Iam going through a blogger’s block and have not been posting regularly. Sometimes I stare at the screen and wonder whether there is anything at all to write about. This too shall pass. I hope. And then there are these incidents which make me want to write again…
A couple of days ago I attended the happy burdday party of a neighbour’s two year old. That’s right, two years. What all I do for maintaining good neighbourly relations… The party invitation said 7.30 p.m. and I was there at that time. Except there was noone else. Yeah, the burdday kid and her parents and grandparents were, but they live here, so what the hell. Kids started streaming in slowly and soon there was a loud rocking party.
Imagine this, ten kids ranging from 2 to 9, all dancing to aashiq banaya aapna. And singing along without missing a beat. Or a word. Said the three year old to the world at large – you have made me a lover. yeah whatever. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better – or is it worse – it was Woh Sharabi kya sharabi jo nashe me na raha. (what kind of a drinker is he who is not always intoxicated. yeah right)
And proud parents who had walked in by then (fashionably late for a frigging burdday party within a residental building in Vashi, not some page 3 do) smiling and encouraging their children. Move it faster baby, let’s see some more of the thrusting movement. Not exactly but somewhat. But definitely, oh my daughter, she is always dancing in front of the tv, she wants to copy each and evvvvery step and dance just like the heroine. (Or the item girl maybe?)
And the burdday parents lithping thweetly to the cranky two year old (can’t say I blame her) danth kalo betha.
Yeah start dancing, kid, it is never too early to dance to sharabi songs. So what if we have closed down dance bars. We still have happy burdday parties where kids as young as two are actively encouraged to dance with lewd movements to songs with lewder lyrics. And when you grow up to prepubescence and reach an awkward 14 or thereabouts, we can send you to dance-dance competitions on tv where you can dance-dance in skimpy clothes in front of an extremely interested audience.
Point of rant : do not attend burdday parties of two year olds, even if for the sake of god neighbourly relations. And if you must, then go join them on the dance floor, sitting back and watching can be traumatic…
Oh well. One sees such things in restaurants too. I had gone on a lazy sunday afternoon for a lunch wityh a couple of friends to Alfredos in Juhu. And in the table behind me were this bunch of 5-6 year olds who had come there all by themselves and gorging on primavera and pizza. It was actually the day of the Mumbai marathon and I, tired after my dream run, still had my athlete attire on. This little girl figured out I ran the marathon and struck a conversation with me. She informed me that it was her birthday and she was treating her friends out for lunch.
I was quite astonished at how she ordered the waiter around asking him to get stuff and how she wanted her pasta to be arranged and so on..
At the end when it was payment time, I saw her reach out to her little purse and fish out a bunch of 500-notes and I also saw her leave a huge tip while collecting back her change..!
Kids of today and their parents, I tell ya…!
lol! tell me about it.
altho, that moral of the rant cracked me up. next time i’ll try the dance floor. altho i suspect that will be the end of the party…
seriously, tho, i empathise! more than you can imagine… more so on the travails of reaching at a party at the right time. well you’re lucky the party was at home, i’ve been to parties where I was the first one and was mistaken for the hosts..
cheers,
asuph.
Hope you have recovered. A few weeks ago I saw a four year old wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Too mant men too little time’ I’m sure it’s her playgroup and teletubbies taking up all her minutes.
RT, yes I know what you mean… and to think I used to feel guilty at spending money on a samosa at the college canteen, college, not even school 🙁
amit, do try the dance floor. you will soon have moms (and dads) lithping thweethly at you too, danth kalo betha… and about reaching on time, even the caterers reached after I did *blush*
shoef, what do you mean have I recovered? NO. but I did catch myself humming aasiq banaya aapne and blushed at the horrified look my hubby shot at me 🙂
Still going strong, I see..! 🙂 Have a great day — sans b’day parties!
lol..i love watchng pushy proud parents ..haha..u gotta come to these culturals in kerala schools..moms actually fight wt the judges like footballers contesting red cards man..all that n u wonder why the kids fuck up..
too much of exposure…at too little a age…welcome to the world of more than 100 tv channels
Well I must be particularly blessed … I recently had the pleasure of going for a 5-year-old’s burrday party, which was as delightful as I had imagined it would be. They played musical chairs, and pass the parcel, and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, there were ballons and streamers and noisy plastic whistles. Not a whiff of aashiqs and sharaabis. I haven’t been to many of these parties … but going by what you say I’ve been to quite an unusual one!
Oh, where else are parents pushier, than in Saaddi dilli? At restaurants, the kids are raising merry hell and the parents indulgently look on. The kid says something rude, and the parents repeat it proudly, putting it down to smartness.Ugh! *Shudder* look, it has got me too, I’m saying Delhi is more”dansh kalo beta” than Mumbai!
Interesting post…
I have no particular views for or against kids dancing to lewd songs…But it is true that parents are often clueless about parenting…Consider this, most parents instill the idea of God as soon as their children start showing signs of some comprehension power…I have seen parents forcing kids to memorize gayatri mantra without themselves understanding any meaning of that chant.. And of course, Sun is a god and not a star
Haha! Thanks for cheering me up with this post- even though I have to say some parents do need to learn the difference between kid safe stuff and things that they might not yet understand yet and things that are just not appropriate at all, the visual of a bunch of small kids dancing around like pop stars gave me a laugh!
Hopefully in ten years these kids aren’t out running amuck and trying to seduce the neighborhood with their finely tuned dance skills. Only halfway joking there… hehe.
Chindu, been ages 🙂 thanks, any day wihtout such burdday parties is good!
icyhighs, in most “competitions” it is the paents who compete. and fight. while the kids just go have a good time 🙂
sherriff, I dunno who the 100 tv channels are affecting more – the kids or the parents!
anjali, I think left to themselves the kids would have played some nice games and eaten chips and toffees and been happy – they certainly didn’t ask for such music to be played… I was appalled to see the father of the birthday kid asking the kids to dance… as if it was the most natural thing in a 2 year old’s birthday party.
lak, oh yes, I know what you mean, kid breaks my tv remote and proud mom says mera beta engineer banega. uh? but why? and why me?
Shivaji, I dont know if these parents were clueless about parenting. I dont know enough about them, most of them I was meeting for the first time.. but I have seen lots of parents encourage their kids to dance to filmi numbers – otherwise “conservative” parents… and that always surprises me…
Debra, glad to have made you smile… though I didn’t much feel like smiling when I saw the kids dancing… but they were clearly having a blast..
“Traumatized”?? You bet…. Sometimes, it makes me feel as if I was born in a completely different generation.
Chitra… but you were! I mean, born in a diferent generation 🙂
generation I can understand, sometimes I feel kids are a different species altogether…
My sympathies, thankfully its been a long time since I went to one of those parties. I now deal with an obnoxious almost teenager who thinks he knows everything 🙁
remember a couple of yrs ago
girls aged 3-4 dancing for
“i’m a barbie girl”
was shocked when they mouthed
“undress me anywhere”
and did some SHTEPS to it
gah!