In May of 2006, Bob was sent to Mumbai, India on a business trip. When he came back, he brought with him several cds recommended to him, one of which included this. Kajra re in English means ‘kohl-lined eyes’. I can’t say that I see a serious hot lesbian theme going on. In fact, as far as I can tell, in true Bollywood fashion, you could remove this song from the movie it was in (Bunty aur Bobli–a kind of comedy version of Bonnie and Clyde where the prinicpals are con artists) and nothing in the movie would be changed.

But it just kind of got in our brains. If there’s one thing they can do in Bollywood, it’s write hooks. We listened to it over and over. We stared singing it. Sort of. Our next door neighbors are from India and I can only imagine their amusement, or consternation, listening to us singing. I think we’re singing ‘your kohl-lined eyes, your black, black eyes…’ we could very well be doing the equivalent of those random word spam generators that say things like ‘doghouse excel worry worry’.

Fun facts about this video:

The woman dancing is Aishwarya Rai, “the most beautiful woman in the world” (Miss World 1994). She is not, however, actually singing.

The singer is Alisha Chinai, sometimes referred to as ‘the Indian Madonna’. Before that she was called Baby Doll.

Older Guy: Amitabh Bachchan
Younger Guy: Abhishek Bachchan, son of Amitabh
Both Amitabh and Abhishek are 6’3″.

Last but not least, the dancer (Rai) and the younger guy (Abhishek Bachchan) are engaged to be married.

This week is a bit crazy here. I have freelance work and my sister is visiting. You guys are all posting interesting stuff!

My younger child likes to shop. Now, I buy stuff–I am the buyer in chief for the familial ship-of-state: toilet paper, underwear, socks, butter, Mocha Frappucinos–you name it, I buy it. It’s part of keeping the aforementioned ship afloat. But YG really likes buying stuff, and she does keeps her eyes open for sales. This is a good thing; I want her to be able to shop wisely, regardless of what she’s buying. On the other hand, just because something is cheap doesn’t mean that we actually need to buy it.

YG: But it’s on sale. See: five for ten dollars!
Me: Yes, but I really don’t need five bottles of almond butter no matter how inexpensive it is. No one in the house eats almond butter. Dad and Sarcasm Girl are allergic to almond butter.
YG: But it’s on sale!
Me: Move along. Nothing to see here.

And so on.

She’s particularly fascinated by the way using our loyalty cards at the supermarket gets us savings. I have tried to explain to her that this way the store doesn’t have to give sale prices to everyone, just to the people with a Safeway (or Albertsons or Vons or Ralph’s) card. You pass a display that says “Almond Butter, five for $10!” (and in wee tiny print “with Safeway Card”) and if you use your card you spend only $2 for a jar of stuff that normally costs $5.29. But what if you don’t have a Safeway card? If you’re just breezing through town for a convention and have to buy almond butter and you don’t have a Safeway card, you’re going to get stuck paying $3.29 more than the locals.

When I get the sales receipt there’s always a total telling me how much I saved by using my Safeway card. On a $50 bill, I often have a reported savings of $20, which gives me the spurious buy pleasant notion that I’ve been a virtuous shopper. There’s also a tally of how many deli sandwiches and purchases at the in-house Starbucks I’ve logged and thus my eligibility for free sandwiches and coffee. Which means that they’re tallying everything I’ve bought. Somewhere in the bowels of Safeway Central there’s a computer with my entire purchasing history on it; perhaps they use this data to determine what sells at my neighborhood market. Do they share my household taste in cereal and ice cream and cleaning products with the Department of Homeland Security? Report on trends in nutrition based on my purchases? Will my shopping record outlive me?

But Younger Girl is on to the next aisle, where 1.75 quarts of ice cream (the container formerly known as a half gallon) are now two for $7, and she is happy to report that if we buy six containers we’ll be saving $10.50, and we will eat all that ice cream eventually.

And so, alas, we do.