Suar chala space ko

Watched this play, this Saturday.

A play for kids. (some adults may enjoy it too :-))

Language : Hindi

Source

Details : 

A hilarious play about a smelly pig who travels to outer space! 

Actors play a variety of characters, including aliens, with movement 

and dance adding to the high-energy performance. Based on a puppet play,

 originally written by children during a workshop, the narrative follows a fuzzy 

logic typical of children's writing. The story touches upon friendship, 

adventure, owning up to your mistakes, taking responsibility and 

of course... the 'swine flu'!

Duration 1 hr (no interval)

Based on a concept by Poorna, Isha & Ankita
Writer & Director - Shaili Sathyu
Music concept – Mithila Lad & Hetal Varia
Music Arrangement - Kaushik Deshpande & Rahul Saxena
Choreography – Pooja Pant
Set & Props Design – Abir Patwardhan & Tanya Mahajan
Costume Design – Shama Zaidi
Graphic Design – Phagun Dhaka

Cast – Vighnesh Sinkar, Subodh Surve, Sharvari Deshpande, Siddharth Jhaveri, Navyata Malkani, John Soans, Mithila Lad, Hetal Varia and others

Excerpts from Imagining India

Imagining India

1. A Kerala communist leader E.M.S. Namboodaripad once told the sociologist

Andre Beteille that caste was irrelevant, and was 'an obsession of American

sociologists who come to study India'.

2. In India, we don't entrust our city councils with enough power. 

As a result, our cities are in a complete mess. Urban development

was always seen to be taking place at the cost of rural development.

It's obvious in the fact that in Indian cities, we don't know the names

of our mayors, since none of them has ever been famous. Unlike in

the west, where Mayor Giulani(NY), Mayor Bloomberg(NY) or 

Mayor Livingstone(London) are world known figures. 

3. Our feudal structures are still pretty much intact since our

freedom came without any big-time violence. We attained

freedom from British, not our feudal lords. 

Nairobi and Bangalore

In Simply Fly, author Capt. Gopinath compares Nairobi and Bangalore

in a certain incident. Nairobi, which is a significant tourist hub, has

two airports. While Bangalore, whose economy is four times as 

large as Nairobi, chose to close an airport when a new one

was opened ! There doesn't seem to be any logic in doing this.

English in India

While reading a book, I came across two interesting
observations about English language in India.

1. Many of us Indians oppose the English language
since it's a foreign language. But the Sanskrit
language itself, which is supposed to be the mother
of many Indian languages, is a foreign language.

Quoting from Wikipedia :
...Sanskrit arrived in what is now India and Pakistan from the
north-west some time during the early second millennium BCE.

2. Motilal Nehru, father of India's first prime minister, used to

speak English at home, even though his wife couldn't speak it.

The book that I am referring to is this.

Law/Lawyer sites for India

Of late, I have come across two web sites useful for lawyers and common people
grappling with Indian laws/law system.

I haven't tried them, so I am not sure how useful they are.

Advocate Khoj : You can search for an advocate here, an advocate can find clients here.
India Kanoon : Law search engine for common people.

Virtual knee surgery game

http://www.agame.com/game/virtual-knee-surgery.html

Pratigya

I like this daily soap.
Though it shares many annoying attributes with
other soaps, I like the raw idealism shown by two
of its characters : Pratigya and her father Professor Shyam.

Some companies working on Social games

Chakpak, Playdom, Zynga, Digital Chocolate, Playfish, PlayHooper, OxyLabs, Koramgame

Church is the second largest land owner in India

I just came across this fact yesterday.
Church is the second largest land owner in India -
next only to government.
Here are the references :
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Koramangala to Hanumantha nagar via bus

Yesterday I traveled to Hanumantha Nagar in Banashankari to watch
a play at Kala Soudha. I faced a lot of difficulties but a helping co-passenger made
it easy(which reminded me of those days in Mumbai, where you can ask your
co-passengers for directions from any point A to any point B, and you will
always get the best answer).

So, here is the best way :
From Koramangala catch a bus to Laksandra(171,170 etc.)
From Laksandra catch a bus till Lal Bagh West Gate(many buses go there)
From Lal Bagh west gate catch a bus till Hanumantha nagar(34 and 37 go there, find out about others).

How to reach AMET University from Chennai Railway Station

Couple of months ago, I had to go to AMET university,
for admitting a relative of mine. Since it's located at
the outskirts of the city, not many locals are familiar
with it. So, when I tried to book a pre-paid auto from outside
the railway station, the person at the booking counter
was clueless, even the auto drivers were unaware.

I had called up a friend before the trip, who told me
that AMET is very close to Mayajal Multiplex. Most
of the people knew that place well. Still no auto
driver agreed in less than Rs. 450/-. So, I called
fasttrack taxi at 044 2888 9999. They charge Rs. 10/-
per km, and AMET was 35 kms from the railway station.
So, it cost us Rs. 350/-. Much cheaper than an auto
and much faster as well.

After finishing our work, we went to the Crocodile park
nearby(roughly 8-10 kms) and Kovalam beach (somewhere
in the way you have to take a turn inside).

Extremities

Watched this play today at K.H. Kala Soudha.
First of all, it was a mini-trek to reach Banashankari
from Koramangala via bus. We eventually gave up
and took an auto.

This is apparently the first performance of this play
in India. It has started in 1982. Here is the Wikipedia
link. A movie has also been made on this story.

Overall, a nice performance. Scenes between
Marjorie and Raul were really violent. At the
end both of them would have been injured for
sure, as is true for earlier performances of this
play.


Cast : Marion Ksing, Puja Goyal, Tushar Patil, Sweta
Director : Puja Goyal

Shades of Grey

Many a times, when I come across an instance of a businessperson
or politician doing some good work in India, I get puzzled.

Because, since time immemorial I have viewed them with
suspicion. They have indulged in such high magnitudes of
corruption that it's unimaginable to think of them otherwise.

Why then? Why some of them, even the corrupt ones, at times
do some good/non-corrupt work. Answer perhaps would be : the
way humans are designed - with shades of Grey.

Most of us(and exceptions prove the rule) don't come in black
and white packages but Grey. We are sometimes good and bad
at others. Likewise the politicians and businesspersons.

Gentelmen

Watched this play last Saturday at Rang Shankara.
Pretty average.

Description from some site :
Gentlemen - Play. Playwright & Director: Anil Abraham. Troupe: Global Productions, Bengaluru.

Anil Abraham's hit play returns to Bangalore after a wildly successful run in 2007 and 2008. The play often referred to as a hybrid of theatre and stand-up comedy, is about the male point of view, pun intended. A hilarious take on the men's obsession with fallacies and phalluses, Gentlemen is surprisingly honest, brutal, funny and very mischievous all at once. Gentlemen features some of Bangalore's most respected and well-known acting talent including Ashvin Mathew, Anil Abraham himself, Ajith Hande and joining the cast for the second coming are Rajeev Ravindranathan and Kirtana Kumar.

Mature Content | Entry is Strictly 18 Years & Above Only 

IIT Kharagpur had quotas for faculty's children!

http://ttrammohan.blogspot.com/2010/08/iit-kharagpur-had-quotas-for-facultys.html

Some useful sites

1. Buy technical e-books in INR

http://www.packtpub.com/

2. Micro financing - finance poor workmen in India

http://www.rangde.org/

One of my friends has invested roughly 11,000 Rs.

and has got more than 50% back already.