Before the IPL started  I made a promise to myself that I would watch at-least one match in the stadium this season.  A couple of days ago, thanks to Anant I had the pleasure of watching Royal Challengers Bangalore take on the Rajasthan Royals in Bangalore.

We had easily one of the best seats in the stadium and had a great view of the match. The hospitality was great but only for the spectators, the visitors(Rajasthan Royals) got abushed by the home team(Royal Challengers Bangalore). RCB were so dominant that they finished the match easily in half their allotted overs.

The one sided match was not very exciting but the event itself was so amazing that it was easily of the best experiences of my life…

As the crowd settled in we watched the Royal Challengers going thru their warm up ahead of the match. There was one moment where Rahul Dravid turned to a section of crowd and jokingly flexed is biceps, the crowd went nuts…

RR were batting first and they never really got off to a start. We had some very impressive pace bowling by Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis and Praveen Kumar… The RR batsmen could not find an answer to the bouncers they were being served… then came Anil Kumble. Easily one of the best leg spinners of all time, Anil was in perfect control of the match. Another lovely moment that I will never forget…

Yousuf Pathan was looking good for a while, he hit two awesome strikes out of the ground but misjudged a single and was short of the crease when Manish Pandey knocked down the stumps. The rest of the innings was almost a blur… In the end the visitors where bowled out for 91 and the match looked already over.

The Bangalore boys were on song right from the start. Manish and Kallis were striking the ball so well that we wondered if the match would even cross 10 overs. Shane Warne brought himself on… another exciting moment in the match, I got to watch the two greatest leg spinners of my time bowling and that too on the same day!

In the end the match ended in what was an anticlimax, a couple of wides and a simple single to seal the victory. And just like that the evening was over… Another day of my life that will be hard to forget…

One of my biggest influences from this part of my life was the story of “Chandrahasa”, the mythical south Indian king whose namesake I became. Considering the importance that stories had in my life, I always considered stories as a wonderful way to reach out to people.

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a single day workshop on story telling. The workshop was organized by Hippocampus as a part of the HOO’s Tales – Carnival of Stories. Conducted by professional story tellers, the event was a wonderful reminder about the power of stories.

Conducted by world renowned story tellers Jeeva Raghunath and Craig Jerkins, the workshop was a wonderful mix of learning an ancient art form, learning about how to communicate and reach out to children and taking a walk down memory lane listening to stories again.

With a diverse group which included teachers, parents, grand mothers and IT professionals, the workshop was wonderfully entertaining and enlightening. During its course we were ourselves made to perform and we had short discussions about what worked and why. During the course of the evening we had all woken up that hidden story teller within us and it simply felt great.

I personally believe that events like these are a must for young parents. The amount of experience and insight to be gained is enormous and who knows it might turn you into that cool parent

Ps: The Carnival of Stories continue in Chennai for the next couple of days, If you can attend the workshop. Details: Carnival Of Stories

There are four concerts I have always wanted to attend. Two are artists that I immensly appreciate and two are bands that I have listened to for years. The bands are Euphoria and Strings. The artists are Kailash Kher and KK. At different times in the last couple of years I have missed every single opportunity to attend their concerts but yesterday my luck took a lovely U turn…

I was informed about the concert by Chaithra thru this tweet announcing that she had won VIP passes to the concert. I was simply excited about the concert and replied to her asking when and where it was happening… I was hoping to get tickets online if they were available(they werent ). Anyway she replied back a while later asking if I wanted the tickets. And jumped at the opportunity…

The time to the concert went away in a breeze and before I knew it I was at the entrance waiting for sunith  to join me. What amazed me the most was the crowd that was walking into the concert, we had teenagers, young couples, families with kids and aged people. I think everyone from 5 to 70 were there…

The evening started with the stand up comedy of Sunil Pal, the comedian is famous for his record breaking movie Bhavnao Ko Samjho. Sunil was great in entertaining us before the main event started. The crowd seemed to really enjoy the performance, something that was very nice considering that most concerts I hv been to the crowd usually boos off the fill in performers.

Then KK was on stage… He started with the beautiful title song of Bas Ek Pal, his rendition of the lines:

Sunaah hain Mohabbath ki Thakdeer mein, Likhein hain andherein Ghanee,
Thabi aaj Shayad Sitare Sabi zara saahi roshan hue…

Mere haath ki in Lakeeron mein likhe abhi aur kithne… sitam,
Khafaa Ho gayein hain kushi waqt sey ho rahein hain meherbaan Gam,

was even more beautiful when he sang it in live. The crowd was now in a tizzy. Song after song the screams and the sing alongs got louder and louder, his stage presence was overwhelming and the evening was just starting…

There was a short break at the hour mark. By then KK had sung almost a dozen songs and it was time for some comic relief for the audience who had by this time lost their voice(I sure did) thanks to screaming all the time.

KK was back on stage after Sunil Pal and went on to sing some of his chart topping numbers. In the whole evening he had sung some of his best numbers, these incuded Aap Ki Dua, Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar, Yaaron, Pal, Aankon mein teri Ajab Si, Zara sa, Dil Ibadath, Hai Junoon, Tadap Tadap, Khuda Jaane, Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai, Koi Kahen and Its the time to Disco. I was half hoping for him to sing Awaarapan Banjaarpan, which was my all time favourite song sung by him… but that was probably for another day…

As the evening ended there was the sense of awe all around, KK had truly conquered the hearts of everyone there thru his amazing showmanship. This was one evening that will be very hard for me to forget

But multiplexes have slowly killed off the movie experience that I love and cherish so much. The feeling of being in a theater with 350 other people, the screams and the whistles, the hooting and the jeering… You know the whole feeling of “going to a movie”.

Thats why I cherish the few theaters that still have that magic. Rex, Urvashi and (to some extent) Fame Shankarnag (all in Bangalore) still have that feeling in them. All the other beautiful theaters are now malls with Multiplexes in them. I understand the competition is hard to keep up with and the population exploding movie going is a very popular thing… In a way, I am still happy that despite the rat race there are still a few real theaters out there.

Last evening when I went to watch Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, that feeling came back and boy did it come back with a revenge. The crowd was the most awesome crowd I have watched a movie with. They were screaming for every joke and actually singing along with a few songs. The cheering when a guest star came was amazing and the laughter was addictive. Forget the movie, the crowd made my day

All that brought back memories of a long time back, before all the black tie multiplexes took over. I know its futile to live in the past but for one evening it felt nice to be back there

MISF!T is revealing its brand new play “Pancake Helen” to the public this weekend. The Satirical whodunit will truly leave you in splits…

This is one of the plays I have been looking forward to watch for a while now. Ever since I first read the play I have wanted to be a part of it but unforeseen circumstances kept me away from the play… But now the play is here! I am thrilled that it is going to be performed this weekend and the fact that a very dear friend of mine, Venky is directing it, is truly a bonus. The ensemble is some of the best actors I have seen and shared the stage with.

Trust me this is one play you wouldn’t want to miss…

Dates and Time
SATURDAY 24th OCTOBER – 7.30 PM
SUNDAY 25th OCTOBER – 4 PM & 7.30 PM

For details about how to get the tickets and Directions to the Venue Click Here.