Cosmic Nad: the pulsating beat of Kathak

Sheetal Kolwalkar, Kaveri Agashe and Ketaki Phadke-Shah perform at the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hall on 28th September, 2007.

( Click image for large size view )

28th September 2007, Friday
Raincloud is a freelancer, writing for The Times Of India, Pune supplements. These are four page supplements that are published three times a week. A bunch of freelancers have been assigned to make up for the content and photographs. Raincloud is one of them. So we happened to be at this event, I accompanied Raincloud out of sheer curiosity. A half-day arrangement for a month had been agreed upon at my workplace, in the process of shifting to another job.

Cosmic Nad, a Kathak dance group was performing for a NGO - Prashanti Cancer Care Mission (PCCM).We were at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Hall, Camp just after 6 pm. It is an old hall and still standing. Not more than 50 people were there. We scramble through the darkness and take the fifth row seats in the middle. Then we got dazzled by the art. The pulsating feet of the kathak dancers, the vocals, the gently looping sound of the harmonium, the breathtaking tabla.

It is a polished, delectable performance, emanating of youth, tradition, rhythm and tradition. An old world aura.  

*
Percussion
–noun
The striking of one body against another with some sharpness; impact; blow.

Here's a list of words that you can search for on the Internet or Wikipedia:
Kathak
Anklets
Ghungroo
Footwork
Improvisation
Chakras
Revolutions
Hand movements
Designs patterns

" Life is absurd, be merry, be happy, be idle"

A collage illustrating the message of Tom Hodgkinson's new book - How to be free

I could not believe my luck on spotting an issue of The Idler at the British Library. A London based bi-yearly magazine; advocates the virtues of being idle. It reasons that idleness is a necessary part of life. A hundred assenting yawns to that. The first edition was published in 1993 by two friends- Tom Hodgkinson and Gavin Pretor-Pinney.
Stimulating and thought-provoking, the magazine offers an alternative and simpler approach. The message is: enjoy your nap. Spread like a furry cat on the bed. Go fishing. Lie on your back in an open field and watch the clouds changing shapes. Rediscover the joys of writing with the fountain pen.There's more to The Idler than meets the eye.
The website- http://idler.co.uk/ does not offer the magazine contents online. This is probably because sitting before the computer is a hurdle to idleness.

BAN THE TV

This collage is the result of what television has done to my life.

Celebrating the Hindi Film Soundtrack History

A great site for hindi film song lovers, is a site by the name of www.downmelodylane.com.


Mohd Rafi, actor Ashok Kumar and his brother Kishore. Rafi sang most of his songs in the fifties and sixties. Kishore regaled us in the seventies and eighties. Comparisons can do no justice to these extraordinary singers.


The queen of song:Lata Mangeshkar strumming a guitar. Lata's favorite band is the Beatles.


Rafi lets his angelic voice take over


Asha Bhosale and RD Burman, along with SD Burman and his wife pose for a family picture.

You Mint link

Hi everyone,

You mint is an SMS service where you can get paid for receving free SMS's daily. You can also send free SMS messages through the site by inviting your friends to the site.
To avial of these features:
http://www.youmint.com/network-snehith25

CELLPHONE HELLPHONE

I finally got a cell phone.
Envy did it to me. There they were, my ex-classmates chatting at a restaurant on a Saturday evening. I couldn't make it because there was no way I could have known. Except for telepathy.

Yes, that did it to me.

So I went to this Nokia store, bought a model that enables me to:
1. Speak
2. Hear what others speak.

Truly marvellous features!


COMING SOON: More on the devilish cellphone...