Language, Music & Class

I don’t know why, but perhaps because of a conversation about music last night, and perhaps because of my impending India trip next week, I was reminded of a very important period of my life in India when I first became aware of a social class system that had far-reaching effects on my thinking and how I view the phenomenon of westernization in India. I realize that it has resulted in some very deep-seated sentiments about westernized Indians in my mind and makes me fiercely protective of what I call the large, still unanglicized population of India. I feel that way because I feel like I used to be one of them.
I was raised in a suburb of Bombay called Vile Parle (East) which was a well-known Marathi cultural center. In a melting pot city which invited migrants from all over the country, Vile Parle (east) clearly had two principal communities- largely Marathi and some Gujarati. Vile Parle (east) was well-known for its Marathi literary stalwarts that it boasted as its famous residents among many- people like P.L.Deshpande and Vijay Tendulkar. Kishori Amonkar, the legendary classical Indian singer lived in Vile Parle (East). It was famous for its active Marathi theater artists. And it was famous as an extremely successful education-oriented community. Some of the city’s top educationally successful schools (most were Marathi medium) were in Vile Parle (east). Even with its famous residents, however, the majority population was very very middle class Maharashtrian. While many people could of course speak English, the culture was very non-western. Marathi was spoken everywhere with of course a sprinkling of Bombayite Hindi. My extended family was very much an integral part of this community. My parents were Indian music lovers, lovers of Marathi theater and before we knew it, my sister and I were immersed in a very exciting and active community of Marathi literary and theater scholars and artists. In addition, since my parents had grown up in the North, there was huge love for Hindi literature.
Within our family also, my parents taste in the arts was a very interesting mix. In terms of literature, my parents exposed us to English, Hindi and Marathi literature in equal parts. Speaking and writing good English was stressed enormously and I remember my father being a stickler for using correct grammar in English. He himself wrote and spoke excellent English. So we had books in the house that ranged from all the classic English authors like Dickens and Hardy but also Premchand in Hindi and P.L. Deshpande in Marathi. When it came to music however, my parents were, much like the rest of India, hardcore Hindi film music fans. Names like Rafi, Kishore, Lata and Asha were household names in our family. The first thing my mother did when she woke up in the morning was to turn Vividh Bharati on. My mother, an excellent singer herself as I have already told you, inculcated in us a taste of old Hindi lyrical and melodic music that has to this day defined both mine and Varsha’s taste in music. My father, a huge fan of Hindi films and film music himself, encouraged this whole-heartedly. Discussion of western culture in our house was typically about western efficiency and progress in science and technology that had happened in the west (these discussions were mainly within the context of the fact that we had lived in Europe for a few years when I was little). But there was no western music in our lives and very few western movies. In this culture and environment, I considered myself completely one of the “haves”. I never felt out of place. I never felt like I didn’t belong. I never felt lower and lesser than anyone else in a cultural sense.

Imagine my shock then when the year was 1981 and after finishing 10th grade in Vile Parle (east) I went to attend Mithibai Junior College which is in Juhu (Vile Parle West) which was less than 5 miles away on the other side of the railway tracks but a million miles away when it came to some elements of culture.
It was at Mithibai that I first became aware of what westernized culture in India was about. It was a culture that I had never been exposed to growing up in Vile Parle (East). I started to notice that there were more than a handful of boys and girls that were dressed way more fashionably than us in VP east. They only spoke English with each other. If you spoke to them in Hindi they would answer back in English. They would throw names of English sounding groups or bands from the UK or the US (and the only English band I had heard of at the time was The Beatles). They had girlfriends and boyfriends (unheard of in Vile Parle (east)). I started to become aware of the class difference between me and them. Boys like me who came from typical Hindu, Muslim or Sikh middle-class or lower middle class backgrounds were the ones who spoke in the Bombayite street Hindi whereas these guys spoke sophisticated "convent" English. It wasn't just that these guys spoke English (cause I spoke good English too) but the fact that they ONLY spoke in English. It wasn’t that they listened to western music but the fact that they ONLY listened to western music. It wasn’t that they watched American movies but the fact that they ONLY watched American movies. They made fun of Hindi film music and watching Hindi films. If you spoke to them in Hindi, they exhibited this amused displeasure while answering you back in English. Interestingly though, the labels associated with these kids was "High-Class" or the more common "Hi-fi". I started to understand other labels like the "Khar-Bandra crowd", the "Jamnabai crowd". They were the “cool” crowd!! I used to watch these folks with riveted interest and it didn't take me long to figure out that this was an out-and-out English versus non-English, western versus Indian class system. In this class system, they were the exclusive few haves and I was one of the larger group of have-nots. I noticed that these higher class kids were either rich Hindus or Muslims or middle-class Christians. That proved to me that membership in this clique had little to do with money and riches and completely to do with (exclusively) English and western tastes. I started to wonder what it would take for me to be accepted as part of that group. At first, I was embarrassed about the fact that all I knew at that time was Hindi music and all I had watched was Hindi movies (even though that would be natural in India). I was embarrassed that I didn’t converse in English like them. I would try to sit with them and they would make fun of my Marathi language TV sitcom that I used to act in. But then slowly but surely this embarrassment turned into a strong resentment. I resented the fact that in my own country, in India, I was being made to feel lower than someone else because I had Indian tastes ad background? I developed a strong distaste for that whole culture that assigned me a lower status because I wasn’t westernized like them. And yet, I wanted to penetrate that group.
I don’t know how or when though, but I consciously decided to use my skills in languages and in music and singing to beat them at their own game. I consciously decided to start speaking only in English with them every chance I got, watch more English movies. Around that time my friend Chhotu lent me a tape of Billy Joel. I remember going home and listening to the tape over and over and over again figuring out the American accent and writing down lyrics and singing along. In a few months time, I got hold of more Billy Joel tapes from my friends and I had memorized almost every Billy Joel song there was. Then one day when we were sitting in the canteen in Mithibai and I started crooning out a Billy Joel song, I remember how distinctly many of these kids looked at me with surprise and a hint of admiration. From then on, I was seen as an acceptable member of this circle. Why? Because I was speaking excellent English to them and immersed in western music and had in their eyes reached a level of sophistication that they considered worthy of interaction with. But deep inside, I was always extremely resentful of this culture. I always kept a distance from them but started to “commute” between my Indian, Hindi music and Hindi speaking folks and these westernized, English speaking and English-music-listening Indians!!!! I told myself I had nothing against anyone choosing to listen to a certain kind of music because they preferred how it sounded but that I would never stand for using a musical taste to determine class.
My impressions of the deep disdain the westernized community in Bombay had over Hindi music and movies was only reinforced when I heard a recent interview of the famous Bollywood producer director Karan Johar. When he was asked the question about when his love for movies was born, his answer was a complete reaffirmation of my experiences on the other side. He humorously admitted that the kids he hung out with in South Bombay didn't "associate" with Hindi movies or culture. He even said that even though his father was a famous producer of Hindi movies he would keep that a secret among his friends. One time, when his friends pointed out a cinema poster with his Dad's name on it as producer, he vehemently denied that that was his father. But all through that time, he was a closet Hindi movie fan.
It is hard to imagine cultural snobbery like this happening in any other country. Can you imagine an American kid trying to hide the fact that he likes American movies??? Of course, with times the situation has only become worse. Ironically, the most unlikely place this is apparent is in the Hindi-speaking standard of today's Bollywood movies itself. It is no secret that star-sons and daughters that enter Hindi movies today have such little exposure to Hindi-speaking that they have to hire Hindi speaking coaches just to learn to speak what should be their own mother tongue. Even when they manage to speak full sentences, their accents are so anglicized that it would almost seem as if the actors and actresses just landed here from the US or UK.
I for one have redefined my approach since those days in Mithibai. As much as I speak and can write good English, when I visit Bombay now, I unabashedly speak Hindi or Marathi in every south Bombay, Bandra or Juhu place I visit for shopping or in restaurants unless I am with someone who has legitimate reasons for not being familiar with Hindi(such as someone from the South or someone non-Indian). If I am supposed to be ashamed of speaking in Hindi or Marathi in Bombay, where am I supposed to speak it with pride?? In the US?

SO its 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning and I can't sleep so I have made a decision this morning to start this blog. What am I going to blog about? I really don't know right now. But I have always wanted to write so I think this would be a great medium thats been around for a while to start a writing hobby.