Dia Mizra
Apparently, Dia Mizra was staring at me the other night. Not just glancing at me, but actually turning around so that she could keep looking at me. She was in a car in Bandra. I was on the back of my husband’s bike.
My husband only told me this today, when he saw a picture of her in the newspaper. He thought that there was no point telling me at the time because I’d only say, “Who is Dia Mizra?”. He was right. I have no idea who she is (apart from learning that she’s an actress). I also have no idea why she’d be so interested in looking at me!
Living in Mumbai, it’s fairly common to see famous people though. Actors, and particularly comedians, are prevalent. When I first moved to Mumbai, my husband was reluctant to point them out to me because he thought I might do something embarrassing, like run over and ask for their autograph. He soon realised that I was more likely to respond with a blank expression. I simply have no idea who they are.
The only time I got a little excited was when I saw Upen Patel at the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office in Mumbai. Well, he is quite attractive! And I did know who he was! My husband duly pointed him out. Since Upen was also having a look at me, I suggested to my husband that I might go and join him. Unfortunately, he didn’t approve of that idea.
However, if it was the Big B (Amitabh Bachchan) sitting there, I probably would’ve gone over to talk to him (although I don’t know where I would’ve found the courage from!). He is one famous person I would like to meet. He seems like such a knowledgeable, interesting, and dignified gentleman. For now, I guess I’ll just have to be content with having seen the outside of his house.
I must admit, I’m not completely immune to all things Bollywood though. My husband and I once did some work on the set of a Bollywood movie and I had my photo taken with Shahid Kapoor…and Imtiaz Ali…and Saroj Khan. Fortunately, I stopped there with it!
Me and Shahid Kapoor in Manali.
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{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Sharell….
i m absolutely addicted to your blogs ever since i happened to discover them just BY CHANCE on 16th April…. It was pure delight reading your day to day experiences as White Indian Bride!!Even I m new to Mumbai(came here in July last) and trust me , each day teaches a hundred new things about surviving here!!
I stay in Versova…and have learnt a lot about hang out places in the vicinity..just by reading your pages
keep writing..its pure fun reading you…
take care
bye
Hey Rohini, thanks sooo much for your encouraging words. I really appreciate them! I’m so happy that you’re enjoying what I’ve written. It’s reassuring to know that even Indians have lots to learn about living here too! Versova would be a great place to live. I love being close to the water.
Seeing your photos I can see why Indians, even famous Indian women, would stare at you.
You have what Indians would consider a “classicly beautiful face”.
Understated, simple, yet attractive.
Your features are strong and defined. In fact, you almost look anglo-Indian, and if you were to tan in the sun, you might be able to pass for an Indian woman.
So I think when Indians see you, they are trying to figure out “what is she? – Is she a very gori Indian? Is she half desi? Is she ‘phoren’?”
And your height probably throws them off as well.
Basically you have the “look” most, if not all, Bollywood actresses are trying to get – tall, thin, light skin and light eyes contrasted with dark hair and an aquiline nose.
Move over Aiswarya Rai!
Oh my gosh Hola, you’re waaaay too kind!! I do think you have a bit of a point though. I think one of the reasons I’ve been able to gain acceptance easily enough with my husband’s family is because of my strange looks. His family were too fascinated with the way I looked, especially when I got dressed up in a sari, to dislike me. They were also initially worried about how their friends and relatives were going to react to me (they were expecting to receive disrespect) but again everyone was just too taken in with my looks to say anything bad. All I had to do was sit there and smile at them, and they were happy. My husband agreed that me having dark hair has made things a lot easier! But yes, I have managed to confuse quite a few people about my origins. It’s quite funny. They question my husband, “is she foreign or is she Indian?”. He usually tells them I’m Indian, which confuses them even more. Sometimes I even tell people I’m Indian (especially those annoying salesmen that hang around tourist attractions and ask “which country madam?”). Sometimes people just start speaking Hindi to me. As soon as I open my mouth and they hear my accent, all is revealed though! haha.
yah Sharell..its fun staying in Versova…with so many options of beaches nearby..I love water too!!!
I would suggest Aksa beach in Malad…its reallly clean and less crowded …Try going there sometime around 5 in the morning…just before the sunrise…its beautiful.
Oh, I love Aksa beach Rohini.
We went there and had vada pav one day (I wrote a post about it on the blog if you wanna dig around – there’s even a vada pav pic! lol). Your sunrise idea sounds beautiful. Neither of us are morning people but I think we should make the effort and go there then. It would be a totally different experience.
Hey Sharell..
hope u r doing gr8..m glued to ur site ever since …i simply love your simplistic approach towards writing and life n general..
yes i did read your Aksa beach blog…next time u must try fried bhajiyas and a cup of tea from one of the vendors thr…its simply amazing….
next on my agenda is Kashid beach and Manori…
take care…
Interesting blog !! hooked on to it since I found a reference to the same on Naomi Canton’s blog .
You write very well.
Hey, thanks so much Ritesh! Glad you like it.
The name’s Diya Mirza (not Mizra). Your blog was interesting to say the least. Good work!
Thanks for the correction Abhishek, that just confirms how little I know!
lol.
Darkest Dude Ever! —
Haha, now, this is quite funny…. it could almost be true because someone told me the other day that I looked like Dia Mirza!!
@ Sharell great blog as usual..
@ Darkest Dude ever…I must agree with you..please do blog!
hey can u if possible e mail me shaid kapoor’s e mail adress please please! thanks a bunch… i am in love with him…My e-mail is nasrin_sultana17@yahoo.com.
Hi Nasrin! So sorry, unfortunately I don’t have his email address. I only met him just that one time.
WhiteIndianHousewife: Sorry to be using your blog for my own personal gain (dicussions to help me decide if i ever want to move to India)…. I’ll stop posting here if it is an annoyance, just say the word.
Thanks
Dev, don’t worry, this kind of discussion is great! People obviously have a lot to contribute. I think the best solution would be to start a separate post for you.
http://www.whiteindianhousewife.com/2009/07/should-i-move-to-india/
LOL You DO look like her hahahahhaha
Sharell,
Looking at your photo in a saree and big red bindi, you could indeed pass off for a very-good-looking woman from perhaps Rajasthan or Gujarat.
Oooh, thank you Chris!
Dia Mirza, interrestingly enough, has a German father, and an Indian Hindu mother.
Yet, she looks almost totally Indian.
The Indian genes seem to be very dominant. I’ve got quite a few foreigner friends in Mumbai who are married to Indian guys and have kids (including one German woman). All the kids look Indian, except their skin is a much lighter shade of brown. Invariably, they all have brown eyes and dark hair!
hi sharell plz can i have your e mail if possible plz i want to know a lot of thinks about indian peapl because i love an indian boy plz im waiting for u thankx for this blog …. good work
I think it is because as Sharell put it, Indians genes have the dominant phenotype. I have a Slavic mother and a Goan father yet I am more of a Goan than a Russian. The only Russian characteristic about my looks seems to be my built.
hi sharell bhabhi (brother’s wife)………u hav great writing skills as well as u look like a typical bollywood actress………..( u r beautiful )…… i discover it (ur blog) jst by chance……….whn m searching 4 shahid kapoor’s pic on google images………pls tell us abu shahid kapoor’s looksssssssss………….is he look’sss attractive , smart , wats his height according to u …………. & lot’s of other thngs abu shahid……..
bye bhabhi………
Hi abhishek, welcome to the blog. And thanks so much for your kind comments.
Hmmm…. Shahid Kapoor… what can I say. I didn’t really know much about him before I met him. I’d only seen a couple of photos and none of his movies. So I wasn’t expecting much. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The biggest surprise was that he’s quite tall and well built. As you can see from the photo, he’s about as tall as me (175 cms/ 5’9″). He’s also very handsome in real life. I think he’s quite smart as well. While I was there, I overheard him talking business with some people. He seemed to be doing a good job of negotiating a good deal for himself. There is much more to him than meets the eye. 
He wasn’t particularly friendly though. While he smiled in my photo, he didn’t smile much for other people and seemed reluctant to have his photo taken. Based on that, I didn’t try and have a conversation with him!
Bhabhi?
Hein? 
Now if section 377 wasn’t lifted, then Abhishek would be looking for actresses pictures, not Shahid’s! Geeez!
Talking about bhabhi, I didn’t know Abhishek Shrivastav was Pradeep jis brother.
Oh Ramit!!!
Indian American, of course he’s not really. India is such a confusing place though, everyone is apparently each other’s brothers.
No we should not laugh!
Sharell ji, I laughed when he called you bhabhi. I knew he wasn’t his brother. Usually a brother of the bridgegroom is the one that calls his wife bhabhi.
hiiiii sharell bhabhi,
……………thanxx 4 ur rply……….i found tht thr is an issue….4 calling u bhabhi……..i dnt’n wats wrng wid ma indians bro.’s………….anyways ur blog %%%%%%%%%Rocking%%%%%
Hello Abhishek, we were just having some fun. It’s no problem, I’m sure.
Ofcourse Abhishek we are having some fun. If we weren’t having fun, we’d be calling you Abhishek Bachan.
Lol Haha!
okiesssss…….;)
Abhishek bachan is a nice guy with a good personality. I was watching a film of his and I didn’t know I fell asleep until I woke up.
hmmmm……………….!
Since staring is not really considered “rude” in India, people often tend to stare even when they don’t necessarily want/mean to stare. Nobody, other than Dia Mirza, could say why she was staring at you: the nicer part of me would say she was distracted the meaner part would say she was curious and didn’t mind her manners. I hold people who have traveled Internationally to a higher standard, so if it was the later well Ms Mirza was being a little rude!
u r so lucky i wish i was u i get 2 be with shahid kapoor u know i luuuuuuuuuuuuvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv him he iiiiiiisssssssssssssss ssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooo fffffffffffffffiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
heyyyyy how are you:)?
i am not india i am not even cloused to india
but i do love india
i been watching movise readyng storys that people tell to as like you
i been lisining to the music
and i cant help my self its so butiful
evry one saying how can i find that place india
itseasy my first india movie that i so i had only 8 years and i couldn stop thinking about your contry i wish to visit some day
please keep telling more about india
its amazing
and you are really butiful how can people not look at you its imposebal:)
i send alot of happenes
Its amuses me ,when westerners complain and consider staring a very rude gesture , but I just wonder ,why the people of France, Portugal, Britain, Germany, Holland , couldnt and still cant call , invading another countries and treating the natives like salves , RUDE , let alone Brutal.
Sharrell, I’ll be frank. She was probably staring to see such a fair skinned (gori), good-looking and TALL woman like you with a short(er than you) Indian husband. As you know, Indians try to “match up” when it comes to marriage. That includes similar skin tone. And they prefer the man to be taller. Your husband has a cute face but she was probably wondering why someone as fair and tall as you were with him and wondering if it was a romantic union – what you saw in him, since Dia herself would go for somone more fair and taller.
No doubt that would be true if we were standing up — it’s always ideal to have a husband who’s taller — but we were sitting on his bike so it wasn’t obvious.
Hi Sharell,
People staring at you is similar to me getting some stares, here in Germany (flirty stares from women and hate stares from men..specially when I drive around in my convertible car, with the top open..lol)…It’s just the ‘Exotic Factor’…Also, it depends from person to person…In India, most of the stares are harmless and out of curiousity….Also, it depends from person to person…Some people might be wondering if your man is really something to you or not…and some might be wondering if he’s someone trying to deceive you…and some might be just jealous…In Diya Mirza’s case, I guess she’s probably wondering how you both met and how you are coping up with life in India, as India is a different world, when you compare it with the western culture…Also, she being a hybrid (no offence meant….in a lighter vein), understands these cases emotionally, more than others. Last time, I was in Bangalore, I saw some other White-Indian-Housewife with her Indian man riding the bike…I was curious (as I know how it is to be in that position) and just gave a glance, to see if she is comfortable in India…It doesn’t look like she is comfy in the crowd….Well, thats how it is…The world is not yet flat!