Day 22: A very Bollywood Christmas
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In my Indian-American family, where no occasion goes by without a celebration, getting into the Christmas spirit means grooving to Bollywood music. Although none of our eldest grew up celebrating Christmas, they embraced it wholeheartedly, and when we get together for Christmas dinner at my in-laws’ in Los Angeles, everyone has a role to play. While the moms roast the nuts with chaat masala and the dads gather around the wine, my job is to sync my phone to a Bluetooth speaker and play DJ. My father-in-law Vrajesh Lal, the patriarch of the family, starts the evening with a full glass of Pinot Noir and a request for “something Christmassy” like “Elvis’ Christmas Album”. (Having immigrated to the US from India in 1972, Vrajesh is a huge fan of Elvis.) But when the nuts give way to Cornish wild chickens and caraway-crusted squash (for the vegetarians), he never fails to wave me down with a new directive: “Let’s wear some Bollywood, huh?” My playlist includes covers of Bhangra-style Christmas music with North Indian beats, Bollywood Brass Band songs and some of my father-in-law’s favorite Bollywood hits. Even the king can’t keep up with this family’s compulsion to celebrate Christmas with motherland jams.
The album A Jolly Bolly Christmas features Bollywood and Bhangra versions of Christmas classics. Credit… Keda Records
