Showing posts with label Live Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Live Music. Show all posts
4
I might’ve been dead all this while. If one were to judge by
the frequency of my posts, then I ceased to exist long back.
I suppose moving to any new city’d include a bit of getting
depressed and that’s what the last post was all about. When I moved to Guwahati
for a year, I still was in depression, albeit for a really short time. Maybe
that was because I went there with 3 other friends from the pind and we pretty
much spent most of our time haunting the spaces around each other. Or maybe my
pumped out expectations made the move to Delhi a bit more depressing at the
starting. With the fading summer, the depression is going away too.
At the starting of this year, which seems a lifetime away
now, two very different free concerts happened; Anoushka Shankar and The Orphan
Land. The thing with free (good) concerts is exactly the same as finding money
inside pockets you’ve not washed for months. A month back, The YP Foundation
celebrated their 10th anniversary and The Raghu Dixit Project was
called in to provide it with the befitting finale. Supposedly Them Clones
performed the night before TRDP’s concert, which I missed because of my
ignorance of them playing there, thank you. If the pre-concert shared joint
with the room mate and the random autowallah and the architecture of the India
Habitat Centre were not things awesome enough, then the sudden meeting with Raghu
Dixit and the free plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings at the All-American Diner certainly
were. Yes, we were hungry and broke enough to accept the wings from the
casually-rich-laid-back-guy sitting on the stool beside us. If you’re reading
this, thank you random kind hearted, much deep pocketed bearded person. Also I
failed to recognise Shankar Tucker in the diner, which is a shame considering
the number of hours spent on his Youtube videos. About the diner, it was so sexy but so expensive that I won't be visiting it again.
Raghu Dixit is one class act and more definitely than not
one of the most iconic figures in the country’s Indie music scene. The way he
interacts with the audience, mashAllah. Also that was their first concert in
India after a string of concerts in the videsh, so we got to hear a lot of
songs from their second album the first in all of India. Yay, bitches.
Now something about The YP Foundation. They’re the country’s
biggest youth based Non-profit organisation and they’ve done hundreds of
projects throughout India. Started in 2002 after the Gujarat riots landed up
the then 17 year old founder in a state both helpless and confused, it has now
become one of the most active youth fronts in India. The people involved with
YP’re the more awesome persons of NCR and they sure know how to party hard
after working their asses off. Also, all of their meetings seem to happen in the
hep areas of the likes of Hauz Khas and Khan Market and yes, that surely earned
them many brownie points from me (yep, very shallow of me).
The bad, bad thing about working for YP is the military-like
time commitment. The volunteership seemed designed for people from or around
Delhi only. Which, honestly, is needed for the training for the roles of peer
mentors, but isn’t a 11 month commitment a bit too much when the volunteer base
is 99.99% college students, all of whom seem to be from Delhi University, and you’ve to figure in days off for exams, pre-exam preparations, post-exam hangovers, trips back home (for out-station students, hint: me)? Even though
I’d’ve loved to work with YP in general and their ‘Know Your Body, Know Your
Right’ campaign in particular, all my prior commitments and future engagements
(Merlin, I talk like a DU Angrezi teacher) would’ve made it impossible. (I hope
someone from YP googles ‘YP Foundation’ and reads this.)
Khan Market and Hauz Khas, the merry ground of all people
rich and happening in Delhi, ARE SO FUCKING AWESOME THAT I’VE TO TALK WITH CAPS
LOCK ON. While Hauz Khas seems more young and ‘rebellious’, with its dingy
lanes filled with designer boutiques and graphiti, Khan Market seems more
‘mature’ with all the re-re-refined elegance. While dining out in Haus Khaz is
still an attainable exercise (non-sponsored recco: Thadi), Khan Market has an
invisible ‘only for the Tatas and Birlas’ tag everywhere. Which, of course, did not stop me
from emptying my wallet over goodies at L‘Opera Patisserie. Macaroons, hello. Bread
pudding, hello. College Fund, bye.
The other place which seemed interesting was Majnu ka Tila,
which I somehow always twist to ‘Manju ka Lila’, which is where I had my first
bite of beef. I and my constant companion in crime in Delhi, Monsoon Chronicler, got over excited and ordered everything with beef in it. And butter
tea, for Majnu ka Tila is a proper Tibetan settlement, complete with the
beautiful prayer flags and Tibetan markets and board signs and everything. Let
it suffice with the sentence that I did not like it. As for the beef itself, it was
yummy but over rated. Mutton is a zillion times better. The record stands as
below:
Mutton>Beef>Chicken>Fish
The ‘illegal’ tribes of meat shall remain undisclosed.
The best thing about coming to Delhi University has been the
societies and all the frequent talks that keep on happening in the different
colleges. The Literary Society; Grubstreet, The Film Society, The Gender Forum;
Parivartan. These’re the ones I associate with as of yet. The Fresher Talent Show
and the short film we’re making for that keeps one busy the whole day long. The
Film Society’s focusing on Iranian cinema as of now and the Gender Forum is one
kick ass place. The Amazing Gautam-Bhan Man gave a great talk on Queer Politics in Ramjas,
which has turned out to be my second college in North Campus, what with my
French classes and Monsoon Chronicler studying there. D School and Law Fac have
become the best place to argue with Chronicler over the most mundane things with
a glass of iced tea in hand. And for most days, my breakfast and lunch becomes
the one 30 rupai wali Snickers. And the Daryaganj Sunday Book Bazaar the new
paradise (though not so in the first few minutes of getting drenched in the heavy rains and walking in road-meets-drain waters). Imagine buying gorgeous, vintage, hard bound editions of Hugo for Rs
30! Aiyo!
DU had its elections recently and man, it had all the anticipated rowdy North Campus political gundagardi. Smashed buses, bandhs, students being forced to vacate the college, booze for votes for hostellers (discriminating), disrupted classes, gang fights, girl getting molested. All of the drama. Even though 'Dil, Dosti Etc' was set in the DU political sphere, for me, the student politics in 'Gulaal' was a better representative.
Anyway, the University Delhi Ibsen Festival is going on right now and I got to see three plays out of the five; Lady From The Sea - The School of Art & Aesthetics, JNU, Jai Jawan Party - Ramjas, An Enemy of The People - St. Stephens. While I loved the first two, I found the Stephens play to be very disengaging. The lighting was fabulous, as were the video clips they used. And few of the actors, especially the guy who played the drunkard who appeared in between scenes every now and then, were very impressing too. But as a whole, the play fell flat.
The plays were so differently adapted that it's difficult to say, strictly on the basis of the plays, that they were by the same playwright. I guess it says both of the complexities of Ibsen's plays and the drama societies. While JNU's adaptation of 'Lady From The Sea', my favourite of the three, was aesthetically the most impressive, and the background score and the way that it was used rolled the dice in their favour early on. The costumes, the lighting, the props, the ending scene. While all of the actors got their nuances right, the one who played Ellida was the show stealer. The way she portrayed Ellida's anguish, her, apparently, loosing her mind, her dilemma was simply superb. The actress playing Bolette was another stunner. And the later use of Tamil and Meitei was rather interesting. This one was pure poetry.
'Jai Jawan Party', Ramjas' adaptation of 'The League of Youth', was as colloquial as 'Lady From The Sea' was 'classical'. The actors interchanged their roles at each new scene and the way to know which actor was playing which character was the characterisation and the costumes. The way the costumes were pinned up at the back of the stage and the actors changing clothes on stage with the lights dimmed down, was rather interesting. The play was great and the actors commendable. And after The Players, I see Shunya as the best DramSoc in DU.
Also, thank you Delhi for providing my eyes with the eye candies that you seemed to've in store in galore.
New obsession: Peekaboo from Karsh Kale's episode of Coke Studio at MTV season 2.
.jpg)
Anyway, the University Delhi Ibsen Festival is going on right now and I got to see three plays out of the five; Lady From The Sea - The School of Art & Aesthetics, JNU, Jai Jawan Party - Ramjas, An Enemy of The People - St. Stephens. While I loved the first two, I found the Stephens play to be very disengaging. The lighting was fabulous, as were the video clips they used. And few of the actors, especially the guy who played the drunkard who appeared in between scenes every now and then, were very impressing too. But as a whole, the play fell flat.
The plays were so differently adapted that it's difficult to say, strictly on the basis of the plays, that they were by the same playwright. I guess it says both of the complexities of Ibsen's plays and the drama societies. While JNU's adaptation of 'Lady From The Sea', my favourite of the three, was aesthetically the most impressive, and the background score and the way that it was used rolled the dice in their favour early on. The costumes, the lighting, the props, the ending scene. While all of the actors got their nuances right, the one who played Ellida was the show stealer. The way she portrayed Ellida's anguish, her, apparently, loosing her mind, her dilemma was simply superb. The actress playing Bolette was another stunner. And the later use of Tamil and Meitei was rather interesting. This one was pure poetry.
'Jai Jawan Party', Ramjas' adaptation of 'The League of Youth', was as colloquial as 'Lady From The Sea' was 'classical'. The actors interchanged their roles at each new scene and the way to know which actor was playing which character was the characterisation and the costumes. The way the costumes were pinned up at the back of the stage and the actors changing clothes on stage with the lights dimmed down, was rather interesting. The play was great and the actors commendable. And after The Players, I see Shunya as the best DramSoc in DU.
Also, thank you Delhi for providing my eyes with the eye candies that you seemed to've in store in galore.
New obsession: Peekaboo from Karsh Kale's episode of Coke Studio at MTV season 2.
.jpg)
0
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.
