The American Fixation

Why are Indians always so fixated with Indian-Americans who are have made a name for themselves? Im talking about the recent Sunita Williams episode. The Indian media was going hysterical over her return journey,live coverage of the space shuttle plus repeated telecast of people praying for her safety.The media gave an impression that she was the only person aboard space shuttle Atlantis.What abt the other six astronauts?

I would like to clarify that my intention here is not to criticise the media and i am in complete awe of Sunita and all that she has accomplished .But what i cant understand is why Indians try so hard to portray her as an Indian, pretend that she is one of us,that we constantly focus on the small,petty things she likes abt India(samosa and chole). People should accept the fact that she is an American,that her mother is Slovenian, her husband is an American,her favourite baseball team is Boston's Red Sox or that she likes sushi.

Be it Kalpana Chawla,Freddie Mercury or Bobby Jindal Indians try to owe their success to their Indian origins.I can understand Kalpana Chawla being called an Indian-American as she was born here and even did her engineering from Punjab University.

According to me the reason is that India lacks icons,people you can look upto. But there are plenty of people in India who can act as role models. They work away from the limelight and thus we may never come to know them.Its the role of the media to show that we indeed have many heroes amongst ourselves,people whom we can emulate and people who play a role in our nation's success.