Monday, March 14, 2016

Assignment 4 - The Day I Was Born

I was born on September 8, 1997. My English horoscope is virgo but based on the Hindu calendar, my horoscope is  “Vruschick”. In Hindu cultures, parents will name their child based on the child’s Hindu horoscope and according to my horoscope, it was auspicious to name the child with a name starting with “N” or “Y”. Therefore, my parents named me “Nishita”. Other than my horoscope and my name I really don’t know anything else about the day I was born. To find out more about my birthday, I looked at the front page of the New York Times, popular songs, some popular fashion from that month, popular Hollywood movies that came out that year as well as popular Bollywood movies.


Front page 1 -- no title. (1997, Sep 08). New York Times (1923-Current File)Retrieved fromhttp://libproxy.utdallas.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/109677897?accountid=7120

The first thing I looked at was the front page of the New York Times which is shown above. One thing I noticed was that there was news on the United States Tennis Open in which Venus Williams lost against a player called Martina Hingis for the women’s title. For Hingis, this was her third Grand Slam title of 1997. When I read this, I was surprised that she was about the same age as I am now. (She was 17 years old.) (“Front Page No. 1—No Title”) At that age, she had accomplished so much more than I did and now has become one of the most famous tennis players in the world today. When I read this, I hoped that I could aspire to something meaningful in my life like she had been doing during my birthday.



 Aqua - Barbie Girl. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyhrYis509A 


Along with looking at the front page of the New York Times, I also decided to look at the top songs at around the time I was born. For this I looked at the U.S. Billboard’s top 100 for the date closest to my birthday which was September 6, 1997. I was surprised to find that among the top 10 songs, “Barbie Girl” by Aqua was also included. I found this funny because when I around 5 or 6 years old, Barbie dolls were my favorite toys to play with and I used to love this song a lot. I really thought it was one of the best songs ever when I was young. However I now find it cheesy and tacky to listen to. Clearly my music tastes have changed throughout the years but even though this song makes me cringe when ever it comes on, I still feel a bit nostalgic and I fondly remember how I used to goofily dance to this song when I was younger.


Advertisement: Tommy girl. (1997, Sep 01). Vogue, 187, 26d, 26e. Retrieved from http://libproxy.utdallas.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/904348823?accountid=7120


Since the “Barbie” doll seemed to also adopt the fashion of the time period it was in, I also decided to look at the fashion that was being highlighted at the time I was born. The above picture is from the September 1997 issue of Vogue. Tommy Hilfiger was pretty famous in the nineties and early 2000s. However, I chose this picture because I always associate Tommy Hilfiger with my mom. It was one of her most favorite fashion brands to wear. She liked their perfume and she also had a red sleeveless Tommy Hilfiger top that she kept for a long time before recently donating it away. Tommy Hilfiger will always remind me of my mother in a nostalgic way

Another thing that brings me nostalgia are the movies that were popular in the year that I was born. I looked at both Hollywood movies and Bollywood movies since I like watching movies from both the United States and India. The Most Popular Feature Films of Hollywood Released in 1997 are listed below:


Music: Top 100 Songs | Billboard Hot 100 Chart. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1997-09-06 


The most popular movie of the year I was born was Titanic which is cool because this is one of my favorite movies. When I was growing up, my parents always made references to the movie and always referenced it as one of the most romantic movies that they have both watched.  Along with this movie, two other famous Bollywood movies came out called “Dil to Pagal Hai” and “Pardes” which had one of my favorite actors and actresses, “Shah Rukh Khan” and “Madhuri Dixit”. Bollywood movies are essentially musicals and always contain songs that the main actors will dance to. I remember growing up listening to the songs from these two movies, especially Dil to Pagal Hai. They were always fun and bubbly to listen to and when I was young, I would always dance and sing to them out loud, butchering the words and making up funny moves.


Highest Grossing Bollywood Films of 1997. (2014, August 10). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070884150/ 

It’s interesting to see what was popular and what was happening in the world around the time that I was born. In some ways, the things that happened on the day, month or year that I was born, still continue to creep into my life sometimes. I’ll hear songs from Dil to Pagal Hai sometimes from my parent’s phones or I’ll see a Tommy Hilfiger perfume that my mom used to wear. Leonardo Decaprio finally won an Oscar this year and has come a long way from his rise to fame from Titanic. It feels me with a sort of nostalgia. Although I may have never experienced the movies or songs when they first came out or seen the tennis match where Venus Williams lost, they still affected after the day I was born and became a very very tiny piece of the person I am today. When I think of it like this, the meaning of the day I was born becomes more than my “birthday”. It becomes the year when my favorite Bollywood songs came out or the year where one of my favorite actors rose to fame. My birthday becomes much more special than it was before.

Sources:

Advertisement: Tommy girl. (1997, Sep 01). Vogue, 187, 26d, 26e. Retrieved from http://libproxy.utdallas.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/904348823?accountid=7120

 Front page 1 -- no title. (1997, Sep 08). New York Times (1923-Current File)Retrieved fromhttp://libproxy.utdallas.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/109677897?accountid=7120

 Highest Grossing Bollywood Films of 1997. (2014, August 10). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070884150/

Most Popular Feature Films Released In 1997. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://www.imdb.com/search/title?year=1997,1997

Music: Top 100 Songs | Billboard Hot 100 Chart. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1997-09-06




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