Saturday, May 18, 2013

A tag's calling out to me .... :-) :-)

I have a perfect excuse for picking up a tag this time around!!
My last tag-based blog post was in 2012.
I know!! Right!!! :D :D
Am actually quite proud of myself as well… well even if I didn’t write as much as I’d like to, I still didn’t succumb to the pressure of blogger’s block with a tag! :D :D And that’s saying something considering how many tags I was doing at a point of time, evidence of which is in this blog !!!
And what’s funny is how, most of my tags revolve around books and reading and the like! :) All I can say in my defense is, old habits die hard! :P ;) And hence, we have one more book-based tag coming right up!!
Here you go! Picked this up on my one of my random blog hops …. Seems like this was quite a popular tag sometime back!
Take it up if you like it! You have to associate each of the questions with the title of a book you’ve read or which you can relate to!
And so we learn that …
In School I was: A Stranger in the Mirror
People Might be surprised I’m: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I will never be: Slumdog Millionaire
My Fantasy job is: Dance. Dance. Dance.  
At the end of a long day I need: One Hundred Years of Solitude
I Hate It When: Crime and Punishment
Wish I Had: Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less.
My Family Reunions Are: Daddy’s Little Girl.
At A Party You’d Find Me With:  Many Lives. Many Masters.  
I’ve Never Been To: The Palace of Illusions
A Happy Day Includes: Loves Music, Loves to Dance
Motto I Live By: As The Crow Flies.
On My Bucket List: Almost Single.
In My Next Life, I Want To Be: The Godfather

Monday, May 13, 2013

Summer's here!!! So is Evam's Workshop for Kids! :) :)

What did summer vacations mean to you? The months of April, May and June… To me, it was all fun, trips, mangoes, get-togethers, lots of sleeping, eating and driving the parents up the wall saying that we were bored :P Today though, there are so much more options, I say! Kids these days have a lot more options than any of our generation or the ones before us had… and I mean that in a good way!!
Have you seen what the kids of today are capable of?? They are street-smart and are much more adept at using technology and gadgets while we still sometimes struggle with our smart phones… they dance like they can give stiff competition to the world’s best … they sing effortlessly and put many a talented singer to shame and some of them are so advanced for their ages that they give the older generations (including me!) a huge complex…  
Bunch of talented youngsters we have I say… It’s heartening to see the expanse of talent that is both explicit as well as hidden in most of the kiddos today and it is to hone these very talents that some of the biggest names in the field are flying down as facilitators for a summer workshop conducted by EVAM.  
Yes people!
Evam’s back in Singapore….  :D 
This time with SUMMER WORKSHOPS for Kiddos…
Looking for details… Here you go!!

About the courses:
5-7 yrs
8-9 yrs
9 am to 11.30 am
11.30 am to 2 pm
2 pm to 4.30 pm
4.30 pm to 7 pm
10-16 June (Venue: Pangdemonium)
Theatre (pinty)
Music (sudha)
Music (sudha)
Theatre (pinty)
17 - 23 June
(Venue: NUS PGP function room 4)
Music (vedanth)
Theatre (pinty)
Theatre (pinty)
Music (vedanth)

Each of the above courses runs for a week (2.5 hours every day) and is charged at SGD250/person. Logon to SISTIC for registering - http://tinyurl.com/dxnhc3r
For further details:
Call: +6593886994 Email:  mailsgp@evam.in


About the facilitators:
1. Dr. Sudha Raja holds a doctorate in Indian Music from the University of Madras.  She has been training school groups and communities in choral singing & Indian Carnatic Music for the past 2 decade.  
Name of course:  The Harmony Project
The workshop introduces us to harmony, and its various forms. What we understand as sound, music, rhythm, silence and how it all comes together to create magic. The participants will learn songs in many Indian languages, and how harmony adds texture and colour to music.
2. Vedanth Bharadhwaj is an accomplished singer, composer and guitarist. He composes for top musicians in India, films, theatre and ads, and is a virtuoso performer. Guitars, banjos and just about any stringed instruments come alive in Vedanth’s hands.
Name of course: The Young Composers
Music is in all of us and in everything around us! In this workshop, learn the concept of harmony and rhythm. Try your hand at writing lyrics, give it a tune and perform your very own first song!
3. Padmavathi Rao - For the last ten years, Padmavathi (or Pinty akka as children fondly call her), has been doing theatre with and for children. Padmavathi conducts storytelling, puppetry and conducting summer theatre workshops in Bangalore as she has done over the last ten years on a regular basis.
The structure of the workshops will be flexible in order to work with the realities of the workshop and children’s individual and group processes.
Name of Course: Collage - Category:  Theatre (5-7)
This workshop aims at moving from a 2-D collage to a collage of emotions as it were. The children are taken through a journey of exploring their realities, their likes and dislikes, the obstacles they perceive in expressing themselves.
Name of Course: Drama of Things - Category:  Theatre (8 to 9)
The workshop aims at finding strengths that lie within so that children can find joy in what they do. It endeavours to put children in touch with the blocks they encounter and at least begin to take the first steps towards overcoming them.

So what are you still waiting for? :-)
Get going and register your kiddos now…  
Have fun and let me know how it turns out to be!! J J J
HERE’S TO A ROLLICKING SUMMER AHEAD! J

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

What have I been upto?

Hello there all you lovely people… 
How ya all been?  :) How is life treating you? :)
Its already 5 months into the NEW YEAR (Err... can we call it the new year still :P) how has it been so far?  Exciting…  Good … Bad… Ugly??
Oh, you’re asking me how mine has been. ;-)
2013 has been very exciting so far. Very very exciting. Filled with lots of opportunities and happiness and peace of mind… 
E.X.C.I.T.I.N.G.!!!! :D :D :D
Before 2013 started, I had a checklist... In my mind… stuff that I want to start doing, stuff that I wanted to close out and stuff that I wanted to keep continuing...  That checklist is thriving … pretty much on track I must say …  :)
By the way, did you listen to these two songs??
Both contrasting… one peps you up and the other lulls you down!! And love the lyrics of ‘Yaaram’… there’s a nice earthy feel to it.. As for the former… hehehhee…. Crazy loony is the word… I can so imagine Ranbir grooving to this…
 Here’s a recap of what my 4 months and odd days have been ;)
Jan – Celebrated New Years with friends and wore a new saree, a temple visit and some awesome food. Plus it rained the previous night… :). Jan was uneventful with just a trip to India planned towards the end of the month.
Feb – Very eventful India trip. Met Vaish and Cheeni … two of my best friends and oldest friends… our friendship spans more than a decade…  :) Saw Vaish’s lil’ tot… such a cutie pie he is… and so hard to imagine her as a mom. Celebrated Cheeni’s birthday. Came back to SG with mixed feelings. Quit my job towards the end of the month. ;-)
March – Lazy days at work. Handovers and stuff. Started writing seriously. Theatre reviews and stuff. Made some new contacts. Took to heart what a dear friend said about enjoying the solitude that has fallen on my lap unexpectedly and revelled in it. :-). Finished my contract with the ex-company and took a two day break and joined the current bank … for what I think is a little less stressful role than the one I quit…. Hopefully, there won’t be any midnight calls in this one! :) Oh! And I joined for salsa classes and finished beginner level 1. :D
April – settled into new job, or so I think! :P Started figuring my way around Excel, PowerPoint and Word again… literally my bread, butter and jam now! ;-) started getting up relatively early since I don’t have the leisure of coming in a little late at this job… new job and all that! Had some great times with friends. Saw some movies, partied some, played some, … overall not too bad!
May – this month. My birthday month. I love MAY. I know it’s the hottest month of the year where I come from. But I like it. My birthday, Folks anniversary, and some other dates that fall in this month…. Also it means, mangoes, summer vacations, a few holidays and hot breezes interjected with pouring rain (like right now here in Singapore!!)….
By the way, did anyone of you know that Google does this? If you sign in with your id… you guys knew?? How come no one ever told me so far?? Shucks..  I was super thrilled to say the least.. ;)

Where was I? Oh yeah! Birthday month… rang in my birthday with a conference call from folks … the whole Jing bang :D and then an overdose of cakes from friends, more on my face than inside my mouth .. And some awesome gifts… the best being a pair of earrings with tiny stones that are a girl’s best friend :D  I have been hooked on to them ever since. Some chocolates, couple of cakes, a teddy, flowers and some super awesome people… :D :D
And the month’s just started.. :D
Oh also… this has been a great few weeks for movies…  Almost all the movies that I have watched have been super good, super fun and interesting save 1-2 of them!
Here’s my short review on each. I did tell you this was going to be a long post.. didn’t I? Oh! I didn’t??? Errr… Ok! Poor you then!
Anyways here goes,
The Call – Crisp. Lots of edge-of-the-seat moments. Halle Berry. Creepy concept but executed very well. Kick Ass ending!!!
Soodhu Kavvum – Best of the lot I saw. Entertaining. Lots of laughter. Total time pass. Very relatable dialogues and some great subtle but super good acting.
Ethir Neechal – Siva Karthikeyan. Anirudh’s music. Dhanush’s guest appearance. Time pass. Some of the dialogues were witty.
Iron Man 3 – One man. Robert Downey Jr. Super awesome. Brilliant and the best of the series. The memento man – Guy Pearce. And Pepper Potts finally got to punch at least one bad guy! :) …
NH 4 – Udhayam -  Watch it for Kay Kay Menon.
Ek Thi Daayn – Predictable. No scary moments.
Oblivion – Simply not worth it!! Unless you want to drool at Tom Cruise. Actually the movie was a total waste of time.
And I finally finished reading the ‘Oath of Vayuputras’, the final of the Meluha series. Meh! Way below my expectations. It kind of plays out like a Bollywood movie. Oh Amish! What happened to you? And I hear that the movie rights being sold to Karan Johar, Hrithik Roshan is going to play Lord Shiva… Argh! But then on the same note, why the hell can’t he make Mohit Raina – the guy who plays Lord Shiva in Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - as the lead?  Authentic I say! And good-looking to the boot! :P And plays the character of Lord Shiva to the T!! :D :D
Oh right!! This started from the books I finished reading !! Sigh …
And now I don’t know how to end this… I lost the flow! And the track! And the mojo!
I mean I already wrote something like a 1000 words (thanks to MS word!!)
So, here’s me wishing a hurried bye and until later … :D :D
PS: yup! You guessed it right!! Am gonna go day dream about Mr.Mohit – I – play – Lord – Shiva – Raina!! :D :D ;)

Grahanam - A review!

It has been quite some time since I penned something on this blog, and even longer, since I wrote a movie review. But there is no good time ...