Nostalgic about the 90's

Remember...Sitaram Kesri

2008-05-18T18:32:00.001-07:00

One of the most influential figures in Indian politics in the 90's began his career as street drummer for the Indian National Congress. Kesri distinguished himself in the independence movement, being jailed during at the age of 12 as an accussed in the Ranchi conspiracy case.

Like several of the INC's High Command Sitaram Kesri was a stranger to electoral politics, the only time he ever became a Lok Sabha MP was in the 70's when he was running on a Janata Party ticket. Kesri was also one of the canniest politicians in India and he steadily advanced through the ranks gracing the Rajya Sabha and successive union cabinets.

Narsimha Rao's growing upopularity and the Congress's drubbing in the 1996 led to a haemorraging of leaders from the party- Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Mamata Bannerjee, G.K Moopanar, Madhavrao Scindia, Arjun Singh, Jayanthi Natarajan, P.Chidambaram, many of whom floated their own political parties (Tamil Manila Congress, Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress, Trinamool Congress), so when Rao finally fell there were few leaders around to claim the mantle. Kesri, as party treasurer for 16 years could claim the "senior statesman" and emerged as the consensus candidate.

Political scientists have blamed the demise of the Congress, not to the growth of the BJP, but due to its inability to handle the changing caste equations in North India. Kesri was one of the few Congress leaders who had supported the Mandal initiative and enjoyed warm relations with Laloo Yadav, Mulayam Singh and Mayawati.

Kesri was instrumental in bringing down both the Deve Gowda and I.K Gujral led United Front governments and led the country to successive elections in the late 90's. It was his mismanagement and the fear that he was leading the party to its demise that drew Sonia Gandhi out of political seclusion.

In 1997 Outlook magazine dubbed him Villain of the Year. An extract from the story was reproduced reproduced on Churmuri

"Take a look at Exhibit 1. It is a moment of rare quality. Three men have reduced themselves to a classic abjectness in the face of the formidable Indira Gandhi. One in particular shines through, the man in dark glasses, with the Gandhi topi. He has hit the critical mass of sycophancy: one jot more and he is in danger of dissolving into a puddle of slime.

“Now flip the page, and assess Exhibit 2. More than a decade-and-a-half has passed. But with the stamina and resolve of the finest long distance runner, the man—topi still in place—has saved up enough sycophantic energy for a strong kick down the last stretch. His head is at Narsimha Rao's knees, and Rao is holding on to his hands to keep him from plummeting to the ground. In glorious servility, in a total surrender of the self.

“Now check out the colour picture on top. The glasses are no longer opaque, and the slit eyes visible through them have the casual menace of an alligator’s. The liquid lower lip for once has coagulated into some fuzzy kind of determination. And the wagging finger has the authoritarian quality of an executioner, condemning those at his mercy to the electric chair."

On March 1998, the Congress Working Committee led a coup and for the first time in its 100 year history deposed their elected President and appeal to Soniaji to take over the leadership of the party. During the tussle over the leadership, Kesri was beaten up on live TV by certain party workers at the party office.

With the return of the Gandhi's, Kesri was reduced to a political footnote and died mostly unnoticed in March 2000.

90's tribute video

2008-05-18T18:31:00.001-07:00

Remember..Vicks ki goli

2008-05-05T00:51:00.000-07:00

Khich Khick door karo. The main voiceover was by veteran actor Ashok Kumar

Remember....Tuffy the dog

2008-04-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

Lets face it, historically Indians haven't really liked dogs. The only mention of dogs in our epics is when Dharma takes the form of one to accompany the Pandavas to heaven, and its not because the Pandavas were the sort of guys who liked frisky puppies gambolling with them but because it was a test. Would they allow such an unclean creature to accompany them to heaven? Temple sculptures, Mughal miniatures, Buddhist thankas are full of imagery of animals, swans in flight, peacocks dancing, elephants entering the wombs of queens (long story), majestic lions, menancing cheetahs, lots of parrots, cows galore, there is even a rhinocerous that appears in the Jahangirnama, but very few dogs and no cats.

You could have a pet tiger or if you were plebian a pet cow, but dogs were really not an Indian thing. of course, colonization changed that. The British and their obsession with canines is well documented, perhaps its because they were the only company they had when they ventured into the midday sun. And naturally, if the British had dogs, so must we. So the pet dog appeared in middle class homes and in popular imagery.

Bombay heroes usually had Alsatians or Dobermans or perhaps a trusty mongrel at a pinch, usually called Moti or Tommy, who could attack the villain, defend the honor of the heroine, save children from drowning and catch any balls thrown at him.

Sooraj Barjatya soon put an end to that. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun deserves a post to itself, as it was an epochal film in many ways. Not only did it reshape Bombay cinema, it affected fashions, interior decoration and choice of pets.

The real star of HAHK for many people was not Madhuri or Salman (and certainly not Monish Behl) but Tuffy the wonder dog. Tuffy, the fluffy Pomeranian could play cricket with Salman Khan, bring fighting lovers together, bark at the menials and the villainess, run for help when his mistress fell down the stairs, receive divine messages from Lord Krishna, read letters and most importantly, reunite the lovers and save the day. No wonder the popularity of Pomeranians shot up amongst pet owners in Delhi. Imagine being able to do all that and fit into a DDA flat.

Remember..NTR and Lakshmi Parvathy

2008-04-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

When Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao was promoting his film in the early 80's, he was apparently asked by a fan Ayya, memu mimmalni devudu laga adarinchamu, kani meeru maku emi chesaru? meaning Sir, we have treated you like a God but what have you done for us? Moved NTR decided that the best thing he could do for his fans was to join politics. NTR founded the Telegu Desam party. The TDP had only one recognizable leader, an unknown ideology and ran a campaign only on Telugu atmagauravam (Telugu self respect).

Within nine months they had wiped out the Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh which had been ruling since 1947. They also withstood the sympathy wave in favour of the Congress after Indira Gandhi's assassination and emerged as the largest opposition party in parliament. NTR dominated Andhra politics till 1995, dressing up like Swami Vivekananda, helped form the VP Singh government, imposed prohibition and sold rice at Rs 2 a kilo.

But in 1995 he fell in love. Lakshmi Parvathy, a young woman who was engaged to write his biography and who had nursed him after his stroke became his confidante and helpmate. NTR married Lakshmi Parvathy despite the protests of his twelve adult children. Lakshmi began to exercise great power from behind the throne. NTR faced a revolt from his party members led by his son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu ousted an ailing NTR and became CM. NTR died soon after and despite her floating her own political party, allying with the BJP and winning some 10% of the popular vote, Lakshmi Parvathy was reduced to a peripheral figure in Andra Politics.

NTR died in 1996 and it was only in 2004, after the Naidu led TDP had been wiped out in the elections did Lakshmi Parvathy immerse his ashes in the Ganga.

Going to College

2008-04-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

Going to college in the early 90's was fun. The rules were simple, the girls were haughty and spunky and wore frilly frocks, the boys were brash and lechorous and wore tight pants. Fat girls and dopplegangers always found employment as sidekicks. Academics were not very visible, most students appeared to be in their mid thirties and there was a whole lot of pelvic thrusting.

Student's wanted Romance Period and Love and Dance Period! (see evidence below)

Madhuri Dikshit wears the regulation scarlet off the shoulder frock with three layers of frills.

Akshay Kumar demonstrates that you live cheaply at University. Eve teasing gets you flour, eggs, tomatoes and chocolate. Ayesha Jhulka in a lovely yellow ensemble.

Prof Govinda takes Pelvic Thrusting 101

Vivek Mushran brings cricketers to the basketball court and Urmilla Matondkar leads her troupe of ballerinas.

But then something happened in 1998, Karan Johar reimagined Indian collegescapes. The college in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was supposed to be a blend of Riverdale High School and the Brandon and Brenda's school in Beverly Hills 90210. Tommy Hillfiger replaced frilly confections and spiked hair replaced the mullet. No longer were girls asked to make beautiful mistakes, neither were they compared to naked electric wires, pillars, and firecrackers.

An Indian college experience was replaced by Johar's anasthetized Mcuniversity

Gender Benders!

2008-02-17T22:12:00.000-08:00

There has been an old tradition of men in drag in Bollywood. Some say it is a result of gender lines being more fluid in South Asia than in the industrial Western world. Others would argue that is is the colonial creation of the image of the "Manly Englishman" posited against the "effeminate Indian", or as Mrinalini Sinha would have it, Bengali. Popular cultural theorists assert that Bollywood films have always been coded with queer references and have been sites for queer pleasure.

But the question I have to ask is this, in the good old days you always knew when there was a man doing drag, his awkward gait, tennis ball bosom, bony hips or bristling mustache usually gave him away.

Quite frankly, they looked hideous. Of course, they could be a laugh riot, but they were objects of bemusement not desire.

Evidence A

Kishore Kumar

Evidence B

Amitabh Bachan in Lawaris

But something happened in the 90's, maybe it was globalization, maybe it was the availability of a dozen varieties of shaving cream but men in drag were often scarily convincing. And no this was no Ali Saleem doing a Begum Nawazish Ali, but the macho men of Bombay cinema strutting their stuff in stilletos

Evidence A

Shahrukh Khan in Duplicate as Svetlana

Evidence B

Aamir Khan in Baazi as Julie Braganza

Evidence C

Salman Khan

And the exception to prove the rule,

Trivia Note: Only Govinda and Shakti Kapoor are in drag, the one in the middle is Karishma Kapoor

Remember.. the chumma

2007-12-19T16:08:00.000-08:00

Before the choli and the chunari came the chumma, with Amitabh doing his pelvic thrusts and the much mascaraed Kimi Katkar

Sundar does a fascinating comparison between Jumma Chumma de de (Hum) and Tamma Tamma Loge (Thanedaar), pointing out that Lakshmi-Kanth Pyarelal and Bappi Lahiri both copied the music from the song Tamma Tamma Mory Kante, native of Gunieau and master of the kora harp.

While Sundar's gives Tamma Tamma an easy lead over Jumma Chumma, I would argue that despite scary Kimmi and the even scarier Amitabh uncle's pelvis, Jumma Chumma had a greater impact on public consciousness. For instance, I have heard roadside romeo's yell out "Jumma Chumma dede" but never "Tamma Tamma lo ge" (indeed, what does a Tamma mean?).

Since I spoke Bangla at home and English in school, most of my Hindi was very correct Bal Bharti stuff, so thsi was my first exposure to the word chumma. Finally, the Chumma video was used very cleverly by Tata Tea for its commercial, after all the white mugs seem more suited to hold chai than beer.

Remember.. Sush v. Ash

2007-12-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

The 90's saw a number of major conflicts: India vs Pakistan at Kargil, Chandrababu Naidu vs NTR over the Telegu Desam Party, Coke vs Pepsi over the market share, but the most fun to watch was the fabled Aishwarya vs. Sushmita rivalry.

It all began at the the Miss India contest in 1994 which architecture school dropout and rising model (Hi its Sanjana...got another Pepsi) Aishwarya Rai was the favourite to win. Then she was asked whether the explosion of TV networks from abroad was harming Indian values, to which she replied, "well, I haven't been affected and neither have my friends who are taking part, so there" (or something on those lines. After that answer her odds plumetted and she found herself tied with the gawky 19 year old Sushmita Sen.

In the tie breaker round Aishwarya was asked if she would prefer a husband like Ridge from Bold and the Beautiful or Mason from Santa Barbara (so much for foreign TV not affecting our values). Mason, because he is soooo caring, she gushed. Sushmita was asked a CBSE board exam question about how old the textile industry in India was. It all began with Gandhi and khadi she simpered.

Well, Gandhi trumps Mason, so Sush won the crown. However it was after both of them won the Miss Universe and Miss World contests respectively did the Indian media go hysterical.

Indian women are the most beautiful they cried, and the 90's just seemed to churn out Indian beauty queens. Meanwhile, the Ash-Sush rivalry spilled onto other fields. Coca-cola reined in Sushmita while Aishwarya was already a Pepsi model. Sushmita did advertisements for Camay , and Aishwarya followed with Lux. Both began their Bollywood careers disastrously. However, in 2000 Aishwarya won the Best Actress Filmfare for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam whil Sushmita won the Best Supporting Actress trophy for Biwi No 1.

Remember...the underwear clad flower

2007-12-04T21:46:00.000-08:00

I am embarrassed to confess that I haven't read Kipling's the Jungle Book in original. So the sanitized Disney version that i have seen has been shorn of several of the imperialist and racist references. e.g the Bandar Log. What would breakfasts on Sunday morning be without "Jungle Jungle Baat Chali hai, Pata Chala Hai...Chaddi pehen ke phool khila hai, phool khila hai"

Remember the...Gutur Gutur

2007-12-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

Mithun Chakroborthy was a 80's phenonmenon. at one time giving Amitabh stiff competition for the Angry Young Man slot. But after Agneepath in 1990 which got him his first Filmfare for playing Krishnan Iyer, Yem. Yay, Nariyal Paani wallah, Mithun went on to appear in a series of films which despite recouping their money never got mainstream attention. Dalaal was one major exception.

Starring Mithun and Ayesha Jhulka (another 90's phenomenon) the film was a hit in both Hindi and Bengal, and is remembered for the "Gutur Gutur" song. Set to music by Bappi Lahiri, the song was set in a village square, Ayesha Jhulka in a Rajastani banjara outfit and was peopled by young women in skimpy sarees with feathered headresses. Sort of Moulin Rouge in Chattisgarh.

The song comes from an old tradition of Hindi songs where the seething sexual tension between the lead actors is expressed through playful song and dance sequences performed by "tribals. The Gutur Gutur song has rightly been identified as belonging to the High Double Ententre period of Hindi film music. Despite the catchy beat, the song is best remembered for its lyrics,
which are all about randy pigeons climbing onto the roof/the woman and pecking for seeds, punctuated with guttural pigeon sounds.

The Bangla version with the foottapping Bokom Bokom can be watched online.

Remember...wonderful doodh

2007-12-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

Another reason to love milk

Remember...the Crazy Bunny!

2007-12-01T22:27:00.000-08:00

Now I am not sure whether the Lijjat Pappad ad began in the 1980's or the 1990's. but I distinctly remember this being one of the standard advertisements on TV until the mid 90's. With the onslaught of cable television (and more expensive ad spots), Lijjat pappad ads moved to the world of rented videos.

The product itself was made by a Shri Mahila Griha Udyog (trans. Women's Home Industry), a cooperative based in Gujarat. The Sri Mahila Griha Udyog story is pretty inspiring. It was founded by seven illiterate and women who borrowed Rs 80 to start a papad business which grew from a turnoverof Rs 6,196 in the first year to Rs 300 crore in the next four decades, involving over 40,000 women.

The ad was fairly simple, but its manic bunnies and the karram kurram jingle continues to haunt.

Fun Trivia: The Rabbit in the picture was made by Ramdas Padhye and Aparna Ramdas. Padhye was India's leading ventriloquist

Remember..Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao

2007-12-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

Do you remember Narasimha Rao? For someone who as the Prime Minister oversaw a remarkable transition in India's economy and polity, he hardly recieves any mention in the media. Apart from penning a rather inspid political novel albeit with some steamy sex scenes, he disappeared into relative obscurity after 1996.

The wags say that Narsimha Rao's only political ambition after having the leadership of the party thrust upon him, was to ensure that his government lasted 5 years. And it did, despite the Babri Masjid falling, massive attacks on Kashmiri pandits, the kidnapping of the home minister's daughter, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery scam, the St. Kitts forgery scam, Lakhubhai Pathak scam, the Telecom scam, the Jain-Hawala scam, the Harshad Mehta scam...I think we can see a pattern here. Narsimha Rao remained impassive, pouted and came up with prize quotations such as "Inaction is also action" and "When I don't make a decision, it's not that I don't think about it. I think about it and make a decision not to make a decision."

He had a significant impact on foreign policy, it was during his tenure that the groundwork for the 1998 nuclear tests was laid, he established diplomatic relations with Israel and allowed them to open their first embassy in Delhi and strengthened ties with Iran and the ASEAN. My most striking memory is of him at a SAARC summit sitting grumpily on a podium hemmed in by women- Benazir Bhutto, Khaleda Zia and Chandrika Kumaratunga- who all had pouts far prettier than his.

Given that Manmohan Singh entered politics largely due to Rao's break from convention in appointing an economist as Finance Minister, it is ironic that he is absent from the political discourse of the day. Narsimha Rao died in 2004. I'm not sure how many people knew he was around till then.

Fun Trivia: Rao was India's first South Indian Prime Minister. He won his Lok Sabha election with a huge majority getting him onto the Guinness Book of World Record and he spoke 14 languages.

Remember....the Kama Sutra

2007-12-01T15:03:00.001-08:00

Back in the 1980's condom ads focused on population control and couldn't mention sex. The ads either showed concerned lady doctors advising young married women to use Nirodh, or there was a young couple with an umbrella (hint hint) strolling along in the rain to "Pyaar Hua Ikrar Hua Hai". AS Vinayak points out in his blog, " Children had trouble understanding what the hell Nirodh was…why all the rain and the singing and the pink umbrella. Grown up had trouble understanding it too, the population kept growing in spite of all the talk and wall painting by the Family welfare department".

Despite the Bold and the Beautiful and Baywatch the khatiya's sarkaoing and people wondering aloud about what was behind the choli, the advertisement for Kamasutra condoms did cause a number of jaws to drop. Condoms are not just for family planning, ergo people don't just have sex to have children, they actually have sex for pleasure. After all Vatsayana's Kamasutra is the one Indian book that has been read by more foreigners than Indians. Even the venerable Dharmashastras placed sexual pleasure third in the list of objectives of married life, trailing behind "duty" and "production of offspring".

Also, you had Pooja Bedi, a wild child, but still the daughter of a celebrity taking a shower on TV. Wow...or rather chee chee. I had never really seen the entire advertisement because someone always changed the at home when the ad came up. But now, the wonders of youtube, allows me to relive those memories. If you are interested in how the ad campaign developed, check out the latest Kamasutra adverts here

The advertisement was directed by Aleque Padamsee and starred Pooja Bedi and Marc Robinson.

Fun Trivia:

Why the blog

2007-11-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

The 1990's were a period of rapid change in India. The economy opened up in 1992, Manmohan Singh became a middle class hero and NCERT textbooks required us to memorize the three prongs of the New Economic Policy (were the echoes of Lenin only coincidental)- liberalization, privatization and globalization. Mandal, masjid, Coalition politics, judicial activism, rath yatras, people's movements, cable TV, milk drinking Ganesha's, Choli ke piche kya hai, nuclear tests, the India of the 80's was shaken up. It will be many decades before historians and social scientists can understand the impact of the 90's in India. Ram Guha in India After Gandhi writes that only accounts of this period can be historically informed journalism. However there are other ways of recapturing the past, something I hope to do through fragmentary reminisces. of people, things and events that form my memory of the period between 1990 and 2000.

Also, its about time that I my hours on youtube to some productive use.