BANGALORE | FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2011 www.dnaindia.com | epaper.dnaindia.com
Venue: Bangalore International Centre, TERI Complex, 4th Main,2nd Cross, Domlur Time: 6.30pm Contact: 080-25359680
\THEATRE: THE CAINE MUTINY — COURT MARTIAL
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atch Naseeruddin Shah’s direction of one of the finest courtroom dramas of post World War II. Presented by Motley, the theatre group formed by Naseeruddin Shah, Tom Alter and Benjamin Gilani Venue: Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Gayathri Devi Park Extension, Malleswaram Time: 7.30pm onwards Contact: 080-23445810 Tickets: Rs500 - Rs1,500
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Elizabeth Soumya
\THEATRE: THE POLISHED BOTTOMS
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ndulge in a night of comedy as four Bangalore-based comedians explore the virtue of living in Bangalore. Sal Yusuf, Sundeep Rao, Sanjay Manaktala and Praveen Kumar present a night of rib-tickling comedy.
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Venue: Jagriti Theatre, Varthur Road, Ramagondana Halli Time: 8pm onwards Contact: 080-28475373 Tickets: Rs250
\PHOTOGRPHY: REAL SPACE
CONCEPTUAL SPACE
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riginal photographs of three of the best-known contemporary art photographers from Germany — Heidi Specker, Susanne Brügger and Thomas Demand — with different working methods, the common content being public space.
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Venue: Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Art Complex, Kumara Krupa Road, Time: Till 7 pm Contact: 080-22263424
city where the band was born. “A lot of it was about what this city has done for us,” he confesses. For two years, TAAQ has called its music ‘Bangalore Rock,’ a nomenclature coined by the band and one that the clique’s at perfect peace with. And why not? “Bangalore has been pervasive in a lot of TAAQ’s work from the beginning. The album Jupiter Café, for example, resonates with what was happening in the city at that time — the IT boom, jobs shifting to Bangalore. Even This Is It has references to the city,” points out Rajagopal. So it’s little wonder that the band that’s given hundreds of live performances across places such as Glasgow, Itanagar, Dubai, Jakarta, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, Male and Hong Kong finds the city of its inspiration a joy to play in. Karthik Basker, vocalist, The Bicycle Days, explains
that the thing about TAAQ is that though they’ve played for so many years, they’re hardly ever been complacent. “They’re pioneers in Bangalore’s music. They’ve always been making their own music; they didn’t let themselves stagnate and have always been getting better,” he raves. Prakash KN who wields the bass guitar for TAAQ says the reason perhaps for TAAQ’s mix of various sounds is also the fact that the band has been influenced by so much music and so many genres. Add to this the fact that the urban landscape is a never ending source of inspiration: “There are so many urban issues and so much happening at any given point of time in this country, there’s enough to be said,” he says. TAAQ will be performing today at Counterculture, Whitefield, a restored old factory converted into a restaurant surrounded by almond,
chikoo, mango and coconut trees. While Rajagopal is happy about the ample space at the venue, a rarity anywhere in the city, he says, Prakash drops in a few clues about what’s lined up. If you must know, Rajeev will be singing, he reveals. He’s one of those shy guys who just won’t give in. The band will also be swapping instruments for a bit, as part of the persuasive measures to elicit vocal expressions from Rajeev. That apart the trio will be joined by Martin Visser on horns and Jason Zachariah of Nathaniel School of Music on the keyboards. Of course, lots of other surprises in store, he adds. e_soumya@dnaindia.net
WHEN: Friday, 18 March, 8PM onwards WHERE: CounterCulture, 2D2, 4th Cross, Dyavasandra Industrial Estate, Whitefield, Bangalore (Off Whitefield Road) COST: INR200 CONTACT: 080-41400793 / 41400794
An outbreak of adult acne could be caused by hormonal imbalances
URBANESQUE Priyadarshini Nandy n_priyadarshini@dnaindia.net
It’s been a long time With all the multiple social networking platforms racing for our email addresses, a lot of us seem to have rediscovered old school friends who had disappeared (sometimes with good reason) over the years. Meeting them after more than 12 years isn’t exactly an exalting moment. But dare I admit to that! So on one of those endless searches to find where everyone is, I received an email from one of my classmates. Anyhow, I read the mail twice. About 2,000 words (a document attached to the mail), narrating how life had taken her all over the place and she finally married the man she was having an affair with (against her parents’ wishes) and after nine years of being married, she is quite unhappy but she has a daughter who is so beautiful that she can barely take her eyes off her and she also happens to be her only achievement in life. I haven’t quite found a way to reply to the saga. Apart from the fact that I have absolutely no inclination to tell her about my life, I also can’t quite forget the fact that she used to despise my guts. I also remember how she, at the age of 16 (!), had claimed that she’d bedded one of the hottest Bengali actors of the time and we were so shocked by that blatant lie that it took us a while to start watching that man’s films again. Why do some people feel the need to connect with the past all the time? Unless there’s someone absolutely irresistible you want back in your life, I really don’t get the whole “let’s get back to the old times” bit. Sure, I have found an old professor I used
For music taxonomists fond of classifying what they hear tidily into categorical and typological constructs of genres, subgenres and sub-subgenres, Thermal And A Quarter (TAAQ) may come as a severe disappointment. “We’ve been trying to stay away from a definition for the last 15 years,” confesses one of the genre evaders, Rajeev Rajagopal, who plays drums for the veteran Bangalore band. Then how does the band define itself ? Rajagopal traces the various inclinations that the band has passed through. “We’ve played at different kinds of music festivals. Initially, I think we leaned a bit towards progressive rock, then we had a rock phase, later there was a more jazzier sound…” he explains. He then rewinds to the phase when the band, irked by repetitive questions about their ‘type of music’, paused to contemplate. “I think we heard close to a hundred of our songs over time and tried to figure out what was the common thread that ran across our work.” What the band discovered was that a central inspiration to their work was the
TAAQ discovered that a central inspiration to their work was the city where the band was born. For two years now, the band has called its music ‘Bangalore Rock,’ a nomenclature coined by TAAQ and one that the clique’s at perfect peace with
to admire, hoping to improve my writing or my old best friend whose number I’d lost or even a colleague I admired at the beginning of my career. But would I go and submit a 150-page dissertation on how life has been? And that is also why I can’t handle the question “what have you been doing all these years?” Apart from struggling to make a living, I can never quite find a response. Over some really bad food one day, a good old friend put my mind to rest. Her explanation went such: We are all
Why do some people feel the need to connect with the past all the time? losers. And we move ahead in life, hoping that someone, at least one person we thought would find the hidden treasures of life, is a bigger loser than us. We want to know if someone who knew us when we were 10 years old is fatter than us or not, richer than us or not or worse still — luckier in love or not. That is exactly why we stay up nights, haunting the various online search engines, typing in those names and wondering if any of them has an email address, a virtual profile with pictures and some dark secret that no one knows yet. After all, without such information it becomes extremely difficult for us to survive. We went back to the bad food after that — the noodles were greasy and left stains on my serviette. I have to go back and reply to that email, I said to myself.
Making music in the city Bruce Lee Mani
The city’s veteran band Thermal And A Quarter will perform at Whitefield tonight
All these years, we ducked the temptation to stick a label on our music. Defiantly, we called Thermal And A Quarter a genre-busting band. Like in The Lord of the Rings, speaking the name of something gives it power. It took us 14 years to agree on one label that represented our diverse influences, the tradition and the irreverence, the activism and the fun, the franticness and the sublimeness that found their way into our music. Bangalore pervaded our imagination, sneaked into our subconscious, manifested in rhythms and words. You have Chicago and Kansas City Blues, or Brazilian Jazz. So why not Bangalore Rock? Bangalore is to us symbolic of the ‘new’ India. It remains a haven for free expression, with easygoing people, open-minded and high-quality audiences, and plenty of venues for arts and music. Nowhere perhaps would you find a city that is more cosmopolitan and more diverse, with more English speakers per square kilometre. TAAQ’s music borrows (or is it burrows?) from this mix. From our syncopated Carnatic-influenced rhythms to that curious blend of a classic/retro vibe with cutting-edge technology and rock-n-roll idiom, TAAQ’s obsession with urban themes is influenced by the city’s changing landscape. Thus, it is also a mirror to everything from backoffice machinations to nouveau riche, crooked politicians, to bans on live music, from pub culture to moral policing… Our stories are largely Bangalore’s stories. So much for Bangalore, now let’s dissect Rock. The ‘rock’ in rock music is now strangely warped in usage. Anything can be ‘rocking’. Time was when rock stood for rebellion, anti-establishment, protest. For music that believed it could change thoughts, actions and lives. For the counter-culture. Sure, the counter-culture eventually became a culture unto itself; the anti-establishment became the establishment. What a self-de-
feating piece of evolution! TAAQ has tried to stay relevant, to make music that endures 30 years hence. Over the last decade, we have spoken our minds, questioned the establishment, and even been unafraid to bat for it — asking people to vote, for example. We don’t know if all that was ‘rocking’, but we’ve stayed honest to our art. We have often been told to lay off, that rock bands should stick to entertaining audiences. Who defined a rock band’s ‘job’? All music is about expression, and if part of it is socially and politically relevant, it doesn’t make the artist an activist. Artists are, historically, observers and commentators. They inspire thought, action and change. We think we do that well.
All music is about expression, and if part of it is socially and politically relevant, it doesn’t make the artist an activist. Artists are, historically, observers and commentators. They inspire thought, action and change Our current campaign takes aim at corruption. In September, we released Kickbackistan, the “Official Anthem of Uncommon Wealth”, which drew attention to the corruption surrounding the Commonwealth Games. Over the next month, we will take that campaign further with an all-India music video competition that will call for people to make a creative music video for the song. As we’ve said before, TAAQ plans to be present in the future. While we are at it, we will take Bangalore Rock across the country and all over the world. The name Thermal And A Quarter has been a conversation starter since 1996. It's time that Bangalore Rock continued that conversation on the world stage. Bruce Lee Mani is the lead guitarist and vocalist for Thermal And A Quarter
Battling
pigmentation
Our beauty expert answers questions related to common problems > I am 32 years old and for the last few months I am noticing a pimple outbreak on my face. There are some dark patches on my cheeks as well. I am usually very scrupulous about products I use and try to use ones that do not cause allergies. How can I solve this problem? Gargi, Sanjaynagar Adult acne could be caused by hormonal imbalances if there are no obvious reasons for a break out. Firstly I would suggest you get a medical consultation and get your hormone levels checked through the required lab tests. A combination of acne treatment and scar lightening treatment will help clear infection and lighten scars or patches simultaneously. If you feel the need, after this you could opt for clinical treatment. A proper home regime is very important and the best home care products that I can suggest are the Dermalogica range of skin care products.
EXPERT VIEW
screen during the day which must be re-applied a minimum of two times. Once you see improvement in the first month, you can decide on further course of action.
Manjul Gupta
> I am 29 years old and about to be married in three months. My problem is that my neck, back and armpits are darker than the rest of my body. I feel self conscious about wearing sleeveless clothes and blouses with a low cut back. Is there any way I can lighten the skin around these areas? Prajakta, Hebbal
> I am 34 years old and I suffer from facial hair. I use waxing, but recently, its growing faster and darker than usual. Is there any way I can get rid of this blemish? Ishita, Banaswadi Since waxing is not helping you completely any more, you could look at two options; one
is to go in for Laser Hair Reduction sessions with a well recommended Dermatologist. This is a fairly permanent solution. Another option is to try some clinical applications which help in reducing facial hair growth temporarily. However after you have stopped using these applications the hair growth comes back. Again a competent dermatologist will be able to help you with this consultation. Beauty expert Manjul Gupta runs the Bodycraft chain of salons in Bangalore
Amongst our treatments, the alkaline peel will work most effectively to reduce blemishes on your face and neck, followed by a couple of sittings of body spa consisting of body exfoliation, massage with AHA cream and body polishing. Apart from this good home care is very important for which I recommend a de-pigmentation cream over the dark patches to be kept on overnight and a good sun-
Pigmentation is a problem that we see with growing pollution and unhealthy lifestyle. Here are a few home remedies that can help: Dry orange peels in the sun. Grind into a fine powder, mix with milk and apply on skin. Rinse off with lukewarm water when dry. Doing this daily helps lighten the skin. Take a spoonful each of lemon juice, cucumber juice and tomato juice. Add to a tablespoon of sandalwood powder. Mix and apply to skin. Rinse with cold water for a bright, even skin tone. Take two spoons of gramflour and add a pinch
of turmeric, a few drops of lemon juice and a teaspoon of malai and honey each. Apply on skin and scrub it off when completely dry. This helps pigmentation and moisturises the skin too. Soak almonds in water. Keep overnight. Peel and grind into a paste. Add milk and honey and apply on face. This brings a glow to the skin. For darkened knees and elbows or back of the neck, lemon works like a wonder. Halve a lemon and rub on the dark spots. Wash after 10-20 minutes. Yoghurt, plain or blended with an equal amount of buttermilk, can be used as an excellent pack to take care of sun tan.
Send in questions related to health, fitness, nutrition, parenting and beauty for our panel of experts at askdna@dnaindia.net
Cryptic Crossword 298
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Hindustani classical vocal recital by Dattatreya Velankar is on the schedule for this evening.
Bangalore Rock
HINDUSTHANI CLASSICAL
LIFE & LIVING
\MUSIC:
The band that created
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beg (7) ACROSS 1 Appropriate change of 21 Making a submission to a accent is made (10) higher authority (7) 8 Supply a trace-out (5) 22 They are driven to join things (5) 9 Martine changes apparel (7) 23 In touch certainly and holding one’s share of the 10 Vain yet possibly showing deal (4-2-4) simplicity (7) 11 Equally determined to DOWN gain an advantage (5) 2 Gets messing about in 12 Unit is possibly Roman boats (7) naturally placed (2,4) 3 In favour of church 14 It’s worn by a woman for power (5) a dance (6) 4 Stragglers revealed in 17 It comes back to beat a street lights (6) giant (5) 5 A stirring instruction to 19 Little devil learning to
the player (7) 6 The first woman to get two points draws level (5) 7 A rest is not arranged for paper sellers (10) 8 Firm belief may lead to imprisonment (10) 13 One isn’t shaken though it may make one shake (7) 15 Geological term for beach wear possibly (7) 16 Creature ailing badly (6) 18 Consumer items that are cut and polished (5) 20 A blow Judy had to contend with (5)
Solution Solution No: No: 297 297 ACROSS: ACROSS: 11 In In part, part, 44 Abbess, Abbess, 99 Stadium, Stadium, 10 10 Upper, Upper, 11 11 Erato, Erato, 12 12 Liberty, Liberty, 13 13 Presumption, Presumption, 18 18 Rangoon, Rangoon, 20 20 Award, Award, 22 22 Dhows, Dhows, 23 23 Express, Express, 24 24 Ernest, Ernest, 25 25 Tendon. Tendon. DOWN: DOWN: 11 Instep, Instep, 22 Plaza, Plaza, 33 Ruinous, Ruinous, 55 Blurb, Blurb, 66 Esparto, Esparto, 77 Strays, Strays, 88 SmallSmallminded, minded, 14 14 Run-down, Run-down, 15 15 Traipse, Traipse, 16 16 Bridge, Bridge, 17 17 Edison, Edison, 19 19 Oasis, Oasis, 21 21 Ahead. Ahead.