A friend of mine was visiting the San Francisco Bay Area from Massachusetts.Both of us are recent entrants to the United States, but regional loyalties hadtaken root already. The perennial East Coast v. West Coast debate was justwaiting to make its entry. Sure enough he remarked, "I don’t like SiliconValley. So many desis". Now it would be easy to burst out in indignation atthis remark, but for the fact that the same sentiment is expressed, or at leastfelt, by most other Indians. Or desis, shall we say. Including myself. And thencontinuing in the same vein, of total identification with the New Englander’scontempt for the "newly moneyed", he expressed total pride in being fromthe "old country". Where it all began, so to speak.