Happy Monday! And Happy 3 Day Work Week to my fellow Americans!!! I had a sit down with my housemates yesterday morning and then with my parents yesterday night and my holiday schedule is going to be PACKED. But packed with good things, so that’s okay.
Here is where you get to ask me anything you want from “What are you doing for Thanksgiving?” to “Are you planning on seeing any me in theater ever again?” Just keep swinging back here all week as you think of new questions!
Now, two questions!
First, for my American readers, what is your favorite Thanksgiving food item?
Gravy. 100% Gravy for me.
And for everyone, IT’S HELEN’S BIRTHDAY!!!!!! Favorite Helen Song?
I had a client call into work last week named “Monica” and this has been going through my head every since:
dontcallitbollywood 
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It’s a three-day work week?!? I was so grateful to get one day off this week and I got nothing last year (my nose is slightly out of joint today, in case it wasn’t clear).
First, for my American readers, what is your favorite Thanksgiving food item?
PIE! Hands down. Baking it, eating it, I’m all good. Mashed potatoes with garlic and browned/burned butter comes next.
And for everyone, IT’S HELEN’S BIRTHDAY!!!!!! Favorite Helen Song?
“ye mera dil” from Don. Or maybe Mehboba from Sholay?
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Oooo, mashed potatoes! I am going to two Thanksgivings this year and very excited to have so much mashed potatoes I feel ill.
Margaret
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As ever it’s Mujhe Maar Daalo but there’s no video of that on youtube. Although I also like Yeh Mera Dil and Is Duniya Mein.
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There is no such thing as a favorite Helen song for me, only the Helen song of the given moment. Recently it’s been “Aath Mein Aath Ko Jama Karo” from “Elaan,” in which she starts off as a bullfighter (complete with a papier-mâché-headed actor to depict the bull) but then transforms into some kind of mathematics-themed Swiss milkmaid. Her lyrics and her applique skirt both describe her as eighteen years old; she’s visibly in her mid-thirties. I love it so–
–but I was very recently introduced to “Parvanon Ki Raah Mein” from “Haryali Aur Rasta” and think it may be my new Helen song du jour. Her backup dancers are butterfly men! Or perhaps moth men; they certainly seem to like the giant candle at the beginning. Audiovisual proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cR6AWVdJ3E
My family’s traditional thanksgiving meal is a whole roast lamb! For myself this year, I’m hoping to have a bluegill supper. As I don’t have anybody to celebrate with out here, I’m planning to head to the dam and make the best of the last few days of fishing season.
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Ooooo, lamb! There were a few years when we always had that at Easter. Which is a little dark now that I think about it, little baby lambs being hacked down in their prime.
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Oh my, I adore that moth song! 😊👍
Can any of our Hindi speakers advise whether the lyrics have anything to do with the visuals? Or are they just random moustachioed insects?
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I don’t know from moths, but there definitely aren’t any titliyaan in it.
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The song is about following the moth’s path in love so the costumes are definitely on theme. Thanks for introducing me to the song!
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Oh, thank you, Kainaat!
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As always with Helen, I get completely confused about her family life. (She’s one of the two wives of Salman’s father — but not Salman’s biological mother? or something like that?). Can you give us a summary of all the connections? Thanks!
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Essentially when Salman was around 14 or so, his father married Helen and got her home unexpectedly. Salman’s biological mother was shocked as theirs was a love marriage(she ran away to get married to Salman’s father and came from a rich family) and she locked herself away for almost a year. She was hysterical and not emotionally sound enough to take care of the kids. Salman essentially brought up Arbaaz and Sohail during that period.
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I wasn’t aware about the last two lines you wrote…Salman must have hated his father for that (I guess)!
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I love so many Helen songs, but in honor of my namesake I’m going to go with Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu.
My favorite Thanksgiving food is stuffing, and I’m hoping that I can find a box of Stovetop somewhere–they do sell it here–and have that and maybe some chicken for a mini-Thanksgiving.
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Aw, I want to somehow put you and Shelomit together in your little isolated academic Thanksgivings!
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It’s kind of a boring and safe pick. However, I love Mehbooba Mehbooba. It’s an all-time classic and also if I moved my hips like Helen, I would definitely have to get a hip replacement surgery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByAbV-MKDgs
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I love it too. It was the first time I saw Helen on screen and was mighty impressed…I also like how this dance is imbedded in the plot.
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We don’t celebrate thanksgiving …I think, it’s really an “American thing”. When I was a kid, we had a thanksgiving on 31st of October but it was a religious celebration in church with the church decorated with agricultural products.
Now, the 31st has become Halloween…and the only agricultural product used is the pumpkin 😀
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Questions to you, Margaret:
Would you like to tell a bit about you Californian stay (in addition to the book you bought) ?
Did you’ve watched Monica, oh my darling with Rajkummar?
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Oh oh…sorry for my language mistakes (still early in the morning)…
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California was great! I visited a good friend and spent 70% of the time just talking. We went to a museum at the shipyards nearby, and hit up a bunch of antique bookstores, and went to a tiny little handicrafts museum. But mostly it was sitting on the couch talking and drinking coffee.
And I did not watch the new Rajkummar movie,
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A little personal story about “Helen and I” which is characteristic for my journey into Indian Cinema:
I did not see Helen the first time in Sholay but it was the first time I knew that it is Helen because she plays a prominent role in this famous movie (which I watched to get to know why it had become a cult movie and such a rave that it was in cinemas for 5 years).
The first time, I saw her was in my very first Hindi movie – Mohabbatein! Yet it was only when I read about her on Wikipedia that I got to know it. Still, it was much much later that I made the connection to SRK’s “Monica, oh my darling” (a brilliant dance-song, btw).
from 6:27 on:
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Helen just takes over the screen doesn’t she when she starts dancing!
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Just to celebrate Helen’s birthday (84 since yesterday)… again a “first” (for me):
The first non-ShahRukh movie I watched was Raj Kapoor’s Awara. When I read about Helen I got to know that her first work in a movie was in this movie – as one of the dancing girls. As she was born 1938, she just has been 12 then.
The famous dream sequence:
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Stuffing! – but only my mom’s with sausage in it, and very moist. I think I’ve eaten enough of it now to go a year without.
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