Hum, tum aur Harry.

I’m proud to be an urban Indian, aren’t you? We did it. Akhir dikha diya duniya ko ki hum bhi kisise kam nahin, what? (Never mind if I sound like an ad headline in Hinglish – supposedly the height of creativity in India these days. In case you didn’t get it, what I was saying in Bollywood Hindi was: “Didn’t we finally show the world that we lag behind no one?") Imagine joining the great global mainstream big time! Imagine Mumbai reportedly gobbling up 25000 copies of the latest Harry Potter the very first day it was let loose on the hapless universe at Rs.795/- a pop in hardcover in June 2003! Doesn’t the feat rate on par with our penchant for foreign film locales, foreign film technicians, foreign post-production, foreign faded/fading musicians in concert, foreign surgeons for digital correction involving our pride and joy, foreign barely edible junk food, foreign labels on all and sundry, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and what have you? You made my day, mera India! Way to go, mom. Forget the plight of a Bharat Ratna. Serves him right for daring to play the shehnai when the flavour of the day is synthesizer, guitar and drums. (P.S.: CyberAtlas has a fact-and-figure-packed article on Harry Potter at http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/retailing/article/0,1323,6061_2226321,00.html. It’s by Robyn Greenspan and is called ‘Wild About Harry’.)