Its a Saturday afternoon and I'm nice an comfy in bed. Then I get a call. I'm a bit disoriented. Its Neeti and Saurabh... The Jain cousins... "We are already at Rangashankara, when are you coming". I look at the time. Its about 6:30-6:40pm types. "I'll be there in 20-30 mins". I switch on the geyser and decide to lay down on the bed as the water will take some time to get hot. I wake up after about 10-15 mins, go to bathe but decide I have to have a shave too. The phone rings again. Its Neeti.... "Where are you... Its 7... we are waiting here... They have opened the gates and are allowing ppl to go inside.... we won't get the front seats."... I look at the time... "I'll be there in 10 mins. It will only take me about 5 mins by bike."..... Shucks... now it hit me... I have ALL the tickets. I quickly have a bath and try to search for some clothes that don't need ironing. Can't find any .... ok turn the iron on.... The phone rings again.... It Neeti again... "You better get your butt out here soon". "Err... I'm just leaving the house"... Yeah right... I still have to dress up.... Well its ok it was a simple white lie. C'mon it was well intentioned wasn't it... well intentioned to save my butt :-)
Ok so I finally get on my bike and am on my way to the theatre. The phone rings again but I'm smart... yeah I don't pick it up :-) Finally arrive by about 7:25... 5 minutes before the play can start and 5 mins after the first warning bell. Neeti and her friend Deepti manage to get front seats as they have friends all over. Half the place was filled with NLS junta. Myself and Saurabh enter. We are not too late... thats what we keep telling ourselves... We also get to choose our seats.... yeah either waaaay behind or waaaay over to the side... ok thats not tooo bad... I mean it could have been worse.... Like the time the doors were shut and we had to watch the play thru a glass screen from outside. hmmmm... That should have taught me something...
Finally the play starts... "Madness" Its an adaptation of Paulo Coelho's "Veronica Decides to Die". About a girl who decides to commit suicide but somehow gets saved. She is now in a mental hosptial and is told that due to her suicide attempt her heart will fail in 7 days. The storyline was good but the performances could have been better. However one of the artist performed pretty well. Well I have been going for plays for quite some time. I have seen performances of all caliber... the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think I qualify to be a critic. However always remember to mention that "one of the artist performed pretty well" just incase you come across that 'one' artist in the future :-).... Just kidding... One of the artist did perform extremely well.
The four of us then decided to head out towards Fireflies, a beautiful eco-ashram on Kanakpura Road, about 30kms out of the city. First we decide to get some anti mosquito cream and we pick up some chocolate mint liqueur and some other stuff from my place. The mode of transport... Saurabh's convertible. Its a nice car... You have two seats in front and thats it. The behind part is converted into a nice sleeping area. It has a nice comfy matress with cushions, pillows... the works!! He says that the back seats are at IIT Madras and they refuse to return it to him cause they like it too much.
The show was from 6pm to 6am... We skipped dinner as we could grab a bite at the flee market at Fireflies with the intention to witness a unique way of honouring the earth through an all-night music, dance, and film festival. The theme for this year was "the tree". We reached the venue at about 10:30-11 and remained till morning... We already had our tickets which cost Rs. 200. You could buy them at the entrance too. The stage was under a big Banyan tree... with three sides surrounded with stone stairs to make it like an amphitheatre... We took the pillows and cushions and of course the chocolate mint liqueur and other stuff. The pillows and cushions were a God send... Thanks Saurabh... thanks IIT Madras for taking his back seat. Sitting on stone for that long can cause some complications. Some junta had also come with sleeping bags. We were even thinking of getting the mattress from the car. That wasn't my idea... I don't come up with such wierd ideas. We ate some nice salads at the flee market for dinner.
There were all sort of performances... flute recitals... indian classical instruments... indian classical dance performances... then some western fusion music etc... Vasundara Das sang... Then at the end there was also some heavy metal by two bands.... the heavy metal was more of shouting. They couldn't sing. However 'one' of the artists performed pretty well.. Uhem.. playing it safe again :-) One band played well, but couldn't sing... The other band messed up some good rock songs....
We headed back home at about 6am. Neeti and Deepti dozed off behind. Saurabh was his usual self. No comments... Went straight home and hit the sack.... hard! Slept till about 4pm.
Ok so I finally get on my bike and am on my way to the theatre. The phone rings again but I'm smart... yeah I don't pick it up :-) Finally arrive by about 7:25... 5 minutes before the play can start and 5 mins after the first warning bell. Neeti and her friend Deepti manage to get front seats as they have friends all over. Half the place was filled with NLS junta. Myself and Saurabh enter. We are not too late... thats what we keep telling ourselves... We also get to choose our seats.... yeah either waaaay behind or waaaay over to the side... ok thats not tooo bad... I mean it could have been worse.... Like the time the doors were shut and we had to watch the play thru a glass screen from outside. hmmmm... That should have taught me something...
Finally the play starts... "Madness" Its an adaptation of Paulo Coelho's "Veronica Decides to Die". About a girl who decides to commit suicide but somehow gets saved. She is now in a mental hosptial and is told that due to her suicide attempt her heart will fail in 7 days. The storyline was good but the performances could have been better. However one of the artist performed pretty well. Well I have been going for plays for quite some time. I have seen performances of all caliber... the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think I qualify to be a critic. However always remember to mention that "one of the artist performed pretty well" just incase you come across that 'one' artist in the future :-).... Just kidding... One of the artist did perform extremely well.
The four of us then decided to head out towards Fireflies, a beautiful eco-ashram on Kanakpura Road, about 30kms out of the city. First we decide to get some anti mosquito cream and we pick up some chocolate mint liqueur and some other stuff from my place. The mode of transport... Saurabh's convertible. Its a nice car... You have two seats in front and thats it. The behind part is converted into a nice sleeping area. It has a nice comfy matress with cushions, pillows... the works!! He says that the back seats are at IIT Madras and they refuse to return it to him cause they like it too much.
The show was from 6pm to 6am... We skipped dinner as we could grab a bite at the flee market at Fireflies with the intention to witness a unique way of honouring the earth through an all-night music, dance, and film festival. The theme for this year was "the tree". We reached the venue at about 10:30-11 and remained till morning... We already had our tickets which cost Rs. 200. You could buy them at the entrance too. The stage was under a big Banyan tree... with three sides surrounded with stone stairs to make it like an amphitheatre... We took the pillows and cushions and of course the chocolate mint liqueur and other stuff. The pillows and cushions were a God send... Thanks Saurabh... thanks IIT Madras for taking his back seat. Sitting on stone for that long can cause some complications. Some junta had also come with sleeping bags. We were even thinking of getting the mattress from the car. That wasn't my idea... I don't come up with such wierd ideas. We ate some nice salads at the flee market for dinner.
There were all sort of performances... flute recitals... indian classical instruments... indian classical dance performances... then some western fusion music etc... Vasundara Das sang... Then at the end there was also some heavy metal by two bands.... the heavy metal was more of shouting. They couldn't sing. However 'one' of the artists performed pretty well.. Uhem.. playing it safe again :-) One band played well, but couldn't sing... The other band messed up some good rock songs....
We headed back home at about 6am. Neeti and Deepti dozed off behind. Saurabh was his usual self. No comments... Went straight home and hit the sack.... hard! Slept till about 4pm.
