I’m a proud brown-skinned Indian, Diana Hayden slams Tripura CM

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said on 26 April at a workshop in Agartala that international beauty pageants were a farce and questioned the rationale behind crowning Diana Hayden "Miss World" 21 years ago. According to him, Aishwarya Rai is the true epitome of Indian beauty - presumably because of her fair skin.

Diana Hayden, Biplab Kumar Deb and Aishwarya Rai. (Photo courtesy:  Facebook)

Now Diana Hayden, who won the Miss World contest in 1997, has reacted to the comment saying that she’s deeply saddened by the Tripura CM’s comment. In an interview to News18, she said:

“I am fighting this brown skin bias since my childhood. And I have succeeded. People should be proud of my achievement, rather than belittling it. I am a proud brown-skinned Indian. I am hurt. The minister is in a prominent position and he should be careful about what he says.”
Diana Hayden

Here’s a recap of what Deb said:
“We see women as goddess Laxmi, Saraswati. Aishwarya Rai represents the Indian women. She became the Miss World and that’s all right. But I do not understand the beauty of Diana Hayden... Why are there no more beauty pageant winners from India? They (the jury) have captured the market in the country and have gone elsewhere.”
Biplab Deb, Tripura CM

(Source: The Quint)

Why doesn’t Aishwarya Rai get enough credit for being a domestic violence survivor?

Aishwarya Rai, till date, remains the only woman to have spoken up against Salman Khan’s emotional and physical abuse, writes Tanika Godbole in Feminism in India. Read on:

In an analytical feature titled Being Salman: The dangerous innocence of Bollywood’s most controversial superstar, film journalist Anna M Vetticad traces the life, struggles, relationships and superstardom of Salman Khan. The story traces his journey from an insolent young boy to a criminal whose toxic masculinity is being protected by an entire industry, and his numerous fans.

Salman Khan has been accused of killing a man and injuring four others. He has been accused of shooting a blackbuck. But before all this happened, he was accused of a crime that is often overlooked, made excuses for, and outrightly denied: that of domestic violence.

In the olden days, there were always stories, rumours and reports of him being abusive towards the women in his life. Sangeeta Bijlani had once described her relationship with Salman as one of the most emotionally traumatic phases of her life. There were reports of him hitting, abusing, and even once allegedly smashing a bottle over his next girlfriend, Somy Ali’s head.

Even though Somy Ali denied this, explaining that he was upset because she drank rum and coke and was in the “wrong” company, so he poured the drink on the table in front of her. As Vetticad rightly observes, “She did not notice that even her description of Salman suggested that he was prone to intimidating, controlling behaviour, nor did she point out the hypocrisy of a man known for his drunken brawls objecting to his girlfriend drinking.” Ali, like many others, swears by Salman’s kindness and generosity.

HORRIFYING JUSTIFICATIONS ARE ONLY TOO COMMONLY USED BY MEN IN POWER TO DELEGITIMIZE THE ABUSED WOMAN’S EXPERIENCE.

Then happened his tumultuous affair with Aishwarya Rai, whom he started dating while they were shooting for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. An inebriated Salman broke into Rai’s house (this has been confirmed by Mumbai police). Aishwarya’s father lodged a complaint against him.  He showed up drunk at her workplace on the sets of Chalte Chalte and created a scene there. He rammed her car with his on the sets of Kuchh Naa Kaho.

“If you don’t fight, there’s no love. I will not fight with an outsider.” – Salman Khan

“Was it a mere coincidence that Salman rammed his Toyota Land Cruiser onto the pavement in suburban Bandra a day after Aishwarya made their break up public in The Times of India interview? A person lost his life in the incident and Salman had to go to jail for his crime. Many of Salman’s friends and colleagues visited him in jail to show their solidarity, but not Aishwarya.” – Jasim Khan, in his book Being Salman

“Has he (Salman Khan) ever spoken ill about any of them (ex-girlfriends), even under provocation? His exes call him a difficult man to get along with, but I ask them, why were you with him for 7 years?” – Salim Khan, Salman’s father, in an interview to Cineblitz

“None of the girls who broke Salman’s heart were interested in starting a family.” – Salim Khan in Being Salman

Through the use of rhetorical ploys and logical fallacies, the above statements push the blame fairly off Salman’s broad shoulders and onto the women who decided to date him and had to find the strength to leave him. These horrifying justifications are only too commonly used by men in power to delegitimize the abused woman’s experience.

This institutionalized protection of toxic masculinity shows the power enjoyed by abusive men as their vulnerability. It’s the women who are after him because they want to become successful actors. A system that makes powerful men vulnerable, just by the power they have. Women are after him for his powerful position.

Vivek Oberoi, who dated Aishwarya Rai briefly after her escape from Salman, came out to the press and spoke about an incident where Salman drunk-dialed and threatened him. Oberoi’s actions not only almost destroyed his career, but also made him a scapegoat to show what happens to people who speak against bhai.

From the instances mentioned in the Caravan feature, the entire industry seems to be in an abusive relationship with Salman bhai. From Subhash Ghai, Anil Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, to even Aamir Khan, everyone acknowledges his obvious flaws. They mention instances where he was rude and disrespectful.

THIS INSTITUTIONALIZED PROTECTION OF TOXIC MASCULINITY SHOWS THE POWER ENJOYED BY ABUSIVE MEN AS THEIR VULNERABILITY.

But they also vouch for his big-heartedness, his selfless generosity, and mention kind gestures done by him, risky career decisions made by him, all to help someone out. These actions, in turn, are supposed to somehow rid him of his controlling, abusive, and even criminal behaviour.

Aishwarya, till date, remains the only woman to have spoken up against Khan’s emotional and physical abuse. His controlling behaviour is even said to have cost her a few films.

“It’s sad that I’m being projected as unprofessional and calculating. Filmmakers who have signed me know that the only healing factor in my life is my work. This is a male-dominated industry and I guess it has been difficult for many to digest a woman holding her own with dignity”, she had said in an interview in 2002.

Had this happened in 2017, with the #MeToo movement gaining ground, maybe Aishwarya would have received the support and respect that she deserved. She showed strength and got out of an abusive relationship. She spoke up against it. She continued going to work in spite of Salman creating a ruckus there as well.

Then, we turned our back on her. But even with the knowledge of abuse and power that we are equipped with today, we fail to give Aishwarya Rai her rightful credit as one of the first women from Bollywood to identify and oppose violence.

Weinstein tried hard to get Aishwarya Rai alone, claims former manager

A woman who identifies herself as Aishwarya Rai's former manager has claimed controversial Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had tried to make advances at the globally-known Bollywood actress.

Weinstein is in news for multiple sexual assault allegations against him.

In a comment posted in response to a news story by variety.com, Simone Sheffield wrote: "I use(d) to manage Indian actress Aishwarya Rai. While dealing with Harvey, I found it comical how hard he tried to get Aishwarya alone.

"But he was a pig... Looked and acted like a 'big bully pig'. He asked me to leave the meeting numerous times and I politely declined."

A former Miss World, Aishwarya has worked in international projects like "Bride & Prejudice", "Mistress of Spices" and "The Pink Panther 2".

Sheffield, who reportedly used to manage Aishwarya's international projects at one point, added: "When we were leaving his (Weinstein's) office, he cornered me and said, 'What do I have to do to get her alone?' I told him to 'kiss my black ass'.

"When Ash and I returned to our hotel, I sent Harvey a steel pig trough filled with diet coke as a thank you gift for the meeting. Yes, we did do business and yes, he eventually threatened me.

"Told me I'd never work in this business, blah blah blaha.what I said to him I can't print. But you can be sure, I never gave him the opportunity to even breathe on my client."

Several women in Hollywood have come out and spoken about their experiences with Weinstein. Among them are Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Beckinsale, Emma Thompson and Cara Delevingne.

Sheffield has urged more women to speak out "the truth".

"Protect one another. Support one another. Love one another."

According a Wikipedia page in the name of Simone Sheffield, she is the owner of the California-based company Canyon Entertainment, and has managed Aishwarya and Bipasha Basu.

In 2011, after serving as Aishwarya's international representative for over nine years, they parted ways.

(Source: Indulge Express)

From Mammootty to Amitabh: Why Kalyan Jewellers roped in the biggest stars

For each of the southern states, Kalyan has a different brand ambassador, writes Prince Mathews Thomas in his book ‘The Consolidators’. Read the excerpts: 

In 2012, Kalyanaraman readied a war chest of Rs 90 crore to launch a marketing campaign that would take the company beyond the southern markets. It was not an easy decision.

His cousin Anantharaman recounts his conversation with Kalyanaraman about this.

‘We were in Kenya for my nephew’s wedding. The whole family, including Kalyanaraman and his two sons, were there. One day, while the others were out on a safari, Ramani and I got talking. That’s when he told me, “I have signed on Amitabh Bachchan and am spending so much money.” I asked him how he had the strength and the guts to do what he had. He looked this way and that, and said, “I think it is the blessings from above.”’

It was a big bet. All of Kalyan’s thirty-five outlets until that time were in the southern region, and now with the marketing campaign featuring the Big B, Kalyan was set to make a splash in the western and northern markets. The superstar, among the A-listers in Bollywood, commanded a fee that exceeded the value of stock at the Kalyan outlet in Ahmedabad, the first outside south India.

‘. . . for a national player who has a strong message to communicate to prospective gold buyers, what better ambassador could be there than brand Bachchan? We expect the association to give us instant brand identification and recall, and clear differentiation from day one,’ the entrepreneur told a news publication.

Kalyanaraman knew that a lot of money was involved. ‘But he was not bothered about the monetary aspects. He wouldn’t even ask when you could break even. There was a long-term goal. If you are confident, let’s do it, he would say,’ recalls Ramesh.

The marketing campaign helped Kalyan Jewellers get noticed. The pitch—My Gold, My Right—was that customers were currently being cheated by jewellers, as there was no guarantee that the gold they sold was standardized and unadulterated. Kalyan Jewellers, on the other hand, was selling jewellery with the stamp of BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), which certifies product quality.

A superstar vouching for the purity of gold, one of the biggest assets held by middle and lower-middle class homes, had the desired effect. Today Kalyan continues to have Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador. In fact, Bachchan is not the only endorser of the brand. There is a long list of endorsers, including his daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Manju Warrier and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Kalyan Jewellers ads (Image Courtesy: Facebook/ Kalyan Jewellers) 

For each of the southern states, Kalyan has a different brand ambassador—Manju Warrier in Kerala, Prabhu in Tamil Nadu, Shivarajkumar in Karnataka and Nagarjuna in Andhra Pradesh. Kalyan’s was one of the most detailed, expensive and comprehensive marketing campaigns for any jewellery brand, and perhaps for any brand in the country.

‘Jewellery is a different kind of product. An item like bread, or even a piece of clothing, is standardized, and the same thing is available in markets everywhere. Sure, in a place like Punjab, a clothes retailer might stock more of the bigger sizes than his peer in Kerala, but the product is largely the same. But not in jewellery,’ says Ramesh, who heads marketing at Kalyan.

A jeweller faces a unique challenge. He sells traditional products. Jewellery designs in India keep varying according to the tradition of a state or a region. ‘Designs that move in Tamil Nadu may not move in Kerala. In fact, even the designs that move in Thrissur may not sell in Palakkad,’ says Ramesh. Kalyan is one of the few jewellery stores to recognize this, and aspired to be both a regional brand in each state, and also a national brand of appeal in the Hindi belt.

In fact, Kalyanaraman learnt this early. When he opened his second outlet in Palakkad, he realized his mistake in stocking almost the same kind of designs that were displayed in his first store in Thrissur. ‘Now we know that every market is different and that we can’t stock the same item everywhere. So now, before entering a market, we find out what moves, what stock size, budget and other components are required in the region where we are opening a showroom,’ says Ramesh.

While the marketing campaign of educating customers had begun in Kerala, it was soon taken to other states. ‘It was education. And we needed a superstar who could convince people. Or someone whom people could believe. All the campaigns were about purity.’

Manju Warrier, Prabhu, Amitabh Bachchan, Vikram Prabhu Nagarjuna and Shivarajkumar  (Image courtesy: Facebook/Kalyan Jewellers)

The message had to be same in every market—Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and north India. ‘For each market, we wanted someone who was a legend and had the backing of tradition. Prabhu was Sivaji Ganesan’s son, and he was endorsing a product for the first time. It was the same with Shivarajkumar, who was the son of Kannada movie legend Rajkumar. Then we went to AP. There we got Nagarjuna, Akkineni’s son.’ Nationally, Sushmita Sen endorsed the brand in 2011. And in 2013, Bachchan. Signing up Amitabh Bachchan was a coup of sorts, and Kalyan’s association with him continues.

With these stars as endorsers, the launch of a new Kalyan outlet turns out to be grand affair. Be it the inaugural outlet in Chennai that was opened in April 2015, or the launch of stores in Dubai in 2013, Kalyan now makes sure to fly down all its stars for an opening. The presence of these stars ensures huge media coverage, resulting in hype that stokes people’s curiosity to visit the outlets.

In recent years, the social media has been abuzz with photographs of Kalyan Jewellers’ events. After the Chennai opening, there was much sharing of photos of Kalyanaraman, his sons, Bachchan and others dining at Prabhu’s house in the city. Last year, during Diwali, Kalyanaraman hosted a party at his house in Thrissur. Apart from the star endorsers, other celebrities such as Sachin Tendulkar and big names from the local film industry were present. Photographs from this do again made the rounds of the social media showing Kalyanaraman busy attending to his guests. The stars from outside Kerala were flown down in Kalyanaraman’s private jets. It is also said that Bachchan and his wife Jaya Bachchan stayed back for a night at the Kalyan home.

While the setting was far less glamorous, the launch of the Kalyan Textiles shop in Thrissur forty-five years ago was as big a talking point.

The year 1972 was a big milestone for Kalyanaraman. He got married that year. And his father opened the textile showroom for him the same year. The shop—Kalyan Textiles—continues to run. It is located close to the Thrissur bus stand, and opposite the municipal office. Inside, the moments from that 1972 opening have been framed on the walls. One photograph has an almost unrecognizable young Kalyanaraman busy at the preparations for the opening. Another shows Yesudas, the iconic singer, cutting the ribbon.

‘At that time Yesudas was very famous. We were insistent that a famous person should inaugurate the shop as people will then get to know its location, and the brand will get exposure. I had a thing for that,’ says Kalyanaraman.

He says that the company was among the first textile shops to advertise in the local theatres. Decades later, in the 1990s and early 2000s, as the company gradually expanded, it would get Malayalam film stars to open its new stores.

Later, the company appointed superstars Mammootty, and still later, Mohanlal, as its brand ambassadors.

(Source: TNM)

I live in the United States of Shringar

I am looking at Aishwarya Rai’s photos. She’s at the launch of her new film Jazbaa. As a woman negotiating the path back to work after childbirth and as one of India’s legendary beauties she knows shape and size – hers – will loom over the buzz that follows. She’s taking no chances. In every single image recorded that evening for posterity she stands with her legs crossed. I tried it at home, it slims down the thighs, neatens the silhouette.

Recently a leading fashion magazine invited me to a power lunch. I entered the convention centre and realized I was the only one in a sari, that too in a blouse with sleeves and a back that wasn’t cut out. In that room full of dark suits and tailored pencil skirts, I looked like what I am sure they imagined a housewife from Chittaranjan Park looked like.

Everyone was most encouraging, happy to see that someone who looked like me could have a day job. Nobody bothered to ask me those “business to business” questions that accompany the main course at networking events. I gave out more visiting cards that afternoon than I have ever done in my entire career. Just to prove not only do I have a job…but baby I am on top of it. That I have huffed and puffed up every rung of that corporate ladder with these arms and thighs.

But things could be worse for me in South Korea. It is estimated that between one-fifth and one-third of women in Seoul have received plastic surgery; this figure for women in their twenties is pegged at fifty percent or higher. In Lebanon, where anecdotal evidence suggests 1 in 3 women have been to a plastic surgeon once, even five years ago banks offered loans of up to $5000 for cosmetic surgery.

Knowing English is the first prerequisite of being cool in this country. Ask Kangana Ranaut, who has said in interviews that when she started out and didn’t speak English well she was “treated like a dog”. Similarly the white body, narrow hipped woman with pointy breasts and long legs has become our dream body image. The sinister lie that female worth depends upon looks, and a certain kind of looks, has become a universal truth validated by the global culture machine.

In magazine after magazine we read about how to eradicate wide hips like polio. How technology in 10 years can make cellulite disappear like small pox. Soon we will dream up anti-flab vaccines to be given to babies before the milestone ‘anna prashon’ ceremony where they are first fed the bad carbs known as rice.

But when did beauty become all about shape. Isn’t ‘shringar’ a mood, a feeling, a moment ripe with possibility? Anxiety, insecurity, fear, self-hate and shame inimical to this delicate feeling. Unlike the all-pervasive global machine that starts with calling parts of your body problem areas, shringar starts with celebrating your best feature.

From long wet hair snaking down the back to the mole that sits sentinel on the chin; wide hips that sway gracefully like an elephant’s walk; the glint of a dimple, a flower tucked in the hair, the shine of a nose pin; the jangle of bangles; the intricate mehendi on your hands. In the land of shringar there is no grid for beauty. Here a pale Sita could co-exist with the dusky, wild-eyed beauty of Draupadi. Now we all want to look the same…wear the same cropped t shirt as our 15-year-old…and have people tell us “you guys look like sisters.”

Last year I had gone to Dhaka to film a documentary and fell in love predictably with the Bengaliness everywhere.

After dinner every night we’d sit together on the terrace and somebody would say “Swati apa kichu gao na amader shathe” (Sing something with us, Swati didi) But I didn’t have a single song to sing. Not one.

I don’t know Rabindra Sangeet or Nazrul or any Lalan Fakir not even a Bengali nursery rhyme. The chalk-and-duster revolution of the empire has taken away my Bengali voice. Growing up in Delhi i thought listening to Dylan and Dr. Hook was way cooler than listening to Baba Dwijen Mukherjee. And now it is as if speaking white is no longer enough. Now we want to look white.

But now I am older and wiser.
I know better.
I know where I come from.

It’s still not late. We can curate a different set of dreams and conversations. Let’s be lovely instead of perfect and let’s not shrink to a size that’s not ours. We are from the United States of Shringar. And in this satisfactory factory we make okay all day.

(Source: The Ladies Finger)

Amitabh Bachchan's remarks on Priyanka Chopra's #DressGate prove he's a fair-weather feminist

On September 5 last year, Amitabh Bachchan uploaded a video on Facebook where he was seen reading an 'open letter' that he'd written to his grand-daughters Navya Navelli and Aradhya.

The letter read something like this:

"Both of you may be a Nanda or a Bachchan, but you are also girls...women! And because you are women people will force their thinking, their boundaries on you.They will tell you how to dress, how to behave, who you can meet and where you can go. Don't live in the shadows of people's judgment. Make your own choices."

"Don't let anyone make you believe that the length of your skirt is a measure of your character. This may be a difficult, difficult world to be a woman. But I believe that it is women like you that will change that. It may not be easy, setting your own boundaries, making your own choices, rising above people 's judgment. But YOU !...you can set an example for women everywhere."

While a lot of media outlets immediately lauded him for taking a staunchly feminist stand, it was only a couple of days later that one understood the actual purpose of the very public letter. Bachchan's Pink, a movie about female empowerment, was due for release 10 days later.

While many found it as a publicity gimmick for the film (which it was), if feminism is being promoted by some of India's most influential names, for whatever reasons, it can't hurt. The message still stands, though it loses its sheen as it's orchestrated and not, say, as sincere as one would like it to be.

Cut to the Priyanka Chopra dress controversy. When India's latest crossover sensation met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin recently, the attention of a set of people on social media was on the length of her skirt and how she should have 'dressed more appropriately' to meet the Prime Minister.

Now, when Amitabh Bachchan was asked about his view on this, what'd you expect him to say? At least show some consistency of thought and maybe reinstate the lines from his own letter?

"Don't let anyone make you believe that the length of your skirt is a measure of your character."

This is a very powerful line which he'd presumably written himself. But no. What did Bachchan do? He dismissed the question by saying, "I am neither the PM nor Priyanka Chopra. How can I answer then?"

Because his next film isn't about women empowerment so I suppose it doesn't make any 'commercial sense' for Bachchan to champion the cause. It's inconvenient, too. What can he really gain by taking on the massive troll brigade that believes a woman should be 'appropriately dressed' in front of Modi?

His reluctance to stand up for targetted social media attack on Chopra only goes on to reveal his pseudo feminist side, which comes out in the open, through carefully shot home videos, only when there's box-office merit in it.

It's hypocritical of him to keep harping on about women empowerment and beti padhao campaigns when he finds it so difficult to utter two sentences on how deeply sexist it is to attack Chopra for the choice of her wardrobe. What's the point of championing causes when they cannot go beyond selective lip-service and when he fails in any practical demonstration of his supposed belief-system?

It's one thing to broadly speak about how 'deeply you' feel for the cause. But if that doesn't translate in using your celebrity to defend a peer, then it's literally worth nothing beyond a shallow PR exercise to create a 'progressive image.' It's telling of the duplicity of thought and the fact that these are causes he supports for effect and not something that he actually believes in.

You may argue that "what if he doesn't want to?" Now, that argument would hold water if he had not tried to brand himself as someone who genuinely cares. If he has portrayed himself as someone who wants his daughters and grand-daughters to challenge staid notions perpetuated by our patriarchal society, he's somewhere accountable to live up to that image. When an actress from his fraternity is attacked and he chooses to look the other way, he is very much complicit in encouraging the same mindset he was trying to challenge when Pink released in theatres.

While most of Bollywood maintained a stoic silence over the controversy (as they do when there's a political tint to an issue, any issue), a more measured comment came from Varun Dhawan.

When asked about it, he said, "She is someone we all should be proud of in our country...she is making our country proud abroad. All this is very stupid and social media trolling is not something that needs to become a national issue."

That's all it took, Mr. Bachchan.

You are neither X nor Y in a lot of other scenarios but one look at your Twitter feed, and it's filled with a lot of gyaan on a whole number of things that are of no real consequence. Fair, it's your time and your timeline and you can choose to do whatever you wish to with it.

Nobody expects Bollywood to stand up for a cause or give an opinion on their own. But when a question that's relevant to the news comes your way, the least you can do is to uphold a worldview which you were passionately championing only months ago.

(Source: HuffPo)

The class of Kaira, Shyra and Shanaya in Bollywood

In one of the genuinely witty sequences in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Ranbir Kapoor meets Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at an airport lounge. “Aur batao aur kya haal chaal hai, kya karti hain aap (So what’s up, what do you do)?”

“Main shayra hoon (I am a poetess),” she says.

“Shayraji, main Ayan hoon (Shayraji, I am Ayan),” he replies.

She giggles and says, “Main shayra hoon, my name is Saba.”

It is a nice touch from the film’s director Karan Johar, a gentle dig at what he perceives to be a certain demographic’s confusion between a common noun (shayra) and a proper noun (Shyra). It was, also, likely a reference to his friend Aditya Chopra’s latest confection Befikre, which released six weeks after his film. Here, Vaani Kapoor plays a girl called Shyra.

Anushka Sharma as Akira in ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’

A couple of weeks before Befikre, in Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi, Alia Bhatt was Kaira. She is a cinematographer, she works in Mumbai, has work prospects in New York. Earlier this year, in Shinde’s partner R. Balki’s film Ki & Ka, Kareena Kapoor Khan was Kia. Shraddha Kapoor plays a singer called Jiah in Rock On 2. In Baaghi, which released earlier in the summer, Shraddha Kapoor was Sia, a film actor who bags leading roles. Alia Bhatt was Tia in last summer’s hit family drama Kapoor & Sons (Since 1921). In her debut film, Student Of The Year, Bhatt was called Shanaya, the posh prom queen of her school. Some years ago, Anushka Sharma was Akira in Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Last year, Sonakshi Sinha was the title character in A.R. Murugadoss’ Akira. She plays a college girl who is capable of taking on a squad of able-bodied men single-handedly (Sinha’s Akira is different from Sharma’s Akira though, she was from small-town Jodhpur and wore salwar-kurtas; indeed, she is distinct from this posh cohort in general).

Kaira, Shyra, Akira, Kia, Tia, Sia. Shanaya. These are Bollywood’s cool new names, broadly classified into the “ya” or “ra” nomenclature. The Poojas, Nishas, Anjalis and Nehas of the 1990s are déclassé. These new names carry an unmistakable aspiration to be global.They are unrooted to place, community or any kind of identity except class. They are almost never longer than three syllables and easy to pronounce. They float on coolness and lightness. An ex-colleague memorably christened them “First-World Yoga Names—FWYN”.

There is a nice reference to names in the Bengali film Maach Mishti & More (2013). Actor Soumitra Chatterjee, a chatty grandfatherly type in the movie, is curious about a young girl at a roadside tea stall. “What’s your name?” he asks.

“Sunny,” she replies.

“Bengali?”

“Yaa, you have a problem with that?”

“A bit, yes. I’ve never heard of a Bengali name like Sunny in my lifetime.”

I feel a lot like this. What are these names? Who thinks of them? Why are they so baffling? Be honest: Do you know anyone called Shanaya or Shyra who is above the age of 12? That is, anyone from what can be broadly termed the Indian identity. What happened to the Poojas, Anjalis, Nehas, Nishas, and indeed the more old-fashioned Rajjos, Pushpas, Neenas?

One clue is provided by Johar. In a scene in his debut feature Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Farida Jalal asks Johnny Lever where the puja room is. “Puja has not shown up for work today,” he replies.

“What? There’s no aarti (prayers) in the mornings?

“Who is Aarti?” he asks.

Shraddha Kapoor as Jiah in ‘Rock On 2’.

Perhaps Johar was implying that this kind of old-fashioned name was already bereft of meaning in his set. That they were just old habits. The girls had to be called something: call them Puja, Nisha, Anjali, et cetera. In his next film, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., he shortened Pooja to Poo. In Student Of The Year, his heroine was called Shanaya. And in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, a film which can also be read as Johar’s crush on Urdu culture, his heroine is called Alizeh—a name hitherto unheard of in Bollywood and likely to be unfamiliar to most Urdu speakers.

The FWYN appears, at first, to be wholly meaning-free: Who is to say what Sia means or Kia or Kaira or, before Johar told us, Shyra? But they likely claim a global register of meaning—outside the largely Hindi-Hindu and partially Urdu-Islamic axes of Bollywood nomenclature. In fact, these names are almost completely removed from the old markers of place, religion, community. Who can say where Shyra is from, what Shanaya’s mother tongue is, what kind of food they make at Kia’s home?

If you are the bearer of an FWYN, you typically inhabit a glamorous professional identity. Kaira is a cinematographer in Dear Zindagi. Shyra is a tourist guide in Paris in Befikre. Jiah is a singer in Rock On 2. Akira is a documentary film-maker in Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Most of them pursue creative work. The exception is Kia, who is a marketing honcho in Ki & Ka. But it is nevertheless a highly paid, powerful job, something that is nicely captured in the High Heels song. Sometimes these girls do nothing—Tia in Kapoor & Sons or Shanaya in Student Of The Year. Yet, somehow, we picture them doing posh work, work that features cameras or recording equipment or PowerPoint in heavy doses.

What you definitely don’t see them working in are dusty downmarket jobs, like a schoolteacher (Bhumi Pednekar in Dum Laga Ke Haisha) or a clerk (Vidya Balan in Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh) or a nurse (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Guzaarish) or even a doctor (Kareena Kapoor Khan in Udta Punjab, Rani Mukerji in Saathiya). Indeed, one of the central pleasures of the Kahaani films is this texture of a not-so-shiny universe.

Closely related to professional identity is class; and indeed, the only identity that the FWYN remains connected with is class. When we hear Kaira, or Shyra, or Shanaya, we picture a montage of scenes—working out of Starbucks cafés, taking long-haul flights alone, multilingual flirting, downing shots with friends. We think of elite boarding schools, and foreign degrees. “Baba, do these people only roam around in Paris and New York?” my mother often asks aloud. It makes me laugh out loud, but I can see where her annoyance comes from.

Vaani Kapoor as Shyra in ‘Befikre’.

There have, of course, been posh girls in Bollywood before. Girls who live in houses with sweeping staircases, majestic pianos in chandelier-fitted halls and fathers in dressing gowns. But the names of the posh girls were no different from the names of the subaltern girls. Nargis Dutt was heiress Neena in Andaz and peasant Radha in Mother India. Sharmila Tagore was rich daughter Renu in Waqt and flower-girl Champa in Kashmir Ki Kali. Zeenat Aman was rich babe Sunita in Yaadon Ki Baaraat and secretary Sheetal in Roti Kapada Aur Makaan. Sridevi was the zamindar’s daughter Rekha in Himmatwala and the middle-class girl Chandni in Chandni. The class difference notwithstanding, class was not coded into names. Indeed, if anything, they were too similar—all along the Hindi-Hindu and, partially, the Urdu-Islamic axes (however, the Christian-Western name is largely code for the non-virginal heroine: Waheeda Rehman is Rosie in Guide, Zeenat Aman is Janice in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Dimple Kapadia is Bobby and Lakshmi Narayan is Julie in the two eponymous films, Deepika Padukone is Veronica in Cocktail).

And, class did not seem to limit their destinies either. The great promise of the Hindi film, the critic Trisha Gupta has written in a 2014 article on Yahoo!, was that love was possible in spite of divides of class. Given that the FWYN is a code for lives lived in Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, of Starbucks, Uber and business-class airport lounges and an entire atlas of neo-liberal affluence, what are the chances of a chance meeting with the plumber or the teacher’s daughter at the local bus stop or the bank around the corner?

The rub is that Bollywood is actually more invested in small-town lives today than it was before (Raanjhanaa, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, the Tanu Weds Manu and Gangs Of Wasseypur films) and in subaltern lives within the big city—Titli, Talaash, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!. Yet the possibility of these subaltern lives intersecting with the neo-liberal affluence of the FWYN seems to be becoming increasingly remote. What are the chances that Bhatt’s Kaira would hook up with a receptionist, given that her four beaus in Dear Zindagi are a restaurateur, a film-maker, a singer and a furniture designer? Would Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Kia in Ki & Ka go out on a date with a cook from a local biryani joint?

There’s also a male catalogue for the FWYN—far less exciting and quite limited compared to the women. Essentially, this constitutes three names—Adi, Sid and Kabir. Of these, Kabir has enjoyed the most popularity—everyone from Abhay Deol to John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Imran Khan and Arjun Kapoor has played a Kabir. The Sids, Adis and Kabirs have similarly glamorous work identities—they are photographers (Ranbir Kapoor in several films), artists (Akshaye Khanna in Dil Chahta Hai), musicians (Farhan Akhtar in the Rock On films), criminal masterminds (Abraham in Dhoom, Imran Khan in Kidnap) and house husband (Arjun Kapoor in Ki & Ka). But arguably women are signalers of social identity in a way that men are not. They are bearers of honour, they are markers of modernity (isn’t that what we call families/communities that educate their girls/women?), and when, like the Kairas and Shyras, they inhabit the spaces and freedoms we associate with men, they represent Westernized possibilities of gender equality. Typically, this would be the reality/aspiration of a privileged, well-travelled elite.

Over the past couple of decades, a trend of the Chinese middle and upper-middle class adopting anglicized names has become visible. The British royal family and the names of global celebrities from the anglophone world are popular in the adoption market. At my university in Edinburgh, and during a fellowship in Singapore, I met Angelas, Audreys, Steves, Williams, Dianas and Angies who all had Chinese names on their legal documents. A 2009 essay on Slate notes that this is a phenomenon of Deng Xiaoping’s market reform—as China opened up to business with the world, the class that did this business was tired of having its names mangled by their Western business partners. They chose names that were easy to pronounce in the anglophone world.

Perhaps this business of the FWYN is another form of this impulse—the desire/anxiety to fit in with a globalized world shaped by neo-liberalism. Indeed, Bollywood’s Kairas, Shyras and Shanayas are shaped from their slice of lived reality. For the list of Bollywood star children itself comprises several unusual names—Akira, Shakya, Anya, Diva, Czar, Saira, Viaan, Kiaan, Riaan, Nysa, Renee and Maira. It is significant to point out that the Chinese retain their traditional names and take on an Anglicised name as a second identity. The posh Indian demographic, however, doesn’t do this. They seem happy to change their nomenclature itself.

(Source: Livemint)

Look who's watching our fetish for gold

It’s not just we, Indians observing each other how much jewels we are wearing or if we are wearing anything at all. Now China joins our league and they are observing us, what jewels we are wearing, how much we are wearing. And you should not miss my previous post on the yellow metal and how it keeps attracting me like a magnet and I'm not ashamed to accept the fact that I have this fetish for gold, gold jewels. No need to get any weird ideas, all I mean is I love to invest in gold, to be more precise.

Let me come back to the point. Yes, “without gold nose ring, Indian women won’t go out,” says an article published on a Chinese daily. Ah, little too much, I don’t even have a nose ring, not just me many of us don’t even wear nose ring, but whatever be it, the Chinese are observing us very closely ;) 

People's Daily Online in its article “Indian beauties wearing gold jewelry” says, “In India it will be considered impolite if women go out without any jewellery.” Hmm, maybe times are changing and yes, I remember my mom often telling me that without some piece of gold on her body, woman looks incomplete. Maybe that’s the reason, even a worker at least adorns herself with as tiny as a gold nose ring.     

The article which features Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai wearing jewels says, “Recently Indian government plans to issue “paper gold” that is to encourage people to purchase gold reserved in banks. Though buying “paper gold” doesn’t mean you can really take physical gold in hand, many Indian still scramble for this, which reflects Indian affection and reliance for gold.”

It’s not an exaggeration when the article mentions that among all kinds of jewellery, Indians prefer gold ones. “Indians have black skin and wearing gold jewelry can highlight this feature,” it says. I don’t remember myself wearing fake jewels and my family, relatives and many of my friends know that I love gold jewels. 

    

It’s a fact that Indian women wearing gold earrings and necklaces could be seen everywhere. “Even those little girls who beg along the roadside with an unkempt appearance have a gold nail in the nose,” it says. Yes, who will not love this glittering metal? I don’t think anybody would hate this metal, if not for wearing at least as an asset!   

Who can deny that men don’t wear jewels in India? “It is also very common that men wear jewelry. Many Indian men wear three rings with large pieces of jewels on them,” the article says. And here, I have a man, who hates wearing gold to the extent that he refuses to wear his wedding band and I have to force him to wear it once in a while! The moment he sees a gold commercial on TV, he switches channels, not because he hates gold, but because I love gold and I would put forth my demands in front of him... 

“In wedding ceremony, parents usually choose gold ornaments as daughter’s dowry, which not only set off the beauty of the daughter but can also serve as a kind of property in married life,” the article adds. It’s not rare that friends and relatives presenting gold jewels to show their blessings during weddings and other special occasions. It’s true that one day or the other gold will come to the rescue of the owners and parents want their daughter’s life to be secure, her future to be secure through gold. Not to forget the underlying fact that it has made the dowry system much more stronger in the country, as gold in kilograms is expected from a girl’s family. Maybe it’s one thing which is passed through generations and as it passes generations, it gains its value! While people these days fancy buying antique jewels, some generations have them passed to the present ones and such jewles are just priceless.  

   

No wonder, there are gold jewellery shops everywhere, from metros to small cities, in the country. And how can anyone miss the number of commercials and ads which are pumped through all media during festive seasons? And it is this craze which often makes a big hole in the pockets of men every year in the name of festivals, special occasions and gifts.     

Apart from all these, ever wondered why is China concentrating on India’s, Indians’ gold jewels? According to "Gold Demand Trends Q2 2012" recently published by the World Gold Council, the gold demand in China has dropped by 7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012. But here, one should not forget that China still ranks sixth in the world with a total gold reserve of 1,054.1 tonnes. Although China’s gold demand has grown slower than last year, the World Gold Council still forecasts the 2012 growth rate of the country’s gold demand at 10 per cent.

Plus, China may overtake India as the world's largest gold jewellery consumer in 2012. So China's gold market will exert significant impact on the global market. China remained the world's largest gold producer for the fifth year in a row in 2011, with the annual output rising by 5.9 per cent to more than 360 tonnes, according to the data from the China Gold Association (CGA).

Moreover, China's demand for gold jewellery currently accounts for over 30 per cent of the world's demand, making it the largest gold jewellery consumer for the third consecutive quarter. In the first quarter, the world's gold consumption dropped 5 per cent year-on-year to 1,097 tonnes, mainly because gold prices have surged 22 per cent from a year ago and because demand in India also fell significantly over the same period, said the WGC report.

Currently China and India account for some 50 per cent of the world's gold demand. But the Indian government has hiked jewellery taxes and raised gold import duties, said the WGC, which resulted in the sharp drop in first-quarter demand.

Attracting the consumers, China also has ATMs dispensing gold bars and coins. The first such ATM was activated in the capital's bustling Wangfujing shopping area in September 2011. Gongmei Gold Trading, which installed the ATM, expected the machine to be a big hit and hoped to have 2,000 similar ATMs in place within the next two years. “The majority will be in private clubs at banks and at landmark buildings in large cities,” the company had said.

And such gold vending machines are not exclusive for China. I have seen them in Burj Khalifa, Dubai, and yes our plans to buy one gold bar at the vending machine didn’t fulfill, as the quoted prices were much higher than the market price!

Such gold vending machines are already in use in countries such as Germany, the United States, Italy and the United Arab Emirates. Sorry, none in India! The touch-screen machines dispense gold bars and coins of various weights based on the market price of the metal, which is updated every 10 minutes.

Sigh, whatever be it, we Indians keep loving this metal and keep buying them, no matter how big hole they make in our family budget!