Theatre Acting Workshop @ Pune

About a couple of months back, we just finished a major release at work. So I definitely had some free time ahead of me; at least during the weekends. So I started looking for an interesting workshop in Pune. That was when I got a message from Niche Stagekraft that they are going to have a workshop on stage acting starting the very next weekend.

Niche Stagekraft is into english plays. It was founded in the year 2002 by Mr Jitendra R Powar. W had gone for their 25th production 'Candles in the Wind' - a collection of 7 short plays, and we had a great time watching. Some of the plays were really good; so when I reached back home, I registered at their site with my email id and cell phone number for their updates. That's how I got the message regarding the workshop.

So that weekend, I started going for the workshop. Acting is not more difficult than it seems; acting is a different world. You try to become another person, try to think like another person. It is not easy. We were taught different elements of Stage Acting including different emotions, body language, stage movements, training your voice and many more things. We also learnt different exercises for the facial muscles, for the tongue and for the voice. It was really nice to know all these things.

They are now conducting more workshops, starting this and next weekend (from Dec 5th and Dec 11th). The workshops will be held twice a week on Saturdays and Sundays, for four hours each in the afternoon. You can come for the workshop, and then if you wish, continue with the group. And who knows, you may find yourself on stage in a few months.  Their upcoming plays include Taale Danda (a Girish Karnad play) and Rest's Silence.

You can contact them on the the number given in the image, or through the mentioned email id. If you have any problem contacting, feel free to get in touch with me.

Trust me, it is going to be totally worth the time...and much much more!

The world is flat...VERTICALLY!

"pls let it be full......lord..."
That is exactly what Pancily's chat said, when I told him that I was going forward with the trek even if he was stuck in Mumbai with his work. It was Pancily who told me about the 350ft rappelling at Naneghat on Feb 21st. But later, he had got the deadline for his project as 22nd feb which pulled him back. Girivihang trekkers, a club from mumbai was organizing it, and they would have it again only after diwali. So this was my best chance. Just as Pancily hoped, their bus was fully booked! But as they were coming from Mumbai and I was in Pune they told me that they'd let me do the rappelling if I arranged for my travel.

I then called up Viggy and Kini. We decided to go there on bikes. Kini was hungry for a long ride on his new R15! But on saturday, we learnt that naneghat is around 4 hours away from pune on bike, and your back is not going to like the last few kilometres. So Ashwath and Vignesh dropped out! The organizers had told me about Samyak who, along with his friends, was joining them from Pune. When I called him up, Samyak told me they were going in a Tavera, and they had space for another person!! You know what happened after that. :)

The pic that compelled me to go for the trek ;)

We - Samyak, Rishikesh, Anirudh, Prasad, our driver, Sachin and I- reached Naneghat at 12 noon. The Mumbai guys were there and around 30 guys had already finished rappelling. We sat down and waited for our turn to come.Some of the guys who were in line to go next were looking tensed. But the guys who had just finished seemed thrilled and we were eagerly waiting to get going.

 Click on the pic and spot the two guys who are rappelling.

Once everyone from Mumbai had finished, we got to start. They had a two sets of ropes coming down from the top. So a couple of participants could rappel at the same time. After waiting for few minutes, it was my turn. I got into my harness, got the carabiner attached to it and went to the top.

  I was then told how to rappel. The instructions were quite simple; atleast seemed simple when I heard them. Keep your feet at a distance of around 2 feet and do not bend your knees. Lean backwards and using your left hand behind you pull and feed the rope to your right hand, which would be a few inches above your forehead. The sole function of the right hand is to maintain balance. So you must not try to hold the rope tight if you are going down too fast. The speed can be controlled with the left. And if you do not come down in a steady manner you could spin around like a top, as Sachin did. :) This mostly happens if you do not use your feet properly or when the rappel is overhanging (it means the rocks are curved inward).

I wore my gloves. The knots were tied and I was at the edge of the cliff! The first couple of steps weren't very easy. An instructor told me a twice not to bend my knees while going down, because I could bang then onto the rocks if I did. After taking around 4 steps, I started to get the hang of it. The speed started to increase and I started to  literally run backwards [and downwards ;)] for a few seconds. I suddenly realized that the team at the top was no longer to be seen, neither was the control team at the bottom. I was alone for the next 50-75 meters, before I could even see the guys waiting for me down there. But now it didn't matter much. The fun factor had overcome the fear! I was really enjoying it! And before I knew it I was on ground; ground that didn't make a lot of angle with the sea.;)

 Coming back to the base after the rappel.

  
At 430 pm, everyone had finished rappelling. Once the organizers checked the count of people present, we set out for Pune. On the way, in Junnar, we stopped by at Anirudh's gradparents' home. After having some tasty poha and tea there, his granddad took us to a packaging factory they own. The person managing the place showed us around, and it was really impressive!

 After that, it was a non-stop drive to Pune, ending another memorable day and a great experience!

NB: The pics were taken from Kunal Shinde's picassa album of the same trek with rappelling conducted by the same club, Girivihang trekkers in 2009. The first pic was from another blog.

PS: This completes 3 on 'My White List'. :)

Inspired! ;)

PRANKS! I love pulling some pranks on my friends, sometimes on total strangers too! Today I got to witness one; a couple of strangers fooling a third stanger!! :)

This morning I was walking towards Magarpatta junction looking for an auto. The Pune Sholapur highway was abuzz with vehicles as usual. Walking along the footpath, I was spotting the people I see everyday; people I've seen over a hundred times, yet strangers. The cobbler was there, sitting under the banyan tree, trying to polish someone's shoes into a mirror. Next to him there was an 'astrologer' predicting future for another guy. I bet both of them were confused! ;)

Walking further ahead, there were many small shops on the roadside. I noticed a guy walking a few metres ahead of me suddenly slowing down looking at the ground. Bending down, he picked something, and continued walking.

"HEY!!" couple of small boys come running towards him shouting. My guess is that their parents work in one of the shops along the road, as I've seen them there earlier in the area. The boys rush towards the man and tell him something; one of them pointing at his hand. The guy then slowly handed over a wallet; that he had picked few seconds back, looks around him and walks; this time much faster. The boys had placed the wallet there and were waiting for their prey; and its not at all difficult to find one!

The lil boys celebrate their triumph with a Hi-five, and go back... and inspired, I started thinking of something mischievous I could do. :) Will update as soon as something happens ;)

Wah Ustaad Wah!

Jan 11, monday (around midnight): Dunno why, but I suddenly feel like going for a Zakir Hussain concert. I start checking the web for any links to a concert I could go to. The official website only talked about his tours in Oct(in the US of A); of which the last two concerts were canceled due to his mother's demise.

Jan 12, tuesday(around 530pm): I get a mail at my office which said there was a Zakir Hussain concert, in pune, on friday! What coincidence!

20 seconds and 900 amdocs club points later: I've registered for the concert, without any second thoughts.

Jan 15th, Friday: I left office at around 6, with Soumitra. He too, like me had joined amdocs last year. We hired an auto from Magarpatta city which cost us 90 bucks and 30 minutes to reach the venue: MES Abasaheb Garware College Ground. Hundreds of cars on both sides of the road outside the college, told us that the ground is gonna be crowded. We were lucky the concert hadnt yet started. They were just having a presentation about the Maharastra Education Society, which was conducting the concert; celebrating 150 years of its existence. Few minutes later the stage was handed over to Zakir Hussain and Sabir Khan. Sabir Khan had played sarangi in great musical hits like Jodha Akbar, Saawariya, and Chameli.

First Sabir Khan started off with his sarangi, and the Ustaad followed in later. They started off slow first, but within a few minutes their fingers started to move at such a fast pace that the crowd was totally mesmerized. You could hear so many "Ohhooo"s, "Wah"s and "Kya baat hai"s around. Zakir Hussain then started to create many situations using his tabla. He first showed with his tabla, shiva's 'dumroo' and his disciples blowing the conch shell (creating the sound of the conch shell using tabla was simply awesome and unbelievable). And then he took us into a train and its compartments. Few minutes later he produced the sound of rain, clouds and thunder, then a deer running in a forest. The crowd was clapping most of the time; if not they were stunned hearing the sounds. I never knew so many sounds could be created from that simple hollow percussion instrument. And Sabir Khan too is a great talent. He played the Sarangi really well. There were times when Zakir Hussain would go slow on his Tabla and Sabir Khan would start showcasing his endowment.

Zakir Hussain played the tabla so well and at times so fast that it would seem like two or more people were playing at the same time. You would even doubt a musician or a tape playing on the backstage.

It went on non-stop for more than an hour an a half. And during the time he forced out three words from almost everyone present there,
"Wah Ustaad!! Wah!!"

PS: This is my first post this year....so a very happy new year to all the readers!

KK concert on magarpatta city day

Every year on the 3rd of december, Magarpatta city celebrates 'Magarpatta City Day' and today marked the completion of a decade.[Magarpatta city is an IT park cum residential area, where my office too is located.] As part of the celebration, there was a live concert by playback singer KK.

The show was supposed to start at 7pm. I had initially decided not to go for the show, but Prashant, my group lead, had left an extra pass that he had with me. So at 10 to 7, I left for the concert with ratan. As we entered there were thousands of chairs in front. And our pass lead us to seats that were pretty far from the stage, so we had to depend on the huge screens next to the stage; but when you watch a concert for free, you don't have much of a say, do you? ;)

The show began in a few mins. He performed many hit songs like "Tu Aashiqui Hai" from Jhankaar Beats, "Pyaar ke Pal" from Pal, "Dus Bahaane", "Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai" from the movie Gangster, "Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar", "Alvida" from Life in a Metro, "Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai" from Woh Lamhe and "Yaaron" from Rockford and few more. He is a really good singer and a good performer too. I woudn't say it was better than the Shan or Shanker Mahadevan concerts we had at college; but it was definitely worth every penny i paid the time.

Here are a couple of videos I found on youtube...(the audio is not very clear here...but will never be if u shoot a live concert on an amateur cam :P)

"Alvida"-Life in a Metro.

"O Humdum Soniyo Re" - Saathiya

PS: During the break, Satish Magar, the brain behind the magarpatta city project, made a few announcements; mostly regarding few plans to be implemented here in the near future. The last one was what interested most people sitting there. The multiplex giants of Latin America, Cinepolis, had taken up a project to build a multiplex in magarpatta city... and it would sport 15 screens! And it is expected to be complete in around a year's time!

I love fridays...more

2012, the much awaited movie of Roland Emmerich, is releasing tomorrow. In the evening at office today, Rama asked Ratan and me if we wanted to go for tomorrow after work. But as our whole team was going out for dinner tomorrow night, we couldn't book tickets for friday and hence we decided that we'd go for the first show the day after tomorrow. The show was at 10am in Fame Cinemas. Rama was assigned the task of booking the tickets and Ratan and I went back to work.

After sometime, I hear Ratan shouting at Rama. The reason?
He'd just got an email that read "Mr. Ramakrishna Pathuri has invited you for the Movie 2012 (U/A). Show Date: Fri, 13 Nov, 2009" :)

Rama had by mistake booked the tickets for the show tomorrow morning. He tried canceling the ticket, but without success. Looks like Fri, the 13th isnt that unlucky for me. With the movie and the dinner, its the best friday at office so far! At office?!

Joy of Giving - Post II

I was walking along the Pune-Sholapur highway towards Magarpatta junction to catch my auto to Amdocs. Two small kids, a boy aged around 8 and the girl a couple of years younger to him, passed by; and they were asking people for some money. I never give money to those who beg. There are many people who beg when they can actually do some work. And about those who really cant work, I believe many of them only earn for their 'employers'.

Coming back to those kids, I wanted to give them something then. First because it was 'joy of giving' week, and I was looking for an opportunity. And secondly, I wanted to start my birthday in a nice way! ;) In a minute they were in front of me, the boy said that they were very hungry and wanted something to eat. And when I asked them if they wanted some ice cream, I saw the girl's eyes glow. Both of them nodded quickly. We walked to an ice cream parlour which was a minute's walk ahead.

The place had just opened for the day. There were only two waiters inside. I asked one of them to get two double scoops of icecream for them. While having their ice cream they introduced themselves. The girl's name was Lakshmi and the boy was Maruti. He then showed me his name tattooed on his arm.
It was already past 10 and I was running late for office now. So I told them that I had to leave and then went to the counter to pay the bill. But as I was paying, both of them put the icecream into the vessels they had and rushed out! Have no idea why they did that! They were perhaps scared to eat there w/o someone to see that they weren't asked to get out by the waiters.

When I came out and looked around, they'd already vanished. I then continued my walk towards the junction.

'Cut' my tea??!

Ive spent two months here in Pune and it doesnt look like I'm gonna learn Marathi soon. Some rickshaw drivers and vendors speak to you in Marathi even if you speak to them in hindi. You then have to listen to them carefully, pick some words from the sentences that sound like some words in hindi, and then use the situation to try and decode what the person was tryin to tell you. And yea, you also have to know the local lingo. My recent experience would perhaps explain that.

Yesterday, I had gone to a restaurant close to my flat for breakfast. Being a Sunday, I obviously woke up quite late. So there wern't many things to eat, left there in the restaurant. I decided to have a vada-pav and a cup of tea. It is self service there. So after having paid, I went to the counter to collect it.

While preparing tea for me the guy there asked me "Bhaiyya, chai cutting hai kya?" (Brother, is the tea 'a cutting'?) I could only respond with a confused "KYA!!!" (WHAT!!)[What was he going to cut into a tea?? Or was he going to prepare a special tea for me? But I had paid just Rs.4 for it; and I don't think I would get something special for that. :P] It could be some specialty of the place. But I didn't want to take a risk and wanted to ask some reliable person about it before taking 'a cutting tea'! So I was about to ask him to give me a cup of ordinary tea; but the guy at the cash counter interrupted and told the waiter that it was indeed a cutting! Now I was curious, and grew more and more curious as time passed.

Later he kept my plate of vada-pav on the counter and then placed a glass of tea next to it. That was when I learnt what it was. It was the quantity! They served it in a very small glass [they perhaps called it the cutting glass ;)]. Its as if the've cut a piece from the large glass of tea. It looked like the younger brother of the other glasses that I then observed on a small shelf there.

Hmmm...long way to go...:)

PS: A really good week in the sports world for me. Fisichella gets Force India its first podium finish at the Belgian GP. India won the nehru cup. That's really big for Indian football. And Chelsea win four of their first four matches in the BPL.

PPS: Going on a trek on 6th Sep to Duke's nose(Lonavala) with valley crossing. Its gonna be the most exciting trek I've done. Looking forward to it. Check this space for a post on that soon. :)

Hemagglutinin 1 Neuraminidase 1

No, its not the score of a soccer match! :) Its the latest health crisis in the nation.

Babe - the pig is back in the city; but this time with vengeance!
Swine flu has hit many countries and in India, the situation is worst here in Pune.

Schools and colleges have been closed for some days now in Pune. The malls and multiplexes are shutdown. In the evenings you can find small kids playing with their masks on.

At Amdocs, they're taking it quite seriously too. The company provides us with masks every Monday. Mails about swine flu awareness are sent quite often. Hand sanitizers are kept at many locations in a floor, so that people use them often. And they are thinking about letting the employees work from home too. We also have a doctor sitting in the ground floor for us to consult in case of any symptoms of swine flu.

Most of the people are wearing masks to protect themselves from the virus. But most of the masks available aren't effective or last for maybe a day only. Chemists sell ordinary surgical masks saying that they are effective against swine flu virus. But they are'nt. N-95 masks are supposed to provide you best protection. But even after so many cases here in Pune, the N-95 masks are'nt available easily. I've got mine. If you don't get an N95 for yourself, you can use the normal ones, but you've got to use your folded handkerchief once or some other cloth piece beneath or over the mask, as you need atleast three layers in your to be effective.

The chemists in Pune are trying to make profit at this time of panic and crisis by selling items like masks for crazy prices. One druggist told me that he would give me an N95 for around 500 bucks! One mask, which is supposed to be thrown away after being used for a day or two for 500! Many duplicate N95s are also there in the market. In a TV interview on a news channel yesterday( i believe it was aaj tak), the anchor asked our health minister, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, what he would do about these people who were taking wrong advantage of the situation. The minister replied that the masks were'nt meant for the general public, but was only for the doctors who were treating H1N1 positive patients and for the patients already affected by the virus, so that they dont spread the virus while coughing or sneezing. That is how it is supposed to be, according to the WHO or the CDC standards. But the panic always spreads faster.

The death toll is rising and 15 out of 23 deaths in the country have been from Pune; that would tell you how serious the situation is in Pune. The monsoon hit the city very late whn people here were praying for rains. And now when its raining, people want it to stop as it helps in spreading of swine flu.

And as precautionary measures against swine flu,

• wash your hands often with soap,
• do not take your hand to your face,
• do not rub your eyes,
• maintain at least 3 feet distance from a sick person,
• use a hanky while sneezing or coughing,
• avoid crowded places especially in cities like pune and mumbai
• if you are using a mask use a 3-layered one or dont bother taking the trouble :)

But these numbers are nothing when compared to the number of people dying all over the nation with diseases like malaria or pneumonia. Its only because H1N1 is new in the country that it has created so much panic here. And ofcourse there is the media hype too. Every day the front page reports about the number of cases reported in different cities in India. And to add to the panic our health minister had allegedly told in a Times of India interviewthat in the next two years, one-third of the Indian population would be affected by the virus. He however, in a TV news channel interview later, had denied the statement.

All this tension and hype will die out as few days pass by. We may just need to wait for the next Indian cricket series to start to turn the attention of the people.

Dining etiquette workshop

We shifted to our flat on the 4th this month. I've moved my stuff to one of the bedrooms, Pavan's are in the other. The hall is an empty room except for a stack of newspapers on the left side. Most of the things that we've bought after shifting were for our laboratory: the kitchen! Stove, cooker, non-stick pan, utensils, spoon and many more things. You can expect new additions into the hotel menus soon. :P

Two sundays back, there was an ad on The Pune Mirror regarding a workshop on continental dining etiquette. I, often confused when given the flatware, decided to go for it. So I registered for the workshop and paid them the advance. It was gonna be on sunday, the 12th of july.

When I reached the place, Mrs. Nirmala Lalvani was there to welcome me into her house. There were 3 more guys inside for the workshop; Tanpreet, who works for Bajaj Auto Ltd and two boys doing their second year at graduation, Jaiveer and Shashwath. Mrs. Lalvani is an etiquette trainer and has held classes for employees at different companies. She was now conduting these workshops to collect money for the two girls whose education she was sponsoring.

She first showed us how to hold the cocktail glass, a small plate and a napkin on the left hand, leaving your right hand free for shaking hands. Now that needs some practice, without which you will drop them for sure while walking. Then we learnt to set the table; and then to read the menu, looking at the table setting. She taught us to make the fork and knife look like appendages. We learnt small details to be taken care of while drinking soup, we learnt to eat on the back of the fork, to signal some things to the waiter without speaking to him and few other things. She had prepared a delicious 4-course meal for us and we did take sometime to finish having our lunch keeping everything she taught in mind.

Before leaving I learnt that her daughter-in-law conducted workshops on eating using the chopsticks!:D I have already spoken to her, but she will be out of station for sometime. So thats the plan for another weekend.

PS: Does anyone know how chopsticks got the name?You cant chop anything with it, can you?! I guess it is because it is from the land of martial arts!

My new home ;)

In Pune now; reached here on the 7th. The company had provided us accommodation at Hotel Silver Crest, in Viman Nagar. The rooms are pretty good; they're air conditioned,have TVs and only after a couple of days did we discover that there was net connection too. But the luxury was intended for 15 days only. :( We had to find a place to stay by then.

Last few days, mammen and I were busy looking for flats to stay, somewhere close to Magarpatta City (thats where Amdocs has its office) or Hadapsar. We did contact many people and also check the flats personally and finally yesterday we decided on a 2-bhk flat in ECP Vastu campus, in hadapsar. Its a new construction with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a hall, a kitchen and a balcony. All the rooms are quite spacious. The flat is in the 6th floor; so with the huge windows, there is good breeze coming in and is well lit too. And they have a gas connection in the flat already installed and a person would visit every month and take the reading to bill Oh, I forgot to mention the rent. Its Rs.7000 per month with Rs.25,000 deposit. I believe its a good find, as most of the flats were either too far from our office, too old, or were offered for a very high rent. So we're quite happy now and look forward to have a nice stay there. :D

Gonna continue reading 'The Godfather' now. Yea, I know I should have read the book long back; better late than never ;). Didnt watch the movie yet too, as i was advised to read it first.

I shall post a few pics taken in Pune soon. Until then, hf.