Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Rashidiya ramp
|
Prasad Bidapa waxes eloquent about the green green grass of the Al-Rashidiya prison
|
RUM TIME Prasad Bidapa: `Maybe I could make a film, Notes from my Diary. ' PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.
Is this a fable or was Prasad Bidapa plain lucky? South Indian coffee, milk, biscuits, cornflakes, cakes, chicken, mutton, lamb, fish, rice, salads, Lebanese bread, cellphone, cable TV, muscle toning, reading and praying... All in a Dubai prison where he cooled his heels for carrying marijuana. That's exactly how Bidapa described his 35-day stay at the Al Rashidiya Detention Centre.
"It reminded me of my hostel days. It was like a very good hostel," beamed Bidapa.
Look at Bidapa's schedule and you won't find torture, stink or stale food. He took two days to settle down and then got busy exercising. He woke up every morning around 8.30, head off for breakfast — South Indian coffee, milk, biscuits, cornflakes. Small break and then two hours of exercise. Then a fab lunch around 1.30 p.m. of nothing less than chicken, mutton, Australian lamb, unlimited salad and white rice. At dinnertime, fellow jailbirds ate together in jolly conviviality, sitting in a circle and sharing food. He took generous helpings of vegetables, "great for nutrition and diet". "It was fat and oil-free, the healthiest food I have had in a long time!"
A nap next and reading at noon till about teatime. Some tea that, with biscuits and cakes. An early dinner, a bit of movies, television and reading and then off to bed. With a face mask and earplugs not to be disturbed by other people praying and so on till next morning.Can life get more royal than that? But then the conscientious person Bidapa is, he decided to do his mite for the inmates. He not only got them to exercise with him, but also even got them to model a bit.
"I told myself I needed to control my life, maintain my health, see that I'm not lazy, eat well and not slip in the bathroom and have a broken bone. Other inmates persuaded me to teach them modelling too. They got to know I was a fashion designer. The long corridor was the perfect ramp." Bonding with them, he told them all about Bollywood and songs and dances they watched on satellite TV that came with 70 channels in the evenings. "I, in fact, saw the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings which I did not see in India. I also watched Million Dollar Baby."
The busy Bidapa completed a short story collection of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a book by James Mawdsley, The Heart Must Break, about a man imprisoned in Myanmar. Of course, he also read the English version of the Koran.
Bidapa also maintained a diary in which he would write down what each day was like. "Maybe I could make a film, Notes from my Diary. But no, I wouldn't be showing anyone the diary!"
Bidapa waxed about a jail that was airy, clean and had kind guards. In fact, the warden, a lieutenant in the army, often asked him how he was doing. "Looking back, it was a calming experience. I've come back much stronger and more confident."
The self-styled fashion guru even had a take on Indo-Pak relations. "The Pakistanis are not our enemies. The Pakistani prisoners were the first to welcome me. They gave me blankets, shawls, towels. I think Pakistan has suffered more than India has from the Partition. We have got out of it, but they haven't. I wish the two countries would join hands. We are two parts of the same seed."
I came away from Bidapa toying with the idea of packing my tweeds and stashing some weed and buying a one-way ticket to Dubai.
PRASHANTH G.N.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
