I post an iPost

This is a special post. I am writing my first post from my new toy, iPhone.
Its time for my flight to Frankfurt from Toronto.

Take care

Being an Ottawa Senator

I am visiting Ottawa, Canada for a conference since monday. The conference got over yesterday and today many of us decided to do some sightseeing around the beautiful city of Ottawa.

We are staying at the University of Ottawa (aka uOttawa) residence and most of the key sites are at walkable distance of 1.5 miles maximum. The 2 main attractions we covered today are, the Parliament hill and the War museum.

The weather was very nice and We had a fantastic time at both these places. I am sure you will enjoy the pics here.

Being in Beijing

I am going back home from my short trip to Beijing and writing this log at the new bangkok airport with few hours to board the flight to bangalore.

This was my second trip to Beijing. I stayed for about 9 days the first time and this time it was only 4 days. I had enough time to cover the main attractions to beijing in the previous visit itself, so the excitement was much much lower this time. I stayed in the same hotel, Wenjin Hotel, Wudaokou. But, The agenda of the trip was different and ofcourse the experiences were a lot different.

Apart from my work the last trip was more like a tour of beijing. I covered Great Wall of China (badaling), The Palace Museum, Summer palace, Tianmen Square, Temple of heaven, etc. so I thought It would be good to spend more time doing things that only locals do in this trip like for example, I used the subway more regularly than the last time.

One thing you cannot miss or some of you might be surprised to see the number of McDonalds and KFCs everywhere in the city. to me, it seemed like the paan shops on every nook and corner of the cities in india. More surprising is the amount of people you will find inside. They are always crowded. Even though the younger population is more to be seen there, the middle-aged crowd is not far behind. Also, you will find McDonalds and KFC very closely situated to each other. Initially, I thought this is more to do with the grudges between Coke and Pepsi than Mcdonalds Vs KFC, but I guess its both. Not-so-surprisingly, this is the safest bet for foreigners/visitors. On all 4 days, I had one meal in the day at one of the two fast-food joints. No more fast food for atleast 6 months now.

But, everytime I would set out to enter an chinese restaurent, there was a push back within me. There are certain ingredients in their food whch I dont like. One of that is some kind of sauce (soya sauce, may be), the smell of which just turns me off, really. You will smell it near many road-side food joints. The other reason is that, everything on the menu is in chinese. Many restaurents have menu cards with pictures, but then you cannot guarentee. Also you can not guess how a particular dish is going to be like, thats a major problem and above all is the communication.

I still remember the struggle while asking one the waiters to get the bill. I, initially, thought it would be easier just by doing the signing by hand gesture, But I struggled for more than 5 minutes to get that through to him. The following day, I learnt a new chinese word from my colleagues, "maitan => bill".

Having said all that, I had great meals at such chinese restaurents this time, but on all those occasions, I was with my chinese colleagues. Fish being one of my favourite, it was very easy for them to choose the restaurents. I am told that I have had 2 of the best fish dishes in chinese food. I was offered to eat frog once though, but I politely declined.

Coming back to the language, I think this is the biggest barrier in this country for visitors. The local people are nice and helpful, but you cannot interact with them due to this. What more, it is extremely difficult to pick up this language as well. Chinese language has very unique pronounciations and yet most of them are so close to each other that a slight mistake you make can mean something totally different. So, on-the-fly learn-and-use strategy would not work. Well, you can use some simple words like 'Xie Xie', 'buyao' etc. But they can only get you started.

but then, you meet with people are simply beyond this barrier and they never give up. I took an taxi from Wudaokou to Silk Market one evening. It was peak hour and there was bumper-to-bumper traffic near wudaokou itself. I was getting agitated as I wanted to get there earlier and get back to the hotel early. This man, the driver, had probably never tried english and it was impossible to communicate anything with him. But, he symphatized with me for my agitation and was telling me in chinese that seemed something like, "Traffic is bad!", "have patience", "One right turn and then left, and we are there!". I could sense what he wanted to talk, but could not even catch one word of what he was saying. The best thing happened when he was switching FM channels and at one channel, he literally jumped with excitement and gestured, "listen to this! Listen to this!". On the radio, there was a voice (only one) doing some kind of one act play or something. I was looking at him, stunned, to his gesture. He had no clue about it and totally enjoying the drama which I had no clue about.

I feel lucky to have visited China when it is getting ready for the Olympics this year. The bird's nest, the stadium that will host the olympics games is absolute world-class work. I was told that most of the work is complete but they are not letting anybody go inside to see. I had a chance to see that many times but only from the highways, pretty far. You will see many authorised shops at famous visitor spots selling Beijing Olympics souveniors, they are pretty nice.

In this trip, something that I will remember is the kind of elctronics shopping I did in the haidan district. This place has number of huge malls only selling computer hardware and other electronic items. You cannot bargain as much as what you would at other famous visitor spots, but it is possible to some extent. I would recommend everyone to visit this place.

This 5 day beijing trip was pretty refreshing for me and a good change from the busy routine. The highlights include the huge fish head I ate and the electronics shopping and ofcourse the cold that I caught which I am carrying back home with me.

Rangdakshini 2007 Results : Its YUVA again!

History repeats! :)

Its yet another biig success to YUVA. Complete Wash-out or a "Yuva Wah-shout" as Raju always puts it.

YUVA's 'Pravas' won best play (among 19 entries), Best actor among many other first prizes in this competition. The success is not a surprise with Yuva displaying high degree of team work and professionalism.

Some more highlights of the event are,

* 19 teams performed over 4 days, 2 teams of children presented 2 Baal Naatyas.
* Contesting teams came from Sangli, Solapur, Latur, Goa, Waai and Bangalore.
* Vikram Gokhale, chief guest for the prize distribution ceremony.
* After a captivating "Gappa" session with Vikram Gokhle, he distributed prizes for the top 3 performers in each of the following categories:

1. Ekankika
2. Director
3. Actor
4. Actress
5. Sets
6. Music
7. Lights

* Bangalore teams outshone the visiting teams in most of the categories.
* Yuva, a Bangalore team, successfully defended the 'Winner' title it won last year.
* IISc, another Bangalore team, also gave an impressive performance on its debut
* Judges urged the visiting teams to come up with 'better' presentations as expatriate Maharashtrians in Bangalore expect something more from the resident Maharashtrians.

Awishkar's 20th Annual Theatre Festival

Awishkar's 20th annual theatre festival, the Arvind Deshpande Memorial Festival, concluded yesterday, celebrating 75th birthday of the man behind this group, Mr. Arun Kakade. Awishkar is doing theatre for more than 3 decades now and has always supported core marathi theatre and the passionate people behind them.

This event featured a lot of premier performances along with plays from established organizations and reknowned playwrights such as Satyadev Dubey. Here is the list of performances,
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Sunday 7th January, 10.30 am
Awishkar- Chandrashala Presents
PANCHATANTRA (Marathi Play) (Silver jubilee Show)
A Ballet for kids

Written by : Madhav Sakahardande
Guide : Guru Parvati Kumar
Directed by : Ramesh purav
Co-Directed by : medha parab
Music : Shank-Neel
Production Incharge: Kshama Sakhardande
Produced By: Arun Kakde

Monday 8th January, 7.30 pm
Mumbai Marthi Sahitya Sangha - Amrut Natya Bharati Present
KUNDALI ANI KUNDALINI (Marathi Play) Premier Show
Original English Script : Mrunalini Kamat
Marathi Transalation and Direction : Rekha Sabnis

Tuesday 9th January, 7.30 pm
Academy Of Theatre Arts, Mumbai University Presents
OEDIPUS (Hindi Play) Premier Show
Orignal Play : Sophocles
Adaptation : Machindra More
Music Director : Aamod Bhatt
Director : Prof. Waman Kendre

Wednesday 10th January, 4.00 pm and 7.45 pm
Awishkar and Theatre Unit Present
FLIRT IN YOUR DREAMS (English play) Premier Show
Written and Directed by : Satyadev Dubey

Thursday 11th January, 7.30 pm
Awishkar Presents
DOGHI (Marathi play) Premier Show
Written by :Dr. Shirish Athawale
Directed by : Vijay Kenkre

Friday 12th January, 7.30 pm
Awishkar Presents
YAARI HAI IMAAN MERA (Hindi Play) Premier Show
Marathi Version : Chetan Datar
Hindi Adaptation : Charudatta Bhagwat & Aslam Parvez
Directed by : Kapil Bhopatkar

Saturday 13th January, 7.30 pm
Maharashtra Cultural Centre Pune, Presents
SOHAM KOHAM CHAY GOSHTI (Marathi play) Premier Show
Written by : Prof. Datta Dandge
Directed by : Anant Kanho

Sunday 14th January, 10.30 am
Awishkar - Chandrashala Present
DURGA ZALI GAURI (Marathi Play)
A Ballet for kids

Written by : Madhav Sakahardande
Guide : Guru Parvati Kumar
Directed by : Ramesh purav
Co-Directed by : medha parab
Music : Shank-Neel
Production Incharge : Kshama Sakhardande
Produced By : Late Arwind Deshpane, Arun Kakde

Wednesday 17th January, 7.30 pm
Awishkar and Hunnar Present
CHAAR MOJAYCHA NAHI (Marathi Play) Premier Show
Written by : Vivek Sathe
Direced By : Pradeep Mulye

Thursday 18th January, 7.30 pm
Awishkar Presents
JATA NAHI JAAT (Marathi Play) Premier Show
Written by : Siddharth Tambe
Directed by : Girish Patke

Friday 19th January, 7.30 pm
Awishkar Presents
PAASWALA (Marathi Play) Premier Show
Written by : Jayant Pawar
Directed by : Chetan Datar
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RangadakshiNi 2007 - Schedule

The schedule for RangadakshiNi 2007 is out.

The competition is spanned over 4 days around the long weekend of Republic Day and in total 21 ekankikas (one act plays) will be staged. There are 5 local groups and 2 of which (Chaitanya and IISc) are participating for the first time. The rest 17 ekankikas come from various locations including Sangli (total 9 entires, :O), Solapur (1), Latur (2, runner up last year), Wai (new entry) and Goa (3 entries). The group from Kolhapur who performed really well in last couple of years seems to be absent.

All in all, the stage is set for a great theatre festival !!

Thanks to preeti for putting together this list,

Rangadakshini 2007 - Marathi drama competition in Bangalore

Maharashtra MandaL bengalooru has announced Rangadakshini 2007 and it is scheduled on the long weekend of Republic Day, from 25th to 28th of January. This competition features marathi one act plays from various theatre groups and it has been a great entertainment to its audience for past many many years. Even though the competition has been taking place for many years, in the recent past it is generating tremendous amount of traction in the community of marathi theatre enthusiasts.

In its initial form, marathi theatre groups in south india (outside maharashtra) were invited. The response in those days was okay and occasionally bad as not many outside entries used to come. In those days, local entries dominated this competition. Maharashtra MandaL trust then reworked the concept and opened the competition to more location. They chose few organizations which have good reputation from the south maharashtra and invited them for the first time, 2 years ago. Since then, the response has been tremendous. Year over year, the number of groups interested in this competition is increasing and the existing groups are putting up more number of plays compared to their previous year.

Last year, total 16 groups performed at rangadakshiNi and this year the number of entries has increased to 26. MandaL eventually decided to reject some of them and finally this year will feature 20 ekaankikas (one act plays) at the competition. This is huge. Number of entries from places like latur, sangali, kolhapur has increased in number. The energy these teams bring in to the competition is really fascinating. The competition has given these teams a great opportunity to display their talent outside their town and it has created a great platform to bring theatre enthusiasts together with the best of innovative ideas. I think this is an immense drive for people to put up something against a good competition.

I belong to a local group in bengalooru, called YUVA, who is defending the title this year. Unfortunately, I am going to miss this action and really feeling bad about it. :(

I wish 'All the Best' to all the participant groups and the organizers and I am sure that the event will take place in the best of spirits.

Finally, I think, no matter who wins the competition, the rangadakshini concept is already a big winner!