I’ve got a holiday surprise I’m working on for y’all, but in the meantime enjoy this fun little placeholder post where we can all share our Christmas stories and trade gossip and whatever.
First, I forgot to tell you what Albie Dog got for Christmas!!!!! My parents gave him a great pretzel toy that they got at the German Christmas market. And my sister and brother-in-law gave him a festive Christmas collar. Look how happy he is!
Second, a friend just sent me a copy of the annual Kapoor Family Christmas Brunch photo. For those of you who are new, I will explain. Shashi Kapoor (the Best Kapoor) married Jennifer Kendal, an Anglo-Indian woman. As a way of joining her traditions with her new family, she would always host a British style Christmas brunch and invite all her in-laws. Everyone adored Shashi and Jennifer (the Best Kapoors), so they would all trot over to their house for Christmas brunch starting in the early 60s. After Jennifer died in the 80s, Shashi kept up the tradition in her memory. And after Shashi started to get sick, his daughter Sanjana (the Best Kapoor Child) kept up hosting the brunch. And now Shashi is dead too, but the Kapoors still do the Big Christmas Brunch. It’s kind of nice, in a mixed family way. The Kapoors are traditionally Hindu, which means Christmas shouldn’t be such a big deal, but since Jennifer was so awesome, and Shashi loved her so much, they have kept up the tradition of the one big annual non-skippable family gathering being Christmas Brunch. And every year us gossip hounds study the big family photo they release to see who is on the outs, who is dating who, and so on.
Big story this year, Alia is there! That is a BIG step!!! Especially because I think Alia’s family must have their own Christmas tradition? Since her mother is half German-English? For those of you better at Kapoor-ology than I am, let me know what other little tidbits I am missing!
dontcallitbollywood 
Ranbir is drinking. Ranbir is drinking. Ranbir is drinking.
Alia being at the brunch is super interesting especially because I’ve noticed that Mahesh, Soni and Pooja are all tweeting like mad about the CAA protests but crickets from Alia. I’m convinced Alia is the classic Adult Child of Alcoholics who compensates for her disrupted childhood by working very hard to be Perfect and Fit In. Hence connecting herself with Karan and the Kapoors, mainstream filmi families rather than the bunch of oddballs she’s actually related to.
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The crazy thing is, the Kapoors are actually way way more messed up than the Bhatts (I think), but are better at putting on a show of NOT being messed up. Which is maybe also a classic child of alcoholics/otherwise odd and disruptive family background thing? Gravitating towards the family that appears “perfect” rather than your family, that is overly open and out there about how NOT perfect they are.
On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 12:13 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I have a strong fondness for the Bhatts, including Soni, because they are so smart, funny, artsy and blunt. Weird in a way I can identify with. I feel like I could invite any of them to Los Angeles and visit art galleries and eat from taco trucks and then go to a random bar and drink into the wee hours.
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I remember seeing pics of Ranbir & Katrina at this Christmas brunch thing few years back. Hopefully next year we see someone else. Ananya Pandey maybe.
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Sanjana must be so sick of these random girlfriends crashing her carefully planned family event.
And yeah, give it a year and Ananya will be right in the Ranbir dating age sweet spot. Old enough to want to rebel against their parents, young enough to still think he is cool.
On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 12:27 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Is that Karisma looking dorky with the glasses? So cute.
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YES! My friend sent me this all “nooo! Alia!” and my response was “yes, but doesn’t Karisma look cute in glasses?”
Also, what’s up with Saif’s face? Did the camera distort or am I just used to him in a beard now? He looks weird somehow to me.
On Fri, Dec 27, 2019 at 1:30 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I don’t even know which one is him. lol this kind of picture always shows who photoshows the crap out of their own pictures.
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I think he’s over on the right, holding Taimur, with Kareena making a duckface behind him.
On Fri, Dec 27, 2019 at 9:25 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Based on examples I’ve seen IRL, I suspect that Alia is the post-Kat rebound/transition relationship that Ranbir can’t seem to get out of (or doesn’t realize has run its course), hence his appearing to be lost in life somehow. Or visa versa, i.e. he’s lost in life and hence parked himself in a relationship that makes everyone else happy and at least makes him feel supported. Maybe he doesn’t want a second broken engagement. And alia looks too eager-beaver-ish with him recently, like she’s trying to cheer up a depressed person, applying her experience with her sister.
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Hmm, interesting. Rishi also got cancer pretty early on in the Ranbir-Alia relationship. So it could be a rebound easy pleasant thing, and then his father got sick and suddenly he really wanted someone to cling on to. And Alia is trained to be the “happy” and “healing” one in her family, Shaheen has depression, Pooja is an alcoholic and so is Mahesh, I assume Soni and Alia fell into the role of the “easy” ones. So this could just continue indefinitely until one of them finds a way to break the pattern.
Ooo! Maybe this is why Ranbir cheats? He doesn’t have the skills to get out a relationship so he just cheats in a subconscious hope that his girlfriend will find out and he will be freed?
On Fri, Dec 27, 2019 at 11:33 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Speaking of cheating, there are loud rumors about Ranbir and Natasha Poonwala
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I was wondering, because so long as he and Alia are trapped in the Brahmastra limbo, he can’t co-star with another woman which is his usual cheating MO. So I guess he had to put in some effort and (possibly) find a woman out in the world instead of waiting for a director to hand one to him.
On Fri, Dec 27, 2019 at 11:48 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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