Found: There's No Place Like Rome.
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I have a holiday in Rome coming up, so I'm sharing all the places I can't
wait to see, shop, and, of course, eat. My annotated map included!
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It's been quite a while since I last posted anything here. We can blame it on my oh-so-(non existent)-busy schedule. But then, since a bit of honest goes a long way (I hope it does), let my ever present procrastination be blamed. Having covered that part, let's move on.
It is a new year, so a happy very very belated new year. It might be 2012, but my mental calendar is still set at 2011. 2011 was a very very important year to me. Moved out of my nest, made new friends, re-discovered old ones in new lights, learnt that sometimes letting go is the only way and that sometimes, letting go is less important and more impossible. The timing of this post is very funny too, I'm ending my almost-year-long stay in Guwahati in literally a couple of days. Guwahati is a nice place to be in and has given me a lot of memories. Some of them'll last a lifetime.
Coming from a smalltown in a remote region of the country, live concerts've not been the most frequent presence in my life. The only one I remember attending before coming to Guwahati was a concert by Jal a few years back, where they sang their version of Vital Signs' cult anthem 'Dil Dil Pakistan', making it 'Dil Dil Pakistan, Jaan Jaan Hindustan' before it caused too much controversy in Pakistan and became too life threatening for them to sing anymore. Many more came, but none that I was interested in awfully. So the second live concert that I ever attended was Anoushka Shankar's at IIT Guwahati's 4 day long fest, Alcheringa. And to say that it was amazing'd be an understatement. I was always interested in World Music, but experiencing it live was another thing altogether! The lady singing with her in Spanish was so amazing, so were the accompanists with their instruments. An amazing night, it'd be remembered as. The evening after the next, a battle of bands happened and the sheer awesomeness of the bands from all over the country playing there was too much to describe that I'd let it pass. A friend almost lost his head head-banging. Another highlight'd be open partaking of...ah, *cough* grassweedtreeleavesseeds *cough* something on the institute campus, but that's for later.
The Quaff Theatre Group
On the evening of the last day, Quaff theatre group staged their awesome play-within-play play, 'The Real Inspector Hound' based on the play by multiple Tony and Oscar winning playwright, Tom Stoppard.
It was there I had my first 'oww-mai-Gawd-that's-a-Bollywood-isstar' moment, unless you think watching Mukesh Khanna blackmail kids to blackmail their parents to vote for Congress'd qualify for that, but then he was just Shaktiman and the coolest velvet wearing superhero ever. Like my previous long sentence may infer, I was very excited by it (poor my small-town self) and I should be, that was one of my most favourite actresses, Kalki Koechlin. The guy who played game addict Zubin Shroff in Shaitan, the ex Channel V VJ, Neil Bhoopalam was in the play too. I'm no high-brow theatre reviewer, unlike 2 of the characters in the play, so let it suffice that it was a riot, in a good short of way. The auditorium was full, which was a suprise considering what someone said, Art is not for the masses and all that. But that could also be accredited to the sultry Kalki Koechlin and her multiple onstage kisses. It was also around this time that I learnt the valuable life lesson of watching where you're seating but we won't be elaborating on that because of some painful memories of the blogger related to that. :|
Orphaned Land at Alcheringa. Hail my mobile phone camera.
Moving on, the closing act of the fest was Israel's top progressive-rock band, Orphaned Land. Steven Wilson is their producer, so obviously they had to be great. Which they were. Just that I found Anoushka Shankar far more entertaining and given a choice, I'd choose to watch her play again instead. But nonetheless, they rocked. I think I was going there with Porcupine Tree in my head and so boo to my unrealistically high expectations. The one track that I loved the most, pardon my not knowing the name, began with a traditional middle eastern stringed instrument. It was exotic and it was metal. Go youtube now!
The other thing that passed recently, well almost recently, was Republic Day. Now, in the calendar of an average patriotic Indian, it figures directly after Indo-Pak cricket matches, 'Lagaan' reruns on the TV and Independence Day in necessarily that order. Which was odd here in Guwahati because THE CITY WAS DEAD. We in the Southern Assam always used to hear about how on every Independence Day and Republic Day, all those myriad insurgent groups having all the abbreviated names in the world ban the said days in Northern Assam, especially Guwahati but to experience it first hand was strange. Partly because Independence/Republic Day have been permanently etched on my head with garish dances numbers on those same 5 or 6 'patriotic' songs (Rang De Basanti, Vande Mataram, Des Rangila et al) and people going about the town shouting out their love for the motherland and generally irritating my eardrums. This time, the roads were empeetee. And not because the people of Assam want secession from the Union of India and all that shit ULFA'd like you to believe. It'd because people fear being blown up by bombs by brother ULFA, even though the last bombing happened years back and ULFA is presently dying the slow death it deserves. The people of Assam, along with most of other Northeastern Indians, would very much like to belong to India only, thank you. I guess the psychological scars'd take years to heal. By night though everything was fine and people were again being their dress-like-a-catalogue-model self that most people here're and going for the late night show of 'Agneepath' (which was awesome in the 70s revenge movie way I must say, with two exclamatory marks!!).
Apart from that, nothing remotely exciting happened. At the time of typing this, the blogger'd just come back from the cheap 50 bucks morning show of 'Ek Main Aur Ek Tu' in the multiplex nearby. Detailed criticism and appreciation may follow later, but let it be a review enough for now that it's not a copy of 'What Happens In Vegas' AT ALL and I'd suggest you to watch this in the cinemas only if 1) You've a cheap Rs. 50/100 show option or 2) You're looking forward to spending some mushy quality time with your boy/girlfriend on the Valentine's Eve. The ending is not of a typical rom-com's, thank God for that, and at times it reminded me of '500 Days Of Summer', though not half as good. Not a bad movie at all. I'm just bummed that 'The Woman In Black' didn't release here. Very bummed. Also the fact that within a few days, there'd be no multiplex in the 300 kms radius around me is also positively daunting. This blogpost is already longer than necessary, so I'd take my bummed and daunting thoughts offline, while leaving you with the happiest-sounding song on my playlist. Hopefully the next post'd be soon. And then, I'd've long since left Guwahati.
The Passenger - Iggy Pop
PS: I know my small town hometown sounds like it's the monastary in Tawang on a mountain with tropical jungles around it, but it's not so bad really.
PS2: <3 you, Silchar, despite your short comings. I guess, that's true luuuuve.
It is a new year, so a happy very very belated new year. It might be 2012, but my mental calendar is still set at 2011. 2011 was a very very important year to me. Moved out of my nest, made new friends, re-discovered old ones in new lights, learnt that sometimes letting go is the only way and that sometimes, letting go is less important and more impossible. The timing of this post is very funny too, I'm ending my almost-year-long stay in Guwahati in literally a couple of days. Guwahati is a nice place to be in and has given me a lot of memories. Some of them'll last a lifetime.
Coming from a smalltown in a remote region of the country, live concerts've not been the most frequent presence in my life. The only one I remember attending before coming to Guwahati was a concert by Jal a few years back, where they sang their version of Vital Signs' cult anthem 'Dil Dil Pakistan', making it 'Dil Dil Pakistan, Jaan Jaan Hindustan' before it caused too much controversy in Pakistan and became too life threatening for them to sing anymore. Many more came, but none that I was interested in awfully. So the second live concert that I ever attended was Anoushka Shankar's at IIT Guwahati's 4 day long fest, Alcheringa. And to say that it was amazing'd be an understatement. I was always interested in World Music, but experiencing it live was another thing altogether! The lady singing with her in Spanish was so amazing, so were the accompanists with their instruments. An amazing night, it'd be remembered as. The evening after the next, a battle of bands happened and the sheer awesomeness of the bands from all over the country playing there was too much to describe that I'd let it pass. A friend almost lost his head head-banging. Another highlight'd be open partaking of...ah, *cough* grassweedtreeleavesseeds *cough* something on the institute campus, but that's for later.
On the evening of the last day, Quaff theatre group staged their awesome play-within-play play, 'The Real Inspector Hound' based on the play by multiple Tony and Oscar winning playwright, Tom Stoppard.
It was there I had my first 'oww-mai-Gawd-that's-a-Bollywood-isstar' moment, unless you think watching Mukesh Khanna blackmail kids to blackmail their parents to vote for Congress'd qualify for that, but then he was just Shaktiman and the coolest velvet wearing superhero ever. Like my previous long sentence may infer, I was very excited by it (poor my small-town self) and I should be, that was one of my most favourite actresses, Kalki Koechlin. The guy who played game addict Zubin Shroff in Shaitan, the ex Channel V VJ, Neil Bhoopalam was in the play too. I'm no high-brow theatre reviewer, unlike 2 of the characters in the play, so let it suffice that it was a riot, in a good short of way. The auditorium was full, which was a suprise considering what someone said, Art is not for the masses and all that. But that could also be accredited to the sultry Kalki Koechlin and her multiple onstage kisses. It was also around this time that I learnt the valuable life lesson of watching where you're seating but we won't be elaborating on that because of some painful memories of the blogger related to that. :|
Moving on, the closing act of the fest was Israel's top progressive-rock band, Orphaned Land. Steven Wilson is their producer, so obviously they had to be great. Which they were. Just that I found Anoushka Shankar far more entertaining and given a choice, I'd choose to watch her play again instead. But nonetheless, they rocked. I think I was going there with Porcupine Tree in my head and so boo to my unrealistically high expectations. The one track that I loved the most, pardon my not knowing the name, began with a traditional middle eastern stringed instrument. It was exotic and it was metal. Go youtube now!
The other thing that passed recently, well almost recently, was Republic Day. Now, in the calendar of an average patriotic Indian, it figures directly after Indo-Pak cricket matches, 'Lagaan' reruns on the TV and Independence Day in necessarily that order. Which was odd here in Guwahati because THE CITY WAS DEAD. We in the Southern Assam always used to hear about how on every Independence Day and Republic Day, all those myriad insurgent groups having all the abbreviated names in the world ban the said days in Northern Assam, especially Guwahati but to experience it first hand was strange. Partly because Independence/Republic Day have been permanently etched on my head with garish dances numbers on those same 5 or 6 'patriotic' songs (Rang De Basanti, Vande Mataram, Des Rangila et al) and people going about the town shouting out their love for the motherland and generally irritating my eardrums. This time, the roads were empeetee. And not because the people of Assam want secession from the Union of India and all that shit ULFA'd like you to believe. It'd because people fear being blown up by bombs by brother ULFA, even though the last bombing happened years back and ULFA is presently dying the slow death it deserves. The people of Assam, along with most of other Northeastern Indians, would very much like to belong to India only, thank you. I guess the psychological scars'd take years to heal. By night though everything was fine and people were again being their dress-like-a-catalogue-model self that most people here're and going for the late night show of 'Agneepath' (which was awesome in the 70s revenge movie way I must say, with two exclamatory marks!!).
Apart from that, nothing remotely exciting happened. At the time of typing this, the blogger'd just come back from the cheap 50 bucks morning show of 'Ek Main Aur Ek Tu' in the multiplex nearby. Detailed criticism and appreciation may follow later, but let it be a review enough for now that it's not a copy of 'What Happens In Vegas' AT ALL and I'd suggest you to watch this in the cinemas only if 1) You've a cheap Rs. 50/100 show option or 2) You're looking forward to spending some mushy quality time with your boy/girlfriend on the Valentine's Eve. The ending is not of a typical rom-com's, thank God for that, and at times it reminded me of '500 Days Of Summer', though not half as good. Not a bad movie at all. I'm just bummed that 'The Woman In Black' didn't release here. Very bummed. Also the fact that within a few days, there'd be no multiplex in the 300 kms radius around me is also positively daunting. This blogpost is already longer than necessary, so I'd take my bummed and daunting thoughts offline, while leaving you with the happiest-sounding song on my playlist. Hopefully the next post'd be soon. And then, I'd've long since left Guwahati.
The Passenger - Iggy Pop
PS: I know my small town hometown sounds like it's the monastary in Tawang on a mountain with tropical jungles around it, but it's not so bad really.
PS2: <3 you, Silchar, despite your short comings. I guess, that's true luuuuve.
