Bollywood Fashion and Music Awards from Planck's Constant

Thailand gems and jewelery traders association
celebrated Thai night with Manish Malhotra
showcasing his latest bridal wear collection
at Intercontinental Hotel.
Photo Credit: One India

Last Saturday I went to the Bollywood Fashion and Music Awards extravaganza at Trump's Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City (a thorough review can be found here). A casual Western observer will note that the models for the fashion show were not all tall, skinny bulimics we are used to seeing on American and European runways. The models were short, medium, or tall; some were thin, average or pudgy; but all were attractive. (Western audiences may also find that they will need more patience: the show ran 4 hours)

I should also mention that Indian fashions appear easy to wear. I've seen American models strutting feathers and accessory nonsense that make them look like starving parrots. At the Awards, designer Manish Malhotra won the best designer of the year award. In the photo right we see a sample of his bridal wear collection (more gallery photos here). Now tell me that's sexy!

It happens that I enjoy Indian movies and one cannot do that without also enjoying Indian music. I can listen to pretty much every music genre except jazz. My brain just doesn't tune in jazz. (I even like Arabic Music) There were many interesting blends of New World with old such as Calypso-Indian, rap-Indian, etc., but I prefer the old, plain, traditional Indian songs like Chori-Chori. Go here to download and sample popular Hindi music.

Different kinds of music excite different parts of the brain. If I want to work out some computer problem I find classical music of a certain tempo aids in my mental resolution of the problem. If I want to relax and not think about anything but simply enjoy the moment, I find Indian music and especially Indian films do that for me. Of course, new age music is great for falling asleep.

Farmers will tell you that music can make hens lay better eggs or cows to give more milk; It's called The Moozart Effect and I'm not Joking.

I have used certain kinds of music in my Jewelry business in order to encourage customers to buy jewelry. Yes, there are certain colors, lights, and music that make people buy expensive jewelry. Back in 1977 I discovered that the same light bulb used in aquariums to give color and beauty to tropical fish also brings out the natural beauty of gold. In addition, the light also makes customers' faces look more appealing and warm which the customer attributes to the jewelry making them look prettier. Not to go into any long discussion of the matter, just so you know, gray floors make people buy more jewelry.

Some of my readers are likely familiar with companies and city agencies using music to keep teens away from areas:

NY Times,
6 Jun 2006,
A Creative Application of Incentives …
City officials in Sydney, Australia have found a way to clear out the hooligans who gather at night in parking lots and discourage solid citizens from frequenting restaurants: they’re going to play Barry Manilow music, really loud.

No Loud Music
Photo: paulofierro.

Well, that would keep me away as well. Add Barry Manilow to my dis-appreciation of jazz. I should add loud music to my list of auditory dislikes. Sometimes a car will pass by my house with the Bass so deep that my testicles shake and, at my age, that ain't a pleasant sight. It's hard to decide whether Liberals or people who play loud music are a greater danger to the Western World. On the one hand Liberals make it possible for Islam to one day take over the country, the loud music will most likely keep me from hearing some neighborhood Muslim yell, "Allahu Akbar" before he detonates.

Just a small digression: I mentioned that different kinds of music excite different parts of the brain. Different languages live in different parts of your brain. Most people think that if you know how to speak two or more languages that the sounds, grammar, words, etc. sort of inhabit the same areas of your brain. They do not. Let me explain. This has probably happened to you: you see a cop or postman every day for years, then one day you meet someone in a different place than around your home or business and he says hi to you. You look at his face and it just doesn't ring a bell. Then he tells you he's your mailman or cop on the beat. You didn't recognize him without his uniform! That's because uniforms are stored in different parts of your brain than regular clothes. If you know English and French, the two languages have to be stored in non-sharable compartments. The French part is stored with the Eiffel Tower, French Cafes, the Champs-Élysées, Brigitte Bardot, French wine and cheese, Victor Hugo, Honore Balzac, and so on. The culture and history, the music and art of a country demand a different section of your head. Let me give you two examples:

Back in 1962, on Sundays I used to drive my father to Jew Town in the Lower East Side of New York where he would do his wholesale shopping for his dry-goods store. All the way there from Bayonne, New Jersey he would speak to me in Polish, telling jokes or recalling his younger days before 1939 (my father never, ever talked about the years between 1939 and 1945). The moment that we entered the Jewish area with the signs in Yiddish, my father would, right in the middle of a sentence in Polish, begin speaking to me in Yiddish, which he never did at home. I would have to interrupt him to tell him that he's speaking to me in Yiddish. And it would take him a few seconds to realize that he shifted languages. The signs in Yiddish actually triggered his mind to go into a different area of his brain.

Back in 1966 in Israel I was taking a course on the New Testament, and since it was written in Greek, we were studying it using the Greek of that era. So we would read the text in Greek and discuss the material in Hebrew. Talk about juggling brain cells!

Anyway, one day I came out of class, when Ira (a Canadian Jew who was also studying at the Hebrew University) came up to me and said, "dwa uuoow nawa gaeta luns sha." I saw his lips moving but the words just did not compute. I asked him to say that again and he repeated it, but it still didn't make sense, so I asked him to say it slower. He said, "Do... you... want... to... get... lunch."

It was then I realized that he was speaking English. Here's what happened: because I was just coming out of a class taught in Hebrew in which the subject matter was in Greek, my brain was tuned to Hebrew or Greek and not to English frequency. Once he started to say the words with pronounced spaces in between, I realized he was speaking English and then BOOM, I went to the proper section of my brain and I was then able to parse everything correctly.

Weird, eh?