#desi tumblr
realizing you’re bisexual while watching keira knightley and orlando bloom in pirates of the caribbean except i’m desi so replace that with realizing i’m bisexual by watching shah rukh khan in his black and red kurta and preity zinta in her blue and silver lehenga dancing to ‘maahi ve’ in 'kal ho na ho’
I don’t know since when the sadness is living
In the lonely house of my heart
مرے دل کے اکیلے گھر میں راحتؔ
اداسی جانے کب سے رہ رہی ہے
ISTG all the countries of the Indian subcontinent would be besties if they were headed by Desi Tumblrinas
Oh to be the only daughter of the rich scholarly couple from 50’s India, driving a Morris Oxford to University, speaking fluent Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, English and French, lounging in my summer cottage in Shimla, going shopping with Anglo-Indian friends in the local market, either being the subject of envy or disdain of other women, smoking a cigg from my pearl studded gold case that was a gift to daddy from some royalty with one of my many flings, flying off to Paris for vacations, attending meetings with the top leaders and not giving a fuck about getting married because daddy’s rich enough to buy me a trophy husband. All this while clad in elegant yet sexy chiffon saree.
It’s always I’m blessed to have you, never “tum mujhe kisi neki ke badle mili ho, kisi sachhe dil se nikli hui dua ke badle”.
Dekhte hain tan mera, mann mein chubhti hain nazar. Honth sil jaate unke, narm honthon se magar. Ginti rehtii huun main apni karvaton ke silasile. Kya karun, Kaise kahun. Raat kab kaise dhale. Jiya jale jaan jale, nainon tale dhuaan chale. Raat bhar dhuaan chale.
They say when love befall on a woman, she turns mad and her eyes turn red. Lies and yet they aren’t untrue. I lie here, pricking at the helm of my skirt, glancing at the lamp, counting the time waiting for your return. Waiting and thinking about how you might set light afire on the edges of my skin again, how your lips sealed against mine will feel different tonight, how you fingertips will trace again the edges of my mehndi today which I have reapplied for your visual pleasure, even the mehndi on my feet will br crushed as the familiar pain arises. My heart burns and yet I cannot scream for this pain of passion must remain private lest people talk. My thousand confessions stand still at the tip of my tongue. My glances of forlorn are reserved for you and you only. So come soon, so we must be lighted unto each other.
(I watched Dil Se the other day, and realized this song was a masterpiece depicton of female passion and sexuality which isn’t talked about in our society much. So I needed to make a tribute ofc)
when u get confused between dedh and dhai remember that your social life is 1.5 and you want to 2.5
The way I absolutely cackled—
no thoughts just shahid kapoor in jab we met and dil bole hadippa
I need an aditya kashyap in my life
I sure do have a type
I’m a sucker for aditya kashyap but especially this first-button-open-in-the-white-shirt look
writing south indian characters
[@/moonlit_sunflower_books on ig]
The primary Indian story that is told through modern literature and media is a very North-Indian focused narrative, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s a massive lack of south Indian representation. Often we’re sort of ostracised from other Indians as well, so i thought i’d make a post outlining how to write South Indian characters talking about the differences between our cultures :)
If you have anything to add or things to point out, please go ahead! This is all based on my own personal experience and knowledge.
how do you define “south indian”
“South Indian” is used as a very broad term and is also highly relative. Generally, it encompasses people from the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. The problem with grouping all these characters under one massive umbrella is that our cultures are all vastly different, the same way that someone from Assam and Punjab would have entirely different. I’m going to elaborate on this further as we go!
food
South Indian food, contrary to popular belief, does not consist of idli and dosa.
Some examples of more food are bisi bele bath, pongal and vathakuzhambu (i promise it’s not that hard to pronounce), sambhar shadam (a type of rice and curry), rasam, coconut-based kormas, tamarind rice, chakkarai pongal (which is sweet), vadai (yes we pronounce it differently from North Indians), mysore pak, lime rice, our famous filter coffee (or “kaapi”), and so much more.
South Indian food is more rice-heavy than grain-heavy, and we don’t really have a roti equivalent. There’s also a lot of non-vegetarian food, but since I’m vegetarian, I don’t know a whole lot about it :)
There’s also obvious language differences: for example, in a Tamilian household, we would call curd rice “thayir shadam”, which means the same thing. Which brings me to my next point…
languages
There is a reason that there’s a debate as to whether or not Hindi should be the national language. Spoiler alert: it should not.
South India is home to so many languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malyalam. Very often someone from North India will make the assumption that Indian people speak Hindi, whereas this is completely untrue - South Indians should not be expected to speak Hindi any more than North Indians should be expected to speak Tamil.
If you’re writing about a South Indian character, make sure that they speak their native language and NOT Hindi at home! And if it’s a South Indian character who lives in a different part of the country, like I do, they’ll likely know the language of the part of the country they live in as well as their native language. (But this also depends - if a Telugu person has grown up in Delhi, they’re likely to speak Hindi better than Telugu.)
Even characters that live abroad will have some connection to their language. As someone who spent many years outside India, I learnt quite a bit of random vocabulary in the form of food and short phrases like “look here”, “what do you want”, “what happened”, and things like that.
fashion
The South Indian version of a lehenga is called a pavada or pavadai, and it’s often what younger girls wear at any formal or festive event. Older women will often wear saris. Traditionally, Brahmins used to wear 9 yard saris that were tied differently, but in an attempt to eradicate the caste system, this largely isn’t worn anymore.
Men wear veshtis, which is a type of cloth tied around the waist. Traditionally, this would have been worn without a shirt, but today it’s not uncommon to see people walking around with a veshti and formal shirt.
Keep in mind, though, India has become really westernised, so many people will also jeans and shirts and things like that. Fusing ethnic and western wear, like jeans with kurta tops, is not uncommon.
It also varies a lot from region to region - in Chennai you’re much more likely to see someone walking around casually in a sari than you are in Bangalore, simply because of the culture that surrounds the two cities.
physically
South Indians stereotypically have much thicker, curlier hair and darker skin than North Indians. (But this obviously varies from person to person.)
names
Within South Indian names, it’s fairly easy to tell where someone is from - and this is true of any micro-region, state, or culture within India.
Some examples of Tamil names could include “Srinivasan”, “Iyer”, or “Pillai”. (Iyer and Iyengar are actually two sub-sects of Tamilian Brahmins who worship Shiva and Vishnu respectively, but I won’t get into that.) Telugu surnames could include “Komati” or “Nayak”.
But traditionally, South Indians never had surnames. There would be 2-3 initials that stood for one’s village name and father’s name, followed by your name. So, for example, C. V. Raman was his full name! Some people still use this system, but because it becomes difficult during documentation etc, most people have switched to the westernised version of the system.
general culture
Two of my personal favourite parts of South Indian culture are Carnatic Music and Bharatnatyam, both of which I have learnt. Carnatic music is a form of classical music where one sings varnams and shlokas and padams in different raagas and taalams. Bharatnatyam is a classical dance form from Tamilnadu with two main styles - Thanjavur and Kalakshetra.
Of course, there are millions of little aspects to South Indian culture, but I couldn’t possibly fit them all here :)
being south indian
Being South Indian in other parts of India means that you’re subject to a whole lot of racism.
I’ve had people say “how can you call yourself a real indian” and, like I said earlier, use words like “dosa” and “pongal” instead of my name. There’s also language-based discrimination like I mentioned, because many people assume Hindi should be spoken across the country.
The caste system is also very prominent, and there are multiple movements to eradicate it across South India.
rue-cimon-deactivated20220509:
complicated relationships with parents be like
you sacrificed so much for me but i sacrificed so much for you and i wish you’d just go away and leave me alone. don’t leave me; i’m scared when you’re not there with me. can you give me this? i don’t want anything from you. i can never forgive you. do you forgive me? i don’t care for what you have to say to me or what you think of me. are you proud of me? i am free. let me in. i’m not your therapist. it’s ok, i’m here to listen. did you ever love me? i love you so much that it hurts and i hate you so much that it might just make me bleed. give me a hug? i can never not love you. do you feel the same way? do you even know i feel this way? do even know what i feel? did you ever care?
And they’re also paying for your college tuition
