Lots of people in the US are fascinated with India. It was the birthplace of Buddhism and other such Eastern philosophies. Yoga is huge among the Burkinstock crowd, and even Madonna is doing it. Then there’s the whole tantric philosophy espoused by such great individuals as Sting and Scarlett Johansson (rumor has it).

I live in a Dallas suburb called Irving, current home of the Dallas Cowboys, though the football team will soon be moving out of our lovely little town. Irving takes pride in its cultural diversity, and includes a large population of Indian immigrants. We have an old theatre dedicated to playing Bollywood movies, and a whole host of Indian restaurants and import stores that bridge the miles between Texas and India.

The first book that took me to India was an epic tale called Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra. If you sit a monkey at a typewriter, he might not come up with the complete works of Shakespeare, but he could tell some incredible stories about the magic of India. The truth is that Shakespeare is simply not colorful enough for a monkey’s sensibilities. But India… ah. The monkey likey.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 17th, 2006 at 5:49 pm and is filed under India, US and Canada. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.