Worshipper - Of (not just) paintings; Final Solutions (not really; only a play!)

"I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself."
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray Ch. 1

Certain thoughts, patterns and thought patterns are so absorbing that one begins to fear being completely absorbed, leaving behind very little, if at all of the “Self”.
To describe such situations, TheLoneWolf often uses quotes, and Oscar Wilde very often, does the trick.

Another Saturday evening visit to the India Habitat Centre although for another play, will be remembered more for the painting at the gallery than the play itself.

Final Solutions

Mahesh Dattani’s “Final Solution”, performed in Hindi by the Asmita Group was brilliant only in bursts, with the overall effect not being intense enough to provoke thoughts or force one to reflect upon the thoughts that pass by as a side effect.

The play (script) itself was very well thought through, especially in the way the story moves between the past and the present, with a diary written by a young girl before the partition being the window between the past and the present. The two times have not been very different, with communal violence still being a reality, often finding its justification in the unfortunate reality of the Partition.

But, somehow, the overall effect the play had on Him was not something He would describe as being “thought provoking”. Yes, we, as a society still do not easily accept Hindu-Muslim marriages. Inter caste marriages are only beginning to be accepted, and even this, only among the sophisticated, elite classes who are somehow, more often than not, more broad minded than the economically backward masses.

The audience for plays tends to be more often than not, the social elite and people from what are called “the upper middle classes”. So, it may just be that the context of the play is quite lost on the audience, in that, no one in the audience would have indulged in violence anyway!

But then, He does think, that as a society, and as a nation, we still have a long way to go before we can consider ourselves truly secular, and there were a few acts in the play which brought back such thoughts to the fore.

The point where Babban ( a Muslim) takes a Hindu idol and places it on his hand, with all due respect and watches it in awe, only to demonstrate that the idol was not revolting or reducing him to ashes was well portrayed.

Bajrang Bali Singh, who played Babban continues to impress, and He can only recollect how he (the actor) had been brilliant indeed as Basavanna in Rakt Kalyan (a previous weekend).

Javed, a character one would love to hate at certain points of time during the play, and at other times would sympathise with, was very, very well portrayed by Susan Brar, and he is one man to watch out for. With a movie release in the pipeline, he had come down from Mumbai only to perform in the play, and as TheLoneWolf finds out later, most artistes have such dreams to help them survive and sustain. For, they don’t get paid anything at all, and not all shows even cover the costs of the stage.

In all, a watchable play, no doubt, and definitely an evening well spent. Only that, if you were expecting to be moved and provoked, you may be in for some disappointment.

Worshipper: – Of Paintings and Off Paintings alike. (Coming soon!)

Why Men Cry and Women Lie?

Now, if I didn't have such a title for my post, you wouldn't probably read my post.
So, let me first confess to changing things ever so slightly and not so subtly so as to draw attention.

In order to set things in order, let me first tell you that this stranger next to me in Mc Donalds was actually reading a book titled "Why Men Lie and Women Cry". (and NOT the other way round as the title suggests!)

Now, the following things are important to note:-

1. It was a Mc Donald's outlet, and yours truly was in the "Singles, please sit here" area of Mc Donalds, least bothered to notice people around, happily dipping into his ice cream.
2. FTV was playing on the telly, and earlier, while eating the burger in the common area, I had happened to notice that the men were ogling at either the women on the telly, or other women moving around, irrespective of whether they were themselves in the company of fashionable women ;-)
3. This dude, is obviously waiting for his girl, and with no other place vacant, decides to sit next to me and wait; reading as he waits for his girl...er...woman :)
4. The guy is lost, and has been reading the book before walking into Mc Donalds, and is visibly excited reading the book, nodding in agreement and smiling to himself.
5. I wait to see the cover, and discover that the author is Allan Pease, the author of Body Language.
6. I no longer repent not having read "Body Language" although in a teenage whim, I had picked a pirated copy of the same ;-)



But...hang on a second.

7. The title (of the book, as well as the twisted anti-title - the title of this post) , apart from being hilarious, is also quite ridiculous ; for very few men or women do only one of the two!
8. It is sometimes an interesting exercise to walk into a restaurant or cafeteria alone. So what if you don't have company! Observing people can be an interesting and entertaining pastime :)
Mr. Delhi, I know I have a real long way before I catch up with you, but yes, I can now imagine how you must have entertained yourself in different parts of the world :)

Of Mangoes and "Man goes" ; and then Man grows and Mangroves.

Selfishness is a virtue, or so Ayn Rand had implied, and after reading The Fountainhead, TheLoneWolf had even thought that a title like "The Virtue of Selfishness" was perfectly alright for a book. Well, may be, it really was!
But, TheLoneWolf, demonstrating the human traits he had invariably picked up, had come to interpret Selfishness in a way totally different from what Ayn Rand's idea of selfishness did.
Driven by self interest, he had failed to understand people around him, and had sometimes wondered about how and why people cannot be comfortable lonely.
He was TheLoneWolf himself, and he often showed off his comfort and composure in being lonely - so much so that people around him, actually bought into the impression that he had so successfully created - of being comfortable alone.
Loneliness is a funny thing really.
You can call it solitude and dismiss my English as not being polished enough. But then, I never claimed to speak or write spotless English, and often excused myself with the State Board schooling and its imperfections. Blame games are easy after all!
But yes - One reason why this post talks about solitude although veiled behind a funny looking title is this - that solitude and loneliness are indeed quite different.
Solitude was what TheLoneWolf had often preferred, even when at home, or when surrounded by people/friends/colleagues/classmates.
But then, he had never experienced loneliness to be able to appreciate someone else's loneliness.

Yes, Mr. Delhi, this is about you, and for you!
I am really sorry, for having realised rather late that loneliness can be quite painful...Well, I guess I did enjoy being friends with you, and come to think of it, I have never before become such good friends with anyone as I did with you...And I do know, that all this can sound so melodramatic and senti, but then, it is my blog, and as long as I am protecting identities, I can say what I want! Even Mr. Aamir Khan is taking guarded digs at his competitor under the pretext that the former's dog and the latter share the same name!
So, yes...the only Mangos (save my own home of course!) I had this season, were directly or indirectly because of you - and I am just connecting the Mangoes with the Man goes for effect ;-)
It's totally another story that solitude can be the result of Woman goes too, but then, I have already spoilt a Barista evening talking about the latter ;-)
For now, although you have come and gone, leaving more than just me behind, alone ;-) - I definitely cannot and will not hold you responsible for my loneliness - even you know that ;-)
And since the rather long and very much enjoyable dinner table conversation ended with that perfect combination - Ice cream and Mangoes, I must say I was fortunate to be part of such a conversation as well as the Mangoes!
As for the Loneliness and Solitude - well, since when did we start having easy solutions for human problems? ;-)
Not that I or TheLoneWolf have any problems now, but by even coming to understand someone else's problem, although quite late in this instance, may be it is a step taken in the right direction? So what if it is in the direction of Mangoes and its homophone(?)


And then the Mangroves and how Man grows...

Hidden behind this funny looking phrase is a deep thought, or so I would like to claim ;-)
"It is high time people stop watering mangroves and behave like grown ups" - was what TheLoneWolf thought the following evening, after all that had happened and not happened over the weekend.
But then, my point is as simple as this - I beg to ask you, "Say just how do grown ups behave?"
Having made my point, I will proceed to publish this post, with a sense of "enlightenment".
Yes, "Enlightenment" is what I call my blog, although I confess to using this and most other words in a twisted sense.
If blogging is a way of offloading, so be it...

Encryption and encapsulation were thankfully not superficially learnt programming concepts meant to be forgotten any time soon! ;-)

I thank that one man or woman who first conceived the idea of a journal or blog - and then, although I dont claim to have learnt programming or anything else for that matter, I thank those men and women who inspired the ideas behind encapsulation and encryption ;-)

High on the highway; Higher on the high fliers.

The Summer has been cool, yes. But the Summers had yet to become cooler, "Yes".
So, having been in waiting for coolness of all kinds, life would move on until one day, signs of coolness setting in appear on the horizon ;-)
At CorrectBank there is this young workaholic man who steers clear of all cynicism. Dedicated, is too less a word to even begin to describe him. Always thinking about the markets, portfolios and business, TheLoneWolf had seen him talk little else apart from talking about Bangalore once in a while.
But, on a day when TheLoneWolf seemed good to go, Mr. Portfolio directs a "Baby's day out".
Yes, TheLoneWolf was only a "bachcha" as he would realise on the drive with Mr. Portfolio to a coupla client offices.
Investment strategies, including the famous Value Investing variety, and Mr. Portfolio's experiments with them, make for most of the conversation enroute, and whats especially interesting is that successes and failures alike are equally disclosed :-)
After a visit to a "small" client, who enjoys CorrectBank's and especially Mr. Portfolio's services thanks only to the idea behind "Relationship Banking" (while ignoring Bank's profitability in "servicing" some such customers), it would be time to visit a really wealthy client.

TheCapital has quite a few posh areas, mostly to the South of the city. The Audis, The Mercs, the BMWs, the convertibles, and all other imported variants of auto majors such at the Toyota and the Honda may well be a fair indicator of the wealth that those living inside the huge and tastefully built houses.

Mr. HighFlier, is the client that the baby takes a liking to. Yes, highs on the highway due to stock market strategy discussions soar even higher on meeting with Mr. HighFlier.
Now, Mr. HighFlier, as his name suggests, has reached great heights in life. And that is because there were heights to most things about him. His company had reached great heights by taking people to great heights and bringing them down a few thousand kilometres away.

The man had an Audi among other cars parked outside.. (not sure if there were more within a garage!) and on CorrectBanks other man calling him up, the gate opens due to the press of a button situated naturally in Mr. HighFlier's office room.
Paintings on walls only underline the writing on the wall - that the man is "filthy" rich.

That, he has the choicest of books on philosophy and politics alike in his room cannot possibly overlooked. You cant fail to notice books even if you were to see miniatures of cars and other artifacts around them. Even the Apple I phone can be excused. After all, it is not more expensive than an N series phone.
But, Mr. HighFlier only begins talking of money and oh baby (TheLoneWolf) almost felt his own jaws drop ;-) I guess, hearing such nauseatingly high amounts of money will take getting used to.
Especially because, with someone like Mr. Portfolio around, Objectivity about money becomes the single most important thought in one's mind. And while Mr. Portfolio makes the case for what all can be done with Mr. HighFlier's wealth, listening in rapt attention is the only pleasant thing to do!
Later that evening, TheLoneWolf finds out from his ex-work/work-ex network that a man's real "Aukaath" can be fairly assessed with further observations about his clothes. While cloth brands were a bit hard to observe without being observed while observing, what TheLoneWolf did observe was the Breitling watch. Yes, may be you would argue that Breitlings are anyway worn by high-fliers because they are meant to be. After all, Breitlings were originally designed for navigation and aviation. But, but, but, cigarattes, cannot be ignored after all!
Davidoff, was what Mr. High Flier smoked, and as the ex-work network knew almost everything about Imperial Tobacco (the manufacturer of Davidoff), it is soon known over a coupla email bounces that the Classic variant of Davidoff would cost a minimum of Rs. 500 for a pack of 10.
For once, Mr. Portfolio was wrong after all. He had estimated the pack to cost 5 USD. But then, a non-smoker as a smoker would argue, never really understands the value a smoke has ;-)

The drive back to office would make for equally (if not more!) interesting conversation about among other things, wealth creation and wealth management and wealth creation through wealth management. And then, talking in private about banking is not the same as private banking, but talking in private about private banking to someone like Mr. Portfolio could be the cleanest and most educating of private conversations two men can ever have! ;-)

Every day in a summer may not be as cool ; but then, greed is a virtue only when under control ;-)

Reviews: Rakt Kalyan (Hindi play), "Little Does Matter" - a painting exhibition, Karnataka Restaurant.

India Habitat Centre on Lodhi Road is a convention centre with facilities for the simultaneous conduct of 20 odd meetings or conventions, and the marathon reading of newspapers the other day had lead to planning for various possible ways to kill time on a weekend.
I had initially set out that evening to watch the play "Me, Kash and Cruise", a play about three men and their years between 1984 and 2008 in Mumbai.
As my luck/fate would have it, the tickets for both Saturday and Sunday were sold out completely.
I am not sure if part of the reason for the sell out was the delay in my attempt at being calculative and thrifty.
I was waiting for the DTC buses for 15 minutes before I realised that even 50 bucks for an autorickshaw was not bad compared to what I would have spent in Bangalore. When one uses ones own transport, apart from the money one spends on petrol, one also has to shell out a lot of money for parking if one were to frequent malls. So, if I was in Bangalore, meeting up with old friends in a mall, I would have spent a lot of money on parking too, I thought and finally took an autorickshaw.
Lodhi Gardens and the monument ( I later found out that its called the Shish Gumbad) are probably for another day!
The India Habitat Centre near Lodhi Gardens, luckily that day also had an art exhibition and a Hindi play on. Luck, apparently is what people call this. Nothing really bad happens, unless one wants to feel victimised.
So, after a real long time, I guess I had a near ideal weekend, nearly as ideal as idle could be ;-)


Little Does Matter.

On going into the gallery, the first thing a visitor finds is the description of the idea behind "Little Does Matter". While I cannot recall all of it, and trying to type it into my cellphone would be nowhere close to covert, subtle or suppressed, I made a note of only this :

Sanjeev Verma, (http://www.sanjeevverma.com/) says:

For me, Art is a world in itself. A world in which an artist chooses to live with his creations; himself not ruling over it, but merely standing in the middle of this circle of a created beautiful life within the life, enjoying this potent gift that he inherits from the universe.


While I did make a note of the names of a select few of his works, I was badly missing Darshana (my camera), who, in keeping with the dual meanings of her name, would have helped both see and visualize at the same time ;-)

I do not really want to comment on any of Sanjeev Verma's works, especially since a novice is hardly ever a great critic. I did wonder about how much any or all of of the works on display would cost, and then, how they would appreciate in value over time. Investment in art is after all, an area that has recently been receiving attention from an investment perspective.

I must say, I could barely say what each of the paintings was trying to say at first glance; but on reading the title displayed alongside, I could reverse fit the theme onto the painting. I hope this a first step well taken, although appreciating and understanding art is a science in itself!

So...here are some of the names....Self descriptive only to an extent, because the painting cannot really be imagined only given the names...

Blue Streak, Little Does Matter (at the least, 7 variants on display), In between black and white, Beginning of the end, Dreamscape, Green patches, Regress in Progress, Even the mirage is vanishing.

I did like all of the Little Does Matter variants, but Dreamscape was easily my most favourite :-)


Finally, in defense of all artists, here is what I close this review with - An extract from one of Oscar Wilde's works -

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he
does not admire it.  The only excuse for making a useless
thing is that one admires it intensely.
     All art is quite useless.

Rakt Kalyan - Asmita Group

The play is based on Dr. Girish Karnad's Tale Danda, and is set in the days of the Bhakti movement, largely lead by Basavanna in the southern geographies of India during the 12th century. The play has been translated to Hindi by Ramgopal Bajaj, and has been directed by one Mr. Arvind Gaur, who heads the Delhi based Asmita group.

Having paid only Rs. 50 for a ticket, I had found that the play was going to be staged at the amphitheatre, and to my continuing good luck of the evening, there were no mosquitoes to play spoil sport!

The play was absorbing, to say the least, and 2 hours went with less than 2 glances at the watch. The theme and backdrop were something I could associate with, but were really thought provoking, when portraying moral dilemmas, Basavanna's growing popularity and how he was uncomfortable being thought of as an incarnation of God, or being a Godman. The issues of religious faith and belief as against tradition and religious orthodoxy of the Brahmins driven laregely by self-interest, and the issues of inter-caste marriage - something that wouldn't be short of earthshaking in those days.

The acting, and portrayal in the case of a few actors was nothing short of brilliant, and Bajrag Bali Singh (Basavanna), Deepak Ochani (King Bijjala) and Viren Basoya (Jagdeva) easily stood out. The other characters were well enacted too, save for a few peripheral characters failing to recollect dialogues on a few occasions.

The sound and light were reasonably well co-ordinated, but I did think that the music could have been composed or compiled better.

On the whole, watching the play could easily be passed as an evening well spent, and even if it were a small way of promoting theatre, the entertainment and enlightenment angles to socially relevant theatre can never be ignored.

I hope to go back to more of Asmita's plays in the future.



Karnataka Restaurant

On not being able to find buses around 10 pm, time was running out and in about 10 minutes, my patience would give way and the autorickshaw would again come to the rescue of this "LoneWolf" in TheCapital.
Just when I was thinking of dinner, and how back in Bangalore, it would have been as easy as going to a Darshini and quickly downing either a Dosa or any thing North Indian and South Indian quickly and cheaply so what if a bit dirtily, I thought that one of the conveniences and "homely" feel Bangalore had for me was its food and eating out options.
Soon enough, at Yusuf Sarai near AIIMS, I saw this "Karnataka Restaurant" and almost jumped out of the auto ;-)

One of the hazards to running an affordable speciality cuisine restaurant in a city is I guess, having to cater to the local tastes as well. So, I think, when I excuse people around eating Rotis and Paneer curry in a Karnataka Restaurant!

The look and feel of the restaurant resembles that of a typical Karnataka restaurant one can find in some parts of Bangalore (untouched by the glitz and glam of malls) and tier-2 cities like Tumkur, Maddur, etc., Those wooden furniture with laminated plywood table tops are things that remind a Kannadiga of his homeland. The menu of course, is quite important!
The menu lists all that you can possibly imagine eating in a typical restaurant in Karnataka - except for the BisiBeleBath.

The Masala Dosa is TheLoneWolf's all time favourite anyway; so the missing BisiBeleBath doesn't bother him too much. But, if you have been badly missing Karnataka, you might want to have the Karnataka Platter.
At Rs. 60, you can have an Idli, a Vada, with authentic Sambar and Chutney, and a serving each of Kesari Bath and Upittu/Upma. Finally, you have a choice of Dosa between the Masala Dosa and the Uttapam.

Easily, the most authentic and yet affordable Karnataka Restaurant I have ever seen or heard of in Delhi.

Jai Kannada! (So much that I was listening to Kannada songs while walking back!)

Distractions....Weekends, Weak-ends.

Humour, apparently is the best pretense and defense mechanism. It can also serve as an offense mechanism, when used with some effort and careful consideration. And coming across as being light hearted, especially at work, is quite important. I may be rather opinionated here, but, this was just one of the many theories I had come up with during my youth ;-)
And then, there was this theory about how most human beings depend on work to keep them mentally occupied, and even if there wasn't too much work to be done at the workplace, it helped one engage oneself in some activity, irrespective of the social, commercial and personal utility value of the activity.

It is the weekends which are particularly curiosity arousing.

On weekends, there is no running away from boredom or solitude or the otherwise successfully suppressed lack of direction that most amongst us hate to admit.
Of course, some people meet up with friends, some others "chill out", a few others have hobbies and interests and some of them actually have a lot to do on weekends. Even I had once (jocularly?) claimed that I work to keep myself mentally occupied between weekends.

But, some weekends expose our weak ends.
Distractions often do the trick, and this weekend was a tricky one no less ;-)

Peripheral talking has been a disease that has always plagued me, and I now realise that I need a separate post to brag about what I did on a Saturday in the Capital.

This post was only about the theories I guess ;-)

Rain rain go away!

Just when I was thinking of how it has been raining almost every other morning and night, the newspapers helped me interpret it to my favour; of how Fortune has favoured me, although I am not really brave ;-)
The capital has seen a temperature dip - at 15 degrees below normal, 25 degree centigrade max, it beat Bangalore that day. It has been the coolest May in the last 5 years, going by average temperatures. And then, the number of days mercury has touched 40 in May has been only 6, with most of them being amongst the days before I came here.
Aren't some people (undeservingly?) lucky?

But yes, on one of these days, the weather was so good that even I was in the mood for poetry and romance. Its another thing altogether that neither of those are my forte ;-)