> Be fashionably depressed, smoke non-filter cigarettes, write poetry during the
monsoons, drink loads of tea, and 'do' drama.
Hi shanks,
Were you a Jholawala? Do you remember that tribe - young bearded communists who went everywhere on a cycle, wore Kolhapuri Chappals and a cotton Kurta, and carried a jhola (long cotton sling bag) in which were the mandatory copy of Kafka and a bottle of rum. Of course the poetry and looking with sadness into the monsoon rains and smoking beedies, instead of looking for a job, since the entire system was wrong and was no hope for mankind, anyway.
Do you know they are extinct now? We have in India - everything American. So now the Kolhapuri Chappals have given way to Nikes and Reeboks, and the kurtas have been replaced by Lee T Shirts. And trendy knapsack kind of bags instead of the Jhola. And instead of poetry and desire to save mankind are the thoughts on how to start a new dot com and make a quick buck.
Nothing wrong with that, I guess. It is just that I mourn the passing of the Jholawalas. They were a useless, idiotic but lovable lot.
