yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

Hyderabad Hona! Recently we went to Hyderabad for a few days to attend an event, and as is our wont we ended up exploring food places as well. While Hyderabad has, during the recent years, expanded at no small pace, metro has made access to some of these easier. We went to the old haunts - Nimrah at Charminar, Grand at Abids, Alfa at Secunderabad, Bilal at Mozamjahi and Pista House, paid our respects, and had our fill. However, this time it was the relatively newer ( read as having come up during the recent years ) places that blew us away. One needs the audacity - to not just dream at the scale, at which these places operate, but to live those dreams, each day. These dreams also need a city that nurtures them, allows them to come alive. The dreams in turn harbour the capacity to redefine, to add flavour to, the city. Hyderabad and these places ( dreams in action! ) are made for each other! Hyderabad gives these places, businesses, that ‘something’ they  need if they are to stand o...

What I learnt from the History Literature Festival?  Not long after Eesha and I reached the venue I realised that the impromptu decision to take leave from school and book seats on the only available train to Hyderabad to attend a literature festival focussing on history was a good one. At the school students often ask us why they need to learn history at all - in other words why we are doing what we are doing! Incidentally we also teach history! Over the course of 3 days we listened to people talk about not only the history of the Deccan but also history of businesses, history of music, history of cinema, history of  arts, history of WW2, and other facets of history. It was also heartening to see some of the students ( especially grade 8 ) of HPS ( the venue ) actively participate, to make use of the opportunity at their doorstep. The overall vibes were positive - vibes we could not have experienced online. Some of the speakers were ( for lack of another term ) high quality...

Jashn E Deccan, festive indeed Mumi asked if this December too the music festival we had been to, during the previous year, at the outskirts of town was being organized. Some days later we came across the flier for the 2 nd edition of the Jashn E Deccan and, as they say, blocked the dates.   During the previous edition Pandit Biswajit Roy Choudhury, one of the artists, had beautifully described event as, ‘ Everything here is so beautifully unconventional ’. Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan’s performance at the event unfortunately turned out to be his final performance; that evening at the age of 108 he had stunned all present and for me redefined few terms.   This year’s edition, held at the same venue, Sreenidhi International School , had performances by 6 artists spread across 2 evenings. Pandit Uday Bhawalkar began the proceedings with Raag Yaman and moved on to Raag Shivranjani. Seeing him perform I recalled Piyush Mishra state that an artist had to enjoy his perfo...

This piece finds space in The Hindu Sunday Magazine today. Thanks are due to Lamakaan, Nayeem and Subba Reddy.       Open House. Image: P Jeganathan Some weeks ago I was discussing alternative spaces and cultural centres in our cities with a friend, and she asked what was so special about Lamakaan , the not-profit open cultural space in Banjara Hills. The answer I had then come up with was a rather drab one. Something about the place being different, that it warranted a trip to understand it, that it had a certain ‘something’. Then, a week ago I saw a woman, possibly in her 50’s sitting on the raised platform in a room at Lamakaan. She looked comfortable in her saree, adjusting it once in a while, as she read, absorbed, from her laptop. Suddenly it struck me: this is why Lamakaan is so special. It makes all of us, irrespective of age, class or gender, feel comfortable in our skin, at ease. Image: P Jeganathan  I remembered how I ha...

I had been on them a couple of times but finally we took the local train, to enjoy the train. The journey from station nearest to home to the last station on line, Arts College to Falaknuma, cost 5/- per person. A quick check – after return – on the fare for cab for the route pointed to 300/- and indicated consuming thrice the time. Some Sunday evenings we go to Lamakaan to soak in events; that day it felt as if we were going to another city. Not only did the constructions outside give the feel but also the people we shared the coach with. Falaknuma station I had walked on for about 20 odd minutes when, during a return journey from Bangalore, the train had taken an unscheduled halt. My memory was restricted to an interesting quiet about it, a long structure – rooms stitched together for storing goods and a double-decker train. The red and yellow train was present today as well and the storage space appeared equally laid back. Google Earth, April 2016, Falaknuma Station and ac...

Snippets from a talk by Rahul Bose at Lamakaan My  memories of Rahul Bose: We enjoyed ‘Everyone Says I am Fine’, one of us did not recognize Rahul Bose when he comes towards the end and in recent months I have unsuccessfully searched it on You–tube. Then there  was Shaurya which  I had enjoyed. The first movie though was the stunner Bombay Boys with him singing on the road at night. Other than ‘Matunga’ we got most of the lyrics wrong then! And yes there was an interview during Doordarshan days where he talked of walking, climbing in Panchgini where I got to know he was our rugby captain! How he began: He talked of his visits to his masi’s home at Bombay and how people used to come for not only chai and conversations but also to sleep. On days that he too slept there, he could see – early in the day – 14 bodies lying in the morning in the ten feet by ten feet room. The single room home – as if – used to expand at night. Lamakaan too gave him this feel...

As we walked around the Masjid building, a proverbial parikrama, two aunties over-took us – spring in their steps. Clad in burquas and holding bright coloured sports-shoes in hands; they left us surprised and with smiles. There was something about this sight which conveyed that the world around is neither constant nor boring, all we need is to keep our senses open.   At a corner another aunty we saw sitting on a bench with her two small hand-bags for company. With interest and peace levels that are not common at public spaces she was engaged with the bags. She reminded me of dadi and I kept watching as she got a bottle from one of the bags and sipped water. As we walked ahead two other aunties sat on the floor between the Masjid wall and its boundary wall as the children played in the shade. Was the Masjid’s compound too being encroached at some point of time, I wondered, like that of Khilwat. Such an unimaginative boundary – in either case - and a tad too small for the large, an...