When Indophiles mate

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The daughter of a big-time Silicon Valley VC wed last weekend. In these troubled times, it warms my heart to see that the ultra-wealthy are still meeting and mating over that shared hobby called Indophilia

… each had traveled to India, Ms. Kramlich to ride horses across the desert in Rajasthan and Dr. Bowie to Dharmsala, “to meet the Dalai Lama…” [Link]

Wealthy Westerners… a dusty desert… heaving bodices… it’s The Far Pavilions! For that level of Indophilia, their kids better be wearing turbans. I’m thinkin’ Poon-jab as the child of Daddy Warbucks.

As Ms. Kramlich’s father doubtless has access to a private jet, it may be the last time she and her husband find themselves on horseback out of necessity  The wedding writeup is a peek into the lifestyle of Sand Hill Brahmins:

In 2001 she had abandoned a career in business and product development with start-up technology companies to study acting… They were married in typical California wine-country style on Aug. 13. Chief Justice Ronald M. George of the California Supreme Court, a friend of the bride’s family, led the ceremony under a canopy of oaks and a Wedgwood-blue sky on the grounds of the 21-acre Oakville, Calif., weekend house and vineyard owned by the bride’s father, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and her stepmother, Pamela Kramlich, a trustee of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The bride looked serene in a form-fitting creamy-white Vera Wang gown as a string quartet, tucked into the greenery, played sweetly. A reception and sit-down dinner for 234 guests followed on the grassy lawns surrounding the votive-lit family pool.

After the couple’s honeymoon, at an eco-resort in Nicaragua, that is part nature preserve and part reforestation project, the bride and the bridegroom, who has no pets of his own, will return to their new horse farm in the Oakland Hills of California with her animal entourage: three Arabian horses and one very happy and healthy poodle. [Link]

All joking aside, congratulations to the newlyweds.

17 thoughts on “When Indophiles mate”

  2. Oh man, thanks for linking to Zach’s site. So excellent.

    I’ve learned over the years to be content with my lot in life, that being an artist, no matter how talented, often means living a very modest (if not downright impoverished) lifestyle. But then I see articles like this, and OG WANT TO SMASH!

  3. I visited Indophilia once, on a vacation. Somewhere near Thailand, isn’t it?

    It was dreamy and very spiritual — snake charmers and chaste, uncorrupt yogis everywhere you looked. Men in sherwani suits and ladies in beautiful saris, so exotic!

    Family values are very strong in Indophilia, as is a strong — but not maniacal — religiosity. The mindset, really, is very different from our western thinking. Very nurturing and good for the soul.

    I bought a beautiful ivory elephant there, so I could always have a piece of Indophilia with me.

    A beautiful place, really. (Too bad they don’t allow realism-minded people to visit anymore.)

    😉

  4. SirChes,

    Thant link was HILARIOUS!! Made my day…thanks.

    Manish,

    Yes, I finally get your humour :-).

  5. From the NYT:

    Upon his return, Dr. Bowie noticed the card and called Ms. Kramlich intending to engage her with the usual follow-up medical questions and avoid what he called “the shaky ethical ground of patient-doctor relationships.”

    stumped for words

  6. Amardeep, I haven’t visited Indophilia myself, but hear of it often.

    They speak sanksrit there you know. That’s why all the names are so fraught with meaning, transcendental spirituality and beauty. I guess there aren’t too many words though, so everyone reuses the same words…Ms. Kramlich, for example, named her dog nuala just like Christy Turlington’s line of yoga clothes and acessories. They’re like, twins!

    Indophilia is also the root (like the chakra!) of all civilization, the mother to us all, the heart (like the chakra!) of all understanding of life, eternity and supreme “one-ness.” So although petty outsiders may quibble about nuala actually being a Gaelic word, residents of Indophilia see past that.. to the origins..

  8. Don’t forget the tantric sex, with the chakras and the kamasutra and the glayvin!

    Has anyone been to the NYC club named Sutra? I guess they didn’t know a sutra is a thread.

  10. You’re all forgetting the bellydancing! Okay, so it’s not really from Indophilia, but whatever, it’s all pretty and exotic, so what does it matter?

    And the bindis. You know that in Indophilia girls wear them all the time with their pretty saris? Which means that when you get back, you HAVE to wear a bindi at all times with your jeans and logo tees. It’s like, the third eye, dude.

    P.S. If you meet a guy who wants to offer you tantric chakra healing, be sure to give him all the money he wants. You must become a higher spiritual being, no matter the cost. Don’t worry, those yoga classes you teach will help you pay for it.

  12. Don’t forget that in the mythical, majestical, magical land of Indophilia:

    • All the men wear turbans and ride around everywhere on elephants

    • There are levitating yogis hovering under every tree and on every mountain top

    • You can hear sitar music playing from the clouds all the time

    • Everyone has an arranged marriage

    • Nobody indulges in any pre-marital hanky-panky nor has anyone there ever done so in the country’s entire history

    • Everyone lives in abject poverty but is still oh-so-happy and spiritual.

    • Everyone completely respects and believes in everyone else’s religion (some people will even kindly insist that you’re a member of their religion even if you keep telling them that you are not)

    • It’s a beacon of light, spirituality, and morality for the whole of mankind — nay, heaven on earth itself. God Himself is an Indophilian, you know; apparently He even came down and visited the country in person a few times thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago.

    • It’s such a wonderful, peaceful place believing completely in the concept of non-violence that it’s been able to fend off incursions by neighbouring powers for thousands of years simply by the utterance of a few well-chosen mantras. It doesn’t even need an army, let alone those pesky nu-ki-lar missles.

  13. And the bindis. You know that in Indophilia girls wear them all the time with their pretty saris? Which means that when you get back, you HAVE to wear a bindi at all times with your jeans and logo tees.

    The fall 2005 season trends that wearing sari blouses with jeans, lots of bangles ($25 for 8 in SoHo) and bindis is the pinnacle of fashion, in Indophilia. Don’t mind the funny looks– they’re just hatin’ on your incredible Indophilia style!

  15. and little monkeys that do tricks in the marketplace! god they’re so cute. I’d love to take one home with me, but I couldn’t find any natives to sell me one…

  16. I got a little carried away by this here.

    Thanks people for playing my little game! (I gave credit to three of you whose ideas I used in expanding “Indophilia”.)

  17. lol … must read from IJ Singh about what he faced when he came to America:

    Most Americans have generally been only minimally knowledgeable about Sikhs or Indians. Many people would accost me on the street in my earlier days and would wonder if India had colleges or cars or where I had learnt my English. The pride of America was in the fact that almost every house had two cars. Finally I worked out what I thought was a rib tickling parody. I would say that I came from a relatively well off middle class family in India; no cars but two elephants. One of the elephants was old and decrepit and of not much use except for shopping around town while the other was a younger, racier model. But at least I didn’t have to ask, “Hey Dad, can I have the elephant tonight?”