They initially had the car under wraps and made us wait for like an hour before unveiling the work of art.

The first thing that hits you is “Its huge!!!” It was longer than an luxury car and incredibly low!

Got a chance to stand near the front wing and frankly that is one of the most impressive parts of a formula one car (if you ask me). I just went on clicking

Every part of the car was really beautiful… It was an amazing experience just standing next to it

I watched the premier show of Evam’s “Doubles, Triples and Quadruples” at Rangashankara last evening. The play was a fun ride combined with lots of laughs, some touching moments and some surprises.

I had personally a memorable and delightful evening thanks to EVAM and the crowd present there… But before I talk about that here are my thoughts about the play.

Frankly I went into the play assuming its going to be full length play, similar to “Chapter Two”, “Art” or “The Odd Couple” all previously brilliantly executed by the same group. So when I realized it was going to be a series of sketches I was a bit disappointed… The plays were in themselves very hilarious and well done, the acting was top quality and the monologues, well they were simply captivating.

Among the plays, I loved the newly wed couple sketch the most. The Russian drowner, Call waiting, Russian therapist and Father/Son-Manhood sketch were a laugh riot. Some of the sketches seemed a little too dragged but considering it was the first performance, they will only get better

The monologues were really well done. I dont know about the way it was planned but it seemed like the actors had the freedom to tell their stories, something that truly brought out the honesty in the performance. Karthik Kumar’s monologue about “Romance-Wines-Plays” was heartwarming and beautiful. Its a heavy line to say “I understand what he means”, but considering I just finished working with an amazing group of people on a play a week back, I guess I can say that

TMK’s “First Love”, (I apologize as I dont know all the actor’s names ) “Movies” and the “Birthday” monologue were well put forward. First Love and Birthday monologues had me thinking how we can find humor in the bad fortune of others… then again if we can look back at our experiences and laugh we are not looking at the “Bright side of life”

Finally the acting, well Evam has an amazing set of actors that just light up the stage. This time I will be partial towards the female leads coz it was the first time I have seen them perform(hope that was right ) and they were simply excellent. From the abusive phone call in the first play to the heartwarming dance in the last one, every actor did a spectacular job. My favorite performer has to be TMK - the Russian Drowner and the 19 year old boy were brilliant characters!

Finally about the it being a memorable evening for me. Well it just happens that I was the guy in the audience yest whose birthday happens to be this week Well so Karthik Kumar and the crowd (including my friends who poked me to get my hand up) sang me a premature “Happy Birthday to Chandrahasa”… What was amazing was that Karthik got my name right in the first shot! Well thank you guys it made my night

All in all, Play wise: Evam, The play was good but Its not the best from you guys The entertainment value was there but I am still waiting for that EVAM experience… The people seemed to have enjoyed it so who knows, maybe that opinion is just mine. But great job guys… thanks for the laughs and everything else.

(If you can’t see anything above, click here to view it at the official website)

See you there

Last weekend my friends and I decided to getaway from the busy city for a one day trip. We directed our attention towards the direction of Mysore, more specifically a beautiful temple 30 Kms away from it. The wikipedia entry says:

Somanathapura is famous for the Chennakesava Temple (also called Kesava or Keshava temple) built by Soma, a dandanayaka (commander) in 1268 CE under Hoysala king Narasimha III, when the Hoysalas were the major power in South India. The Keshava temple is one of the finest examples of Hoysala architecture and is in a very well preserved condition.

The architecture of the place simply blew my mind away. The concentration to detail is magnificent and the variety of statues and design is very impressive. I have a soft corner in my heart for Sculptors and statues so it was a pleasure spending my time there despite the scorching heat.

I have been here before but looks like lately they are maintaining the place pretty well.

I never understood what this was for! What do you think?

The pillars were amazing, it looked like the work of some sort of a Lathe.

There were statues inside all corners of the temple. Some the size of a few millimeters! The ceiling depicts the phases of a Banana Flower! Brilliant concentration to detail!

The Gods at the temple are not worshiped as the statues were damaged by raids and vandalism.

Each row on the outside walls of the temple had a different animal. Each animal was unique by either stance, shape or position! Imagine desiging thousands of the above statues, each unique! Took a pic with the standard 1 Re coin for perspective of size!

There was some great work in parts which would hardly be visible, shows the dedication of the craftsmen and the designer.

As I walked and touched the statues it felt weird… These statues have been around since 1200s and they were probably seen and touched by people hundreds of years before me. We will always have that in common… Me and that someone hundreds of years before me!

Its that feeling that I love when i visit ancient monuments… That feeling of traveling thru time to a place which is frozen in time! Reminds me of the scene from “The Mummy” where they show the aging of a statue from the Egyptian time to when Brendan Frazer is chased by the defenders of the temple.

The trip was really fun and I would recommend you to visit the place once atleast!

I was thinking about the whole event and how important its for us to be proud to be a part of the democratic process. Yodha recently had made posts about a book he was reading about the work put in before we got freedom. Its amazing how many people laid down their lives so that we could vote, and people now are too lazy to walk a short distance and spare a few minutes.

My instinctive reaction was that I started laughing! BRC is my team and I really support them but this is so wrong(a little funny though) For ppl who did not know, Chennai Super Kings are clearly the strongest team in the IPL so far and the Royal Challengers have faced a fair share of defeat.

Ps: This constitutes vandalism doesn’t it? How do I report it?

UPDATE: The vandalism is removed! Was just about the do it(after figuring out how ) and someone already did it Looked at the old revisions of changes and that moron who did the vandalism looks like a top class loser!

Virat Kohli’s superb catch against Mumbai on Sunday(Apr 20 2008). He followed that up with an amazing batting display!

ICL was not that interesting coz Bangalore did not get a team but IPL with the Bangalore Royal Challengers is looking like a cooler league to me

The team looks good with a mix of young and experienced players… Someone had commented saying that the Bangalore team would be better playing test cricket rather than T20. With some world class T20 specialists, All Rounders and The Wall, I feel pretty safe supporting them

Anyway now you know where my allegiance lies

I met with a small accident last evening and it could so easily have been much more serious. The accident was an “accident” for all usual purposes, the classic case of not breaking enough and the bike collapsing under me. I was to blame partially but it had more to do with a lot of external factors.

Anyway, I ended up falling to my left and considering I was on the right side of the road, it was right onto oncoming traffic. All I know is that at the moment of me completely falling I felt a couple of huge thuds on my head. A bike that was following me could not slow down too and the back of my head basically was crashed onto by the bike’s leg guard and the rider and the pillion’s legs as well.

I cant even think what might have happened if I wasnt wearing an helmet. Oddly I have no idea what I was thinking when all this happened, seems so much like a blur to me.

Its common knowledge among actors that Comedy is far tougher than drama. The dependency on things like expressions and timing is spectacular. Putting it simply, its hard to get away with doing bad comedy as opposed to bad drama Anyway I always felt that comedy was something right up my alley and this performance was a good test

The response was really good and surprised me a bit. Its not everyday that someone walks up to you and calls you a ’superstar’ of the evening or your performance as ‘amazing’ And I was like, what the heck, its not everyday someone compliments me… Let me bask in this for a while

Things did work out well for me despite being really sick and weak… We had a little time to practice, just 2 evenings as opposed to at least 5-10 evenings of practice for my previous performances… but you just forget it all the moment you hear that first laugh from the audience… Its an amazing high, to have your audience laughing and being able to react to that. Anticipating that punch line and feeling it work…

Well that was that, We are planning a proper play in a couple of weeks. Am skeptical if I will be acting in it but I am currently hoping to write a part of the script.

Ps: Thanks a ton to all those wonderful ppl that made it to the play in such short notice… You guys are precious

I have not been to many dance performances but when you hear the announcement that “The dancers in this performance are professional… So feel free to cheer,yell, encourage and boo them!” you just know its going to be good!

Consider this 35 adults, 21 kids, 19 songs(all ensemble performances), awe-inspiring choreography, brilliant creativity(each performance had different stage settings), 30s for a change over(sets and clothes)!
The show encapsulated Jazz, Salsa, Rock and Roll, HipHop, Indo Jazz(Shiamak’s creation) and Bollywood Jazz… My friend herself did 10 different dance forms!
Oh yeah… And 2 shows back to back!!!

Its a nice feeling to be humbled but when you look at kids almost a third of your age doing something so accurately and beautifully, the euphoria is just addictive.

In the end of the show there was video about Victory Arts Foundation(VAF) created by Shiamak which spreads the joy and power of dance to underprivileged children, children who are infected, affected or vulnerable to HIV / ADIS, physically or mentally challenged children. A very noble cause.

Video 1: From Swetha’s Cam:

Video 2: From Anant’s Cam:

Anyway the sketches were ok, I have seen most of the original Python sketches and once you have seen them the repeat value is not spectacular but I did enjoy a bunch of new sketches that was performed.

After the show grabbed dinner with a couple of friends. At the table Sidharth and Anant decided to introduce the rest to ‘me’ (I think it was more involuntary and probably the drive to pick on someone that caused that ) So very soon they bought up everything I have done(blogging, writing, acting, my company ect) and things I have not done(gained weight, girlfriend, decent acting role ect) It was the best 2 hours I have had in a long time.. I dont know what the audience was thinking but the constant bursts of laughter (on the flip side a few ‘cools’ )

Sidharth did the honor of imitating my posts, he went on to give his version of my blog posts… which obviously was hilarious I think he was trying hard to get back at me coz I have not been able to make time for our podcasts for a month now

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Anyway in other news, EVERYBODY is talking about the new Harry Potter movie! My friends page is bombarded with reviews…

I will join you guys soon!

Have tickets to watch it today evening I was least excited about this movie actually, my friends got the tickets and basically msg me if I wanted one and I went ‘Oh when… ok get me one’ I dont regret it now(obviously)

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I tried recompiling the 2.6.22 kernel into Kubuntu Feisty in Bliss(I christened her btw) yesterday. I was hoping to get rid of the not working parts of my current install and the ‘Stable’ version did not boot! I must have goofed up somewhere, so for now will stick to the 2.6.15 version. Its working well just that all features of Bliss is not enabled in it . Guess I will solve the problems one at a time

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Finally, I most probably will be going for the Bangalore Bloggers Meet next Sat(21). Anant wrote about it a while back… I keep thinking its probably not for me but what the heck its just a few hours and it could be fun (I dont know if they wrote about this in LJ Bangalore… if not I wonder why )

We will be performing “Truth in a Play” over this weekend again. Details

You are all invited Hope to see there (Be on time :P

PS: If asked(for the RSVP) mention that you recieved the invite from Haas/Hash/Chandrahasa