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METROSCAPE
METRO MINUTES
"Terror on Board", a reading from
A Millennium Flight: Blood on Board, a first-hand experience of passengers
on board the hijacked plane to Kandahar, at Athena in Mumbai could have
easily made for engrossing scenes and drama. It didn't, perhaps due to
the inclusion of too many readers. The post reading discussion with film
director Ashok Pandit, crime reporter, Bombay Times, Nirmal Mishra and
former IG police S.K. Verma was more fared. Later, one of the readers,
Cyrus S. Dastur, explained that the point was not "organising an
entertaining evening so much as initiating a discussion on a crucial theme."
Makes sense.
 #There
was the case of the forgotten labels until a week before the opening.
Barring the triviality, columnist Anil Dharkar's first attempt at replacing
words for sketches has gone well. Egged on by page-three fixture and proprietor
of the fashion store Melange, Sangita Kathiwada, he unveiled his eponymous
collection of kurtas, jackets and pyjamas at the store last week. (The
US Consul General David Good looked interested and restaurateur Henry
Tham went a step further.) The future? It seems Dharkar (above, centre)
has learnt his designerspeak: "I want to explore new markets and
designs."
 #Most
people in Delhi's party circuit know Mohamed Osman Omar, Somalia's Ambassador
to India, as a ceaseless fun-lover who can smell revelry from a mile.
But he is also an author, (not of the Wonderful World of African Cocktails)
but of compelling books on the history of his ravaged country. The latest
from Omar's stable is The Scramble in the Horn of Africa, a study of the
country from 1827 to 1977. But for the glitterati, Omar is more popular
than his book.
 #"My
first work made me cry and hide my face in my pillow," says artist
Malavika Tiwari. She was speaking at a lecture on stained glass at Delhi's
India Habitat Centre, a part of the Cross Talk in Design series. A journey
that starts from the world of modelling and acting and culminates in stained
glass designing is intriguing. The defining year was 1993 when a TV-fatigued
Tiwari moved to New York to train at the Parsons School of Design. On
her return, she launched her own commercial studio in Delhi. "I'm
not too lenient towards colour but if the subject is vibrant and the client
wants it, I have to comply. But I prefer my normal, sober self,"
she says. Her hands are full: translating Bulbul Sharma's collection of
forest goddesses and Sudhir Tailang's cartoons in stained glass.
FOLK FEEL
 When
Delhi-based painter Arpana Caur, 46, was a child, her mother refused to
give her food unless she spoke Punjabi at home. That's how the rustic
love stories of Punjab, of Heer and Ranjha and more importantly Sohni
and Mahiwal, became a part of her pictorial paradigm. At an exhibition
at Delhi's Academy of Fine and Literature, Caur showed 20 canvases of
the Sohni legend, the first time she's made a series on a childhood preoccupation.
Notable images were the waves of water freewheeling around the canvases,
lots of pots (also used in a somewhat tacky installation on the floor),
twisted traffic lights (to urbanise the theme) and a gaunt Mahiwal looking
forlornly in the distance.
Humour Of The Absurd
 While
US newspapers and politicos urge their countrymen to confront the crisis
with humour, Laughing Wild, a play that opened at Mumbai's NCPA this weekend,
echoes the message. Written by American playwright Christopher Durang
known for his use of absurd humour to challenge the perceptions of heterosexuality,
self-belief and conforming to societal norms, the play uses two characters
and a pair of monologues to view everyday incidents. "The mad, insane
things are so much a part of everyone's life," says Vikranth Pawar
who adapted and directed the play.
Actor Mandira Bedi as The Woman is vocal, passionate
and reacts violently to ordinary situations like hailing a cab or waiting
at the supermart, while The Man, ad filmmaker Bugs Bhargava Krishna, is
insecure, pessimistic and withdrawn. Each is on the brink of insanity
and each offers a worldview strikingly universal and alarmingly funny.
After the monologues there is a quick succession of short scenes where
both actors use their imagination and act a series of 'what-ifs'. Laughter
the best medicine? The jury is still out on this one.
-Himanshi Dhawan
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