Friday, June 16, 2006

Bring your Alibhais

So goes Hotel California somewhere in the middle of its (oc)cult lyrics. I was reading a discussion board some place where they were discussing what the lyrics mean to you. A common theme in people's explanations dealt with drugs. For eg.

"Some dance to remember, some dance to forget."
(People use drugs to remember, others to forget.)

"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device."
(Drugs are initially taken by choice but quickly become addictive.)

Cut focus to India and Hotel California may well be Hotel Calicut or some such rhyming place. Alibhai, our fictional drug dealer, must be cursing Rahul Mahajan. Suddenly, there is a big focus on the 'partying' crowd and the snort club, as India Today calls it. Imagine if there would be a public uproar and people can't do their favorite brand of drugs anymore. Where would Alibhai go? How will he afford his shanty in Alibag?

Several reams of press have been devoted to the reasons behind Rahul Mahajan's drug orgy. Does it matter frankly? Be it stress or depression or plain pleasure as the reason behind his step, if he got caught with a rolled up paper stuck up his nose digging into white powder, he has every reason to be in trouble. My heart doesn't go out to the Rahul Mahajans of the world. If having money gives you the license to throw responsibility out the window, then I am glad that not all those who have that license exercise it. Speaking of license, wait till someone decides to make a movie on the Pramod Mahajan's death and Rahul's self-destruct mode. Its just a matter of time. While on Bollywood, the only brand of drugs that was smuggled and used extensively in the early 80's movies was brown sugar. I can't help but grin every time I see brown sugar in my trip to Starbucks for my trusted latte. Oops, I am self-destructing with caffeine :-)

6 comments:

Parth said...

Bollywood proved me right even before I published the post. Here's a writeup on a proposed movie on teh Mahajan family: http://www.indiafm.com/news/2006/06/16/7309/index.html

etripe said...

The main difference being they will find some way to introduce a song and dance routine around the trees. Also I think Bollywood allows itself a *LOT* of artistic license. Unless they mention it, in some cases, you would never guess who they were talking about. Like that one were Rai played jayalalitha. Good Godddddddd!

sd said...

"I can't help but grin every time I see brown sugar in my trip to Starbucks for my trusted latte. " Ya...brown sugar also always reminded me of the desi movies...

If they can make a movie on Sonai Gandhi ... well why not the Mahajans

Parth said...

This "spoiling" of the upper and upper-middle class of cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, etc. is due to the mixed snort (Dumb pun there) of Punjabi culture and aping of the showy side of American culture. This results in nothing but anti-social behaviour and acts. Anyways, nice poem on the issue.
-Parth
P.S. Remember me?

G Shrivastava said...

Heh - wonder what's better the Mahajan saga hogging headlines or the Rakhi Sawant saga?

Anonymous said...

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Mohib