Just like backhome, just like in des...

All of us are familiar with the Chinatowns and the Little Italys that one finds in many an American city...Boston has it well-marked Chinatown and the distinctive North End. New York, SFO and LA have sizable Chinese, Italian and Latin American communities, besides other immigrant populations and enclaves .

Each of these enclaves is sprinkled with establishments that provide sustenance to the localized immigrant populations in that neighborhood: restaurants, bars and shops of a wide variety -- maybe grocery stores, bakeries, dress stores etc. New York is famous for its many distinctive neighborhoods, SFO has a large sized Chinese population and of course LA has a high concentration of Latinos. The Latin American community too has it network of grocery stores, cheap eats, music stores, radio programs and dedicated TV channels.

These are examples of an immigrant people recreating the life and milieu of "backhome."

In similar fashion, the Indian community has also built (or given rise to) several systems and "support structures" that enables it to carry on with life almost as in des. While "Little Indias" may not yet exist in recognizable fashion other that in Queens NY, Iselin NJ and Devon Avenue Chicago...there is enough evidence that many dispersed Little Indias exist throughout the country complete with their mini-India experiences. Examples of the desi webs we weave:

• Desi Music programs on radios, e.g the highly popular Gunjan from WUML (Lowell), every Saturday.
• Desi TV programs, e.g. Aap Ka Manoranjan every Sunday.
• Indian/Bollywood movies playing in regular theaters, e.g in Showcase Lawrence and Fresh Pond in Mass.
• Indian places of worship: temples, gurudwaras...
• Schools that teach Indian values and languages...
  
• Indian newspapers, such as India New England, Lokvani...
• Indian cultural associations...
  
• Scores of Indian groceries which stock almost every imaginable thing you could need to whip up any Indian meal...or fulfil any other preference of yours: you get your preferred toothpaste (Vicco or Monkey-brand toothpowder, take your pick), Maggi brand noodles that we Indians love, Horlicks and Bournvita energy-drinks, Parle-G biscuits, Hajmola digestive candy...you name it...
  
• Indian beauticians who can do your hair just the way Indian ladies like it, something they cannot get done from hair-dressers here...
  
• Tiffin services
• Host of Indian Cultural programs: dances, skits, plays, classical music...
• Music/Art lessons
• And of course, the more ubiquitous Indian restaurants...

In this manner, the Indian community fulfills its gastronomic, cultural, spiritual, informational and to a small extent its social needs. This is how the community has built many virtual Indias within the United States so that in most place, especially near larger cities, you will be assured of Indian grocery stores, Indian places of worship, Indian cultural programs, some form of news and entertainment network, some kind of cultural associations...all of which go to give one an experience of India, however incomplete.