Desi vibes in the world's second home

There is definitely a desi touch in the sight of New York, writes Kiran Bharthapudi about life in the city.

While India remains an exotic cultural escapade for many in the western world, India is a part of what you live in, if you are living in New York City.

"This is the only place outside India, where I feel like I belong" says Rahul Kashyap, a 26 year old, originally from New Delhi, now a New Yorker. So, why does he feel that way? "Because vibes of India are a part of New York life style" he points out.

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Cinematic genius of Ismail Merchant, culinary delicacies of Madhur Jaffrey and musical brilliance of Zubin Mehta are only a tip of the iceberg, reflecting on how the charisma of India assimilates into New York life style.

Raise your hand on the sidewalks of downtown for a cab and the driver may seem ethnically identical. Buy a magazine at a newsstand in the corner of every street and avenue, or at a subway station, it is more likely that you are buying it from an Indian. Come mid-town to Loews Theatre at Times Square, probably either Swades, Black or Waqt are running houseful. Go Broadway and you may find Bollywood musical running successfully across the street from the American musical Chicago. Dine at Indian Sapphire, and you may be eating Aloo Ghobi sitting across the Central Park and the Trump Towers. Fully abandoning exaggeration, the shades of India are an integral part of the New York kaleidoscope.

While Devon Street and Schaumburg suburbs of Chicago, desi hubs of Dallas, Newark Avenue and Edison district of New Jersey and Indian colonies of the Silicon Valley, accommodate little India's, they remain as cultural functions away from the American mainstream; however in Big Apple, the threads of India are inextricably intertwined within the New York fabric.

While Goa's Floyd Cardoz, executive chef at Tabla, a high-end restaurant at the Union Square, instills Indian flavours into the New York burger, Gotham Chopra, son of famous logician Deepak Chopra, brings Indian royalty to K Lounge, the hottest bar in mid-town New York. While, New York designer Anand Jon dresses up American celebrities with Indian shades, DJ Rekha pioneers in bringing Bhangra to the New York basement parties.

While Pulitzer winner, Jhumpa Lahiri narrates Calcutta of 1960s, with her short stories in the New Yorker magazine, Sree Sreenivas, reporter for WABC-TV and professor at Columbia University, operates as a "media power broker, publicizing the work of leading South Asians." These personalities, who add different facets of India to New York, are among the Newsweek's most influential South Asians in America.

There is definitely desi vibe in the sights and sounds of New York, and as Susan George, writer for Business Traveler, says, "New York is fast becoming a kichidi (potpourri) of Indian culture."

However, Veena Merchant, the Editor-in-Chief for the New York based publication News India-Times, points out that this "cultural potpourri that you see in New York is a part of much larger global metro-city culture, where cities like London, New York, and L.A. attract new immigrants from different parts of the world. New York City for some reason seems to attract Indian immigrants in huge numbers and because of its apparent contrast from other cultures- Indian culture seems in your face, even in a city like New York."

Though it is undeniable that cultural heterogeneity in New York is a part of a much larger "global metro-city culture," the city which wants to be called as "the world's second home," due to sheer preponderance of Indian hues, is also arguably, India's second home.