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Valley Desi - Evolution

A valley desi to the uninformed is an Indian ex-pat who has discovered their moksha or its digital /virtual equivalent in the San Jose / San Francisco area of Northern California.

They have been coming in droves from the early years of the semi conductor industry's birth and eventual growth to near exponential explosion of things based on software.  Largely arriving to pursue higher education - aka Master's degrees from America's famous universities these natives of the Indian sub-continent (referred to by those still in India as their diaspora) have shown enterprise and guts to discover a new land, its idiosyncrasies and its work culture to sometimes adapt, at times not, but make a living and then some.

As bell curves go the large majority have shown very similar profiles in terms of their socio - economic backgrounds back home to what their lifestyle choices are today.

Here are some personal observations of those that fit squarely in the rounded middle of the aforementioned curve -

Life for this Valley Desi imagined circa 1970s to 1990s... then 90s to the early aughts and then modern day (last five or so years)..

  • Vehicular Affinity - Honda/Toyota sedans, to driving Acuras to now BMW 5s (for gals) and must have Tesla Electrics for dudes (not to mention it saves the toll on the freaking bridges each time you cross- and boy do you cross)
  • Food Choice - Cooking @ home, to getting prepared dabbas, to hanging out with dudes at the bar  (this still varies - millenials more so than others tend to be found at the watering holes)
  • Kids - having few and let mother take care of them, to having day care, to full time nannies (directly imported from des in some cases) to having none (kids that is) for a while - a long while
  • Marital status - Wedded by arrangement, to self made arrangements (aka luw marriage), to one time divorce to multiple divorces (Larry King - you better be scared) - have not yet seen much by way of homosexual arrangements (what it being legal and all)
  • Networking - Pot lucks, to meeting out for dinner, to dressing up at home then posting every fart and CUTIE WIFE pictures on Facebook and expecting 'Looking HOT' and Thousand Likes' till the cows come home.  By way of social skills its all downhill but it does not matter when you are looking Hot - and kid is learning to be the next Jobs by taking apart their own fruity gadgets by poking fingers on it 20 hours a day
  • Travel - Going to parents place, to Kerala backwaters, to Paris and NY yaar, to always always Las Vegas.  Ideally in that tiny black or eye burning red dress (esp. wives with their BFF or GFs) and expecting - ' still so HOT ya' updates on Facebook.
  • Fitness - Proud of belly, to out for stroll, to full time gym members, to personal CrossFit trainer employing and bare foot marathon embracing (cult) desis are all over the place
  • Finances - 401k and forget it, to once in a while day trading, to options action basking and venture fund seeking dudes or dudettes
Ergo in conclusion - traffic now is dominated by more newly single, hot dress /biz casual wearing, BMW driving, booze filled, bridge crossing babes /dudes that are multitasking by posting their latest wart on their fave app and complaining to their BFF about Bikram's heat causing nausea (or was it the 12 year old malt?) /or Put expiry frustrations from last night.

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