The daily readership of this blog is 0-5. However, some days I find 20-30 visits from Russia. It makes me little nervous.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Monday, September 7, 2015
Balancing Act
It's little unusual for him to watch a classical dance performance. He had watched few performances before as they were part of wider programs. However, watching an exclusive performance was a rarity and it was one of those days.
What is dance? He defined it for himself. A synchronized movement of body parts that gives either meaningful or meaningless postures in series with a visually pleasing equilibrium while maintaining the body balance.
The show started with men dancing. In fact two grown men and few young boys. Their attire was a throwback to the classical times when men covered only their loins. Certainly the dancers didn't give much confidence that the classical dance was a good exercise. He liked the way they flexed their ankles and made quicksteps. But apart from that he was all at sea about the context. That was the first and last dance show with all men. Women dominated the shows afterwards. It felt as if since the Kuchipudi was standardized and performed by men initially, they were given the first chance as a token of acknowledgment.
The next show was a witness of the times. With so many atrocities against women becoming commonplace, classical dance couldn't remain immune to it. So this show was a compendium of atrocities against women in myth and in reality. It had the abduction of Seetha, disrobing of Droupadi, abusive husband and female infanticide. He somehow felt, classical dance with their careful steps might not be a good medium to express deep sadness or exuberant happiness. Over the top background music also didn't help the cause much.
Then all of a sudden atmosphere changed. There was a swarm of young girls trying to balance themselves standing on an inverted copper vessel, with a smaller vessel on the head and lamps on the palms. The whole point appeared to be just balancing and nothing else. He felt his job was to watch who stood in that position for the shortest time and who the longest, who dropped what and how many different ways they lost their balance. His definition of dance appeared to have no meaning in this particular context as only the last part was true even though not for long with many girls. He felt, acrobatics had no meaning in a classical dance context. It was a completely different genre. He remembered the bottle dance from Fiddler on the Roof with their aesthetically pleasing movements and balancing acts. Maybe they should remove it completely as it had no meaning in the overall context, he thought.
The next act was a Yakshagana. He was all excited. There was something he could identify with. But his spirits were sunk when that turned out to be a dance drama or as they would call it 'classical' Yakshagana without any dialogues in difference to his 'semi-classical' Yakshagana with higher emphasis on dialogues. He remembered late Shivarama Karanta trying to turn semi-classical Yakshagana into classical one by removing the dialogues. He was happy that that experiment was a failure.
What is dance? He defined it for himself. A synchronized movement of body parts that gives either meaningful or meaningless postures in series with a visually pleasing equilibrium while maintaining the body balance.
The show started with men dancing. In fact two grown men and few young boys. Their attire was a throwback to the classical times when men covered only their loins. Certainly the dancers didn't give much confidence that the classical dance was a good exercise. He liked the way they flexed their ankles and made quicksteps. But apart from that he was all at sea about the context. That was the first and last dance show with all men. Women dominated the shows afterwards. It felt as if since the Kuchipudi was standardized and performed by men initially, they were given the first chance as a token of acknowledgment.
The next show was a witness of the times. With so many atrocities against women becoming commonplace, classical dance couldn't remain immune to it. So this show was a compendium of atrocities against women in myth and in reality. It had the abduction of Seetha, disrobing of Droupadi, abusive husband and female infanticide. He somehow felt, classical dance with their careful steps might not be a good medium to express deep sadness or exuberant happiness. Over the top background music also didn't help the cause much.
Then all of a sudden atmosphere changed. There was a swarm of young girls trying to balance themselves standing on an inverted copper vessel, with a smaller vessel on the head and lamps on the palms. The whole point appeared to be just balancing and nothing else. He felt his job was to watch who stood in that position for the shortest time and who the longest, who dropped what and how many different ways they lost their balance. His definition of dance appeared to have no meaning in this particular context as only the last part was true even though not for long with many girls. He felt, acrobatics had no meaning in a classical dance context. It was a completely different genre. He remembered the bottle dance from Fiddler on the Roof with their aesthetically pleasing movements and balancing acts. Maybe they should remove it completely as it had no meaning in the overall context, he thought.
The next act was a Yakshagana. He was all excited. There was something he could identify with. But his spirits were sunk when that turned out to be a dance drama or as they would call it 'classical' Yakshagana without any dialogues in difference to his 'semi-classical' Yakshagana with higher emphasis on dialogues. He remembered late Shivarama Karanta trying to turn semi-classical Yakshagana into classical one by removing the dialogues. He was happy that that experiment was a failure.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Two OBCs
Non descriptive was the day they met
Those two Malayalis who knew the
Long journey of their ancestors
Born to lower castes though
Skimmed away they remembered
The pain
Ashamed at their castemen's
Delusion to win a game of
Self-styled winners
Their historical knowledge and
Analysis of the system
Converged and matched
Was there a dream of charting a
New path with these two buddies?
To break the system one has to marry
Outside but the upper or lower
That's the tricky part
I know about that and
Found no answer to that
Conundrum
I would marry a girl of my caste
There doesn't exist dilemma
of any sort
Listen to your instincts
Gives you an unadulterated
Choice
But we carry so many prejudices
That can overwhelm the instincts
The prejudices need not be caste specific
I like girls with hair bob cut
You like newsreader type of girls
All stiff and expressionless
He detected a grimace on his face
And disgust in the voice
Taken aback tried to give respect
To his choice
I liked the bob cut girl in the ad I forgot
Who when trapped in a lift
Danced to a tune in free spirit
Or that bob cut girl in that VIP ad
Who gavotted with a suitcase
Defending himself he knew
It was stupid
But there was no looking back
For the other had made up his
Mind
There was never going to be
Two buddies
Changing the course
Those two Malayalis who knew the
Long journey of their ancestors
Born to lower castes though
Skimmed away they remembered
The pain
Ashamed at their castemen's
Delusion to win a game of
Self-styled winners
Their historical knowledge and
Analysis of the system
Converged and matched
Was there a dream of charting a
New path with these two buddies?
To break the system one has to marry
Outside but the upper or lower
That's the tricky part
I know about that and
Found no answer to that
Conundrum
I would marry a girl of my caste
There doesn't exist dilemma
of any sort
Listen to your instincts
Gives you an unadulterated
Choice
But we carry so many prejudices
That can overwhelm the instincts
The prejudices need not be caste specific
I like girls with hair bob cut
You like newsreader type of girls
All stiff and expressionless
He detected a grimace on his face
And disgust in the voice
Taken aback tried to give respect
To his choice
I liked the bob cut girl in the ad I forgot
Who when trapped in a lift
Danced to a tune in free spirit
Or that bob cut girl in that VIP ad
Who gavotted with a suitcase
Defending himself he knew
It was stupid
But there was no looking back
For the other had made up his
Mind
There was never going to be
Two buddies
Changing the course
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