And now for something completely different….

I had watched a play called ‘Always look at the bright side of life’ by EVAM in July। What kept my usually rather short attention span riveted to the stage was the hour and ten minutes of rib tickling humour and the impressive way in which the dancers moved the props around between sketches, while moving gracefully, without the curtains ever being lowered.

And now EVAM is back in Bangalore tomorrow, the 23rd of September with the sequel that’s titled ‘And now for something completely different’। The title itself seems to promise to me some wacky, rib tickling fun.

I’ll have to get updates on how the play was from some friends of mine, coz I am not in town till Monday. Sigh! I hope EVAM comes back to Bangalore soon with a repeat of this play.

The Real Indian Idol?

Amit Paul is a great singer, no doubt. But he also looks cuter than Prashant Tamang does, according to a lot of women. And this might work against Prashant Tamang, in his race to win the Indian Idol.

Harshit, a fabulous singer and a consistent performer has an old grandmother appealing to the audience to vote for him. It is a heartrending sight to see the toothless old lady bless him on the stage of ‘Voice of India’. Junta (including me) might therefore vote for him, regardless of whether he is the best performer ओर not.

The judges of ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ ensure that they bring in Poonam’s impoverished background, almost every time she sings. It seems like the proverbial rags to almost riches story and the audience cant help feel sad for the girl who fought all odds to make it to the ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ stage.

It felt really sad last night to see a great singer like Abhaas leave the contest because he has the least votes from the audience, despite judges declaring him to be one of the best singers in the contest.

And this seems to be the story across almost all singing talent hunts. When the panel of judges contains esteemed names from the music industry, why does the audience need to decide on who is the better among the best? Aren’t the judges capable enough to do so? Can’t the audience just sit back and relax, and enjoy a beautiful musical journey, while leaving the tough task of judging to the experts, to figure out who does greater justice to the finer nuances of singing?

And who is really benefiting from the audience votes – Not the best contestants, I am sure.

Would the winner declared based on the audience votes, be the real winner? Would (s)he be the real ‘Indian Idol’ that people could use as an example of a fine singer for their kith and kin to emulate, or just someone who won a contest, recorded an album and then faded off into oblivion like many others before him/her?

Seems to me that the latter is likely to happen unless the experts are allowed to make their choice.

Ganapati Bappa Morya!

Ganesh Chaturthi is a time in Bombay when people of different ages, castes, even religions get together amidst all fanfare to welcome the adorable elephant headed God, pamper Him to no end at his temporary home, the pandal, till its time for Him to go back to His Mother.
I was lucky enough to take my planned vacation during Ganesh Chaturthi time and visit my folks in Bombay. And I have been in a ‘drum-sound’ induced high :) since Friday when the Ganeshjis were brought to different pandals. It’s a heady feeling to see so much of positivity around – people dancing on the streets, full of smiles, putting their entire mind, body and soul into the celebration.

It was विसर्जन (immersion) time for the Ganeshji in our colony yesterday

So I landed up at the colony club to see Ganeshji embark on his final journey to join his Mother। Amidst the revelry, I spotted quite a few people I had not been in touch for a long time. It felt really nice to catch up with people I had not met for years together! And when the truck carrying Ganeshji moved out of the colony gate, I experienced mixed emotions – happiness and peace of mind that I have Vighnaharta’s (the destroyer of obstacles) blessings and nothing can stop me from achieving whatever I want this year, and sadness that the cute elephant headed God who makes me break into a smile every time I see Him, was going away to be back only next year! I hope He dissolves completely in the water, unlike some of the rather disturbing pictures I have seen recently, of undissolved Ganeshjis with one arm, or head and half a torso.

Ganapati Bappa Morya
Pudhchya varshi laukarya!

(Translated roughly it means O Lord Ganesh, do come back next year!)

Customer Delight!

There is a family of flower sellers who usually supplies us flowers for our daily पूजा. For the past few days, the kids of the family have been coming home to deliver the flowers. Mom asked them for some ‘extra’ flower packets twice because it was पूजा time. Yesterday, even without us asking for it, the smallest kid of the lot, around 5 years old, extended 3 packets of flowers towards me, saying ‘दीदी , auntyji extra फूल माँग रही थी ना ? मैं आज खुद extra फूल का packet लेके आ गया ! अभी पूजा में फूल की कोई कमी नहीं !’

This is what’s called Customer Delight! A 5 year old completely understood what my Mom wanted and his gesture delighted her beyond words! Wish adults were as perceptive as the little ones and knew how to read the pulse of the customer!

A weekend amidst the clouds!

No, I didn't go bungee jumping or parasailing :), if that's what you thought after reading the title of the post. This is about a weekend to a place 1525m above sea level, that put me on cloud 9,10,11.... and that destressed me completely!

A bunch of friends and I decided to head to Coorg last weekend to unwind amidst the pristine glory of a hill station.

A few wrong turns and a 3.5 hour delay (all thanks to the driver taking us through a longer route and almost taking the detour to Kerala) later, we reached our hostess Shamala’s place ‘Chirpy Haven’, at 3.15 am in the morning.

Once we entered Madikeri, our hosts were waiting for us in their car (at 3.00 am in the morning!) to show us the way to our accommodation for the next 2 days. Shivering in the cold night air, we stepped out of the van to be greeted by the warm smile of our hostess. I couldn’t wait to hit the sack as soon as I stepped into my room because I wanted to wake up early morning to take in the sights and sounds of Coorg.
It’s a different thing that I didn’t manage to wake up early enough (though earlier than the others in the group J) and when I finally did, saw greenery all around, leaves laden with dewdrops and reached out for my camera to capture my first sights of Coorg, my cam conked out!

‘Mr. Murphy’s blessings!’ I thought and waited for things to go from bad to worse but Mr Murphy had all things good in store for us! A sumptuous breakfast and about half a flask of hot coffee later, we headed out to see the sights. Armed with lemons and salt as an antidote for leech bites (since it had been raining intermittently), we landed at Abbey falls. My friend's son Varun, was excited about the possibility of being bitten by leeches (which would possibly increase his 'adventure quotient' among friends :)) but was disappointed that he didn't spot any!

A few photos (special mention: some pics of a friend where he looked like he was posing for mooh dikhayi pics) amidst the scenic locales and we were off for a short trek through Cauvery Nisargadhama.

The sound of water at both Abbey falls and Nisargadhama was like music to my stressed mind and body and I could feel my tensions melt away.

It had started raining on our way back to our homestay and I was glad to be indoors when I heard the rain beating a rhythm on the roof! Our hostess had a Coorgi style dinner ready for us. While most other members of the group indulged in some revelry that went late into the night, I reveled in blissful slumber soon after dinner :).
Fortunately for us, though it rained incessantly through the night, the skies cleared up on both the mornings we spent at Coorg. After bidding good bye to our hostess (she had the same wide smile on her face while seeing us off that she did while welcoming us!), and armed with coffee, pepper, cardamom and wine, we started off our journey towards Bangalore, with stops at various places enroute.

A quick visit to Raja seat and some more ‘concept’ pictures later, we headed out to visit the Namdroling monastry and the Golden temple.

We reached there right during the Lamas’ prayer time, and it was quite an experience to see hundreds of Lamas pouring into the temple and offering different forms of prayer (some reading silently at one temple, some chanting aloud to the beat of drums at another). What was possibly the cutest sight for me was the little Lamas indulging in continuous chatter and playing pranks on each other.

After spending some time boating in the waters of the Ranganthittu bird sanctuary and watching avian visitors like the White Ibis, Egret etc., and a languid crocodile here and there, we were all set to head to Namma Bengalooru, and call it a weekend well spent!

Its been a week since I got back to Bangalore after the trip but there are two things that remain firmly etched in my mind - 1.) the hospitality of Shamala who stayed awake late into the night to make sure we reached her place, safe and sound, arranged steaming hot food for us during breakfast and dinner, and treated a bunch of absolute strangers like members of her immediate family throughout our stay at her place, and 2.) the bonds that I saw developing between my friends. We were friends before the trip. We have become close friends after the trip.