Mommy,can we buy Dandiya sticks ?

*shuffles in muttering something about writer's block*

So I recently watched the movie "Little Zizou" . Either the kid's name was Zizou or this is some sort of homage to Zinedine's appendage.I'm sorry but for those of us like me whose minds are stationed in the gutter, it was the first thing we thought of.Now that we got that out of the way,the film followed the lives of a bunch of Parsi characters who all were in some way related to the protagonist.
I initially wanted to see this movie just cause the promos promised at least a few hilarious scenes and I knew Boman was a part of it so,in my head I was thinking lets buy that over-priced mildew they call popcorn and go watch !! What I didn't anticipate however was how refreshing it was to not be watching a movie about Mamaji,Papaji,Nanaji,bUa and gang but to experience a world I'm far more familiar with where all women who aren't your Mother or Grandmother are called "Auntie" and all men who aren't your Father or Grandfather are called "Uncle" .There is something extremely heartwarming about watching religious minorities struggle to assert their Indian-ness all the while trying to hide some of the stark differences they have with the rest.Its this complex mixture of apologetic awkwardness combined with a lot of pride and tolerance.


There are a few things I'll bet every Catholic kid had to face growing up. Well if they didn't face any of these things it was probably cause they grew up in a more enlightened society unlike me, who grew up in the suburbs.Firstly, no one accepts that you can be Maharashtrian AND Catholic. I'll bet half of them thought we had been dropped down here after being air-lifted from Rome. Second, I've had to answer some embarrassing questions that left me quite agog.One commonly asked one was whether we ate "chapatis" and I had to maintain a solid rhythmic nodding action while they gasped and oohed and swallowed the newly acquired information.Oh and lets not get started on our good names.I can't count the number of times I used to wish I was a Deepika or Devika.Another question commonly asked was why I didn't speak Marathi if I had the sheer audacity to say I was Maharashtrian. I'm sure a lot of you'll smirking aren't quite sure either so...here goes.A lot of catholics do speak marathi but due to inter marriages between Catholics of various regions ,like East Indian, Goan ,Malyali catholics etc alot of them had to speak English which is why the regional languages often got lost in all the rush to "put a ring on it".So, while my Dad's family spoke Marathi for generations and my dad could write Marathi poetry if he wanted to, on my Mom's side English was spoken at home so as a result I was the only little kid who knew everything you learn in preschool at two just cause the only language we spoke at home was English.


I'd like to make one thing clear though, the Catholic point of view I'm bringing up here is strictly one of a family that had been converted centuries ago and not of the recently converted Protestant/Christian scheduled class Hindus .I mostly wanted to make this distinction because they do not have the same lifestyles and habits as those who adopted everything they could of the European lifestyle all those centuries ago.There are however a lot of catholics who were converted by the "goras" but didn't move to the cities (Like my Dad's lot who were often taken to be Brahmin Hindus with their pale skin and fluent Marathi) ,so while their customs and traditions remained the same the only thing that differentiated them from their neighbours was their religion.


Growing up a lot of us heard a few horror stories of gruesome killings of missionaries but you shrug it off assuming that there isn't any eminent threat and that's just a small section of the public that resents the presence of minorities but then you have to wonder how political parties that have been openly anti-secular have been able to thrive due to large-scale approval.Isn't equal rights for all desirable or is it just a bothersome concern that isn't important enough in comparison to progress or infrastructure.(my little plug for Soniaji)


In a country where so much of patriotism is linked to Hinduism you have to wonder if a tiny bit of your identity was stolen when your ancestors were converted.It did make us different and different is so often seen as threatening and strange to so many people.After watching a film called "Delhi 6" I realized that there wasn't a single cultural aspect to the film I could relate to. If culture in India is so tied up to religion,does that make the culture of the Catholic sect a different one ? After eighteen years I'm still not able to kick off that feeling of wearing red to a "black and white" themed party.But its nice to know that there aren't differences anymore for my generation.My grandfather (Political Major and all round genius) still worries that i don't have any catholic friends.He assumes that "our kind of people" can only be friends with each other which might have been true when he was growing up but the consideration for one's religions simply seems diminished as religion doesn't really determine your way of life anymore does it ? We're all pretty much the same now-a-days anyway,while religion has taken its place as more of a personal consideration rather than a criteria for your habits,language or lifestyle.

I hope there was something enlightening about this post. I won't beg for comments though.. My writing merely provokes me to think and that's all..
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well,I was lying, I only write for public recognition.Please tell me you didn't hate it. Cheerio.
*Dramatically unfurls cape and vanishes*