Dissing the Kissing

So Shilpa Shetty is caught in yet another furor. It seems like the poor lady has a penchant for attracting trouble these days, first the underworld connection allegations, then with the Big Brother show and now with Richard Gere basically tossing her around a public stage and kissing in front of a crowd of truck drivers.

People in India are outraged; they are burning hers and Gere’s Effigies and Posters in protest of the kiss. Some political groups are asking Shilpa for a public apology, for having outraged the Indian sensibilities and traditions.

But what has she done?

Why is this criticism leveled at her for having been kissed?

She was appearing for a noble cause, raising AIDS awareness along with Richard Gere. He randomly grabbed her and started kissing, there did not seem to be any provocation from her; and to my eye, albeit untrained, it did not seem pre-planned. If Shilpa is acting nonchalant about this, it is because she has no other recourse.

Consider this: Had Shilpa been walking on the street, and some fan had kissed her, would we expect Shilpa to apologize? Would we burn her posters? No, in that case it would be the fan who would be condemned, and rightly.

But here, protesters are chanting “Down with Shilpa Shetty?” What is wrong with them?

If anyone deserves criticism it is Gere, not Shilpa. Not just in India, but worldwide. Not for some perceived insult to the morality of the Indian society, but for improper behavior towards a woman who is his colleague. And by the way, it is not western culture to suddenly grab a colleague and start kissing her all over their face and neck – at least not that I know of.

Of Bangles and Haggles

So I am a Hyderabadi girl. And what is the one thing Hyderabadis are extremely proud of? Well OK, yes, our biryani is excellent. But I mean something that is almost synonymous with Hyderabad. No, not pearls.

Charminar! Charminar is the monument that Hyderabad is most famous for. It is 400 years old, an elegant and romantic edifice, according to this site (http://7wondersofhyderabad.com/charminar/charminar.html). For no real reason, this weekend we decided to go to Charminar. Charminar has amazing details on the structure, the minarets, the lattices, the balconies, I was overcome with awe and respect for this grand monument when we were there. I really think something must be done to restore this awesome and beautiful construction, but that’s another blog to be written another day.

My day trip only started with Charminar though. There was so much more to a Charminar trip than I imagined! I was introduced to Choodi Bazaar (literally translated, it means Bangle Market). Normally, oppressive afternoon heat, narrow streets teeming with people and roads full of ditches and pot holes don’t really make for an exciting shopping experience. You really have to watch where you are going or you are just as likely to fall into a pit as you are likely to tread on some other person’s foot. But no woman can be immune to the lure of bangles, luminous, radiant, dazzling, (yes I know they all mean the same – can’t you see I am rapturous here?) colorful, beautiful bangles. In fact the bangles there reminded me of the old Sarojini Naidu poem, The Bangle Sellers (http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1375.html).

You cannot imagine a color that is not present there; you cannot visualize a pattern that is not available. The whole street is full of bangles, amazing bangles, mediocre bangles, good bangles, big bangles, small bangles, shiny bangles, matte bangles, metal, plastic, glass, anything. (No, no fear of pied pipers there.J) And of course, the famous Hyderabadi lacquered bangles.

The few stores that we went to, we haggled and haggled, starting at about a third of the price originally quoted, and ended up paying around 60% – 70% of what was quoted. We were probably robbed blind – I know people can get away with paying a lot less – but the great thing about bargaining is that both parties walk away feeling that they got the better deal J My most exciting purchase – I got a beautiful hand-tooled leather bangle box (probably 1.5 ft x 1 ft) to house all my new bangles for just 300 Rs – I almost felt like I stole it.

This is definitely a place I will be visiting again – there are so many more shops to visit – gun metal articles, pearls, jewelry, silks and clothes, and particularly impressive was an embroidery shop that we peeked into for a short time. But I have a sneaking suspicion that no matter how many times I go, I will want to go one more time.