Entertaining Saturday

Last Saturday turned out be an unexpectedly interesting day.

It began with a 4-km walk, the first stage in my plans to be able to walk 10 km at a stretch by Feb without feeling too many side-effects . When my normal, procrastinating self protests, I point out the wonderful early winter morning Pune weather to it. Also the rate of deterioration of civic amenities might mean one had to breathe in as much of this tangy freshness as possible.

BC quizzing later that day was a reminder of how things had been in the so-called golden days, and it had something to do with the fact that George was in attendance.

A friend of George was putting up a play in the evening, so Harish and I decided to accompany the senior to it. Having reached the venue early and finding the place empty, we decided to have a Puneri classic "Sujata Mastani" (For those raising a suspicious eye, it is a food preparation). The service was quite notable, but since George claimed it for his blog, I will not mention them here. The old Pune city is usually a labyrinth, a converted "chakravyuuh" for those as directionally challenged as me. But for some strange reason, I actually got us three around making all the right (as in right & wrong) turns. It also reminds me of the directions someone gave us that included the curious note to make a "sudden left" after going straight.

Back to the small hall. It was so small that people sitting on the floor mat could have reached out to touch the actors. Girish Joshi was the friend in question, an ex-COEP student, had written & directed the play, and was also playing one of the two roles. Tickets were still not being sold, so we went to Laxmi Road where George & Harish wanted to check out the "Pankaj" music collection.

En route, George made the pertinent observation that in "Rok Sako To Rok Lo", Sunny Deol looks like the Phantom (perhaps he will elaborate when he gets over the "lots of time, a lot less bandwidth" problem). I had never been past the electronic goods at "Pankaj" but had heard about the good "maal" from friends in the area. Gaped as George scooped up a bunch of CDs (an American dollar goes a long way in the fist) and thus successfully tempted Harish to do likewise, though not in the same quantity. Something George, in a John Cleese-like taunting, never let Harish forget for the rest of the evening. For the record "99.9 FM" seems like an interesting album just going by the credits :-) . And yes, I learnt that anonymous music shopkeepers and storeworkers can be called "Jimmy".

Dashed back to the play, where people (who seemed more like friends and family and their friends of the crew) were trickling in. Final Draft was written very well and enacted even better. The theme was engrossing - on writing, creativity, originality, passion and the lack of it, manipulation and self-discovery. A great example of what can be achieved without too much fuss and ostentation. My play viewings have been limited and I'm not a critic, but I can tell you that the play never flagged once in its ~100 mins. I hope Girish Joshi and his production crew can take it to more places and people.

Thanks to the ongoing Hathway-ESPN Star blackout, missed both #435 earlier and #34 that day. Compounded by the double the next day.