Getting to know local desis - How?

Every Desi who arrives in Switzerland needs assistance from fellow Desis, at least initially for the following reasons:
i) most desis do not speak the local language (German or French in particular) so that going around to get information from neighbours or any local Swiss is not easy; ii) Desi needs for grocery, dress/appareil are unique, not available in regular shops or even in departmental stories and (iii) Desis in general are more socially oriented folks, with a tendency to feel "getting lost" if they cannot find a fellow Desi around than the local Swiss.

One possible place any newcomer can go to get information is from the Indian Embassy or Indian Consulate or from any of the local "Indian Association(s)". Indian Embassy is located, as one would expect, in Bern, the capital city of Switzerland. Address Kirchenfeldstrasse 28, 3005 Bern.
The official website of the Embassy is at
http://www.indembassybern.ch/ Email: india AT spectraweb.ch

The Embassy in Berne has jurisdiction over the whole of Switzerland, as well as the Principality of Liechtenstein. For functional reasons, residents of French speaking areas of Switzerland, viz. Neuchatél, Lausanne, Nyon, Valais, Vaud, Montreux, Geneva etc. may apply for consular and visa services at the
Consulate General of India, Geneva
7-9, Rue de Valais, CH-1202, Geneva.
Tel No. 022 9068686 or 022 9068676 ; Fax No. 022 906 86 96
Email: mission.india AT ties.itu.int

Fortunately all main cities of Switzerland have their own Indian Association. Here is the list:

Bharatiya Association Berne
Postfach 71 , 3000 Bern 15
http://www.india-bab.ch/
E-mail: president_BAB AT hispeed.ch

Association of the Friends of India
Postfach 2201, 4001 BASEL
E-mail: angarkha AT bluewin.ch

Indian Association - Bern
Postfach 6704, 3001 BERN
E-mail: ahuja AT bluewin.ch

Indian Association - Lausanne
PO Box 11, 1015 LAUSANNE
http://www.ialausanne.com/
Email: ialausanne AT yahoo.com

Indian Association of Baden
Postfach 622, 5400 BADEN
http://iabaden.ch/
E-mail: president-2006 AT iabaden.ch

Indian Association - Geneva
Case Postale 15, 1211 GENEVA
http://www.india-geneva.com/newweb/iag-home.html
E-mail: president AT india-geneva.com

Swiss Hindu Mamanram
P.O. Box 1052, 8038 Zürich
http://www.swisshindu.org.futuresite.register.com/

Indian Association - Zürich
http://iazch.ch/cms/
E-mail:arun AT iazch.ch

Indian Student Association - Zürich
http://www.insaz.ethz.ch/

Asha -Zürich
http://www.asha-zurich.ch/

A website for the swiss desis

After I chose a title and signed up for this blog site, I did a net search to find out what has been written about Swiss Desis.

A big but pleasant surprise was to find a website called "swiss-desi.ch" (http://www.swiss-desi.ch).
Well, if you have not visited this site, it is certainly worth a visit. There are many interesting things there.
One nice item they have is "Events calender" - to know about events within Switzerland that are of interest to Swiss Desis. One such calendar events all over in Switzerland is badly needed.

This weekend (Saturday 28 April 2007, 22.30 PM, ya it is a midnight show) they have a Bhangra Music night (DJ King) at Club Kaizen, Moosmattstr. 9, 8953 Dietikon. Next Weekend (Saturday 5 May 2007, 22.30 PM) they have Bollywood-Punjabi DJ Music at Angelo, Industriestr. 8, 8404 Winterthur.

Welcome to Swissdesis

First few words on the title of this Blogsite: Swissdesis. The two keywords are "swiss" and "desis".

Desi according to the site: www.lorenjavier.com/asian/terminology.html is as follows:
"This is a colloquial name for people of South Asian descent, particularly those of Indian and Pakistani descent, to self describe each other or their community. The term is derogatory outside of the South Asian community."

Hence this blog site is "for and about Desis living in Switzerland, like myself (in Switzerland since 1979).

Though the Sri Lankan Tamil Community is not often cited as those belonging to "desi" community, I will include them here for two reasons: Sri Lanka geographically is very much part of South Asia, a distinct neighbor. Secondly in terms of the resident population, Sri Lankans far outnumber other south Asian communities. Current estimates put the size of Sri Lankan Tamil population to be around 40,000 while those of Indian Origin only six to seven thousand. I really do not know how big the Pakistani community of Switzerland, but it should be of size smaller than that of Indians.