Smoke a hookah…
Carla’s clever husband gave her one for her birthday. She fired it up for our Bollywood evening, featuring Chhupa Rustam.
Fun fun fun!
One less thing left to do before I die
32 Comments to “One less thing left to do before I die”
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My grandfather used to smoke hookah! (I haven’t had a chance to meet him, but my mom tells stories..). My Iranian friend has hookah at her home; she & her husband also goes to Middle Eastern clubs & smokes hookah there. I’ve been invited at times.. but I don’t know.. the idea doesn’t really appeal to me!! (Hope that doesn’t ban me from commenting on your site..) :-$ ;-)
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Ha! you would have to say something very very very awful for me to ban you. I don’t smoke (except occasionally a cigar while playing pool, I am soooo feminine) but hookahs are cool.
It was quite pleasant although I probably won’t make a habit of it (except on FilmiMem Bollywood evenings). Carla had cherry-flavored tobacco (her husband asked for something more grown-up next time LOL) and it was very mild unless it got too hot. There’s an Indian restaurant in Back Bay that has hookahs for people to smoke as a digestif, I suppose, but I never got around to it.
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My ex used to smoke a hookah. I liked the smell of it more than the awful clove cigarettes he would smoke. *yuck*
It looks like a fun evening, though! We should have an east coast get together – like in NYC for the Bachchan tour… *hint hint*
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Good idea, Filmi Girl! The Bachchan tour! I’ve always wanted to see one of those extravaganzas…
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Ahh, I used to be a hookah addict. Thankfully I’ve left my hookah on the other side of the world, hence I can’t slowly cancerfy my lungs even if I want to. It’s so lovely. We should have a Bollywood hookah night. Your petite exhalations bespeak your noviceness; I can show you guys how to blow massive smoke rings. Yeah!
Ooh! A fun thing you can do with hookahs: fill the base with things like iced coffee, juice, or even alcohol (though I’ve never tried that, for fear of having the hookah explode on me) instead of water.
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I don’t think I’m in danger of becoming addicted although Carla might be! She has joined some Hookah Forums and is getting all kinds of advice about using it :-)
I so want to blow smoke rings like Pran, but likely never will. I can’t even blow bubbles with bubble gum. Carla was making a good stab at it though so maybe you can help her along.
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Women smoking hookahs??? :-O
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Though it’s an ancient “practice” originating in India, hookahs are something almost every Indian, Arab and Persian have in their parental homes whether they smoke it or not. But due to its increasing popularity in the West as a “exotic” novelty item, I suppose it’s currently on every stoners’ wishlist.
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Oh my gosh, very Memsaab in Wonderland! Or should it be Bollyland?
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PPCC, I am still learning how to manage the heat properly to get massive clouds like the boys (and oh yes they are all boys) on the hookah forums do. They display pictures of themselves shrouded in thick white clouds with a pride that says “mine’s bigger than all a yours” in a way that only boys can.
I am madly in love with my hookah but I have smoked it a grand total of only 5 times and still have loads to learn. I’ll take any advice you can come up with! My next point of experimentation will be to use colder water; I’ve read that helps for thicker clouds.
And meandering closer to topical-like, I have to say that hookah and Hindi films go really, really well together. Highly recommended for all.
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haha- i like the “Memsaab in Wonderland.”
I wish i could smoke successfully- i cant even correctly smoke a cigarette, so i guess a hookah wont b happeneing soon :Di saw chupa rustam last week as well! so much fun- so will write mine, and look forward to reading what u’ll say about it :)
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Wow! Hookah. You really need to recline on a divan against a round pillow to get the full Bollyhookah experience! :-)
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ajnabi: carla and david (her husband) and I also commented on the Alice in Wonderland aspect of it all :-) it’s part of the charm!
carla: I look forward to wreathing ourselves in thick white smoke like the boys do ;-D
Shweta: I choke on cigarettes but this was much milder. I love Chhupa Rustam, can’t wait to read your take on it.
bollyviewer: yes, we need cushions, and we need young cabana-type boys waving palm leaves or peacock feathers over us.
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And Anonymous (sorry, you went into spam for some reason): why not women smoking hookahs????
Do you have one? Would you smoke it only with men? Or stoners? Or not smoke it because you are a woman? (since I’m not sure what gender you are)…
I don’t think either Carla or I qualify as stoners (although I’ll let Carla answer for herself) although we are definitely women.
You don’t know what you are missing!
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In India, it’s usually a male thing. Women smoking in general are considered “lower-class” in India.
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Very cool!
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There was a recent BBC documentary, Women in Black, which briefly talked about how some young Arab women would escape to certain places to secretly smoke hookahs etc as they’re highly criticised for doing so confidently in public – it’s the same situation for Indian women as it’s considered “unlady-like” and “lower-class”, so that’s why you’re more likely to spot a working-class Indian woman smoking a hookah, beedi etc than a middle-class woman. Have you tried smoking a beedi, by the way?
There are many people here in the West who are using it as bongs! Lol, I’m not suggesting that you are using it as one too.
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Nice! For what it’s worth, I particularly like the mango/lime-flavors for my hookah and sheesha 8)
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Beedis don’t even tempt me, they are too acrid…and remind me of clove cigarettes, which just make me gag. My sister might have tried them though!
Are cigarettes considered a lower-class thing for women to smoke too?
And BollywoodFan: mango/lime, yummmmmm!
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Yes, cigarettes too, but more and more modern Indian women nowadays are taking up smoking probably because of freedom of choice as the gender roles are slowly eradicating.
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Yes, your sister has tried beedis, interesting but I like my camels better. Now you know why I smoke, the wish to envelope myself in clouds of fantasy. Great hookah scenes in ‘The Chess Player’, mainly the two men of course although Shabani Azmi looks as if she really enjoys it too.
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And here I thought you smoked because you were addicted :-)
Carla’s hookah awaits you, too!
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“Great hookah scenes in ‘The Chess Player’, mainly the two men of course although Shabani Azmi looks as if she really enjoys it too.”
I think she uses it to sublimate the sexual frustration she suffers as a result of her husband’s distracting chess obsession! :D
I actually use a screencap from that movie of Shabana with her hookah as my avatar on the hookah forum. Zarur …
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The colder the water (or any liquid in the base), the easier it will be to get a long pull (for lack of better descriptive phrase!) and not make your throat suffer too much. Also, I always found that Maximum Cloud Capacity would occur about halfway through my charcoal. At the very beginning, it was still too rough and hot. Blech. At this one hookah bar I used to go to, the waiters were great because they would smoke the first few puffs (which are typically the super-strongest and lamest) themselves.
Re: women smokers, generally. Doesn’t Umrao’s boss lady in the old Umrao Jaan smoke up a hookah storm? I seem to recall her constantly lazing around and puffing on it.
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I think Umrao’s boss would not qualify as a lady, to Anonymous’ point.
Thanks for the tips! Maybe you can join us someday ;-)
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Re: “And here I thought you smoked because you were addicted”
Of course not! I know many occasional smokers and people who smoke with others because (and I quote from a friend) “it’s a social thing” – they can possibly quit anytime but chooses not to.
People never start smoking because they’re addicted!
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Anon: that comment was directed at my sister, who has been smoking for decades…she’s addicted!
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Although it is true that I wasn’t when I started. And I would try harder to break the addiction if I didn’t enjoy it so much.
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Lol, whoops. I think you should delete it.
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To paraphrase Dr. Seuss:
“If you haven’t tried them
You really should
These things are fun
And fun is good.” -
Hi all,
Has somebody ever gotten hold of a “combination hookah and coffe-maker”, that is referred to in the opening scene of Walt Disney’s “Aladdin”? Nothing better, from my point of view, than a smoke with a cup of coffee! Well, with a cigarette, that is. I stand in awe in front of people wanting to bubble their way through an actual hookah!
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No but someone above pointed out that you can use coffee instead of water in the hookah itself! Would be interesting…
MemsaabStory 