Diasporium

On Monday, Mumbai''s dabbawala arrives in Britain, land of that great post-colonial concoction, chicken tikka masala.
It won''t be quite the humble aluminum tiffin carrier, but Tiffin Bites, the desi version of the thriving Pret-a-Manger office lunch chain, offers bhaji breaths along with Bombay potatoes and aubergine masala. Clear, spill-proof plastic tubs will replace the metal towers of food.

The call has gone out for the Pravasi Bharatiya Press Corps, i.e. discernibly brown hacks who can produce at least one Indian grandparent, pronounce Thiruvananthapuram standing up and distinguish between Hindu, the person, and Hindi, the language.
Actually, the admission criteria are undefined, but rounding up the PBPC in Blighty for the first time ever is surely a clever and long-overdue bridge-building move in the propaganda war. On the agenda is a welcome home drink and dinner with High Commissioner Ronen Sen.

A controversial multi-part movie commissioned to mark the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is finally making its belated New York debut next week. "11''09''01" features 11 short films by international directors, including India''s Mira Nair, France''s Claude Lelouch, and Bosnia''s Danis Tanovic. Each film runs exactly 11 minutes, 9 seconds and one frame.
Because it is stridently anti-US, the film is a hot potato that hasn''t found distributors in the US. Mira Nair''s segment tells the true story of a missing Muslim who was suspected of being a terrorist until it was discovered he died a hero helping firemen at the World Trade Center. Others are even more critical. Segments by Iran''s Samira Makhmalbaf and England''s Ken Loach also blame the United States for the 9/11 attacks.

The term NRIs has lately begun to have a slightly pejorative ring to it. But some NRIs have an epithet for westernized Indians who remain in India leading lifestyles that would put foreigners to shame. They are called RNIs (Resident Non-Indians, or Notionally Resident Indians). These are folks dressed in western designer clothes all the time, inhabiting trendy, upmarket stores and restaurants, listening to rock and pop music and watching MTV and the latest Hollywood DVDs. They are more plugged into the latest episode of Friends or Ally McBeal and the NBA and college basketball than any NRI.
On the other hand, you will find in the United States NRIs who are so steeped in India that they are abroad only physically. We are not talking about the semi-literate Punjabi who is running a dhaba in Queens and who hasn''t picked up any English in 22 years. They can be perfectly well-educated and well-rounded professionals. Silicon Valley has a large number of them.
They are entrepreneurs, engineers, and programmers by day and have other "Indian" interests or commitments or pastimes after work. Thanks to them, Indian music, arts and culture is thriving in the Bay Area. A typical example is Ragavan Manian, an IIT alumnus who is a technie with Cisco during the day and an exemplary Carnatic musician when he is not programming. A disciple of Dr Balamuralikrishna, Ragavan''s passion for music has not dimmed after several years in the crucible of technology, where he leads a local band and holds frequent concerts. Next month, an East West Tryst with a Portuguese pianist Luis Magalhaes (check out www.ragavan.net).
Reports from in London and in Washington