Holi Times!

Little cute terrorists came down in the building compound with their water guns that looked like colorful machine guns, splashing water with great gusto on each others faces. I approached the children in my compound, focusing on their moods through my lens and their playfulness is clearly visible. Holi is the festival of colors and it has not lost its charm in India, not as yet. I am not sure if Indian kids spend too much time on the net, but here, the children in my compound, come every evening, to spend the time with their friends. And they are seen to spend some wonderful time with their friends, inventing games and enjoying each other’s company like we used to (when we were young) and they still enjoy all the festivals of India. Holi is one festival that is enjoyed by all age groups But is Holi a naughty festival? Do guys get seduced watching girls in clinging wet clothes? In my building compound they had a weird way (well that’s what I might say now, with tinge of jealousy, although I am not sure whether it is weird) to celebrate Holi. The drummers were called and all the youngsters danced at the beat of the drums. A big water tanker was hired for the day and the youngster splashed gallons and gallons of water on each other from the thick hose and then jumped in a big tank of colored water, splashing the water at each other and laughing for no reason at all. The dark color on their faces refuse to fade but their clothes sank deeper and deeper into their body curves. My friend tells me that he gets chance to touch his crush. Well I am sure nobody minds touching. Like they say “Burra mat mano, Holi hai” During Holi, must they play with water balloons? They bring buckets of water balloons and hide themselves behind the walls. Like hand bomb granates, they fling the water balloons on unsuspecting lady passerby, aiming the water balloon on her breast, happy to see her chest soak with water, and droplets dripping down her clothes, bringing pleasure to these mischief makers. Many girls are afraid of being the target of this embarrassment and prefer to stay home for fifteen days prior to this festival, Holi is the festival of colors but do they really use only color powders? The substitutes (red powder is what they are suppose to use) are terrible. Eggs, tomatoes, shoe polish, oil paints, mud, jam, jelly juice. The more innovative people get the more disgusting (or entertaining) it gets. Sometimes the paints are so stubborn, that the stains refused to fade and it creates rash on the face. Its fun, no it’s so gooey, no its fun, I can’t really decide. They head on to swim at the beach and remove the excess of stains. It is the time to have more fun, snacking and swimming, for the rest of the day. Phew!! Some festival!!!

The last day of the KGAF

was the day, when there were too many interesting events happening everywhere, and if I had some magic powers, I would have loved to attend them all. But unfortunately, I had to tick off many events to be able to attend a few of them. I attended only those which I could fit into my limited capacity of endurance. Sigh! There were many films showing at different venues. I was most interested in watching the film that was specially made for KGAF by celebrities like Anu Tandon, Brinda Miller, Soni Razdan, Sangita Jindal, Bandana Tiwari, Ayaz menon and Tony Singh. These were the set of short film with a common theme of the state of affairs in India after sixty years. It was amusing to watch the ‘Never Ending Story’ where people continued to watch the serial “Saas Bhi Kabbi Bahu Thi” even after sixty years. Also, I liked the one in which the world is ruled by Bollywood. There will be Hollywood stars dancing and acting in Indian film and all the Hollywood film plagiarize Bollywood stories. Later I headed towards David Sassoon Library Garden to spend the rest of the evening watching some interesting events that included discussion on ‘Graphic Story Telling’ and ‘Poetry Slam’. The theme at ‘Poetry Slam’ was ‘Name, Place, Animal, Thing’ All the participants were very talented and it must have been very difficult for the judges to score them. Towards the end of the show, I got my (own) two-minutes-fame, when I got to read my children’s story about cloud and wind called ‘Badli and Windy’. I had created this story during work-shop on ‘Writing for Children’ and it had some how reached the finals.

Recitals at NGMA are superb!

Today, 7th February, my friend tells me not to come to KGAF because there is a taxi strike and the fear of riots haunts me once more. The taxis are protesting against the damage that was done to their taxis during the riots and they are demanding a police protection. However, it ended quickly, and I decide to meet my friends at NGMA Auditorium for 5pm performance. We reach there at 5pm, only to be told that the show has been cancelled. But fortunately, there is a next show, ‘Alyque Padamsee, Gary Richardson and The Mad Horses’, to begin at 6pm and we decide to attend that one. This is the best show that I have ever watched in years! It is a bouquet of five recitals, and five different Shakespearean plays performed by talented stage artists like Alyque Padamsee, Shazehn Padamsee, Gaurav Chopra, Aparna Tilak, Madhuri Bathia, Cyndy Khozol and Gary Richardson. The show starts with a ‘Tantric’ music, and we, in the audience, are asked to close our eyes and experience the rhythm of the 'Shloks recitals' at the beat of tabla and sitar. This is followed by interactive play, whereby the audience has to decide the ending of a play. The one and half hours tick by quickly, as we are engrossed in their powerful expressions, from one recital to another, and we are immersed into their make-believe world, smiling with them, and mouthing their lines. Later in the evening, after a brief stop at the Sassoon Library Garden, (my favorite venue to chill out), we head toward Khyber, a cozy restaurant across the street. Over the spoonful of meals, my writer-friends and I, exchange notes on theatre, drama and speech for the younger kids.

Photography workshop was good.......

After being assured that it was safe to go to South Mumbai, I went to KGAF at 4pm, just in time to attend the second session of photography workshop by David D’Souza at BNHS. I had not attended the first session, because it was clashing with my other workshop. But on a recap, I was able to catch up with what I had missed. It was quite an interesting workshop with David’s animated postures that kept us in splits. He spoke about the creativity that was important in the photography and our lack of it, was mainly due to our fear. A creative person reflects the environment. We don’t ‘take’ photographs, we ‘make’ them and we can develop the spontaneity by training our eye-muscle to coordinate with our finger and instinct and produce a good photograph. Initially, during the first session, he had given the assignment to the participants, of going around the city and taking some shots. At this second session, we saw the pictures that some of them had clicked and we discussed the flaws and plus points of each photograph. All the pictures were discussed in great details and it was quite informative. I edited this picture that I had clicked the previous day. and Later, during the evening, I headed towards the David Sassoon Library Garden, where the discussion on ‘Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender writing in India’ was in its last segment. I missed this discussion, but I was able to attend the next two sessions, ‘The War of the Words: Science Fiction and Fantasy’ which was moderated by Devanshu Datta and ‘Getting Published: All sides of the Story’ which the moderated by Sriram, who was sitting for Urvashi. Urvasi Butalia, who was to moderate this discussion, was not able to reach Mumbai because of bad weather, but she took part in this discussion on a phone call (that’s the technology for us) We had Kavita Banot, a literary agent, discussing about her role in the writer’s world and how it will help writers in the publishing world, but Urvasi, in her phone conversation said, that she did not like to deal with literary agents because of their pushy nature. There were more discussions on payments, pricing of the book and the rights of the author. Since the literary program was running late, the last two programs ‘Open Mike’ and ‘Open Screen’ had to be chopped off. Unfortunately! Sigh!

Damn! Absent again! Sorry KGAF!

I hope I am missed at KGAF because I did not go there today. No, not missed by those friends who are there at the festival, Nah! they hardly care, tsk! tsk! tsk! All my friends are busy in organizing those events or they are attending different events and they have told me quite frankly (with a pointed first finger) that I could communicate with them only after the festival. Presently, they have no time for me, not even a two minutes chat! Sigh! But those sweet and friendly kids must be missing me, whose pictures I clicked during my first two days, or those handicraft stalls, which will have one less shopper and those art galleries which will have one less admirer. Today, I saw the terrible news on TV of people getting arrested, showing temper tantrums and boxing each other and I am afraid of riots. Normally I am quite brave (I can hold a live cockroach in my closed fist and let it scrawl) but these riots in Mumbai have left me biting my nails. I had decided to go to the KGAF everyday but now,after watching this news, I have changed my mind, because I live in Bandra and going to South Mumbai by train or taxi is a risk I am not willing to take. What if, I take a train, which normally takes twenty five minutes to reach Churchgate, and some of those rioters enter the ladies compartment and force me to speak Marathi? Not that I don’t know to speak Marathi, I have learnt it at school, but I haven’t been practicing my Marathi for quite sometime now. I have even taught my Maharastrian maid to speak English, (silly me, I have lost the opportunity to learn the language from my maid, too). The vegetable and fruit sellers usually speaks Bhojpuri and I have learnt few words in their language, just few words like “No, Go away, I don’t want!” and that much Bhojpuri language is enough for communicating with a Bhojpuri vegetable venders. Taxis and auto drivers speak Hindi and I have learnt all the numbers from one to hundred, so it is easy communicating with them, when I give them my change. I am English speaking person, but I know to say “Yes” and “No” in all four languages (although I sometimes do falter on those words and interchange it's use, but then, that is an another story) and now with the mushrooming of malls, there is really no need to speak any language at all. Just read, pick and pay. And, I love living in Mumbai. I have lived here all my life. The embassies of different countries have repeatedly offered me their country’s Visa but I have refused them all. Oh My Gawd! I cannot even dream of living anywhere else in the world! I think it is important for me to re-learn Marathi. I could even start dressing in a traditional nine-yard-saree. Those checkered, bright green, cotton sarees really look good.( They should make nine-yard-saree a compulsory dress code in colleges) And I also like that big, beaded nose-ring, but, where do they shop for those accessories? I have neither seen those nine yard sarees nor those assessories at any shop in Bandra. But why? (It makes no sense selling those tight, low waist jeans, that tease the passer-by with their branded inner-wear) I also like that small, round, netted bun, they look great and shine on those oily heads. It could make a fashion statement! I am sure that they, at beauty salons, will start practicing those hair styles too. They need to earn their bread and butter too. Should I shed off my unnecessary fear? Brrr! Not until I master the Marathi language. I don’t think I am ready to take that risk. It is best to stay at home till I find a suitable Marathi-speaking tutor or rather, wait for this uprising to fade away. Tomorrow, I will watch the TV again and check whether those rioters have cooled down and have gone back to sleep. Then. I hope, I shall boldly venture out again to participate in some more events at KGAF.

Kala Godha Arts Festival starts with a Bang!

Today, South Mumbai was dressed with laughter. Everybody was busy, too busy, running from one end of the street to another, the organizers were busy arranging the events and programs, participants were busy shuttling from one room to another to attend workshops and salespersons were busy putting up their stall that will display different handicraft and food stuff for sale for next ten days.. The people who were really relaxed and decided to start enjoying from day one were the children and their grandparents. The easiest way to involve adults in any festival is to invite their children. Any activity that brings a smile to the child’s face will automatically bring a smile to their parents and grandparents. The colors and ambiences of the festival were child friendly. The parking island opposite Jahangir Art Gallery was converted into children’s theme park where they enjoyed various activities and learnt many things in the various workshops……..