http://chikteihasman.blogspot.com/2011/08/india-independence-day-late-n-parade.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_%28India%29 ebby and i decided at first to wander about in jackson heights, and we did for awhile. we then decided to change course and slip off to manhattan at ourt favourite kabob place. no sooner did we get there, than we found out there was a parade in progress of being set up. i'd forgotten that india's independence day was last week - the 15th (yes, i know, notty desi kuri here, my haters will surely have a field day with that, fuck 'em all, even the parade itself was late so phhlllllllll.). i was so busy with other shit, i'd forgotten. i forget my own grandparent's birthdays too, so don't take my memory issues so seriously. my memory just sucks at the wrong times. anyway, it was too much fun really. i was so proud, i wanted to attend this parade for years and never got to. this was kind of historic for me. i had a couple people from 'the press' come up to me and ask me to talk to them. i really don't know what press organization they were from, they just had sashes that said press on them. rani mukherjee was the grand marshall this year. i got to see her LIVE from the float, and screamed up to her, but she was having toruble hearing me because of everyone else who was cheering. she had her hand to her ear and was motioning to me though, and i tried to cheer to her again, but she still couldn't hear me through everyone else's voices. it was awesome with a capitol AWESOME anyway. i was FUH-LOOR-ED being able to see her live in front of me! she's one of my idols, and i loved dil bole hadippa that she was in. that's one of my favourite films. i also got to pose with a sexy male dandiya player/dancer, and some woman from the parade route who was marching came and kissed me on the head like a blessing. i told some sardarjis how cute they were, as they were indeed damn good looking n hairy, danced, smiled for the float people, and sc ored a small bit of free soan papdi. i even got 2 flags...a medium one and a small one. both fit nicely in my thums up and limca bottles, lol. the downside to the parade was that they seemed desperate for participants, so had alot of western women in desi clothing, and had a float supporting sonia and rahul gaandu. there were also a few strange floats - the naamdaris did their thing, but didn't see a float dedicated to the REAL sikhs, and some even stranger combo of hindu dieties and christian angels...with a mix of western women and desis. that was disgusting. the did play some great music...some a.r rahman - songs from a cd that i have (yay!), and some bhangra, though some of it was mixed with rap. the exact song the played was ar rahman's vande mataram -
http://www.amazon.com/Vande-Mataram-Ar-Rahman/dp/B000002C21 it's a shame there was no red baraat, but it was great. they needed more repping our desi culture, less culty shit. i don't know if they were trying to appeal to westerners or what their shtick was, but needed improvement there. but the stuff that didn't suck...really didn't suck....it was seriously bahut vadiya and bahut masti. loved it. next year, i'm soooo THERE.
so maf karo, but a LATE and BELATED HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO MERE FELLOW DESI LOK, JAI HIND...HINDUSTAN ZINDABAD!
if i find any vids or images of me in the parade online, ill share them. i took some with my phone but i need a usb cord for it, so pics will come later.