Reflections

I confess that I was star struck when I booked three tickets for Hamlet - the Clown Prince directed by Rajat Kapoor. Nothing can go wrong with tried and tested names in the Hindi film world as cast and crew, or so I believed. I also believe that I am someone who is open enough to look beyond the original text and allow space for intelligent and engaging improvisation. Having said that, Hamlet has always been a great favourite of mine from among the Shakespearean tragedies and I confess to being extremely loyal to the original text. So here’s what transpired at the screening of Hamlet- the Clown Prince at Chowdaiah memorial hall on 9 th September.  It all started with the organisers' constant drilling about sticking to time, via social media and later on via SMS after the tickets were purchased. Made me hopeful that we would finally look past excuses of Bangalore traffic and start the show bang on time. Twenty minutes after the start time, we were still checking out the ceilin...

Destination Avani wasn't previously fixed. It came to me through a Google search for places within 100 kms. from Bangalore. I like that about Bangalore; there's a new place to go to no matter how many times you have headed out from the city. I should also tell you that I have a penchant for old temples; temples which are not functional but are left behind as relics from a storyful past. Avani is around 98 kms. from Bangalore and the approach is via the gold mine district of Kolar. It would have been a great idea if I had started really early in the morning. In fact the websites that I referred to suggested the same.  Lesson learnt! I was out of home by 8 am and had to make a trip to the fuel station which I have been delaying in the hope that the unrealistic fuel prices would drop any day. Looks like the hope was unrealistic, we are staying sky high with those prices for a week now. Car tanked up, I suddenly remembered that I was hungry. My plan was to stop by at one of the...

You think Kerala, you think water; just that the shades of the water have drastically changed this time. The clear warm waters which always beckoned weary travelers from all over the world have now turned cold, muddy and furious; lifelines choking on themselves in this beautiful state that I call home. It is my place of solace and I turn to it, whenever I seek for it. For those of us who do not live currently there, among the many things that make us home sick, the monsoon months of June and July pull at the nostalgic chord in us the strongest. Come August 2018 and I almost wish for no more rains in my beloved land. We have had enough to last us another 100 years! The heavy and incessant rainfalls that resulted in unprecedented floods have been wreaking havoc in this little strip of land by the sea and as I watched the news and read posts on social media a deep sense of helplessness kept growing inside me. The fact that family and friends were being affected was on one side but on th...

Last weekend I was brave enough to plunge headlong in to Bangalore traffic. Destination: HRBR layout, Goal: figure out an Improv show. The word had always looked incomplete to me… as if it missed a tooth. Even the dictionary doesn’t accept it and I had a block towards anything which the dictionary didn’t like. Yet, it came about through a random connection and I believe that random connections lead you to random experiences. So we took off, my 15 year old and I and I was at my victorious best having been able to find an activity which wasn’t obsolete or archaic or 'old – like- mom'. HRBR layout in Bangalore  is a newly developed plush neighbourhood in the city. Well laid out roads with no pot holes, the street bright with lights from shops and eateries and the smattering of green wherever there was scope for it; a far cry from the woeful look that most of our roads carried. I felt I was in a movie set, well, almost and something which never happens to me on Bangalore ro...

Scene 1 The Coimbatore-Palakkad bypass road at 3 AM on a Sunday morning It was the end of a drudgerous bus journey from Bangalore to Coimbatore and respite came to me in the form of three big smiles. I have to confess that I checked my phone again to confirm the time. I am not used to being friendly this early in the morning. Before I knew it my bags were taken from me and we all huddled in to the waiting car for a close to 1.5 hour drive to Attappadi.   Driving in to the gates of the current KILA (Kerala Institute of Local Administration)  in Attappadi,  previously known AHADS (Attappadi Hills Area Development Society), passing the familiar sights from just a year back felt more refreshing than a steaming hot cuppa that would have otherwise done the job. I was looking forward to the new memories that I was here to make. We quietly let ourselves in to the KILA guest quarters and I sneaked a couple of hours of solid shut-eye before waking up to the lively ch...

I have never had a dull train journey; no matter how near or far, how familiar or strange the destination. Every time I came back with tales to tell. This time was no different. I was out to meet dear family and friends in the southern part of God’s Own Country. The onward journey from home was pretty much uneventful as it was quite late in the night for adventures, having had boarded the overnight train from Shoranur to Trivandrum. I was at the capital city, early morning the next day and my time there, was, as always, a gorgeous one. I love the royal splendor which Trivandrum still carries with it and I love spending time with my friends there. The next leg of my excursion was to Tiruvalla in Parasuram express to meet my beloved Penguin aunts (nuns of the Bethany Order who have been affectionately christened so by my creative cousin). This trip of two and a half hours was more or less ordinary except for the excitement that I was unable to control each time the TTI came to chuck ...

Last weekend, I had a cat as a guest. Not that I am a big fan of the feline species but I was doing a very dear friend, a favour. She wanted to leave her pet with someone she could trust while she went away for the weekend and I was happy to be of help. This cat taught me a few lessons in the two days that he was with me. Till he arrived I was under the impression that cats were super friendly. And then he made his entry! Yogi, as he is called, strode regally in to our living room as if he owned it. My daughter and I went after him, like smitten fans to their object of admiration, to pet him, but he just dismissed us with a shrug of his handsome coat. It is not that he did not like it but it was pretty evident that he did not need it. He settled down in our house and started exploring his newly acquired territory, bit by bit. He sniffed at pieces of furniture, tugged at the door mats and carpets, jumped on to the couch to see if that suited him and finally perched himself atop t...