Idle musings

      On Friday 15-May-2026, the newspaper supplement announced blandly that the famous Kannada actor and singer Dr. B. Jayashree and a group would be performing "Saavirada Sharanavva" on Saturday. Both my wife and I are fans of her musical talent. We also knew of her fame in theatre. It was natural that I booked two tickets - after checking with my wife!     The essence of the show was Dr. Jayashree talking about her life and experience in Kannada theatre interspersed with songs from her plays. For a couple of hours, I was transported to the world of theatre. The show was beautiful. The women singers accompanying Dr. B. Jayashree backed her up admirably, as did the men. The accompanying musicians were also good.     In the rest of this blog post, I will be stating what Dr.Jayashree said, but this is only from my memory. I am sure that the words were different. Also, I am translating what she said in Kannada to English. I did not use my mobile phone at...

  I watched the Hindi movie "Sholay" from beginning to end recently - again! I don't recall clearly how my fascination with Sholay grew. I have a vague memory of stumbling in the dark in the movie theatre, when my father took me to see Sholay in the early '80s. I seem to recall the sound of the train on the screen, but this may be a fake memory. As the movie celebrates its 50th anniversary today, here is a blog post that describes my views about the movie.     What I remember clearly is reading about Sholay, probably in 2000, when it completed its 25th anniversary. There was some print media buzz about the movie. Around this time, one of the cable TV channels hyped up the showing of Sholay for the first time on Indian television. Thanks to the length of the movie and the advertisements on cable TV, I recall that the movie took about 4.5 hours to watch! It was repeated at different times, on different days.    While channel surfing, one movie that made me pause s...

   Imagine being transported about 500 years ago in time. There are some glaring differences in daily life: the electric bulb has not been invented, there are no automobiles. Social conventions are different. The idea of a global village cannot even be conceived. Travelling 1000 km is considered as a difficult journey, which probably took a week to complete. However, trade flourishes much like today, despite the difficulties. The markets contain produces from lands far away. I can think of a seller in the market saying: "These are ordinary pots, but if you want something special take a look at this. It is a pot from China, with blue artwork. Only for you, I will offer it for ...." Imagine being in Vijaynagar, Hampi around this time. What would it have been like?   Luckily, we don't have to imagine. The Portuguese traveller Domingo Paes visited Hampi in 1520. Here is what he had to say about its market: "“The quantity of merchandise which is sold in these bazaars is v...

It was a small article in Bangalore Times available at https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/from-rome-with-love-caravaggios-50-million-painting-debuts-in-bengaluru/articleshow/121836107.cms that made me curious. A masterpiece from an Italian painter is coming to Bengaluru: that was something interesting. What does a painting worth $50 million look like?! I don't know if (or when) I will travel to Italy to see works of the Renaissance artists. Here is a famous painting from there that was available here. Mentally, I decided that I would go there during the weekend and use the opportunity to see Caravaggio's painting "Magadelene in ecstasy". On Sunday, the day was ideal for walking: the temperature was in the mid 20s in Centigrade, the sun played hide and seek with the clouds even during the morning and afternoon and I overcame my "take it easy, it is Sunday" mood. By 11:50 a.m. or so, I was at the ticket counter of National Gallery of Modern Ar...

"Mangana kayalli manikya kottange" is a Kannada phrase that literally translates to "like handing over a gemstone to a monkey". The Hindi equivalent is "Bandar kya jaane adrak ka swaad". Its literal translation is "What can the monkey know about the taste of ginger". Both these phrases are about experiences that appear to be beyond the capacity of one's limits, in this case the monkey's! I felt a lot like the monkey/s in the phrases when I booked tickets to the Mahindra Percussion Festival 2025. My knowledge about percussion, drums and classical music in general is minimal - at best! That did not prevent me from reserving two tickets on Sunday, 02-Mar-2025 though. I wanted to experience the percussion festival for myself. My wife and I reached Prestige Center for Performing Arts early, drank coffee at the Food Court in Forum South Mall and collected our wristbands for entry into the auditorium. What we saw was that there were many familie...