get free refills (yes... FREE...) of popcorn and soda... We get samosas, Indian tea, Indian coffee and (hold ur breath...) Kurkure... yes, the same Indian Kurkure on the menu... totally Indianized theater...

Well, if this is not enough... this theater has a website where you can even suggest the Regional movies you want to see... if there are sufficient requests, then the theater shows regional movies too... Currently, it is showing a 3-4 Telugu movies, 1-2 Tamil movies, a Jewish Festival etc...

This same theater is showing all the World Cup matches on the big screen... the World Cup for just for 25$... I am sure there wont be even 1 theater in India which will be showing the entire World Cup... There are instances where Indian matches and Semifinals and Finals are shown in theaters... But the entire World Cup? No way...

This was shocking... I mean, do we Indians really have the power to Indianize an entity to this extent? There are a few other instances of such population power exhibited by Indians....

1 - Most of the Cricket World Cup packages over the internet have "India-Only" packages where the subscriber can see India's matches... for relatively lesser cost compared to the entire package...

2 - My cricket team once played in a tournament in Boston... there were a whopping 72 7-a-side teams in that tournament... Can u believe... 72 Indian teams in a local cricket tournament in the US... wow!!!

3 - The temple in Boston gets legal permission from the police to light fire-crackers for Diwali... I am sure that there are many other temples which will be getting such permissions... As far as I know, the only day when one can light firecrackers in US is the 4th of July... Can the Indians have so much population power to make a country change its laws?

4 - There are so many Motels in the US which are owned by people with surname of Patel that the Motels are now called as Potels... same abt Gas stations and Subways and Dunkin Donuts outlets...

5 - Indian curry is apparently so famous in UK that it features regularly on the dinner menu official functions of the Queen...

6 - A Tours and Travel Giant organizes "Indianized" tours where all the tourists are Indian and the breakfasts and lunches and dinners are Indian cuisines... You get Idlis and Dosas and Indian Sandwiches for breakfast... You get bhel-puri and pani-puri for evening snacks... You can get Pav Bhaji and CHole-puri for dinners...

7 - There are umpteen Indian eating places near Niagara falls... You can eat any and every Indian food you can think of there... I have been there twice and believe me, it is as good as any Indian outlet in Bangalore and Bombay...

If this is what one generation of Indian expats can do, imagine what we can do with 100 billion people at our disposal... Only IF it is harnessed to its full potential... the Big IF...

Makes me smile and then I await the day when I can go to the South Beach in Miami and have chats and pani-puri and ice-golas and pav-bhaji and chana-chor on stalls lined next to the beach...

Or, have Wada Pavs and Tea and Coffee shops in the Rest Areas and Service Areas of I-95 when I drive from Boston to Philly... Its possible guys, just needs one visionary to realize the dream...