Bahubali and More at Ramoji Studios

 A visit to Ramoji studios after a good 15 years, I think. Much water has flown under the bridge, but this time, a Bahubali set was awaiting us, and we had a nice guide too.. Ayushi Deshpande, on our bus. So despite the heat, we enjoyed most of the sights- pics to prove it.

A permanent set of a King's court, above.

A station with a train, below.

European houses, on a single street.

Pic by Ayushi, above.

Directorial stuff.

Cheerful Bahubali, and serious Kattappa 

We had the Eiffel Tower overlooking the Wild West and Magadha empire, among other things.. Talk about juxtaposition!

She was not part of the set, just a co-passenger who was in the frame while I shot something else!

Indian School of Business

 ISB or the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad is a unique place, known for a high quality PGP. I had a discussion with their representative, Varshita, about collaborating with their Digital learning team for offering a few courses to our students. Pics from my visit.

With Varshita, outside her office. She ghas completed PGP from ISB, and has a law degree from NLU at Bhopal.

The architecture of ISB is quite unique.

Nargundkar and Nargundkar

 Cousins from two Nargundkar brothers' families gathered for a party after a while. Some of us, including Nargundkar-Pai family and Nargundkar-Paruvus. Pratap, Pramila, Lakshmi, Virendra, Rajendra (me), Hari, Anjali, Madhuri, Shobha, Satish.

Partying With Family

 Some of us cousins met up in a place called Barometer. Some have been in Pune, and some more have just moved. My brother and sister were visiting, from USA and Hyderabad, respectively. Enough excuses to party..

Some of our party..

This above is at another outing, and below, a karaoke session with my niece at it.

House of an Architect

 We have a few architects in the family. I was recently at the home of one. Some nice things I noticed.. 

Open to the sky. Including rain that collects in the drawing room like a pond.

Decoration on the wall, and below, a large garden.

Some of the bounty.

Music Group Themes I Hosted

 I am part of a music group devoted to Hindi songs, film and non-film. We have a weekly host who runs a theme, around which members have to post songs. I had a theme related to lyricists with place names-Indori, Jaipuri, Bhopali, Sultanpuri etc. This was my report at the end of that week.

Theme Owner Report for Bhopal se Jaipur.

Behno aur bhaiyo,

Is hafte phir JCB jaag utha. An Uttar Bharat discovery tour! Pilibhiti, Kashmiri, three Jaipuris and a couple of Lakhnavis were unexpected. Ek Hyderabadi bhi nikla, dhoondhne ke baad. With a tadka from Panipatis and Dewasis and so on.. Gorakhpuri and Kanpuri were somewhat expected. And some were really far out, unknown to me at least. Shows how committed to digging our members are- even more than Bangalore (or Chennai) road-diggers! Came up with gold. Heartening for me were also the plethora of black and white era songs, most of which were both lyrical AND tuneful. Naturally! MSMTans ko Soorma (Bhopali) ghoshit kar diya jaaye, after this sterling performance. Binaca geet mala style bigul bhi bajaaya jaaye, is Khushi ko zahir karte hue..

I started out imagining that 5-6 mainstream poets/lyricists would dominate. How wrong I was, and happy to be! Good to have Indira back, and Ratnamadhavi, adding 4 moons to the theme. Students ki last minute entry ki aadat ab tak barkaraar hai, ye Ishita ne saabit kar diya. 😊

Admins. ko salaam, aur sabhi doston ko Ram ram, meri agli theme tak. I am hoping to meet at least one MSMT member this weekend, magar let it remain a secret till it happens.. 😊

Rajendra

Jan 29-Feb. 3, 2023

Wars and Humour

 You may think, like the East and the West, they (wars and humour) wouldn't meet (sorry, Kipling). But in my book (or blog) they do. Just one example, below-

Conversations between warlords Putin and Zelensky

Zelensky (he was a comedian earlier)- This is not funny. You are stepping on my toes, and disturbing the furniture in my house.

Putin- Go find some dole-outs from your new friends. 

Zelensky- I am joining NATO

Putin- Natu, Natu, I mean, naughty, naughty (under his breath - 'these damn Oscars! They get on my nerves. I prefer Awara hoon')

Zelensky- I will put you out to dry, Putin! 

Putin- That dialogue is czarring- I mean, jarring- to a modern Czar.

Zelensky- You ARE crude, like that oil you keep peddling as a carrot to all the world! And full of gas, like...

Putin- Shut up, or you will face the brand new missiles which I had to test on someone. 

Zelensky- Ha, I will then test all the anti-missile missiles that Germany, France, USA wanted tested..

Meanwhile, Xi smiles slyly, as he Ok's a new virus test in the rebranded lab at Wuhan...