the week in retrospect

After ages I read a Terry Pratchett - "Wings". I find the concept of the little people living in walls , under the floor and carpets and also in quarries and fields ,derivative of Mary Norton's The Borrowers . Of course Arrietty and Company did not possess the Thing which has immense practicality and which Spiller could have used adequately in his adventures .

On another note I am stuck with an immensely boring book - Giles Tillotson's, Jaipur Namah which sounded very interesting in a review I read last year in India Today , but which is vaguley tourist y - the heat makes all things unbearable except Amul's sugar free ice cream

Speaking of Amul , we drove down to Nicco Park on Monday evening to watch the shoot of Amul Star Voice of India or was it Star Amul blah blah , courtesy Pinku who managed a part of the event .

Hot muggy evening , VIP passes ,cushioned red chairs , Alka Yagnik , she of the golden voice and usurping Lata Mangeshkar's title of "Queen of Melodies"( title courtesy Shaan ) ,Abhijeet a great deal slimmer and nicer than they do on the media - and 2 others with a motley crowd of wannabe singers with not too great voices - all being chastised by the judges " We are looking for the Voice of India - you have to do better "

and then Shaan saying " When the Star Voice of India happens we dont want him or her to die out - we want him / her to live - so please , audience - Kolkotta - keep the Voice of India alive " - oh yeah , like the audience goes around with the contracts urging reluctant Indian Idols and other assorted Voices elected by the mobile toting public , to SIGN, PLEASE .

Shaan of the perennial grin and hairless face - does he ever look grim or shave , I wonder - but yes I love his voice although I can only place it when someone points it out - singing "Chand Sifarish " ( I have always switched this song off at the "walleh walleh " bit because it sounds so fake Arabic, ) - which sounded lovely under the moonlit sky . We beat a retreat after that because round 2 was late in starting .

What was novel was the jury of " Saat Hindustaani"comprising of among others ,

• Shakeel Ansari who for some reason pattered on only in rhyme ( aapke hain daari , chalo wahaan hai gaari ),
• Raju paanwallh who kept insisting he liked only 3 number wala singer ( whom the judges had pasted good and proper ) and the 8 number wali ladki presumably because she sang a sexy song in a Sunidhi Chauhan voice ( not beedi jalai ley) ,
• the itinerant palmist with a parrot picked up from Esplanade who predicted 3 number wala again - sigh - not that it did 3 no any good though and
• Montu Maam , in a very jhapaak ( sorry ma'am - that's the only term I can possibly come up with ) salwar kameez - in sequinned mustard , dripping kundan earrings , spectalces on the oincline of her nose and hair swept up on her head in a yes , you got it - bun with a few wispy trails - not exactly the kind of get up you expect from a retired principal on the wrong side of 50 ..
• L in mauve and cream checked shirt tucked in under his cliff overhang into trousers of a pristine white and kabli chotis ( Bengali for open toed strapped sandals ) - there is a typical Bengali figure of certain proportion which does not lend itself to such attire but apart from this I admired his intimacy with the who's who of the music world in a very nonchalant , blase manner , all the while keeping one corner of his eye trained on us to find out whether we were watching

The rest as they say will be televised history , commencing from the 18th instant on Star Plus at 10 pm - please do watch it if only to see ma'am in sequinned mustard and upswept hair ...

OHMIGOD - did they say 10 pm on a weeknight - ?