We DESIs

The word ‘DESI’ was known to me and I think that’s the reason I felt bit awkward when I heard this word in reference to Indian public in USA (obviously referred by another Desi.. oops.Did I say that?…sorry another Indian). I landed and started mingling with other companions already here and the word started sounding quite familiar to my ear, thereby dropping the level of initial awkwardness. With the passing time I came to know that ‘Desi’ is the universal set of other subsets that include ‘Indians’, ‘Bangladeshis’ and ‘Pakistanis’. Desi shop, Desi community, Desi restaurant, Desi street, Desi pub, Desi party and not to mention but Desi Girl are few very common phrases got added to my Desi dictionary. I suppose, long time back in history Desi people were considered low graded, were treated differently and were given less respect as compared to other communities . Changing times and trends brought a complete phase shift to this well established perspective and now it’s like word Desi has caught different flavor of being Brainy (at least for other foreign nationals). Apart from the IT industry (which continues to flood with Desis), other niche sectors like finance, marketing, manufacturing (whichever was spared from outsourcing to China), and politics are now showing desi heads amongst others. Some citizens, some green card holders, some ABCDs, some with EADs and better not to count ones with H1, L1, F1, R1, H4, L2 etc etc. Should I congratulate we Desis?

If I further drill down into this Desi community, I am certain that it mostly comprises of Indians and in that most are from southern part of India and in that too majority are from Andhra Pradesh. People not falling in this leg of segregation are those from Gujarat. There was (is?) a trend in AP that at least one person from each family/house must be in US. A boy (data insufficient to conclude about girls) studies well in 12th standard to get admission in a decent engineering college (a decent college is not at all a prerequisite to land in US) and competes mostly for a computers degree ( if not then followed by IT, electronics, electrical, instrumental, mechanical, civil etc…). He continues his struggle with studies to ensure a place in a good software company. I believe the term "good software company” refers to a firm that places its employee onsite earlier compare to other firms. Of course there are hell lot of ways to reach that dream destination known as “US” other than showing your talent in your company and impressing your senior. The population of people from AP in IT is so huge that it literally changed the meaning of few acronyms like SAP: Software for Andhra People or SAP: S I’m from AP, so on and so forth. Coming back to that universal set called “Desis”, we all agree that we prefer to stay in a area surrounded by desi grocery stores (like suburbs), drive mostly Honda’s and Toyota’s (civic, corolla, camry), party at home and many others. Certainly there is a peculiar and definite trend we follow and there’s absolutely nothing appalling about it.

If I go by my observation, majority of us will browse http://www.deals2buy.com/ almost everyday (ok….at least once a week) looking for deals, bargains. This site thanks people for informing them about some deals going in some store and mostly we will see Indian names getting that Thank You note (Great achievement!!!). If somebody doesn’t seem to agree then let me tell you that on my train today I saw a desi guy browsing this website on a laptop with wireless card plugged in (which I can fairly assume provided by his office/client) and this very instance inspired me to write this article. Other common websites we reach out to are http://www.greatandhra.com/, http://www.eenadu.net/, http://www.orkut.com/ for two reason one for entertainment and second to kill free time in office. Some Sports crazy desis (read as Cricket crazy) can be found refreshing their page on http://www.cricinfo.com/. It hardly matters if India or Somalia is on the fields. While others who are more worried/curious about the world around will extend their horizon to news sites like http://www.timesofindia.com/ and http://www.cnn.com/. We may share different interests but do have one thing in common and that is “Google” – next to God – that answers all our queries from H1 transfer to Oracle DB Administration. Am I sounding little rhetoric?

Go to tourist places like Niagara, statue of Liberty, Empire state building or Times Square on a long weekend and you need no expert to tell you that you will find yourself surrounded by at least 5-6 desis (you have never seen before) in a virtual circle of radius 3 feet centering you. Yes this is tried, tested and approved by me and others like me. The instance I realized this fact I decided not to explore such places on long weekend and gleefully convinced myself to waste my holiday sitting idle at home. Places like Oak Tree street in NJ or Devon Avenue and Schaumburg in Chicago, you will feel like you never left India. Ask for THE thing and you will get it with choices. Sugar cane juice, nariyal pani, Kalkatta, Banarasi, Mitha or masala pan, pani-puri, pirated DVDs (including regional languages), desi clothes like ghaaghara, chunari, dhoti and all other innumerable things which we can claim(at least till now) as purely Indian can be found with absolutely no efforts.

Having said, observed and done whatever I mentioned above sometime I and many like me wonder - In a rat race of going behind greenback and better lifestyle (apparently) do we have any idea who we are and what we are looking for.

Many thanks to Bhushan Kale for his efforts towards editing this article.

DISCLAIMER 1: No, Bhushan Kale is neither my brother nor in my close or distant relations except for the fact that we just share common last name and fall in ‘Desi’ category.

DISCLAIMER 2: The article is written in a serious attempt of jotting down my thoughts and is not at all connected to anyone living or dead, any community in or out of US and any Desi following above trend or not. Please don’t sue me :)