Bollywood with Arabic Subtitles

While sipping Karak Chai this evening in the midst of a cool breeze, feeling the gulf winter; something struck me as I watched something eerily familiar on a large projector screen, usually utilised for watching soccer games. It was a Lebanese eatery, and the projector was screening an Arabic channel from the Levant. The only difference/familiarity was that it was a young SRK on the projector. The film was the cult classic DDLJ with Arabic subtitles. It warned the cockles of my heart and reminded me of the mid 1990’s when watching films: Hollywood and Hindi, on Arabic channels on a Friday evening was the norm as we did not have a south Asian cable connection at home, it was too pricey. Having grown up on a diet of LBC, MBC and Rotana; today evening brought back a flood of memories. These days, with the TATA Sky and Dish TV easily available in the gulf and YouTube having all content, those days were very limited indeed.