Tuesday 18 November 2014

India Day, etc.

25 days for the FC to wind up.

A sign of poor writing is the accumulating draft posts. They sit in the literary equivalent of purgatory, the draft box, and await the Judgment Day when I, in my wisdom and learning, shall decide which post shall see the eternal bliss of being published and which shall be consigned to the bin. Except, a lazier sentient being you would not have come across in 4 or even 5 dimensions of this universe. More about the dimensions in a bit.

The India Day celebrations were a blast. Given the severe time constraints, the OTs exceeded expectations by putting up a spectacle of a show. The day started with a parade by the 4 zonal teams from the main gate to the Kalindi lawns. The gentlemen and lady OTs dressed up in regional attires, making a deep impression on the onlooker. At least I was deeply impressed by few OTs. The South zone team stood out for the sheer energy and 'exotic' attires. No wonder then that the award for the best dressed male and female OTs went to the OTs from Karnataka and Kerala teams respectively.

After a hearty breakfast (some overdosed on food, sampling the best of victuals from all 4 zones), the open air auditorium near the Kalindi lawns played the venue for an hour and half of outstanding cultural performances from all 4 zones. A handicrafts exhibition near the parking lot saw textiles and handicrafts from various northern states being displayed for sale. Lady OTs had a field time shopping for fine silk sarees as well as acting as consultants to clueless gentlemen OTs on picking up sarees for the women in their families.

After a breather, the evening cultural events took off, again of fairly good standard despite the time constraints. The cultural performances were followed by a sumptuous dinner, to use but one cliche among many that I feel brimming over in me.

The food was overwhelming, for, one felt compelled to sample all the major cuisines of our country, which, incidentally, is far more varied than the typical 'North Indian, South Indian and Chinese' types you find in almost all restaurants. The bits and pieces add up, tossing the carefully built illusion of weight loss out of the mess windows.
I shall skip the details of the cultural programmes. Instead, please peruse these two albums of photographs of the cultural events held at noon (open air auditorium, Kalindi lawns) and in the evening (Sampoornanand auditorium).

The day after India Day, cultural performance by a team from Uttarakhand and a fashion parade by the OTs rounded off the longish weekend.

I got an opportunity to watch Interstellar (2014), the latest by Christopher Nolan. The movie has made at least a few OTs revisit Physics concepts and it is a good thing. I loved the OST by Hans Zimmer. The story deals with a practicing farmer who also happens to be a former fighter aircraft pilot and an engineer, and his efforts to save earth. Agreed, this is a severely summarized story and does not spoil anything, but it is the closest approximation of the movie's narrative. A strong family ethos is portrayed all through the movie. A robot, TARS, provides the comic (and heroic) relief. 'Interstellar' lingers in one's mind long after one has stepped out of the theater via fire escapes, the regular exit route of most theaters in India. One tries teasing out a meaning from the ambiguous ending, a trademark now of Nolan's storytelling. Our mind is comfortable dealing with a lower number of dimensions and seem not able to wrap itself around more than 3 dimensions. Nolan exploits this fact, which when combined with the linear passage of time, can disorient the movie goer for a while. One can watch Interstellar for the sheer visual, aural and psychological pleasure.

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