Soaking in the arts in Colombo and Kerala

Kumbi Kathawa
Madilukal

Ottamtullal

Kathakali

I have been away from this space for long, but I have been using this time constructively.

Some of the cultural extravaganaza's I enjoyed in the last 2 months include Kumbi Kathawa or "the ant tale" - a Sinhalese musical performed by the Chitrasena Vajra Dance Foundation which through a children's story attempts to send out a message of mutual tolerance and forgiveness and sharing - powerful stuff; My first ever kathakali performance - 'narakasura vadham' organized by Margi in Trivandrum - another gripping performance; An Ottamtulal performance, which is a lesser known ancient dance form from Kerala which in laced with a sense of humour (just the way i like it) and a malayalam natakam (play), written by late Mr. Vaikom Basheer, a famous playwright known for fiercely sticking to his natural conversational style of writing. The nadakam I saw is called Madilugal (walls) - hair raising story and performance.

Good fun! At the end of it all, my knowledge of malayalam has been raised by a few notches and my appreciation for kerala art forms re-instilled. The sinhalese play too was a pleasant revelation.

Thank you Mahatma Gandhi

Mankind has a lot to thank Mahatama Gandhi but I have my own, special reason to thank him for.

In 2000, I won a couple of beauty pageant titles. Miss Chennai being the grandest of them all.

Would you believe it if I told you that Mahatma Gandhi had a role to play in my first ever win of a beauty contest?

Well, those were the days when the notorious bandit Veerappan was still alive and causing havoc in the areas in and around the forests of Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka. 2000 was the year he had kidnapped Kannada actor, Dr. Rajkumar.

When the local beauty pageant, Miss Adayar was being held in Chennai, the actor was still being held hostage somewhere in the dense forests where Veerapan had established his lair.

The question posed to me was ,"f you were sent, by the government, as a mercenary to Veerapan's camp in an attempt to free RajKumar, how would you go about it?"

A little heavy for a mere beauty pageant contestant, don't you think? But luckily for me, the answer came to me in a flash, thanks to my father's ideologies which shaped my thinking.

"I would take it as an oportunity to try out Gandhi Ji methods of truth, non-violence and fearlessness"

I won Miss Adayar that day, enabling me to participate in the Miss Chennai contest the following month and winning that too.

Today, 9 years since, I still believe that adopting Gandhian ideologies is the best way to bring about reform in the minds of people and society.

And on his birthday, as I sit and watch documentaries and movies made on him, trying to re-live the life and times of the Mahatma, I smile thinking about how his teachings made a difference to my life in ways both trivial and large.

Surprise in the sky

Few days ago, I woke from an afternoon siesta. I yawned and stretched and thought to myself, "that was a nice nap". It was thanks to the sound of the falling rain that had lulled me to sleep. I stepped out into the balcony to get a glimpse of the rain-washed outside. I wanted to see the glossy roads, the dripping tiled roofs, the clean trees, a clear sky, perhaps with a few puffs of clouds hear and there.

But i was in for a delightful surprise! For this is what I saw.

My views on terrorism

A misunderstanding has been reported from certain quarters about my views on terrorism. I "seem" to justify Islamic terrorism in India, but also condemn LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka. This post is for those who may be interested in understanding my views better.

When I acknowledge the possible causes of terrorist activity, it does not mean that I justify it. I condemn violence. I do not approve of it no matter what the causes.

To avoid spurring terrorism it is necessary to have a clear understanding of why terrorists resort to terrorism. Only then can we avoid making mistakes whilst tackling it.

I disapprove of the majority community in a nation demanding or actively working towards establishing superiority because this makes minority groups insecure and possibly react in a rash manner. Meanwhile, I also disapprove of terrorists resorting to violence to get their way. I believe that violence can never lead to anything constructive.

So, whose side am I on. you ask? Well, I am not taking sides.

If I am talking to the terrorist, I say to him, "I think your methods are flawed"

If I am talking to the majority community in a nation, I say to them, "I think you must refrain from subjugating minority communities. it could cause them to flare up"

Do you find me confusing?

Idiom popularity poll

Situated on the right is a poll that I am conducting, purely out of personal curiosity. Please be honest. In any case, I won't know who selected what. I will only know the percentage of people that select the various options.

Thanks for helping.

After voting, you can find more such cat-related idioms and find their meanings here.

Enjoy!

Man on the Moon

Forty years have passed since that historic event. Made me think of this song by R.E.M. Had never really paid attention to the rest of the lyrics. All that got registered was this line:

"if you believe, they put a man on the moon"

I had only heard the song at pubs and discos. The radio perhaps.

So today I decided to listen to it properly on Youtube. I found this video which aptly has clips of man first setting foot on the moon.

I also read up the lyrics but honestly failed to understand it. I just get this line and think it's a lovely line. However, I read about the song on wikipedia and chanced upon some interesting facts about what the song really means. You too can read about it here.

Meanwhile, enjoy the song!

"ABVP + let off" on google search

It's alarming, how ABVP, the student wing of the BJP go on carrying out criminal offenses and then get let off, free of charge.

I wanted to specifically read about the latest case in which 6 ABVP students were "let off" free of charge, 3 years after they were caught on camera, beating up this old man. i was surprised to come across a whole page of news items in which ABVP activists were "later let off".

The nation saw what happened on TV with regard to the murder of this Professor. But like Varun Gandhi's recent hate speech, that video too might have been doctored. However these expert video-doctors were not able to 'doctor' some evidence to be able to have these students punished.

Sure they were let off. But that does not change the truth. The truth is well known to the judge who said "the prosecution failed miserably". The truth is not hidden from the general public worldwide.

I hope the BJP soon realises that 'divisive politics' is an outdated concept. They will just have to bring about a change in their DNA if they want to save themselves from extinction. But most importantly, they need to learn to respect the mobile phone camera. Manipulation of the truth is no longer child's play. Case in point: Varun Gandhi's hate speech. People in Pilibhit were mighty impressed. So far so good. But what they didn't see coming was how the whole nation (and the whole world) stood gasping at his and the BJPs audacity. That is something new and they were totally ill-prepared to handle it.