A magical evening at Rudram 2010

It's been almost ten years since I last heard words like jatheeswaram and thillana at close corners. There's been a stray moment or two when flipping through channels, or that rare visit to the Vadapalani temple in Chennai where a dance school was performing for Navratri. But nothing more serious or deliberate. Neither by choice, or by chance. Let's just say it was what it was.

Until yesterday when I was browsing through burrp listings and saw this event scheduled for Sunday evening. It was called Rudram 2010 (seems to be happening every year) and was featuring famed Bharatanatyam dancer Shobana and her students. I've loved Shobana's performances back in the days when I followed each of the main streams of Bharatanatyam with a lot of interest. Her work is mostly in the dance drama genre rather than a pure recital - which means, you are treated to a lot more of bhava and abhinaya (expressions and emotions) than natya (footwork) or jathis (beats). Decided to check it out, especially since Sandy hadn't been to a traditional Bharatanatyam performance yet.

And what an evening it was! Chowdiah Memorial by itself is one of the few halls in Bangalore with excellent acoustics coupled with the perfect viewing experience. Add to that a fine artiste who not only does a fabulous job on stage, but also takes the time to give an introduction and explain the essence of each performance at the beginning.

The first half of the program was dedicated to expressing the nuances of classical dance with traditional yet rare themes from the Ramayana and Krishna Leela. Shobana's expressions and compositions were simply spellbinding. While I may have expected that from her, I definitely did not expect the kind of perfection and dedication from her students that was on display.
My favorites from the first half were definitely the Sita swayamvar and the Parvati Ganesh pieces. Simply stunning and definitely worth several ovations.

The second half was where we got a chance to witness the power of Shobana's choreography. We saw Bharatanatyam being performed for ARR's Vande Mataram, Bach, and a Radha Krishna finale.

A brilliant performance is like that perfect cup of coffee. You take it slow, sip it in, savor the taste for as long as you can, and then let it traverse down your throat. And when it's done, you want the taste to stay in your mouth for as long as possible. In that sense, it will be a while before Rudram fades into memory.

Love thy city, love thy home

**Divertion**
Amateur writers get bogged down thinking of a title for what they want to write. By the time they figure that out, their trail of thought has disappeared half way into the crannies of the mind. As they write more often, they realize that the title should well be the last drop of ink signing off a piece. Well past the sign off, even past the quick read through. When you've caught that trail of thought, laid it down into verse, and nudged it into a cranny that you won't forget at least for a short while. That's when you should pause for a minute, and think about the title. Never before.
**Now back to the what I was thinking of**

I haven't spent much time exploring this city that has come to be home for over 4 years now. While it's easy to attribute it to being consumed by work in thought and action, it's also a function of how.
The city loves to play hide and seek. Try as you might, be as optimistic as you can. Even if you really, really want to go to that place, see that thing, experience that moment, you have to brace yourself for giving up. Try as you might, you will lose hope over the ever-changing one-ways (like the stairs at Hogwarts), the myriad bylanes, the drone of the Metro work, and the cluelessness of pedestrians. But does that mean that you should go back to your 14-hour weekdays at work and predictable weekends wandering at some mall or nosing through yet another "annual sale"?

Hard to answer. For one, the city seems to want you to do the latter. In so many ways, it tries to push you away from that carefully preserved, fast diminishing quaintness that's being replaced as we speak, by designer chic. You want to know what "santhe" means, you want to listen uninterrupted to RK Padmanabha at one of the best concert halls - Chowdiah Memorial, and you want to know just why every budding artist goes to Chickpet to source material. But it isn't easy. You need to walk the talk (in fact, talk the talk) and you need to persever.

And on the other hand, the party-sharty continues. There's a new club or restaurant throwing its doors open almost every weekend. And to stay in the race, older ones keep renovating or rejigging their menu every year. Is it that we never get tired of sampling a new restaurant (whatever happened to phrases like "they are the old timers", "here are my regulars", and "I swear by that one restaurant"...) or do we need constant change to keep us from getting bored of life?

And don't even get me started on the malls. The first 6 months here, I was completely engulfed in "sale mania" - the higher the % value, the bigger my eyeballs would grow. And then you begin to accept it. The sale is here to stay. Every single store in every single mall is always going to have one, irrespective of caste, creed, or anything else. And it's the same clothes and the same shoes. Just how many will you buy?

It's a hard choice. One that will be shaped as much by the people you meet, and the enthusiasm of more than one mind. But it needs to be made. Because when it's time for you to move on elsewhere, what will you remember most about Bangalore? The malls, the clubs, and the jigs, or the music festivals, the tiffen rooms, and the parks?

Some places to start:
Time Out Bangalore
Rudram 2010
Yamini 2010
Chitra Santhe - Art for life
**After note**
I think the title turned out pretty well. Definitely wouldn't have thought of it if I had started off with it :)

3 honks per day

Don't we all love January 1... the first day of a brand new year. A chance to do something new, change something you've always wanted to, try something you have never tried before, stop doing something you've been wanting to stop for a while now.

The motivation levels are significantly higher, and somehow the flip of a calendar page makes us believe that we still can do something about our lives, about the people around us, and the world we live in. (they should have had the Copenhagen Accord on Jan 1, 2010. Would have reached a conclusion much faster!)

So I took in a big, deep breath of optimism - not the cautious one this time - and thought about my wishlist of things to do this year. My mind is dancing away thinking of the million possibilities to do something different in 2010. So I've decided to list it down and then try and narrow it down to achievable ones. Then again, you live only once. So here's my list for 2010 (as of 5 days into the new year).

http://www.43things.com/2010_resolutions/person/Shuba_Bhaskaran

What do you think? Do you want to do some of these too?

Oh, and the title. Believe it or not, you can survive in Bangalore without honking your way through traffic. 3 days and I haven't touched the horn even once. Makes you think. Forces you to be more patient, and in a way more humble. Because you're not elbowing to be the first one out. And believe me, it leaves you with a very different feeling when you park at the end of the day. That you let people be the way they want to be. That your life, and your car, was completely in your control today.

Happy new year! :)

Case of Exploding Mangoes

Just finished reading this book by Mohammed Hanif - definitely worth the 2 weeks rent :)
Am not the best reviewer around, least of the reasons being that am far too lazy... but what I will say about the book, is that I did not expect to like it a lot. To be honest, I thought it was going to be one of those books that everyone raves about - half because it's cool, and the other half because they don't want to be uncool. Instead, it was simple, straightforward language.. tongue-in-cheek humor... and above all, a very impressive flow that naturally led from one page to the next.
As always, the debut novel is always a writer's best work. Am yet to be proved otherwise :)

The times they are a changing

12 months back, you'd get a "such a snob" look when people realized you had a data plan on your mobile phone. Even if all you were doing was getting push email.

Fast forward to end of 2009 and just about everyone is on a data plan. And forget email, there's so much you can do with your phone! Stuck in a train for 7 hours? You can crib away to glory on Twitter or Facebook, marvel at the speed and class of Opera Mini 5 beta, check out what movies are running on BMS, even check the train lines and routes as you trundle along on Google Maps, or if you are "such a snob", check email. And yes, there is connectivity. At least for 95% of the journey.
Just for fun - boy gets married at 8 am. Changes his Facebook status at 2 pm. First comment from friend on train at 6 pm. Next 5 comments/pokes/jabs from friends on train by 8 pm.

To cook or not to cook...

I would have named this post "Cooking isn't rocket science" but for a show with the same name, and somewhere at the back of my mind, it still is :)

The mind thinks like a robot when it comes to the kitchen. You reach out expecting to find something in a certain place, cuz it's always been there. You're trying out mom's no brainer recipe and somehow it turns out to be this strange goop rather than the comfort food you grew up with. You measured everything to the dot - counted out the red chilles and peppercorns, used the timer on your cellphone for the pressure cooker, even decided to add salt once the food is on the table (that way it can never end up too salty). And somehow there seems to be one tiny thing, somewhere in the fineprint, that manages to screw everything up. (don't come back with the "mother's love".. TV's wrung that to death!)

But then after countless trials and errors and patient victims, one of the below happens:

1. you actually get the recipe right, and your mom's crying tears of joy on the other end of the phone
2. you get so used to the strange new version of the original recipe that you actually start liking it

No prizes for guessing which one it turns out to be most of the time ;)

Whatya day!

Tested out the Google Maps application on my phone today - the one you have to install. It showed me a completely new route to Cantt station that went through St. John's church road. Never been to that side of town.. so it was a bit scary considering that if the application goofed up we simply would have no time to retrace and get to the train on time! The route turned out to be much smoother - hardly any traffic, and good roads. The Indian-movie-climax scene came when we reached the station to find out that the train doesn't stop there..! So imagine we got from Cantt to Majestic in less than FIFTEEN minutes flat..!! Kudos to 3 things: Google Maps, Sandy's driving skills, and my Hindi-Kannada mixology ;)

I would have rested on my laurels and not publicly announced it if it had happened on any other day. But it had to happen on the same day that we cooked so much food for lunch that we had no containers left in the cabinets... and what looked like a lifetime penalty of cleaning.. sigh! What a Sunday!