Show Business (44 page)

maal
—[slang] goods

maha
—big, great

Mahabharata
—ancient Indian verse epic

masala
—spice

mastaan
—hood, thug

mela
—fair

moomphali-wallah
—peanut seller

muhavrein
—idiomatic expressions, proverbs

musafir
—traveler

naraka
—hell

neem
—margosa tree, whose twigs are used to clean teeth

neta
—leader

paan
—Indian digestive of leaf and spices, chewed usually after meals

paglee
—madwoman

pahelwans
—wrestlers, tough guys

paisa
—the smallest Indian coin (100 paise = i rupee, about 4 U.S. cents today)

pallav
—the loose end of the sari, draped over the wearer's shoulder

Patthar aur Phool
—[imaginary film title] “The Stone and the Flower”

pau-bhaji
—Indian snack

payal
—anklet

Puranas
—ancient Sanskrit texts

salwar-kameez
—outfit of loose pajamas and loose shirt

seedhi-saadhi
—[slang] straightforward, innocent

shabash
—“congratulations,” “well done”

shastras
—ancient religious texts

slokas
—ancient religious verses in Sanskrit

Valmiki Ramayana
—sacred Indian epic of the god Rama, as told by Valmiki

yaar
—[slang] pal, friend

Ya Khuda
—“Oh, God!”

zamindari
—a feudal system of land tenure in which tenants tilled land for a
zamindar,
or big landowner

zindabad
—“long live”

Acknowledgments

My research into the Bombay film world was made possible in great measure by Mr. P. K. Ravindranath, Press Adviser to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, to whom I am most grateful. My thanks, too, to the able and cooperative officials of Film City, Bombay, who gave me detailed access to their sets, studios, and locales, and to the film crews who allowed me to intrude upon their work. My research would not have been possible without the help and hospitality of the Parameshwars of Bombay: thank you, Valiachan and Valiamma, Viju and Anita. I should also like to acknowledge the filmi magazines of India for providing much grist for my fictional mill and to pay particular tribute to Malavika Rajbans Sanghvi for her witty and perceptive feature articles on Bollywood in the nonfilmi media. Of course, I remain solely responsible for what I have made of the material.

“Ashok Banjara” was invented in 1972 by a subeditor at
JS
magazine in Calcutta, Narayan Ojha, who thought my too-frank campus journalism warranted a pseudonym. Tragically, Narayan did not live to see his creation acquire new life in these pages, but the name of my protagonist is a small tribute to this fine journalist and greathearted human being.

My thanks, too, to Jeannette Seaver, David Davidar, Ann Rittenberg, and Nandita Agarwal for valuable editorial advice and invaluable positive reinforcement; to Deborah Rogers, for her faith and support; and to Professor P. Lal, for a verse from the Valmiki
Ramayana
.

My parents, Chandran and Lily Tharoor, were, as always, a precious source of inspiration and encouragement: to them I shall always be grateful. My wife, Minu, read the manuscript with her usual care and insight; I cannot thank her enough for her patience and understanding. As I wrote the book my sons, Ishan and Kanishk, were constantly in my thoughts, but not in my vicinity; otherwise, as the old saw goes, this book would have been finished in twice the time.