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deeply with their parents but that they themselves could not draw upon to
articulate their hybrid identities. Well into their teenage years, Bollywood
films, film music, and indeed all things Indian were embarrassing. How-
ever, their tastes as well as modes of valuing Bollywood changed dramati-
cally when they entered college and encountered a larger, if still marginal to
the mainstream, Desi cultural space in which Bollywood songs, as remixed
dance tracks, for instance, were deemed “cool.” In one-on-one interviews
that I conducted with each one of these entrepreneurs, they all narrated a
similar story of coming to terms with Bollywood. Here is how Acharia-Bath
explained it:

I spent my whole life balancing two cultures. In terms of life at home, my
parents were not hugely traditional. But they were very Indian. We’re Pun-
jabis, we eat Punjabi food, and when I walked out of my house, I really
shed most of that. I wanted to be like an English girl. I even used the name
Angela, I was very anglicized. I’d come home and listen to my mum’s Bol-
lywood or Zee TV or whatever, but when I went out, that just wasn’t part
of my life at all. I remember shunning a lot of Indian music and Bollywood
music, being embarrassed by it, because that’s what my friends made me
feel. They didn’t make me feel like it was cool or interesting. They were like
what’s that funny music or what’s that funny food. I was embarrassed about
it, ’cause it was different. So I kind of let go of most of my Indian heritage
during my high school years. But secretly I loved it, I remember loving it.
And I remember walking into this club in London—when I was in col-
lege—and seeing a sea of Indians, and black kids and white kids, it was just
this multicultural mish mash and this melting pot. I walked in and saw
this guy—who would become my husband actually!—mixing bhangra and
hip-hop. And I remember going ahh, this is amazing, this is really cool,
and this is really happening. And I could just see this multicultural sea of
kids just enjoying the music, and it wasn’t just Indians, I remember seeing
some of the friends from my village saying this is really cool. This is the
music that my parents listen to, this is the music that my friends thought
was funny. But being in a different environment and embracing the music
made it okay. I remember this defining moment.

Acharia-Bath’s account of growing up in England, initially under pressure
to shun Desi markers but gradually coming to terms with her sense of self
and belonging in a larger Desi community echoes comments from a range of
Indian American youth that Sunaina Maira has documented in her ethnog-
raphy of Desi culture in New York City. The stories I heard from these three