The Grown up Deeksha

Deeksha has grown up now and she is in her high school !!!! Time runs so fast..... :)

I still remember. It was June 15th, 1997.
When Deeksha was born, she weighed 2 kilos and 500 grams. She was born one month earlier than tha scheduled date. A couple of days later, she caught up with Jaundice (this is the case with quite a few newborn children nowadays). The doctor spoke to us and told that the intensity of Jaundice was bit high. In that context, we were asked to put Deeksha in the incubator with artificial yellow light. We used make Deeksha sleep one hour with her facing the light (did she get that instinct of facing the arclight on stage with this ?? :) ) and one hour in the ulta position where the light used to fall on her back. By this way, they wanted to activate the liver functioning. At this point of time, doctor told us that the jaundice level was at 8 (not sure what was the measuring unit). She said that if it reaches 12, then the blood transfusion has to be done. For this, everyday, they used to take her blood for testing. That got us into a bit of worry and confusion. Somehow, she was able to come out of Jaundice. At this point of time, doctor said that she was worried about the parity of lungs since Deeksha was born one month early. But, the lungs were normal.

Back home, we started seeing Deeksha slowly responding to the sounds, voices. We got a cradle done specially for her from Chennapattana, the place known for colorful wooden toys. We got a walker again made from Chennapattana for her. This was one of those colorful traditional triangular wooden walker with 3 wheels (that walker has already crossed 7 children !!! :))

Deeksha slowly started crawling around, trying to converse with us. We were finding it extremely difficult to understand what she was trying to say... :) One fine day, she started walking with support and we were quite happy about it.

Above all, she had a ear for music !!! We used to put music in the night before she went for sleep... surprisingly, even today, she has the habit of putting on the music and sleep !!

She was 6 years and she started developing the sense of rhythm. We observed that and decided to put her to learn dance. I wanted her to learn a different format of dance and hence put her under Vyjayanthi Kashi for Kuchipudi. Most children learn Bharatanatyam. But I wanted Kuchipudi as that was more story oriented and Abhinaya oriented. This had the combination of theatre, music and dance. Deeksha liked the form instantly. It was very nice to see her going through the learning sessions. She must have been around 3 feet and we got her a small uniform stitched for the dance class. It was very interesting to see her dancing to the rhythm.
In the school also, she started participating in the extra curriculums. Every dance event, every music event, till date, she is part of that in her school since her LKG days. From the time she was dancing with colorful umbrellas when she was in her 1st or 2nd standard, to now, where she performs her solos, it's been a wonderful journey for her. Academically also, she has been on A and A+ which I am not really bothered. What I believe is that the children have to grow in the external world and not in the world of bookish education.

She wants to do her fine arts or journalism when she completes her 10th standard. I want her to see the practical world more than the imaginary world which we all provide to our children. She do not want to become an engineer or a doctor as she do not like science and mathematics.

I still have kept the option open for her. I am not forcing her to do what I like (But, for sure, I have spoken to her about how studying fine arts or journalism would enrich her life and exepriences). She want to continue her dancing and she wants to be in the field of arts. There remains the target as of now... :) :)

Back after a long hiatus

Somehow, I was able to zip through my exams and I am back into action.
I was not in touch with the world. Music system in my room was powered off for almost 20 days !!!! From 8th June, till 20th June, my laptop was kept inside the cupboard and locked. My only mode of communication to outside world was my dabba mobile......

The exams, I found to be too excruciating.... not because I am writing my exams after a span of 20 years.... I always felt exams to be too sense less and too life less. It does not care who you are and what you think about them. Their only aim is to grill you and make your life tough.... So, what do we learn from exams? For me it's time and again proof that me and exams don't go hand in hand.....

However, I hope I am out of this rut called exams and I also hope that I will never get a chance to sit for an exam once again in my life.... I hope to see that I get my masters degree certificate and be done with it... It's too much... it's too tiring..... Bindu, a friend of mine jokingly commented on a little goof up I created in the office on Friday and she said that "Ramesh, I know ur brains are overworked after ur exams….ask ur boss some more leave!".... seriously, it is true, but unfortunately, I do not have that option of going for some more leave !!!! If I do that, I will be asked to leave !!! :)

It was 5 papers in Kannada literature covering literature from 5th century till 19th century. Even though I went through my text books 4 times, every time I was reading them, I was feeling that how come I know so little???

One paper on the inscription literature (these are the literatures inscribed on stones, metals and other materials.... these are the source of finding out how were the old days, what were the wars fought, how was the society? who were treated how? what did the king give to whom? and lots of other stuff) was quite tough but it's quite interesting to see how was the life then in 5th century. Even in 5th cetury, all human characters were there in every human being. Love, hatred, greed, war, peace, literature, beautiful and gorgeous women, handsome men, nature, everything. There was also one more thing which was there during those days which is not available today. Peace of Mind !!!!

Anyway, bygones be bygones....

I am happy to put my thought into this blog again and connect with the people on different planes... I happy to be back into this space again !!!

Impressions & Expressions - Theatre

This was the article which I wrote for my company's intranet magazine sometime in 2007.

Just thought of reproducing it here....

Theatre…. Plays, scripts, lighting, makeup, costumes, props, and to top it all the sheer excitement of being on stage in front of a live audience!!

It is almost 18 years since I have been sucked into the black hole called theatre. I have no idea how to come out and have no intention of coming out either!!

The Indian theatre scenario has been subtle in the last few years. In spite of this, most of the theatre folks, no matter how busy they are with television soap operas and cinemas, make sure that they come on stage once a month and really get into the act!

I am delighted to belong to the theatre community, which is known for its eccentricities. In my experience of being part of Kannada theatre over the last 18 years, I have seen many ups and downs.

My venture into theatre was not sudden; it began in school. I started my theatre experiments with the street theatre as a singer. It was a strange experience as there was no stage, no make up, or lights and we performed amidst the public. Our goal was “Theatre for a cause”. We always believed and still believe that theatre is more for a social cause than entertainment.

There have been days when we went without food or shared meals but still kept moving from village to village. The people from the villages encouraged us to perform in numerous ways. In exchange for our street theatre performances, they performed their folk art, which we tried to use in our plays. In one of the plays we used martial arts like Kalaripayattu from Kerala, Thaang Tha from Manipur, and the dance form Sarpankali from Kerala.

Traveling to villages, singing and acting on the streets, and trying to create awareness on social issues like cancer, alcohol addiction, superstitions, through the street plays, have been memorable moments and I've had the satisfaction of reaching out to people on various occasions with success.

I then moved on to proscenium theatre, that is theatre on stage. The performances challenge your creativity within restricted limits.

I had the chance to be part of a workshop conducted by Utpal Dutt, an unforgettable name, whose brilliance showed in his expressions and creative genius. Utpal was tough to work with and demanded the best!

On the other hand, I found it easy to work with Shankar Nag on a his production “Nagamandala”, which was written by Girish Karnad. Our rehearsals at his farmhouse often began at 10 p.m. and lasted till 2 a.m. And by 4:30 a.m., Shankar was ready for his shooting schedules. A man with huge reserves of energy and a super star, yet very down to earth. This is what theatre teaches you-- have your foot firm on the ground and never allow it to float around! And the perfect example of Shankar Nag's humility was evident when he chose to return from Calcutta with us by train in a second class compartment. A man with unmatched talent, very few know that he was an excellent singer as well.

Nagabharana, the man who has won many national and international awards for his films, is one more person I remember fondly. Of course, I am still a singer with his theatre group, BENAKA. He is brilliant at visual conceptualizations and can go to any extremes to bring those visuals to reality. It is wonderful to share the stage with him.

This article will not be complete if I do not mention Rangashankara, a dedicated theatre space for Bangaloreans created by the collective genius minds of Girish Karnad, MS Sathyu, and Arundhathi Nag based on the lines of Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, which led by Shashi Kapoor and his daughter Sanjana Kapoor. I have participated in about 30 shows in Rangashankara and each time I am on stage, it has been a hair rising experience for me! I still get cold feet.

I had two dreams of which one is realized and another will never be.

The first one was to watch Utpal Dutt on stage, which never happened and he is no more with us. So, this will remain unfulfilled.
The second one was to watch Amol Palekar on stage, which I did during one of the plays in Mumbai.

I still dream of working with people like Nasiruddin Shah, Nana Patekar, Anang Desai, Lillette Dubey, and many more.