Sunday, May 29, 2005

Hungama-fied

Attended Hungama, Toronto's celebration of its South Asian (read Indian) culture. The event was Dundas Square, near Eaton's Center. I joined late (around 6.30 pm). We were there till 11 pm.

The items ranged from the very good (the punjabi sukhbir songs like 'Gul Naro Ishq') to the extremely bad (the rendering of 'Laila Mai Laila' by someone who looked neither like Zeenat Aman nor sang like Nazia Hassan) to the average (the human boombox) to the mildly hot (the bellydancing routine that had the crowd baying for more).

Ofcourse there were the usual characters amongst the attendees. There was a Chinese lady who kept trying to do a bhangra. Except she kept raising her legs rather than hands (a combination of Falun Gong bhangra maybe). There was the desi fob behind us in a 3-piece suit who kept murmuring "thish ish not reeel orrissha dansh". Except he was saying that during the belly dancing. No one paid any attention, understandably. There were the occasional white guys who happened to be in the area and short of cover needed to attend the night clubs nearby.

After the show the Gang of Three (you know who you are) split for La Marche. On the way we stopped at Ontario place, parked and entered to roam the place. We saw this crowd of guys in black tuxes and girls in white, and figured we were at a wedding. Then a security guard came and asked us why we were there, and we replied (lied) we were there to pick up our friend from the wedding. He said ok and left. Later we learnt this was prom night for the graduates of the local high school. The security must not have been very tight.

Over some rosti and mackarel and smoked salmon, the night ended with a discussion of the downfalls of Bengalis. And the Gang of Three retired for the night.

PS. So far I found only one reference to the event on Google news. I am pretty sure the ethnic channels and newspapers have covered it galore.


With some friends at Hungama.

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