It was January of 1979, I was 11 and our Air India flight
from Karachi was about to land in Bombay (now named Mumbai) International
Airport. Our trip had taken us from Tehran to Karachi and after two days in
Karachi we made it to Bombay. After we landed there, we were driven to Poona
(Pune) and onto to Panchgani, a hill station in the western State of Maharashtra
where my sister, my brother, I would attend, New Era High School, an
international boarding school.
One day we were in Ahvaz, in the comfort of all that was
familiar to us…our city, our home, our language, our food and above all, our
family and friends…in what seemed to be, a blink of an eye, we were taken away
from it and put in India. Fortunately for us, we went to a boarding school
where most students were our age and came from all over the world, from Iran to
Canada, United States to Ethiopia, and Somalia to Australia. Exposure to this
rich mixture of diverse cultures at a young age developed within me the ability
to mingle with all peoples and see diversity as a strength and looked for it
rather than avoid it! Give me a work force from 10 countries, 50 cultures/tribes
and a table with chicken briyani, Awaze tibs, chelo-kabob, goat curry, and Tuo
Zaafi with bito soup and Guinea Fowl meat on it and I am as happy and productive
as can be!
That was the campus of New Era High School….But outside of
that, there was India. India with its populations of 700 million (1979)! The
wealth of Indian culture was immense, this wealth was a direct reflection of its
diverse population. Different languages, nationalities, tribes, religions,
food, music and geography, all within this huge land mass. For me as a kid,
nothing and no one brought these difference into one arena as did Bollywood and
its incomparable hero, Amitabh Bachchan.
Amitabh Bachchan became our hero. I remember the first movie
I saw with Amitabh in it. It was in the city of Sholapur and the name of the
movie was “Suhaag”. The movie was “house-full”, no seats available! A few
minutes into the movie, Amitabh finally appears on the screen, with him drinking
a bottle of whisky and the theater erupted…as if he was standing on the stage
in person!! People started to throw coins towards the screen! The best a Hollywood
megastar could do was get a clap or two!! Whether you were an 11 year old kid
like me or a 50 year woman sitting behind us, we were all taken over and mesmerized
by Amitabh baritone voice, acting, singing and dancing. And when the movie came
to an end, it was as if you woke up from a dream! It was an amazing feeling.
The songs from the movies were all around us, whether walking in the bazaar or
in school. We would try to imitate Amitabh’s dance moves and the term “hero”
and “Amitabh/Amit” were interchangeable in our lingo…Ultimately, Amitabh’s
heroism on the screen infused some of us with the wealth of Indian music, and
our love for it.
Till today, when the times are tough or when my days are not
going well, one of the avenues I turn to for spiritual upliftment and
motivation is an old Amitabh song and dance number! So it was in 1989, my first
semester at Holyoke Community College, when taking one of my first
international affairs classes. It was mid-terms and we had to write a paper. Let’s
just say my professor did not like my paper, she came quite hard on me, and
told me “what the hell is this?” She used the word “hell’ because she was too
polite to use the “F” word! I took the paper came home and just fell on the
couch, depressed and looking at the ceiling. Not knowing how to get myself up
and motivated after that very negative encounter with my professor! I simply got up and took a cassette and put it
in the video player and turned to Amitabh, the hero of my childhood to save the
day and put some motivation back into my being!! It just took a song from the
movie “Mr. Natwarlal” where Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha sing and dance to the
song, “Oonchi Oonchi Baaton Se”! A week later I stood in my professor’s office
and she turned to me and said, “This is what I was looking for, much better…good
job”.
If I told her what was behind the better performance, she
would have never believed me!
Yes! :)
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