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William Dalrymple in his book ' Nine lives ' chronicled Mohan Bhopa the singer of the Pabuji Epic from Rajasthan.  The Bhopa- Bhopis from around Jodhpur are traditional artistes who carry on the tradition of epic folklore that has been transferred to them orally for generations. Unusual occupations, this time features a lesser known artiste from the same genre. Narayan Bhopa and his wife Mitwa Bhopi who perform at different tourist destinations and festivals all over India.   They belong to a tradition of singers from Rajashtan, who render an ancient folklore epic that has been handed over them from generations by the forefathers. They recite the Dev- Naraynan epic. Singers of Folklore.  Picture Courtesy : Vikram Guna  Narayan Bhopa, his wife and son along with their grandson were called by the Goyal family (the Seth) to perform at his resort in Bangalore. Goyal’s resort is situated off the Jigani industrial estate amidst equalyptus plantations, a...

Aam Ladki ki ajab kahani It was probably the most momentous day in the life of this 26 year old girl from Delhi. She appears before 100,000 onlookers and millions more viewing her on the national television channels,  With oiled and tightly plaited hair,  A black plastic hair clip and pink rubber band for a hair style. Wearing a pink cotton salwar kameez and a pullover.  You cant help but gasp and mutter … what a fashion disaster !!!  Could she have not done better ? Certainly in Delhi where your womanhood is sized up more by the  designer brand of clothes your wear and the  brand of cosmetics you use across most sections of society than in most other places, Rakhi Birla stood out and made a style statement. The woman exudes a confidence that makes you take note of her and Google, ‘Rakhi Birla’ for more details.  It attracts attention especially because the surname is synonymous to the major business house and used as a co...

I am normally not a senti person, but today Kejriwal and party's performance at Ram-lila maidan left me with goosebumps.  Keep up the good work Kejriwal.  I am sure with all our support you can do better . Millions like us who watched you on TV from the comfy couches of our living rooms do really wish you all the very best .   But read on... Because it is going to be a bumpy and confusing ride for you.  For here are the Confessions of an ‘Aam admi’…     Last year, when the Anna frenzy caught on and erupted all over, thousands of office goers like me left our air-conditioned offices and stepped out on the streets for a couple of hours to show solidarity for the fight against corruption. There was nothing official about it. But It was an in-thing.  Everyone was doing it. And well, who would not want to stand up against corruption .  It seemed like a good cause. Everyone was doing something, so we all joined the ...

Murali : Coffee ??? Manasa : mmm… not now Murali : OK … maybe by 4.30 Manasa : OK …  Murali @ 4.30 : Coffee Manasa : mmm…coming Murali : Hey...take the stairs … OK Manasa : No way … I will take the elevator. Murali and Manasa worked on the same team and shared the same cab everyday to work.  Long hours of commute and a sedentary desk job was taking a toll on their health like scores of so many other young people. As a part of new year resolution Murali and Manasa incorporated a few fitness goals. To keep a friendly check on each other’s exercise regimes and calorie  intake was a part of their agreement.       As young fresh graduates who migrated to the big city for a job, Murali and Manasa  lived carefree lives as singletons, working hard and then partying hard along with their co-workers.   While Manasa shared an apartment with three other girls, Murali lived in another apartment...

UNUSUAL OCCUPATIONS – The Pilot   From my very early exposure to mills and boons days, I believed that   nurses always fell in love with doctors,   simple girls were swept off their feet by the stinking rich businessmen and the Air hostesses married the Pilots and lived happily ever after. I took to Mills and boons in my early teens, but much earlier than that, when I was a little girl, we had a neighbor called Kashyap aunty. At home we called her the boff-cut aunty, but never mentioned that in public.   Boff-cut aunty had short hair that barely fell upto her shoulders and was always neatly brushed. For a girl with two pigtails plaited and doubled up with ribbons, Kashyap aunty's hair style was the last word on fashion. Actually it was not  just her hair style,  It was Kashyap aunty’s cherry red lipstick shade that made her a fashion icon in the eyes of me and my sister. Between the two of us, she was referred as the lipstick a...

Those were the most exciting of days, those were the most boring of days.   Doordarshan was synonymous with television as was Akashwani with Radio. Remote control was still a luxury and multiple channels were unheard of except from those who knew and spoke about the amazing technological advancements that happened in of U S of A. Those were the days when news readers enjoyed celebrity status and every girl or boy blessed with a good diction, prepared and read out the abridged version of newspaper headlines in the school assembly and secretly aspired to be a Rini Simon, Neethi Ravindran or Tejinder Singh. Never mind if Doordarshan’s news telecast was meant for the propoganda of the then ruling party, a mouthpiece for talking about government schemes that never yielded results. Most of the  inconsequential and stale news that made it to the television was primarily controlled by the state. Things have not changed much 20-25 years hence. Except that news is more...

Having watched Radhika Apte at a Girish Karnad play 'Une Purey Shahar Ek' at Rangashankara a couple of weeks ago, I am in awe of her.  There was something about her acting, that makes you take note of her. She is an actress to watch out for.  It takes much more of spontaneity to perform on stage that over the reels. When I was still lingering in awe of her looks and her acting skills, here I was, stumbling upon another short film where she was starring again. This is a  short film by Anurag Kashyap, that I came across a few days after I wrote this post .  Radhika Apte has the power to speak with her eyes.  That Girl-next-door looks also enhances her near to perfection portrayal of a lower middle class urban woman that she has played so well in this short film.  There is  not a dialogue she speaks in the first 5-10 minutes of this short film.  It is her eyes that speak a thousand lines. Brillian...

                                       The maddening traffic, Non-sense chatter over the FM...  Non-stop deluge of emails… Endless meetings… Mindless presentations … Meaningless social networking … Die-hard liars … Desperate but illegitimate lovers … Suicidal co-worker … Stressed out super mom … Senseless client calls … Soul stinking ass lickers … Sweat shops and slave drivers … There was only so much I could take during the course of a day at work. Mentally exhausted, I decided to call it a day. Little did I realize, all day I had left my mobile phone in the car. 38 missed calls in a span of 10 minutes … god … I wondered what was going on … How can I be so forgetful? My bad, I should not be so careless...  I dialled my sister’s mobile n...