Empires of the Indus

Finished this book recently.

Alice Albania

Author Alice Albania is a gutsy woman who at the age of 29 travels
the full course of the Indus river upstream. During the journey, she
traveled legally and illegally to Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, China
and Tibet.

Empires of the Indus - Book Cover

The book is a unique kind of travelogue though. As she traverses the
river upstream, she also travels its history backwards in time. During the
journey she covers the Indo Pak partition, River saints of Sindh,
Mercantile histories on the Silk route, Spread of Buddhism, Sikhism,
Alexander, Mahmud of Ghazni and much more.



Indus does indeed has a history richer than any other river, at least in
the Indian subcontinent, if not the entire world. On its banks, many
religions flourished and disappeared. Many kings tried their luck.
One of the oldest civilizations came up on its shores. 

This book is as much about Indus, as it is about some of the lost
chapters in Indian history. I mean Sindh. Not much has been written
about Sindh in Indian history books, despite its rich history.
It's only in the foreign books like Empires of the Indus and
The Global World Of Indian Merchants, 1750 1947: Traders Of Sind From Bukhara To Panama
that some of the damage is being repaired.

Reading this book also reminded me of a post I had made earlier.

Here is an interview of the Alice Albania.
This book also won Dolman Travel book of the year award, 2009.

Bikhre Bimb Play

Another weekend, another play at Rang Shankara.
This time it was Bikhre Bimb.

A solo performance by Arundhati Nag, directed and written
by Girish Karnad.

I read that it's a very popular play and has staged more
than 100 shows. Even yesterday it was houseful.
But personally I didn't enjoy it much.

The story is of a writer Manjula Nayak who used to write
in Kannada but suddenly publishes a Best Seller in English.
After a TV interview she is confronted by her own reflection
and slowly many hidden secrets, truths and lies of her personal life are
revealed.

The play uses a pre recorded clipping of the protagonist which is used
as her reflection. So it required an immaculate timing from Arundhati
to pull it off, which she did. This was a pretty novel idea.

IPL Last 4

Some stats :
The 4 teams reaching last 4 this IPL exhibit an interesting pattern.
The number of times they have reached the last 4 of IPL is
an arithmetic progression.


1. Chennai Super Kings (4 times)
2. Royal Challangers Bangalore (3 times)
3. Mumbai Indians ( 2 times)
4. Kolkata Knight Riders ( 1 times)

Basically, CSK have reached the last 4 in IPL 4 times
and KKR only once.

Yaar Bana Buddy - Play Review

Watched a Hindi play after long, thanks to Rang Shankara and Ekjut Theater group.
Though this play boasted of a big name from Bollywood - Yashpal Sharma, tickets
were priced at Rs. 150/- . Strange, since Rs. 200/- has been a regular price nowadays @
Rang Shankara.

Ekjut group is founded by Nadira Zaheer Babbar, wife of Raj Babbar. To support
her,  daughter Juhi Babbar Soni and son-in-law Anup Soni were also present.

Anup Soni, posing with Adeeti

Talking about the play, it was a rather long one - 2 hrs 15 mins. Before the interval
there was a lot of buffoonery, with some good comic scenes though, which made me skeptical
that the buffoonery might spill over to the second half as well.

Yashpal Sharpa & Sajjad Khan in Yaar Bana Buddy

But it was not the case. Second half had some serious moments and overall it turned
out to be better than most of the English plays I have watched of late.

Among the actors, Yashpal Sharma takes the cake for his superlative performance
in every scene, be it comic or tragic. Sajjad, at times, seemed to be simply shouting.

Timing of some old Hindi film songs(used as dialogues by Mithilesh) was excellent.
Also, a dialogue by Kartik seemed to have come straight out of Andaz Apna Apna.
(Main wo nahin hoon jo main hoon....)

Talking of the story - Kartik and Mithilesh are trying hard to snatch their friend Jaydeep
out of the pseudo life he has created for himself. His obsession with art collection reaches
absurd proportions when he purchases an art object (Pitcher of life) for Rs. 1 crore, which
according to Mithilesh is "shit". It shakes Mithilesh and together with Kartik, he sets up
a meeting with Jaydeep. In the meeting, many bitter truths are revealed and their friendship
is finally resuscitated.

Cast : Yashpal Sharma(Mithilesh Khurana), Sajjad Khan(Jaydeep Wankhede), Chinmay Das(Kartik Kothari)
Direction : Nadira Babbar

Melancholic times in cricket

Adam Gilchrist's KXIP crashes out after Shikhar Dhawan decided
to peak at the wrong time :-). Ironically, it was Deccan Chargers,
the team he led to 2 consecutive IPL semis and one IPL crown, who
defeated him. It was very disheartening. I really wanted KXIP to
make the play offs after the remarkable resurgence they staged
with Paul Valthaty's audacious brilliance and Gilchrist's
inspirational captaincy.

This comes after Shane Warne's last game in IPL. So effectively,
in a matter of few days, IPL suffered 2 major setbacks. Warne and
Gilchrist, for me, were two of the most important ambassadors of
cricket and especially IPL. I hope Gilchrist doesn't follow Warne
and keeps playing. Else, IPL will lose its sheen for me and countless
others.

Love you Warnie !

A good piece on Microsoft Skype deal

How Skype changed the world; how it'll change Microsoft.

It's this ability to embed Skype into another system that can give you some clue of what Microsoft might do with it.  

An obvious step is to integrate Skype into its Windows Phone software. This is not the same thing as downloading a Skype app into your phone, as you can do today. 

It's about blending it smoothly into the phone, letting you make calls from your phonebook or dialer, routing those calls automatically through Skype.

Getting passport size photo print online in India

Though there are many sites in India where one can
order photo prints, but very few when it comes to
ordering passport sized photographs.

Asking friends, I could gather some information though.

1. http://www.gkvale.com/ is one option.
2. http://www.epassportphoto.com/ seems to be another option.

On http://www.epassportphoto.com/ you can also create a 6"x4" sheet
containing your passport photos which you can then order as usual
on itasveer.com or zoomin.com .

Note : The photo sheet generated on epassportphoto.com had 7 passport photos
on it and one empty slot, which I filled using MS Paint.

Publishing a newspaper ad - Online

It's amazing to see what all can be done online these days.
There are websites releasemyad.com  and myadcorner.com where you can order
ads to be published in almost every major newspaper in India.

The Interview - Play

Watched this play yesterday at Rang Shankara.

Nice play, worth a watch. Has a lot of adult content.

Details (Source):

Synopsis :A bright, young man, holding his resume close, waits nervously at the reception of one of the country`s largest corporations. Moments later he is called in for his job interview. But nothing he learnt in college, university or his last few jobs has prepared him for what comes next - perhaps the most unusual and challenging hour of his life. But he`s keen to make it through this. After all, it is a job to die for.



Cast & Crew: Karan Pandit(Interviewee) , Tariq Vasudeva(Keith), Prerna Chawla(Secretary), Kashin Shetty(Interviewer,Boss)

Director: Akarsh Khurana

Length: 1 Hour 20 Minutes

Language: English

Here is a review, when it was staged in Mumbai.

California Suite Play Review and Piranha at B-Flat

Watched this play today at Alliance Francaise .
Actually I watched only first two parts, as the acting
wasn't that good. All the actors seemed novices.
Even the theater was not a very well built one,
but I had watched Extremities at not a very good
theater Kala Soudha but had enjoyed it. So I would
say it was the acting which I didn't like.

Since I gave up on the play in the middle of
it, simply roaming around I reached B Flat
in Indira Nagar. And luckily Piranha was playing.

Piranha playing at B Flat, Indira Nagar, Bangalore

Piranha playing at B Flat, Indira Nagar, Bangalore

I didn't know Piranha earlier, but now I won't forget
them. I did never enjoy rock music earlier but today I did.
I had a helluva time out there. So, thanks Piranha !
I got to shake hands with the drummer : George
and one of the guitarists : Shalini Mohan.



At Alliance Francaise  inside the toilets, there
was an interesting verse by Alfred de Musset :

Alfred de Musset's poem inside a toilet at Alliance Francaise, Bangalore

Here is the original in French :

Vous qui venez ici
dans une humble posture

De vos flancs alourdis
décharger le fardeau

Veuillez quand vous aurez
Soulagé la nature

Et déposé dans l'urne
un modeste cadeau

Epancher dans l'amphore
un courant d'onde pure

Et sur l'autel fumant
placer pour chapiteau

Le couvercle arrondi
dont l'auguste jointure

Aux parfums indiscrets
doit servir de tombeau

And the translation :

Thou, in here
Take on a humble posture
To relieve yourself of your burden

After answering nature's call
After placing in the urn, nature's little gift
Please let flow sheer ripples of clear water
And bring down on this glorious recepient,
as decoration this rounded lid
Whose spartan structure like a tomb
will bury all traces of unpleasant odour

Jammu/Katra Hotels

Katra - National Guest House, (close to Katra bus stand and Hotel Chirag International), ☎ 01991-232165/094192-15791/098581-63803. Clean and spacious rooms. 24hrs checkout. Rs600-700/day for a double/triple.

Jammu - Hotel Shivam Lodge, (come out of the railway station and take left, move 300-400 meters and it's on the other side of the road), ☎ 0191-2476909/2477909/2477030. checkin: 12PM; checkout: 12PM. Located at a walking distance from Jammu Tawi Railway station. Good room service. Rs.1200-1300(Ignore the price they give, ask for Rs. 1200/- and stick to it.

Ganguly joins Pune Warriors - The Bong Connection?

"We were waiting for Ashish Nehra's fitness report and ultimately the report came yesterday. I was already in talks with Ganguly and we decided that the amount of experience that Sourav has in cricket will no doubt help the team. So we finalised Ganguly last night," Pune Warriors Team director Abhijit Sarkar said referring to the finger injury that Nehra has been nursing.

 Couldn't help but notice that Pune Warriors Team director Abhijit Sarkar is a bong :-)

Online payments in India : some rough data

Let me share some rough data for an online travel company, a big one (through a trusted source) :
Out of every 100 transactions :

70 are credit/debit card transactions.
30 are net banking.

Of the credit card transactions :
60-70% are VISA

Of the net banking transactions :
~30% are ICICI
~15-20% are HDFC
~15% are SBI

Necessary Targets

Watched this play today @ Rang Shankara.
Worth a watch.

Here are details : (source)

NECESSARY TARGETS
by Eve Ensler

Five women in a refugee camp are recovering from war and all that that means to civilians and particularly women. A mixture of ages and backgrounds, they are here waiting, and trying to survive. Two foreign women, one a psychiatrist with twenty-five years of affluent private practice behind her, the other a young counsellor determined to write a book on 'women in war', are flown in to help them... To help. Does 'talking' help? Does making a story public heal a private pain? The two professionals, with conflicting attitudes, are pushed to their own limits in this confrontation.

NECESSARY TARGETS is not about war, but the aftermath of war, when 'we' who have suffered encounter 'them', who want to help. Or is it when 'we' who want to help encounter 'them', who have suffered?

ON STAGE:
SHARANYA RAMPRAKASH, MAGGY JACQMIN, MAYA GIRISH, SHEILA GOVINDRAJ, SPATICA RAMANUJA, PADMAVATHI RAO and SIRI RAVIKUMAR

BACKSTAGE:
LIGHTS: ARUN MURTHY
ASSISTANT DIRECTION: HELEN HAYWOOD
PRODUCTION MANAGER: NIKHIL BHARADWAJ
DESIGN &DIRECTION: PRAKASH BELAWADI