Rocks, Blue Mug and all that Jazz

I went for a play yesterday at "Durgam Cheruvu". Plays are not everyday events in Hyderabad (not even monthly events actually), so one cannot afford to miss the one off chances he/she gets. This is the main reason I (and a friend) set out to watch it. We called quite a few others but most of them weren't interested and the interested ones weren't able to make it because of other commitments.

The event was organized by Society for Saving the Rocks (we didn't know such a society existed). These people called us "Friends of Rocks". We were thinking what is so Rock-friendly about us because although we appreciate sculpture and rock gardens etc., we don’t really think about saving and protecting them and we can't exactly understand how people can take a liking to rocks.

There was a play and a Jazz concert. The play was by "The Theatre Company, Mumbai" and the "Charminar Jazz Collective"[I think that's what it was called :P. It was actually pretty tough to figure out the ending of words that the Dutch frontman and Saxophonist was uttering- btw, he did a lot of talking :(] played Jazz. The organizers realized that most people turning up will do so for the Play and not for Jazz (because not too many people (in Hyderabad) even know what Jazz is), so they split the Jazz performance into two. The first part was before the play and the second part was after it. Is that clever or what?!!

The Jazz performance was nice. Mainly because they played "Eleanor Rigby". The vocals were substituted by Sax and the performance was damn good. When "The Talkative Man" announced that they were going to play Beatles, both my friend and I clapped and cheered them. This cheering went on for about 8 seconds, after which we realized we were the only people clapping. The Band was pretty good but I don't think they've played together for too long, because they weren't all that synchronized. "The Talkative Man" on Sax and the guitarist Arjun Chandran were really good. The drummer and the Bassist didn't seem too confident. After listening to Keith Peters, it is tough to listen to Jazz without good Bass.

The play, which was called the "Blue Mug", dealt with memories and the self. How people perceive their childhood? How they remember certain events in their lives? How important memories are?... It was really interesting because it was somewhat like an impromptu performance. Although it was rehearsed, there was no set script. Most of the memories were the real memories of the actors themselves. The Director (Atul Kumar, the man in the "Mujhe Mil Jo Jaye Thoda Paisa" video) also said "it shapes up differently at every performance". The only problem with the play was that it was a collection of bits and pieces of the lives of five different people. So, it was slightly tough to put it all together. The actors [Rajat Kapoor (Mahesh Mama in Dil Chahta Hai), Vinay and Ranvir (former MTV VJs) and three other familiar faces)] did a great job. They didn't use mikes (probably because the voice modulation would be lost), so we had to change our seating position at the last moment and had to sit on rocks (I guess that's when I thought about "the" rocks :P).

After a nice evening (we didn't stay on for the second part of the Jazz performance) we had dinner at Cafe Odyssey, whose Hawaiian Burger sucks. We spent some more time talking and then got back home. On the whole, it was a great end to the long weekend spent reading (mostly) and lazing around. I finished "Losing My Virginity (Richard Branson's Autobiography)" and "Third Girl" by Agatha Christie. I also tried reading (Let Us C)...well; I don't know when I will be able to say "I can C".