My First Trip to Watch a Hindi Movie
Feb. 20th, 2006 01:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhyllI did some work in the morning, and then in the afternoon I went to Raj's house. Raj needed to sleep off breakfast (22 idlies!) so I hung around in the kitchen and 'talked' with Jyothi and played with the kids, which is about my favourite thing to do here. Raj's mother told me off for not eating, as apparently I look like I've lost weight (I don't think I've lost or gained any, though). I was fed, predictably.
Then Jyothi and Sumitra (who was wearing jeans and a t-shirt) dressed me up in a sari and put some makeup and a bindi on me, and the three of us plus Raj went off to see a movie. I felt a lot like a little kid playing dressups, my borrowed sandals clunking along the ground and sari unravelling everywhere, with Jyothi graceful and ravelled and holding my hand to steady me and help me deal with roads and cars.
Jyothi, Sumitra and I caught an auto there, which Raj booked for us and then paid for once we got to the movies. He escorted us on his motorbike. I felt looked after, which was nice but also rather...patriarchal? When we got there we had to wait a while for the movie to start, and there were men everywhere also waiting (the usual Indian thing, I saw about five women in the whole crowd). Jyothi was feeling uncomfortable with it too, so I didn't feel too bad. We discussed/mimed punching them or poking them in the eyes.
Once the doors opened, it was crazy, men just started running at full tilt into the cinema. It scared me a bit, but I'm not sure why. We didn't run in (luckily, I would have fallen over) because we were sitting in balcony seats. The cinema was huge. I had great fun watching everyone's disbelief when I told them about the Luna, and they told me that the cinema we were in was actually fairly small by Indian standards.
Before the movie they played the national anthem, and everyone stood up, and afterwards some guys (quite a lot of them) yelled out the Indian equivalent of "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi". There was a lot of yelling. Every time a girl did something sexy (not that often - this is Hindi cinema), every time one of the crowd's favourite actors came on screen (drawn-out and dramatic entrances seem to account for this), every time one of the protagonists landed a good punch (fairly often, since we watched a movie called "Fight Club"), every time one of the bad guys saw the error of his ways.
There was an interval, and we ate really good popcorn while I told people that I don't drink soft drinks. Even ones called "Thums Up", which is kind of nifty.
After the movie, we went back to Raj's house and he hid from his father outside (so that he wouldn't have to stay home) while I went upstairs to change back into clothes Jyothi doesn't need to fix every five minutes. Jyothi asked for my phone number, which I gave her despite the obvious difficulties in phone communication between us. (It felt a bit sneaky, maybe because she tucked it away under a pile of saris.)
Then I went and had coffee briefly with Raj and his friends. It was brief because all of his friends bar one left to go find...ahem...ladies of negotiable affection (you never know, there could be kids reading this these days). Which brings me to the second part of my post, which is, "disturbing things about India". You'll have to wait for tomorrow's exciting installment, though, since my fingers and ability to create more-or-less coherent sentences are tapped out.
Instead, I will finish with some more things that are kind of nice:
* There are men on the street here ironing clothes on small carts. The irons have ashes inside them to heat them.
* BIG LOVE to my small cousin Nastassia. All other cousins only get regular love until they send me written communication.
* A brief lesson on socialism.
* Today I was productive, and called lots of people. I have interviews with academics an NGOs lined up, and I'm going out to Bidadi (about 40kms away) on Thursday and Friday to talk to some KRRS people. I will be looked after by a nice KRRS fellow, Prasad, who edits their magazine.
* Today I managed to buy some toothpaste, plus some post packages. This is not as easy as it sounds, because it involves a)interacting with people, which I am often too anxious to do, and b)finding out which shops sell such things.
* Last night a couple of Muslim women were looking at me from the back of a minibus, so I smiled and they grinned and as the bus pulled away we were both laughing and doing 'thums ups'.
* Today I ate some watermelon. And then a cow wandered up to me, and looked at me, so I gave it some watermelon too. It was a pleasant moment.
* Many of the men here wear long-sleeve, button-up shirts with short, wrap around skirt things (dhotis, maybe?). I am pleased every time I see it, because in my head they have said, "stuff suit pants, they are just too uncomfortable! i'm going to wear a skirt!"
* I saw a bus full of khaki-uniformed men, and as it turned the corner all of them on one side stuck their arms out the windows. This is how indicating works here. It looks surreally beautiful.
That is all. Now I will have dinner! And then I will survey my purchases and express delight!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
great stories!
on 2006-02-20 06:20 pm (UTC)Re: great stories!
on 2006-02-21 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-21 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-21 04:21 am (UTC)(mind you, I couldn't be too sooky about things after assuring you so vehemently that my complete lack of planning would turn out ok in the end.)
no subject
on 2006-02-21 04:03 am (UTC)YAY!!!! Its like i've been to India! If you get a chance to read some fiction any time soon, i strongly recomend Jonathon Safran Foer's 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'. I've only read 40 pages and its already my favourite book (keep in mind, I'm a bit of a hussy with books).
Cow story + Muslim women on bus = <3 + </3
no subject
on 2006-02-21 07:12 am (UTC)