When I crashed into a party...

So a very interesting thing happened to me last night. While I was slaving in my class at the university, my colleague suggested we go for a stroll. So we went. And that's when I heard a Bollywood song playing somewhere in the distance. Now I have a knack for this kind of a thing and I was quick to identify the song too. But it was intriguing. Who was playing Hindi songs that loudly at 9 pm? We followed the sound and realised that the sound was coming from outside the University. I concluded that it was probably some Indian having his Saturday night party in his car, playing these songs loudly.

Now I must pause this story to tell you that in India, it is *extremely* common to play the latest Bollywood songs very loudly in your car. So I'd just like to say that it seemed like the most natural conclusion to make! Here I was, thinking I could go and talk to this person and tell him about my project. Have a little chat.

But, I remembered I have a camera with me. So I said, lets take a chance. Off I went to investigate the source, camera in hand. And after crossing some wild bushes (yes, bushes) I came across a house and some kids playing on a trampoline in the garden. After some quick and efficient exchange of words by said colleague, we found out that it was a Bollywood-theme birthday party. The woman was lovely, and invited us in. And it was such an amazing sight! There were all these people dressed in Indian clothes, even a guy who had tanned himself brown and worn a wig with sunglasses-- now that's bollywood! After some quick interviews, everyone gathered to do a Bollywood dance, now that there was a video camera in the party. And then Jane (the hostess) remembered that she has a Bollywood dance CD. So with a female trainer on the projector, everybody gathered around to do the "Bollywood Dance". And that was the best moment of the evening.

And that's what Bollywood is. It's not just the dancing, it's the feeling behind the dances, the vent it gives to your expressions, the way you always end up having fun with it, even if you didn't manage to do the 9 steps out of the 10 that were taught. Ah, what a feeling.

I'm glad that Bollywood has spread it's colour so far that in a corner of Bournemouth, where there is a very marginal Indian population, people still find reasons of celebrating it.