Bliss it was to be sitting on the terrace of Paparazzo, an Italian restaurant in tony Georgetown overlooking the historic little canal in Washington DC. It was a warm summer evening, with a gentle breeze occasionally working itself up to ruffle the elegant table linen and causing the leaves on the trees standing sentinel over us to flutter. So, it was with a bit of a start that I looked up at the waiter – from the wild salmon and perfectly chilled Sancerre, not to speak of the state of reverie it had put me in – when he asked me, “Are you an Indian?” Americans, make that Washingtonians, don’t normally ask personal questions, as we Indians are wont to do. But the curly-mopped young man, who looked as if he had just parted with his teens, wanted a serious discussion. “Have you heard of Ravi Zacharias? He is the most intelligent philosopher living today.”

Jeremiah, yes, that’s the name of the personable waiter who was in a transitional stage between finishing college and his first job, goes to church three times a week when he is busy, more when he is not. As do some of his friends and family. (Mr Zacharias, his long-distance guru based in Georgia, is an Indian-born Canadian-American evangelical Christian philosopher. He broadcasts daily on radio and has written a score of books, with intriguing titles like Sense and Sensuality: Jesus Talks to Oscar Wilde…. (Would love to know what Oscar Wilde said.)
Like the American flag, religion has become more prevalent after the tragic events of 9/11. Strangely enough while the church and state have been separated, God and State apparently have not. The US Senate normally opens its sessions with prayers. But for the first time in its history it opened this July with vedic chants, by a Hindu priest from Nevada. The gesture has been described in the press as a nod to the increasing influence of the Indian-Americans in this country.

Fund-raising desis
The Indians have, obviously, arrived. American politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, have been wooing Indian-Americans fervently during the countdown to the Presidential elections next year and none more than Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Even to the extent that an overly zealous member of the campaign entourage of Barack Obama (aspiring candidate for the Democratic nomination) quipped something to the effect that Senator Clinton should run from India since she was so fond of Indians: outsourcing from India is a sensitive subject. The jibe only served to make the Indians dig deeper into their pockets and organise even more fund-raising galas.
Recently named co-chair of the Democratic National Commi–ttee’s Indo-American Leadership Council, Dr Mahinder Tak has already raised $ 250,000 for the fund-raising reception for Hillary Clinton to be held in her sprawling Bethesda home overflowing with a fine collection of modern and contemporary Indian art. The New York desis spearheaded by Sant Chatwal, the hotelier friend of the Clintons, had totted up about a million dollars earlier. Last month (July) husband Bill Clinton even addressed 13,000 Telugu people of North America assembled at the National Convention Centre in Washington DC on the opening day of their bi-annual conference. The former president had probably given up his considerable fee for speaking ($100,000 to $150,000) as part of his efforts towards the fund-raising campaign for his wife – and to be Spouse No 1.
But Bill Clinton had competition. In addition to classical Ind–ian dancers, vadas and sambar and piles of silk saris and blinding gold jewellery, for sale were brochures for condos and villas in Hyderabad. The spirit of enterprise never sleeps, especially when the American dream gets bumped up by the Indian one.

Walking tall
Remember Salman Rushdie’s ‘elastic bands’ that kept the desi looking back at the desh he had left behind for foreign shores, seldom allowing him or her to snap free entirely. Well, the elastic seems to have become even tighter for an increasing number of American desis. Perhaps it has to do with the soaring sensex, India Shining and all the good things New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman had to say (both in his column and in his book The World is Flat) about the Indian entrepreneurial spirit. Not to speak of the bad press the Chinese are now getting over dangerous toys, fish and toothpaste. Decidedly the desis here (and of course I am generalising and this is just a visitor’s impression) are walking a little taller these days. Much of it is their own doing: those in IT and Financial Services have done incredibly well in the Washington region during the last decade, with techies turning entrepreneurs. But some of it is piggybacking on what Indians back home are doing. “It’s cool to be Indian these days in the United States,” says Dr Jyothi Gadde, who is consistently listed as one of the top allergists of the Washington area. “I feel proud to see an Ambani open an auditorium at Wharton in their name, or to read about Mr Narayana Murthy being the commencement speaker at Wharton. Or....” The list is long.