Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

DR. MENON IN ULSOOR

 My father used to routinely take me to a physician in Ulsoor Dr. Menon, when I was a kid for various kinds of inoculations and the last one was when I was about twelve. We used to take the local BTS bus(now BMTC) and get down at Ulsoor and had to take a walk through the in-roads to reach his clinic.Once we got a lift from some friend of my Father who was driving that way all the way from Ulsoor to my school gate. There used to be rush at his Clinic and we had to wait for long sometimes to see him.


Dr.Menon was an LMP I think.(Licenced Medical Practitioner).He was a fair and tall man with a bald head but very impressive in his candour.


Much later when I used to work at Graphite India his son-in-law Narayan Vilampil used to be my colleague. It would be worthy to mention that there was another prominent Physician in  Ulsoor by the name of Dr.Pillai during these times.

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Monday, February 8, 2021

SONAL MANSINGH VISIT REC NIT CAMPUS

 Sonal Mansingh exponent of Odissi dance visited REC campus in 1985 or so and gave a spirited  Odissi performance for about an hour under the aegis of SPICMACAY Society for the promotion of Indian  classical music among  Youth.




The Auditorium was full and the District Collector of Calicut  along with his wife were present in the front seats. I was sitting somewhere in the middle. It was basically well attended function. She had brought with her set of musicians  and the vocalist and the violonist were simply splendid.


But for an unsavoury event. She noticed some cigarette smoke from some students who were smoking in the back row and stopped here dance to admonish them. The students put off their cigarettes in panic and then was a security staff walking around to see if any one was smoking.


There was a Question-Answer session  and  I asked her what she thought was the difference between Western and Eastern dances and she very nicely replied the basic difference in the use and spread of hands which were more prominent in Eastern dances,


I remember accompanying the Vocalist and the Violinist all the way from the Auditorium to the Guest house. I remember Lalitendu Panda was very excited because the dance form of Odissi belongs to his home state of Odisha and remember seeing him converse with Smt. Sonal Mansingh in their language.


Such events must be encouraged within Campuses which will give Students and others feel of Indian art forms and the one organised at our college of our times is truly memorable and praise-worthy.

Friday, February 5, 2021