Comments on: Desis in TV ads

By: lekhni

lekhni — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:31:26 +0000

Oh, I haven’t seen the Aveeno and Fiber one ads, thanks for telling me about them!

By: Kiran

Kiran — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:24:40 +0000

I like the Intel ad. There are several other ads ran in US involving desi’s. One is the Aveeno desi scientist ad and the Fiber one cereal ad. Not bad huh?

By: Amit

Amit — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:26:42 +0000

There is a difference between seeing another desi on the street and avoiding him, and seeing an image of a desi in popular media/popular culture. The latter is meant for consumption of not just desis, and possibly therein lies the difference in attitudes.

By: lekhni

lekhni — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:06:24 +0000

I agree that we do (at some level) feel part of a minority and so on, but I cannot reconcile why we then avoid each other. People not only do not smile/ nod, they sometimes don’t even acknowledge your smiles/ nods..

By: lekhni

lekhni — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:04:17 +0000

The topic of desis avoiding each other is a whole different story, as you say. Obviously, we both love and are embarassed by other desis.

By: lekhni

lekhni — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:46:52 +0000

Perhaps that’s how one feels after one lives in the US for a few decades? If it’s the “our community is the diaspora” feeling that causes desi-spotting, as one gradually starts identifying with the larger community, desi spotting stops?

All right, I’ve earned my anthropology PhD today

By: Amit

Amit — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:16:57 +0000

Why? Simple – because we are a minority living in a society and culture where the predominant and prevalent images are not desi, and if are honest with ourselves, most of us have had the experience of being “invisible” at some time or the other, be it the butchering of names, or being referenced as “Hey you” or not being acknowledged. And we have a desi identity to some extent or the other, and that’s why we feel an emotion when a desi becomes visible and appears in an ad, or we come across a news concerning a desi (positive/negative).

And in spite of many Amway/Quixtar experiences/solicitations, I still smile and nod at desis when I come across them on the street.

By: Thejesh GN

Thejesh GN — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:59:45 +0000

Really ?

By: amreekandesi

amreekandesi — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:37:57 +0000

Like others have suggested, we Desis have an inbuilt desi radar. It starts when we initially go to a foreign land – then the radar goes off every time we see another Desi. Gradually that phase ends, because the damn radar just keeps beeping all the time!

So we look for Desis in public spotlight. A Desi on TV. A Desi (or Desi reference) in the movies. A Desi event. bla bla bla.

So many movies have little off-the-cuff Desi references, most often alluding to call centers and outsourcing. I (used to) catch most of them. My wife’s radar was even stronger, she never missed a single one

(On the topic of Desis avoiding each other on the street, i still haven’t figured that out. I actually wrote about it on my blog some time back, and there were some interesting discussions on the topic)