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!

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

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?

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)

 As we entered, we were served with a welcome drink (choice of fresh sugarcane, pineapple, bottled tender coconut water and a couple of other bottled fruit juices). Along with it some dry fruits and sweets. We saw a popcorn machine with a very busy guy manning it due to the demand! We also saw a set of people sitting in a row with a long table in front of them and chairs on the opposite side for the guests. We went closer to see a tattoo artist, a mehndi artist, a carcature artist, a bangle seller, a magician and a fortune teller! 

Thankfully for us, we did not have to stand through the painpul process of standing in a queue to get up to the dias to wish the couple. We had gone there on time and the girl’s parents had still not arrived, so the couple did not want to ‘ascend’ to the ‘throne’ on the dias without them. So we wished them at the place where they were seated…really lucky for us, ‘coz later we saw the serpentine queue had grown really really long!

We then surveyed the many food counters. This is what we found: a dosa counter which was making about 3 different types of dosas, 6 different chaat counters, veg snacks counter (only fried snacks, but they had yummy sabudana vada with tangy chutney!), taco corner, pasta and pizza stall (I’m not kidding!), a chinese counter, a pulav counter (along with 2 other types of rice), 5 north indian vegetable counters, 3 types of roti stalls, a big salad counter (I counted 6 types), a massive dessert corner, badam milk counter (the guy serving it was dressed in traditional UP attire), a paan stall (with 4 types of paan) near the exit. Whew! Not to forget, a bar which was serving only the best alcohol (Johny Walker for heaven’s sake!). Oh and they were also serving raosted peanuts with alcohol!! And I have to write more about the dessert counter. There were 8 types of north indian sweets (including hot jalebi rabdi), 3 types of pastries, ice cream, a chocolate fountain machine which was making fresh chocolate sauce to pour on sponge cake, roller kulfi (a big roller machine makes the kulfi which gets grated into the cup which is served to the guest, it melts in the mouth, a dessert to die for!), ice gola (they had the original gola machine!), and last but not the least, a choice of 5-6 cut fruits (the only healthy option I could see). 

I was quite overwhelmed about how much variety of food was served. Obviously it was impossible to try and even sample all of it! And to think a few years ago, an Indian wedding would probably just have the cuisine of the region the family hosting the wedding were from. And it would mostly be held in the bride’s house if it was big enough or a marriage hall (without the fancy white tables!). Of course things have changed now and how…Hurray to the great Indian wedding and hurrah to the staggering amount of cuisine choices we have in every region here!

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!

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.

We had got some id proofs, but apparently we also needed a residence proof. Hubby darling went back home to get it. In the mean while, N called out to his friend and made him a witness. That guy asked for money. Rs 50 he said per signature. I refused. Told him one of my relative’s house was just 2 roads away and there were atleast 3 people there, so no problem about signatures. N said that’ll take a long time, the official who has to seal the form will leave in sometime, so we can’t afford to waste any time. I was still arguing, when his friend (a real cocky chap), just grabbed the form and signed!! Hubby came back. N said one fo the id proofs we submitted was not clear. The face wasn’t seen clearly. We need a new id proof. Hubby went back home to get another id proof. Once he was back, we thought we’d go and get the remaining signatures. But lo and behold, the remaining signatures are already done! That’s when I realised N had typed the reminaing two and signed (forged actually) them himself!! Goodness gracious. We were speechless. Of course it must be a very routine thing for him and no one bats an eyelid, I’m sure. Not left with too much of a choice (‘coz we really had to get the work done that day), we went inside wih N’s wife to submit it. It’s another story about how he treats his wife like she’s some kinda menial worker; Or maybe it’s just a farce to complete the picture. Inside the office, our work almost got done. The fee was paid by N’s wife. N went out to have his lunch, cribbing all the way about how our work delayed his lunch.

Coming to the ‘fee’ we had to pay him, he initially told us it would cost us Rs 1000. We flatly refused. Then he siad minimum 500. Th actual fee for this was Rs 150. Say another 50 Rs for his typing work. Rs 200. Ok, another 50 ‘coz he made life easy by getting it done. We didn’t have to wait inside n all that (plus we didn’t know about all the proofs we had to carry). That makes it Rs 250. The remaining money (Rs 250) would be a cool profit for him. But he asked for another 150 Rs (on top of the 500) for witness signatures (3 of them). Wow, 50 Rs per signature! We didn’t pay him that. We argued since we never asked for it. Plus there was only one person who came and signed. Remaining two, he himself had forged. He obviously didn’t argue with that, he knew, we knew. Then his wife refused to take the sealed papers to the first floor office to get us the final registered paper. She said the fee to give the final registered certificate was 200 Rs. We argued saying we’ve already payed you. We also said, we’ll come with you upstairs to get it done. She said no and quickly went upstairs. Of course we knew she was lying. Government fees don’t work that way. It’s a single consolidated fee. Just to prove it to her, I went back inside the office and asked one lady, if there was a fee for collecting the certificate upstairs? That lady knew our application was processed through N. So she called her manager and told him, N sent this application, there is a query. I couldn’t believe she was scared to answer me directly!! Her manager brought me outside and asked me what the problem was. I told him I just wanted to know if there is an additional fee upstairs. He said No, but since you’re happy with the work being done, you could choose to pay. Whattt?

 So N’s wife came back with our certificate ready. And borrowed my mobile phone to call N (inspite of having 2 mobiles in N’s table drawer. We saw N using 3 mobile phones earlier). Hubby spoke to N and said there’s no way we’re paying anything extra; First of all we were fools to even pay him 500; Also told him about how much more he can abuse people’s urgency in getting work done and hung up on him. We left with the certificate, hearing his wife crib about how everyone else shells out Rs 1000 for the same work! Really, it was our fault. We shouldn’t have let him stop us from entering the office and doing this ourselves inspite of the fact that it might have taken much much longer or might not have gotten done at all that day (sicne we didn’t have a couple of things in order). The N couple also kept saying, come back next week to pick up the document. I just couldn’t understand that, it was done in a day but yet they were asking us to come back later (that’s what they do with the others, probably to take a couple of hundred rupees more citing some other reason)

  You know this just reiterates my view of Indian politics. Order in chaos. The entire office knows this daylight bribe taking happens (I’m sure it’s not just N, but others too). But chooses not to do anything about it, obviously beacuse they all must be ‘getting a cut’ out of the money received. Old old story, what’s the big deal? That’s how these places function. How else can someone like N afford 3 mobile phones, a good sedan, gold jewellery (he had on him: 2 bracelets, 3 finger rings and his wife had on some assorted jewellery), sending his son to a convent school (his son came in later with the car to pick them up and he talks decent English).  I don’t know if they are the people to blame. Everyone wants a good life for themselves and their family, isn’t it? The fault I think is in the system which propagates this behaviour. And people like us who want to take advantage fo getting things done quicker. It’s a deadlock, a vicious circle. These governemnt offices make citizens run around, citizens want to get work done so they don’t mind paying more for it, the officials don’t mind it too ‘coz the government pays them a pittance, so they won’t say ‘No’ to extra money coming in (tax free that too). It all works. Except, it’s not right.

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.

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. A lot of you would say, that’s to be expected, it’s a growing city. Well, grown to such an extent that there are apartments being constructed purely ‘By Invitation’, i.e. the builders invite only some of the affluent to buy the apartment(naturally for an unheard of price). See, all this might be common in Bombay or Delhi, but here??? Or maybe I’m just naive, maybe I haven’t grown with the city…well, maybe I don’t want to. In the midst of all this frantic searching for a house (‘coz our flat owner increased our rent suddenly by 30% owing to the fact that he was paying more income tax!), I had this conversation with hubby darling:

Me: So, what do you think of this flat, should we zero in on this?

H:  We can’t afford it. The EMI will eat into almost our entire salary, we will not be able to sustain our current lifestyle.

Me: What do you propose we should do? I’d really like to have our own place here.

H: I don’t understand what’s so wrong in staying in a rented place. It’s very convenient in every aspect.

Me: Well, that is true…but it’s not our own place

H: What is more important? Being happy or owning a place? We are happy here.

Me: It’s not that simple…

H: Why not? The whole point is about being together and being happy, isn’t it? Does anything else matter…err…expect for maybe a faster car?

Life is as simple as you make it, isn’t it?

p.s. We have stopped searching for the house!

p.p.s. No, I’m not saying ‘Bengaluru’, that’s what I say when I speak in Kannada, not in English. I don’t get the reason as to why the government thinks changing the name would give the city its real identity. Ridiculous.