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2007/05/02

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 - ?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with this.

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

Hajaar enthu to go to an open-air thingy in this heat.

And my curiosity is muchly piqued - who are these common (NOT mutual - look it up!) friends? (Apart from Tuputi, of course)

J.A.P.

Unknown said...

@Yowan - thanks I thought I'd be pilloried .
@JAP - The enthu was totally for my mother in law - thought it would cheer her up - I had a backache - mutual friends - aha - one is Bunty Roychowdhury's mother , the other is her friend

Unknown said...

OOps - I stand corrected - its all that PSU influence -

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

Bunty R-C's mother has a name? Principal in a school?

And her friend is our common friend? Curioser and curioser. Tell me more!

J.A.P.

Shari said...

Thanks for the tip, Eve. My daughter likes the Little People series and the Borrowers. She would like "Wings". At least I hope it's as "G" rated as the others.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

just had this huge conversation about shaan and his grin . and now ,i just read those two lines on your blog.coincidence ?no, no,*we* have a connection

hillgrandmom said...

big Terry Pratchett fan too!

Jhoomur aka JB said...

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)


AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA. too funny the observations...was roamin around when came across you and a host of other bloggers. Goddarned neat i say.