THE MUMMY RETURNS …
This mummy’s back from Egypt!!!
‘Daddy’ Ashok is in circulation too, shaken-up (explanations follow!), but rejuvenated!!
Yeah, the pyramids were all that we expected and more …simply awesome!! Sobering to think that sans cable TV, books, music, malls ...there was so much time to create these architectural wonders!!!
Come on, in these times when lazy scumbags like me are actually contemplating checking out home delivery of navratri bags, u marvel at the patience of these guys who not only painstakingly bandaged these bodies, (Help!! Need to lose weight, because the thought of the lengths of bandage one wud need to round up this fat body makes me deeply ashamed!!), but zealously & endlessly created case into which more cases went!
Visualize the word ‘happy’ – think of all it’s synonyms, all the translations in all possible languages …u still wont find words enough to describe the people of Egypt!! That to me was a true “wonder”!! Despite the squalor, obvious poverty, lack of resources … they seem oblivious to all the reasons which for one make me a greedy, selfish world citizen!
Loved waking up every morning to be greeted by the inspiring view of the Nile from your balcony.
Explanation time –
Take a walk down the bustling market place – believe me, it’s a strange but sure-fire technique to make u feel very proud of being an Indian!!
For once the ‘goras’ are sidelined (reveled in the experience - yes, I’m not a good human being, and very petty!!), and u r the star of the red carpet!! Any Indian is royalty belonging to the “Amitabh Bachan” Gharana!
Indian outfits – wow!! It was almost unnerving to have men openly tell u how they loved what u were wearing, and one of them even wanted to buy the outfit off my back!! Since no return bid was made to compensate with an Egyptian outfit, and the only offerings in the shops were daring, skimpy & sequined belly dancer outfits, I, in the larger interests of the good of the world (ok, we’ll spend some other day rolling on the floor, laughing at the prospect of yours truly belly dancing!!), politely declined!!
BUT… ‘daddy’s of ‘jawaan betiyaan’, watch out!!!!
Totally surreal encounters:
*a young shop keeper telling us that hez fallen in love with our daughter and her hair, and immdly wants to marry her. We beat a hasty retreat - the only time wasted is to pick up our jaws which have dropped to the ground!!
*the fascinating aspect is that this does not come across as a pick-up line or vulgar or ugly … don’t ask me how but it’s all done with a lot of respect,& refreshing honesty, which kinda takes your breath away!
*then you had my good natured, amiably disposed Ashok, snapping “shut-up” over and over again – we learn later to propositions of camels as dowries for Shiksha!!
* actually tried appeasing some of Shiksha’s suitors with “shez very young” – the Pharaohs descendants countered this with “I’ll wait”!! One of them even kindly offered to let us keep the camels as ‘advance booking’!!
*after a lifetime of growing up in India and being harassed by the roadside-Romeos there, (hard to believe, but once upon a time, ‘moi’ was young!!), I am hard-pressed for adjectives to describe the frank, honest, almost upright way with which these young guys very respectfully and openly told you that they liked your daughter!!
*Please don’t judge us, but thanx to being the parents of an eligible young Indian lass, we got a couple of pieces of Egyptian art at rock-bottom prices!! To err is human, I guess …
*Moment to treasure: Ashok’s outraged face at all this persistent wooing of his baby daughter!!!
*we must have presented quite a strange sight – the fat lady in a salwar kameez, our own Amitabh, the ‘angry-young-dad’, the modern version of Samyukta at her ‘swayamvar’, with a motley bunch of guys following us, one of them who kept singing “achhaa hai” for some strange reason!!
*there’s something about taxis and us … Shiksha and I laughed hysterically at Ashok’s helpless & trapped expression when one of the cabbies sincerely told us that in his opinion, Indian wives were the ‘best’, because they ‘obeyed’ their husbands ‘respectfully!!
So that winds up our “Egyptian Encounters”!
This mummy’s back from Egypt!!!
‘Daddy’ Ashok is in circulation too, shaken-up (explanations follow!), but rejuvenated!!
Yeah, the pyramids were all that we expected and more …simply awesome!! Sobering to think that sans cable TV, books, music, malls ...there was so much time to create these architectural wonders!!!
Come on, in these times when lazy scumbags like me are actually contemplating checking out home delivery of navratri bags, u marvel at the patience of these guys who not only painstakingly bandaged these bodies, (Help!! Need to lose weight, because the thought of the lengths of bandage one wud need to round up this fat body makes me deeply ashamed!!), but zealously & endlessly created case into which more cases went!
Visualize the word ‘happy’ – think of all it’s synonyms, all the translations in all possible languages …u still wont find words enough to describe the people of Egypt!! That to me was a true “wonder”!! Despite the squalor, obvious poverty, lack of resources … they seem oblivious to all the reasons which for one make me a greedy, selfish world citizen!
Loved waking up every morning to be greeted by the inspiring view of the Nile from your balcony.
Explanation time –
Take a walk down the bustling market place – believe me, it’s a strange but sure-fire technique to make u feel very proud of being an Indian!!
For once the ‘goras’ are sidelined (reveled in the experience - yes, I’m not a good human being, and very petty!!), and u r the star of the red carpet!! Any Indian is royalty belonging to the “Amitabh Bachan” Gharana!
Indian outfits – wow!! It was almost unnerving to have men openly tell u how they loved what u were wearing, and one of them even wanted to buy the outfit off my back!! Since no return bid was made to compensate with an Egyptian outfit, and the only offerings in the shops were daring, skimpy & sequined belly dancer outfits, I, in the larger interests of the good of the world (ok, we’ll spend some other day rolling on the floor, laughing at the prospect of yours truly belly dancing!!), politely declined!!
BUT… ‘daddy’s of ‘jawaan betiyaan’, watch out!!!!
Totally surreal encounters:
*a young shop keeper telling us that hez fallen in love with our daughter and her hair, and immdly wants to marry her. We beat a hasty retreat - the only time wasted is to pick up our jaws which have dropped to the ground!!
*the fascinating aspect is that this does not come across as a pick-up line or vulgar or ugly … don’t ask me how but it’s all done with a lot of respect,& refreshing honesty, which kinda takes your breath away!
*then you had my good natured, amiably disposed Ashok, snapping “shut-up” over and over again – we learn later to propositions of camels as dowries for Shiksha!!
* actually tried appeasing some of Shiksha’s suitors with “shez very young” – the Pharaohs descendants countered this with “I’ll wait”!! One of them even kindly offered to let us keep the camels as ‘advance booking’!!
*after a lifetime of growing up in India and being harassed by the roadside-Romeos there, (hard to believe, but once upon a time, ‘moi’ was young!!), I am hard-pressed for adjectives to describe the frank, honest, almost upright way with which these young guys very respectfully and openly told you that they liked your daughter!!
*Please don’t judge us, but thanx to being the parents of an eligible young Indian lass, we got a couple of pieces of Egyptian art at rock-bottom prices!! To err is human, I guess …
*Moment to treasure: Ashok’s outraged face at all this persistent wooing of his baby daughter!!!
*we must have presented quite a strange sight – the fat lady in a salwar kameez, our own Amitabh, the ‘angry-young-dad’, the modern version of Samyukta at her ‘swayamvar’, with a motley bunch of guys following us, one of them who kept singing “achhaa hai” for some strange reason!!
*there’s something about taxis and us … Shiksha and I laughed hysterically at Ashok’s helpless & trapped expression when one of the cabbies sincerely told us that in his opinion, Indian wives were the ‘best’, because they ‘obeyed’ their husbands ‘respectfully!!
So that winds up our “Egyptian Encounters”!
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