Easter in Sydney - V 2.1

Another pic from another location . There were so many different kinds of lookouts. It was wonderful.
The above pic was that of the kinds of paths that we traversed through. It was really exciting to move through with so much of greenery around !
Me !!!!!!!!! This was special coz' this was the first time we had seen anything so beautiful . Guess the three of us were so excited that each one of us were kinda speechless for a while.
The pic above : A lovely sight indeed. The pic below : No comments though atleast the backdrop was simply stunning !!!
V 3.0 coming up !!!!

Easter in Sydney - V 3.0

The 3 sisters are what they are called and are they beautiful or what !!! The history behind this being that there were seven ridges initially and due to erosion these three remained. The aborigins consider this to be a symbol of sacred blessing . This can be seen from the Echo Point which is a famous tourist spot . The background as is visible is simply amazing and the weather conditions just added to its beauty.
This is the ambitious me with the three sisters :-).
This was yet another view from Echo point . No words to describe the beauty . Period.
Again me at Echo point.
More pics coming up.

Easter in Sydney - V 4.0

The scenery pics continue !! These were the 2 jerseys they bought ! These were the 2 guys in the backdrop of the stunning mountains behind. Later on, when we were getting of the bus to catch the train back to Sydney Central ,the bus driver told us , looking at their jerseys, "I think you guys will start playing cricket better now ! Reason : Coz; you are wearing the Aussie jerseys!!" We were like, this was one thing that was pending and that also happened ! Thanks to the Indian Cricket team :-).
Leaving the Indian cricket team behind, the above pic is in front of the Katoomba falls reserve. Not that great but since its situated right in that extraordinary place, the whole setting makes it simply a brilliant sight to experience.
Praveen and I in the rain again which was as predictable as the term mate in Australia !!!
The above pic was taken near the lookout dedicated to one of the English kings/princes.Dont remember who it was. The funda is that the entire set is a huge stretch of lovely scenery and guess it spans over 10s of kms. We thought we would walk through from one place to another coz' its such an awe inspiring sight.

This final pic was at the end of the day. Back at the Katumba station where it was crazily cold. But thankfully it wasn't raining. Just befor ecoming here, we had been to Leura village where we had some excellent food. We had Veg rolls, Veg Samosas and Veg Lasagne with coffee and tea. What do you find common here ? Yep, you got it !!! The word Veg.

The conversation that just preceded this was funny coz' we were not able to find decent Veg food anywhere around and when we found this place ,called the Gourmet, the conversation between the person taking the order and Praveen was thus : Does this have meat ? No . Does this have chicken ? No . Is this made of beef oil ? No . We look at each other ! Then tell her, Please bring it !! She was finally relieved that the interrogation was over and she was obviously happy coz' we gave her very very good business !!!

We all felt that people staying in this part of Australia are very lucky and blessed to be more precise coz' the place is wonderful to stay !!! And will surely add to their lifeline just coz' of the lovely environment.

As we came back in the train , the tiredness got to all of us and we were pretty much flat ! Now,I am also pretty tired to write all this . So this is it. Adieu till the next time !

Bondi it is . part 1

I had been to this world famous Bondi Beach yesterday with my teacher's friend and his colleague. It was awesome - what with the beach being so huge and coastline filled with white sand and so many lovely birds around. It makes for an absolutely lovely sight. As usual , the following are some of the pics at Bondi beach.
The pic above is of me !!! Uglier than ever ! + equally scary :-)

The pic below is one I was really happy to take. So many lovely birds and I was fortunate to catch all of them just beginning to fly.








The next 2 pics again are taken out there in Bondi which is like any other beach ,a big tourist attraction.

The final pic offers a good background view of Bondi . By the way Bondi to be pronounced as Bon dye and not BonD and definitely not as Bond !!

part 2 coming up.

Bondi it is . part 2

These are the next set of pics .The bondi beach in all its beauty and grace.

From right : Nithyanand, Kiran and me ! The caps that the other 2 folks are wearing were given out during the 75th year birthday celebration of the Sydney Harbour bridge.

This is again a pic taken in the background of the rocks and the water.
One more !
These are the set of clouds that are hanging above Bondi when we were about to leave. This weekend was dedicated to Bondi beach and hence , will be called the Bondi weekend .

Saturday in Sydney 2- Part 1.0

This is version 1.0 of the same blog . More of it coming up.I got up early this morning and after getting a routine(initially had typed in routing here!! GOD !) blasting from my cousin , I went out in the afternoon . Had a burger at St Leonards and then proceeded to Town Hall station in order to have a look at the famous aquarium that's here .This place is called Darling Harbour and its simply a breathtaking sight ! Once I walked into that place I saw a Hat and since I had this huge fascination for this kinda hat, I bought one !!!! I really felt very happy buying a hat ! Believe me ! Then I was about to go to the aquarium which is around 200 m from the shop where I bought this when suddenly fate had an interruption ! There was an elderly couple who were enquiring about a cruise and I suddenly remembered my colleague also talking about the cruise and there it was !!! In a flash , I bought a ticket and boarded a 2pm cruise !!!

The cruise funda works in a fundooooo way ! So it stops at around 4-5 places , all tourist attractions and every 45 mins there is a cruise that will pick up people from there ! The 1st stop was near the Opera House and I had a really wonderful time out there. I also had plans of visiting the zoo but could not as it suddenly began to pour!! Anyways, i spent my entire afternoon out here and it was a wonderful afternoon/early evening . The 1st pic was of an excited me in the new acquisition of mine :D.
This is the Sydney harbour bridge. By the way, tomo is the 75th anniversary of the bridge and around 200,000 people are expected to walk on the bridge. Will be heavily crowded !
This is a super thing that I saw. People standing right on top of the Harbour bridge with the flags out there. Very risky but I think its simply phenomenal .
This is a self clicked pic . I wanted one of the Bridge, my hat and my face in one pic in the cruise and hence this was special ! :D. Do check out the next few pics in the parts titled 1.1 and 2.0 ! Don't even think about why I did this kinda numbering ! Anyways, a very nice experience.

Saturday in Sydney 2- Part 1.1

Cool Saturday contd.The above pic of the cruise that I got into in order to go around the place. It was pretty costly but hugely worth the cost !
This guy was playing a very nice instrument with a weird sound but interesting definitely.
As is obvious, the above pic is of the waves which were so beautiful and natural.
After clicking so many pics of the Opera house , At last I was at this magnificent place .The structure is huge and it kind of gives you a "your very small in front of me" kind of feeling ! Awesome I must say.
This was me in front of the structure itself ! Had a really time out at this place. Security is always in place as can be expected from such a popular place. Part 2 coming up next....

Saturday in Sydney 2- Part 2

Contd. The next set of pics were more or less taken when it was raining pretty heavily. This one is a ship which takes in loads of cars and ships in from one city to another. It massive to look at and the no cars that go in is crazy. They make plenty of business off the Harbour.
Luna park was the last but one stop in the cruise. A typical "Fun world" kinda thing in Bangalore,kids pour into this place to have their share of fun . Very enjoyable indeed.
I hope all the company titles are visible. Many of the big wigs have one of their centers or their only center out here in North Sydney . These are all situated very close to the train station so that it becomes really easy in terms of the transportation . It was a great view. The clouds are also visible if one notices carefully.
This is generally one pic I took when it was raining and I was sitting in the cruise. It suddenly became really dark and began to pour. I was sitting at the point where I was waiting for the next cruise to come and pick us all up when it began to pour - not rain !
This is the Sydney harbour bridge in all its beauty in the rain. I always get some kinda goosebumps when I have a look at this wonderful structure. Tomo as I already said will be crowded and there is a forecast for heavy rains already ! But its gonna be great fun tomo.
This was my experience this saturday. Hopefully I will have more stuff to be put up in the near future. Adieu .

My Spectacles and I

I had an unfortunate mishap which was about me landing on the spectacle frame and the right side of the frame getting totally screwed up . Am gonna put up a few pics to illustrate this . First one is my spectacles in its current shape . Sadly i dont have an old pic of the spectacles to say , "before" followed by "after" , but something is better than nothing ! The 2nd pic is of me trying to take a pic of myself with the spectacles. 3rd one is a bonus :D. The spectacle frame has right now been strapped on one side really tightly but there is no guarantee when it can break off !! Hoping for it to last as long as possible.

A Saturday in Sydney.

I had been to the Sydney Harbour on Saturday and it was an awesome experience. The joy of viewing such a huge structure which is intricate,magnificent and mind blowing cannot be expressed in words.The 1st pic was on top of Pylon Lookout,which is a building on the Harbour itself where the artefacts etc, are present.The picture has ,you guessed it, ME ,in the backdrop of Sydney Harbour Bridge(SHB). The next pic is one of the ancient paintings that have been preserved out there. The bridge took close to 7 years and 8 months to complete. 16 people died during the time the bridge was built. Sydney did not have too many job opportunities in the 1920s when this was built and hence the building kinda saved the economy of Sydney.
The following picture is of general janta taking a walk, or jogging along the bridge.
The picture beneath gives you a good view of North Sydney. Sydney Harbour Bridge is located at Milsons Point and the interesting point is that the station itself is on the bridge. You can imagine how huge the structure is !!!
With the following picture, I have made a comeback :-) . This is in the backdrop of yet another outstanding structure , the Sydney Opera House.
This is another scincillating view of the Sydney Opera House.
The picture below is some kinda testament that has been etched out on the walls of the Harbour and it captures the details about the Bridge.

The last picture above gives you a sight of the cars and railway track on the beautiful roads of Sydney Bridge.This reemphasizes the fact that this is so massive !

I had a wonderful time visiting this place. Shall post other pictures soon enough ! Till then adieu . Thanks for viewing and do leave a comment !

K L Saigal - The play.

9th October evening as the rains lashed the city, I was busy trying to get to the place that has become synonymous with plays in Bangalore, RangaShankara.

I was more than relieved to get there in time as they are extremely strict on the timings and there are even buzzers and alarms that remind people of the time! Late comers are punished too !

As my friends and I walked in, I almost had a feeling that we were in for a treat and treat it indeed was !

K L Saigal - the renowned singer who was an inspiration to legends like Kishore Kumar was the name of this hindi play and hence,it had to be a musical.The play was to be a biography of sorts on this great singer.

As the lights went out,into the spotlight came ,dressed in Black Sherwani, the eternal Britisher in almost every Indian patriotic movie, the stage actor par excellence , Tom Alter.As the play started ,one was amazed at the fluency in both hindi and urdu( you dont have to question his English speaking skills!). He was the narrator and it was so beautifully done, that one never felt the discontinuity between the scenes which might have cropped up as an issue if someone less talented did this.

Coming to the primary character of the play, there was the super talented Uday Chandra ,who even sang exactly like K L Saigal,and he portrayed the character beautifully.The ghazals he sang were so really meaningful and the poetry was exquisite.

The play highlighted lot of important details in his life that included his creativity,his struggle to the top,his eagerness to learn new things,his relationship with the great singers and music directors of his generation like Pankaj Mullick,Anil Biswas and his addiction to alcohol which finally led to his downfall. Some of the scenes were really touching and will remain etched in most of our minds.

The scene where he is teaching a young Bengali girl how to sing a ghazal is simply brilliant.She sings well,but Saigal saab is not impressed.He then tells her ,"Gao math.Apnao. Zikr aur riyaz karo" . I would have paid the entire entry fee just to hear this being said.

Another event which was equally scincillating was one of the last scenes of the play where they show the Allahabad conference taking place with all the top music stars of that era like Ustad Faiyaz Khan, who K L Saigal considered to be absolutely god level.The conference had janta shouting out for more and more of Saigal saab which ended up in him performing for the 1st 2 hours and the others were left open mouthed at his brilliance.At the end of the conference,Saigal saab asks Ustadji whether he can become one of his students to which Ustadji
replies , "Mein tumhe bahut dher sunaa. Mujhe behethereen ko aur behether banaana nahin aata ! " Subhan Allah ! I can't believe that this kind of humility ever existed!

Apart from that,the rib tickling comedy in the 2nd half added to the beauty of the play.The Bengali perspective of North India and vice versa was brought out to roaring applause from the audience.

The play ended with the eternal haunting melody composed by the great Naushad,"jab dil hi toot gaya,hum jeeke kya karen" playing in the background.A splendid play it was and the people incharge of the play deservedly got a standing ovation.

All in all, a most entertaining play with excellent acting,simple settings and a solid script.The play dazzled in all its beauty and left an indelible impression on many of our minds.

3 days,3 songs! They have driven me mad !

I have had the honour of listening to 3 super songs composed by 3 different music directors in the last 3 days and each one is so beautiful in its own way that they have been ingrained in my head !

1. The first song in this list was the very soft and beautiful no "Mujhe Hak Hain" composed by the blind genius Ravindra Jain for the upcoming Sooraj Barjatya movie "Vivah" ,which incidentally has a hilarious subtitle - "A journey from engagement to marriage " !!!! Wonder why he always comes up with 3 hour killers with the same shaadi setup and same supporting actors !! But,I am not bothered about the movie.All I know is that the song has touched me coz' of the really beautiful singing of Udit Narayan and my favorite Shreya Ghosal. Its obviously a romantic no and the movie also ends the hiatus of this great genius composer whose tunes I guess aren't in the greatest of demands by the current generation directors.Guess this song will reaffirm his status amongst the greats of Hindi Film industry. A bit more about the song - the lyrics are really good and express the eagerness of the bride and bridegroom to enter the "pavitra bandhan" !
2. I dont know why I did not pay too much attention to this song till recently.The song is "Luka Chuppi" from Rang de basanti composed by A R Rahman and sung by Rahman and Lata Mangeshkar. Though critics might point out saying that Lata Mangeshkar's voice sounds too old, I felt that for this kind of song,where in she is urging her son to return back home as it is late in the evening , she is the best fit. Rahman sings out absolutely wonderfully.There is so much passion in his singing and the picturisation of this song ,am sure brought tears to most of the viewers ,as it is picturised immediately after Madhavan dies in the movie. Super composition .Inspite of other hits like "Lose Control" and the title track itself ,this song has got that haunting kind of feeling and it will slowly grow on you.Supporting this great song, are such splendid lyrics.
3.Last but not the least,is this song "Yeh Honsla" from the latest movie Dor . Composed by Salim-Sulaiman ,its a Rajasthani folk no which talks about not giving up and having hope till the end. Yet again ,awesome lyrics. The rustiness of Rajasthan is captured with its slow beautiful background score.Sung by the Pakistani singer Shafkat Amanat Ali Khan ,who previously sang "Mitwaa" from KANK,this presents the range of this singer and it fits him like a T ! Yet another super song that I strongly recommend.

Parween Sultana - Goddess in Disguise !

When I read on friday in Deccan Herald that there would be Begum Parveen Sultana's concert on 2nd oct , I decided that I would surely try to make it .The difficult part this time was in locating the place where the concert was being held - "Mangala Mantapa" ! Finally googled for it online and then found that it is an auditorium in the NMKRV college premises .

So this evening I had been to this truly wonderful,once in a lifetime concert of the great Begum Parveen Sultana.By far, the best classical concert that I have attended ! As I write I am sure I will run out of superlatives to describe the wonderful singing and experience.

For those who did not know,her voice spans 3 octaves easily and covers a bit of 4th octave!!Its divine listening to her.coz' she is so flawless.She mixes the complicated "tans" with such mellifluous notes that it is absolutely divine !

Her stage manners are impeccable and the way she treats her accompanying artists and the audience is worth appreciating.Extremely courteous is she !

Dressed in a rich "jartaari" saree and bespectacled ,she started off the evening with a rendition of 2 bandishes(compositions) in Rag Yaman ( known in Carnatic music as Rag Kalyani). The Vilambit composition(this is slow and steady!) was so peaceful where she explored the nuances of the rag and also she herself played one of the 3 tanpuras on display. As the pace picked up and the Drut(the faster piece) started, it was evident that there would be some fireworks as she handed the tanpura to one of the other janta on stage and man ,there were fireworks !! The tans and the chougun laya(4 times the normal pace) was simply astounding and mind boggling ! Brilliant stuff ! Even the heavens seemed to agree,with the rains coming down pretty heavily !

Followed by this wonderful rendition was a splendid tarana (equivalent to tillana ) in Rag Hamsadhvani. It was stupendous! Never have the "dherena","dheem ta nana"s sounded better.The rag itself is so melodious and her additions to it made it as I would want to call it, "Kick ass" !! Traditionally , the taranas are sung at the end of the concert to mark the end of the concert,but this was surprising and yet, you could sense that something more special was to follow !

And follow it did ! 3 beautiful bhajans - a Meera bhajan which brought tears to my eyes ,a Surdas bhajan in Rag Mishra Kedar and a Sai bhajan in Rag Mishra Bhairavi were out of the world ! ( to me : improve on your adjectives!)

I had gone to the concert hoping that she would sing the all popular "Bhavani Dayani" and I almost thought of writing the name of the song in a chit and placing it near her during the concert. Before I could do this , someone actually went straight upto her and requested her to sing a particular song.She said that she would sing it at the end . I was almost sure that this person also had requested the same song !!

After the bhajans, she announced that she would sing the song that "people had been asking for" in rag Mishra Bhairavi and there were no doubts left in anyone's mind that this had to be the song dedicated to Goddess Durga !

As she sang this song, she fluently sang across 3 octaves and it pretty much filled me up with goosebumps ! SIMPLY BRILLIANT ! It was as if Goddess Durga was herself singing it ! She herself had tears in her eyes while she was singing . Such was the passion and involvement that the 300 odd crowd were left absolutely intoxicated with her superb rendition of "Bhavani Dayani" ! And as she held out her hands at the end of song, janta in the auditorium gave her a completely deserving standing ovation !

Was really sad the concert had to get over. She paid rich tributes to the city that she loves coming to and the audience which was really supportive ! Am sure I will buy a few more cassettes/cds of her's in the near future but even if I listen to her singing , I think the electric atmosphere that she creates while she performs live will be missing , but atleast will listen to the goddess herself sing ! This concert will linger on in my memory for a very long time and I am sure the massive respect that I have had for her all these years will increase some X fold where X is a pretty big no !

All in all , a superb evening ! And now,I am feeling enlightened !