its the best of times, it is the worst of times...

as regards the cultural scene in this city. well friday i went for the bengalooru habba. was supposed to start at 6:30 (although the passes said 6), we got there by 7 and till 8 there was no sign of any activity. reason? ex-cm krishna hadn't bothered calculating his traveling time correctly before lifting off from mumbai. i feel a little bad now but i was part of the crowd that booed loudly when he finally did make an appearance. or maybe he deserved it considering no apologies with a capital A passed his lips. After an eternity of speechifying, finally the concert kicked off....L Subramaniam was brilliant-breath-taking and absorbing. Its a pity I had to leave a little after but it was pushing on 9:30 and I had to take an auto...

On Sat, deciding not to tag along with the parents for a Glorious X'mas concert, I went instead for a play. The posters said it was unsuitable for ppl under 18yrs of age as it dealt with issues of god and religion and blah. I bought the 100 bucker and waited patiently. Play started on the dot. It was nothing like what I had expected. No doubt the lead actor was good but there was no point to the entire thing. Even in a one act play, I'm sorry but I demand a strong storyline. All I got out of this half-an-hourer (yes it was half an hour only!) was that there is this Muslim undertaker guy in London who hates God and in the last moment he accepts him. And the whole half an hour can be summarised in exactly that 1sentence. The reason why they said only ppl over 18 was not because of any moral/spiritual issues of the soul that might have made young innocents question existence and god and all that but because of the profanity. It never ceases to amuse and amaze me how most of the plays that I have seen of late in Bangalore score on the swearing and no-holds-barred front even if they lack, painfully sometimes, a good script. As if that is all you need to make a good play nowadays.... sad....

well lots of other concerts coming up this season. im hoping some of them live up to the hype they create for themselves.