Dinner over; the children awaited their story. She swirled her glass of red wine. "Midnight, overlooking the Hudson. Car radio playing." "Si, I told her I dance the bachata!" He got up from the table. "Dance!" "Dance!" "Dance!" The years rolled back as they danced. "Kekkatadi avaruh, nee annu paraja vakkuh" "Ai, mi indio lindo"
55 Friday came this Friday in all its multilingual glory. "Kekkatadi avaruh, nee annu paraja vakkuh" - Let them hear the words you said then. "mi indio lindo" - my indian cutie
Manjesh sent me this video that explores the repercussions of outsourcing on India's metropolitan middle class. This link is here because around the 22nd minute, Friedman goes to meet a local RSS leader in Bangalore and we get a glimpse of Seema, my former classmate who sits in on that interview. I'm not quite sure what she is doing there. Since that little tidbit is only of interest to those of us who know Seema, be assured that this video is fascinating without the star power at work.
Keep a look out for the deference shown to Friedman everywhere. While it isn't servile, there still is an element of reserve in everybody's conversations with him, and even though several people complain about respect for elders disappearing, I find it very apparent in all the encounters on tape.
There were interesting parallels betwen the argument made against Valentine's day by the RSS leaders and the ones made by a lot of mallu pentecostals. Consider a quote from V.A. Gopala. "In India, all our traditions are kept intact because of all the rituals. So even though they leave their parents, they should keep all the family traditions."
There are a few mallus in the video. I picked them out by their names. Interesting moments in the video include a proposal for kama sutra day and some wonderfully ideological arguments on the amount of exposure allowable to villagers. There was a phrase thrown out, "its creating a dependence and creating a kind of vacuum in the natural organic fabric of our societies.", and I couldn't help wondering... how are societies, any of them, naturally organic? Is it the abundance of technology and metal use that makes a society inorganic somehow? In marked contrast to the attitude adopted by Vimochana was the Shanthi Bhavan school, which encouraged instead exposure to technology and education in the hope that these children could become part of India's future. That right there was a sentence that should be in some indian newspaper. And on that depressing note, I end.
