My weekend

Weekend in effect started Friday. Was working from home due to GREgiri going on and well had a marvellous time especially in the evening..The reasons for that include evening tiffin on Fri and my sistah darling.

So idli maav (flour in Tamil) was there..however since sistah and me had been eating idli for the past 2 days, we did minor rebellion. Mom said ok, cut the onions and make da utthapa. So of course I was the grand creator of the utthapa. First try, wot we call nai dosai (dog dosa- I think something to do with the fact that the dog wouldn't eat it) was made and that of course was a perfect one..so buoyed with the success of this, I attempted a proper one for my Pop. The trouble started when I had to do the flipping- the middle bit got stuck to the scraper thingie and so when I flipped my perfect utthapa had a hole in the middle..Needless to say my Pop was speechless..(and he laughed out loud) Dosai was not enuf to feed me, sistah and Momma..so sistah made Maggi and me and she had Maggi and dosai..excellent tiffin..reminded me of this disgusting Maggi bondas which I never conshumed from IIT Shack and which Murty loved!!

Then whilst studying, looked at my sistah who was sitting absolutely lukka in life and lolling on bed. Sup I asked..nothing..am gng to play the guitar now..told her tis the life..playing guitar, sleeping, faffing, going out with man, reading..accha scenes hai.. and I was struggling with fucking quant!!

Saturday dawned for me at 8.30 in the morng..studied the whole day. Nice that was :D Then, salsa class which was not bad and a drink after at CL. :) Came home for dinner and Mom was pleased about that which is good of course. Sunday dawned brite and early at 8.30 am too :) Same routine followed Sunday. :D Studied studied studied...then went for salsa class which was loads of fun yesterday. Everyone got their solo routines right with the correct timing - tres cool that was :)

Grabbed a quick drink and went to see the thought provoking 'Vagina Monologues'. What a fabbuulooous play that was..the actors were superb. They were:

• Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal who stars and directs the play
• Dolly Thakore with her cool silver hair and big bindi
• Jayati Bhatia (her comic timing is simply amazing)
• Sonali Sachdeva (she did this Marathi skit speaking English pakka Marathi style - such a brilliant job & she was pregnant!)
• Avantika Akerkar (fab impressionist- did accents and voices amazingly well)

So much food for thought, they made us yell vagina and cunt and everyone and the audience participated wholeheartedly :D Some of the monologues made me sad and the others were joyous and full of comedy. They talked about genital mutilation (terrible stats those were). The older ladies - Mahabanoo and Dolly did a very poignant monologue about rape especially related to women refugees in Bosnia and women in Gujarat and Kashmir. I always knew that men were capable of ignominious deeds but to hear it recited like that made me feel as violated as those women must be feeling.

Some of the best monologues were Jayati Bhatia's, purely because they were so funny. She does a wonderful job of making the viewer imagine her situation. Her first impression of a Punjabi woman whose hubby likes shaved vaginas was too much (the audience was in splits) and the 2nd last one of the 'Moaner'- howfuckinglarious...too good she was!

After the play got over, both Dee and me wrote our comments out. Dee said the play made her feel liberated and I have that feeling too. Like somehow listening to 5 women talking about women's vagina's was talking about us and who we are as women in today's society. I can't get over the play and am probably going to have a hangover for sometime. Almost said vaginal hangover but somehow that comes out sounding weird and funny! :D

I recommend the play to one and all and in Sept there is a Hindi version of the play coming out. Must watch I would say!

Digging by Seamus Heaney

Saw a play called 'Excavators' at Prithvi yest. Was interesting to say the least! I like the way we can use the word interesting in such different contexts, niceness that ees! So anyways, have watched the same group perform a different play called 'Butter and Mashed Bananas' previously. This is the Harami Theatre frm Bangalore btw! So watched them and went for this one with a whole lot of expectations! Got dashed and lost the plot midway..liked some parts and the actors are very good so watched and was thinking mins wot mins wot! Some oarts were plain funny but some parts well henh it was!

But they gave us this piece of paper at Prithvi..saw Shashi Kapoor there btw and a whole lot of Xavierites there as well. Shall tell Dee all abt it! On the piece of paper they had this poetry by this dude called Seamus Heaney called Digging. It merits a post in my opinion.

Digging

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.

You can also read about Seamus here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Heaney