Goodbye Dr. Avid

Dance is one art form I never really learnt to appreciate although I have enjoyed individual performances once in a while. 

Decades ago, I attended a dance recital in the Open Air Theatre of the Mysore University. The artiste was Sanjukta Panigrahi, accompanied by her husband Raghunath Panigrahi’s impressive singing. 

It was a very good performance and once in a while, I found an appreciative “ah” escaping me. The sheer beauty of her footwork matching the beats of the percussion while her torso did an elegant twist, her arms essayed a graceful glide, her hands assumed a Mudra that even my uneducated mind could not only grasp but gasp at – all in a thrilling moment of time, gone forever.

My relationship with cricket is very similar to that with dance, even though I have played gully cricket when in school, straddled with the nickname Loyd* since I wore glasses, where the similarity to the big cat ended. My appreciation of the game is at about the same level as that of my appreciation of dance. I have even rejoiced, often, when the Indian cricket team lost a series or a tournament, only with the hope that one billion odd people would consider other sports for entertainment. The team has been showing such exceptional consistency at losing, in recent times, that depresses even me.

Similar to Sanjukta, Dravid has made an appreciative “ah” escape me by playing one or two of his famous shots. I do not know the names of those shots but the sheer beauty of a lean white clad figure, set in an emerald background, shuffling backwards on his feet while he rises on his toes, his body leaning backwards in perfect poise, the arms and gloved hands moving fluidly down and away and the cherry racing to the 1 O’clock boundary. You know what I mean. You probably even know the name of this shot if you are anywhere near a typical Indian. There are two other shots that have done the same thing to me.

I am thankful to Rahul Dravid for those moments as I am to Sanjukta Panigrahi for those unforgettable moments.

His dapper looks, impeccable behavior, self deprecating humour - never threatening to be mistaken for false modesty and lastly his records, only added to the background in which those shots could be appreciated for their beauty intuitively.

* For those who know less about cricket than I do, it was Clive Loyd, from the West Indies, who was the only cricketer then that wore glasses. He appeared to be a lumbering gentle giant with feline grace and there was nothing gentle about the way he dispatched the ball all over the park

The Miracle that was Not

I recently watched an episode of Sherlock Holmes in the BBC serial. Holmes in today's world. Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson have done an excellent job.

In this episode, caught in the excitement of the case, Watson forgets his limp and the walking stick and is cured. 

There is also a reference to his analyst who is treating him for intermittent shaking in his hands and has diagnosed it as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes diagnoses it as the result of Watson's addiction to action he experienced in Afghanistan!

If Holmes were to be in India, he would be deified, I am sure. 

A friend had once told me the story of a man who had lost his legs and was  wheelchair dependent.

This man heard of a healer somewhere in Karnataka and came all the way from Kerala to seek a cure. The healer took a look at the man, examined him and asked a lot of questions and asked the man to stand up. What? Yes, he was asked to stand up and the healer helped the man up. When his family members came forward solicitously to assist, they were shooed away. Miracle Miracle. The man stood up. Of course he had some difficulty but the healer would not hear of it. 

Then he told the patient that there was nothing wrong with him and that others were making him believe that he could not walk.

Then he asked the patient to get going. Fees? Nothing. "I did not treat him at all. He is perfectly OK. So where is the question of a fee?"

When the patient started walking slowly to the car they had come in, again the family members tried to help him but were strictly forbidden from doing so. 

If I remember right, my friend told me that he had accompanied the family as he was also from Kerala. I can't check since the friend is sadly no more. I can't get the details of the man either.

The healer was a simple man, in a dhoti and shirt. The place where he saw patients was also very simple and no fancy stuff at all. He was not after money, I am told and borne out by the above story.

So, what is the point of all this?

Not much perhaps but something very important. When something seemingly miraculous happens, you do not have to conclude that a miracle did happen. You may at least suspend your belief.

Especially when such a thing happens with a lot of fanfare and razzle dazzle you can be sure that you are being taken for a ride. Benny Hin's visit to Bangalore comes to mind. There was this funny incident when he touched Deve Gowda, the former prime minister and the then chief of Karnataka Police. Many others he touched had all collapsed and there were members of his entourage and volunteers to catch them. They were at the ready for these two too. They need not have wasted their efforts. These two stood like rocks. 

aPaulogy - a Gallery of the Works of Paul Fernandes

I visited it last Saturday and it was a great start to a week's holiday. 

Paul's works on display are a curious and delightful mixture of cartooning and watercolour painting. Each work has elements of both in greater or smaller measure. Added colour is the word play and a fund of badly or wrongly written signboards collected with a keen eye.

One of the best things about this gallery is the way it has been arranged. Superb - is the word. It can not be described - it has to be seen, experienced. DO not miss the miniature Pianos made by Paul - both uprights and a grand.

My recommendation: Go see it, enjoy it and have a grand time! 


It is open from 11 am to 7.30 pm on weekdays and Saturdays. 


Address:

15 Clarke Road (Opposite Au Bon Pain) Richards Park Entrance, Richards Town, Bangalore - 560 005.

Here are some pictures I took.

The Power

On a recent short holiday, a whole evening was spoiled by Ayyappa. I mean, Ayyappa's devotees. At the very edge of the reserve forest they have built a small temple. (In that setting, at dusk and dawn, with all the oil lamps lit, it is a beautiful sight I must admit, almost reluctantly.) and from 6 to 9   in the evening, the loudspeakers were blaring out the typical, sadistically monotonous Ayyappa songs. One particular song which has "kallum mullum" in it in the first few lines is really kallum mullum to my ears. In spite of it, long after even the devotees had had enough and left, the song was going through my mind in an endless loop- it just wouldn't leave me. A perfect earworm.

(Ayyappa, is also called Shasta or Dharmashasta - claiming that he preserved/interpreted (or something, I really do not know) the dharma shastras for this world. I am sure the shastras did not have anything that said, "thou shalt not cause harm and alarm to wild beings, who are also the creation of the supreme being, peace be upon him, especially in or close to their natural habitat" - ah that is a unification of three major world religions in one sentence.) 

When I related this incident to an Ayyappa devotee, he half earnestly said that it was an earworm because it was the power of god in general and Ayyappa in particular.

Then came Kolaveri di.

Pandit Vijaya Raghav Rao - A Multi Faceted Genius

Pt. Vijaya Raghav Rao, a flutist I admired a lot, passed away recently. I came to know about it yesterday and here is a small tribute to him.

He is prominent among the long list if South Indians who made a name in and contributed to the field of Hindustani music. 

If I remember right, I heard him first on a AIR Radio Sangeet Sammelan. Later, I realised that music for most of the Films Division documentaries at that time was composed by him. On the rare occasions I saw a movie, I would look out for the credits to these documentaries and I would have guessed if the music was indeed his or someone else. Even in a field like that, his refined sense and distinctive style were recognisable - not an easy task.

While I was researching on the net for this post, I found that he was the music coordinator for the film Gandhi by Attenborough, he composed music for Mrinal Sen's "Ek Adhoori Kahani" and "Bhuvan Shome", among others, and that there is a movie on him, (made by his son?), called My Father: An Artist.

Sometime ago, I sketched a portrait of this sensitive musician and I post it here in tribute to him.

Beware of these "Slippers"

Look at the sole of this bathroom / household / Hawai slippers.

Its "designer" must have contributed to the financial well-being of orthopaedics and pharmacists at great risk to life and limb of people.


You wear a pair of these and step on water on smooth floor (not the rough road is what I mean) and hey presto!, you are horizontal on the floor. The sole has pyramid shaped depressions. When your weight falls on the slipper, the air trapped in the depressions must somehow escape. When it does you become a "hovercraft" and the foot does not get any grip.


So, before you buy a pair of slippers (What a perfect name in this case!), watch out for the sole. Avoid those with this feature like the plague! If you have a pair at home like this, cut them and throw them away. If I am not mistaken, even Bata sells a model like this, in India.


There may be other such designs. If you look at the soles, you will be able to see if air could be trapped somewhere. 


So beware!

Neither Legal Nor Logical

A friend sent me the following joke, in German, from Germany, by e-mail.


A student failed in Logic and Organisation examination.


Student: You have failed me in the examination. But do you really understand anything yourself?

Professor: Of course I do! If not, I would not be a professor.

Student: OK, then. I will ask you something. If you give me the right answer, I will just go away. If you cannot, you have to give me 60% marks.

Professor: Agreed.

Student: What is legal but not logical, logical but not legal and neither logical nor legal.


The professor thought a long time and gave the student 60% marks and went away.


He then called his best student and asked him the same question.


The stduent answered right away: You are 63 but married to a 35 year old lady. It is legal but not logical. She has a 25 year old paramour. That is logical but not legal. That you gave 60% marks to your wife's lover when he had failed is neither legal nor logical!






Now, it continues, I ask you the same question. 


No idea? Here is a good answer then:


It is legal that we sit here and work, but not logical. It is logical that we mail each other such jokes but not legal. It is neither legal nor logical that we get paid for it!


I hope my bosses do not read my blog!