Variety is the Spice of Life

Isn’t it? I definitely think so. So this week has been the week for varieties.

I have been to many a Rangapravesha or Arangantram of Bharathanatyam (BN) dancers – my friends, cousins, father-in-law’s student even (who did it when she was studying MBBS – amazing drive). So when I was invited for a Mohiniattam(MA) rangapravesha – I thought – why not? Haven’t been to one – might as well enjoy. It was my nephew’s senior – a sweet beautiful girl Manjusha. Though my knowledge of the traditional dances is quite poor, i tend to enjoy any form of dance – from Russian ballet to bollywood freestyle to flamenco. Both BN and MA being south Indian dances - the stark difference between them struck me with awe and amuse. MA is a very soft, slow, smooth rendering of the movements mainly with a lot of focus on waist turning and eye brows. Very peaceful and enjoyable. No change of dress with only a small break inbetween. And to top it only 5 performances. Worked fantastic in terms of timing. But you know what, being from Bangalore, I think I am a little bit partial towards BN – let me admit that first. BN I feel, is more vibrant, energetic and a lot to do with eyes, hands and most important legs. One step and that should be heard by even the last guest in the auditorium – amazing power and long story like performances. While as in the MN I could hardly hear the sound of the gajje. But anyway – it was an enchanting evening with lovely performances and simple but elegant speeches. My best wishes to Manjusha.

I had the honor of attending Aditya Nadig’s (one of the finalist in star singer 2 – kannada) very first music direction for a drama. He happens to be hubby’s cousin. So all of us were there in full strength to encourage the young man. I used the word honor because it was such a beautiful drama – Mojina Seemeache Ondooru. Honestly, I had to ask someone for the translation when I first heard it . Roughly translated, it means a place outside the big bad city. It was about 2 robbers who run away from a chasing mob and end up at a place where the people would not have heard of money, robbers etc – in other words, all bad things of today’s world. People there are simple, hardworking and help each other purely based on barter system. Seeing their life, the robbers get transformed. It moved the audience to tears. Simple story, great direction, fantastic music score and excellent performances by everyone in the cast. Thoroughly enjoyable drama which won the 4th place in the state level completion. Great going Aditya – my best wishes.

I had my first disaster in the kitchen yesterday – first and hopefully the last. Till date, all my experiments have been a success with hubby surviving and some of the time, even praising my attempts. Yesterday I felt pretty adventurous and wanted to experiment something new. I had got fresh Banana flowers from the farm. So I dived directly into youtube – saw couple of videos, read the recipes and started off with great flourish. I did exactly like the way they showed it. And I had a great smelling dish at the end of the hour. It looked like the way it did on the videos too. Oh ya, it is a lot of work to prepare the banana flower itself. And I am again emphasizing that I did EXACTLY what they showed. But when I tasted it, oh god, my insides churned. It was bitter beyond anything I had tasted in my life. My policy till now was – looks great, smells great, then has to taste great. Gosh – policy went down the drain. It was looking great, smelling heavenly, but tasting yuck. Had to dump it and make a quickie dinner – which was quite boring :(. Best wishes to me for my next experiment

After a very long time, dad performed a magic show. He picked this up as a hobby 5-6 years back. And does a great job of it I must say. Has a lot of passion for whatever he does – and I appreciate that mainly because of his age. So since, I am sitting at home – without much to do – he asked me to help him. It was at our locality hall and the event was uniforms and bags distribution for the government school children sponsored by a locality resident to be distributed by the corporator. The magic show was an entertainment program for the children. Seeing those small children there (primary & middle) – some of them with dirty uniforms, most of them without slippers but all of them with happy smiles – really jolted me thoroughly. The gap between the ‘Have’s’ and the ‘Have Not’s’ is increasing by the day – and it was so damn evident today when I looked at those poor children. The teachers told me that they had to convince, cajole and sometimes even beg the parents to send their children to school. Sad state of affairs. Personally feel RTE is a great act if implemented properly and the clauses causing concerns are ironed out. They totally freaked out – neat uniforms, great colorful looking bags, chocolates and the magic show – made their day. Seeing their innocent faces, beautiful smiles – made my day :). Best wishes to all the kids and hope they continue their studies.