Thursday, April 19, 2007

Diversity

This weekend I am heading to New Brunswick for my book club meeting and then to the city to meet with some friends. Since Friday is my day off and I'll already be in Central/North Jersey, I think I'm going to drop by Edison, N.J.

People here always recommend Edison to me as an Indian spot and seem surprised that I already know about it. Are you kidding? Growing up in Minnesota, I knew all about Edison and Jackson Heights (and Devon Ave. in Chicago, but that was closer to home) and all these other "mini-Indias." It seemed mythical and awesome to me at the same time. New Jersey! Crawling with desis! Indian publications in mainstream media! Indian advertisements in train stations!

What I never realized is how big of a state this small state is. I wrote earlier about the subsections of New Jersey and how distinct they are from one another. Part of that is that the majority of this huge Indian population is clustered around major metropolitan areas, like North/Central Jersey (aka NYC) or Cherry Hill (aka Philadelphia). In a sense, I am even more cut-off from the Indian population than I was in Minnesota.

I've always been a little behind on movies/music/styles from Indian, especially compared to my East Coast cousins, but without occasionally overhearing the Hindi satellite my grandpa watches at home or going to Desi parties where they are spinning the latest music and someone just came back from the "motherland," I am REALLY behind on things.

All of this is because I watched a movie yesterday which, up until a few weeks ago, i thought was fairly new. When I mentioned it to my (Dobbs Ferry-dwelling) aunt, she was like "oh that's not new, we saw it in the theater months ago."

oops.

I might try to do a better job of keeping up, but I also don't necessarily care that much about the music/movie/style aspect. I guess that is the only aspect that is lacking because I am keeping up on the more pertinent (and intellectual) issues via blogs that I frequently read.

But damn, I love me some Bollywood music.

2 comments:

Preetalina said...

Book club? In New Brunswick?! How is it? I've been wanting to join one for ages, but haven't really been able to find anything...

Shruti on the Shore said...

This wasn't a matter of finding a book club but creating it with my friends. I've never "found" a book club, I've always made one up, so that may be a better option.