, and actually competing in bollywood styles in mainstream american popular culture. tell me how weird that was for you as a kid who grew up, you know, in ohio, again, who never saw that stuff on american television. what's it like to see it now? >> it's very... it's surreal for me, because i... you know, i feel that i've lived, just by virtue of when i was born, on kind of both sides of this divide. you know, when i was growing up, this still hadn't happened yet, and so there was, you know... no one really knew anything about us or where we came from. people in cleveland would ask my mother a question that, you know, she's wearing a bindi on her forehead, red bindi, and, you know, she was asked in an elevator once, "is that a hole in your head and that's the blood?" you know, it's unimaginable today. and i just recently was all over the country for my book tour. it's amazing. you can go pretty far out in the u.s. to all kinds of places and people are asking sophisticated, third-level questions about what's happening with the maoist movement in india, what's happening

in cinema, there is hollywood and bollywood.

like bollywood night -- >> jimmy: i'm down. >> vegan night, pagan night, you know, when you kill your have fun, and dance do all that stuff. >> jimmy: why not? >> so anyway, black light dinner party with alien night. >> jimmy: yeah. >> and that's where black light, light bulbs, and weird music. so they bring -- it's like, 12:30 at night, and i'm almost asleep, you know, that's late to eat dinner. >> jimmy: yeah, because when did you start dinner? probably like? >> 9:00? >> jimmy: yeah. that's a three and a half hour dinner. >> yeah, it was just like -- uh. >> jimmy: yeah, it's unbelievable. >> they said, "we want to take you to this room." and we went to this room, and there was weird music playing. >> jimmy: of course there would be. >> and i was with my friend -- well, we both say at the same time, "eyes wide shut." we're like -- [ laughter ] crazy. >> jimmy: no, no, no. >> yeah, and we walk in, and there's a candelabra with black light light bulbs and baked alaska, and the candelabra was, like, you know, covered in foil. you know, somebody's just -- >> jimmy: and there was an alien