I can share Dr. Shenoy's sense of joy in finding a Konkani in Greece just as I can imagine Mrs. Vidya's ecstasy at a Japanese talking about what he ate at Indra Bhavan. The sheer delight of bumping in to someone who can speak our mother-tongue in an alien land, even if with an atrocious accent, is to be experienced to be understood. The first ever time I went to Madras, I was so thirsty for the sound of Kannada - I am no language fanatic - that I would hungrily look for anyone picking up Prajavani or Sudha, the only two publications that were available in scarce numbers, that too at a couple of select bookstalls, a quarter of a century ago in that city. One day, after my lunch at a restaurant (was it Adyar?), when I found a man purchasing a copy of Sudha, I nearly pounced on him. I was desperate to make friends with him (though I was disappointed that the intensity was not matched by him). He introduced himself as Puttaraju. It sounded as the sweetest name I have ever heard.

Cultural influence is so tremendous that the word "huli" (the approximate equivalent for sambar) or "saru" (the even more approximate equivalent for rasam), uttered in an entirely alien ambience, comes to us with the gentleness of the fragrance of mallige, on a cool Mysore evening.

This is but a tiny effort, Mrs. Vidya, to help you fight the anguish of alienness.

I, unfortunately (or fortunately) never had the 'khaturate" to meet another Kannadiga although I have lived the better part of the last 20 years abroad in various places. I went only once, in 13 years, to the Kannada Koota in New York and when I lived out west, never went to the one in SFO. I have had good experiences living american culture, whats that you ask, well, things like the thanksgiving turkey dinners-get together, halloween-costume wearing-going from house to house trick or treating, attending church at christmas followed by Christmas lunch together with friends' families, easter, fourth of July weekend drinking beer and watching the Blue Angels perform thrilling aerobatics off Fort Lauderdale beach, watching American football through the season (not soccer) and drinking beer, even attending games live at the stadium, yup done all that. Now, don't start with the "my culture is richer than thou" and all that.

I don't have the experience that Mrs. Vidya has in rural Japan although I have travelled widely. For example, there were'nt any Indians, at least not in noticeable numbers(forget Kannadigas) in Guatemala, Honduras, Grenada, Greenland, and other places that i used to go to (some I still do). It was never difficult to bump into Indians in all the other countries. They were everywhere and I'll bet a lot of them were Kannadigas (if not telugus) because of IT and all that. Another thing I found that I disliked is the Guarati's have their own association, the telugus have their own, tha Tamil sangham is huge and they all flock together, like birds of the same feather, in the US. I have not seen too much cross cultural (within indian I mean) events where everyone participates. The various associations do thei diwali seperately and so on. When they all get together in a bar, we are all Indians otherwise, we are kannadigas, tamilians, gujaratis, punjabis and so on, the list is endless. How many of them find alliances from outside this association and within that, how many look for non-denominational marriage alliances? We Indians are poor suckers in that we can't see beyond our own caste, language and such like, even living in America for many years.

Ms. Vidya's experiences in Japan is priceless. She has a wonderful easy style of writing down her experiences and for those who may have missed out, her writings appear on the "bookswap" forum of this website titled: "A Mysoreans japan Journal". I suggest a strong "read" recommendation.