A Brown Woman, The White House
Everything about this presidential election is extraordinary and feels as though scripted by the creators of The West Wing. Or perhaps the scribes responsible for Bollywood musicals. Let me explain more…Everything, so far, is bonkers!
The first assassination attempt since Reagan and a subsequent memorable bandaged ear we haven’t seen seared into public consciousness since Vincent Van Gogh’s are some of the amazingly astounding aspects so far. A Kennedy running for the highest office with advances in the polls and a president so battered in the court of public opinion for his cognitive decline, it’s no wonder he finally dropped out of the race. In my humble opinion, it’s better Biden drop out with dignity now because there was no way he or anybody else on the Democratic ticket can beat the Republican nominee and his ever loyal base.
In light of the injuries sustained, Trump has basically become a war hero to his dedicated masses.
Even though I comprehend all of this from a political perspective (have a UCLA degree in Politics), there is one significant aspect that this part Indian (not indigenous to India, my people went there for a myriad of reasons while loving and embracing the culture) part Anglo (my grandfather and his Scottish history includes some of my favorite relatives) mutt can’t get over one detail I never thought I would enjoy in my lifetime or, frankly, anybody else’s.
Any way this election goes, any way things shake out, there will be an Indian woman in some capacity in The White House. That’s irrefutable and inconceivable at the same time. An Indian woman? That is an astonishing detail, one that makes me want to write and right…as an Indian woman.
Indians. We’re all over the political map, holding high government offices and making improvements to our beloved country. Anybody remember Bobby Jindal as Louisiana’s governor? Of course, this fact is not as surprising as it might have been decades ago. I mean, Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley are both completely Indian and did make significant strides in hopes of securing the Republican nomination for president. Sadly, neither one of them were up to take on Trump and his base who has been lying in wait for “four more years” for the last four years. There were Indians who supported candidates in the past like Hilary’s dedicated foot soldier and right hand woman, Huma Abedin, whose parents were both born in India. But the odds of a part Indian part black female president (Harris) or, in the other corner, the vice presidential hopeful JD Vance married to the wildly accomplished Usha Chilukuri Vance (completely Indian) makes me want to write something that reflects that part of myself and my culture.
Granted, I rarely lay claim to being from India. I understand Hindi and Urdu when spoken to, but, tragically, couldn’t string together a whole paragraph if my life depended on it. I don’t know how to cook Indian food or anything savory for that matter and the last time I was actually in India, Mumbai was still called Bombay and Jimmy Carter was licking his wounds for losing to Ronald Reagan after one disastrous presidential term. And yet, I think there are stories I could tell.
When I was much younger and far more ignorant, my boss and dear friend, Ron Bass, proposed that we write a script together based on Indian female characters. It would be a generational drama about the relationship between four women and their mothers, highlighting their cultural differences. Ron had written a novel years before which was based in Kolkata when it was still known as Calcutta (home of Mother Teresa and the lepers). Ron has a keen appreciation and ability to write ethnic women as evidenced by his incredible movies, which include The Joy Luck Club, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, just to name a few of his endless titles. To say I was disinterested would be an understatement. I was young and really wanted to write a romantic comedy that wasn’t ethnic. Ron was more interested in something that had depth and cultural significance. Cut to close to two decades later and I wonder how this movie couldn’t get made now.
I still hope we find a producer…
Since there are so many stereotypical movies about Indian people that invariably center around a wedding, I made the decision to write several scripts that highlighted interesting stories about Indian people not centered around a wedding. And I feel pretty good about how they turned out.
So, the next four years I’m hoping are filled with good policy and even better masala (spices). And I’m hoping to produce stories that will pair well with the next administration.
Namaste!
Post script - Ron Bass’ first novel was set in KERALA, not KOLKATA…proof positive I’m a terrible excuse for an Indian woman…I don’t even know the geography…