Found a lovely store for Japanese ingredients (mirin, sushi rice, sushi and sashimi grade fish etc) in Delhi. Yamato-ya are at least 20% cheaper than Nature's Basket and INA market.
Their branch in Delhi is at
B-6/9 Local Commercial Complex
Safdarjung Enclave
New Delhi 110029
Tel: 41650164 / 65
They have a branch in Gurgaon too. Here's the address:
Yamato-ya
SCO 19, HUDA Market
Sector 56
Gurgaon 122 011
Tel 0124- 4238377
I have only been to the Delhi branch and its pretty easy to navigate if you have the time and patience. Items are labelled in English on the shelves on which they are placed. The staff is also very helpful and there is someone who can speak English, Hindi and Japanese around at all times.
If you can't read Japanese, make sure the jar/bottle you buy, has a note on it in English as to what it is. Else you may reach home to find them unlabelled and wondering between the mirin and sake
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Visiting the Akshardham Temple, Delhi
The Akshardham Temple in Delhi is fast becoming a must-do on the itinerary of tourists to Delhi. While the spiritually inclined, visit for obvious reasons, the complex is well organised enough to make it a must visit for the foreign tourist or even someone unfamiliar with Hinduism and its traditions.
The Akshardham Temple has been designed to epitomise 10,000years of Indian Culture. This 100 acre sprawling facility was constucted in 5 years with 11,000 artisans and volunteers.
The Akshardham temple is quite serious about security, so if you plan to visit, do note that the only things you are allowed to carry inside other than the clothes you are wearing (cap/shawl/sweater, reading glasses, cooling glasses/shoes are all ok - knees need to be covered) the only things you CAN carry with you are your wallet (not purse) and house/vehicle keys. No food items, no mobile phones, no flowers, pen, paper etc. Leave all these behind in your vehicle and you will be able to avoid the queue to deposit and retrieve these "non-permitted items" at the cloakroom.
The temple sees 1000's of visitors daily, so the more queues you can avoid, the smoother your experience will be. Especially given how a majority of my country men and women seem incapable of understanding the concept of a queue.
When I visited the temple in Summer the visitors were minimal. In the peak of winter, we returned from the gate twice, just because the crowds assembled outside did not seem like the effort was worth it. This Tuesday, we shared the entry queue with at least 6000 school children who were visiting on school tours. The trust does its best to make queues move smoothly, but the sheer numbers involved can make entry very frustrating.We witnessed at least 2 people having long drawn out arguments with the body pat-down checkers "Why can't I take my phone with me? It will take too long for me to go back and deposit it at the cloak room or the vehicle"
There is a queue to enter the security queue. This first queue is to manage the crowd before they reach the security queuing area. If you have something to leave behind in the cloak room, then get into that queue before you come to this.
There are 2 physical pat downs following the security queue which are very thorough. But once you get past this, then things get much better.
Someone mentioned that you can bring in one transparent clear bottle of water. But there are enough free taps and Coke's Bon Aqua (15Rs for a liter) on sale to just ignore the hassle of carrying a bottle through security.
You enter past the 10 Gates and the Bhakti Dwar- decorated with 208 sculpted forms of God and his devotee - into a large and comfortable room. If you would like to pick up a basic guide to what you are going to see - brochures are available in multiple Indian and foreign languages for 5Rs.
On the other side of this building are 2 beautiful Mayur(peacock)Dwars with 869 scultped peacocks each. Between these 2 dwars is a little pond which bear the resemblance of the Holy footprints of Bhagwan Swaminarayan with its 16 chinh (sacred signs of God).
Turn left towards the Bharat Upvan - 22 acres of sculpted gardens with bronze statues of Child heroes of India, Patriots of India and Great Men & Women of India. The Sun Chariot and moon chariot are supposed to be the most beautiful, but seem to be missing for the last few months.The garden itself is very tranquil and a wonderful place for quiet contemplation.
Walk back towards the Mayur Dwar and on the left you will see a ticket counter for the 3 shows in the complex. If you want to see any of them, you need to buy the combined ticket which is 170 for adults, 125 for senior citizens and 100 for children.
As you start to walk towards the 3 exhibitions, you will come across a photographer who will take a picture for you with the temple in the background and provide you with an 8*12 print after half an hour for 130Rs (upto 6 people in a photogrpah). There is another photographer at the diagonal opposite behind the mandir, but I prefer this front view of the mandir.
Then proceed to view the shows. You will have to queue up outside each venue in turn.There are refreshment stands and washrooms at entry and exit of each of these exhibitions
I would personally recommend skipping the first show - the Sahajanand Darshan/ Hall of Values - the Animatronic show. The story is covered better in the film show. My experience of the ANimatornic show in the middle of Summer with minimal crowds was bad enough, that I wouldn't even suggest it during peak times. The problem is that the 50 minute show is spread across at least 20 different rooms with an entry and exit. And the majority of the people in the group will be pushing, prodding and pulling to be the first to leave, get the BEST seats etc etc. Its not worth the hassle, ensuing irritation and physical pain of being trod on by clods.
The Neelkanth Darshan is a 40 minute film on an IMAX screen. This is a beautiful, well shot film on the life and travels (12,000km in 7 years on foot) of 11 year old child yogi Neelkanth Varni who later came to be known as Bhagwan Swaminarayan. If you have no idea about the person to whom this complex is dedicated - the movie is a must watch. It also has some stunnign cinematography.
Sanskruthi Vihar is a 15 minute boat ride through 10,000 years of Indian culture and 800 lifelike statues on the banks of the Saraswati.
As you walk out from here, you will cross the Yagnapurush Kund. In the evening (post sunset) there is a 15 minute Musical Fountain show here, based on the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahadev (Shiv), their roles and respective musical isntruments. The show costs 30Rs and tickets can be bought at the counter bordering the shoe deposit counter.
The Mandir itself is surrounded by the Narayan Sarovar on 3 sides. The Holy waters of 151 rivers, lakes and baolis (stepwells) visited by Neelkanth Varni have been ritually added to this Narayan Sarovar fringed by 108 gaumukhs. As you walk along the 2 storeyed Parikrama - colonnade bordering the Sarovar, you will come across the Abhishek Mandapam where you can ritually pour a water offerring on the murti of Neelkanth Varni.
After the Parikrama, Narayan Sarovar and Gaumukhs, you can then come inside to the next concentric walkway which is the exterior of the temple. The Gajendra Peeth is 1070 feet long along the exterior of the Mandir. It features 148 sculpted elephants in the themes of Elephants and Nature, Elephants and Man and Elephants and the Divine.
Before entering inside the main Mandir, you will have to leave your shoes outside at one of the 2 large counters designated for this purpose.The Mandir is stunningly beautiful and as well carved and intricate as the rest of this building complex. It is so beautiful and has so much detail that one can spend hours just lost in the intricacies of each element. Look up at the beautiful domes and samvarans (quadrangle pinnacles) In the centre of this mandir is the 11foot gold plated murti of Bhagwan Swaminrayan. The consecrated Gods inside this mandir are Shri Radha-Krishna, Shri Sita-Ram, Shri Lakshmi-Narayan and Shri Parvati-Shiv.
When you have absorbed as much as is humanly possible, step out and take a seat and let it all sink in. Once you collect your shoes, do remember to collect your photograph if you have got one clicked.
Head left outside the mandir and cross the Yogihriday Kamal - 8 petal lotus shaped garden and you will arrive at the Premvati Food Court (detailed review on my restaurant review blog). The food is definitely worth trying.
Since you can't take any pictures you may want to consider buying the 50Rs photographic souvenir of Akshardham at the Souvenir Shop. There are also pooja sets, agarbattis, religious books, ayurvedic medicines and other such items on sale at very reasonable prices.
Once you have picked up your souvenirs, you are done, but you may not be ready to leave the tranquility of Akshardham and re-enter the real world traffic of the Delhi-Noida crossing.
Timings:
April to September 10am - 7pm
October to March 9am-6pm
Monday Holiday
There is ample Parking Space. Parking fee is about 20Rs for a car.
Please Note: Photogrpahy is not permitted inside Akshardham - the picture used here is from http://www.akshardham.com Please click on the links above for more pictures.
The Akshardham Temple has been designed to epitomise 10,000years of Indian Culture. This 100 acre sprawling facility was constucted in 5 years with 11,000 artisans and volunteers.
The Akshardham temple is quite serious about security, so if you plan to visit, do note that the only things you are allowed to carry inside other than the clothes you are wearing (cap/shawl/sweater, reading glasses, cooling glasses/shoes are all ok - knees need to be covered) the only things you CAN carry with you are your wallet (not purse) and house/vehicle keys. No food items, no mobile phones, no flowers, pen, paper etc. Leave all these behind in your vehicle and you will be able to avoid the queue to deposit and retrieve these "non-permitted items" at the cloakroom.
The temple sees 1000's of visitors daily, so the more queues you can avoid, the smoother your experience will be. Especially given how a majority of my country men and women seem incapable of understanding the concept of a queue.
When I visited the temple in Summer the visitors were minimal. In the peak of winter, we returned from the gate twice, just because the crowds assembled outside did not seem like the effort was worth it. This Tuesday, we shared the entry queue with at least 6000 school children who were visiting on school tours. The trust does its best to make queues move smoothly, but the sheer numbers involved can make entry very frustrating.We witnessed at least 2 people having long drawn out arguments with the body pat-down checkers "Why can't I take my phone with me? It will take too long for me to go back and deposit it at the cloak room or the vehicle"
There is a queue to enter the security queue. This first queue is to manage the crowd before they reach the security queuing area. If you have something to leave behind in the cloak room, then get into that queue before you come to this.
There are 2 physical pat downs following the security queue which are very thorough. But once you get past this, then things get much better.
Someone mentioned that you can bring in one transparent clear bottle of water. But there are enough free taps and Coke's Bon Aqua (15Rs for a liter) on sale to just ignore the hassle of carrying a bottle through security.
You enter past the 10 Gates and the Bhakti Dwar- decorated with 208 sculpted forms of God and his devotee - into a large and comfortable room. If you would like to pick up a basic guide to what you are going to see - brochures are available in multiple Indian and foreign languages for 5Rs.
On the other side of this building are 2 beautiful Mayur(peacock)Dwars with 869 scultped peacocks each. Between these 2 dwars is a little pond which bear the resemblance of the Holy footprints of Bhagwan Swaminarayan with its 16 chinh (sacred signs of God).
Turn left towards the Bharat Upvan - 22 acres of sculpted gardens with bronze statues of Child heroes of India, Patriots of India and Great Men & Women of India. The Sun Chariot and moon chariot are supposed to be the most beautiful, but seem to be missing for the last few months.The garden itself is very tranquil and a wonderful place for quiet contemplation.
Walk back towards the Mayur Dwar and on the left you will see a ticket counter for the 3 shows in the complex. If you want to see any of them, you need to buy the combined ticket which is 170 for adults, 125 for senior citizens and 100 for children.
As you start to walk towards the 3 exhibitions, you will come across a photographer who will take a picture for you with the temple in the background and provide you with an 8*12 print after half an hour for 130Rs (upto 6 people in a photogrpah). There is another photographer at the diagonal opposite behind the mandir, but I prefer this front view of the mandir.
Then proceed to view the shows. You will have to queue up outside each venue in turn.There are refreshment stands and washrooms at entry and exit of each of these exhibitions
I would personally recommend skipping the first show - the Sahajanand Darshan/ Hall of Values - the Animatronic show. The story is covered better in the film show. My experience of the ANimatornic show in the middle of Summer with minimal crowds was bad enough, that I wouldn't even suggest it during peak times. The problem is that the 50 minute show is spread across at least 20 different rooms with an entry and exit. And the majority of the people in the group will be pushing, prodding and pulling to be the first to leave, get the BEST seats etc etc. Its not worth the hassle, ensuing irritation and physical pain of being trod on by clods.
The Neelkanth Darshan is a 40 minute film on an IMAX screen. This is a beautiful, well shot film on the life and travels (12,000km in 7 years on foot) of 11 year old child yogi Neelkanth Varni who later came to be known as Bhagwan Swaminarayan. If you have no idea about the person to whom this complex is dedicated - the movie is a must watch. It also has some stunnign cinematography.
Sanskruthi Vihar is a 15 minute boat ride through 10,000 years of Indian culture and 800 lifelike statues on the banks of the Saraswati.
As you walk out from here, you will cross the Yagnapurush Kund. In the evening (post sunset) there is a 15 minute Musical Fountain show here, based on the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahadev (Shiv), their roles and respective musical isntruments. The show costs 30Rs and tickets can be bought at the counter bordering the shoe deposit counter.
The Mandir itself is surrounded by the Narayan Sarovar on 3 sides. The Holy waters of 151 rivers, lakes and baolis (stepwells) visited by Neelkanth Varni have been ritually added to this Narayan Sarovar fringed by 108 gaumukhs. As you walk along the 2 storeyed Parikrama - colonnade bordering the Sarovar, you will come across the Abhishek Mandapam where you can ritually pour a water offerring on the murti of Neelkanth Varni.
After the Parikrama, Narayan Sarovar and Gaumukhs, you can then come inside to the next concentric walkway which is the exterior of the temple. The Gajendra Peeth is 1070 feet long along the exterior of the Mandir. It features 148 sculpted elephants in the themes of Elephants and Nature, Elephants and Man and Elephants and the Divine.
Before entering inside the main Mandir, you will have to leave your shoes outside at one of the 2 large counters designated for this purpose.The Mandir is stunningly beautiful and as well carved and intricate as the rest of this building complex. It is so beautiful and has so much detail that one can spend hours just lost in the intricacies of each element. Look up at the beautiful domes and samvarans (quadrangle pinnacles) In the centre of this mandir is the 11foot gold plated murti of Bhagwan Swaminrayan. The consecrated Gods inside this mandir are Shri Radha-Krishna, Shri Sita-Ram, Shri Lakshmi-Narayan and Shri Parvati-Shiv.
When you have absorbed as much as is humanly possible, step out and take a seat and let it all sink in. Once you collect your shoes, do remember to collect your photograph if you have got one clicked.
Head left outside the mandir and cross the Yogihriday Kamal - 8 petal lotus shaped garden and you will arrive at the Premvati Food Court (detailed review on my restaurant review blog). The food is definitely worth trying.
Since you can't take any pictures you may want to consider buying the 50Rs photographic souvenir of Akshardham at the Souvenir Shop. There are also pooja sets, agarbattis, religious books, ayurvedic medicines and other such items on sale at very reasonable prices.
Once you have picked up your souvenirs, you are done, but you may not be ready to leave the tranquility of Akshardham and re-enter the real world traffic of the Delhi-Noida crossing.
Timings:
April to September 10am - 7pm
October to March 9am-6pm
Monday Holiday
There is ample Parking Space. Parking fee is about 20Rs for a car.
Please Note: Photogrpahy is not permitted inside Akshardham - the picture used here is from http://www.akshardham.com Please click on the links above for more pictures.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sultana Daku - Gulab Nautanki Company, Kanpur
IHC's Bards and Minstrels Of India Series presented - Sultana Daku, a comic account of a dacoit on a mission by the Gulab Nautanki Company from Kanpur
The Gulab Nautanki Company was founded by Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki Theatre
. Nautanki is a folk theatre tradition peculiar to the North India region. Nautanki can be considered a precursor to Bollywood as entertainment for the masses. This particular production of Sultana Daku was directed by Madhu Agrawal, daughter of the legendary Gulab Bai.
The tale itself is quite straightforward - Sultana Daku is a desi Robin Hood who shares the wealth he steals from Zamindars with the poor. This also buys him their loyalty and makes it impossible for the Indian police to catch him. Mr Young a British detective/inspector visits the area charged with capturing Sultana Daku which leads to a cops & robber (chor police) chase.
For me this was my first experience watching Nautanki and I was quite fascinated for the most part. My inlaws who were with us have watched more performances and my Father-in-law had the privilege of watching Gulab Bai herself. According to him, in Nautanki the whole performance is sung and there is very little dialogue. This particular performance was split 50-50 across songs and dialogues.
When it started off, there was high energy, but this began to flag half way through. With hardly 45 people in the audience (unexpected rains and not enough promotion) it must have been a dampener for a cast used to larger audiences and continuous audience response.
The scene where one of the dakus on guard relays messages between a mysterious woman and Sultana Daku could have flowed better with a split stage rather than entire sets of characters walking on and off to change the scene setting every 3 minutes.
The script could have done with a little tighter editing and the episode with the zamindar and his daughter could have been avoided completely without losing track of the story.
Some performances were brilliant - The actor who played Sultana Daku for one and the person who played the bumbling policeman - was an absolute stand out.
There were some really funny dialogues and the script itself was quite amusing and entertaining. Just a little tighter editing would make this play completely outstanding.
The accompanying orchestra
The daku hideaway
Sultana Daku and his girlfriend - played by Madhu Agrawal
The guy who played the chaddi clad policeman was excellent!
Mr Young appears on the scene to begin his machinations against Sultana Daku
Sultana Daku and the Zamindars daughter
It would be great if IHC could give more coverage to these events before they happen, (poster on the notice board etc) so mpre people can attend and encourage our fast dying folk forms.
The Gulab Nautanki Company was founded by Gulab Bai: The Queen of Nautanki Theatre
. Nautanki is a folk theatre tradition peculiar to the North India region. Nautanki can be considered a precursor to Bollywood as entertainment for the masses. This particular production of Sultana Daku was directed by Madhu Agrawal, daughter of the legendary Gulab Bai.The tale itself is quite straightforward - Sultana Daku is a desi Robin Hood who shares the wealth he steals from Zamindars with the poor. This also buys him their loyalty and makes it impossible for the Indian police to catch him. Mr Young a British detective/inspector visits the area charged with capturing Sultana Daku which leads to a cops & robber (chor police) chase.
For me this was my first experience watching Nautanki and I was quite fascinated for the most part. My inlaws who were with us have watched more performances and my Father-in-law had the privilege of watching Gulab Bai herself. According to him, in Nautanki the whole performance is sung and there is very little dialogue. This particular performance was split 50-50 across songs and dialogues.
When it started off, there was high energy, but this began to flag half way through. With hardly 45 people in the audience (unexpected rains and not enough promotion) it must have been a dampener for a cast used to larger audiences and continuous audience response.
The scene where one of the dakus on guard relays messages between a mysterious woman and Sultana Daku could have flowed better with a split stage rather than entire sets of characters walking on and off to change the scene setting every 3 minutes.
The script could have done with a little tighter editing and the episode with the zamindar and his daughter could have been avoided completely without losing track of the story.
Some performances were brilliant - The actor who played Sultana Daku for one and the person who played the bumbling policeman - was an absolute stand out.
There were some really funny dialogues and the script itself was quite amusing and entertaining. Just a little tighter editing would make this play completely outstanding.
The accompanying orchestra
The daku hideaway
Sultana Daku and his girlfriend - played by Madhu Agrawal
The guy who played the chaddi clad policeman was excellent!
Mr Young appears on the scene to begin his machinations against Sultana Daku
Sultana Daku and the Zamindars daughter
Saturday, February 19, 2011
CEO Chefs Share-a-Smile Lunch - Genesis Foundation - Photo Essay
Genesis Foundation conducted its 7th CEO Chefs Share-a-Smile Lunch at Petal Garden, The Crowne Plaza Today, Gurgaon on the 29th of January.
Genesis Foundation is an NGO in India that raises funds for medical care of under privileged children who are critically ill.
There were 10 CEO chefs in attendance cooking a variety of cuisines ranging from Japanese and Malay to Indian chaat and flambeed crepes. While the CEO chefs were in charge of cooking one dish each, served up hot on the spot, the Crowne Plaza kitchen staff had put together a wonderful mini-buffet associated with each cuisine.
The food was excellent and our contributions were for a good cause, so it was a win-win situation all round. 7 children are hopefully ging to be treated with the 15lakhs collected at this event.
The pictures are way more evocative than any words that I could write so here they are:
The Grey Goose Bar
One of the cocktails specially created for the occasion.
Fresh Oyster in Bloody Mary shots
The Sushi Spread
Martin Jones, CEO, Marks & Spencer rustles up some salads.
Manu Anand, Chairman & CEO, PepsiCo India. mixed up some Laksa
Siraj Chaudhry, Chairman, Cargill India (P) Ltd and Antti Öhrling, Co-founder, BLYK Media India (P) Ltd were at the Chinese counter making spicy spinach and nut wonton stir fry and ginger fish
Sanjay Coutinho, CEO, Barista Coffee Company Ltd stuffed up some shawrmas with an array of Lebanese dips on the side.
Sashi Mukandan, CEO - BP Group Companies was in charge of the vegetarian kebabs and an interesting Benarasi chaat served in hollowed out tomatoes.
While, Vineesh Kochhar, CFO, DuPont India (P) Ltd took on the non-vegetarian kebabs
The Indian Buffet
The Dessert Station
An extremely apt spelling error :)
Aditya Ghosh, President of Indigo Airlines flambeeing Crepe Suzette with Grey Goose.
The Flambeed crepe suzette with chocolate
Genesis Foundation is an NGO in India that raises funds for medical care of under privileged children who are critically ill.
There were 10 CEO chefs in attendance cooking a variety of cuisines ranging from Japanese and Malay to Indian chaat and flambeed crepes. While the CEO chefs were in charge of cooking one dish each, served up hot on the spot, the Crowne Plaza kitchen staff had put together a wonderful mini-buffet associated with each cuisine.
The food was excellent and our contributions were for a good cause, so it was a win-win situation all round. 7 children are hopefully ging to be treated with the 15lakhs collected at this event.
The pictures are way more evocative than any words that I could write so here they are:
The Grey Goose Bar
One of the cocktails specially created for the occasion.
Fresh Oyster in Bloody Mary shots
The Sushi Spread
Martin Jones, CEO, Marks & Spencer rustles up some salads.
Siraj Chaudhry, Chairman, Cargill India (P) Ltd and Antti Öhrling, Co-founder, BLYK Media India (P) Ltd were at the Chinese counter making spicy spinach and nut wonton stir fry and ginger fish
Sanjay Coutinho, CEO, Barista Coffee Company Ltd stuffed up some shawrmas with an array of Lebanese dips on the side.
Sashi Mukandan, CEO - BP Group Companies was in charge of the vegetarian kebabs and an interesting Benarasi chaat served in hollowed out tomatoes.
While, Vineesh Kochhar, CFO, DuPont India (P) Ltd took on the non-vegetarian kebabs
The Indian Buffet
The Dessert Station
An extremely apt spelling error :)
Aditya Ghosh, President of Indigo Airlines flambeeing Crepe Suzette with Grey Goose.
The Flambeed crepe suzette with chocolate
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Little Big Tragedies - NSD Repertory - Ovlyakuli Khodjakuli
Aleksandr Pushkin - the 19th century author considered by many as Russia's greatest poet and the founder of modern Russian lierature. In the fall of 1830, he stayed on his farm in Boldino while recivering from Cholera. However, he was extremely prolific during this period and it is considered his most creative period.
The "Little Tragedies" were written in 2 weeks during this period. 4 thematically related one-act plays aimed at creating tragedy within the framework of an ideological artistic unity. Each of the main characters faces intense Inner conflict which then determines the plot and structure of the play. All four dramatic scenes are written in verse and can be considered compressed Chamber Dramas.
In Mozart and Salieri, Salieri is a hardworking, but not very creative student whose jealousy of Mozart's genius, drives him to murder Mozart. Don Juan in The Stone Guest lusts for Dona Anna, so he kills her husband and then tries to woo her. In The Feast During the Plague, a plague survivor struggles with the conflict between the loss of lives (which include his wife and mother) and to live his own life to the fullest. The Miserly Knight is a tale of conflict between a knight and his son with different but equally misguided ideas of honor.
Pushkin focuses on human passions and the interplay between free will and fate: though each protagonist could avoid self-ruin, he freely chooses it.
Ovlyakuli Khodjakuli, chose to dramatise the first 3 stories in his production of Little Big Tragedies with his cast of 10, chosen from NSD Repertory.
The set was extremely simple and was just a background, except in The Stone Guest, where it forms an intrinsic part of the story line and is almost a character itself.
Flowing robes in yellow, red and blue for costumes served as a visual cue to mark the change in stories.
The dialogues were very difficult for me to follow with my colloquial knowledge of Hindi. BB who understands Sanskrit and Urdu could follow about 60% of the dialogues. But the beauty of the play is that it did not require an understanding of the dialogue to be engrossed and moved by the performances.
Beautiful movement, wonderful acting and expressions, use of fabric, the music, the sound effects with simple implements on stage, all combined beautifully together. The script is long and can get heavy because of the poetry and subject. But This was a PERFORMANCE! Brilliant!
More Pictures and details on http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/tragedy.php
The "Little Tragedies" were written in 2 weeks during this period. 4 thematically related one-act plays aimed at creating tragedy within the framework of an ideological artistic unity. Each of the main characters faces intense Inner conflict which then determines the plot and structure of the play. All four dramatic scenes are written in verse and can be considered compressed Chamber Dramas.
In Mozart and Salieri, Salieri is a hardworking, but not very creative student whose jealousy of Mozart's genius, drives him to murder Mozart. Don Juan in The Stone Guest lusts for Dona Anna, so he kills her husband and then tries to woo her. In The Feast During the Plague, a plague survivor struggles with the conflict between the loss of lives (which include his wife and mother) and to live his own life to the fullest. The Miserly Knight is a tale of conflict between a knight and his son with different but equally misguided ideas of honor.
Pushkin focuses on human passions and the interplay between free will and fate: though each protagonist could avoid self-ruin, he freely chooses it.
Ovlyakuli Khodjakuli, chose to dramatise the first 3 stories in his production of Little Big Tragedies with his cast of 10, chosen from NSD Repertory.
The set was extremely simple and was just a background, except in The Stone Guest, where it forms an intrinsic part of the story line and is almost a character itself.
Flowing robes in yellow, red and blue for costumes served as a visual cue to mark the change in stories.
The dialogues were very difficult for me to follow with my colloquial knowledge of Hindi. BB who understands Sanskrit and Urdu could follow about 60% of the dialogues. But the beauty of the play is that it did not require an understanding of the dialogue to be engrossed and moved by the performances.
Beautiful movement, wonderful acting and expressions, use of fabric, the music, the sound effects with simple implements on stage, all combined beautifully together. The script is long and can get heavy because of the poetry and subject. But This was a PERFORMANCE! Brilliant!
More Pictures and details on http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/tragedy.php
The Butcher of Quietly - Actor Factor - Sunit Sinha
The invitation for the Butcher of Quietly introduced the play as A woman’s skull buried deep down in the dark pages of history. A secret investigation leads us to the first ever murder committed in cold blood in a jungle kingdom called Quietly. The play reflects on our current politics of indifference and power based on total ignorance of the social good. The Butcher of Quietly is at times poetic, at times rip-roaring funny, mostly theatrical, and quietly dark.
Sounded promising and since this was at 7pm at IHC and promised to be 75 mins long, I bought the tickets as I felt we had enough time to reach NSD to catch the 9:30pm show of Little Big Tragedies.
Most theater plays start on time or a maximum of a 5-10 minute delay in extenuating circumstances. We reached the Stein auditorium by 6:45pm. But we were all requested to continue to stand outside (guard politely declined permission for anyone to enter the auditorium premises) until "The Womb Ensemble" finished playing.
"The Womb Ensemble" is a noble initiative to bring pure sounds from around the planet on one stage and the musicians Shashwat Srivastava, Arnab Das and Vaishali Chakravarthy were good. But they kept playing until 7:10pm and the audience was forced to stand outside and shiver in the cold waiting for them to finish, so we could finally enter the Stein auditorium.
The play finally started at 7:25pm and by 7:35pm sections of the audience had already started walking out.
We stayed on hoping things would improve, but the script was weak, what were intended as jokes (urine and crap related with the jester sniffing butts and crotches) were crass and fell absolutely flat, the music was piercing and painful during what were supposed to be crescendos. Varoon Anand as Soola was the only decent performer, but even he couldn't do much with the dialogue that he was given.
Each dimming of lights, saw more people rushing to the exits and by the time 30 minutes had passed, half the audience had walked out and unfortunately we felt compelled to do the same. This is the first time, we have ever walked out halfway through a theater production.
This is a play that should never have been made.
First The Leela Tapes which was average and now this. I don't think we will be watching their productions anymore.
Sounded promising and since this was at 7pm at IHC and promised to be 75 mins long, I bought the tickets as I felt we had enough time to reach NSD to catch the 9:30pm show of Little Big Tragedies.
Most theater plays start on time or a maximum of a 5-10 minute delay in extenuating circumstances. We reached the Stein auditorium by 6:45pm. But we were all requested to continue to stand outside (guard politely declined permission for anyone to enter the auditorium premises) until "The Womb Ensemble" finished playing.
"The Womb Ensemble" is a noble initiative to bring pure sounds from around the planet on one stage and the musicians Shashwat Srivastava, Arnab Das and Vaishali Chakravarthy were good. But they kept playing until 7:10pm and the audience was forced to stand outside and shiver in the cold waiting for them to finish, so we could finally enter the Stein auditorium.
The play finally started at 7:25pm and by 7:35pm sections of the audience had already started walking out.
We stayed on hoping things would improve, but the script was weak, what were intended as jokes (urine and crap related with the jester sniffing butts and crotches) were crass and fell absolutely flat, the music was piercing and painful during what were supposed to be crescendos. Varoon Anand as Soola was the only decent performer, but even he couldn't do much with the dialogue that he was given.
Each dimming of lights, saw more people rushing to the exits and by the time 30 minutes had passed, half the audience had walked out and unfortunately we felt compelled to do the same. This is the first time, we have ever walked out halfway through a theater production.
This is a play that should never have been made.
First The Leela Tapes which was average and now this. I don't think we will be watching their productions anymore.
Friday, January 14, 2011
What Hapenned? The 80*81 Findings - Project by George Diez & Christopher Roth
George Diez & Christopher Roth called their production a "project" in the promos. This should have been an indication to the audience that this wasn't going to be a "regular" theatre production. But then audiences don't read the fine print very well, do they?
It was in the year 2010 that two researchers came up with the idea that the years 1980 and 1981 represented a major shift in world history, the Great Transition. The play is the representation of the findings of this research that Diez and Roth called 80*81.
This was the premise of what was presented on stage and what was presented on stage was a mind trip. A lot of the audience who couldn't figure out what was going on started walking out. There was one man in the audience who had a loud argument (louder than the performers voices) with an usher saying "Yeh kya bakwaas chal raha hain?"
The project used a variety of methods to present itself - documentary style footage from Paris, North Dakota, Johannesburg and Rishikesh, some acting on stage, Roth & Diez reading out conference style papers, a live crooner, the action on stage being recorded live and projected onto a screen behind. It was an assualt on all ones senses and on ones intelligence and beliefs (what we currently believe are true facts).
The researchers based on some sources that had survived since 80*81, seemed to have got a lot of their facts and data mixed up and reached the "wrong?" conclusions
The directors say that: This unlikely time travel (2081 to 1980*81) is in part about post-modernism and the history of post-modernism in reverse, to get a retro-futuristic narrative out of the plethora and confusion of histories.
Chritopher Roth is no stranger to controvery. His film Baaderwas first trashed when presented at the Berlinale Film Festival, but later highly appreciated even winning the Alfred-Bauer-Preis
It seems that the directors were aiming for something similar with 80*81. Present something so confusing, confounding and gob smacking that after several viewings might showcase itself as postmodern theatre. I hope they manage to achieve this objective, so that they can then publish the answers that the audience still seated until the end was left with - "What the hell, were they trying to convey?"
While everyone drew their own conclusions, nobody seemed convinced that they had reached the right conclusions and we would love for the directors to tell us simpler minds what they hoped to convey and portray.
More Pictures and details on http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/8081.php
It was in the year 2010 that two researchers came up with the idea that the years 1980 and 1981 represented a major shift in world history, the Great Transition. The play is the representation of the findings of this research that Diez and Roth called 80*81.
This was the premise of what was presented on stage and what was presented on stage was a mind trip. A lot of the audience who couldn't figure out what was going on started walking out. There was one man in the audience who had a loud argument (louder than the performers voices) with an usher saying "Yeh kya bakwaas chal raha hain?"
The researchers based on some sources that had survived since 80*81, seemed to have got a lot of their facts and data mixed up and reached the "wrong?" conclusions
Chritopher Roth is no stranger to controvery. His film Baaderwas first trashed when presented at the Berlinale Film Festival, but later highly appreciated even winning the Alfred-Bauer-Preis
It seems that the directors were aiming for something similar with 80*81. Present something so confusing, confounding and gob smacking that after several viewings might showcase itself as postmodern theatre. I hope they manage to achieve this objective, so that they can then publish the answers that the audience still seated until the end was left with - "What the hell, were they trying to convey?"
More Pictures and details on http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/8081.php
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The Barber of Seville - Eric Vigner (Albanian)
Even in an opera as well known as The Barber of Seville, it is great to have subtitles flashing across the top of the stage when the production is in Albanian.
While Eric Vigner and his CDDB - Theatre of Lorient, National Drama Centre, France and National Theater of Tirana, Albania did a good job, I was expecting an opera performance, so this was a bit of a let down. This perofrmance was more of a play with a few odd couplets being sung.here and there.
The sets were beautiful and I loved the multi functionality of what seemed like a simple white wall. The performers were also good, but I was expecting more.
The story of The Barber of Seville revolves around Count Almaviva in love with Rosine who is being hid away in a tower by her avaricious guardian Doctor Bartholo. The Count enlists the help of an acquaintance of his Figaro - who has access to the house by virtue of being a barber.
More Pictures and details on http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/lebarbier.php
While Eric Vigner and his CDDB - Theatre of Lorient, National Drama Centre, France and National Theater of Tirana, Albania did a good job, I was expecting an opera performance, so this was a bit of a let down. This perofrmance was more of a play with a few odd couplets being sung.here and there.
The sets were beautiful and I loved the multi functionality of what seemed like a simple white wall. The performers were also good, but I was expecting more.
The story of The Barber of Seville revolves around Count Almaviva in love with Rosine who is being hid away in a tower by her avaricious guardian Doctor Bartholo. The Count enlists the help of an acquaintance of his Figaro - who has access to the house by virtue of being a barber.
More Pictures and details on http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/lebarbier.php
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Charandas Chor - Anup Hazarika (Assamese)
The Inaugural Performace at the 13th Theatre Bharat Rang Mahotsav festival of NSD was Anup Hazarika's (himself an NSD alumnus) Assamese version of Habib Tanvir's Charandas Chor
.
While Habib Tanvir used local Chattisgarhi actors in his play, Anup Hazarika brought a new perspective infused with Assamese music and dance.
Watching the performance was like being invited to sit around a warm fire in the village common grounds to watch a local theater troupe perform a play with music, dance, slapstick comic relief and a moral to the story.
Charandas Chor is originally a Rajasthani folktale about a thief who promises his guru 4 things - never to eat off golden plates, never to ride at the head of a procession on an elephant, never to marry a queen and never to accept kingship. Amused by his self declared promises, his guru asks him to make one more promise - never to lie (since he refuses to give up stealing which he says is his vocation) and the story goes on from here.
The original script does not include the songs, so Director Hazarika uses nagara naam, naokhelor geet - boat racing songs, biya naam - marriage songs and other Assamese folk forms.
Jitumoi Gohain as Charandas and Chandan Boruah as the Hawaldar were excellent performers. The live music performances on stage kept the beat throughout and set the scenes.
Do catch this play if you get the chance.
Visit http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/charandas.php for more pictures.
.While Habib Tanvir used local Chattisgarhi actors in his play, Anup Hazarika brought a new perspective infused with Assamese music and dance.
Watching the performance was like being invited to sit around a warm fire in the village common grounds to watch a local theater troupe perform a play with music, dance, slapstick comic relief and a moral to the story.
Charandas Chor is originally a Rajasthani folktale about a thief who promises his guru 4 things - never to eat off golden plates, never to ride at the head of a procession on an elephant, never to marry a queen and never to accept kingship. Amused by his self declared promises, his guru asks him to make one more promise - never to lie (since he refuses to give up stealing which he says is his vocation) and the story goes on from here.
The original script does not include the songs, so Director Hazarika uses nagara naam, naokhelor geet - boat racing songs, biya naam - marriage songs and other Assamese folk forms.
Jitumoi Gohain as Charandas and Chandan Boruah as the Hawaldar were excellent performers. The live music performances on stage kept the beat throughout and set the scenes.
Do catch this play if you get the chance.
Visit http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/charandas.php for more pictures.
13th Theatre Bharat Rang Mahotsav - NSD - Inaugural
The 13th Theatre Bharat Rang Mahotsav festival of NSD opened on the 8th of January and will continue until the 22nd of this month.
Around 6 plays will be held daily in the evenings across Kamani, LTG, SRC and 5 spaces within the NSD campus.
Tickets are selling out really fast. They are being opened in 3 phases. By the time I reached on the 2nd day of the first slot, most of the plays were already ":house full"
There are plenty of international performers this year and I'm looking forward to catch some of them.
The inaugural ceremony heard the principal Dr. Anuradha Kapur, Chairperson Mrs. Amal Allana, Chief Guest Dr Leela Samson and Jawahar Sircar - Secretary - Ministry of Culture speak a few words.
Mr Sircar was entertaining and I wish we could have heard more of his original ideas rather than the address written by Mr Manmohan Singh (PM and Minister for Culture) for the occassion.
He did announce a grant for theatre groups to create their own spaces to put up performances. The government will give them 50 lakhs as assistance for construction, but management would rest with the theatre groups themselves. A noble idea if it can be put into practice.
Around 6 plays will be held daily in the evenings across Kamani, LTG, SRC and 5 spaces within the NSD campus.
Tickets are selling out really fast. They are being opened in 3 phases. By the time I reached on the 2nd day of the first slot, most of the plays were already ":house full"
There are plenty of international performers this year and I'm looking forward to catch some of them.
The inaugural ceremony heard the principal Dr. Anuradha Kapur, Chairperson Mrs. Amal Allana, Chief Guest Dr Leela Samson and Jawahar Sircar - Secretary - Ministry of Culture speak a few words.
Mr Sircar was entertaining and I wish we could have heard more of his original ideas rather than the address written by Mr Manmohan Singh (PM and Minister for Culture) for the occassion.
He did announce a grant for theatre groups to create their own spaces to put up performances. The government will give them 50 lakhs as assistance for construction, but management would rest with the theatre groups themselves. A noble idea if it can be put into practice.
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