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Dandiya festivities in full swing!
October 6, 2008
Nandini Shah, a 17-year-old commerce student from Kandivali, a suburb in North Mumbai, stands in a lengthy queue at the McDonald's fast food outlet in nearby Borivali, waiting to order a chicken burger. To pass the time, she chats on her mobile: it is frivolous conversation with friends, in a kind of modern Indian-English lingo -- marked by phrases like "really cool, yaar!" and "totally rocking!" -- distinct to India's urban youth.
She studies commerce because she hopes to one day enroll in a 'US business school', and later be a 'business executive'. Her favourite music acts include Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas and Gwen Stefani of No Doubt. The only movie she has seen recently is Pixar's Wall-E, having given Bollywood a miss in 2008 ("It's all crap, yaar").
Navratri tunes on your mobile!
Although Nandini comes from a Gujarati family that has traditionally forbidden non-vegetarian food, Nandini and her parents have come to an uneasy compromise on the matter. "As a Gujju (Gujarati), I'm technically supposed to be vegetarian," she says. "But when I want, I'm allowed chicken and fish, as long as I don't bring it home or anything."
A young Indian college girl who speaks unabashedly with boys, dreams about US business schools and eats at international chain restaurants. Is this just another hackneyed example of the 'Modern India' story repeated ad nauseam? The one of gigantic multi-plex cinema theatres encased in air-conditioned shopping malls, which screen new Hollywood hits every week? The one of BMWs and MBAs, glittering skyscrapers and multinational corporations, investment bankers and their multi-crore salaries?
Text: Matthew Schneeberger | Photographs & video: Uday Kuckian
Also see: Fitness tips from Monica Bedi!
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