Desi Manifesto Blog: The Forum for South Asian American Men

Across India and the world, there is more love for basketball than ever. You see it in the public hoops being set up (though they remain few and far between). In the kids’ fashions. The commercials.

And soon, those of you in New Delhi will see some basketball firsthand, as the NBA is coming to India for Basketball Without Borders.

Aside from discovering our own 7-foot Punjabi Yao Ming wandering the countryside (Dalip Singh Rana aka The Great Khali just wasn’t built for bball), this is one way to better our chances of having someone in the NBA someday.

But of greater concern for David Stern and the Association: will this initiative even work?

Somehow, a degree of Westernization my feeble mind never grasped was the concept of cheerleaders in India. Not even the idea that it probably wouldn’t work. This was so far from the realm of possibility that it never occurred to me, period.

Well, it’s happening, and the Washington Redskins appear quite proud of it. While there are plenty of Indians in DC, the ‘Skins would prefer to take their ‘world vision’ to the subcontinent. I guess they decided to cover both sets of Indians, one with their team name and the other on this goodwill trip that most likely will become a disaster, international incident, or both (just look at the faces of the men in the crowd, and thanks to the Washington Post for the pic).

No one here talked to urchins on the street – he was supposed to be invisible. I told him to wait - I would give him breakfast - he looked at me with skepticism. One member of the household asked me what on earth I was doing - I had to shoo that person away. Another female member of the household told me I should not give away food “to these street people” - they would then form a habit of coming to the door daily. The servant looked at me and said she would take breakfast out to him as soon as it was ready; in the meantime, he had started to walk away, not believing me.