Desi Girl

When I was a young child, the only real exposure I had to music were the Bollywood songs my parents would play. These Bollywood songs are my earliest memories of music. I don’t remember many of them now, but my favorite was always Desi Girl from the Bollywood film “Dostana.” I would always excitedly insert the CD (yes I know, the nostalgia) into our car’s player whenever my parents asked what song I wanted to listen to. I had absolutely no clue what the majority of the song was saying -- as it was in Hindi, and I did not speak Hindi yet -- but I loved singing along to the English chorus at the top of my lungs while my parents took numerous videos of me. 


To illustrate how much I loved the song, I have the following vivid memory: My father had picked me up from school and I, of course, wanted to listen to Desi Girl. After listening to the song on repeat for the majority of the way back home, the song was suddenly interrupted by my mother calling. She shared that I had won a The Little Mermaid raffle, meaning I’d receive 100 The Little Mermaid themed items. I couldn’t have cared less that I had just won the raffle most little girls would be delighted about. Instead, I was upset that my song had been interrupted. I DEMANDED that my father replay the song as soon as he got off the phone, even after he repeatedly tried to tell me that I had won. My family and I still laugh about this moment to this day. 


The song remains quite popular, still playing in malls around India over 10 years after it was released in 2008. I stopped listening to the song as frequently once I got older -- occasionally hearing it on a Spotify or in the car with my family. In fact, I almost forgot about the song until recently when I decided to create a Bollywood playlist with all of my favorite songs. While my selection of Bollywood songs has since expanded, Desi Girl will always be my favorite and hold a special place in my heart. I’ll never forget how happy I was singing and dancing along to the song. 


I still listen to Desi Girl and am reminded of all the countless memories I share with it. As weird as it sounds, Desi Girl has also been a way for me to connect to my Indian heritage. The word “Desi” refers to someone of South Asian descent & I do identify as a woman or “girl.” While the song itself is about a man trying to win over his lover, I still feel connected to it because the song comes from Bollywood and it is in a language that I converse in with my family. Bollywood films, and their songs, will always be a “fun” part of my identity that I am glad to have. 

 

Comments

  1. FirmianaDecember 4, 2021 at 8:35 PM

    It's so cool how one of your earliest memories of music was a song that connected you to your heritage and identity. Your story of demanding the song to be replayed even as you learn that you won the raffle is funny, and it highlights the impact the song had on you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eliza D. TerzievDecember 6, 2021 at 1:27 PM

    This piece was written so well, you really managed to convey your childhood excitement. Music is such an excellent way to stay connected to your culture, I also just recently made a playlist of my favorite Bulgarian songs. I love the inclusion of the story about the raffle and the way your family still talks about that moment, it puts the reader in the moment in very elegant and natural way. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thomas SDecember 16, 2021 at 1:23 PM

    This does a really good job at conveying your feelings of excitement. I loved all the details as well as how you described the memories of music you had, it really shows the power the song has for you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eid

  My family from both my mother and father’s side are devout Muslims. In turn, I was raised in a household and in a community full of devout Muslims. We fast during Ramadan, pray 5 times a day, and abstain from eating pork. While these examples are daily occurrences of Muslim “traditions” we follow in our lives, they quite honestly unfaze me because of how normalized they have become in my life. A Muslim “tradition” -- more accurately a holiday -- I enjoy is Eid. From waking up at 6 am due to sheer excitement to rushing to ToysRUs after the mosque prayer to buy new toys as an Eid gift, I grew up loving Eid. It was my version of Christmas since my family does not celebrate “American” holidays.  Muslims actually get two Eids (making it better than Christmas in my personal opinion): one after Ramadan and one around 3 months later the “Ramadan Eid”. While the Ramadan Eid feels like the “bigger one” since it culminates an entire month of fasting, it is meant to be the “lesser” of ...
Read more

Fatima: The Story Behind My Name

  When I was younger, I quite honestly despised my name -- more accurately the way it was commonly mispronounced by those around me who did not come from my culture. I hated the way my classmates would make “fat” jokes out of my name from kindergarten to around second grade. It was frustrating to me that even the so-called “American” version of my name was difficult to pronounce for some individuals and that I would have to constantly be correcting them. It’s Fuh-TEE-muh not Fat-uh-muh. I’ve said this exact sentence at least a hundred times.  I hated the fact that I could never find my name on keychains at souvenir shops, or that I did not know of anyone famous who shared my name. I felt like an outsider to American culture and different than the rest of my classmates. Perhaps the most awkward encounters would be when adults would ask “where I was from,” and I would explain that while my parents immigrated from India, I was born in the United States. It was uncomfortable being...
Read more