Serendipity

Like an incestuous college dorm, this alternadesi hothouse of a ‘hood keeps yielding interesting hookups.

This past summer, I wandered home late one Friday night, sharing the building elevator with a gaggle of desis heading to the roof. I dumped my stuff in my room, walked upstairs and stumbled into a large yet strangely chill party: an indie rock band, a DJ rig, beer, Christmas lights, extension cords and lots of people dancing, drinking and enjoying the NYC skyline. That party nearly got the entire building banned from the roof (much respect), but I didn’t know whose party it was.

A few months later, I went shopping for my first Mac in years to build a fruit-friendly version of the blog editor we use. The font of all things Mac here is the Apple temple in SoHo. Because it abuts all manner of modeling agencies, it’s usually packed with offhandedly striking women, those for whom beauty is merely a Mendelian byproduct. Like the Nano, they’re shiny, costly and impossibly thin.

I got to talking with a random sales guy in a hoodie. Here’s what turned up:

  • He spins house music and is an amateur photographer
  • He was in my loft building that same morning
  • He was visiting two DJ friends who live right downstairs from me
  • The DJs and the rockers were the very same guys who threw the mother of all parties on our roof
  • And, they’re all desi

The next couple of posts came from this serendipitous connection…

9 thoughts on “Serendipity

  1. I went shopping for my first Mac in years to build a fruit-friendly version of the web editor we use.

    Yay! Need a beta tester?

  2. brooklyn desi’s representing. There are a lot of us South Asians out in the borough, but it seems every time i give my pleasant smile-walk-by to some desi, they seem to get offended, as a “don’t smile at me just cause i’m also South Asian”

    oh well, gonna keep smiling

  3. Dude, that almost sounded like a come-on 🙂

    Let’s be clear. We are talking about a

    fruit-friendly version of the web editor

    here, right?

    Disclaimer: I hereby claim ‘Will and Grace’-like rights to humour. Please don’t pounce on me and brand me homophobic.

  4. brooklyn desi’s representing

    Yeah seems like there are oodles of hipster desis in/from Brooklyn all of a sudden. My brooklyn desi icon (I’m pretty sure he’s from brooklyn) is the inimitable reihan salam who seems to be on some sort of indefinite blogging hiatus

  5. brooklyn desi’s representing. There are a lot of us South Asians out in the borough, but it seems every time i give my pleasant smile-walk-by to some desi, they seem to get offended, as a “don’t smile at me just cause i’m also South Asian”

    when i was younger, i use to be one of the guilty ones doing the same. i swear i matured now.