Oye Medamji !!!

Any city with a population of women who frequently travel by public transport or just walk its roads find unique albeit innovative ways of addressing the said population. While the Bengali bhadralok finds ‘maa’ the most common and almost reverential,  a frequent come- on- the- tongue, when talking to an unknown woman half his age, the less educated Bangali gets away with ‘ledij’ much to the amusement of said ‘addressed’.

The reader might blame the author of this blog as having an inadequate knowledge of city parlance, given her limited exposure to two metros till now, a blame the author is much guilty of; but friends and family amply pitch in recounting tales of their well travelled and well lived other city experiences. It is from this overhearing that the author has decided that nothing beats the Dilli man’s abundant talent in the name game.

What’s the first thing that would strike anybody who is being addressed as Medamji? The feeling that you are worthy of the utmost respect, coming from Medam- an abused colonial hangover but much preferred to the Indian ‘behen’ and the suffix ‘ji’- a fond afterthought carefully added to add just that dash of male cockiness which says “baby you don’t want to look at me but hell you CANNOT ignore me!!!”

The baton of ‘Medamji’ is passed on through generations, and young boys itch to start calling any female in the vicinity by the name as soon as they’ve mastered the perfect rhythm of the “ei” after M.

Where the Delhi male exhibits his genius and supreme talent for quick thinking is to fit in the word in sentences that you never thought could carry such worshipful resonance. Herein lies the key to the confused eyebrow raise/irritation/mild annoyance/anger/violent rage/murderous frenzy that the Delhi woman carries in her head every time she has to encounter the male genius-which is every other minute, day in day out.

If Delhi were to have its own Twitter account, the tweets on the exchanges during situational proximity between the said man and said woman could shut down the site temporarily given their frequency of utterance and number of followers. So, while we wait for Dixit Medamji’s approval on that, the author would like to pay homage to one encounter that caused a brief moment of numbness in her otherwise busy brain.

Setting: winter, bus route 764

Characters- Man- shawl wrapped biri flashing conductor

      Woman- naive 18 year old-never-been-in-Delhi-bluelines, god help me reach college quick  

Scene:

Conductor- “Medam kahan jana hai (please take care to hear this in your head in Jaat tone and decibels for added effect, English is a language with limitations sometimes)

Woman- squeaks her destination and knowing the fare passes on a 10-er, hoping the idiot will just pass on the ticket and the encounter will be as brief as this dear god!

Conductor: ok wait, you passed on the money, but I won’t let you get away with such a brief glance at my dude face! “O medam (note, ‘O’ has been suffixed to cajole her into looking at him again) kahan jaana hain?” now he also has her attention and that of his ‘always concerned for the ledij’ male party.

Woman : Shit. I have to answer him, because he won’t pass the goddamned ticket ( the irritation reaches excruciating limits when you’ve given him a 20 and need the change back, he never has it, though there are 100 people stuffed in a 50 seater bus and everybody is buying tickets) “South Extension”

Conductor: “Sothth Aex! (sorry South extension is better known as South Ex which the idiot girl learnt courtesy ^) bahut duur hain! Aap Idhar ao...(gesticulates with flailing arm through enormous shawl)

Woman: why the hell won’t he leave me alone and give me the ticket, looks at him questioningly- he gestures at the space between his seat and the one before him, where if the woman stands she will have any appropriate part of her anatomy facing his dude face depending on her height. Woman is Bengali, practiced in the rigours of eating Hilsa with cunning bones, militant trained in an all girl’s school, knows what the ****face is wanting. “Nahin theek hai, abhi seat milegi, ticket de do”

Conductor- gets an elbow from buddy, man up dude!conductor momentarily derailed sits up, and shoots “Medamji (ammo fired) aaj seat na milegi, aap idhar baith jao Medamji” gets his ass up from the seat hoping woman will sit there so now his anatomy is in her face

Woman- you ***face can’t you just give me the ****face ticket, and keep your ****face on your head and look out the window? Said Jaat has obviously not encountered the cunning of the bangali bomb previously, she retorts “Bhaiyaji (women can be respectful too) inhe bitha do” concernedly pushes on a hair-not-so- white- but- plenty- silver to qualify for seat, god sent Medamji who beams at both. (the travails of getting seat in blueline will take up another blog)

Deflated conductor: medam, ticket le lo, (‘ji’ drops promptly, other unmentionable things drop too, flailing hand goes under the shawl) and ****face looks out the window for another Medamji to board the bus.

 Conductor almost wanted to do this (see pic) to the woman after encounter 

Jouissance of the religiously minded

Religion and an immediate sexual reference to it do not make for great blog starters, but when Sunday mornings bring uninvited reminders of how religious (read of the bhajan singing kinds) you are not, the vessels of my mind overflow with the need for a rant. Here goes:

Any West Delhi survivor worth his salt and a common history of abused Sunday peace will agree that expressions of religious faith are of a passionate fervour that the most celebrated coital moments of your life can’t hold a candle to. Starting with the setting of the stage, to the choice of deity of the day, to the careful selection of the most ‘impactful’ voices  who will set the mood, the kirtan is one of those daily but often missed phenomena that we miss in the list of Delhi’s cultural ‘delights’

This Sunday’s bhajan in keeping with the Eurocrisis (yes kirtanis - singers of kirtans are extremely well read, well informed in matters of global economic crises) is calling out incessantly to an indifferent- to- Euro god to ‘jholi bharo’- filling exchequers in translation. The common understanding is that other more often called upon gods being overwhelmed and preoccupied with matters of national crises like the latest entrant in Tihar from the telecom scam, Sachin not making the 100^th yet and the delivery and poop and piss updates of Beti Bachchan, this particular deity who sounds like ‘Sai’ from afar will have nothing better to do than pour in lards of carefully ‘acquired’ money.

Jholi bharo in Hindi is also a call to get the newly-married-how-dare-you-not-get-pregnant-ASAP woman to   start the much prepared for dutiful breeding cycle of her life, but hearing the male voices reach shrill decibels this morning, the understanding is that money is more dear to man than the pleasures of baby squeals.

The most interesting and why the reference to jouissance- is the quality of musical adaptations, that can have Bappi Lahiri sell his many golds and start a new life as a not-musician somewhere else. Bollywood music has the natural tendency to start setting in our veins as a ready to go reference for musical inspiration, but what set these kirtans apart are the brilliant lyrics of religious smacking that fill into the tunes beautifully. As Sai head bangs his way into ‘Main Jat Yamla Pagla Deewana’ inspired Sai tumhare kitne naam, I wonder what these imagined gods make out of this impromptu yet well intentioned devotions.

The voices- oh you can dedicate many blogs to their tone, texture, impact, tenors and variety but what you can’t beat is the way the many voices reach a tacit, slowly but tenaciously built, commonly enjoyed ‘small death’ on the word Sai mid bhajan. You can have your personal laugh every time this happens, and it happens way too often- so you can rest assured that we are still the land of the genius who scripted the Kamasutra. Replete with drums, chorus, jazzy scarves and religiously intentioned hip shakes we Indians are of a spirited kind. Strange how you take the devotion out of these voices and the cries almost shame down to frowns on couples embracing openly.