met this lad last week. strapping young man of around 20 years or so.
does work in colaba area with tourists. very passable communication in english (he was proudly displaying his spoken skills). in the off-season, he sells stuff in ladies compartment in the train.
he introduced his elder sister, who could also speak italian!!
you know, desperation gets people to scale the everest.
i noticed the boy's forearm was lined with fine thin welts. on enquiring, his sister said "girlfriend problem". he was slashing himself, either to prove his 'undying love', faithfulness, etc., or prove his martyring capabilities.
grotesque ritual.
in my wisdom, i left him with a trademark "khoon, pasina sirf apne liye hi bahana" (shed blood and sweat only for oneself).
2 comments:
we are back in circulation. since i read Maximum City i have been looking at peoples wrists to detect slashing. apparently lots of people indulge in this pastime, crazy. to get out of it will require lots of will power i would imagine.
welcome back kbpm.
i figured that since your writings are called musings from mumbai, you refrained from musing in mysore.
you are right about slashing being 'popular'. a macho-masochistic powere thing. it has also been depicted in movies which hold the minds of the youth.
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