The banyan tree in the village center.

I just discovered an Indian grocery shop near my apartment. It claims to be a purveyor of groceries and hindi movies. However, when I went inside, there seemed to be a lack of both groceries and movies in the shop. The strange thing was, even though the vague little shop seemed to have very little utility value as a place where things could be purchased or rented, there were an inordinately large number of Indians hanging around the place ... Some were loafing around chatting to other Indians, some were wandering around talking on their cellphones, presumably with other Indians, some were just walking around in circles like disoriented zombies. No one was buying anything. I guess the shop has attained the status occupied by countless banyan trees in countless village centers in rural India as a place of congregation for displaced Indians in this part of the world.