RK's Musings

Famous Last Words

Watching this play is a terrible waste of time. I don’t really understand why such plays are made in the first place. One expects something different from a play as compared to a movie. There are 4 artists in the play who try to put on an accent while speaking , forget dialogues in between, murmur something amongst themselves, talk in an accent that is extremely difficult to follow, and end up enacting a story with no meaning whatsoever. Each artist is a spectacular disaster and logically  the play is a disaster too. Have developed a strong aversion towards seeing any more plays for now.

Let’s Unpack

 

Had a chance to watch a very interesting play called ”Let’s Unpack”, conceived and directed by Meenal Kapoor. Firstly the play is script less. So, in one sense each show is an original and can never be seen again in its entirety. It is delight to watch things shaping impromptu on a stage.

What’s the play about ?

A group of 6 people attend a workshop in which they are bound to stay together for 15 days in complete isolation from the outside world. All that they get is a newspaper, television, gym, a garden, and some personal items that they can carry. There are no rules in this house except that they are pulled into bizarre assignments, intriguing tasks, weird games and complex discussions that force them to peep inside themselves, question their own perspectives and shake hands with their instincts.When they come out of that room nothing outside has changed. But they all have.

There are some innovative elements about this play. It is obvious that when you are playing a role of some character, your own opinions, reflections, thinking comes in the way. If it’s a movie, or rehearsed play, the artist tries to forget himself and completely enters in to the character’s shoes and enacts the way the character would respond. I read years ago, I think it was in Shashi Tharoor’s book,”Show business”,  where he talks about a peculiar situation that stage artists go through. They work very hard to get in to the characters of the script. So, in one sense they try to live somebody else’s life and portray the same on the stage. In one way its good as you leave your self-image and start living multiple lives. But there is a flip side to it. Whenever the actor in his /her personal life reflects on something, there is some confusion. Is he/she responding based on a certain character in a script or Is it her own personal reaction. “Am I feeling like XYZ in that script, or like ABC in this script, or Is this my real self  feeling”, is a question that constantly comes up in their minds.  The book talks about  this constant battle that goes in most of the successful stage artists. Why is this context relevant to this play ?

What’s innovative about this play ?

This is probably the first play I have seen where the artist is given a chance to speak out her real self, i.e in the process of unpacking a specific role in the play, the artist is given a chance to unpack his/her own self that includes prejudices, worries, desires, fiascos, etc. Since it is an impromptu scriptless play, there were quite number of surprise elements to the play. There was an audience participation too that made this play unique.

The play was performed by a theatre group called Saarang and it was their 4th screening of the play. I am sure as they improvise and do a few more shows in Delhi, Kolkata and other places, the play would gain far more traction amongst the theatre lovers.

Baghdad Wedding

Recently, I saw a play called “Baghdad Wedding” by Hassan Abdulrazzak and liked it a LOT. The play is about three characters, Salim, Luma and Marwan. The play begins in a setting at Imperial College London where the three meet each other at a party. Hailing from a common place Baghdad , they become best buddies. Luma is a post-modern girl and holds values that are nowhere close to a conservative Baghdad girl. Marwan is the typical conservative guy who is at Imperial college to do this engineering. Salim is the most rebellious of the lot and spends his time writing novels with extremely controversial titles, that a Muslim would never dare to write. Fate brings all of them to Baghdad and the play shows how people change. The place, the environment, the situations, the context makes each of these characters , transform completely by the end of the play. Luma starts wearing hijab and becomes a dedicated doctor helping fellow Iraqis, Salim starts believing in Quran because of the strange turn of events before his wedding ceremony. Both Salim and Luma  decide to settle down in Iraq Marwan , the most conservative of the lot @ the beginning of the play, actually leaves Baghdad to the safety environs of UK.

The background to all the acts in the play is the war ravaged Iraq and what it does to the common man. Funerals become places where people expect good food/kebab and discuss about food instead of mourning for the deceased. Hospitals are flooded with patients all the time and doctors value only one skill, rapid improvisation. How quickly you can multi-task and react to situations is all that matters in hospitals. Most of the Iraqis live with a constant threat to their lives. What this does to them, What values they hold, What values they are quick to dismiss , What opinions they hold of foreign nationals , are some of the many aspects that are  touched upon, in this wonderful play.

Kathalaya

I stumbled on to Kathalaya, an NGO based out of Bangalore, in early 2006. I was amazed at their efforts in keeping the spirit of story-telling alive in India. In early 2007 I had designed a website for Kathalaya and have been maintaining the site since then. Needless to say, I feel nice that I am able to at least contribute something to this wonderful group led by Geeta Ramanujam, which is trying to keep the tradition of story-telling alive.

It has been almost 5 years since the earlier design. I felt that the site badly needed a revamp with lesser content but a better layout. Last 3 weeks have been very hectic as I was building a quant model from scratch. As often is the case, the initial steps of any model are crucial and time consuming. So, didn’t do ANYTHING besides quant work, which was kind of overwhelming. I had to take a break for at least a couple of days so that I can rethink the model from a fresh perspective. The revamp of Kathalaya website was on my mind for quite some time. So, decided to spend a weekend in bringing out this new version.

When I began doing the work, I thought I will just put a night out and host it . Like many things in my life, things take more time to pan out than planned for ( if at all they do pan out ) . So, after a marathon lasting 20 hrs. of web designing, the new version of the site is up and running. I‘m feeling good that my web designing skills are not too rusty as I had assumed to be…

Here is the previous version that I had designed in 2007 :

Here is the result of a weekend immersed in web designing :

Less cluttered and a minimalist look.

http://kathalaya.org/

Mareechika (Mirage)

Via Delhi-IBSEN  festival 2010 :

This play is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Lady from the sea” and is directed by Ila Arun.

The story is told in the folk form as the narrative through the balladeers, Bhopa and Bhopi, traditional story-tellers from Rajasthan, who use the Phad, or a painted scroll to tell their stories. The play begins with the Bhopi telling her husband that she had discovered a new phad, called 'Ibsenji ka phad', in her late father-in-law’s trunk. She persuades her husband to use this in their next performance, instead of the old, well-worn tales of gods and rajas. He reluctantly agrees and they start their story:

Ibsen’s “The Lady from the Sea” becomes the story of Rampyari, (Ibsen’s Ellida Wangel) so named because she was adopted by a priest devoted to Baba Ramdev, a folk deity of Rajasthan. The priest brings her up as his own daughter. But as she grows up, there is a restlessness about her and a great obsession with water which even she cannot understand. She is drawn towards all water-bodies she can access in a desert land and fantasizes about the ocean and the sea, which she has seen only in her dreams.

One day, a handsome stranger comes to the temple, riding on a horse, just like the hero Baba Ramdev, searching for water for his thirsty horse. She leads him to the ‘bauri’ her favourite haunt, and finds herself fascinated by this stranger (also called Stranger by Ibsen). He tells her of far-off places, of the coast where he comes from, of the sea which he has sailed in a merchant ship. He is also a musician, playing the alogoja. Her fascination takes on a new turn as she is carried away on the wings of fantasy to a world, which has so far existed only in her imagination, the vast and limitless ocean.For her he is her Samander Khan, the spirit of the sea. One day he tells her that he will have to return to his hometown to board his ship. She begs him to take her with him on his horse so that she can catch a glimpse of the ocean which she has always seen in her dreams. Before bidding farewell, they seal their bond by putting their rings on a key ring which they fling far into the ocean, vowing fidelity to each other.

As time passes, she hears that the stranger had drowned in the ocean and she confines herself to a reclusive life, carrying only her obsession with water with her. Then another stranger enters her life, Soubhagmalji Vaidya, (Ibsen’s Dr. Wangel) who comes to the temple to pray for solace after the tragic loss of his wife. He is intrigued by this young girl and hesitantly proposes marriage to her, saying that he needs a companion for himself and a mother for his two young daughters. After her first reaction of shock because of the difference in age, she agrees, her one condition being that he make a home for her near water, since she is like a mermaid that cannot live away from water.

That is a promise he keeps and Rampyari’s love affair with water continues. But fate plays its hand again and the stranger appears, compelling her to leave her husband. After much agonizing, she rejects his suggestion and decides to remain with her husband who has been the perfect husband and protector.But for the Bhopa and Bhopi, there are several unfamiliar references along with unexplained behavioral differences from a different culture. So the story deviates from the original script as the two discuss the strange world of the Wangels, their daughters and the others who stray into their lives. Somewhere in the course of the narrative, the 'sutradhars' or storytellers themselves become the characters they play, almost as if the spirit world and the real world had merged into one. But fact is stranger than fiction, they say.

The dazzling display of Rajasthani dance with all it bright colors and costumes , rendered in “Phad” tradition is a treat to watch!.

A 9 yr old kid’s amazing dance act

Russell Peters in the making –:)

Democracy is Black

Anup Poudel's video "Democracy is Black" was selected the winner among 2,200 participants from 89 countries around the world. The 1minutes 30 second video explains the meaning of democracy.

 

Why flip a coin ? :)

Via Maneesh Sethi's Tumblr

 

Recycle ---- Hilarious :)

Via Nagender :):)

This kid is amazing!!

WOW!

Quantitative Finance C++ Library

CODE LIBRARY

Have just started organizing the code that I have written over the last 12 months. Sourceforge is the best thing to use for such purposes. Here is the link to 100 odd classes that I written for pricing derivatives. Need to comment Finite Difference code and upload it . May be I will do it over the labor day weekend.

Link to my QuantFin Library : Source Forge:Quantitative Finance C++ Library

New Site

I was working on my univ's website for the past 48 hours as it needed a revamp . Output is not that bad I guess. Here is the link to the site where it is hosted temporarily -  Site

Recognizing a person from the code

:) 
     Via : The Evolution of a Programmer

My first web2.0 button

After playing around with adobe for sometime, I managed to create a web 2.0 button for RSS feed with some online help.

Testing YouTube insert