Assignment 9: Radical Revision
“Is it true? Are New Yorkers really rude?”
A wide-eyed woman who has an older brother living in Dublin, a Forever 21 shopping bag at her feet, and her beloved parents who live in the most populated city in India. Her voice drops to a whisper when she speaks about her hardships in New York City, but takes in pride in leaving India in suit of becoming the filmmaker she’s destined to be. She’s 23 years-old with a gleaming smile whenever she talks about her mother, whom is over 7,000 miles away. But despite having lived here for five months, she has not lost her baby face–”people still ask me for my ID!” Her name is Shaily, not ‘Shelly.’
The youthful Mumbai native and avid film lover is studying at The New School, “[I’m a] Bollywood fan, but I want to be a creative producer.” Rhamosh was the film that sparked her interest, “[it’s] a story about two deaf and dumb people who fall in love and get married. Their journey without any words but emotions”–yet when I tried to research the film further, the only thing I found was Barfi! A film with a similar plot but a different title. After trying different keywords and reaching out to another Bollywood guru, I was still struggling to tie loose ends.
Shaily is in the same boat: being separated from her parents after 22 years of sheltering, she is living alone and trying to find an apartment in New York City, a place where studios are the size of a Starbucks bathroom and come with a pricetag of over $1500. She confesses that she recently started smoking cigarettes, “my parents would kill me if they found out!” Indicating that she’s still her parents little girl no matter how far she is from them. With her Forever 21 shopping bag at her feet, I can tell she’s had her fair share of retail therapy today. Regardless of the fact that she has not seen her parents since she first moved to the states, she heeds her mother’s advice daily.
“Life is really short and you should enjoy your life as much as you can with the time that you have”–and travelling is what she intends on doing aside from making dromedies (dramatic-comedies). With an older brother living in Dublin, Ireland for unspecified reasons, she proudly reveals that she wants to visit the city more than her sibling. Shaily thrives amongst people, perhaps a trait that she acquired throughout her life in Mumbai: “Mumbai is like the NYC of India–lots of party places. [My] friends complain about crowded areas, but I am comforted by a lot of people.”
She laughs when recalls times with her friends from back home, and the amount of times she still gets ID’ed at bars and clubs. But her voice drops to a whisper, “Is it true? Are New Yorkers really rude?” Her innocent question makes me forget that she is a grown woman living in a foreign city similar yet different from her own. I smile and assure her that yes, we are in fact, very rude. But her vivacious attitude is untainted, and that’s what sets her apart from the millions of other New York City dreamers.