So it was my idea to go the play by Girish Karnad. I managed to convince Rohit, Vishy and Gazal and their folks to come along too. Hitched a ride with Rohit to JP Nagar. On the way we talked about the traffic and congestion. While I gave a dumb opinion, that we should stop any more people from coming to Bangalore, Rohit said that we should probably think diverting any traffic whose destination is not Bangalore and also of developing the hub-and-spoke model - increasing the number of hubs with shorter spokes. Seemed a sensible thing. But by the time he finished explaining how the air traffic follows this model, we realize we needed directions to reach JP Nagar.
At Vishy's home, we came to know from his mother who had already watched the play, that there was only one actor. Uh! What! I had specifically chosen this play against another one where Vasanthi of Radio City, Good morning Bangalore fame, had announced was a one-man-play. I had been pretty certain this was not the one. Well, Vishy's mother said it was a one-woman-play, if that was any consolation. Rohit exclaimed away about how a person could talk for a whole hour and still make sense. That was the least of my worries. So while Gazal served us delicious dosa, chutney and sambar and nice hot coffee, I worried what would be the case if the whole thing got dry and monotonous. I still let my hopes live while the others threatened to clobber me after the play (others being Vishy, Gazal, Vishy's friend Swapan and wife Lopamudra). I whined that they should not have gone ahead with the booking if they had known this.
Yogi and his wife were also at RangaShankara. Hello! Judging by appearances and costumes, it looked like a lot of clever people in society had turned up. I was just beginning to look around some more, and they rang a bell, a fierce school-ish bell. So I ran out of the bookshop where I was peacefully in. I came out and started reading the notice boards. There was another event later in August which was again, a solo play. I wondered aloud whether a solo play was some type of cost cutting measure. Hmm. The next bell rang fiercely again, and we went off to find our seats. The girl handed out some brochure about RangaShankara and the play. I read it. It said 'Lead Actor: Arundhati Raja'. See, I looked around hopefully and said - it does not say Only Actor. Hmm. Gazal was amused that I had not lost hope. Meanwhile Vani Ganapati had strode in with a glittering costume and was sitting in the front row just ahead of us. See, I told Gazal. This increases our chances of appearing on Page 3 tomorrow.
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The play was brilliant! All of us enjoyed and were glad we watched it! Had dinner at Vishy's, cooked by his dad. Very tasty! The return ride was also fun. Rohit moaned about having left his scooter in Vishy's place because of the rain. Am so sleepy! Look forward to another play!
