congratulations to jayesh and yashika. a college romance blooms into a marriage this week. jayesh and yashika are getting married and the events included a huge bollywood bash at radio club that i saw from the roof of the nearby hotel where we were at a party. the next day though as part of the lavish pre-wedding events for jayesh and yashika's wedding was a sangeet with shankar mahadevan at ncpa. and what a performance it was. the man made it look easy. the terrific ups and downs and improvisations inserted into the best of shankar ehsaan loy. the party songs and the hit ballads- kal ho na ho or maa- in which the entire audience sang along. but my favourite was 'sajda' from 'my name is khan'.
earlier kuntal, sonal and me took a short walk through an exhibit at the bmb gallery. work inspired by european art films. self consciously 'political' awful silliness made even more ridiculous by the fact that right above it at chemould a gieve patel retrospective is on. the contrast between the two make the bmb exhibition an embarrassment. at chemould gieve patels bodies of the people on then streets of the city seem to flatten themselves into pattern and texture- almost. half formed- on the verge of disappearing into mere shape- but not quite. then there are the sudden spurts of beauty like banana fronds reflected in a pool or a peacock on marine drive.
there has been time to kill in town over the past few days and we have been exploring the new version of perpetually growing slum-mall (sonals term) for the mega structure of labyrinthine corridors and commmodities that is phoenix mall. the latest addition is the palladium plaze with its fancy stone floor and ornate skylight through which no light enters. at every level designer shops sell generic looking clothes. the building ventilation system seemd ot be out of order. glass cobucles beocme ovens in parts and sudden movement into ice cold air conditionig guarantees a cold. the toilets have no ventilation at all and stinks while the parking lot gets the draft from the kitchens or smells of garbage. the cotton world guy told us that they are going to demolish the bar towards the street to make way for more shops. the new landmark is in the basement and has a huge collection of books but feels more like a clothes shop than like a book store.
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