#Indian marriage rituals

[metamatar]

Not a gotcha, just curious:I saw you say Hinduism isn't the indigenous religion of India. Do you mean like. Modern Hinduism? That there is no indigenous religion for India? That there's another one that is indigenous?

if you could link me to the post where i said that i could be clearer but i could have meant it in two ways.

one, indigenity as a political formulation, which is about how historically hinduism has functioned as a powerful, dominant and subjugating force on other local indigenous traditions. tbf the hindu was to some extent a label used by the british to categorise diverse non abrahamic indian religious practices, and nationalist hinduism as understood by reformers and sanatanis responded to colonial pressures by recreating it into a unified vision. but even predating that it was still an assimilative force on several prexisting, mostly animist traditions that it otherised as 'dasa' (cognate: slave or servant) in the vedic literary texts. post independence modern hinduism continues also to perform the standardisation of upper caste practices through sanskritisation of lower caste ritual traditions. hindutva in the modern day for example insists that marriages that don't perform the seven rounds around the fire are illegitimate hindu marriages. the use of state run reservation schools that forcibly convert tribal children is a particulary egregious example of hinduism's non-indigenity in the political sense. less obviously, how anyone not muslim or christian is characterised as "hindu" in the personal codes – excluding the distinct histories of sikhs and jains and buddhists with several hundred year old recorded origins in the country.

two: i could have been invoking the aryan migration hypothesis which examines linguistic, archeological and genetic record to suggest aryan, and therefore vedic tradition migrated into the subcontinent from iran.

[burningcheese-merchant]

You have fully covered me into a burningcheese fan. I absolutely love how you write these ships with them!

But one question if burningcheese ever decided to have a wedding, what do you think it looked like and play out?

*inhales deeply* MY FRIEND! MY GUY! I'M FOUR PARALLEL UNIVERSES AHEAD OF YOU! (also, welcome to the cult and thank you so much for your support! I'm happy to bring people joy with my stories!)

I'll just give a few bullet points, because a) I have a lot of thoughts, and b) I haven't finished planning their wedding in full lol

Biggest. Wedding. Ever. Not exaggerating at all. It would be the biggest, most grand and beautiful wedding in the history of the world. Eclair will be there and he won't even be fully enjoying himself; he'll be too busy taking notes on EVERYTHING he sees, because it's such a fascinating culture mix/clash, there are so many guests (many of which are important figures), there are so many unique traditions and rituals and artifacts on display and and and... This isn't even his field of study, but he would absolutely be remiss to NOT document the wedding extensively, if only to pass it along to colleagues that actually specialize in cultural history (and help author some textbooks lol)

As said above, a big, fun culture clash. Members from both of their kingdoms worked together and went above and beyond to blend Egyptian Golden Cheese Kingdom aesthetics and with Indian Wild Spice aesthetics to create something traditional, yet brand new and exciting. Who would've thought they would work so well together? (You can say the same thing about the bride and groom tbh lol)

Our lovely couple's outfits would have bits and pieces from each other's cultures as a respectful homage to one another (and to show that they will be unifying their peoples through their marriage). Golden Cheese will dress mostly in her own traditional style, but with a good handful of pretty, tasteful Wild Spice accessories to accentuate her look. Same with Burning Spice; traditional Wild Spice wedding clothes, but with a touch of GCK to honor his wife

Also, they would both have matching henna (or mehndi, as they're actually called in India) tattoos. Very elaborate and beautiful, done by Wild Spice artists. (Henna/mehndi are mostly for women/brides, but from what I understand, men/grooms can get them too. I want to do this because I LOVE the idea of GC and BS having matching tattoos/makeup)

Everyone is invited. Literally everyone. They don't even have to know you. Just show up and have a good time (and be in awe of their love and devotion lol). It's very common for Indian weddings to be big ragers with many, many, MANY guests, and I thought that would suit a BurningCheese wedding too (especially for GC, she honestly probably would want EVERYONE to show up, both to show off and because she genuinely wants to share her joy with others)

Wedding party(ies) is their closest homies. The other Ancients plus the Cheese Gang (Smoked Cheese, Burnt Cheese and Mozzarella) for GC, a handful of his best subordinates for BS (Nutmeg Tiger, Saffron Buffalo, Pepper Pangolin, maybe Cilantro Cobra too).

Burning Spice thought of having Pitaya Dragon as a best man equivalent of some sort because they're Crime Besties (in my headcanon lol) but Hollyberry walked him through why that's a terrible idea and just left Pitaya as a regular guest

Wedding lasts a whole week, the main ceremony plus other rituals and a whole lot of dancing and drinking and laughing and having a blast together and with their loved ones

A+++ food, both GCK dishes and Wild Spice dishes, plus an assortment of delicacies from other lands (there's food from the Dark Cacao Kingdom, Faeriewood, the Creme Republic, etc). Hollyberry came in clutch and provided most of the booze (her kingdom has the god-tier alcohol, it was a welcome choice)

You can rest assured that they enjoyed their wedding night very, very much lol. Especially because there were technically seven of them. (One of Mozzarella's wedding gifts to them was soundproofing GC's bedroom no strings attached. She Knew™️. She's a girl's girl lol)

I'll stop there for everyone's sake, but TL;DR: it's a enormous, gorgeous event that perfectly encapsulates and celebrates their love. (And I envision this as part of Burning Spice's redemption arc, so it's like the reward at the end of a long, arduous journey. The breathtaking sunrise waiting at the mountain summit.) And they live happily ever after and have a family in the future, but I'm not spoiling that for any of you just yet :)

[city-of-ladies]

"As in previous wars, women aided both Mexican and foreign troops during the French Intervention. Some women fought alongside their male counterparts, while others looked at French troops as employers and marriage partners. The invasion by France started when Spain, England, and France occupied the customshouse in Vera Cruz in 1861-1862 in order to collect revenue to pay claims against Mexico. The French decided to stay in Mexico and create a new French empire in America. It was not until 1867 that the Mexicans were able to expel them.

Ignacia Reachy distinguished herself in the ranks. Reachy, who was born in Guadalajara about 1816, started a women's battalion to defend the city against the French. Col. Antonio Rojas gave her a pair of riding boots while Colonel Gonzalez presented her with the uniform of a second lieutenant. She left Guadalajara to join the Army of the East. Her friend Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza put her in the Second Division under Gen. Jose Maria Arteaga. She fought well in the Battle of Acultzingo on April 28,1862. Reachy was captured by the French while covering the retreat of General Arteaga. After a year in prison she escaped and presented herself to Arteaga for more combat duty. She became a commander of the Lancers of Jalisco and continued to fight with great valor until killed in action in 1866. Reachy's story shows that there were soldiers and even some officers who welcomed women in the ranks.

Soldaderas were part of the successful Mexican forces that defeated French forces in Puebla on May 5, 1862. Every year the battle is re-created by the Zacapoaxtla Indians to commemorate the event. Yet by a strange twist of fate, only men are allowed to play all the roles, including those of the soldaderas. Each man "carries on his back a doll to represent a baby, and a small basket with food and water." The men dressed as soldaderas and carrying rifles also take part in the fighting. An antecedent for this "men only" ritual battle re-creation goes back to Mexica times when the Cihuacoatl (Snake Woman) or war chief had to dress in women's clothing when entering cities recently conquered. The continuation of this ritual shows that some native groups dominated by patriarchal views still distort woman's role in warfare."

Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History, Elizabeth Salas

[eternal-echoes]

“Most people have never heard of the hijra, sādhin, or fa'afafine. As a result, when such names are used in gender theory classes to promote the idea of a "third gender," most students have no option but to listen and "learn." A closer examination of these titles reveals that they don't fit neatly into the Western concept of gender. One reason for this, according to Towle and Morgan, is that "The third gender' concept lumps all nonnormative gender variations into one category, limiting our understandings of the range and diversity of gender ideologies and practices."(6)

Perhaps the most glaring example of this is the fact that segregating sexuality from gender is a distinctively Western concept. This can be seen in popular catchphrases such as, "Sexuality is who you go to bed with, but gender is who you go to bed as." In many cultures, the two are intertwined: Your masculinity or femininity are revealed by how you express your sexuality.

Take, for example, the hijras (also known as kinner). Within parts of Indian culture, these are sexually impotent males who have their genitals removed in a ritual, while facing an image of a goddess, to achieve ritual powers. They often wear women's clothing, assume their mannerisms, take on feminine names, have male sexual partners, and are often used as prostitutes. However, according to anthropologist Adnan Hossain's research of hijras in Bangladesh, their identity is rooted more in their sexuality than in their religious roles.(7) They are not understood to be women. Rather, they are castrated males considered within Hinduism to have received a calling from their goddess. If they refuse to assume this role, their punishment is that they will be reborn impotent seven times.(8)

Another gender variant within Indian culture is the sādhin. These are young women who refuse to marry and sometimes take on certain traditionally male roles. Within traditional Hindu culture, the only accepted roles for a female are those of wife and mother. Since the sādhin do not embrace these roles, they form their own social niche. However, they are not considered to have changed their sexuality.

Rather than labeling such a person a "third gender," a more accurate understanding could be gained by understanding the social pressures that might influence a young Hindu woman to choose celibacy. The Hindu moral legal text Manu Smriti-which has been quoted in supreme court judgments in India-contains regulations regarding a woman's role within marriage.(9) It states, "Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or devoid of good qualities, (yet) a husband must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife."(10) If a woman opts out of marriage because she finds this lifelong misogynistic arrangement to be less than ideal, she does not cease to be a woman. To use her experience to prove gender theory is reductive and unconvincing.

Samoan culture provides another example where a foreign concept of gender doesn't fit the into Western framework. The word fa’afafine means "like a woman" or "in the manner of a woman. These are effeminate males who often take on the social roles of women and dress accordingly. However, they don't typically experience distress over their bodies or seek surgical changes. Paul Vasey, a Canadian psychology professor, explains:

If a fa’afafine went to New Zealand or Australia and had a sex-change operation and returned to Samoa, no one in Samoa would say that individual is now a woman... But traditional, non-Western frameworks for understanding masculine women or feminine men as "third genders" are often warped when viewed through a Western lens, which reinterprets them as transwomen or transmen. It's a type of colonialism.(11)

-Jason Evert, Male, Female, or Other: A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender

—

Work cited:

6) Towle and Morgan, "Romancing the Transgender Native," 672.

7) Cf. Adnan Hossain, "Beyond Emasculation: Pleasure, Power, and Masculinity in the Making of Hijrahood in Bangladesh" (doctoral dissertation, University of Hull, UK).

8) Cf. Serena Nanda, Gender Diversity (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press: 2014), 31.

9) Cf. Atindriyo Chakraborty, "Manusmriti and the Judiciary-A Dangerous Game," Counter Currents.Org, July 27, 2000.

10) Cf. Manu Smriti in Sanskrit with an English translation at https://www.indiadivine.org/content/files/file/644-manu-smriti-in-sanskrit-with-english-translations-pdf/.

11) As quoted in Joyce, Trans, 36.

—

For more recommended resources on gender dysphoria, click here.

[thorraborinn]

Thinking about trolls (+elves, huldufólk, others) in light of Eduardo Vivieros de Castro. I'm not willing to say that pre-Christian Scaninavians were perspectivists in Amazonian style, but I do think that looking at Norse religion and later Nordic folklore through that lens is productive.

I'm mostly using the word troll as kind of a catch-all (which is not unlike how Scandinavian folklore uses it, though Icelandic folklore does not).

There are two main fears concerning trolls: that they will eat you, and that they will marry and/or fuck you. In Levi-Strauss's time that might have been seen as symbolically reducible to the same fear, but I think we can learn more by examining them in their distinction.

I dunno that I can summarize Vivieros de Castro's points here, but I'm reading from Cosmological Perspectivism in Amazonia and Elsewhere: Four Lectures given in the Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University, February-March 1998.

In western ontology we humans are like animals in that we have bodies, but what distinguishes us is the soul (or the rational mind, or whatever, the details change over time but the point is something distinctive about our interiority), so that for, say, Christian missionaries, "because the spiritual is the locus of difference that conversion becomes necessary (the Europeans wanted to know whether Indians had souls in order to modify them)." Sverrir Jakobsson says that Icelanders bought so heavily into the [Christian : Heathen] distinction as the primary ordering principle of the peoples of the world that they had trouble recognizing, or even outright denied, that there was an East-West split in Christianity.

In perspectivist ontologies this is flipped, the locus of differentiation is the body, because the interiority of everything is the same, difference comes from inhabiting different bodies. If you could acquire the sight of a jaguar, you would look at a puddle of blood and see a nice cold beer (but you would also be dangerous to humans, because you would see them as game animals). The resulting anxiety is cannibalism. If everything is the same in underlying essence, it becomes necessary to engage in an active practice of differentiation to avoid eating something that is the same as you. Ritual specialists who can transform into animals are sometimes bad hunters because they are too deeply engaged in this paradox.

The fear of marrying a troll (or elf, whatever) is the fear of spiritual conversion. This is sometimes made explicit: "I don't want to live with elves; rather, I want to believe in my Christ" -- Ólafur Liljurós (note that while this ballad is related to similar ones all over Europe, many of them deal with the protaganist's impending marriage and/or infidelity in some way; this is absent from the Icelandic and it's a purely religious conflict). In Tungustapi, Sveinn doesn't just fuck elves, he also goes to their church (which is a sort of inverted Christian church). He's alienated from the [Christian/human] community. This corresponds to "western ontology."

The other side of this is fear of being eaten. At risk of overthinking things, because being afraid of a scary monster eating you doesn't really seem to need a lot of explanation, I think there are religious/cosmological implications here.

The fear of being eaten by a troll is different from the fear of being eaten by a bear or a boar, because humans also eat bears and boars, we are on the same level with them. You can't eat a troll (we also don't eat wolves, and wolves are trolls' domestic animals, although I guess you could eat a wolf). A semi-human semi-Euhemerized jötunn/troll is associated with cannibalism in Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar. I've written before about the likely etymological derivation of jötunn from a word meaning 'to eat'; previously I said that while *etaną 'to eat' and *etunaz 'jötunn' have a clear etymological relationship, that might not be so a few hundred years later when they have become eta and jǫtunn, but maybe this relationship should be reconsidered.

Eduardo Kohn was once told to always sleep on his back in the jungle, because if a jaguar comes it will see his face and recognize him as a person, but if it sees his back it will see him as prey. To avoid being eaten by a troll you have to get the troll to see you as a person and not as food, you can do this by giving a gift (and initiating a relationship of reciprocity), or else by being more troll-like yourself (maybe even by preestablished kinship with trolls like Egill Skallagrímsson). It's a widely-acknowledge attribute of trolls, at least in Iceland, that if you do manage to get them on your side they are loyal, hence the word trölltryggur 'trustworthy as a troll [=extremely trustworthy].'

The alternate way to avoid being eaten is, of course, to pray to [Thor/St. Olav] to come destroy them with his [hammer/axe]. I don't think this throws off what I'm saying here though, because "extreme violence" is also an option for dealing with humans in a reciprocation-exchange relationship too.

Anyway, my point is that the responses to the two different fears are the exact opposite of each other. You respond to the fear of conversion by never associating with trolls, never falling for the deceit that they are persons like you. You respond to the fear of being eaten by trolls by establishing mutual recognition of each others' personhood.

Contrary to popular belief (which says to never accept any gift from the fey under any circumstances), both of these are represented in folklore. Ólafur Liljurós even presents both of them at the same time, and says it's better to be killed than convert.

There's a big gap in this, which is magical creatures that don't want to eat you but which are still dangerous. e.g., an elf is not going to eat you but you still don't want to piss him off because he'll shoot you with a disease-transmitting arrow. But I think this can get filed along with the fear of being eaten, it's just that because the Eduardos (Vivieros de Castro and Kohn) are themselves talking about cosmological food chains, and I'm working from their material, there's better opportunity for examining trolls that eat people.

[celestesinsight]

I am really irritated with people who behave as the guardians of our religion on social media.

I just saw a young odia girl getting ganged up on Instagram in the comment section of a Durga Puja reel because she said that we, Odia, offer fish to the Durga Maa as prasad.

These so called guardians need to understand that Indian culture is not limited to North India. There are 28 states in India and each have their own unique identity and rituals. And if they want to respect the Indian culture, they need to respect them all, not just what suits their agenda.

Navratri may be pure vegetarian festival in North Indian states. (But I am sure some rituals and traditions may differ among those states or within a single state too.) In Odisha, Durga Puja isn't a strictly vegetarian festival. Infact, fish is considered subha (good fortune) in our culture and often times is offered to Goddess as prasad and is even used in marriages or other ceremonies as an important gift from bride's side to groom's side.

When my brother got married, my sister in law brought fish alongwith different sweets, banana tree and coconut tree for good fortune with her.

So, don't tell me or any Odia that we are insulting the term 'prasad' by calling the fish a 'prasad' because in our culture it is a 'prasad'. It may not be in your culture and that's absolutely fine. But that doesn't give you right to disrespect my culture. This kind of behaviour doesn't show your piety or devotion, but only show your narrow-mindedness and ignorance about diversity in Indian culture. I hope you try to learn about different culture and religion before giving ignorant and disrespectful remarks against anyone or acting as a cultural police.

Sorry, for the long rant, but the ignorant remarks and insults really enraged me.

[thekatebridgerton]

I want the backstories to all of these weddings

I would love to read about amanda and eloise going dress shopping

Okay so the modern Bridgerton Brides backstory would have been told from the perspective of Genevieve (Ginny Delacroix) who is the Bridgertons jack of all trades wedding planner.

She's organanized all the Bridgerton weddings except Francesca's 2nd and Lucy's 1st. But she still keeps the Dress pictures in her portfolio for future reference.

And I just had this idea of Mme Delacroix just going over her best work and adding little notes on what the bride was like, how the groom proposed and whatever she thought was interesting about the dress. So the story would have been in 3rd person with a very unreliable narrator. Because Ginny Delacroix knows things but she doesn't know everything that happened.

Simon and Daphne: they supposedly were engaged for a long time, Hollywood director x Hollywood starlet kind of romance, it wasn't until Ginny was called to organize the wedding of the century in like a week, that she found out that Saphne was actually a publicity stunt and now they had to get married because Simon's investors were suspecting him of running a long con to get his hands on the movie deals he wanted and give the starring roles to Daphne. Delacroix &Co was given free reign on the budget and to this day it's been the most extravagant affair she's organized for the Bridgertons.

Anthony and Kate: bitter Buisness rivals, Anthony crossed the line by chatting up Kate's sister in a club and Kate made it her mission to block all of his major deals for the next business quarter. Nobody knows what was happening behind the scenes, Ginny always suspected they were banging because come on, those kind of flaming looks they gave each other at the Saphne wedding. But anyway flash forward a few months later, Ginny gets called in the middle of the night to plan a wedding for next week, because all the news trending on Twitter had pictures of the award ceremony in which the paparazzi caught Anthony with his hands on Kate's boobs. Ginny knows that in reality Kate's dress had a bra malfunction and Anthony's first instinct was to cover up her boobs with his hands before she could flash the whole internet. But he claims he was proposing to her in a very intimate way and is now suing the press for invasion of privacy. There was a bee involved in that whole mess, but Ginny never got the whole story. So in the end for the sake of saving face with Kate's family they got married in a wedding that was a mix of Indian rituals and British marriage traditions

Benedict and Sophie: Ginny actually gave them a discount for this one, because Sophie is her friend. Benedict apparently got injured in the racetrack one day and Sophie was hired as his live in doctor. Turns out they had history together, because she had a one night stand with him, back when Benedict was in college and then just never called him. They had some sort of whrilwind romance where Sophie refused to sleep with him, because she felt he really didn't care about her as a person and everyone in the comment section of his Instagram thought that she was holding out for a ring because he's rich. So when Benedict resigned Bridgerton industries to follow his dreams of being a painter it came as a surprise that Sophie was fully okay with being the main breadwinner while he got his feet off the ground. They had a very simple wedding on the beach and Sophie refused to let Anthony fund any of it. Benedict too, paid out of his own earnings, not his family money. And yes, she was indeed waiting to be cleared from charges after a wrongful arrest when Benedict proposed. Nobody has let him live it down yet

Colin and Penelope: long story short Penelope and Colin used to be friends, but Pen realized she was being taken for granted and took a break from hanging out with Colin, which in turn made Colin needy and woke him up to the fact that he couldn't live without her. okay so maybe it's a little harsh to say Penelope got proposed to by a stalker, but that's because Ginny is still mad at Colin for literally tracking down Penelope's wreabouts using Ginny's Instagram posts, since back then, Ginny was in France photographing Penelope for a new ad campaign that was going to be in Delacroix &Co website. And then to add insult to injury just when Ginny thought she'd have 3 months to plan the wedding between her long time friend and the guy said friend had a crush on since forever. Violet Bridgerton calls and asks for the wedding to be ready in 3 weeks because Pen is pregnant... EXCUSE ME! Ginny knows for a fact that Penelope has an arm implant. Colin said whaaat?. Ginny's revenge was that see trough, sexy, wedding dress, the wedding planner wanted to make sure that Penelope's something blue would be Colin's balls. And Portia's outrage was only a bonus

Eloise and Phillip: Ginny really has very few details on this one, Eloise never wanted to have a wedding, never even wanted to get married. But she had to download a dating app for an investigation piece at her feminist magazine and the first guy she met was a Cambridge professor who agreed with everything she said, and they hit it off or so they claim. Ginny was under the impression that Eloise was simply taking advantage of the guy's house in central London since Phillip let her crash there on the weekends without paying for a hotel. But no it turned out that Eloise did like him and she liked his children too. Whatever happened with Phillip and the twins inspired Eloise to go more into activism that focused on domestic abusers. Honestly Eloise only agreed to get married for legal reasons (like being allowed in a hospital if they were sick) and because she felt that Phillip and the kids didn't have enough positive memories in their lives and it would be a shame to rob them of a family moment like a wedding, even a barely there wedding. No matter how much she does still think marriage is a piece of paper. One day Eloise took Amanda to the mall, showed her around the boutiques and told the kid to pick any dress she wanted her new step mom to wear. Phillip let Oliver pick his tux. Everything was off the rack and barely cost much, the rest of the Bridgertons ended up meeting Phillip and the twins the weekend before the wedding. When Eloise remembered to contact Ginny about organizing a quick after-party to soothe her family's anger. She's so independent honestly forgot to tell them she was dating someone, honest. Now, everytime anyone forgets to tell her something, they remind her that she forgot to tell her them she was even getting married

Francesca and John: this wedding is the crown jewel of Ginny Delacroix wedding planning work. Everything was perfect, years in the making, no shenanigans, Violet was so proud! Anthony was so proud! Ginny herself was so proud! St Paul himself would have been proud... aaaand the groom died 2 years later. Yeah not something Francesca likes to talk about

Francesca and Michael: the wedding that made Ginny Delacroix blacklist a Bridgerton! How could they do this to her. Not only did Francesca get married in Vegas wearing a dress that was basically a mini dress with a white tablecloth tied to the hips. But she married the playboy billionaire Rock Star cousin of her deceased husband. Francesca really said go big or go home, went from the cute, interior designer wife of a Scottish lawyer to the ball busting manager wife of a Rock Star. Ginny knows there's a story there! She just knows Michael did some sort of voodoo on Francesca during that trip to Vegas. But she's never managed to pin them down long enough to confirm her theories

Lucy and Ricky: the slimy stingy toad of a man that is Lucy's uncle, planned that wedding, and it shows because it was ugly as hell. Gregory conned Ginny into attending as his plus one and you could tell Don Abernathy was embezzling his niece money by the cheap way the wedding was set up. Ricky Haselby had more chemistry with his groomsman and at one point when the cops showed up to arrest Lucy's uncle and Rick's father, the bride actually took a knife from the buffet table and slashed her dress to make it shorter and run for her life. Good for her! Good for her!!

Gregory and Lucy: Beautiful mess, Ginny pulled every string she could to give them a wedding worth talking about within days of Gregory's dramatic kidnapping proposal. Good for her for wearing pants too! How it happened? Ginny Delacroix doesn't have details either. Something something about Lucy being Gregory's wingman with Hermione and ending up seduced herself. Ginny doesn't care, what she cares about is that Lucy's uncle went to jail ! That was incredible entertainment! Also, she totally gave Haselby and his groomsman her card when Gregory and Lucy were having their first dance

Hyacinth and Gareth: The official story is that Hyacinth and Gareth met as children in his grandmothers Academy and then as adults they reconnected and he proposed in a very normal way, with a flash mob and a boom box, you know, if Hyacinth broadcasting her entire relationship in TikTok is considered normal. I think Hyacinth got so much sponsorship deals just to turn her wedding into a event for her followers that it didn't even matter that Gareth was indeed pretty much flat broke at the time because his father disowned him for chosing Hyacinth over the St Clair fortune and demanded he breakup with her. He proposed instead. She wanted to elope but her mom wanted her to have a nice wedding and so did grandma Danbury so Hyacinth did the next best thing and turn her wedding into profit 🤩🤩🤩. Ginny was impressed by how many internet strangers were sending Hyacinth and Gareth money to film her wedding after she told all her followers that her wedding was going to be a private affair. Well joke is on St Clair senior because the bank Hyacinth's TikToks made with Gareth, actually covered all of the wedding expenses. And After that they just decided to become full time content creators. Last Ginny heard of Hyacinth and Gareth they had a great TikTok and YouTube variety channel

And that's more or less the backstory of this au

[thekrows-nest]

I’m wondering more about Krow’s parents.

With the lineage getting more diluted as it goes down:

Just how much do Krow’s parents know about their heritage other than unusual traits and anger management (if both naga)?

And do they have more naga traits than Krow? Can they change form? Did naga used to be able to?

Were they even more unlucky/cursed than Krow? If Krow had offspring would they suffer less under the curse?

How and why did they come to the Krowverse’s America? (Assuming they weren’t born there also.) Did they struggle financially too?

Does Krow look like his dad? Would his parents recognise him?

These are very good questions.

Since cat's already out of the bag when it comes to "the big secret" about Krow, doesn't make much sense to hide about his parents.

Putting a read more cause this will be long lmao.

With Krow's parents, it was an arranged marriage, and the Naga trait is on Krow's father's side of the family. Krow's father, Riyan, is a good man, he didn't want his bride-to-be to marry him without her fully knowing what she was getting into (even with the large money that was being offered from his side to hers). Even so, Khushi still went through with it.

Riyan actually has a very mild version of the curse. Think of it as more like... a mild allergy. Yes, it's there, yes it can be annoying. But it's manageable. He and his family have long since found ways to help with the curse (offerings to Manasa or beseeching other gods and deities to help, certain rituals or just certain lifestyle choices that help. It's not a one size fits all solution since everyone's curse does manifest a little or a lot differently from one another).

For Riyan and his side of the family, there actually hadn't really been members who had "noticeable" Naga traits for... a very long time. No one with the teeth, or odd eyes, scales, nothing for generations. Krow just got "lucky" and the genetics (and curse) manifested more strongly in him for the first time in... over a century at least. Possibly longer.

If Krow were to have bio children of his own, he would hope and pray that they don't deal with what he does (if he fully knows and understands the curse at that point and hopefully he does by then). Luckily, his kids would have a more diluted version of the curse, be a bit like their grandfather's. A mild allergy at worst.

Krow's parents moved to America like many others outside the country do; the promise of freedom, a new life, the life you dream of. The American Dream. And at first, it was fine. Grass truly was greener in America. But, not too much later, life did become hard. The opportunities to be had in America... weren't really for them or people like them. They did eventually financially struggle. And of course, their life truly hit rock bottom when Krow was taken from them.

Krow... mmm. I think I wanna say despite the whole Naga heritage and stronger curse, his features is more like that of his mom. Also lol he'd be pretty easy to recognize. Not a lot of Indian-Bengali folk with purple eyes. /silly

[geeta1726]

What are the key characteristics of a 'Manglik' according to Indian astrology?

In Indian astrology, particularly in Vedic astrology, the term "Manglik" refers to a person who has the planet Mars (Mangal) positioned prominently in their birth chart. The belief in Mangal Dosha or Manglik Dosha is based on the position of Mars and its perceived effects on marriage and relationships. Here are the key characteristics and beliefs associated with being a Manglik:

Position of Mars: A person is considered Manglik if Mars is placed in certain specific houses of the birth chart, namely the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th house. However, the most commonly considered houses are the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 8th houses.

Effects on Marriage: Mangal Dosha is believed to bring about certain challenges and obstacles in marriage and relationships. It is said to affect marital harmony, leading to potential conflicts, disagreements, and even separations or divorces.

Temperamental Nature: Individuals with Mangal Dosha are often believed to possess a fiery and temperamental nature due to the influence of Mars. They may be seen as more aggressive, assertive, or prone to anger compared to those who do not have Mangal Dosha.

Delayed Marriage: Mangal Dosha is sometimes associated with delays or obstacles in getting married. It is believed that the presence of Mangal Dosha in a person's chart may lead to difficulties in finding a suitable partner or in getting married at the desired time.

Remedies: In traditional Indian astrology, there are various remedies prescribed to mitigate the effects of Mangal Dosha. These remedies may include performing specific rituals, wearing gemstones associated with Mars (such as red coral), chanting mantras, or marrying another Manglik individual to cancel out the Dosha.

Cultural Significance: In many parts of India, Mangal Dosha is taken seriously, and it can significantly influence matchmaking and marriage decisions. Some families may prefer to match the horoscopes of prospective partners to ensure compatibility and to assess whether Mangal Dosha is present.

Modern Interpretation: While Mangal Dosha remains significant for many individuals and families adhering to traditional astrological beliefs, its importance has been questioned and debated in modern times. Some astrologers and individuals may choose not to give much weight to Mangal Dosha, focusing instead on broader factors of compatibility and personal growth within relationships.

For more information you can use Kundli Chakra Professional 2022 software.

[youremyheaven]

there’s a super rich indian couple that is going to get married or maybe they already did, cus it’s been 2 weeks ppl are talking about it 😭😭😭😭

i have no idea who they are but i don’t think they’re celebrities…they are heirs of something🫢

👀👀👀what does the indian media say about them?

it’s anant ambani and radhika merchant 👀👀👀👀

Mukesh Ambani is the richest person in Asia with a net worth of $113 billion 💀

Anant Ambani is his youngest child

Obviously the whole family is famous for being rich but in the last decade or so, they've attracted more attention in the media for their extravagant parties, weddings etc and their tendency to bring out celebrities from India and abroad for these things (Beyonce performed at his daughter's wedding, Rihanna at his son's pre wedding ceremony etc)

Nita Ambani, Mukesh Ambani's wife is thought to be the mastermind behind this (she's Swati Moon and def lovesssss to be immersed in the material world). She was an ordinary school teacher when she married Mukesh in the 80s. The Ambanis are kinda like the Rockefellers of India but they weren't as rich in the 80s as they are today, with major stakes in every industry (esp telecom). Nita was strictly middle class and unused to living a life of luxury. Mukesh's younger brother Anil Ambani, who at the time was more successful and married to a Bollywood actress, Tina Munim (now Tina Ambani) would throw these parties with Tina and invite all these celebrities since those were Tina's friends and colleagues and Nita (according to popular lore) would get very jealous because she wasn't as glamorous as Tina and being a school teacher, she felt out of place etc at these functions. Moreover being the elder daughter in law meant she had more responsibilities esp since her marriage was an arranged one and Tina & Anil had a love marriage.

Cut to a few decades later. Her father in law passed away. Anil Ambani went bankrupt and Mukesh got richer and richer 🤑🤑🤑and finally Nita could shine. There began all this tacky extravaganza. She's just making up in old age for all the partying and celebrity shoulder brushing that she didn't get to do when she was younger. She was once an out of place school teacher but now she's the wife of the richest man in Asia, so she can pull her weight differently.

All of these media shenanigans are said to be her idea as Mukesh is known for being a very simple guy (he's Ashwini Moon) who's obsessed with his wife and will do anything for her.

Since this is the last Ambani wedding of this generation, they're kinda going all out for it. For the last 6 months they've been hosting various "pre-wedding rituals" and now last week, they finally got married.

The name Ambani in India is synonymous with wealth, we just think they're crazy rich people with nothing better to do than hire celebs as their show monkeys lol

[krishakamal]

Raag - Anurag § Chapter 1

— Ram x Sneha Acharya [OC]

*⁠.⁠✧ SYNOPSIS : Sneha Acharya lost her parents at a young age. Her father's friend, Arjun decided to adopt and take her to Hyderabad. There she grew up to be a beautiful woman. Then came her doom. She arranged to marry Ram, the traitor. Where will this go now?

*⁠.⁠✧ WARNINGS & TAGS : cursing, arranged marriage, 1.6k words.

*⁠.⁠✧ — NAVIGATION // RRR MASTERLIST // SERIES MASTERLIST

"Ahh!" Sneha yelled in pain, "It hurts, Kakima."

"Shhh, sit still." Her Kaki, Malini, ordered her as she worked on the latter's hair. Pinning the gajra to the bun.

Sneha huffed, looking at herself in the mirror. Today was her wedding and that too, with a man she despised.

At the tender age of six, Sneha lost both her parents to a car accident on their way home. Even though Sneha survived the accident, losing her parents left a great trauma on her. Arjun Dev, a close friend of her father who lived in Hyderabad, decided to adopt her.

Here, in Hyderabad, she grew up under his and his wife, Malini's care. Growing up, Sneha was fond of literature. She took inspiration from the nature around her and inked them in a diary. Later she decided to turn that hobby to her profession.

Sneha was not blind to atrocious works of the british. She knew well how monstrous they were. How they fooled Indians and took over the whole country. How they tortured poor Indians and kept them like slaves.

Sneha could not see their pain and misfortune so she decided that she would help as much as possible to free her country from their vicious clutches. She had written many nationalist books under the pen name 'Nandini'.

Now considering how much she loves Bharat and hates the British basterds, the last person she expected to marry was one of their loyal dogs, Alluri Sitaram Raju. She was pissed off when her uncle told her about the marriage proposal.

She instantly rushed off in anger to confront him but when he requested her with nothing but utter sincerity, Sneha could not turn him down. Had he not adopted Sneha, she didn't know what would have happened to her and Sneha was great to them. So, here she was now a few minutes away from getting married to that traitor, Sitaram.

Malini held Sneha's shoulders, "I'm so happy for you, Sneha. Trust me, Ram is a really good man and he will always keep you happy."

Sure, a traitor like him will do anything but keep me happy.

Sneha plasted a fake smile on her face and looked at Malini through the mirror's reflection, "I hope so."

Just then the door opened and one of her sisters ran in, "Hurry! The groom is here."

Malini left Sneha alone in the room to gather her thoughts. Sneha looked down, in her lap was a pendant, engulfed in her palms. Her mind was crowded with thoughts. How was she going to spend her life with Ram? Just how?

But time didn't stop for her. It went on it's pace. Sneha was escorted to the mandap where they were tied into the sacred bond of marriage. The wedding ended and Sneha bid a tear-filled farewell to her family. Then she was taken to his house where his side of the family performed all the rituals and in no time it was their wedding night.

Sneha sat on the bed, heart racing like a train. Her knees were pulled to her chest. She wondered if Ram would try to force himself on her. She was, by no means, ready for this. This was supposed to happen between two loves, soulmates and they were neither.

If he tries something, I'll kill him.

Sneha thought to herself. The wooden door opened and Ram walked in, closing the door behind. Sneha gripped the saree harder, so much that her knuckles turned white.

Ram started walking towards the bed. Just as he came to the end of the bed, Sneha shot up, standing on it with a knife in her hand, "Don't you dare come any closer or else I swear to god, I'll kill you."

Ram flinched back, startled, "What on earth are you doing?"

Ram glared at her but she snapped back, "Listen mister, I have no intention of being your wife, let alone spent a night with you. Stay the fuck away from me."

Ram could not help but scoff at her atrocious words, "Like I want to sleep with you. I have way more important work than sleeping with someone foul-mouthed like you."

"Yeah yeah whatever. Now get out." Sneha swung the knife in the door's direction, "You are not staying in the same room as me."

"This is my room. You get out."

"Do you want to die in your sleep?"

Ram gulped in fear, the kind of person she seemed to be, she probably would not even hesitate before stabbing him to death. Sneha smirked, knowing very well that she had won.

"Whatever, hope you die in your sleep." Ram snatched the blanket off the bed and started walking out, muttering under his breath, "Who named her Sneha, they need to be put in a mental asylum."

"And your name should have been Ravan instead, even better Shishupal, you useless coward." Sneha yelled before the door slammed shut.

Sneha waited a few seconds before sighing in relief, saved for the day. She got down from the bed and carefully hid the knife in the nightstand's drawer. She quickly took of all the make up and jwelleries and changed into simple saree. Then turning off the lights Sneha snuggled into the soft sheets and let the slumber pull her into the dreamland.

Sneha woke up the next morning to the empty house. Ram was nowhere to be seen. That happened the next and then the next day. Ram would leave the house before Sneha could wake up and come back after she had gone to sleep. The sofa in the living room was now his bed.

Sunlight peeked through the sheer curtains, filling the room with golden light. You snuggled more into the sheets before blinking your eyes open. Glancing at the table clock, it showed the time was 7 o'clock. Sneha sat up on the bed, streaching her limbs to get rid of the sleepiness.

Throwing off the blanket, which she found in the closet (Ram was too much of a dick to give her one), she got up. Sneha made the bed and then did her morning routine. Sneha dressed up in a red silk saree with gold work done on it.

Today she was going to make a library card at the local library. Books were her addiction and not being able to read one the past days were killing her inside. Her hair was still a little damp so she decided to leave them open.

Sneha walked down the stairs and into the living room, only to stop at the bottom step. There was Ram, sitting on the sofa, reading newspapers. Dressed in a simple white shirt and dress pants.

He was handsome— scratch that, he was extremely good looking. If only his personality was like Sri Ram. Sneha mourned internally. She walked into the kitchen, adjourned to the living room.

"Wow, look who didn't sneak out early in the morning today." Sneha said loudly, too loud.Ram could feel his eyebrows twitch. Stay calm Ram, don't listen to her bullshit. He could not stay calm for long when started again, "What? Did your dear British government fire you already?"

His mouth moved even before he could comprehend, "Look who didn't sleep till afternoon like a pig. What direction did the sun raise from today?"

Sneha's jaw dropped on the floor, "I sleep like a pig? Me? Sneha Acharya? Then you sleep like a damn donkey."

Ram mumbled, loudly, while turning a page of the newspaper, "Truth hurts. What can we do?"

This damn donkey!

Sneha stomped her feet before rushing into the kitchen. She could feel herself fuming with anger. Only a good cup of chai could help her calm down. As slammed the saucepan on the stove, an idea hit her brain.

"Oii." Sneha called from the kitchen.

"What?"

"I'm making chai. Do you want some?"

".............Sure." Ram answered after a minute of silence.

Sneha threw him an 'ok' sign and got back to prepare tea. Ram could feel something was off. But what could she do? Poison his tea?

Calling me a pig. The audacity. Now taste the tea made by a pig.

Sneha quickly prepared two cups of tea and brought it out in the living room. Placing the tray on the low coffee table, she handed him a cup and she herself started sipping from one.

Ram inspected the cup and the liquor. Smelling it, seeing from all angels. Sneha suppressed the laugh, dying to come out. Finally Ram took a sip.

Hmm? Not bad.

Until a second later it hit. The inside of his mouth started burning like hell. Ram dropped the cup on the ground, yelling in pain. He felt like he had eaten a thousand chillies. Sneha could not stop it anymore. She threw back on the sofa, laughing like a mad woman.

Ram searched the containers and cabinets, searching for something, anything, to help with the burning feeling. He finally found a small container of rasogolla. He somehow opened it and gulped down all of them in a matter of a few minutes.

When he finally calmed down, his chest was heaving crazyly. Anger raised in his head when he fully grasped what had happened. He saw Sneha leaning on the kitchen door, giving him mocking looks. Ram glared at it like an angry bull. If looks could kill, you would have been six feet under the ground by now.

Ram marched up to you, jabbing his pointer finger on your forehead with each word, "You. Will. Pay. For. This."

He gritted out before walking past you, shoving your shoulder with his in the process. You turned your head to see him stomping up stairs.

We will see Mr. Ram.

© 𝐊𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐊𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑, 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐄𝐃 — all content rights belongs to KRISHAKAMAL. Do not plagiarize any works and do not repost or translate onto any other sites.

All the rights and credits of the characters, gifs, songs and pictures used here belongs to their rightful owners.

[cyb3rangel1]

If you cut into a delicious fish head pie only to find out that it was actually made of recycled tricycle seats would you perform a satanic ritual to fuse your very being with that of the fish head tricycle pie, intertwining your souls for eternity, or would you contact an underground indian scientist to help you travel back in time to when Ayn Rand was alive to force the whole pie down her throat?

ill shove the pie down ayn rand's throat.

im saving my soul binding ritual for marriage :3

[ineffable-opinions]

Gaami (2024)

Part 3 of the series: Indian Queer Media

Little Hearts (2024)

Kaathal the Core (2023)

Available for streaming on Zee5

Until now all the movies that I have discussed have been centered in Kerala. In this movie, we are moving further north, from Telugu-speaking region to traveling through Himalayas for this bioluminescent mushroom Azisstra arendiphytis (nasyati maalipatra) that blooms once in 36 years on the Dronagiri mountain in the Garhwal ranges, that can wipe out all memories. This mushroom isn’t significant in itself. It could very well be something else. Basically, a typical MacGuffin. However, going in search of it, the journey, the characteristic epic adventure that gets the movie the name ‘Gaami’, the one who seeks, is super exciting.

Our main character, Shankar, is not alone in his journey. He is accompanied by a mycologist, Jahnavi, who has to find the mushroom for personal, altruistic and scientific reasons. Among the characters in the movie, she is probably the one who can be considered the definitive female lead, but is not romantically paired with the main character.

SPOILERS AHEAD, PLEASE WATCH THE MOVIE BEFORE PROCEEDING

The movie deals with queerness in a unique manner. Usually, queerness is discussed in context of romance or family life, either connected to marriages and having kids or in the context of outing/coming out. This one is about an intersex person trying to find himself and coming to terms with what has happened to him in the past, the kind of tortures he has gone through. This is an epic journey to self-discovery that he embarks on with his companion, a mycologist out to find a panacea for the different pains they have suffered. After venturing through very many dark places and coming out of those makes the ending actually looks like it is probably imagined than real, comparable to Life of Pi.

Ardhanarishvara Lore and Intersex Identity

Chola period Ardhanarishvara statue

As @starryalpacasstuff mentioned in this discussion on Indian queer media, Ardhanarishvara is interpreted in very many ways. This movie has one of the most interesting and cinematic interpretation of the revered deity Ardhanarishvara. Uma (one of the names by which Parvati devi is known) and Shankar (another name of Lord Shiva) being the same person, a single entity, separated by much pain, reunites nearing the climax of the movie. Throughout the movie, the name is like one big clue, but it is not an easy clue by any means. While watching the movie, at one point, I had wondered if Shankar is Uma’s father who had opted for an ascetic life after Durga’s theogamy. Shankar as a character is heavily inspired by Lord Shiva. In the beginning of the movie, we are introduced to him as an Aghori, a Shaivite ascetic.

The director, Vidyadhar Kagita, plays around with colors and brightness throughout the movie to represent different moods of Uma-Shankar as they navigate different stages of life, loosing touch of one another. During Uma’s parts we see brighter, warmer tones while almost all of Shankar’s life is covered in dull, melancholic blues. At times, we can barely see him and he can barely see everyone else. It’s never too bright in spite of all the fire and the snow. This has an impact on the structure of the story being told with how Uma’s world was a lot brighter, her life becomes darker as it goes on, especially when she has to hide for her life and later when she’s brought into the research center as CT-333 (here, CT stands for conversion therapy, the treatment Uma is forced to undergo). In the research center, she is met with unbearable levels of torture and ends up losing her memories, her ability to touch people as well as her past and future selves.

Devadasi System and Queerness

One of the least talked about element of devadasi system is its intersection with queerness. Uma’s mother, Durga and later, Uma herself, are devadasis.

Devadasis, Jogatis and Jogappa are female and male women[1], ritually married to Goddess, presumably Goddess Yellamma. There is the whole thing with devadasi system as well as queer people especially those belonging to the third gender, getting abolished during British colonial rule and how both were and continue to be associated with sex work and sex work only.

There is an undeniable element of exploitation. In the movie, the powerful in Uma’s village hunts her down and forces her to be their devadasi against her and her mother’s wishes and subjects the minor to sexual exploitation in the guise of tradition.

However, that’s not the only thing. There is an element of seeking solace in the Goddess and dedicating life to being a devadasi as a pious deed motivated by faith and gratitude as in the case of Durga. Anxieties over neonatal health, Durga’s motivation, on the other hand is part of systemic oppression common citizens like her are subject to since healthcare have never been prioritized enough by Indian governments. Combined expenditure on healthcare and education by state and central governments in most states and union territories remain below 5% thanks to limiting fiscal deficit targets set to please international capital.

The Goddess offer solace to young queer people who are either brought to these temples and abandoned at or run away from their native families that reject them. Thus, theogamy, marrying their deity, becomes an escape route for queer folk, earning them respect and worship, albeit conditional.  

Durga decides to become a devadasi for personal reasons. She believes that she should be repaying the Goddess who has blessed her with a healthy daughter by undergoing this procedure.

However, her perception of how healthy her daughter is, comes into question during Uma’s failed sexual debut where she is exposed to be suffering from Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, a condition considered a “genetic disorder” in modern medicine. For this, Uma is subject to inhumane treatment including but not limited to electrocution as a part of conversion therapy, aiming to achieve a “ground-breaking discovery” and for all the money and prestige that will bring in for doctor Ravi and the village head.

The devadasi institution which is now frowned upon, has contributed immensely to mainstream Indian culture we know today through music, dance forms and whatnot. The institution gets very little credit for any of it as the arts has been appropriated by the so-called upper caste folk.

One of the radical musicians of the Carnatic stream, T M Krishna, can be seen holding concerts with Jogappas and he is considered a rule-breaker among contemporary classical musicians. I hope to dive deeper into the world of third gender south Asians in my upcoming appreciation post on the movie Ardhanaari (2012).

Conversion Therapy, Amnesia, Hapnophobia

We get to see a lot of outdated procedures inspired by actual 20th centuary medical science such as lobotomy, aversion therapy and conversion therapy involving electric shock. These are seldom explored even in movies which focus on queer people’s lives, despite the prevalence of conversion therapy practices, in not just modern medicine (allopathy) but also in ayurveda and other systems of health care popular in South Asia.  

Given the hegemony of Brahminical-heteropatriarchy, even now people try to find solutions to queerness, not only queer people themselves who struggle to be accepted but also their parents driven by helplessness and/or hostility.

Conversion therapy in its most brutal form, ultimately breaks Shankar. He has undergone unspeakable tortures and is so traumatized that there is very little hope of him overcoming his hapnophobia or recovering his memories.

When CT-333 (Uma-Shankar’s identification when institutionalized) finally escapes and gets taken away by guru Kedhar Baba, it is pretty obvious that Shankar has lost a part of himself, which CT-333 has been losing slowly over the six years spend as a test subject, held captive in the dungeon-like research center. This includes the ability to recall what it feels like to be caressed by Durga, a phantom touch Uma had treasured for so long yet had become completely alien to CT-333.

Shankar’s inability to have physical contact with others is the reason for his ultimate downfall. He is perishing with as he is not able to have any sort of kind connection with people around him. Indians are extremely tactile people in general. And his failure to save someone due to his extreme hapnophobia is taking a toll on him. His fellow Aghoris does not hesitate to ostracize him claiming he is cursed by none other than Lord Shiva and that his curse is bring down the whole ashram. Throughout the movie too he struggles to save his companion in the journey. He is overwhelmed by despair.

The lines he spoke to Sudhamma at Maha Khumb Mela, “Is this a curse I'd have to carry to my grave?” reverberates throughout the movie.

It is in a way answered by the Buddhist monk who saves Shankar, who tells him, “Get to know the root of that pain. You'll find your purpose to live… You are karmically indebted to them [Uma and CT-333]. Their wounds are the real cause of your suffering and pain. As their wounds heal and the pain subsides, your problems will be solved too. Fulfilling your karmic debt and freeing yourself from your problems is now in your control.”

Kedhar Baba who found CT-333 leaves behind a map that leads Shankar to the Buddhist monastery, presumably where the great guru himself breathed his last. What he sought for Shankar, what Shankar and Jahnavi sought for themselves (and others) holds deep philosophical meaning, of love and compassion.

Crowd-funded Project to a Box Office Hit

There are many side stories including the one regarding the reason why Shankar was thrown out of the Aghori ashram which the director explains in the interview linked below. The director had way too many ideas and a lot of them had to be cut due to time constraint. They didn’t want the movie to drag on for forever.

I wish they had kept those side stories. I wish they had done it in a two-part movie duology. Or, they could have done a five-hour movie. But with experimental themes and storytelling, it could have forced more people away from the movie. Given the theatrical success the movie enjoyed in Tollywood, it was the right call to make. Yet, I mourn the side stories we miss out on.

Conclusion

This movie is layered. I could only discuss so much. For sure, it requires a deeper, analytical viewing and anyone who is interested in watching a movie with queer themes this season should give this one a try. It is so good! It’s very unfortunate that very little people talk about this movie outside of Telugu-speaking audience. I don’t understand how it did not get popular elsewhere - probably because of the limited release outside Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

There is a lot of exploration about domestic violence (especially what Jahnavi has gone through), ethics in medical science, religion, community, selfhood, greed and about powers that trying to alter who you are and those who declare you outcast and above all else about hope and the folk who you meet on your way, who become your gurus, companions and confidants.

-

Recommended readings (since like half a dozen of you guys seemed interested):

Consent and Bodily Integrity: Mapping the Regulation of Bodily Rights of Intersex Children and its Representation in Vijayarajamallika's Poems by Gargi Thilak

Backward Futures and Pasts Forward: Queer Time, Sexual Politics, and Dalit Religiosity by Lucinda Ramberg

(more + how to access them)

-

[1] They adopt traditionally womanly embodiment and mannerisms, dress up in saree and acting as priests in certain rituals and blessings.

-

Sorry for tagging @the-gayest-tree-you-ever-did-see uninvited. Hope you enjoy reading this because your post got me interested in the movie initially but I had to wait much longer to actually watch it.

[blue-sterling0357]

Can I get a thing where Agni spends the holidays with his fem s/o? Maybe they meet her family?

(does the fact that it's feb stop me from writing this...No, it does not, because I was basically absent and into a horrible situation!!!!)

Agni and S/O spend the holidays!

✧ If there is one thing I wish to say as an Indian like him, is that we don't popularly used to celebrate Christmas as it isn't of our main religions' or Hindus' or Muslims'.

✧ Agni also being an Indian, probably didn't celebrate Christmas because many Indians don't follow Christianity, but they follow Hinduism or Islam, and since Christmas isn't a thing for Hindus or Muslims, but other than that there are other festivals too! Like the Diwali if it occurs in December, Ekadashi where Gods wake up and most marriages are recommended to be celebrated and karwachauth where the bond of a husband and wife is celebrated!

✧ Although, he doesn't celebrate Christmas, he will be willing to celebrate it with you, if you'd explain the Christmas traditions to him otherwise he'll ask Sebastian about it...

✧ He would love to bake cookies with you! He may not know, but he secretly has been practicing with Sebastian on how to make perfect Christmas flavoring cookies!!! He made a cranberry flavored one too!!!

✧ India has a huge variety of clothing material, so getting some good high quality material for Christmas sweaters is quite nice, though they won't have any designs though....But it's okay, cause he's happy!!!!

✧ He would love to play in snow, spending hours to create beautiful letters, messages, drawings and make things with it like castles and just try to make you smile!!!

✧ He will probably make you Indian sweets and if you ask him hard enough, he will put his cooking insecurities behind and make you some Victorian desserts as well!

✧ He would help you pick a Christmas tree and help you decorate it, and then you both end up buying two tiny ones and have a competition to see how will decorate their tree the best and as always Agni won, even Sebastian lost in front of him.....

✧ He will probably take you around the Indian city, bringing you chai and different treats to eat as you both walk around and spend time with each-other and later on you both end up dancing in a newly wedded couples dance show-room....He looked handsome in the lighting.....

✧ Soma would also love to spend Christmas with you and you both being menaces, with you teaching him Christmas rituals and all that and you both making a mess which is gonna give Agni a headache while he tries to clean the shit up....

✧ You teaching Soma how to sing Christmas carols and he tries his best, but he barely know how to pronounce the words correctly and when he does, he forgets the words, but it's okay cause it gets a laugh out of you and it makes Agni smile seeing you happy and laughing!

[jgroffdaily]

Excerpts

Stars Jonathan Groff and Karan Soni and director Roshan Selthi on the joy of making “A Nice Indian Boy,” joking: “An independent film needs a famous white person to get made.”

When Jonathan Groff met with director Roshan Sethi about a role in the romantic comedy A Nice Indian Boy, he asked Sethi to cast Karan Soni as his love interest. Groff assumed Soni was straight, but he’d seen the Deadpool actor in Sethi’s first movie, 7 Days, and liked his vibe. As it turns out, Groff’s request had already been granted: Not only is Soni gay, but he’s been dating Sethi since 2018. Sethi thought he’d have to work to court Groff—“An independent film needs a famous white person to get made,” he half-jokes—when in actuality Groff was already envisioning the exact film that now exists.

To hear the trio talk about A Nice Indian Boy is to hear tales of kismet and glee (Groff pun intended). “It felt like an emotional throuple,” Soni tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, also half-joking. The movie unleashed its charm at the SXSW Film and TV Festival on Tuesday, capping off an intensely personal experience for Sethi and his cast.

A Nice Indian Boy, initially a play by Madhuri Shekar, is built on a meet-cute at a local temple. During prayer, down-on-his-luck doctor Naveen (Soni) catches the eye of a dreamy photographer named Jay (Groff), and soon his wish for romance has been fulfilled. Jay was adopted by an Indian family and immersed himself in their culture, but he’s far more comfortable in his sexuality than Naveen, who avoids introducing Jay to his folks (Zarna Garg and Harish Patel) until they’re engaged. It’s Meet the Parents: Hindu Edition. But not only is he bringing a boy home—he’s bringing a white boy home. With that, A Nice Indian Boy goes from a romantic comedy to a comedy of manners to a spectacular wedding comedy.

Together, Sethi and Soni wrote 7 Days, a straight rom-com co-starring Geraldine Viswanathan. That was a warm-up act for A Nice Indian Boy, a movie that begins with one dazzling Indian wedding—that of Naveen’s sister (Sunita Mani)—and ends with another. When producers sent Sethi the film script adapted by Eric Randall (In the Dark), it was like clouds parting. Here was something he and Soni had contended with their entire lives: being gay in a culture that loves elaborate marriage rituals as long as they don’t involve two men or two women. If 7 Days was like their senior year of high school, Soni says, A Nice Indian Boy was their freshman year of college, full of new liberation.

“Halfway through making the movie, Roshan was like, ‘This might be the most personal thing we ever do, so we should really soak it all in,’” recalls Soni, whose other credits include Miracle Workers and Always Be My Baby. “This checks so many boxes of our experience, and to do it together is so rare. I remember him saying, ‘We should experience and feel everything,’ which is also Jonathan rubbing off on us, because that’s all this man does. He is in the moment. He’s never on his phone in between takes. He loves to talk about things. We want to be more like Jonathan.”

Groff says he picked up the no-phones-on-set thing from Keanu Reeves, who would strike up conversation between takes while they were shooting The Matrix Resurrections. Jay is the more sanguine character in the film, so Groff’s grounding presence was life imitating art. But even if the Broadway veteran helped to secure the project’s financing, he wasn’t the biggest celebrity around. That honor belonged to Garg, the comedian, podcaster, and TikTok superstar who recently opened for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s tour. During the Vancouver production, locals stopped their cars in traffic to catch her attention. “It was harder for her to go places than anyone,” Sethi laughs.

Not everything was uplifting, though. Sethi reached out to various Hindu religious leaders to find a consultant for the wedding scenes. Not a single Vancouver priest—including one billed as “the most liberal pundit in Canada,” who apparently sent Sethi a homophobic slur in response—agreed to participate. However crushing, such reactions underscored the importance of a film that’s very much about internal and external acceptance. Sethi and Soni eventually enlisted a priest based in Malibu who FaceTimed them from his stylish convertible.

For Groff, aspects of A Nice Indian Boy were like an analog to Looking, the swoony HBO series that also featured amorous walk-and-talks. “I could kind of be transparently myself while playing the character and not feel inhibited," he says. "Karan talked about that, too. When we get to do something gay, there’s this feeling of extra freedom. When it’s a gay story, it feels ultra-personal.”

Independent filmmakers like Sethi are reinvigorating a genre that has long attracted gay audiences without featuring them in principal roles.

“Even though there were financial and logistical obstacles that kept cropping up, it was an experience of pure joy,” Sethi says. “Halfway through, I was like, ’Maybe it will never be this good again.’ We did it with people we love about a subject we love.”