Day 22: A Very Bollywood Christmas

In my Indian American household, the place no event passes with out celebration, stepping into the Christmas spirit means grooving to Bollywood music. Although none of our elders grew up celebrating Christmas, they’ve embraced it wholly, and once we come collectively for Christmas dinner at my in-law’s dwelling in Los Angeles, everybody has a activity. Whereas the mothers roast the nuts with chaat masala and the dads collect ’around the wine, my job is to sync my cellphone to a bluetooth speaker and play deejay. My father-in-law, Vrajesh Lal, the household’s patriarch, begins the night with a full glass of pinot noir and a request for “one thing Christmas-y,” like “Elvis’ Christmas Album.” (Having immigrated from India to the U.S. in 1972, Vrajesh is an enormous fan of Elvis.) However when the nuts give technique to Cornish recreation hens and cumin-crusted squash (for the vegetarians), he by no means fails to flag me down with a brand new directive: “Let’s placed on some Bollywood, huh?” My playlist contains Bhangra-style covers of Christmas music, with beats that hail from north India, songs from the Bollywood Brass Band and a few of my father-in-law’s favourite Bollywood hits. Even the King can’t compete with this household’s compulsion to rejoice Christmas with jams from the mom nation.