3/14/2004 » Bombay Dreams

Does it take a Broadway show or one on Bravo to say, 'Honey, we've arrived?' Newsweek uses 'Bombay Dreams' as a metaphor for desis' increasing visibility. It's the Brits' Indian Summer but, as always, imported two years late.

The story recites the truisms of affluence, the result of the cream-skimming sieve of the '65 immigration law. But its who's who list is surprisingly broad, including artists, sommeliers and ghetto breakouts like 'Where's the Party Yaar?' and comedian Aladdin.

"They're following the Jewish model of penetrating the structural arrangement of society—economics, politics—without losing their cultural identity..." "[W]hen I walk down the street, people assume I'm a doctor or lawyer, that I'm exceedingly nice, that I'm either a virgin or an expert on the Kama Sutra. They're not stereotypes that will prevent me from getting jobs." ... "For every person who thinks I'm smarter and better," she says, "there's someone who thinks I smell bad and I'm about to blow up a building."