ZAKIR'S "SURPRISE" BIRTHDAY PARTY!!

TODAY!! My god, what all has gone into keeping it a surprise? Sarita - his wife - has hopefully pulled off a success with the active cooperation of Sriram Raghavan!

I am supposed to smuggle the hooch into their Millat Nagar flat - that will be another exercise, I presume! Well, FINGERS CROSSED!!

Sheee...!!! Just remembered! some of you don't know this guy from Adam! Well, you do. His full name is Zakir Husin and you saw him as the main vilain in the film "SARKAR". You do now, na?

I.F.F. in Bombay

nishan, fardeen & digvijay at the international film festival of mami - 09 march, 2007

Early morning [at 7 am], with the trio of Digvijay, Nishan & Fardeen, drove to Y.B.Chavan Auditorium in town to investigate program of this week long MAMI festival. So disappointing was the venue -- (a) there was no one there even at nine; and, (b) so shoddy was the "get-up" at the hall! A bare single sheeter run down poster was all that announced this 'oh-so-prestigious-film festival- in-Bombay!!'
Disgusted, drove ALL the way to IMAX dome theatre in Wadala, where things were as limp ;-) Shameleesly exploiting face value, bulldozed the sleepy 'sarkari type' of most unwilling clerks to issue delegate cards. Saw one film INVASION OF THE BARBARIANS, a Canadian Oscar best foreign film awardee [2004?]...rather mushy.

FURTHER GRIEF ON GILBERT HILL!!

Gilbert Hill is on shaky ground Vijay Singh[ 6 Jul, 2006 0243hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
MUMBAI: Situated close to Bhavan's college in Andheri (west), Gilbert Hill is a rare and unique volcanic structure that is now in the danger of collapsing because of haphazard growth of buildings around it. On Tuesday morning, when another deluge hit Mumbai, large boulders of black basalt came crashing down from the top of the 200-foot-high hill, much to the shock and dismay of locals. Fortunately, no one was hurt as people were indoors due to the downpour. A resident who witnessed the incident said: "There was a loud noise as boulders came crashing down during the rains. The earth shook and everybody was very scared." Geologist and former IIT professor, V Subramanyan, who has been studying Gilbert Hill for the last five years, said the incident was a clear sign of the damage inflicted by unmitigated development all around the structure. "The hill has been declared a national monument by the Geological Survey of India, but it is highly unstable due to the reckless encroachments." A number of highrises have come up all around Gilbert Hill in recent years, triggering concerns for its stability. The Bombay HC had directed an IIT-Powai team to survey the hill and suggest measures for its protection. The HC has also stayed all constructions around the hill for the past one year. The ruling may help rescue the pre-historic structure believed to have been formed due to a volcanic eruption around 65 million years ago. "Nowhere else in the country is there a residual hill formed of columnar rock like this and it so deserves to be preserved at all cost," said Subramanyan. Gilbert Hill has survived the extensive quarrying that has been going on all around it for years. One of the trustees of Gaondevi temple situated atop the hill, S Pardeshi, told TOI: "We have appealed to the municipality, collector and other authorities for years to save the hill from builders and other encroachers, but nothing has happened." Excavations at the hill's base will remove the 'toe support' for the columns and destabilise the hill and in due course, the columns will open up at the top and fall off on the sides, according to Prof Subramanyan. "The only solution would appear to be to 'grout' the joint-openings between the columns so that they do not spall off on the sides."

GILBERT HILL...yet more!!

Gilbert Hill was interestingly much bigger but sadly urbanisation and constant quarrying has eaten away at the edifice of this monolith. The hill has incidentally been declared a National Geological Monument. The hill is home to two temples and is accessible via a steep staircase.The hill is closed to the public between 12 noon and 4p.m.

In Bombay, you take any space that is vacant and construct a concrete building on it. You don't care if the plot next to you hosts a 65 million years old monolith!! You sim[ly build a skyscraper of apartments and then charhe a hefty premium for the view you get outside your window!! Recently, the High Court has passed an order banning all construction activity round the monolith. And this only because of a recent landslide that chopped off a portion of the monolith. Of what use is legislation when the damage has already been done?

These vertical columns are similar to the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming and the Devil’s Post Pile National Monument in eastern Californaia, USA.

garden, are accessed by a steep staircase carved into the rock. The hill offers a panoramic view of the city of Bombay.
To get there via road, ask for directionsc to Gilbert Hill once you get to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan complex in Andheri(WEST), very near the Andheri local railway statrion.

Gilbert Hill is a 200 foot (90 m) monolith column of black basalt ck in Andheri, Maharashtra,India. The rock has a sheer vertical face and was created when molten lava was squeezed out of the earth's clefts during the Mesozic Era about 65 million years ago. During that era, molten lava had spread around most of the Indian states of Maharashtra, Gujrat and Madhya Pradesh, covering an area of 50,000 km². The volcanic eruptions were also responsible for the destruction of plant and animal life during that era.
According to experts, this rare geological phenomenon was the remnants of a ridge and had clusters of vertical columns in nearby Jogeshwari which were quarried off two decades ago.

seven am - the park. Present: digvijay, nishan & fardeen; Zakir ["sarkar"] joins us. a copule of monoogues are read. Then we visit GILBERT HILL!! a revelation - an unprecedented geographical wonder samck behind bharatiya vidya bhawan - a unique natural wonder [akin to devil's tower, wyoming, usa - remember CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE 3RD KIND?] and shockingly and DELIBRETELY neglected by goevernment agencies

Am told that this is a national heritage site and, [sigh!] yet....!

more later...

this is what "sudhir mishra" could be like after TWENTY YEARS of jail!!

THEATRE,again

met with digvijay, nishan & fardeen in the garden next door at SEVEN AM[!] to read the monologues "HIDDEN FIRES" !! satisfying session. The lads want to make this a regular feature... at the same time :-)
So to morrow, again! Zakir has threatened to join!!

Back to theatre....

...hopefully.
readings began on saturday the 3rd of march at home in the presence of Ravikiran "CHHOTA", Jayant {Kripalani}, Digvijay, Fardeen and K.P.Nishan. read Chots' 'sanskritisied' adaptation of moliere's "school for wives". Jayant wonderee why this play is "sitting on the shelf?" "LET'S PERFORM THIS!"he insists.

let's see...

well, much as i thought, i'd keep away from this 'blogging', - here i am