Janamdin ki Hungama!

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By now, you all know I'm a raging kind of an Indophile, so it isn't a surprise that one of my best blog buddies should be Agra's very own Dr. Mona Rahman who -- as fortune would have it -- celebrates her birthday on Sunday 11 January. Mona's talents as a poet and writer need no introduction here, but for those of you who have yet to savor her stylings, I'll point you to The Two Bits, our Mona Ji's collection of literary delights.

But wait, there's more! In addition to her own writing efforts, the good Doctor has been of inestimable help to me as I've labored to bring you a series of 55 Flash Fictions based on the life of a woman in Independence-era Punjab. Not only has Mona helped me with my pitiable Hindi, she's been a willing font of help in the history of the country and the culture at that time. I quite literally could not have gotten this far in the series without her aid. So it seems the very least I can do to remember her on this day which is uniquely hers. And for such a unique woman, I wanted to stage a suitably unique celebration.

Now if the movies of Bollywood are to be believed, you can't have a birthday in India and just have a few friends over for cake and coffee. Oh no! There must be singing and dancing and all manner of hungama! But I wanted to find something a little different. So after considering the choices in my not inconsiderable collection of Bollywood DVD's I narrowed the choices down to the birthday scene from Dil Chaata Hai (a delightful scene) and this little number. Just in case you're wondering, no this song isn't about birthdays. But it does feature the beautiful Namrata Shirodkar in the role of Mona from the film Praan Jaye par Shaan na Jaye (which, if I'm translating it right means roughly "your life will pass but not your pride". Help me Mona ji!) Like our Mona, the one in the clip is just the right combination of beauty and attitude -- or maybe it would be better to call it "sass" -- just enough for spice. (And if you haven't seen the movie, you really should. It's a hysterical and unapologetic spoof of every Bollywood cliche known to cinematic history.)

So just for pure entertainment value (and let's face it, eye candy!) I give you Mujhe isse pyaar hua ("I've fallen in love with her"... more or less.)

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जनमढीन की बधाई मोना जी
and many, many more!

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