The litmus test for acceptability in a media driven society like the United States is how frequently you can make it on television. Everyone knows — you’re somebody as long as you are on TV! So when Sanjaya Malakar, a good American boy of Indian origin, made it to national headlines via American Idol, the question was invariably asked: are Indians finally making it to the American cultural mainstream?

Fame is a measure of success in the US, and to be sure, the Indian diaspora is already visible. Politician Bobby Jindal and hotelier Sant Chatwal are not the only players. Bhangra, yoga, Hinduism, butter chicken have all made their mark. Wall Street is filled with young Indian-American bankers and traders. Silicon Valley has India written all over it. CNN has Indian anchors. But at the same time, the majority of the Indian community in the US is quite happy to lead quiet lives in the suburbs, living in little bubbles, totally unaware of the goldmine they are sitting on. And that goldmine? A post-industrialist capitalist economy that uses culture to fuel itself.

Sanjaya Malakar does not symbolise the acceptance of the Indian in America, but instead, represents the acceptance of America by an Indian. He jumped right into the mainstream — the biggest television show in the country that led to his face becoming as familiar as Paris Hilton’s, and quite predictably, his picture alone sold thousands of newspapers and magazines. And that’s the phenomenon that is the American cultural circus; people are rewarded for making an effort to achieve their goals. The Malakar episode showed millions of Indian-Americans that they too will be accepted if they make the effort to join the mainstream. Simran Sethi’s success as host of the American television show, Ethical Markets, and her environmental website, Treehugger, which led to Vanity Fair profiling her in their 2007 Green Issue, proves just this.

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