Apne Ghar Jaisa- Play

 A play with a play on Expectation versus Reality.

An old lady is imagining what a new tenant will be like, while coming to terms with the loss of her son. Her husband has agreed to let out the son's room to a stranger called "Shaukeen" (she thinks). 

It is a solo performance, almost, with her imagining the caste, religion, and habits of the tenant before he appears. She vacillates between a nice picture of him to replace her lost son, and depicting him as a complete outsider with strange habits, eating as well as lifestyle-related.

An unexpected twist at the end makes the one hour play watchable- suspense of a kind.

Padmavati Rao performed the old lady's role very well, with a variety of emotions showing while she sets up the room. Produced by Ranga Shankara, Karnataka. A part of the Shreeram Lagoo Theatre Festival.

Losses

 Lost a young nephew, Nikhil, short of his 30th birthday, last week. He was a helicopter pilot, and his chopper crashed while he was on duty, ferrying passengers. One of the two passengers survived, miraculously. 

He was unconventional in his choice of careers. Dropped out of engineering, and taught himself/trained for Welding. Worked with a firm for a couple of years, and then trained to become a helicopter pilot. He was quite good at it too. Bad weather probably caused this crash, that turned out to be fatal. 

Maybe our leaving the planet is pre-determined, because there is no easy explanation for deaths of this kind, and survivors at the other end. 

Anyway, we live on, and try to cope with mishaps. 

When he was young, above. When he was grownup, and visited India, below, sitting, left.

A Pune Gathering of Cousins

 On June 1st, we met with cousins who were available in Pune. The purpose was two-fold. To celebrate the birthday of our youngest aunt, mother of our host Jyotsna, and to remember Nikhil, my nephew whom we lost unexpectedly in a helicopter accident in Atlanta USA. The second came out of the blue, and we were still coming to terms with it.

Some of the cousins/families present. 

Nikhil is sitting, left, in the pic above. That was my Mom's 88th birthday in 2017, at Pune. His parents are behind him.

Aamne Saamne- Marathi Play

 Saw a great play in Marathi titled Aamne Saamne. It's a story of two couples, one old and one young. The young ones pretend to be married to live as tenants with the older couple. Their stories intermingle, and both learn from each other. A lot of hilarious and serious sequences later. Directed and acted in by Mangesh Kadam, the older husband in the play. Very good dialogue, acting and comic timing.. 

The older couple..

and all four taking the bow at the close..

Shriram Lagoo Festival

 Went to a Hindi play that was a part of the week-long festival. Amol Palekar was in the audience. The play, Naam me Kya Rakhwo Hai? or What's in a Name? was a satire on several things including gender equality, Kings and Ministers, and touristy artefacts or performances presented as "culture" to foreigners visiting India. Brilliant set design, acting and direction. Music too. 

The actors and the Writer/Director in front(there was a lady writer with him too)

Penn Masala- a Band From a University Abroad

 Went to a concert where only vocals rule.. the band does not use any musical instruments. A fusion experiment from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, the play a mix of Hindi and English songs.. or sing them. Interesting experiment, and moderately good singing. There are ten men in the band, I think. No women. That reduces the diversity of what they can sing, but the energy levels are high. I was not familiar with the English songs, but a few Hindi ones were pretty decent. 6.5 on 10.

All of them sing or perform music together, with no instruments..

Innovation- Not the Grand Launches

 Innovation is misunderstood. It is not only breakthrough technology or products, it's many small things too. We see them around us every now and then. On the road, in a friend's home, or in a restaurant.

Look at the pic above- it's a novel idea to combine small eats in a platter, served in a typical Masala Box that is found in kitchens around India.

The eats are to go with drinks. We found this at a restaurant called Hitchki. The chilli sauce in the middle was a great dip!

Mujhe hitchki jo aaye to, hungama ho gay..