sweet paan making

Url:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGsnVeSItBE

Description: See the making of delicious sweet paan, the indian chewing gum, which is kept in the side of the cheek for approximately 30 minutes. I tried also the tobacco- leave in Banaras (cause as you may know Varanasi is famous for it-- "Kaike Paan Banaras Walla"). But sweet paan rulez, man. And Paan-makers seemingly are the yellow press in india. They really know whats going on in town cause everybody talks with them. The dialogue in this video is -however- mainly about the white girl who is filming.

Can speaks

Remember when i wrote that my friend Nusrat is completely crazy about the Can? When we were up at Joshimath we decided it is time to let the can say something. A comicstrip was the best idea we had. So here it is. Nothing special. But still something, hehe.

intercultural competence milega?

I had a burn out syndrom in uttarnachal cause of the very unspicy male "Gandus" (assholes). I had various ideas how to get rid of the ball-scratching jerks who keep gathering arround me wherever i go. Even uttarnachal-army-members have to masturbate in front of me- and even if they are surrounded by 5 to 10 other men. I still cannot believe that they are so unconcerned. So many men in india have no sense for empathy. They simply are totally unable to think about other people may feel. grrrr.

Usually i am very unconcerned. But according to the "white-lady-situation" Uttarnachal was realreal shit, men. First I thought about a knife. Indians are very visual people and surely a nice big crocodiledundeeknife would keep them on distance. Then i thought about putting red colour on my forehead to symbolize that i am married and to remember them about respect women. Then the idea of a waterpistol, which looks like a real one, came up. And finally i decided to get myself a Burka. My friend Nusrat knows a nice Traidor who will maybe design a special one for me. Well, i think i should do all of that. What a nice picture. And maybe i should cut my hiar. grrr.

Whatever. These people should immediatley get NGO-help with intercultural workshops. Please somebody help them to learn a bit of compassion and tactfulness.

The ongoing Wow

Banaras



Well, I always wanted to go to Varanasi. And I finally made it. When i arrived there i was straight running into uncleji Rattan. He took me with him for his daily pooja-run. We visited many holy places. Rituals are performed in a very public way here. It is very astonishing how much time many people are spening with religion. I was staying at Assighat and met many interesting people there. Did some boating on Ganga. Saw the burning of corpses. Talked to manymany people. Met f.e. the wonderful documentaryfilmaker Petr Lom. Have been into the very stupid movie “FoolnFinal” with my friend Aalok, whom I definitely will meet again in Bombay. Saw the first season of “My name is earl”. Did 3 hours of yoga everyday at 47 degrees. It was mindblowing. Then I met a bunch of nice US-girls who took me for a Buddhism tour to Sarnath, where Buddha gave his first teachings. We also went for buying Bollywoodmovies together and had lots of fun. I hope these Bollywoodnewbies will like my Film-suggestions. (I recommended them LRM, KHNH, K3G, Hum Tum and stuff like this). It turned out that they had one AC-Trainticket to Delhi left. So I had a wonderful free ride to Delhi after one week of mindblowing supersticious Varanasi. I still cannot believe how many rituals there are. And I am a very bad anthropologist- I was rather bored of it. Incredible how much time and energy people take for this stuff. And indeed so many Indian people seem to hide something (like smoking, drinking, fucking around with prostitutes,….). It is gross. But everybody keeps talking with the white lady about their secrets and then worries on the next day if I told anybody. Whatever. Banaras was really a tough choice to go, not only cause of the temperatures. But I wanted to see this city which is supposed to be the most “Indian” city. To bad that I am not much of a fotographer.



Delhi
So then I spent one night and one day in Delhi again. I had my backpack with me and explored Chandni Chowk, the Gandhi Samadhi and India Gate. So it was obvious to take more Can-pictures.



I found a nice Rikschawdriver and did what everybody with little money and much time would do: I said: take me to the shop. So then I spent 20 minutes in some shops. And cause the driver got a nice commission for it I had a free rikschaw-ride for the rest of the day.



Then I had the worst busride ever. As all the time I was guaranteed by the travelagent that the Bus is a nice comfortable Volvo, that the Bus will leave in time, that it has AC and all this stuff. Every thing the Travelagent told me turned out to be lie. It was really horrible but actually I was not really surprised. We had a rebellion in the bus at 2pm at 20km outside of Delhi cause the AC was not working. People created a real bad situation. Then finally we could leave Delhi at 3 pm. But we were stucked in traffic till 5 pm. We were supposed to reach Nainital at 7 and finally arrived at 12:30. Well, at least I had some very nice conversation with 17 years old guy named “Honey”, who is fluent in English and will become a pilot soon. And, arewah!, his daddy once played pool with Amitabh. And I think he is looking just like Siddhu, doesn’t he?




Nainital
My good karma made me run into the lawyer Nusrat shortly after arriving in Nainital. So the next days I was with this wonderful and mindblowing openhearted and openminded familyfather from Lucknow in the backlands around Nainital. We did a small pilgrimjourney to the school where Amitabh Bachchan went to. And we also visited the bording-school where “Koi Mil Gaya…” was shooted.



We had an extraordinary good time and it is so fine to be in the mountains again. And Nusrat is amazed about the Can. Oh my god- we had so much fun (more pictures coming up soon). And we went for a clubbing which would freak out some people I know in Vienna. All the familymembers were dancing together to “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”. The 6 years old children doing a choreography on stage. And the youngsters and parents freaking out in Bhangra-rhytms, while crazy Dj`s changing the music every 30 seconds. Deewanna.

Still many more to say. But no time hai. I have to catch the next bus.
Stay tuned.

Banaras Bollywood Snapshots

The Bollywood Merchandising Lack

I talked to a Toys-shop-owner in Varanasi about Merchandising-products. Hollywood is seemingly really doing good in india. "Spiderman" is very popular these days. And "Transformers" is upcoming. "Shrek" puppets are selling well. Indian children love that. I was told that Bollywood is doing to little Merchandising. Only young filmmakers are catching up with this flow. And still there is to less childrens movies in India. When Shah Rukh Khan-puppets or Krrish-puppets and Krrish-masks came up they where sold out soon. Toys-sellers like this one (in Varanasi-IP Mall) are informed immediately by the official filmmakers if something is upcoming but still it is very little. For "Ta Ra Rum Pum" for example there is no merchandising at all- "But we are just selling this red toy-cars and they are doing very well despite they are not officially connected with the movie", he said.

Pictures of the week

1)
There was this wonderful suggestion to take a Can-Picture with a Cow. The first approach was very funny. On this picture you can see a very ambitious and helpful guy who tried to arrange the picture for me. Search for the Can. Hehehehe.



2) Promotionposter of “Pirates of the Carribean" dubbed in Hindi”. Well, you thought the movie is really bad? Watch it in Hindi!



3) Again! A “sort-of-Abhishek-Bachchan-Lookalike”. Please meet Gopal, who is selling Bollywoodmovies next to the Ganges. When asking him if it means good karma to buy movies here, he was laughing out loud. By the way - he was telling me that 4 out of 10 customers are white. Dekho Naa.

yoga patent?!

found this one in last weeks newspaper:



Edit: One more: Times of india (7.6.07)

arewah!

My Bollywoodbook is ready! Check it out.

Travelin' Light

J.J. Cale/ from the album "Troubadour"

Travelin' light, is the only way to fly
Travelin' light, just you and I
One-way ticket to ecstasy
Way on down, follow me
Travelin' light, we can go beyond
Travelin' light, we can catch the wind
Travelin' light, let your mind pretend
We can go to paradise
Maybe once, maybe twice
Travelin' light, is the only way to fly
-.-

There are so many psychodelic good songs from J.J. Cale. Go- explore! I just picked this one cause it fits to my mood. I would recommend to listen f.e. to: Ride me high, Thirteen Days, It´s hard to tell, Boilin`Pot. All of them are very fine composed. Some lyrics are smart, others are nasty. Anyway, this was the music we used to listen in Bhagsu. So smooth...and chilled. Right now i am melting and i am off to go on even hotter places.

Tomorrow i will leave Delhi. Uhhh. I am so happy. And i will not tell where i am off to. No way. Dont worry, it is not Rajastan. I read Newspaper. (I am talking about the Gujja-Meena Clash). And i tell you that it is not Bombay. Not yet.

My guitar sadly has to stay in Delhi cause otherwise i will just play her all the time. But the Can is with me. Actually there is a canspiracy going on and even though i should not talk about it i reveal that we will have more sophisticated can-input in the web soon.

By the way: Has anybody of you ever been in Ramojifilmcity? Thinking of going there sometimes. And i have to tell that i am so excited about the planned Bollywood-Themepark in Mumbai.

Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd

I saw this movie and i liked it. Babasko (who recently started to blog also for AOL.in!) told me that the filmcrew was mostly female. And she recommended the movie. Reason enough to give it a try. Actually i have nothing more to say. Watch it- its fun. I would say it is the better version from "Bhaji on the Beach".

AND IT HAS MAGIC, humour, true love, indian tango-dancing, arranged marriage, love-marriage, a runaway bride, sophisticated characters, wonderful actors (f.e. the indian version of Gerad Depardieu- Boman Irani), sensitive homosexual men, a pink bus, a supersexy Arjun Rampal, and one fine happy song and dance number. And even superheroes. And much more.

And its just 2 hours long.

Oh, i have to spoiler you with my favourite scene from the movie, despite it seems impossible for me to communicate the tremendous humour:
The indian busdrivers are talking about how to learn english. The one guy recommends the english-clueless other guy to always simply repeat the last word of the english speaking guy and nod. So he will learn one word after the other. Well, this was very funny- trust me. In India manymany people behaving like this.

Well, Please go here for a good written german Review. And here is the official website.