And there’s nothing strange about us Indians finding our own escape from reality (reality of the relative kind or ‘maya’) through virtual or simulated experiences.

We see it in the quoted example of the ‘flight to nowhere’ as much as we see it in the queues for films, video game parlors. Isn’t this also similar to the ’simulated’ world we create with the help of stimulants like alcohol or other stronger substances?

And I don’t believe this is an Indian phenomenon alone. You see it in the hugely popular MMOG worlds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMOG) that millions of addicts disappear into across Eurpoe and Asia. Or the virtual or digital pets that people keep, which I think is largely a non-Indian phenomenon (as of now at least!). Or even the escapism of the more than 9.8 million users of Second Life. Or the identities created (many of them artificial) in the popular social networking sites.

Selim in India, and ‘Slim-Jim’ in the US, are only living out their fantasies/desires/agendas in the various worlds out there! Which is the real world and which one is ‘maya’? You tell me :-)