Dan Performing Dastangoi

Saw friend Dan Hussein performing Dastangoi, the extinct oral story telling tradition that has been revived after seventy years. He along with friend and fellow performer Mahmood Farooqui have revived this art form from extinction and are performing it around the country where they can get sponsors. Those interested in sponsoring can contact Dan on his blog: http://dastangoi.blogspot.com.

Dan is really a treat to watch. He has an amazing range of histrionics, a powerful voice and can express anything just any emotion with his mobile face and body. See in the picture how he rises from his seat (he was seated on a matress, nawabi style), gestures with his hands, his face in the moment of the story, his eyes fully in the character. Such a powerful performance I have rarely seen. Dan, has power, depth and amazing grace (I am not saying this only because he is a friend). He is also an aspiring film artiste, struggling to get roles. It's a cruel irony of fate that he has remained undiscovered while lesser talents have gone to make hay while the sun shines. Keep at it Dan!

The only parallel Dastangoi has with a Kerala art form is the "Katha Prasangam" where the story is told by two narrators to the accompaniment of music, which I had seen as a child in Kerala.

Are writers that cheap, and Dan's Dastangoi

How cheap can writers get? Or, rather, be?

Read the following from the back of beyonds where writers are considered cheap. Some days back a man from Coimbatore would phone me persistently to do articles and he would pay something like Rs 100 an article.

I would say, "Go away cheapo, do you know what you are talking about?"

I will GIVE YOU about 100 articles to each of these sites (to start
with) *Please read the following carefully:* This job, to begin with can be EITHER
full-time OR part-timeI am interested in building a relationship with
someone. Please tell me your hourly rate. I will most likely choose the
CHEAPEST person..

Writers of the world unite and don't let this Cheapo get you down!

I am covering the Kala Ghoda festival on my own as my request for covering it for the official blog fell on, um, deaf ears. I am attending Dan Hussein's Dastangoi performance today, and, yes, I have brought my camera along.So watch out for Dan performing the Dastangoi right here.

Darryl D'Monte, Shyam Chainani, Neera Adarkar and Vikas Dilawari talk on conservation

It was a pleasure listening to Darryl D'Monte, a hero of my childhood, who moderated a session on heritage conservation. (He edited the Sunday Review when I was a teenager and every Sunday I would look forward to this very, very intellectual and cerebral newspaper supplement. He is to me an icon of those days of idealism, courage of convictions and fearless journalism.)

He still is intellectual and commited, and calls himself an environmental journalist, though I would classify him as much more than that. He recalled somebody calling Bombay "a very interesting but exasperating city," which it is. Pointing out that not only dilapidated office buildings are heritage, he said the mill buildings are part of heritage, though it is not treated as such. What a pity.

Also part of the panel was fearless crusader Shyam Chainani who said ascerbically that the fight for the mill lands was fought half-heartedly and that they deserved to lose. Chainani is the founder of Bombay Environmental Action Group which has won many an environmental battle for Bombayites. His book "In Defense of Heritage - A Bombay Diary" is expected soon, and I would love to lay my hands on it. No, not much of a heritage person, but if Chainani writes with as much wit as he speaks, then it would be worth it.

Chainani said that in these times of globalization ("globalization is rubbish") we should learn from cities like London where 25 per cent of the buildings are heritage and cannot be touched. At one point he vent his ire at a greedy businessperson and quite succintly said, "expletive deleted," to describe that person. haha (this is my version of canned laughter!).

Many more witty sayings followed, "I refuse to manufacture anecdotes," was one, obviously referring to writers' predilection towards making up anecdotes in their books. Oh, God, this man is inimitable. Hope his book sells.

Writing about Sport - Discussion at Kala Ghoda

This is Soumya Bhattacharya (left, author of a recently released book on cricket, name of which escapes me as I came in late!) and Dileep Ramachandran (right, Cricinfo.com) in discussion on "Writing about Sport" at the David Sassoon Library as part of the Kala Ghoda festival. The panelists decried the death of excellence in sports writing. Names invoked included the late KN Prabhu and Rajan Bala, both veteran sports scribes who had legions of followers. Cricket columns today are ghost-written by someone exactly that - a ghost - for a celebrity ex-player and sponsored by a corporate entity. So can there be any fairness? No, methinks!

Today sports has been hijacked by the glamor brigade, wearing - sphagetti tops, what else? The panelists felt that the quality of sports writing, especially cricket writing has gone down. Television coverage is partly to blame, as reporters and commentators are told to get the juicy bits of gossip into their coverage. Well, they have TRP rates to maintain and that's why they are in the business after all.

Also there is a humungous amount of cricket being played at the risk of life and limb of the players. Recently I saw a huge picture in the newspaper showing where all Sachin had fractures, poor chap! I certainly wouldn't want my fractures, and injuries (especially those around the heart) to be part of newspaper readers' daily fix at the breakfast table. But with stakes so high, can we blame the players or the people who keep the game going?

While we raise sportsmen on a pedestal, watch a nation go berserk over a single win, though we lose the series, let us ask if we are encouraging other sports such as football, volleyball, hockey etc. Bureaucracy is also to blame as where in the world would one find a politician heading a sports governing body, except in India. Sharad Pawar and Jagmohan Dalmia, please note.
Soumya Bhattacharya reading from his book.

Portuguese Chair at Kala Ghoda - Not for Sale

This beautiful chair is a part of William Lobo's exhibit at Kala Ghoda Festival. The design is distinctly Portuguese and, in fact, William will not part with it, but promises to make me a replica. He offers to let me sit in it and I do. What a bliss! Here's something to want to die for!

William restores old and dilapidated chairs to newness and exquisite beauty, such as this one and the one in the background.

Friend and Neighbor Achyut Palav's Stall at Kala Ghoda Festival

Friend, neighbor and internationally renowned calligraphist Achyut Palav has a stall at the Kala Ghoda festival. He is seen here with his wife Shraddha and son. Achyut is widely travelled and has trained under world-renowned calligraphists. He also owns an art gallery in Artist Village where we both live. He has also authored two books on calligraphy one of which is available at his stall. Shradha helps Achyut run his design studio in New Bombay.

Che at the Kala Ghoda festival

Che Guevara on the back of a guitar at the Kala Ghoda Festival. Importing a revolution?

The picture says it all. Cidco installed the garbage bins all over New Bombay on the left and within days it was neatly incised and taken away!

Shabana reading Javed Akhtar's poems

The occasion was the reading of screenplay writer and poet Javed Akhtar's urdu poems and their translations at the Kala Ghoda Festival. Javed read the original urdu poems and Shabana in a red saree with beads and lipstick to match read the English translations. My say the translated poems did capture the nuances of the original. A record crowd had gathered at the David Sassoon Library garden where the reading was held and we (me, Asheeth, Archhana, Maya, Anil, Ravi)had to balance ourselves on the garden tiles, planted vertically. Ouch!

It was a pleasure listening to these two professionals. They had a good stage presence and gelled rather well. Javed was his usual affable and humorous self, and his humbleness showed. I have always been a great admirer of this artistic pair. Shabana besides acting in movies is involved with the rights of the people living in slums around the posh Cuffee Parade area of Bombay, where an internecine battle is going on to evict the slum dwellers, ostensibly, to put up more sky scrapers.

This Is the CCD Restaurant from Where I Blogged in Delhi

Some fallout of the blogposts from Delhi. I am so terribly sorry for those observations that have caused hurt, for those people who got hounded for Turkish tea, for those people whose new looks were noticed, etc. Prostrations of apologies, bows of obsequiousness, trembling contriteness, and all that. But then, what the heck, I wrote what I wrote.

One friend had a steady stream of visitors who wanted to drink her Turkish tea, thanks to my post. She has promised to bring a crateful of it next time.

Another friend was literally blackmailed with the allegation that she was being partial to me. God! How can this be? Can people be so petty and cribbing? In all my forty-eight years in this world, I have never come across something so peurile. God help me!

Another friend's new hairstyle was noticed on my picture blog.

Okay, okay, enough said and written, I hope I am still in you people's good books to enjoy your friendship next time. I will love you my dear friends, always, you are such sweet people.