Over the past three months , I have had to grudgingly acknowledge the important role the Indian Movie Industry has played in making people aware about life in the wonderful subcontinent.

Indian movies have a surprisingly large audience in this part of the world.When I introduce myself as Indian , people dont respond with an expected reflex of - ' Oh - Gandhi/ IT/ Taj Mahal..etc' .
No...almost 90% respond with "oh I like Bollywood!". And then they proceed to tell me how the movie
" Sometimes Happiness Sometimes Sadness" (try and guess that one) really moved them ...

I couldnt believe my eyes today, when I saw Zeenat Aman and Amitabh Bachan on the corner restaurant's tiny TV. Thy were prancing around trees in 70s retro gear with Cyrillic subtitles explaining the inane pyar/meri jaan type lyrics; neither could I believe my ears the other day, at Sofia's largest Bus station - while I was waiting for my train to Veliko Tarnovo , I suddenly hear the Sushmita Sen playback croooning 'Dilber Dilber...' on the central audio system of the station...I literally had to check my ears.

At December National Conference - I met this beautiful girl from (i think) Svishtov who told me that she thought Aishwarya was the most beautiful woman she has seen and she was her biggest fan! She then proceeded to sing extempore one of her favourite 'ash' songs , which I had to sheepishly admit that I have never heard of in my life! She sang every single word with the most perfect pronounciation!

That wasnt it- my friend from Varna that let me know that 'The Bread of Honesty ' was one of the best movies he has seen. I assured him that there was no movie like that... He was convinced - so he called home and got someone to check the name of the movie from the CD cover..... well the hindi name on the CD was 'Izzat ki Roti' (!?!) ...a 70's movie with Shashi Kappoor and some others.

The other day - at the Supermarket- I met this girl who told me that 'Elephant my Friend' was quite popular in Bulgaria when she was a child- I was stumped again!...My Bulgarian friends also confirmed that they had all watched 'Elephant- my Friend' when they were kids........after a LOT of explanation and a lot of Q & A rounds, I figured that it had to be 'Haathi mera Sathi' !!!!!

Well, so now and then at a club ..when I hear the Bluffmaster soundtrack or Asha Bhonsle or something else that i would snobbishly shrug my shoulders to back home , I now share a secret smile with myself and tap my feet at something that sounds especially beautiful- simply because of what it reminds me of.