Aadisht Khanna sends me a mail in which he raises my hopes by speaking of a comics store he went to recently with “a nine inch Cthulu figure on display,” but then shifts the topic to other things, and ends the mail by writing:
By the way, on the topic of using pretty Chinese girls to drive sales, also check out Wikipedia on Betel Nut Beauties and the Flickr photoset. Taiwan has betelnut beauties and we have paanwaalas. This is why we are still third world.
I strongly object. There may not be a “Flickr photoset” (pah!) on Paanwaalas, but they are part of our culture and we should be proud of them.
Indeed, I now withdraw my previous nomination for president, and insist that we elect a paanwaala to that august position. Imagine the hospitality visiting dignitaries will get. And the cancer.