King of Spades

Girish Karnad’s Wedding Album was playing in Prithvi Theater the other night. There was a lot of buzz surrounding it, considering the cast and the writer in question. Hence decided to give it a shot and that too on a Saturday night, when a shot usually means getting something that lifts your spirits! The play started off promising to be something different, especially with the treatment of the typical pixilated video call by Vidu (Ira Dubey) to her prospective husband Ashwin, who is settled in US and yet wants an Indian bride. The storyline centers around the incidents that happen within the Konkani family, around the impending wedding of their daughter. Vidu’s family consists of her retired father, mom, her elder sister Hema (married and settled in Australia, flown down for the wedding leaving her husband and two kids behind), her brother Rohit (the breadwinner and also a prospective bridegroom) and their maid Radhabai. So the stage looked set for some fun, drama and other things ...

Am writing this article with a premise that all of us know Ramayana- the story of prince Ram. If not, kindly buy a book or rent the entire DVD collection of Ramanand Sagar’s epic serial –Ramayan, which is how most of India learnt about it! The Ramayana play is staged during the Navratri festival leading upto Vijayadashmi, the day when Lord Ram killed Ravan and avenged the abduction of his wife Sita. Ramleela is the name given to the play format that is staged during the festival every year, more so in North India. It’s become more like a tradition that has to be followed come what may. However what makes it interesting is the drama that is usually associated with its casting and the eventual screening. Today people have lost the interest in it, given mythology is uncool for the youth. Most stage actors, given the pittance of the sum they receive as remuneration for their performances don’t really care. Also women do not participate in such plays given the stigma associated with femal...

The main difference between humans and animals is the presence of brain or rather our ability to use it. And what governs our brain or headquarters are emotions. They play a very major role in how we feel, what we do, how we respond to situations/people etc.  Any significant experience in our daily lives, triggered by these emotions, usually gets registered in us as a long term memory. These could be related to something that’s happened around a place or a person. And whenever one gets into a similar zone, these memories resurface and with them the emotions too. Which is precisely the reason why we gel with certain people or like certain kind of food/cuisine or places . And when it comes to a different kind, we just cannot stand them .They leave us with emotions like disgust, anger, sorrow and sometimes even fear . The other kind makes us feel wanted, happy. They bring in the everlasting emotion of joy into our lives thereby creating a strong mutual bond. This bond is what we id...