Follow-up on the rice scenario in the bay area

Last weekend I had to buy rice and wasn't sure if I should get the long grain rice from any of the American stores or first see if the Indian store has some rice in stock. I happened to be at a store in Sunnyvale and I found that they had lots of sona masoori rice bags and even price seems to have dropped by $10, to $24.95 for a 20lb bag.
Yaay, so I got a bag of rice this time without feeling very guilty :)

Shortage of rice in Indian stores in the bay area

If you've been living in the silicon valley you'd be well aware that most Indian stores have run out of the tamil ponni and sona masoori rice varieties which are widely used by most Indians. With the elections approaching soon in India, the government has no plans to lift the ban on rice export. Last month my husband and I had to make trips to 4 different stores before we could get a 20lbs bag of Sona Masoori for $35, in the end we got the last bag that was remaining at one of the stores.

A week back when I went to the store I didn't find any non-basmati rice at all, I was even okay with buying parboiloed rice but even those seem to have gone. I did ask the store owner if they do have sona masoori and she said that she had but rice is no longer kept in any of regular isles anymore :(. I got lucky this second time also as I could still buy rice for the same $35 and not having to eat the long grain rice.

Even some people have switched to eating long grain rice due to the increasing rice shortage I always wonder how it would taste with the traditional south indian dishes. I'm not sure if I should transition and start eating long grain rice instead of hunting for a rice bag everytime. or should I make the transition only when there's no sona masoori available?