charukesi January 27th, 2007
Fort Kochi - the picturesque chinese fishing nets, the legacy of Vasco Da Gama and the portugese, sleepy fishing boats and the fabulous Dutch Palace with the vibrant murals. A driver called JoMon. And buses headed towards navel base.
Please head to Itchy Feet to read about A morning at Fort Kochi. Lots of photographs.
charukesi January 26th, 2007
I have never believed that it is possible to be moved by rhythm - I am a melody person myself - melody that is soft and lingers inside your head long after you have heard it… wispy feathery tunes, pale ghosts that follow you through the day and night, slipping away just as you reach out to it… as opposed to rhythm that is here and now, a sudden quickening of the pulse, a rush of blood to the head, a momentary sway of the senses.
I was at Horniman circle garden on Tuesday night listening to the thayambaka performance led by Mattannur Srikanth and Sriraj. I watched spellbound as the performers started off with the rhtyhm slow and steady, now mild, now rising for the first hour; performing for themselves, immersed in the rhythm.
And the last hour, performing for the audience, their fingers now caressing the drum slowly, very softly, and then suddenly rising to fever pitch; the audience clapping and cheering and in the last ten minutes, all on their feet, crowding around the stage as the artists took the crowd with them on a rhythm trip, sweating with the effort of two hours and smiling with the response of the crowd.
From this, 
.. to this… 
Wiki says of thayambaka - thayambaka is a solo Chenda (drum) performance that is unique to Kerala state of south India, where the performer uses one stick and the other hand to play the instrument (Chenda) instead of the usual two sticks.
Thayambaka is generally performed by a lead drummer surrounded by about 3-4 assistant drummers(Veekku Chenda) , and 3-4 Elathalam players. It is a concert like performance of percussion instruments alone lasting approximately 90-120 minutes
.
Imagine 120 minutes of non-stop drumming; I found my hands tired after 30 seconds of clapping high in the air…
The performance was organized by Keli, a Mumbai-based organization dedicated to the preservation, development and propagation of the traditional classical art forms. More from the Keli website…
…there were also others for whom traditional values were sacrosanct and compromise was unthinkable. They were an endangered species, so to speak, of absolute aesthetics and creative integrity, intolerant of mediocrity and arrogance. Keli felt the need to trace them and bring them to the world outside their familiar hamlets.
charukesi January 22nd, 2007
January is a wonderful time to be in Bombay. The weather is just right… cool enough to encourage walks during the day and open air events in the evenings… and to stay under the rug in the morning (with the excuse of the sun hasn’t risen yet, so why should I) and pretend for a minute that you are in Delhi… to wave away the cold bhelpuri and give in to temptation just this once with that steaming plate of ragda pattice…
and not cold enough to let you ignore that slight foolish feeling when you want to cover yourself up with a sweater - or a shawl at the very least - after mere minutes out in the open. Slight nip in the air, you tell your friends sheepishly. You who, alas, live in Bombay, and not Delhi, for all that late morning pretense, and are not used to “winter”..
If December is full of year-end closings and chasing up on those elusive client payments and even more elusive tickets to your away-from-it-all place for that new year’s eve long weekend, january is all about soaking in the smoky smells of garam bhutta and channa chor garam, and starting the year on a festive note.
Sankranti comes and goes, kites hover in the air two weeks hence, lost and forlorn, not too happy with the no-strings-attached state. All of Bombay sweats and cheers for the Marathon (the world huffs and puffs while the Kenyans walk their way to the first few places, no sweat). The Strand Sale calls out enticingly to those of us with the strong spirit and weak credit history. The Banganga festival (which I always intend to catch, and always miss) takes place - music in the open, seemingly from the deep.
The IMG janfest happens late in the month; the weekend saw L Subramaniam on Saturday night and Sunday evening with Kumar Mardur’s Yaman and Hamsadhwani, Shubha Mudgal, her smile as dazzling as her music and finally Pt Jasraj. IMG also had, as part of their photo-exhibition, an audio visual feature on Ustad Bismillah Khan - bright eyes, childlike glee mein paanch saal ka tha jab mere haath mere mamu ki shehnai lagi… main kuch toh baja raha tha par mujhe maloom nahi tha ki yeh kya hai… phir mamu ne poccha, bacche tum kya baja rahe ho…?
Then the Mumbai Festival goes on from 14th - 28th January… Bandra Reclamation grounds has Maharashtra Maaza, an open handicrafts and food fair… here I need to say that eating aforementioned ragda pattice, with a live shehnai concert for background music is a not-to-be-missed experience.
We caught the dance festival on Saturday at the Land’s End ampitheatre in Bandra; there is something magical about watching music and dance performances in the open… Short performances of Odissi, Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Mohiniattam. And at each break in the performance, just cheeel cheeel filtering in loud and uninvited from the hotel disco…
Feet that speak…
… sometimes aruge with the tabalchi
… and are sometimes silent too
Rukmini Jaiswal, one of the prettiest dancers I have ever seen, all the way from Lucknow… Kathak, a narrative dance form characterized by fast footwork (tatkar), spins (chakkar) and innovative use of bhav in abhinaya. It has today a form that has been influenced at various times in the past by mythological narratives by kathakas, temple dances, the bhakti movement (both Vaishnavism and Shaivite), and Persian influence of the Mughal courts in the 16th century onwards…
Bharatanatyam, a modified form of the sadir, the traditional dance of the temples of Tamilnadu…
The word Bharata is interpreted as the dance form created by sage Bharata, has within it the essence and uniqueness associated with Bharatanatyam:Bha for Bhava or abhinaya and expression, Ra for raga or melody, and Ta for tala or rhythm
Sujatha Nair, performing Mohiniattam, the dance of the enchantress
The vocal music of Mohiniattam involves variations in rhythmic structure known as chollu. The lyrics are in Manipravala, a mixture of Sanskrit and Malayalam. The mohiniattam dance is performed to this accompaniment by the subtle gestures and footwork of the danseuse. The performer uses the eyes in a very coy yet sensual manner, the purpose being to enchant the mind without enticing the senses
Here Shabari tastes the fruit before offering them to rama wandering in the forests…
hey, these fruit are yummy, says lord rama…
I cannot say this enough - I love Bombay, and I love winter in Bombay slightly more…
charukesi January 16th, 2007
Before you read on, guess where this is :
(hint : one of the world’s most popular shopping destinations)
and this :
(hint : the spice souk)
At Itchy Feet -
Dubai and the -est obsession and Dubai or not to buy?
And the photo set at flickr here
charukesi January 15th, 2007
The 2007 Mumbai Festival began officially at the Gateway of India yesterday. An hour late. With the organizer (Shashi Vyas?) calling out - hullo, sound guy, start playing the Mumbai meri jaan theme song. Sound guy? Does sound guy have a name? With Nayya Singh (who is she, god, who is she? and why is she?) bad-libbing her way on stage in a way calculated to make the audience cringe with every word she uttered. (And here is the bit, she is the face - voice, whatever - of the festival that is going to put “Mumbai on the international map“. Uh? Is there some map out there with a huge blank space where Mumbai ought to be?).
Taj at night!
The insipid theme song ‘Mumbai meri jaan’ sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Shreya Ghoshal and the female voice is none other than Shreya Ghoshal - celebrating the “spirit of Mumbai”. Dev Anand on stage celebrating the spirit of Mumbai some more. Long speeches on the idea behind the Mumbai festival. Gushing thanks to the sponsors (while on this, why is Big FM the radio partner of a festival that has the Times of India as their chief sponsor - what ever happened to Radio Mirchi?) And then some more on the spirit of Mumbai.
Waiting for the show to begin…
Which left rather less time for the actual festival - the performances, that is. The festival finally started with a lovely performance by Jhelum Paranjpe’s troupe - traditional Odissi set to songs from Hindi movies (I don’t know about you but I refuse to accept songs like “ae mere pyare watan” and “hoton pe aisi baat” as Bollywood hite, as Nayya sugested - as you can see, I have taken a ready and steady dislike to her). And then a very short and wonderful recital by Pandit Ajay Pohankar with his son Abhijit on the keyboard and a stunning guitarist. Alas, Urban Raga ended before it began - for lack of time - there was a ten p.m. deadline and Australia was waiting with Strange Fruit. But I definitely intend to catch more of the Pohankars and Urban Raga as soon as I can.
The Pohankars’ Urban Raga
And finally, the show I had gone there for… Strange Fruit all the way from Australia. Yesteray’s theme was Spheres… Strange Fruit was mesmerising - one man and three women suspended on poles high above the ground… a fantasy world of light and color… balloons and pixies and fairies… strange haunting music and lots of humour…
Here is what their website says - Originally based on the image of a field of wheat swaying in the breeze, the poles’ extreme strength and flexibility allow the performer to bow to impossible angles, swaying back and forth in a hypnotising dance as the audience looks up in wonder.
Strange Fruit is performning today and tomorrow again at the Gateway - I am planning to be there tomorrow - and I strongly recommend it to you too…
charukesi January 15th, 2007
Pongal o’ pongal…
For those of you who missed kite flying on Makara Sankranti…
Also read penguins in the air - my post on the Shivaji Park kite festival 2006…
Fun for the entire family
Kite-ransactions
When I have the kite, I can’t find the string. And then sometimes I can find only the string…
Kites of all shapes and sizes… and colors…
Flying high in the air… lying tired on the ground….
Dheel de dheel de de re bhaiyya
Shivaji Park getting ready for the night ahead… golden sunset in the distance…
charukesi January 8th, 2007
Whew! the relief of knowing that…
Starting this month - ho-hum hoarding of the month. Send in your favorite hhh too for this series…
charukesi January 7th, 2007
My parents in Chennai recently had their lives made jingalala by the two of us; we gifted them with a Tata Sky connection for the television at home which had for the last two years been showing them only remade Tamil versions of the Star soaps and Sahara TV for the sole “Yindi” programming. With CAS coming into effect early this month, the battle hots up. And that means, marketing slogans on over-drive. Thinktanks from rival companies stay up nights, puffing cigarette after cancerous cigarette, in order to develop that slogan that communicates the ultimate benefit to the consumer - this is why you should buy into our brand and not the other.
And Tata Sky has clearly cracked it - Tata Sky laga daala toh life jingalala.
I mean, how can any competitor hope to match that promise? The ultimate tv watchers’ need - to have his / her life made jingalala.
Top of the charts of what they don’t teach you at Business School- or is it what they do… Get your advertising slogan right and you are on your way to winning the marketing game. Er, what about product delivery please? Or a relevant product differentiation? Oh that - minor details. Get the slogan right first, won’t you. Does anyone even remember let there be light?
Take the FM radio war in Mumbai - there is a new FM station launched every day - ok, every month - and each of them plays the same mind-numbing hit pe hit pe hit song from the latest movies that rocked the box office in the last three years, and some which did not rock so much as disappeared without a trace. When I am driving to work, and I don’t get to listen to it’s the time to disco and where’s the party tonight through the entire stretch, I am a wreck by the time I reach - my hands are trembling and my eye has that terrible tic that sets colleagues scurrying out of my way. I find myself suddenly breaking into terrra suroooooorrr in the middle of client meetings and into giggles each time I am to say something to the client. (As an aside, why, oh why, do radio jockeys giggle so much? why do all FM stations seem to hire only the great gigglers?)
As I was saying, the same hit songs in channel after channel, as if there is an invisible hand passing around an MP3 disc with a collection of fifty bollywood hits (and misses) between them. What about programming? What about content? What about differentiation? The only channel that was truly different and interesting was Go 92.5 - that suddenly turned all Hindi one morning - Britney Spears went to sleep in a room full of saas-bahus and woke up as Ekta Kapoor - why?
Ah, there we come to the slogan again. The latest station to hit (eeps) the market, BIG FM has cracked it - their slogan goes - suno sunao life banao - listen and make others listen… and make your life. Truly an utterly unique positioning stance. Big FM - daer aaye par durust aaye.
Television went through this initially when the market which had only one DD (with its Metro and other numerous regional versions) found itself flooded with tens of channels - all with film based programming - five feature films a day, countdown shows of hit songs, trailers and the like. Of course, the scene is somewhat similar today with saas after shceming saas in all the channels, but atleast there is some programming in place. Viewers - those interested enough, that is - have the choice of tuning into a program ta a specific time on a specific channel.
Unlike FM where it really makes no difference where the dial is - unless, of course, like me, you have made a careful (albeit painful) analysis of the RJs across channels and have chosen to be loyal to the one with the lowest score on the gigglo-meter. Is anyone listening?
charukesi January 7th, 2007
Right after sue simple, I came across this list of wacky warnings - topping the list in the Wacky Warning Label Contest, run by an anti-lawsuit group is, no kids in washing machine.
Also in the list are - Don’t dry your cell phone in the microwave.
And be sure not to read the phone book while driving.
Priceless. Can you think of any more?
charukesi January 6th, 2007
I read Chandru’s article It all ads up a week ago… It piqued my interest and made me uncomfortable at the same time… Thoughts on why advertising is like terrorism. Going for the jugular, creating and feeding on fear - new fears each time people get used to the old one, being louder and larger than life…
And one more thing that Chandru has missed. In advertising, as with terrorism, no one knows what is going on the mind of the person(s) who created it, who is in charge. What is that ideal that the terrorist is willing to kill for… die for? that no one else can quite see. Or understand. Or accept. How does the terrorist embrace and live with a cause that seems, at best, unacceptable and pointless to the rest of the world? Ditto with advertising. What drives that near fanatical faith in the cause of his brand / claim that causes the advertising professional to behave like the terrorist he is compared to? I often wonder…
***
The article, as I said, is very interesting, if a tad ill-timed… From today’s e-edition of the ToI - Fifteen killed in suicide attack in Lanka.
And Assam on high alert after ULFA attack, toll reaches 42
And Two killed, 45 wounded in Kashmir explosion
There is just no excuse for terrorism, no explanation for barbarity. Here is an bold and insightful article by Prof. Raj Persaud Inside the mind of a terrorist - no excuses about psyhotic behavior
Also read : Rock Paper Scissors