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The Hindu : Vaishali Bisht enjoyed acting in a play when she was nine and went on to graduate from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England in Theatre and Drama Studies. The Hyderabad-based playwright, director and actor was here with her crew to stage theself-scripted “Face Off” (a set of five monologues) and “Write, Rite and Right” at Ranga Shankara.Says Vaishali, “It just happens that I am a woman and I am reflecting the experiences of what happens when you’re in an urban setting.” Vaishali wants her audience to think about her play.“I want to exist as a member of society and in doing so, the audience also becomes part of the same and shares what has being performed.”Becoming a script-writer, director and actor for Vaishali has been out of compulsion. “It was difficult to find a director with a script.” Shimmering white curtains, a pair of sequined peep-toe sandals on the floor, candles flickering and Indian music playing made for a dreamy setting for the first monologue. “Waiting for Mr. Right” looked at the life of Shama, a woman in purdah who is ever hopeful of a prince in shining armour. Despite the enchanted setting, the lines were inaudible. “Tit for Tat” followed Shivani, a successful career woman played by Smriti Thapa. Though again, the direction was striking Smriti’s acting was bereft of emotion or intensity. Her delivery was marred by a bad accent, diction and pauses.“Man of my Dreams” looked at Swati, a teenaged girl who is again longing for Mr. Right. The repetitive portrayal of women as eternally waiting for the man of her dreams was oppressive. Says Vaishali: “The idea was to delve into the internal landscape of a woman, rather than look at her inner thoughts as defined by patriarchal society.”“Man of my Dreams” and “An Affair to Remember” only endorsed the concept of women waiting for things to happen to them….More

The Hindu : Follow your conscienceC. Arvind Athreya appeals to his fellow students to be better human beingsWith increasing crime rates, pistols are found in the hands of student’s too! This is the state of the world today. There is no end to atrocities carried out by man. Bribery, terrorism and corruption have become an integral part of our life. What has made man so barbaric? Let’s just look in retrospect at the difference in the living standards. Men in earlier times strove to live a righteous life. Man’s belief in the existence of a supreme power and the fear that the perpetrators of crime pay heavily stopped him from going wrong. But today man questions the very existence of this supreme power. Then how would the fear of punishment arise in him?The world definitely has witnessed many disasters due to evil-thinking humans, but at the same time it also stands testimony to many humane deeds of several individuals who have exemplified true humanity. This is because there is a conscience within us, which always guides us along the right path. Whether we believe in the Almighty or not is our choice, but listening to our conscience is a must. We, the student community constitute the future. I earnestly appeal to all my fellow students to follow the right path. Friends, let’s be sensitive to our surroundings.If all of us grow up into excellent human beings, won’t the world be a wonderful place?Do you have anything to say? About the state of the world, the city, your angst? Pen it stylishly and you might get it published.And dash off your piece with your photograph (of 300 dpi resolution). Email it tobangaloremetro@thehindu.co.in or post it to MetroPlus, The Hindu, 19 & 21, Bhagwan Mahaveer Road (Infantry Road), Bangalore 1….More

The Hindu : Sign of threeMEGASTRUCTURES Queen Mary 2National Geographic Channel is presenting viewers withthree programmes from April 1 to 3. On April 1 at 10 p.m.”Hauntings” will watch science unveil the scary face of thesupernatural. Since time immemorial, people have believed inthe dead returning from the grave to haunt the living. But arethey for real? Watch the intriguing investigation at the crossroadsof science and the supernatural, with results that justmight scare you to death.On April 2 at 8 p.m., Nat Geo will reveals “The SecretHeart-Stressed out” - the silent killers of the human heart -the causes of heart disease. Find out how does cholesterol,stress and genetics affects the heart.On April 3 at 8 p.m., Megastructures presents “Queen Mary2″. The show will take you on a voyage through the largestocean liner ever built, from the cutting of the first steel panelto the installation of the iconic red and black funnel of this 800million dollar giant of the seas.In 1998, years after the golden age of ocean liner travel hadended, the last ocean liner in service was deciding to call itquits. In a dramatic turn, an American billionaire decides tofulfil his dream and build the largest ocean liner of all time anda team will have to build it in record time. This will requirethem to almost re-invent shipbuilding for the 21st century,using cutting edge technology on a massive scale….More

The Hindu : Kids studio, a division of Escape, is organising its 10th annual summer workshop from April 2 to 8. The workshop is for children in the age group of five to 17 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The venue is 110/A, 1st Floor, 29th cross, 7th Block, Jayanagar.The place is also organising a two-month workshop, priced at Rs. 3,750. This workshop starts on April 1 and goes on till the last week of May. Kids Studio also organises weekend camps. Pick up and drop facility available will be provided, claim the organisers. For details call 98457 18322 or 22445824.***Doodleden’s summer camp begins on April 14. Each day there will be something different that a child can look forward to. The first session is for children in the age group of four to seven years between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. There will be craft-making sessions with yarn and paper, priced at Rs. 150. On April 15 there will be art work with paper mache ladybird magnet and colour play, priced at Rs. 175. Baking will be taught on April 16 (Rs. 175). There will also be sessions such as story telling, interactive sessions with sing-a-long and crafts, pottery, paint your own ceramic and pottery. The last date to register is April 1. For details and registrations call Doodle Den on 41240090.***Radhicka Jumnani is organising summer camps at appleofmyi. . The first batch of the camp for juniors is scheduled from April 7 to 18 from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and includes activities such as games, flower magic, sand art, fitness, colouring etc. The camp for seniors begins on the same day but from 5 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. The summer camps are priced at Rs. 2,500 per camp or Rs. 325 per day. For details contact Radhicka on 9845190766 or Suman on 9845319985.***Kara Kindergarten introduces the Kara KiNDERkamps, which is a holiday camp and…More

The Hindu : April Fool’s Day or All Fool’s Day occurs annually on April 1. The day is generally observed by playing a practical joke on a gullible “victim” who soon becomes the “April Fool”. There is much debate surrounding the origin of the custom. However, most believe that the tradition started in France during the 16th century. Supposedly, April Fool’s Day involved changes in the calendar. While the custom has survived the centuries, the kind of pranks played has changed considerably. From sending the unsuspecting on pointless errands to pinning “monkey” on a friend’s back, April Fool’s Day is one that is packed with humour the world over.Bogus calls from kidnappers and hospitals are some of the typical types of pranks played. But now, with the entire globe banking on the media for the latest news updates, television channels, radio stations and even newspapers have their share in fooling millions of people with a mere ‘out of the box’ headline!“The whole idea is to have the right spirit and to be sportive,” says Kousthub Raj, a businessman. He narrates how he once received a phone call that made him think he had hit the jackpot.Apparently the caller told him that he had won a one-crore contract with a company he hadn’t heard of. He was even given the address of the company. Before setting out to meet his “partners”, he bought himself a new suit and even booked one of those classy cars, only to realise that the company was non-existent and at the given address, his friends had congregated to shout out “April Fool!”Many people, however, think that All Fool’s Day is quite a juvenile custom and that it loses its charm among adults. Gopal Krishnaswami, an engineering student, recalls a time in school when they had poured drops of water on the teacher’s chair before she sat down.The end result was obvious. They were all…More

The Hindu : Seventy-five years of exciting Hindi cinema. Seventy-five years of action-packed Indian cricket. When these two come together, it is a dream come true for the public and the media.We don’t know how much film stars know about the game or how much cricket stars appreciate good films. But the mutual attraction between the two kinds of stars has existed for several years.Cast your mind to the 1960s when starlet Anju Mahendru was the long-standing girl friend of our Number 1 heart throb, Rajesh Khanna. He chucked her for Dimple Kapadia and she announced her engagement to touring West Indian cricket genius, Gary Sobers. We thought it was all a publicity stunt to boost Anju’s sagging morale. Nothing came out of the romance; Gary set off to marry Australian Prudence while Anju remained…Anju.If Anju let her man go, another starlet, Nina Gupta did not. Her ‘catch’ was the equally impressive Viv Richards with Nina announcing in a popular weekly she wanted a child from the world’s greatest batsman. Indian feminists cheered. Well, they had a daughter, Viv visited her and the daughter regularly and Nina found a career in television. Marriage? Obviously, that was never on the cards. But there was a marriage between Pakistani opener Mohsin Khan and Bollywood star, Reena Roy.Must visitBollywood had been a sort of pilgrim centre for visiting Pakistan players; one of their captains, Imran Khan, briefly carried the torch for our own Zeenat Aman. Mohsin tried his hand at acting, failed. Reena was never happy in Pakistan, came back and the marriage ended after a custody battle for the daughter. Not a happy story.It was a happy story for Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and the Tagore family film star, Sharmila. The Prince wooed the showgirl for four years, she followed him on cricket tours of England, and finally they got married to become one of India’s show pieces, show biz…More

The Hindu : We have a strange habit of attributing our success as well as our problems to English. While one group hails the language as a job tool, the other one denigrates it for diluting our traditional values. Now, English has become the centre of another battle, the battle for TRPs. NDTV Imagine has come up with a new show “Angrezi Main Kehte Hain”. Considering each member of the family has something to do with the language, it is an interesting way of attracting eyeballs. “And we are teaching for free, unlike the institutes, which charge a hefty fee,” says Shernaz Patel, who is playing the teacher in the show. The renowned theatre personality describes the show as edutainment. “English has become a tool of communication. Even Hindi films have credits in English. We will follow a curriculum starting from the basics like sentence structure, usage of articles and words like thank you and sorry.”Shernaz says the focus is on solving basic problems. “Like the difference between tea spoon and table spoon and credit card and debit card. Similarly these days people face embarrassment in interacting with English speaking salespersons in malls.”The series has set characters like a grandfather who wants to interact with his English speaking grandson, a mother who faces problems in speaking during parent–teacher meetings and a girl who is getting married to an NRI.“To keep things light we have gags in between, explaining the pronunciation in the process.” A Parsi, Shernaz says she thinks in English. “This is a ridiculous generalisation that the language affects your dressing sense or culture. I love wearing traditional Indian outfits. Going by the designers’ logic how will you describe the language of a person who loves to wear kurti with jeans? It is just a tool for communication; it has nothing to do with your identity.”Talking about Parsis, Shernaz says it’s a depleting community. “Thank God, the…More

The Hindu : Poet and novelist Priya Sarukkai Chabria prefers to call “Generation 14” speculative literature, and not hard science fiction. “My second novel is not science fiction as it is not a book by a scientist researching on science,”says Chabria, who feels she has used her imagination and poetry to explore emotions.“Generation 14”, jointly published by Zubaan and Penguin India moves in the memory of Clone 14/54/G in the 24th century. The Pune-based Chabria says she explored the idea of cloning as “we are moving towards an era of cloning”. She wonders: “What is the relationship with a human clone going to be like?Will we have problems with him/her, will we treat her like an independent being?”The writer, who was at the National Institute of Advanced Studies to talk about the meeting of arts and sciences, says she used the clone as a metaphor for a world that is fraught with communal stripes of violence.“As a society governed by fear and terror, we are not thinking for ourselves.A clone’s mind is controlled – she cannot think for herself and she is not allowed or incapable of pondering about certain facts of life.” Clone 14/54/G has a default memory chip that takes her into the prohibited world of memory and emotions.“It is an amnesiac journey into her past – a journey into her heart.” And this is what took Chabria eight long years to research and put together. “I explored history from 2500 B.C. to the 24th century.” Chabria feels that visual historical material has helped contextualise the protagonist’s blast into the past. “Writers or artists who engage with other art forms broaden their writing canvas.”Sense of releaseWith the publication of the novel, Chabria feels “a great sense of release.Now I leave it to different intelligent readers who will create their own understandings from it.”Can the book be looked at as a political satire? “The book is constructed…More

The Hindu : Artists, writers and poets have, since eternity, been inspired by nature. With its myriad forms, captivating colours, intriguing elements and ever changing moods, nature has held sway on their thought and action. Bangalore-based Bhavani is one such artist who has continually produced works with nature as the principal focus. The artist who spent her childhood in the lap of nature (Coorg) holds a masters degree in fine arts. She has held several exhibitions in the city since 2000. Her current set of paintings shows her continued engagement with nature and environment.In these paintings, the artist caresses her images with subdued colours to delineate the gentle radiance of the forest.Tall trees, colourful tendrils, swishing leaves, and tiny creepy-crawly insects make their presence felt in her work; the mood is sombre.Particularly reflective in feel and substance are images of sturdy branches carrying tender, circular mushrooms and tiny, colourful insects. One can sight a delightful spontaneity in some works where colours and movement carry their own characteristic rhythms and melodies.Bhavani is not content with producing pleasing images. There are subtle comments in her work as well. For instance, a huge tree with dangling, criss-crossing branches is also depository for a discarded coca-cola can! The artist’s concern against commodification of nature also comes through in one of her paintings which bears the blurb: “Green Package. 3 days. 4 nights. Starting from Rs. 6,500 per person per night. Includes stay, all meals, jeep safari, trekking and taxes.”The urban-rural variance is also seen in a set of paintings where the (partially hidden) protagonist stands as a mute spectator; in one painting she is seen viewing a beautiful green landscape while in the other, she seems to be bewildered by a cluttered skyline of burgeoning city.Bhavani’s treks in the wild also help her to capture the charm of the woods through interesting photographs. She frames her sightings through cleverly placed sticks in…More

The Hindu : “The Quilt”, (Lihaaf) published in 1941, is Ismat Chughtai’s infamous short story about same-sex desire, which was banned, then subsequently cleared of obscenity charges. The story revolves around the child narrator’s visit to her aunt, Begum Jan, while her mother travels to Agra.Begum Jan’s aristocratic husband, the pious, courteous Nawab Sahib shows little sexual interest in his wife, preferring the company of young, slender boys. Begum wastes herself away until Rabbo, the hearty working-class masseuse, rouses her from her torpid gloom through her deft, supple, and loving massages.Nawab Sahib’s homoeroticism is refracted by Begum’s unsolicited overtures towards the feisty, un-named child narrator. The unspeakable secret of what the narrator glimpsed, through a “slit,” under the bouncing sheets, when the quilt momentarily lifts during the vigorous movements underneath, closes the narrative. The narrator witnesses this primal scene, while herself in a feverishly delirious and sleepless state, trying to reconcile her own ambivalent and contradictory desires and revulsions for Begum.Kriya’s commendable one-person production of Chughtai’s story, ably translated into Kannada by Sukanya Kanaralli, and co-directed by Surekha and Bhavani Prakash, was staged recently at Ranga Shankara. Bhavani Prakash effectively evoked the slothful sensuality of Begum’s zenana.Fiesty and intimidatingHer magnificent performance was in turns feisty, intimidating, and amorous, as she played the three central characters of the child-narrator, Begum Jan, and the lover-masseuse. The production evokes the interplay between textile and textual, between fabric and fabrication, and interrupts the seam-less flow of gender identity into heterosexual desire. The fabric that drapes the performer functions variously: as a veil it connotes modesty, as a quilt, it is a cover for illicit pleasures; in addition, it extends sartorially from the veil into the larger world of the zenana.The effective use of the scrim and the shadow-play of fabric projects the terrors and fantasies of a child’s narrative imagination onto the spectral backdrop.The play concludes with the gradual elevation of a…More