Ganguli Bowling?

This past Thursday, I went with some friends to the bowling alley, where we enjoyed a few games of bowling.  Not long after we arrived, several Indian families began using the lane adjacent to ours.  I was intrigued to say the least - this was an opportunity to test the stereotypes that The Namesake presented, so I spent most of the remainder of my evening creeping on this Indian group.  Here are my field notes from that fateful night:

There appeared to be several families there as a group.  But there were no women - just men and children.  So where were the women?  Are all Indian men divorced like Gogol?  Oh.  Nevermind.  The women were just getting snacks.  False alarm.  I looked at what the mothers brought for their children, hoping to catch a glimpse of some homemade Bengali snack.  Cheez Its.  Come on.  Would it kill these people to do something Indian?  It was a big group consisting of maybe twelve people, with several separate families.  Or perhaps they were all one extended family, like the Ganguli family out to bowl - I was encouraged by this culturally relevant possibility.  My hope faded quickly as the night wore on, though - they did absolutely nothing Indian.  I did not hear a word of Bengali or any other foreign language, and they spoke English well from what I could hear.  All of them wore distinctly American clothing, though some appeared to be a bit well dressed for the bowling alley.  One teenage girl did bear a striking resemblance to the young Moushumi (I caught a glimpse of a mustache), but I dismissed this as irrelevant.  They were even good at bowling, which I would consider a primarily American activity.  This family had clearly assimilated well into American society.  Or perhaps they were Indian spies intent on gathering information on American customs.  One of the children wandered over toward our lane.  I considered kidnapping him and using him as a bargaining chip with these Indian spies.  Though I would be an American hero, I decided against it considering the potential legal ramifications.  So I sank back into the shadows, bowled a cool 96, and was on my way.

Overall, this experience helped me realize that not all Indian families cling to their past like the Gangulis.  Some, like the one or ones I saw, have adapted to American society seamlessly.  Although at the time this frustrated me (I wanted them to do something stereotypically Indian), I am proud of these families.  As long as they were not actually spies, I applaud them for their ability to achieve what the Gangulis could not - feeling comfortable in America.