The Connection Between Zor ka Jatka and Sheila Ki Jawani

I stand facing the Dippu, oranges all over the country waits to be exported. I watch the sun slowly setting in for the night, turning dusky grey to orange.

The Toorsa River spreads before me as its flow disappears into the misty fog created by pollution; the orange store houses cluster the banks of the river.

The smoke from my cigarette swirls upwards as it thickens the air above me.

I can hear a Bollywood song being played in one of the so called “dance party” shed built to attract the creatures of the night in Phuentsholing.

“Sheila ki jawani” a typical Bollywood hit item song is being blared from a “Sany” music system made in China.

There are some fat potbellied local business men who can barely stand on their own feet, intoxicated by alcohol, hanging onto smiling young women who look desperate to replicate Katrina Kaif’s dance from the Sheila number.

It’s like one of these high school house parties back in the 1990s. The only difference is there are a lot of commercial factors that heat up the party.

Older men and young girls remain coupled together as the single young men look at awe at the power of money.

My friends and I try to make an attempt to be a part of the crowd, since we stand there, just sliding to the right once and then to the left, given the limited space we are given to show our very own Sheila moves, we remain unnoticed.

There is nothing but bamboos woven together to form our roof and the four walls and the sand deposits from the Toorsa River as our dance floor.

The night would have seemed far too long for sure, if Bhutan Highland Grain Whisky, blended with selected Scotch Malts had not come to our rescue.

After taking the last drop from the two 750 ml bottles of Highland, we were showered with all the energy that could have possibly been required to summon at any night club in Thimphu.

Out went Sheila Ki Jawani and in came my very own favorite Zor Ka Jatka.

I take a seat in front of a table which had lost a leg. Somewhere, someone had tried to experiment a pole dance on the table. As I sip on my Highland with coke and blow out rings of smoke, the lyrics of the song takes me to another phase in my life.

And there is one guy who made it all the more clear by singing it out so loud, stressing on the word SHADI.

“Shadi bhan ga yi omar ket ki sa zha,” he sang it with so much passion, his marriage seriously might have become a life sentence to him over the years.

But then it was a good sight, because the young girl who walked in with him selflessly did a poor but well choreographed belly dance for him.

The guy in the middle of the song started singing Sheila Ki Jawani, pointing at the girl.

It’s always the Zor Ka Jatkas that makes a man miss Sheila Ki Jawani in his life for sure.

The poor poor GHALEY BAR

We set off following a murder case. The destination was a border town in India called Nagarkata, a name not too familiar.

We were asked to take the road from Jepti to get to our destination; we did not have a plan B in case we lost our way. The funny thing was only the car that we were driving had ever been to Jepti, neither of us had even heard about it.

We drove all the way to Sipsoo and no one knew where Jepti was.

We must have driven for about two hours, turning the car back and forth. I was losing patience and a bad mood was predicted to be headed towards my direction for sure.

Finally, something strikes our head after we gave up our search for Jepti, the word Jitti pops up out of nowhere.

Yes, the name was never Jepti, it was always Jitti.

Totally annoyed and pissed off at our memory capacity, we decide to give up on Jepti, I mean Jittu and head back to Samtse.

On our way back, to suppress our bad mood (as I had predicted) we visited the numerous bars on the way.

The first was one called Kafley Bar, as expected Druk 11,000, HIT Beer and Sophie topped the bar menu.

We went for a bottle of Druk 11,000 each.

Our next stop was at Lepcha Bar, the same menu again. Another bottle of Druk 11,000 each.

Tamang Bar after a few minutes’ drive kept us relaxed for a while. Still doubtful if I should go for another bottle or not, Chencho was all the more encouraging that I did. So, it was another bottle from Tamang Bar.

We were spending our nights at the Gurung Basti while in Samtse, so it became essential that we kept a look out for a Gurung Bar to cross our way. We had finished the Tamang Bar beer a while ago and soon enough Gurung Bar welcomed us.

By the time we reached the Ghaley Bar, we were too drunk to even get out of the car. Until we come back to Samtse, Ghaley Bar will have to wait for us to grace it with our presence.

We could not find Nagarkata but we surely did explore each and every bar along the Samtse-Sipsoo way.