Tuesday, May 27, 2008

High Fidelity of Jackson Heights

The scene: Music store in Jackson Heights

The players: Two young white guys, Five older Indian gentlemen

The story:

White Guy 1 (who knows his music): Hey, I was wondering if you could help me find a recording from an old Indian movie.
[He starts humming the tune and after a few bars, one of the Indian gentleman breaks into song and has a moment of great understanding, which is followed by the same from the rest of them. White Guy 2 is clueless.]
Indian Gentleman 1: Oh yes, yes, we know this song. It's by [Indian singer].
[All Indian gentlemen start rummaging through individual CDs and box sets, muttering occasional things in Hindi to each other while pointing at the CDs. Five minutes pass like this. At this point, it becomes clear that they have completely abandoned the original search and are looking at unrelated compilations.]
White Guy 1: So any luck over there?
Indian Gentleman 2: Oh yes, we have very very good songs for you.
White Guy 1: How about my song?
Indian Gentleman 2: Oh yes, Jagjit Singh box set.
White Guy 1: Ok, that's not gonna work...
White Guy 2:...but can we get this Kabaddi DVD?

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