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! :)