I do want to upload a blog today and I am being lazy to write. I remember when I eventually started formal studies thanks to my sister’s efforts I found it difficult to write exam papers. My kid brother who is a big orthopaedic doctor and runs an amazing hospital in Jabapur, used to say, Didi you just write English! As if my knowledge of English would sort everything out whichever the discipline! English and my Baba are inseparable. Not only we four siblings, our complete maternal and paternal family, from oldest to the youngest, have this strong association registered on them one way or the other, be it books, spelling or travel. Baba would teach the new Engineering graduate trainees in Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board when he himself was not even a graduate. One of his favourite questions was to ask the spelling of ‘foolscap’ and second to that was ‘omelette’! In a belt that was so very Hindi, few knew English and as my sister says she had to keep her ears open to listen to this language. What can one do with the language of the Empire where the Sun never set? Few know that the term ‘vernacular’ was used for this impeccable British English at one time!
There are times writing does not come and I force myself to put words together and this is one such night. Once earlier when I was applying for a course in Lahore I copied an old writing. Even for Women’s Studies courses a pattern had to be maintained, more so when the funding was coming from elsewhere. So I landed up writing about a book about Sister Nivedita I was reading.
Here I am copying an article on New Year which I wrote in 2012 editing a bit by way of habit. Some writings do not get old inspite of the years rolling by. It is a month since the New Year, so what?
The eve of New Year brings strange tides of endless New Years in a year! Bengali New Year, Punjabi New Year, Sindhi New Year, Marathi New year, Tamil New Year and Gujarati New Year — all Hindu New Years in different time of the single year based on the Lunar Calendar! Parsi New Year too is decided on the same basis! But what we (Indians) all celebrate is a New Year which came into existence 2013 (it is 2021 now) years ago after death of Christ, very late in the span of human social memory! Indian men adapted to British clothes once upon a time but when women wear jeans they are branded Western and going against traditions! I love my hand me down cotton clothes, full sleeves kurtas, salwar and a two and quarter dupatta to cover my head full of gray hair chopped short — why should I defend women wearing jeans? As far as they can wash their jeans themselves I have no hassles with girls (or boys) wearing jeans — wet jeans have a weight which ought not to be dumped on others!
New Year Celebrations are party time and clothes are inherent part of Party time. My niece in Mumbai during her growing age would come to my home fully covered and would dress for partying after changing into clothes of her choice! What she wore was not my concern but would send her out with strict instructions that she was not to drink or smoke anything that would be offered to her by someone else. Adivasi women barely wore stitched clothes and are made to get into blouses in the name of decency! Once in SNDT Women’s University Mumbai, I counted a hundred girls in jeans but only three had decent footwear — so much for modernity and mobility! Clothes need production and a six-yard saree needs purchasing power not culture!
Oh oh!! We are supposed to be speaking of celebration. My son was a professional DJ! His New Year eves were work time. At the peak of his career he earned Rs.6.00 lacs for a night, to and fro air fare and stay in Five Star hotel in Karachi for a party in aid of Special Olympics where glitter arty of Pakistan paid for a table a lac of rupees! What we get to know of Pakistan or of DJs is a miniscule of the entire story! He started working for an Entertainment company for peanuts and worked his way from sweeping the floor, pitching tents to DJ-ing! He took me just once to his work place before the party began and packed me off before the sound started, as loud music would give me headaches. He worked with head-phones at home day and night whenever he had to play to the audience to bring in the natural flamboyance. I have graduated from that and developed tolerance towards volume. According to him it is not the volume of sound but the pitch and frequency that affects people’s sensibilities. He wanted me to know everything that a DJ’s mother should know! He (probably) could think of visiting Karachi because I had been to Pakistan twice earlier. Even though I did go to Karachi it is Lahore that has taken my heart! Studying Women’s Studies for three months in excellent staying arrangement with women from ten countries and no worries of keeping home surpasses any celebration of all New Years put together!
