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Brown in America

Thanksgiving for Desis

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America
On: ⋅ November 21, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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I called a long lost desi friend over last weekend and of course with the upcoming long weekend for Thanksgiving my question to him was what his plans were for the weekend. His reply was “What else do people do for Thanksgiving? Shopping on Friday”. While that answer was not totally unexpected, I’m always surprised at how little appreciation some desi folks, particularly first gen, have for the Thanksgiving holiday. On further discussion on the topic, somehow the dude seemed almost offended that I would suggest that we celebrate an “American” holiday, as if it would make him lose his cultural identity.

Mayflower Pilgrims and desi immigrants in Air India flight AI141 - both fresh off the proverbial boat

As an immigrant, Thanksgiving is the American holiday that holds the most significance to me because like the pilgrims I came here looking to better my life. Over here I found:
- my better half
- a higher degree
- employment that pays paisas, enough to bring home the sabzis. Addendum: no thanks to Lou Dobbs and the anti immigration bigots.
- friends. I read this quote somewhere “If you got friends like mine raise your glasses, if you did not, raise your standards” - unknown
- and of course, discovering a vibrant online desi community thanks to Über Desi and all the other desi blogs.

I’m thankful for all that and much more. What are you thankful for, this Thanksgiving?

Featured below are some Über Thankgiving ideas, especially for desi folks who are searching for some. I’ll tell you what to eat, what to watch on TV and, in true desi ishtyle, how to save you some money shopping on Black Friday.

Most households in the US and A make traditional turkey roast and similar recipes for Thanksgiving. While urging folks to celebrate this unique holiday, we also want to add our very own desi touch to it. So here’s a few desi turkey recipes. Is that gasps of blasphemy I hear from the vegetarian desi lobby? Let me direct you to the veggie turkey recipes we posted on Über Desi as early as a year back.

Another unique Amrikan tradition is watching football over Thanksgiving lunch and dinner. The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys are NFL teams that have always played games on Thanksgiving Day. Three NFL games are scheduled for Thanksgiving Day:
Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions - Brett Favre leads a resurging Green Bay Packers team to Motown to face off with the Lions who’ve been one of the surprises of this year.
New York Jets at Dallas Cowboys - On the surface this looks like a massacre in the making for a pitiful Jets teams but they shocked the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. Can they upset a top team two weeks in a row?
Indianapolis Colts at Atlanta Falcons - Indy and Peyton Manning have been struggling on offense. Will a woeful Atlanta team be the solution for their offensive shortcomings?

I know. I know. “I’m desi and I don’t like to watch American sports. I only watch cricket”. Here you go: a desi cricket fan’s wet dreams, 1st cricket test match, India v/s Pakistan, starting on Thanksgiving Day. I’m not sure the BCCI scheduled it that way but it doesn’t get any better than that.

Remember when I said earlier in this post that I would save you some money? Not to worry. I won’t ask you to save money by switching you car insurance to Geico. Desis, especially first genners, roam the streets and malls of Amrika searching for the best deals on Thanksgiving. Now you don’t have to anymore. Instead you can lookup the best deals in links provided to you by your friendly neighborhood desi blog, Über Desi ([save money link1] and [save money link 2]) and hit up the stores that provide the best deals.

To everyone of our readers and my fellow bloggers, Happy Thanksgiving!!! Eat, sleep, drink, enjoy the company of your family and friends, watch sports on TV and shop till you drop. Feel free to send us photos your very own unique desi ishtyle Thanksgiving from years past and this one. And above all, stay safe and don’t drink and drive.

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