At a time when most celebrities are letting us down with their shades of grey in the IPL debacle, the news of Lisa Ray’s battle with cancer and truly delightful reappearance into our life is a breath of fresh air. Lisa looks as beautiful as ever. One look into her guileless eyes and eternally sweet smile seems to indicate that she has not let this set back take away her true essence. Most people in her place would have been bitter, patronizing or preachy. She just says she is lucky to be reborn.
The power of the human spirit to battle setbacks is seldom appreciated until one has gone through similar life experiences. The inner strength of a person may not always be manifested in the individual’s external demeanor. For instance, my mother in law has always been an excitable person with a short fuse. When she was to be operated eighteen years ago for colon cancer, everyone thought it best to tell her it was a tumor until the biopsy results confirmed malignancy. The resident doctor at the hospital, who was quite a “style bhai” had other plans. He paid her a visit on the eve of the operation, sat on her bed, held her hand, and told her that she should be prepared for the worst since she probably had stage two cancers and would not survive beyond six months. He did not know that the attractive woman was also made of steel. Next morning, the senior surgeon met us after a five hour surgery and applauded her fighting spirit which was evident during the operation.
Just a few months before this incident, I had waltzed into my caesarean operation imagining it would be a picnic, an end to the ordeal of pregnancy and a new beginning. What followed was a complete shocker. The infant in the womb has to be protected from the anesthesia in the mother’s blood stream and therefore extricated as soon as the anesthesia kicks in. This translates to the wide awake mother being strapped down, listening to gruesome doctor language while the abdomen is being marked for the incision. I was as relaxed as a Chinese gymnast performing in front of the high command. At the end of the operation, the frantic anesthetic wasn’t able to extricate the tube that he had inserted through my wind pipe until my mature gynecologist gave me a slap on my groggily awake face and ordered me to relax.
Are we born with this strength or do we acquire calmness by meditation, faith or experience? For many of us, a very strong bond with a person we love keeps our spirit fighting and kicking for survival. One has seen that while women tend to be more excitable and prone to despair in youth which is perhaps an excessive affinity for high drama, they tend to become rocks as they get older, for they will battle every disaster to take care of their children. Men on the other hand tend to give up easily as they get older for often in their pursuit of the material and frivolous, they tend to weaken the bond with people around them.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Brazilian Butt
At this time of the year, as summer approaches, all women get deluged with emails giving us the ultimate quick fix solution to achieving a bikini body. What exactly is a bikini body since the adorable cartoon character Maxine created by John Wagner wears a bikini with more panache than our beauty contestants? I inform the marketeer that I have given up swimming since I am allergic to chlorine. They exasperatedly explain that firstly, to aspire to be like Maxine is ridiculous and secondly, the bikini is not a garment in which one swims. It is the ultimate garment to display the most beautiful of god creations without actually breaking the law.
Aha! This explains why I was the only fool swimming the crystal clear Caribbean waters in a fancy corporate program while others were sunning themselves and sipping bubbly. The bikini ensures an even tan all over the body which is fantastic if you are as pale as Nicole Kidman and aspire to turn into a golden Gisele Bundchen. I inform the marketing company that the amount of melanin that is produced by my skin at direct exposure to the sun will make me look like an “Aam Papad” rather than a golden croissant. Our country in all likelihood consumes more fairness cream than toothpaste.
I received an email today asking me if I wanted a “Brazilian Butt”. Now that sounded like an interesting proposition except for the fact that I had recently heard of a South American beauty queen and mother of two children who had died trying to surgically implant one. Also all healthy Indian women already have a Brazilian butt. It’s just that we politely call it the Khajuraho endowment. I sent a request to the marketeer asking if I can get a combination of French shoulders, a Thai waistline, Scandinavian legs, Japanese hair, Indian eyes and a Russian chest. Needless to say they did not reply.
If the media is to be believed, the importance given to the shape of the body has today surpassed the significance of the face and the twinkle in one’s eyes. It’s like people meet each other and instead of making make eye contact have a shifty gaze which roves all over the territory. I seem to be the only Bengali in my family who still eats Bhaat while others have turned to the Punjabi roti. A recent study in Delhi indicated that Punjabis now spend ten percent of their budget on milk products with cereals trailing far behind. A gentleman told me yesterday that much to his chagrin, his studious and bright seventeen year old daughter was constantly hounded by scouts from the glitterati since she was five feet eleven inches tall. They couldn’t believe she wanted to study with her height!
It is summer and all of us women want to shed a few kilos to meet our realistic and sweet expectations of being able to don a thin T shirt over our jeans without being asked the terrible question by strangers, “Madam, when is the baby due?”.
Aha! This explains why I was the only fool swimming the crystal clear Caribbean waters in a fancy corporate program while others were sunning themselves and sipping bubbly. The bikini ensures an even tan all over the body which is fantastic if you are as pale as Nicole Kidman and aspire to turn into a golden Gisele Bundchen. I inform the marketing company that the amount of melanin that is produced by my skin at direct exposure to the sun will make me look like an “Aam Papad” rather than a golden croissant. Our country in all likelihood consumes more fairness cream than toothpaste.
I received an email today asking me if I wanted a “Brazilian Butt”. Now that sounded like an interesting proposition except for the fact that I had recently heard of a South American beauty queen and mother of two children who had died trying to surgically implant one. Also all healthy Indian women already have a Brazilian butt. It’s just that we politely call it the Khajuraho endowment. I sent a request to the marketeer asking if I can get a combination of French shoulders, a Thai waistline, Scandinavian legs, Japanese hair, Indian eyes and a Russian chest. Needless to say they did not reply.
If the media is to be believed, the importance given to the shape of the body has today surpassed the significance of the face and the twinkle in one’s eyes. It’s like people meet each other and instead of making make eye contact have a shifty gaze which roves all over the territory. I seem to be the only Bengali in my family who still eats Bhaat while others have turned to the Punjabi roti. A recent study in Delhi indicated that Punjabis now spend ten percent of their budget on milk products with cereals trailing far behind. A gentleman told me yesterday that much to his chagrin, his studious and bright seventeen year old daughter was constantly hounded by scouts from the glitterati since she was five feet eleven inches tall. They couldn’t believe she wanted to study with her height!
It is summer and all of us women want to shed a few kilos to meet our realistic and sweet expectations of being able to don a thin T shirt over our jeans without being asked the terrible question by strangers, “Madam, when is the baby due?”.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Eyjafjallajokull
You think you are really smart when you carefully buy tickets from frequent flyer points way ahead of time, you use the credit card points to buy another ticket, advance purchase hotels on internet to avail of low rates, manage to spot the ballet and concert before others to get vantage seats. Then all of a sudden an unpronounceable volcano erupts and one starts to open geography books and search the internet to understand what is happening. We cannot understand what volcano ash means since we grew up learning that volcanoes spew lava, rocks and gases. We find that the volcano ash at thirty thousand feet in the sky can cut off a continent from the rest of the world and we realize how dependent we have become on a means of transportation which was not available to all a century ago. It is perhaps a good time to remember that the first commercial airline was the German Zeppelin Corporation in 1909
We take roller-coaster rides in amusement parks for a sudden rush and watch horror movies to get scared but the moments that most of us recall as being the most frightening are those when we have been faced with the incomprehensible and mammoth powers of nature. I have faced such moments when I have been underwater in the sea faced with a fish baring it teeth and looking aggressive and when I had underestimated the labyrinth, maze and heights of the corals in the seas of Puerto Rico between me and the boat. Other moments were when one was scared one would not be able to trek back from the glacier in Jungfrau to catch the last train down to civilization when my daughter was very young and yet I do not claim to have an affinity for hazardous sports and nature exploration as some of my friends. We tend to transfer our virtual personas created from success through the internet and technology world to real life which does not prepare us for reality.
The world cannot imagine how Europe, the citadel of progressive civilization for centuries can possibly be paralyzed from Volcano Ash. While my flight was cancelled and I have incurred losses, gained permanent frown lines and loss of hair from the episode, one cannot imagine the plight of people stranded in airports with little money or education. There may be others who have examinations, interviews or operations that were scheduled. Elderly people will probably let the stress and physical inconvenience affect their health.
In India, the IPL, minister, an attractive lady and IT raids have taken up most of the newspapers. However the impact of the European disaster has affected many people at both the business and personal level. The damage to perishable products exported has been the highest. The impact on world economy will be felt after issues are sorted out since currently most people are reading the words “Don’t Panic” very loudly, as was prescribed in the Hitch hiker’s guide to the Galaxy.
A few suggestions to those affected from one who is experiencing the situation is that most airlines, hotels and tour operators are being very co-operative in refunding money and readjusting bookings. If a flight is cancelled one has to do a rebooking. In certain cases like mine it is easier to cancel the ticket and do a fresh booking. If the booking is through a travel agent, the cancellation, refund or re-booking is done through the agent. Cancellations of flights due to weather conditions do not automatically translate to being accommodated on the next plane to the destination. And of course as Douglas Adams said – Don’t Panic!
We take roller-coaster rides in amusement parks for a sudden rush and watch horror movies to get scared but the moments that most of us recall as being the most frightening are those when we have been faced with the incomprehensible and mammoth powers of nature. I have faced such moments when I have been underwater in the sea faced with a fish baring it teeth and looking aggressive and when I had underestimated the labyrinth, maze and heights of the corals in the seas of Puerto Rico between me and the boat. Other moments were when one was scared one would not be able to trek back from the glacier in Jungfrau to catch the last train down to civilization when my daughter was very young and yet I do not claim to have an affinity for hazardous sports and nature exploration as some of my friends. We tend to transfer our virtual personas created from success through the internet and technology world to real life which does not prepare us for reality.
The world cannot imagine how Europe, the citadel of progressive civilization for centuries can possibly be paralyzed from Volcano Ash. While my flight was cancelled and I have incurred losses, gained permanent frown lines and loss of hair from the episode, one cannot imagine the plight of people stranded in airports with little money or education. There may be others who have examinations, interviews or operations that were scheduled. Elderly people will probably let the stress and physical inconvenience affect their health.
In India, the IPL, minister, an attractive lady and IT raids have taken up most of the newspapers. However the impact of the European disaster has affected many people at both the business and personal level. The damage to perishable products exported has been the highest. The impact on world economy will be felt after issues are sorted out since currently most people are reading the words “Don’t Panic” very loudly, as was prescribed in the Hitch hiker’s guide to the Galaxy.
A few suggestions to those affected from one who is experiencing the situation is that most airlines, hotels and tour operators are being very co-operative in refunding money and readjusting bookings. If a flight is cancelled one has to do a rebooking. In certain cases like mine it is easier to cancel the ticket and do a fresh booking. If the booking is through a travel agent, the cancellation, refund or re-booking is done through the agent. Cancellations of flights due to weather conditions do not automatically translate to being accommodated on the next plane to the destination. And of course as Douglas Adams said – Don’t Panic!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Turning eighteen
When a girl reaches the age of eighteen in India, she is perceived by the Visa officers in Embassies as a potential illegal immigrant who is very keen to get married to the first chap who is earning “moolah” in a developed country. Why else would parents in India let their daughters study in the best schools, teach them to think independently and empower them unless it was to be a cute worm dangling on the fishing hook, warmly enticing the big NRI fish that are swimming past, in the waters beyond our land.
Like any normal person from Bengal one of the favorite past times of my family was to take vacations. At the age of two, when Baba was posted in USA, we visited half the countries in Europe and Middle East on our way to the destination. Ma says I was a natural who moved from the pacifier to eating with a spoon at restaurants without a fuss. We drove all over America and covered a bunch of countries when we returned three years later. Since I recollect none of this early education, I insist on dragging my progeny along to some distant part of the world every year.
As a result, our passports have lots of immigration stamps. Some of the countries we visit hate each other but gladly let us enter. This year, to my amazement, my daughter was asked to go for a face to face interview for a two week Schenegen tourist visa when she was a veteran traveler. I was informed that since she had turned eighteen she was being assessed as to whether I was likely to dump her in Europe with a potential husband or if she was likely to run away to pursue the career option of a waitress in a cafe. However such assumptions are not made of a young Indian man who is eighteen.
The daughter asked me in the morning what she should wear for the interview. I didn’t have an answer. If she looked too westernized, she would look like someone who would adapt easily to being a non resident bride. If she dressed in ethnic clothes she may look like a character from a Deepa Mehta or Mira Nair movie. I finally asked her to be her natural self which is biological age eighteen and age of independence from pampering Indian parent…..ha ha. She mugged up our itinerary and the names of the Hotels booked. I asked her to tell the visa officer that all the bookings were discounted and therefore paid upfront and non refundable and if she was refused a visa ….Grrrrr!
She assumed it would be a cakewalk and she would stroll into an air conditioned set up for the interview. There were a few cement benches under the trees in front of the gate of the Embassy. The temperature was a scalding forty two degrees Celsius with a breeze that could bake cookies from dough. The car park was a kilometer away and mobile phones were not allowed inside. After forty five minutes on the bench and another forty five minutes inside the Embassy we hope that they realize that she has a long way to go before she will ever aspire to be a non-resident bride and will be given the great tourist visa.
Like any normal person from Bengal one of the favorite past times of my family was to take vacations. At the age of two, when Baba was posted in USA, we visited half the countries in Europe and Middle East on our way to the destination. Ma says I was a natural who moved from the pacifier to eating with a spoon at restaurants without a fuss. We drove all over America and covered a bunch of countries when we returned three years later. Since I recollect none of this early education, I insist on dragging my progeny along to some distant part of the world every year.
As a result, our passports have lots of immigration stamps. Some of the countries we visit hate each other but gladly let us enter. This year, to my amazement, my daughter was asked to go for a face to face interview for a two week Schenegen tourist visa when she was a veteran traveler. I was informed that since she had turned eighteen she was being assessed as to whether I was likely to dump her in Europe with a potential husband or if she was likely to run away to pursue the career option of a waitress in a cafe. However such assumptions are not made of a young Indian man who is eighteen.
The daughter asked me in the morning what she should wear for the interview. I didn’t have an answer. If she looked too westernized, she would look like someone who would adapt easily to being a non resident bride. If she dressed in ethnic clothes she may look like a character from a Deepa Mehta or Mira Nair movie. I finally asked her to be her natural self which is biological age eighteen and age of independence from pampering Indian parent…..ha ha. She mugged up our itinerary and the names of the Hotels booked. I asked her to tell the visa officer that all the bookings were discounted and therefore paid upfront and non refundable and if she was refused a visa ….Grrrrr!
She assumed it would be a cakewalk and she would stroll into an air conditioned set up for the interview. There were a few cement benches under the trees in front of the gate of the Embassy. The temperature was a scalding forty two degrees Celsius with a breeze that could bake cookies from dough. The car park was a kilometer away and mobile phones were not allowed inside. After forty five minutes on the bench and another forty five minutes inside the Embassy we hope that they realize that she has a long way to go before she will ever aspire to be a non-resident bride and will be given the great tourist visa.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Infidelity
Jim Carrey, the American actor made an interesting comment which was splashed in newspapers across the world. He said that if a husband is philandering to the extent that Tiger Woods appeared to have been, any wife would guess something was amiss and know about it. Bring home the same logic to our drama at home and it appears impossible that our tennis super star Sania Mirza is unaware of her husband’s character flaws which seem to be so glaring and evident.
The entire Sania Shoaib saga reads like a third rated soap opera and has been watched sadly by her ardent admirers. A marriage over the phone, consummated and denied, a “maili chaddar” being produced by the first wife’s family (!!!!), dumped for obesity, police cases and a hurried divorce settlement hours before the second engagement. It makes one wonder at the institution of marriage and its sanctity. In most cases, the person marrying the philanderer takes the risk of tying the knot due to an enhanced status or financial prowess after the wedding. However in this case, the celebrity with the prize money is our lady so one wonders at the necessity for this rushed marriage when her career is still going strong.
One can only logically deduct social pressures being the predominant factor for putting the girl’s sporting career on a back burner and taking such a hurried decision. If the Mirza family has invested and supported their daughter’s decision to pursue a non- conformist career, faced the religious pressures levied on them by fundamentalists on the attire that she has worn, one wonders at why they would not ask their daughter to give the relationship some time before succumbing to the legal tangles of marriage, especially with a person of a different nationality.
The “izzat of the family” and the “honor of the household” very often takes precedence over the happiness of the child. Sania could have lived her life like Steffi Graff who gave herself time to see if Agassi and she could live together before tying the knot. If the two of them are in love, Shoaib being a sportsman would understand the limited life span of a sports person and how difficult it is to tour, be disciplined, practice and play tennis. India has such a limited talent pool of great sports persons and especially women sports icons that one feels sad that love has to equal marriage which will equal compromise in excellence even for someone of the stature of Sania Mirza.
The entire Sania Shoaib saga reads like a third rated soap opera and has been watched sadly by her ardent admirers. A marriage over the phone, consummated and denied, a “maili chaddar” being produced by the first wife’s family (!!!!), dumped for obesity, police cases and a hurried divorce settlement hours before the second engagement. It makes one wonder at the institution of marriage and its sanctity. In most cases, the person marrying the philanderer takes the risk of tying the knot due to an enhanced status or financial prowess after the wedding. However in this case, the celebrity with the prize money is our lady so one wonders at the necessity for this rushed marriage when her career is still going strong.
One can only logically deduct social pressures being the predominant factor for putting the girl’s sporting career on a back burner and taking such a hurried decision. If the Mirza family has invested and supported their daughter’s decision to pursue a non- conformist career, faced the religious pressures levied on them by fundamentalists on the attire that she has worn, one wonders at why they would not ask their daughter to give the relationship some time before succumbing to the legal tangles of marriage, especially with a person of a different nationality.
The “izzat of the family” and the “honor of the household” very often takes precedence over the happiness of the child. Sania could have lived her life like Steffi Graff who gave herself time to see if Agassi and she could live together before tying the knot. If the two of them are in love, Shoaib being a sportsman would understand the limited life span of a sports person and how difficult it is to tour, be disciplined, practice and play tennis. India has such a limited talent pool of great sports persons and especially women sports icons that one feels sad that love has to equal marriage which will equal compromise in excellence even for someone of the stature of Sania Mirza.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Tuesday Saga
Hindus worship “Hanuman-ji”, the God born in the avatar of an Ape on Tuesdays. They show their devotion by feeding endless streams of bananas to the monkeys in the country. During the pleasant winter weather, people stop their cars and bikes near gardens or forest areas where a man selling the fruit will be making hay while the sun shines and sell bananas at twice the normal rate. When the weather gets hot, the same people will surreptitiously keep bananas outside their widows which are fortified with grills or dump them on the terrace of the building. Thereafter the monkeys will arrive by the hoards from the nearby forests into the inhabited colonies of the city and gobble the bananas. Once in a while they will bite the humans that inadvertently pass by who have to be rushed to the hospital for the painful and long drawn anti rabies injection. At other times little children get bitten while playing. Strong petitions appear in newspapers about the Municipality’s callousness regarding our safety.
Two days back, Ma suddenly let out an animated cry from her room. She was standing near her bay window and showing us the sight of a dozen “Hanumans” who were swaying and jumping around our posh colony. She educated me that a Bandar (monkey) was a small animal with a pink face while a hanuman (ape) had a dark face and a pink bum. I requested her to refrain from her desire for fresh air ventilating the house, to latch the doors and windows and use the air-conditioning since it was forty degrees Celsius. She looked at me skeptically and I did not think she would listen to my warning.
When I returned home from work, I found all the blinds and curtains of the flat had been drawn. She informed me that a family of three apes had decided to settle down in the small balcony adjoining my drawing room. She said the larger one was perched on top of the air-conditioner and the other two were lying down on the floor. I wanted to take a look which she forbade me for apparently they had snarled and hit the glass panes when she looked at them. Ma said the apes were large and could easily break the glass panes and enter if they saw the light inside the living room.
We switched on all the air conditioners hoping that the hot air would make them go away. They instead got angry and made noises. We called the security personnel for assistance and they wanted to open the door to the balcony to shoo them away. “What if the apes instead entered the house?” I asked them. They said that was a risk I would have to take. I informed them that they could try their antics from the terrace and attempt to scare away the apes.
Next morning the apes were still sleeping on the balcony. However we were less scared in the sunlight and managed to shoo them away. They left behind all the undigested bananas from their system which had to be cleaned. I was informed by many that perhaps “Hanuman-ji” had decided to bless me in this manner and I should be grateful for their visit. However I strongly suggest that it would be prudent for all of us to make our offerings at the closest Temple so that the bananas could be fed to the many mal-nourished children who live near these temples. Monkeys can fend for themselves in the forest while these human children need our help.
Two days back, Ma suddenly let out an animated cry from her room. She was standing near her bay window and showing us the sight of a dozen “Hanumans” who were swaying and jumping around our posh colony. She educated me that a Bandar (monkey) was a small animal with a pink face while a hanuman (ape) had a dark face and a pink bum. I requested her to refrain from her desire for fresh air ventilating the house, to latch the doors and windows and use the air-conditioning since it was forty degrees Celsius. She looked at me skeptically and I did not think she would listen to my warning.
When I returned home from work, I found all the blinds and curtains of the flat had been drawn. She informed me that a family of three apes had decided to settle down in the small balcony adjoining my drawing room. She said the larger one was perched on top of the air-conditioner and the other two were lying down on the floor. I wanted to take a look which she forbade me for apparently they had snarled and hit the glass panes when she looked at them. Ma said the apes were large and could easily break the glass panes and enter if they saw the light inside the living room.
We switched on all the air conditioners hoping that the hot air would make them go away. They instead got angry and made noises. We called the security personnel for assistance and they wanted to open the door to the balcony to shoo them away. “What if the apes instead entered the house?” I asked them. They said that was a risk I would have to take. I informed them that they could try their antics from the terrace and attempt to scare away the apes.
Next morning the apes were still sleeping on the balcony. However we were less scared in the sunlight and managed to shoo them away. They left behind all the undigested bananas from their system which had to be cleaned. I was informed by many that perhaps “Hanuman-ji” had decided to bless me in this manner and I should be grateful for their visit. However I strongly suggest that it would be prudent for all of us to make our offerings at the closest Temple so that the bananas could be fed to the many mal-nourished children who live near these temples. Monkeys can fend for themselves in the forest while these human children need our help.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
People and Movies
If there was a word association with India it would not be software, outsourcing, Gandhi or Buddha. Across the world, people see an Indian and think of Bollywood just as we assume every Parisian man speaks like Inspector Clouseau in Pink Panther and every French girl dresses like Coco Chanel. We think women in Los Angeles jog on the beach like the Bay Watch girls and Australian men walk around bare chested with Boomerangs in their pockets. The root of this behaviour lies in the way we were taught the alphabets of the language in our childhood with pictorial analogies. We remember people from different countries with the movies or pictures we have seen of them.
Around fifteen years back, I was waiting at the lobby of a hotel with a gentleman who was visiting India for the first time as an adult, although he was born in Hyderabad. As we waited for my friend to join us, the gypsy socialite Livleen Sharma and her daughter entered the premise. He couldn’t believe his eyes as they swayed past him with the chum chum of their payals, ten kilograms of silver jewellery, nose ring as large as my bangle, swirling skirts and diaphanous dupattas barely concealing their skimpy gypsy blouses. He looked at me and asked for an explanation. I informed him with a poker face that Indian women normally dressed in such a manner and I had toned down my dress to a demure sari for his benefit. As most people tend to judge a country by what they see in an airport, hotel and movies, he thought it was a plausible answer but looked very bemused. He was enlightened to the truth by my friend who did not find my education of foreigners very funny.
Twelve years ago, an elderly gentleman of Sudanese origin visited our office. He said he was very fond of Hindi movies. He declared at lunch time that he wanted to visit Bharatpur (a town near Delhi which has a bird sanctuary). My friend looked rather perplexed at this request since the gentleman did not appear to be remotely interested in any sort of flying creature. Now I have a brain that accumulates a lot of useless trivia which at that juncture had a “Eureka” moment. I told my friend that the gentleman most probably wanted to go to Bharatpur because a popular raunchy Hindi film song of that time had the word Bharatpur in the opening lines of the lyrics. The choreography had Sonali Bendre suggestively jumping on a Khatiya, singing to Shah Rukh Khan. My friend officially declared me a raving lunatic but had to eat his words by the evening when he was asked rather directly where one could go and watch girls dancing to Hindi film songs in Delhi. He suggested that the concierge of his opulent hotel may be of assistance.
When the taxi drivers of countries like Malaysia or Singapore learn of our Indian origin, they excitedly start monologues about their favourite Indian films, the shootings they have watched, their ratings of our heroines and point out the shooting locations of each film as they drive. In places like Russia and China they are still stuck on the old 1960s movies of Raj Kapoor and Nargis. Even in the island of Santorini in Greece, a drummer in a restaurant knew the tune and lyrics of a song “Noorie” which was a 1970s hit.
However my most amusing experience was in Seville, Spain where we were waiting to catch the late night Flamenco show. As we had reached the venue early, we decided to venture into a bar to eat the famous tapas. The bar tender spoke only Spanish and dismissed us with a weird sound and a wave of his hand. We sat down and waited patiently to be rescued from the language barrier. A German hotelier, who was present in the bar with his Phillipino wife and elderly mother, heard the exchange and ordered on our behalf. His mother, the German lady, was a major Amitabh Bachchan fan and kept blowing kisses in the air and declared how much she adored the star. We informed her that a few million women in India felt the same way. She started to rattle off the names of all the Hindi movies she had watched starring Amitabh and then attempted to sing what only she thought was a Hindi film song. It was a very entertaining evening.
Movies are a great way to understand people across the world and their culture. The manner in which a local language movie represents a place and the manner in which Hollywood represents it is very dissimilar just as the manner in which Bollywood represents each of our states is warped. Some of the best international films can be watched in the world cinema channels in India at a very low cost and advertisement interruption since they are not commercially popular.
Around fifteen years back, I was waiting at the lobby of a hotel with a gentleman who was visiting India for the first time as an adult, although he was born in Hyderabad. As we waited for my friend to join us, the gypsy socialite Livleen Sharma and her daughter entered the premise. He couldn’t believe his eyes as they swayed past him with the chum chum of their payals, ten kilograms of silver jewellery, nose ring as large as my bangle, swirling skirts and diaphanous dupattas barely concealing their skimpy gypsy blouses. He looked at me and asked for an explanation. I informed him with a poker face that Indian women normally dressed in such a manner and I had toned down my dress to a demure sari for his benefit. As most people tend to judge a country by what they see in an airport, hotel and movies, he thought it was a plausible answer but looked very bemused. He was enlightened to the truth by my friend who did not find my education of foreigners very funny.
Twelve years ago, an elderly gentleman of Sudanese origin visited our office. He said he was very fond of Hindi movies. He declared at lunch time that he wanted to visit Bharatpur (a town near Delhi which has a bird sanctuary). My friend looked rather perplexed at this request since the gentleman did not appear to be remotely interested in any sort of flying creature. Now I have a brain that accumulates a lot of useless trivia which at that juncture had a “Eureka” moment. I told my friend that the gentleman most probably wanted to go to Bharatpur because a popular raunchy Hindi film song of that time had the word Bharatpur in the opening lines of the lyrics. The choreography had Sonali Bendre suggestively jumping on a Khatiya, singing to Shah Rukh Khan. My friend officially declared me a raving lunatic but had to eat his words by the evening when he was asked rather directly where one could go and watch girls dancing to Hindi film songs in Delhi. He suggested that the concierge of his opulent hotel may be of assistance.
When the taxi drivers of countries like Malaysia or Singapore learn of our Indian origin, they excitedly start monologues about their favourite Indian films, the shootings they have watched, their ratings of our heroines and point out the shooting locations of each film as they drive. In places like Russia and China they are still stuck on the old 1960s movies of Raj Kapoor and Nargis. Even in the island of Santorini in Greece, a drummer in a restaurant knew the tune and lyrics of a song “Noorie” which was a 1970s hit.
However my most amusing experience was in Seville, Spain where we were waiting to catch the late night Flamenco show. As we had reached the venue early, we decided to venture into a bar to eat the famous tapas. The bar tender spoke only Spanish and dismissed us with a weird sound and a wave of his hand. We sat down and waited patiently to be rescued from the language barrier. A German hotelier, who was present in the bar with his Phillipino wife and elderly mother, heard the exchange and ordered on our behalf. His mother, the German lady, was a major Amitabh Bachchan fan and kept blowing kisses in the air and declared how much she adored the star. We informed her that a few million women in India felt the same way. She started to rattle off the names of all the Hindi movies she had watched starring Amitabh and then attempted to sing what only she thought was a Hindi film song. It was a very entertaining evening.
Movies are a great way to understand people across the world and their culture. The manner in which a local language movie represents a place and the manner in which Hollywood represents it is very dissimilar just as the manner in which Bollywood represents each of our states is warped. Some of the best international films can be watched in the world cinema channels in India at a very low cost and advertisement interruption since they are not commercially popular.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Gaga over Lady Gaga
The first time I heard her name was when an international fashion magazine sent me an email asking me to vote for which of her myriad hairstyles one preferred. They all looked rather outlandish and so I asked my daughter who was Lady Gaga. She said she was a major Pop star who was making waves for her music and eclectic style. Was she actually royalty? Who on earth has a name like Gaga? My daughter laughed and said it was a stage name.
Last week I read that her videos on Youtube had received one billion hits. I decided to join the bandwagon and watched her video. The result was such an entertaining revelation that I had to disturb the kid from her study of Economics to show her the clip. We then went on to watch all her videos and even downloaded them into our I-pods.
Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York and is of Italian, German and French origin. Despite her raunchy image she was a diligent, disciplined and studious child in a private convent school. She was a popular girl with many friends but loved to sing from an early age. She gained an early admission at 17 into New York’s Tisch School of Arts and signed up with Def Jam recordings at the age of 19. She adapted the stage name Lady Gaga because she is a major fan of Queen and the song “Radio Gaga”. She wrote songs for Britney Spears, Pussycat Dolls and Fergie at Famous Music Publishing which was acquired by Sony/ATV. Her vocal ability was spotted by Akon who convinced the label to launch her as a solo star and history was created.
Lady Gaga has managed to create entertaining music videos which reminds one of MJ. Her vocals can be appreciated in songs like Bad Romance which also has a good video if you can get past the lack of apparel on her. Her new video “Telephone” with Beyonce is more like the “Thriller” and is like a mini movie with the song appearing at intervals. The girl changes her persona like a chameleon and one is struck at the number of Avatars she can introduce within a few minutes of a song. Her intelligence at an extremely young age is evident and one hopes that she keeps that very pretty head on her shoulders and provides us entertainment for a long time for she has introduced a cutting edge in her videos that has outdone even the superlative ones of groups like Black Eyed Peas.
Whether one likes the music or not, Lady Gaga reads like a case study in Marketing for Pop music is more dynamic than Women’s wear in its shelf life. To identify a niche audience, to create something unique in such a short time, at such a young age and shock people into noticing in an already crowded space is creditable. Don’t just look at the thongs and the body for this young girl had a lot of chutzpah and intellect hidden behind the cute demeanour.
Last week I read that her videos on Youtube had received one billion hits. I decided to join the bandwagon and watched her video. The result was such an entertaining revelation that I had to disturb the kid from her study of Economics to show her the clip. We then went on to watch all her videos and even downloaded them into our I-pods.
Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York and is of Italian, German and French origin. Despite her raunchy image she was a diligent, disciplined and studious child in a private convent school. She was a popular girl with many friends but loved to sing from an early age. She gained an early admission at 17 into New York’s Tisch School of Arts and signed up with Def Jam recordings at the age of 19. She adapted the stage name Lady Gaga because she is a major fan of Queen and the song “Radio Gaga”. She wrote songs for Britney Spears, Pussycat Dolls and Fergie at Famous Music Publishing which was acquired by Sony/ATV. Her vocal ability was spotted by Akon who convinced the label to launch her as a solo star and history was created.
Lady Gaga has managed to create entertaining music videos which reminds one of MJ. Her vocals can be appreciated in songs like Bad Romance which also has a good video if you can get past the lack of apparel on her. Her new video “Telephone” with Beyonce is more like the “Thriller” and is like a mini movie with the song appearing at intervals. The girl changes her persona like a chameleon and one is struck at the number of Avatars she can introduce within a few minutes of a song. Her intelligence at an extremely young age is evident and one hopes that she keeps that very pretty head on her shoulders and provides us entertainment for a long time for she has introduced a cutting edge in her videos that has outdone even the superlative ones of groups like Black Eyed Peas.
Whether one likes the music or not, Lady Gaga reads like a case study in Marketing for Pop music is more dynamic than Women’s wear in its shelf life. To identify a niche audience, to create something unique in such a short time, at such a young age and shock people into noticing in an already crowded space is creditable. Don’t just look at the thongs and the body for this young girl had a lot of chutzpah and intellect hidden behind the cute demeanour.
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