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Saturday, June 17, 2006

Sas, bahu & Sensex?

For those not familiar with Indian television “sas, bahu” would mean little. It literally means “mother-in-law, daughter-in-law.” [I am assuming that mostly those outside India read this blog.] This is the term used to describe the endless soaps that air on Indian television. For your information, in these bubblies, women go to bed with a kilo of jewelry on them and wake up, no, not with drool in their mouths, but perfect coiffure and make up.

Sas bahu serials are all about mothers-in-law who harass daughters-in-law and vice versa. This, um, archaic tussle arises because a majority of Indian families are still undivided where the mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law live together and fight for the man’s attention. Sounds familiar?

Imagine my surprise when I saw a promotional advertisement on CNBC announcing its program “Sas, Bahu and Sensex.” For the uninitiated Sensex is the stock market index of the Bombay Stock Exchange. Or, it may be that all the jewelry is proving to be too heavy and the daughers-in-law, for a change, would like to unburden them and invest the money in the stock market.

Now, hehe, isn’t this going a bit too far? Or am I being daft? Do sassies and bahus discuss the Sensex? And what do they discuss, bulls and bears?
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