A weekend of performances

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some awesome contemporary dance performances over the weekend. It started off with my friend’s contemporary creative dance workshop for kids last week which culminated in a heart warming piece done by the kids and my friend (and her friend who are both free lance dancers).
Over the weekend, it was the inaugural dance performance of the Attakkalari India Biennial 2009. What an opening it was! An assault of the senses with their movements, music and colour. Held at the Chowdiah Memorial Hall, it was a perfect beginning to the 10 day festival.
We then chose to go for one of the performances my friend recommended. It was by a South Korean troupe – Dance Theatre CcadoO and it was called Murder in the Elevator. Now this was something else. It was a dance-play, meaning, a play that mainly had a lot of dance to portray the story and the characters. Lithe, slender bodies moving so quickly that it made one gasp. One after the other the amazing movements, the co-ordination, the acrobatic like steps which was made to look so easy, the crisp story telling, the characters, the digital art on the stage, the set …was absolutely mind blowing. I don’t think I’ve seen something like this even on TV for a long time. We all enjoyed it immensely. After the performance, there was a meet the artiste session where with the help of an interpretor, we were able to ask questions to the troupe about the whole performance.
Looking forward to the next one we will be going for, this one is by the Attakkalari group itself, it’s called Chronotopia. Check out more details and a full calendar of events here. Enjoy!

More on the New Year…

I seem to only be reading columns and articles and seeing programs about what to wear, how to decorate, what to cook, how to get over a hangover, what the celebrities are doing for the New Year’s Eve. That’s pretty much what almost all TV channels are showing and most of the magazines and newspapers (especially the pathetic excuse for a newspaper, the Times of India) are publishing. One article was completely ridiculous, it was talking about how a girl HAD to be dressed in the best-est clothes and have all the right make up, or else there would be no meaning to a New Year’s eve. I mean really, are we so starved for approval and looking good that we can’t just be ourselves? Do we so seriously have to ape the Americans? I understand, for a celebration, dressing up is a part of the whole process, but making it the only thing is taking it a bit too far don’t you think?
Hmm anyway, one thing I do look forward to at the end of the year, is to see all the Best of the year shows on TV…espcecially on the movies, where finally it’s ‘doodh ka doodh, pani ka pani’
My Hindi movie picks of the year are: ‘Rock On’ and ‘A Wednesday’. In English, I loved ‘ The Dark Knight’. I also liked ‘Body of Lies (though I guess it was not such a big hit).
I had this conversation with a friend about how nobody really keeps up to their New Year resolutions…I think I stopped making them years ago since I never really followed it beyond 2 months! This time however, I sincerely want to:

1] Start an exercise regime (even if it’s just walking for an hour in the morning)
2] Stop having late work evenings (plan work ahead unless there’s something critical)
3] Learn to cook Amma’s signature dishes (atleast one dish every 2 months)
4] Re-Learn to drive (As much as I loathe Bangalore traffic, I have to do this)
5] Spend more time at home…reading and increasing the colleciton for my precious library
6] Call my out of town/country friends atleast once a month

I’ll probably add to this list as I think of the other things I want to do

The green cover and infrastructure

In the name of infrastruture, Bangalore’s green cover is mercilessly getting plundered. And all of us have to watch this spectacle in silence. ‘We will plant saplings for each tree we uproot’ declares the development authority. I guess there needs to be another ‘authority’ to actually find out if they are planting saplings. Even if they do, those saplings will take years to grow into the wonderfully comforting big trees that have been uprooted. I’m not against infrastructure development, I know how desperately Bangalore needs it. The roads are choked and yes we definitely need the wider roads, the flyovers, the ring roads, the peripheral roads, the satellite towns, the metro, the monorail etc. I’m just worried about the price we will have to pay for changing Bangalore’s landscape…literally. I wish there was a better and a different way to do this. I wish there was a way to control this dizzying amount of growth this used-to-be-laidback city is experiencing…

p.s. One road I’m going to miss terribly once the Metro work will start is the seemingly endless green stretch from South End Circle junction to Jayanagar Sangam circle. The large, wide road flanked by some fantastic trees on either side and the parks that line the entire stretch of the road is a visual delight which I know most people who take that road regularly experience. All in the name of development eh?

A wedding feast

I’ve finally attended a wedding reception at Palace Grounds. Growing up in Bangalore, it was a known thing that if anyone gott married there, they must be very well off and it was definitely going to be a big affair! A friend of ours got married earlier this week and the reception was held there. We entered the humungous sheltered stall they had made for the reception party. It was decorated with flowers and colourful ribbons. The 3 sides of this makeshift hall were lined with food. The one side in the front was of course the dias for the bride n groom. There were very comfortable chairs put up right in front of the dias for guests to sit. Behind the few rows of this seating, were a lots of dining table and chairs. The table had one accessory:a nice, big white candle in a glass container. (Though I couldn’t understand why that was needed since none of the candle flames were burning due to the fans which on at full speed!). Right next to the dias in one corner was a smaller dias on which a music band were singing all the old and new popular numbers from Hindi and Kannada cinema. The only thing missing was a dance floor (and I think this was due to the fact that the reception was hosted by a south indian family, dances are not so  big here)

A bar fight

Until last weekend, I’d only heard of people (guys mainly) getting into bar fights. And seen enough and more instances of it in movies and on TV shows. I’d never been a witness to such a fight, let alone being a part of it!

So, we were in this rather reputed old time bar last weekend. One of the few places we still frequent ‘coz it hasn’t changed and become like the new ones which are only filled with 18-somethings gyrating away to glory to some hip hop or trance. This was an old fashioned bar that played rock music (which we all love), where you can sit together and still manage to have a conversation amidst all the din around. Lately, even this place has become overcrowded (like every other place in Bangalore…sometimes I think having your friends home is the best option instead of going out).

We were a bunch of 8 (3 guys and 5 girls). Almost finishing up, ready to go. We had noticed a group of 5 hefty guys come in and take the table next to us. The creepy kinda guys. They kept staring at us girls, through out that time. But we all ignored it. They were even passing lewd comments. So my friend exchanged places with another friend (‘coz some of the comments were directly hurled at her). Now this guy (we’ll call him X) is a lil hot headed. Especially when provoked.  One of the guys in that group asked him what his problem was. X was taken aback. He hadn’t said a word (though he’d have wanted to give them a piece of his mind). Plus he was sitting in an angle facing all of us. So he replied to him saying just continue drinking your beer peacefully. Then another guy from that group came up to X and put one arm around him and said something. That’s it. One minute we were all having a great time, next minute all hell breaks loose. X and that guy had a loud altercation. And hit each other. Toppled a table. All in a split second. The choicest abuses were flying. We all tried restraining X from continuing the fight, but he fought us too (notice how strong people become when they’re angry? It’s so difficult to hold them down physically). The bar management intervened. We all tried making peace. I even saw one of guys lift a big beer mug ready to smash it. Now that was terribly scary. The whole pub was standing now and looking at all this. We finally managed to get out of there before it turned more violent ‘coz it looked like those 5 guys were so ready to continue this. Our boys (the three of them together) would have been no match for those guys. They would have gotten beaten, I’m sure.

 Is anger so difficult to control? Are physical fights enjoyable on some level? Those guys really looked like they wouldn’t mind having a full fledged fight. And each sentence either party said just added more fuel to the fire. All day people use expletives (without a second thought to what it might actually mean), but when a stranger uses it on you (especially who you’re having a fight with), it’s just an invitation to increase the intensity of the fight ‘coz they tend to intrepret the expletive literally. It’s like feeding off each abuse thrown. Makes you want to abuse more. Blind anger. You just want to hit someone and release the anger within you.

I’m just glad nothing serious happened to all of us that night (especially to X). I’m glad those guys didn’t follow us outside and try and do something. It was quite possible. Thankfully it stopped there. Phew!

To bribe or not to bribe

What’s with bribe and Indian officials? Seeped into the system from the lowest to the highest level. Something we, the common citizens just have to accept and live with. We were at the registrar’s office last weekend. Had to get a registered document. There were a set of people (employees most likely) sitting right by the door, each with a table on which there was a fat typewriter. We went to the first one to inquire about our work. That’s it. From that moment on, we were his ‘clients’. He (we’ll call him Mr N) said he’ll get our work done. If we go inside and try and do it ourselves, it might take a very long time, so let him handle all of it was his suggestion. Being well versed with these kind of ‘helpful’ babus, we declined, told him we already had the application form all filled in, just let us know where we need to submit it. N had one look at it and said that it wasn’t the right form. Format has changed. We needed to buy a new application. Completely our fault, we should have smelled a rat at this stage. But there was one more person who came from inside and told us the format had indeed changed. So the application we had filled in went out and N gave us a brand new one (which now in hindsight looks suspiciously like the old one). He said he’ll do all the typing and even put in witnesses (along with signatures!!). So he took our details and typed everything in.

How will a road block help in not demolishing a bridge?

This is absurd. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) staged a public demostration yesterday to protest against the demolition of the Ram Sethu in the Indian Ocean. This bridge apparently connected India and Sri Lanka during the epic Ramayan days. 

I was in our office bus reading my novel when I realised we weren’t moving. And we remained in that state of inertia of about 1 hour. Reason being the VHP activists had blocked an important junction on this road. It’s beyond my reasoning capabilities to figure out why on earth on a Wednesday morning at around 9.00 AM (which is the peak office hour), they would wish to block a main junction? For what purpose? Half the people hadn’t heard of this demolition of a submerged bridge. Now, don’t get me wrong. It might not be a good thing to demolish this bridge, but pray tell me how does it help if you make thousands of office goers stall in mid way in blistering heat? (yes, to our bad luck, it was quite hot last morning).  Is this the only way to create awareness? Or to gather support? Or protest? So, does democracy mean you can do what you want to inconvenience others and get away with it? Pathetic. Talk about having a bad morning.

Looking for a house, anyone?

Ok, so finding a house within a modest budget in Bangalore is impossible. Nope, not happening. Not in the area you want (which is old Bangalore, where you can still hear Kannada being spoken often and where your neighbous are not high-flyers). I don’t get this. Anyway the people with pots of money wouldn’t want to stay in such areas (these areas are not posh you see). We’ve been wanting to buy either a flat or an independent house for a while now. And where ever we go, we’re just baffled by how much Bangalore has grown and how expensive it has become.