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Showing posts with label desi-indian idol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label desi-indian idol. Show all posts

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Fast Women Fast


Early morning, my fingers grope for BlackBerry, as I lay in bed.

I start my day with the messages that I might have missed while I was sleeping. After reading BB messages, I check my emails, then Facebook, Twitter, Internet explorer. By the time I am ready to get up from the bed, I am already enlightened by my friends’ state of mind and what are they thinking, with the world news, with all the latest jokes and the topic of discussions for a day.

Today, everybody is talking about ‘Karwa-Chaud’, a fast that women keep for health and prosperity of their husband. Abstainers are hoping that their spouse will outlive them.

Ah! I am glad that I am responsible only for my self.

So they fast, those women in red, with large round bindi on their forehead, dark green bangles jingled on their hands but, do their hubbies appreciate and treat them well?

Why do u starve, oh women folk? Know it not that it's an old story told? The health of men depends on his vice; your diet has no ropes on his life.

Starve if you must then it could be, to learn the hunger of a child on the street, whose parents brought him thoughtlessly to quench their greed shamelessly.

You could starve on the days when you have bigger waistline, it pains you to see your unhealthy lifeline, just for day you could stop those fatty canapés that you gorge greedily on a whipped cream.

But then, who am I to advocate? Huh?

All day long I see married women celebrating their fast together, visiting temples, listening to stories of woman achievers who have prospered in their love-life, many of them forgetting and forgiving the abuses that are hurled at them every hour of the day.

They all look so much in love.

In the evening, when I go for open-mike poetry performance at the Prithvi theatre, there are more love poems. Love is in the air. Am I missing something?

The woman recites, "I would like to wrap you all over me, feel your breath and touch your glow," and I am enthralled by her emotive desires. I am thinking “How do you feel when he comes home, swinging his butt, fully drunk, do you say "Duh!"

Late night, my friends and I walk on the beach. This is a Juhu Beach - one of the dirtiest beaches of Mumbai, a beach where one would not risk wetting a toe. The moon shines brightly reflecting its silver rays on the water. It’s a low tide. There is no wind. Everywhere, I see the cluster of women sitting in a group around the burning lamps and incense sticks, praying to the moon.

Having survived without food all day, they offer their prayers to the moon; the conclusion of Karva Chauth involves the offering of sanctified water (arghya) to the moon, as it represents Shiva and Parvati, there will be feast to celebrate with their spouse.

Their spouse will be treated like God today.

Friday 12 October 2007

I Watched ‘Loins of Punjab’ with White-Skinned NRI’s.

I had wanted to see ‘Loins of Punjab’, since the day it was released but every time I made plans to see it, it failed miserably. Either my friends were not in mood or they were not happy with the title, so I was wondering if I could give this movie a miss. Luckily I had a NRI cousin, who wanted to kill time and I decided to hijack him for this movie. My NRI cousins have no patience with 3-hour long Indian movies, so he was quite glad to accompany me for this desi-English-short-film. We booked the movie in glamour, a 40 seated mini theatre, in Bandra. What was surprising was 20 seats were occupied with white-skin foreigners. I knew this was a comedy film on ‘Desi Indian Idol’ show in New Jersey. I wanted to see Shabana as manipulative contestant. But I was quite distracted by these white-skinned NRI’s who were sitting in front of me, especially when Ayesha Dharker’s Jewish boyfriend, who looks a bit like Ralph Fiennes, sings Bollywood songs. He knows only two Hindi songs: ‘Ae dil hai mushkil jeen a yahan (Pyasa)’ and the ‘Indian National Anthem’. When the audience in the movie say “Gora..go back, this show is only for Indians”, to this dude could sing Hindi songs, I was wondering if these NRI’s would feel embarrassed and walk out from this theatre. But they sat through out the movie, enjoyed and laughed at those jokes and even stood up in union when their country man sang Indian National Anthem. There was a pleasant grin on everybody’s face when the winner was ‘Gora’ and they sat in the theatre till the last clip, savoring every scene long after all the Indians were out of the theatre. And surprise, surprise, surprise, the theatre was dirty with plastic bags and scattered popcorns under their seats, like it is supposed to be. When in India, white-skinned foreigners do as Indian do……help India keep its city filthy and dirty.

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