The Thing About This Is...

...sadly it happened. The all Indian cast and language production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream titled 'An Indian Dream' failed terribly to sprinkle its magic. With an intricate storyline of three sub-plots it makes Midsummer a fascinating watch. The play is very popular and a summer doesn't go by when this play is not on theatres across the country and the globe. However, this production by Tim Supple at the Roundhouse theatre did not live up to the expectations I had conjured up. This type of Shakespeare play I thought would have gone very well with an Indian setting with the element of magic, love and mysticism but it didn't really fit into that image very well because of the lack of technicalities that we were presented with, which were: The actors could not act The actors were inaudible The languages got frustrating especially when you didn't understand what was being said - even more frustrating for those who did not know the story li...

Film to provoke thought, inspire men and women and challenge the societal norms of Southasians... Dor means thread, thread that runs across society, thread that binds people, it has many metaphorical uses I'll let you find your own. The story is of two women, one grieving for her dead husband and the other in pursuit of freeing her husband at the hands of this bereaved widow. This involves friendship and betrayal between the two women. The film is kept simple. It makes subtle remarks on the life of a widowed woman, the veil, the baggage that women generally hold in society. It makes dialogue between both men and women so it speaks to audience in a fairer light. It gleams hope into women to think and act for themselves. It's a light-hearted but meaningful film. I recommend it - a good change from your typical Bolly which, Indian cinema is more popularly known for. The film stars Aysha Takia, Gul Panag and Shreyas Talpade, all of whom act very well. Talpade is also a good comed...

बोह्त कूल नही? किसी को मालुम है कि में बंगला कैसे लिख सकती हूँ?

It was quite a site seeing this today. Those Greenpeacers do like climbing and bannering. Wish I could get a picture on my mobli but alas I could not. (Because I have the most dysfunctional phone ever created.) Managed to find ONE pic on the internet. This comes after Blair's £20million trident project to develop nuclear weapons. Most of his party members have opposed the project, Blair now relies on the Tories for support...

The climate was controlled by the clouds The clouds were controlled by cosmic rays The cosmic rays were controlled by the sun It all comes down to the sun! Explains Channel 4 on why we are having this Climate Change . The documentary; The Great Climate Change Swindle sets out to disprove the current 'popular' theory that Climate Change is due to the rise of CO2 levels created by us humans. It makes a convincing (or rather entertaining) case that, climate change is a natural phenomena. The world's temperature has always risen and fallen and the current climate change is just carrying on this trend. The arguments goes, CO2 heats up the earth's atmosphere and hence the melting of the Arctic which will potentially give rise to sea levels, diminishing lands and countries. (This is just one of the causes of the rising CO2 levels others include extreme weather and endangering animals). From what I understand of CO2 is that, it traps heat and when in the atmosphere it naturall...

Err, yeah, like I'm going to talk about cricket ! But I am told it will be starting soon (tomorrow) thought I'd get into the spirit by displaying what I know best about it: Imran Khan... Come on Bangladesh! Woot! Woot!

This is worth a mention. Whilst it isn't hilariously funny, it's funny nonetheless. Imran (the director) will certainly go far as a filmmaker. Here is his blog Video:

Himal are on a mission to make South Asia, Southasia - an unifying force. I think I may even join in and start writing Southasia without the space. This is a map to accompany the word change, Southasia with south as its north axis. The world positioned this way looks waaay better (and different) than what we are used to - with the UK and North America on top. Let's look up to the Southerners for a change... Click for a lager image

More than just cricket...

I kid. No. It's a genre of music that I am not very fond of but give it a makeover and then maybe? Like this rendition of Neo's 'So sick of love songs' by Armeen Musa, listen: Armeen - So Sick.m... It's a more slowed down version of the popular RnB song. Reminds me a bit of Nora Jones - jazzy which, Armeen does very well.

Shahana at the launch of her début album The long awaited début album by Shahana Bazpeyi was finally released yesterday! Titled Notun Koreh Pabo Boleh , translated very badly means, To Have It Anew . The album is a remake of some of Rabindranath Tagore's classic songs, known as Rabindra Sangeets. The aim of the album is to bring a more contemporary sound to Rabindra Sangeets. Currently Bazpeyi thinks Rabindara Sangeets are too astute or too "lullaby-like". The idea behind the album is to re-introduce Rabindra Sangeet to the younger audience in a way they can relate to it. The album consists of ten songs, one of which is a duet with her husband, Arnob - both of whom studied at the Tagore college of Shantiniketan . Arnob composed most of the music on the album and he himself has plans to release a similar version of Rabindra Sangeets in the future ( listen to interview here ). The album is only available in Bangladesh and even then it's only available in Dhaka. So ...

and repeat. Sufi inspired gaana featured in Anwar, a Bollywood movie which I have not seen yet. But do like this song. Sang bootifully by Roop Kumar Rathod. Lyrics by Sayeed Quadri and Hasan Kamal.

Who would have thought ey? Well it is alleged. I am told Mr. Yunus' current role in politics is only to serve the American interest. This stems from the American's persistence in wanting to establish a military base in one of the deshi islands which was previously denied by the Awami League. Whilst I can believe the Americans most probably want a military base in the bay of Bengal, I'd be surprised they don't have already, they used to have one somewhere during the Pakistan era - my politics is poor, but Mr. Yunus' motive? Should I be swept in with this current conspiracy theory ? I was told this by a AL supporter who, like Hasina, made the issue of the Grameen 40% high-interest rate and that Mr. Yunnus was indeed a man 'who takes bribes, eats interests and is untrustworthy.' Well something like that. It was said in Bengali, can't do translations very well. The Grameen Bank's high-interest is a cause for concern and interest is just a concern for ...

Link Given to us by the University of Chicago, one of the best universities to carry out research on South Asia. It has stats, references, bibliographies, maps and tonnes of useful information for a budding researcher. It also has the British census records of India which is great, because it's laborious going to the British Library or SOAS locating the books (which is lengthy) and then searching for the stats tables. Although the stats (given in an Excel spreadsheet) don't exactly add up in some places and there isn't enough info to explain the various fields and terminologies. But I'm hoping that's just me who calculated it wrong and is a bit dumb to "get it." However, there is the 'book' option which enables you to read it online, so you have the accuracy . This got me excited a little. Kinda sad, but hey...well, Enjoy.

Henna, Massage, Fashion Show, Hair Cutting, Facials and all the other meaningful things you can think of. *shriek* Can't say I'm disappointed. Read about it in another blog

Shahana Bazpeyi on vocal Arnob on guitar A lovely duo they make!