Bai Malai

How an underground phenomenon raises it head out, is something I have always been interested in. If the phenomenon is morally gray, it gets even more interesting. I am a regular reader of the hindustan times blog.  On a sidenote they are doing a great thing by changing the way they see their columnists. So each column which gets published in their newspaper is also a blog post, over which people can comment and the writers actually respond.  Found this article in the hindustan times blog, about the indian male fantasy about kaamwali bai’s. I have a few ideas about it myself, might as well write them down.

If you are easily offended please do not read ahead. It borders on NSFW

The kaamwali bai was already there in the indian media. She had a definite personality, be it in teleserials, films or even the channel v, ‘itne paise mein itna ich milegaa’ bai. They where crafty, obedient, gossipy, all of those, but most of them did not have a sexual angle to them. There might be a few offbeat films which did show the sexual angle. One of them being, where Sarika is a housemaid, who is raped by one of the males in the family. Does anyone remember the name of the film? But note the fact that it was rape and not consensual. Now jump ahead to right now. Have you heard the hip hopper song? If you have’nt, you can see this video –

Kindly note the lyrics, which I shall try to translate into english –
The bai says

Meri pyaar ki dariya mein meri love ki dariyaa mein, ek dupki lo na sir

eng: sir, please take a dip into my love pool

And

Tujhko har din khana vana main khilati hun paka kar
Aaj mere dil ke taway pe rotiyan tu sek le aakar

eng: I cook you food everyday,
why don’t you bake a bread on my heart

Even with all this seduction the hip hopper is hardly fazed, as he says

God! She thinks she’s hot like rekha
Maybe but she’s not my flavour
Loving her is too much labour labour labour

Off course she does get him in the end, as he finally agrees

there’s no bai I know quite like her
if my girl finds out she’ll strike her
coz she’s the bomb
damn I like her like her
lock the door bend down lets do it

So the sexual angle is out in this video. What makes it distinct is the fact that here the bai is doing all the seduction, while the hip, NRI, hip hopper, does’nt find her worth much. Although he does agree in the end, it might be because the bai just would’nt stop.

But this video takes the cake. It keeps the seductive angle of the bai, while also keeping the pursuer as the indian male.

I hope my bai does’nt find out about this blog post.