Another 100 years

Well, it was the event of the century, not to be surpassed until 2132. And we certainly won't be alive then. The longest solar eclipse that lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds was visible in most of SE Asia and India. In Bangalore, cloudy skies dampened the entire experience, not that I was out with my solar glasses or anything. I was peacefully driving to my yoga class, not looking up at the sky to damage the little vision I have and thereafter, dutifully doing my surya- namaskars. After all, it was a solar event and an apt occasion to pay homage to it. That said, it was sad that the many who braved the early morning[ in terms of waking up] were left disappointed.

What was also sad were folks in Taregna including foreign tourists who thronged the NASA-proclaimed-best-place-to-view-the-eclipse town and were left literally high and dry. Even more sadder were parents in Gulbarga who buried their challenged children neck deep in soil and exposed them to the sun during the eclipse, many of them under 2 years of age. Many media channels flashed those images constantly, dismssing it all as blind superstition and yet, no one taking it forward to verify it scientifically. That said, the line of more such parents doing this will only increase during the next solar eclipse.

Inspite of all the hiccups, the solar eclipse turned out to be one big national event, if TV coverage was anything to go by. Being able to witness a once in a century occurence seemed to have fired the spirit in everyone. Maybe a covert need to be part of something beyond one's own posterity, a part of eternity, a part of a larger concept. The eclipse chasers who took the Rs 80k flight were even more of a surprise and many of them, rookies in the area. I tell you it takes all sorts.

But all in all, a grand affair, maybe not so much in actuality in India but certainly in essence. And yes, for me too, it was an unbelievable experience. So what if I saw it on the net and on TV!

Happy Earth day

Vive la Google..for always rising to the occasion...

Random in tandem?

Everyone has experienced that sense of déjà vu at some point or the other. But this?

Have you ever wondered how things fall into place, even the most random of things? When seemingly dissimilar things begin to display a pattern of some sort, in an intra-sectoral way! If you’re confused, don’t worry, I too thought I was when I first started this train of thought.

Well, it all began when I started noticing patterns to certain things – I pick a random instance and every time I looked at the watch on my phone, it showed a symmetrical element, whether it’s 13.13 or 20.02 or 09.09. I have checked this over several time bands across the day and one just can’t escape the symmetry. And it’s not like it happens everyday, it happens across a certain stretch of days – I sure haven’t calculated the time interval between days when it occurs and when it doesn’t and all the possible hypothesis regarding its correlation with various factors…c’mon, lets get real, if I were to start evaluating whether it coincides with the movements of the moon, I’d probably go loco….I simply ascribe it to being a random occurrence.

And then there’s the entire concept of it being a small world. Ok, here, I’ve tweaked the theory of six degrees of separation by swinging on a large dose of creative license. So, we all know what Malcolm Gladwell’s famous [and probably patented too!] theory is, so let’s call this the six degrees of connection – it’s funny how on whichever corner of the globe that one goes, you invariably find someone whom one either knows or someone who knows someone you know. I mean, how random is that or how coincidental is that? It’s similar to looking at the other side of the coin. I know it’s weird but it has happened to me and people I know. Sheer coincidence, I’d say with my rational thinking hat.

An interesting aspect of patterns in randomness can be attributed to a person’s psychological profile. What might seem as madness to one person might be a method to another. For e.g. this might seem complete gibberish to you, it strangely is making sense to me. And no, I’m not smoking anything.

En plus, what might suddenly become apparent as a pattern might just be a Johari window opening in one’s persona. For e.g. some years ago, I saw the movie Sisterhood of the travelling pants - 1 [SOTP]. Frankly, I don’t even remember the movie too well and my reaction to the movie would be at best a comme ça, comme si. The other day I was discussing my favourite TV shows with a friend and I listed Gossip Girl and Gilmore Girls as the top ones for me. My friend is so clueless about TV shows that I began wondering as to why I was having a discussion on it with her in the first place. So for her benefit, I began tracing back to their more famous erstwhile roles in order to explain who the leads were. And baam, it hit me. Both Blake Lively and Alexia Bedel [leads in the respective above 2 shows] were leads in the flick, SOTP. Strange coincidence, I think. Now that the Johari window was open on this, I made sure I watched Part 2 even if I had to stay awake on my late night flight to Singapore.

While I muse through lands of more gobbledygook ness and their possible liaisons, I must say that the only thing that is deliberate about this piece is my attempt to infuse a sprinkling of French, which I am dedicatedly learning now at the Alliance Française, Bangalore. And the only tangible thought remaining now is to wish everyone a Happy Easter and À votre Santé! Cheers to new beginnings and to each one thinking more laterally and creatively and ofcourse, managing to not go loco in the process. À bientôt until later.

Gifting Options Made Easy & Unique

Occasions to gift are now available all around the year unlike the hitherto customary practice of annual gifting that was typically restricted to only birthdays. Nowadays special days like Friendship Day, Women’s Day, Valentine’s day, Mother’s Day, etc have added a whole level of extra zing to our everyday lives. Add to that, the concept of gifting JLT or Just Like That and we have before us the dilemma of what to gift.

While we may have some of the answers to this some of the time, how do we ensure that we get it right for each of the myriad gifting options right through the year. There are ways to gift and there are ways to gift…. Most people tend to focus on a type of gift. Then go ahead and pick up a gift from that category. I do too, well most of the time! These gifts could be serious (books, watches, etc.) expensive (jewellery, sunglasses, etc.), outings (dinners, picnics, etc.), sweet (candles, chocolates, etc.), cute (stuffed toys, photos), plain (vouchers), trivia (earrings, clothes), silly (captioned tees) amongst others.

I believe that one occasion befits a unique and special way of gifting that goes beyond merely selecting a type of gift. The gift ought to clearly show the amount of thought and care that has gone behind it. I call these themes – they are basically ensembles of gifts, interwoven by a common thread – they are smart ways to dress up your gifts and make the occasion more memorable.

Here are 5 successful themes that are guaranteed to add a lot more excitement to your gifts. These are ideas for gifting that friends and I have used in the past or in turn have received. The birthday basket ideally contains a medley of gifts along with a master note that explains the theme and conveys the birthday wishes. I use the note in lieu of a formal [and sometimes boring] birthday card.

Hand-made: In keeping with the current trend of being anti-consumption and ecologically friendly, a friend of mine included one hand-made gift as part of the birthday gift basket she gave friends all year around, from glass painted bottles to homemade chutneys, from baked cookies to crocheted doilies, aromatic candles to beautifully decorated photo scrap books, etc. – Needless to say, we were all immensely touched by the enormity of the gesture.

Colours: Bringing together gifts in a kitty, linked by different colours is ideal to wish the person a truly colourful year ahead with all its resplendent glory. Ensure each gift is of a unique colour - choose colours of the rainbow or a family of colours. Blend those mauves, fuchsia and purples or experimenting with the summer splashes of yellow, white and orange or mix whatever are your friend’s favourite colours. Tag each gift with a note on what each colour signifies and special wish, and there’s many a hue added to an otherwise standard gift. Go the distance with even the small touches like ribbons and little cards in the same colours and you would have delighted your friend.

Pamper Hamper: This one is strictly dedicated to being pampered. There’s a whole world out there in the pamper segment – everything that’s guaranteed to make one come out feeling more beautiful, more confident and more loved. From spa packages to beauty treatments to weekend holidays to expensive cosmetics. One friend’s birthday pamper hamper had the following weird yet exotic assortment of gifts: A French manicure and an aromatic pedicure at a top beauty salon; a totally impractical yet completely wild layered knee-length skirt [never mind if she wore it only once, she zimply loved it!]; an aroma pack with candles, incense, oils, etc.; a low maintenance plant with the prettiest flowers; a DVD [chickflick naturally]; a pack of scented soaps; and chocolates from a premium chocolate boutique. Everything that you need for whatever the mood.

5 Senses: Amongst my favourite themes, here we celebrate each of the senses – smell, touch, taste, hearing and sight – and dedicate each gift(s) to each. A wicker basket that I recently put together was accompanied by a little poem and note on each of the 5 senses and was created by combining the following – touch [an outfit, a spa massage package]; smell [aromatic candle]; hearing [a home A/V of photos and videos ];sight [painted glass bottle, framed photo] and taste [cupcakes]. This works almost as a universal theme and a number of gifts can be categorized into any of the 5 senses.

Body, Mind & Soul: A step forward from the 5 senses theme is arrived by including gifts for the mind and soul. Books, board games, etc are examples to stimulate the mind while for the soul, anything that makes one more aware, more relaxed and more introspective. My set of gifts for the soul were a Chinese tea set, complete with colour co-ordinated table mats and a video/photo scrap book. Perfect, because I love drinking tea and my chai-time sessions, either solo or with friends/ family are very special – my time to de-stress. And the video, with messages from friends and family, all duly video graphed and beautifully edited, that it brings a tear to my eye and remains my never-failing upper whenever I feel low. Just right for the soul, u’know.

SO here they were – the famous 5 star themes. As you will realise, the idea is to think a concept and then link gifts using that same thread of thought. Happy gifting! Cheers!

Train of Memories

From a Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson

"Faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches; ……

And here is a mill, and there is a river: Each a glimpse and gone forever!"

These lines from RL Stevenson’s famous poem reverberate in my mind whenever I think of trains. For me, trains possess some undefined charm, a return to an old world scenario, where time doesn’t fly and instead languidly envelops one, a cocoon where you get time to think things through or day dream or read or just watch life outside the window pass by – I enjoy train journeys.

I must specify that this preference relates to the under 24-hr journeys – my 2 experiences of long train journeys [one from Bangalore to Indore and the other a terribly delayed train from Delhi to Bangalore] are enough to make me shudder and adopt an ‘amnesia-cal’ approach.

To me, train journeys are almost 2 dimensional in nature. One where the traveller creates the memories and the other where the traveller is an observer. I also know that a lot of folks cannot appreciate the width of the visual feast that a train journey offers. The initial awe and wonder wanes off. It is easy to turn a blind eye and act as if one were travelling in an underground tube. But when one opens one’s mind and senses, and looks out at the world out there, one realizes that the journey has a parallel existence. One more overt, the memories inside the carriage and the other more sublime, the outside images that fly by.

As I try and recount some of my memories inside the carriage, a whole bevy of pleasant memories rush in and I’m left with a smile. Time to leave the platform, put up my feet and retreat into the chuk chuk of recollections. No wonder it’s called a train of thought.

My earliest memories of train travel are the annual ones we took every summer when we travelled from Vizag [where Dad was posted, courtesy the Indian Navy] to my grandparents’ home in Trichur, Kerala, stopping enroute in Chennai [where my cousins lived] for a day or two. We always travelled first-class in an independent coupe for the four of us and typically with the entire works – individually packed food for different meals, the brilliant turquoise and amber mega water container, basic linen, etc – quite like a caravan of our own. It was an adventure, especially for my elder brother and I who used to keep hopping across our upper berths. For me, through the eyes of a young 6 year old, it was awesome - getting to spend time with working parents or playing with an older brother who usually didn’t want his little sister trailing his friends and him.

Another childhood memory I have is of travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg when I was 7 – I was so impressed by the plush comfortable interiors of the Russian trains – a huge departure from the spartan India trains that we were accustomed to. Our train section was full of most of my dad’s ship crew and their families, so we could keep moving from one end to the other end, chatting with almost everyone in between and literally running wild.

Over the years, as both a student and while working, I have travelled innumerable times by train, alone & with friends, though the frequency has progressively decreased. Train times are spent either reading, sleeping, thinking and observing people if I’m travelling alone or cackling away with constant chitter-chatter all the way if I’m travelling with friends and family.

Travel by the AC chair car train, Shatabdi tends to be more serious, hardly any privacy with the theatre-style close seating and voices tending to travel far. Though I must admit, we tried to defy the trend during an all-girls fun trip recently from New Delhi to Hardwar [nothing remotely religious, it was a stop en-route to the Valley of Flowers].

Travelling by the normal 2^nd class chair car trains like Brindavan/ Lalbagh [usually to Chennai] was more fun. During a journey when we were in college, I remember a friend of mine, Pi & I leaving our luggage with a sympathetic aunty and sitting together on the steps of the boogie at the entry point, watching the world in true Stevenson style. Dangerous in retrospect but nothing to beat the high we felt during that time. After drawing much unwanted attention, we scrambled back to our seats to retrieve our luggage and in the process, also gained 2 marriage proposals from the aunty for her 2 sons for Pi & I – the situation was so bizarrely hilarious that it was a surprise that we didn’t burst out laughing right away. Anyway, moral of the story was to be wary of over-friendly aunties too - baah! Really there isn’t any free lunch, even to take care of luggage.

I moved to travelling by 3AC - certainly safer and more comfortable. I travelled all over by train from Bangalore during those last years in college – Pune, Kerala, Bombay, Vizag, Chennai, etc. Soon, the 50% flight discount for students proved too good and when I started working, I almost completely moved to travelling by air.

Travelling in the unreserved compartment is something most people in India have done atleast once in their lives. No such exciting tales in my repertoire - I did a watered down version as a child with my Mum when travelling between Trichur & Tiruvalla – stations some hours apart and anyway, no one books seats for it. One just jumps in & hunts for a seat and hangs on to it for the rest of the journey. A piece of cake compared to travelling in rush hour in the Bombay local trains. The other time that came close is while travelling from Indore to Bombay, sharing a berth with a batchmate due to our tickets being RAC [where you are entitled to half a seat].

During my long break from work last year, I travelled alone to Hyderabad by 2AC and I must say that I was quite delighted. In my opinion, the coaches are cleaner, more comfortable, less crowded and the crowd is better. Infact, I felt it was better than the experience I had of travelling from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur this December by the KTMB train in a 2^nd class coach.

Taking the train of thoughts forward, on my wish list are the luxury trains that we now have in India – the splendid Palace-on-wheels that runs through Rajasthan & more recently and closer home, the Golden Chariot that runs through Karnataka.

An interesting consumer behaviour trivia that I noticed is that people behave differently when travelling by train. I know of some people who talk garrulously with their neighbours and most often are just nosey parkers. Others like me keep to their group or their books/ music. Others wait to experiment with the different food available in the different regions that the train traverses by. Most often, people sleep almost the entire journey. My mother falls in the latter category, though she vehemently denies it. I used to say each one to his/her own.

I’m usually not one to sleep a lot of train journeys – especially when travelling in groups; I’m all for playing games – card games like UNO, word games, etc. However, a recent train journey from Jaisalmer to New Delhi saw me sleeping most of the time – I was too tired from an exhausting 10 day break in Rajasthan and was only too glad of the peaceful respite that the train offered, complemented by the characteristic swaying and rocking that one experiences when travelling by train. I now say each one to his/her own and a little bit of each for each, as I discovered myself.

The more I think about my train journeys, more memories come flooding in. In true parallel theme existence, almost simultaneously, images of the many country sides that I’ve been fortunate to witness are conjured up – myriad colours emanating from various forms of geographical elements [hills, valleys, fields, plains, etc] – numerous scenes from life in villages, towns and cities – innumerable attires and features of people from a country so diverse and so rich – each a source to creatively enthuse you, each an avenue to lose yourself - each a glimpse and gone forever, yet these mini stills do stamp their impression on life. Such is a train journey with its unforgettable duality!

‘All Shook up’ – Like its shaken, not stirred equivalent!

‘All Shook up’, the latest in the series of musicals from the Leila Alvares stable, opened to a packed house in Bangalore last evening. I'm sure there would be critic's reviews that follow but this is a personal account of it, as a avid theatre lover. Ever since the play was announced the previous week, I was eager to see it, especially since it spoke of an Elvis twist. Also, I must confess that in the past few years, I have watched 4-5 of their productions and enjoyed them immensely. Last year, getting to watch ‘Joseph and his Amazing Techni-colour Dream coat’ was a struggle of sorts. All places selling the tickets had sold out and we finally landed up going to Kavita Kasturi’s house to buy the last few of them [she’s in charge of organizing the tickets]. Well, the struggle was worth it – the play was a delight - and with that, Leila Alvares’ productions firmly established on my annual social calendar.

And there we were, the six of us, on opening night and in seats to die for – right in front of the centre stage [all thanks to Kavita]. It started with a bang with the song “Jail house bird”, setting the context for the Elvis flavoured play and getting us all in the mood, with each one in the audience, singing along and swaying to the beat. In the next 2 hours that followed, it was a treat after treat. Eternal Elvis songs were revisited; the audience, one with the humours on the stage, crooning wherever they knew the lyrics; roles of lead characters etched well; the actors [many recognizable from last year’s production including Arvind Kasturi & Prem Koshy] well cast, confident and impressive; dancers, entertaining and lending the essence of exaggeration to the stage; the costumes and sets, detailed and apt; and the music as foot-tapping as ever.

“As always, the music and singing was live”, as Leila repeatedly conveyed, and there was full justice to the theme of a musical, never mind the hiccups of sound quality and faulty audio control. Among the actors, the favourites this year, no doubt, were Neville Nazareth, as the very cool, Elvis spirited, women-exciting, leather jacketed Chad and Jude Lazaro [known more as last year’s Joseph] in his endearing ‘Side-kick’ role.

A satisfying performance, enveloped in great music and fine singing, made our evening thoroughly enjoyable. Only when Leila, during her credits speech, talked about seeing us next year, I realized that it was a one ‘long’ year before we got to see another such play. Hmmm, anyway, for now, we left with flashing eyes reflecting our pleasure, strains of “Can’t help falling in love” and “a little less conversation” playing in our heads, and gushing conversation about the interesting men in the play [read: Chad, Dennis, Dean].

The ‘Staine-d’ State?

No prizes for guessing that I’m talking about Orissa. The staine-d state! Shame!

Like we didn’t have enough of the tragic Staine murder in 1999 that again we have the same and more incidents of violence in the same light. Burning people alive; killing hapless missionary victims and people working in churches; damaging churches and prayer halls; attacking schools and children’s hostels; literally holding the Christians in the state to ransom; evoking a sense of huge insecurity and non- belief in the country’s ability to protect its citizens; making them live in fear.

When the Staine murder was exposed, the overriding emotion that I felt was sorrow – hurt that a selfless man of God, one who dedicated his potentially good Australian life to helping and alleviating the plight of the poor, was burnt alive with his young sons in a jeep. This time around, there isn’t a public name like Graham Staine – but the number of victims is larger.

The tragedies are similar, if not more. A number of people have been killed, threatened, made to feel like second class citizens, countless are in hiding in the forests and atleast 2 people including one lady was charred to death while 10 others have died in the communal rage. Orissa burns, Christians are running for their lives. This time, the sense of loss trails far behind. In is place, is a growing sense of resentment and anger.

As a society, how can we sit back and accept this? Do we not have any responsibility beyond condoning the incidents? Do we allow the state machinery to take its own sweet time and still do nothing to ensure that we don’t see such tragedies played out in future time and again? It was already 48 hrs since Orissa was caught up in the flare-up and only then was the deployment of extra forces to curb the violence announced. The home ministry in today’s TOI talks of managing the situation in 48 hrs. How many more people’s lives are ese next 48 hrs going to cost? Mr Naveen Patnaik, CM of Orissa, what will it take to wake you up and get you moving?

Unless significant efforts are taken to control the situation and protect the fundamental rights of the Christians there; unless non-negotiable actions are publicly deployed against the perpetuators of such strife; unless we start asking tough questions and someone answers them; we will not have a permanent solution. Anything else will just be mere lip-service, a half-hearted attempt to overtly calm the frayed and angry tempers to a temporary numbing and gradual silence of defeat and forgetfulness. Atleast until it rears its ugly head once again.

If conversion were really the issue and the concern for the tribals’ interest been the root of the problem, the VHP supporters would not have attacked the dispensary of Mount Carmel Convent in Baligura. This was the lone source of first aid to the tribals in that entire region. At the very least, the VHP would have organized someone to restore or provide the necessary medical aid to tribals in the region. Negative to both, as reports highlighting the desperate need for medical help, come streaming in. So much for the saffron mobs acting in the interests of tribals!

Infact, Christians might as well get accustomed in Orissa to living life as a compromise, as lesser human beings. Amongst states with dangerous associations, if Bihar has its gun culture and gunda raj, if Assam has the ULFA and underground rebels, if Andhra has the Naxalites, then as a Christian, for me, Orissa has the Staine-rs – ready to kill, without a thought, without a cause, without any care of consequence or retribution. Exploitation of a religion in the name of protecting another. Mindlessly. I’m sure there is a Nemesis waiting to catch up. Till then, shame on Orissa!

Quick Tales - The LiveJournal - The Caferati Flash Fiction Contest

Write a in 500 words or less. On offer: delicious cash prizes, global visibility and the chance to be part of a book.

The theme is "Journal," and your deadline is 7th September. Prizes? The top 5 winning entries take home cash prizes of Rs 19,999, Rs 16,000, Rs 12,000, Rs 8,000 and Rs 4,000, respectively. Each of the top 100 entries will also be highlighted on LJ's India Writing community - http://community.livejournal.com/india_writing/ - for the world to see. (Short-listed stories may also be included in a book that LiveJournal plans to publish at a later date.) For more info, link to the site - http://livejournal.caferati.com

Mugabe khush hua...

"Denmark is the happiest nation and Zimbabwe the the most glum, he found*. (Zimbabwe's longtime ruler Robert Mugabe was sworn in as president for a sixth term Sunday after a widely discredited runoff in which he was the only candidate. Observers said the runoff was marred by violence and intimidation.)"

Almost a Mugambo like reaction {from Mr India] by the Zimbabwean Mugabe after telling the West [read the Brits] go "hang". Amidst huge human rights violation and a bloody trail his rule has brought on the people, will the story continue as it has been since he came into power in 1980? Will international pressure just continue to "mount" or something concrete come out of it? Will the UN finally intervene or just allow statistics to fly around? Or do we wait for more instances like the April seizure of babies and kids and torture of citizens to get some alleviation?

btw, a shocking detail about Zimbabwe: According to the World Health Organization, Zimbabwe has the world’s shortest life expectancy—37 years for men and 34 for women. It also has the greatest percentage of orphans (about 25%, says UNICEF) and the worst annual inflation rate (1,281% as of last month).



* June 30th 2008 headline: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/studyworldgetshappier

Chennai’s City Centre Mall

Chennai’s latest mall is a delightful surprise. I was charmed by the classic sense of aesthetics that the mall showcases, which is almost non-existent in malls these days.

So, I landed for the 2^nd time in the space of a fortnight in a terribly HOT Chens. Yes, I am MAD! This time, it was some work and the chance to meet an old friend of mine, Latha that dragged me there. The previous time was aboard my brother’s ship when it came to India - thankfully the ship was completely air-conditioned and I was spared Chennai’s suffocating and sweaty heat then. Anyway, the long and short of it was that I was in Chennai and amidst the good times that a catch-up with old friends brings and the rush that a customary visit to Pantheon street evokes [thanks to the awesome bargaining that this kind of street shopping offers], this mall stands out in my memory of this trip.

The first thing that strikes one is the unique European architecture, almost Grecian to an untrained eye like me. In an age when steel and glass facades rule the landscape, such a classical style, reminiscent of a bygone era, is a welcome change.

Coming from India’s latest mall city, Bangalore, I don’t care much for malls, except in a truly functional way – it’s a pleasure to find parking and everything one possibly needs under one roof. Having seen malls in different cities, the mantra for a new mall seems to be bigger, the better with a good dash of glitz and lighting. Infact, liking a mall for its aethestic sense is probably unheard of, though I do like the Al Madina mall [that's the name i think] in Dubai with its Arabic street look and unbelievable waterways – making one forget you’re in a desert zone and not in Venice.

The Chens City Centre almost looks a beautiful monument that one visits as a tourist – and then one sees the sign boards of the top brands beckoning, sans the neon and flash. The ornate clock at the top, the Grecian detailing along the outer walls, the western street lamp dotted entrance, the picture perfect frills in white interiors, the stained glass painting and the lavender coloured wall, complete with the white outlining for windows, the large scale wall paintings in a Renaissance style – even the small urns attached to the walls at the inner entrance with Chennai city centre, borrowing from the holy water urns that one finds in churches – all unbundles the surprize styling that this mall displays. Add to this, the top shopping outlets [including Landmark], Inox movies and an average spread of restaurants and you have a mall blockbuster mall.

A mall like this in Chens! I was in shock for an entire evening, Latha will attest. This round goes to Chens I think. Go visit if you are in the city.

Earth Day Logo

Check out Google's customization for earth day...i like, i like...i also saw Yahoo's which I thought was boring. Anyway, it was on flash, so I couldn't download it to upload it. Infact, the fact that i'm a googler [ i google almost everything] not withstanding, Google does come up with interesting adaptations of their logo to suit the occasion. Very reminiscent of the Amul spirit we love in India..u'know the 'utterly butterly' campaigns that show up with a reliable regularlity and spin a spoof on whatver is the current hot topic...:)...go google!

The Scales - They are A-changing

It’s been an interesting mélange of sorts this last fortnight or so. After being home-locked, overseeing some renovation of work and with only workers from dawn to dusk and my phone for company, the forces transpired to finally give me some relief. The work was completed, only a month later than scheduled – “tsk, tsk, delay in carpentry, masonry and other domains related to renovation/ construction are only but to be expected”, I’ve been told again and again but we won’t go down that path.

The freedom of being able to leave home as free as a bird happily coincided with events that are balancing the scales of this city. What do I mean? Well, it started with the acclaimed play called The Vagina Monologues that Mahabanoo M Kotwal brought to the city as part of the Times Bangalore festival along with her cast of seasoned actors. It got me thinking and the events that I’d subsequently been to, only served to highlight it.

The scales I’m talking about refers to the spirit of the city changing from a pub city and IT focussed land to one that now celebrates art and culture, theatre and music, dance and sport. I remember folks talking some years ago when I first started working here that from a pensioner’s paradise and relaxed life style, Bangalore was changing into an IT-hub. Even before this, when I was in college, Bangalore was acknowledged as having the maximum engineering colleges. That IT companies would follow and engineers would settle down in Bangalore itself seemed to correlate well.

The focus of the paradigm change in lifestyle was that engineers and IT professionals were bringing a heavy left brain syndrome to the city – hence more hard rock pubs, gaming and snooker parlours, etc while art events were few and far in between. The theory that was being floated was more left brain individuals, so more symptoms of their behaviour like higher recorded levels of aggression [esp on roads]. I should know. Having done a bit of theatre in college and a smaller bit in school, I constantly bemoaned the fact that theatre was dead here in Bangalore, especially since I’d just moved from Bombay where I saw it in all its vibrancy.

The city has certainly changed, moving towards more such events revolving around art and culture. I don’t know about the particular left brain impact of IT professionals and MBA’s on the art scene but many of my friends, including an MBA like myself, have been involved in theatre workshops, dance classes, reading meets, blogging, poetry, environmental causes, trekking and nature trips, etc

And come to think of it, a few days before the play, I managed to catch one of the musical events that the Bangalore School of music has been organizing at their new premises – a much-appreciated singer guitarist Chico Francisco Fonseca of Goa belting out soulful Italian/ Portuguese/ Spanish songs to a packed mini-auditorium. A look at their March-April newsletter showed me that the BSM is doing atleast two musical events, quite enough to satisfy a music lover in a land of hitherto inconsistent and irregular musical events.

In this sense, the scales are balancing and a richer, more meaningful life style, beyond the usual routine and drill, is emerging. And my last fortnight or so is evidence of that. Not that I caught each and every event that was organized in the city. There were simply more than enough events to choose from, a far cry from a few years ago when I persevered to go for every play that was staged in the city.

Coming back to Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, this was a landmark play of international status that was staged in several countries and associated with stars like Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei. In India too, it had been staged several times in the last couple of years and to packed audiences. In the past, I had tried unsuccessfully to see it both in Bombay and Bangalore. This time too, the mad scramble to get passes was only seen to have been believed. Thanks to media connections in the family and their relentless efforts, we managed four passes and participated in an experience that embodied the spirit of women across the globe. Needless to say, the play was bold, highlighted issues unknown or un-discussed previously, and the acting was superb. Only how Arundhati Nag was seated in a row just ahead of me [which was several rows from stage] and someone like a Rahul Dev go a VIP seat is beyond me. The politics of media, I suppose.

In the fortnight or so that passed, there were atleast 7 plays in Bangalore including “When God said cheers” by Cyrus Dastur, featuring the much-loved Tom Alter- we tried to get passes but no luck. I heard it was superb. I have plenty to say on the Times Bangalore festival as far as organizing goes, especially w.r.t the free passes headline for each event - No passes were available for the public irrespective of how early one got there and media connections seemed the only way to get it. But never mind that!

The other play I managed to catch was a presentation of the latest batch of Misfit - a friend of mine had taken part in the workshop of Ratan Thakore and I went along without a clue on what to expect. It was to be at some obscure school premise that I hadn’t heard of before. What’s more, I dragged two of my friends – both of whom I hadn’t met in a long time, one visiting from Bombay. So, you can imagine the risk if it turned out like those disaster of plays that I had caught last year which incidentally were well advertised and staged at some well known venues. Well, we were delighted to say the least. With minimal sets and facilities for the audience’s comfort, and relying on the actor’s skill and a seamless script, the entire play consisting of 4 mini-parts [as opposed to acts] was engrossing and funny.

Apart from music and theatre, I also went for a fashion show – showcasing collections by Rohit Bal and the King of Mysore independently. Well, as all fashion shows go, it began late and had all ingredients of the weird taste of fashion designers that more often make us cringe. I wonder like countless others, about who wears this stuff. Along with it, came the dash of recognizing models like the new Miss India, Parvati Omnakuttan [my country cousin] and the more famous Carol Gracias. And the cool dude models [don’t know their names!].

The Bangalore wing of Caferati, the international literary group, met up for a reading meet in the city and though I couldn’t make it, I heard it was fun. I’m a regular now at the British library and a few hours at the Bishop Cotton’s library where my Mum teaches also got me my literary fix.

The city is also gearing up to the Bangalore marathon in May, for which the advertizing has just gotten louder. There’ also a famous belly-dancing show that’s organized by my Iranian dance teacher in May. Opus, CKP, RangaShankara, Alliance Francaise and the likes continue to give us now-what-is-a regular offering of music and art shows and dance and theatre.

So all in all, with music, theatre, fashion, books- it’s been an interesting fortnight of sorts for me. From a dry city as far as the Arts go, to one that has a lot to offer, Bangalore is living. Never mind the 11.30 pm deadline in discs and pubs. The scales - they sure are a-changing. As a Bangalorean, I’m loving it. And wish that beyond the Bangalore Habba and the recent Times Bangalore festival and my favourite musical production by Leila Alvares, incidentally all annual events, it got more regular and richer.