::more than somewhat::

Without even trying, I’ve managed to collect ten yoga instruction videos. Shilpa Shetty’s video came to me quite by chance, thanks to a friend.

I remember reading about Shilpa Shetty and some kind of fantastic “power  yoga” that sounded like it was something no one had discovered until now.  I had promised myself I’d check it out - but hey… age caught up with me.

Well anyway, I finally have checked it out. And no, it isn’t something specific to Shilpa or something that every yoga class you’ll find in every neighborhood in India, isn’t doing. But that doesn’t mean it’s not nice.

First two things that struck me: 1. If I’d been as thin and figureliscious as Shilpa Shetty, that would have been 99 percent of the battle. And 2. If I had such lovely places to practice yoga in, I’d be doing it all the time. More seriously though, the settings the DVD has been filmed in are wonderful. Just looking at them brings your pulse rate down to an even keel. Although I’m being a little facetious here, there’s no doubt the atmosphere created as you go through the workout would make a big difference to how de-stressed you feel. Shilpa is on the beach in Kerala. She’s surrounded by lush green gardens and trees, she’s in an elegant veranda, and she’s on a cool deck with green all around. Mmmmm. What I wouldn’t give.. I was tickled to find an elephant amble past grandly. And a boat or two glide past behind her.

Shilpa performs all the asanas and pranayamas in this routine but the routine is narrated by someone else. Very surprisingly, there’s no Suryanamaskar (sun salutation sequence). Considering that most of the poses that make up the sequence are taken up separately, there’d have been no harm putting that together in one corner of the video somewhere. Oh well.

So, the asanas in this programme are divided into on-the-back, sitting, standing, on-the-stomach poses. Pretty much what I’ve gone through with my yoga instructor (the live one!). Each asana isn’t gone into in a lot of detail - I’ve seen way more detail - but it should do as long as one is careful to do everything to prevent injury. Or perhaps a good idea would be to read up on these once and be aware of the contraindications. All of these asanas are the “regular” ones everyone does.

Except the chakrasana, they’re doable by most people. What Shilpa brings to it is the sequencing and the pacing. It’s a comfortable and calm rhythm throughout. Each asana is supposed to build on the muscle groups used in the previous ones. There’s a good flow through the sequence. The mix of poses ins’t bad at all. Except for the absence of the Suryanamaskar, as I said

Shilpa also takes up the main prnayamas, but very briefly. Some more safety tips would have been a good idea. And it would have also been nice to make this section more do-along. By the time the explanation is over, so is the pranayam.

In a bonus section, there’s a 15-minute “Quick Fix” for those who want a shorter routine on busy or lazy days. Here’s where they could have put in the Suryanamaskar. Ah yes, I’m not willing to let go of that one.

There’s also some carefully orchestrated bloopers, some of which are funny. A Meet Shilpa section and a Behind the Scenes that isn’t uninteresting. Makes you wonder how she managed to look so peaceful in the middle of all the filming chaos. Okay… it’s the sea. This looks like Kerala.

Not bad. A couple of reviewers on Amazon have objected that it isn’t a “workout” at all because it doesn’t make you sweat. For those who’ve done some yoga before, it may just be a little on the easy side. But others rate it highly and are struck by how genuine she seems in her belief in yoga. It obviously seems to have done Shilpa a whole lot of good.

The DVD costs around Rs. 300 in India or $17.99 from Amazon. It’s a 72 minute disk. In India, there’s a music CD in the box as well. I forget what the Baba Ramdev ones cost - but then Baba Ramdev is not Shilpa Shetty!

Now is this a lively funky drum solo or what?

I always knew of Jillina’s “original” drum solo video, but just happened not to have bothered with it. Until I saw this clip on youtube. I immediately decided I was going to learn it. I was about to try and learn it straight from the clip when a sensible person from the bellydance video group told me I’d miss most of the layering. She was right. I did end up learning the drum solo, but from the DVD – an award winning one, incidentally – and recently performed it for the little gathering we had on my father’s eightieth birthday. I also recently performed it for my video camera and as usual was pretty disgusted with the results, but that’s another story.

Jillina has since come out with many more videos, but this one, Drum Solo with Jillina, produced by IAMED, is still a winner. It’s probably part of most bellydancers’ video collections.

To teach this cute drum solo, Jillina begins with a demo of the whole choreography. Not in costume. She then goes into selected exercises that you must add to your own warm up. These are very specific stretches for the muscle work you’ll need to do. And then it’s on to a Technique section.

This is not a beginners’ instructional video. The absolute basics are not taken up here. But the foundation and explanation of specific moves that will feature in the drum solo are taught so that the learner can do them the same way Jillina does. The Egyptian shimmy, the camel, the omi, a lock down move and the Hagalla step are some of the moves. A lot of time isn’t spent on each move, but whatever time is spent is very focused. All through this video, a “One More Time” format is followed in which an entire segment is repeated for practice. This is a format IAMED has given up but this video was made a few years ago.

The drum solo is in 9 combinations. Instruction now moves rapidly, so you have to be on your toes for this one. Each combination is quickly but clearly gone through without the music, for one repetition, and then with the music. Each subsequent combination is added to the ones before it until you reach combination 5. From here on, each combination is added the previous ones, excluding 1 to 4. Talking-through is done for the combination that’s been just taught. One problem is that you can’t get to the combo-with-music parts separately. Finally, you run through the whole choreography with music. No vocal cues. And you’re done.

You can now watch some performances from Jillina. An Egyptian style performance to, I think, Tamra Henna. The drum solo we just learnt is also performed live at a restaurant. Some filming bloopers end the video.

So, how easy was it learning this drum solo? Not very! I won’t say it’s an outright advanced difficult drum solo of the category that Sadie does on her video, but neither is it simplistic. You do have to do some layering of shimmies, you have to be active and perky with the moves, you have to be super quick with mayas and reverse undulations (at torso level), you have to have to be able to do stomach pops. I actually have left out some nuances for now. One of these is keeping a shimmy going in the hips while doing stomach pops. Sorry. That ain’t happenin yet! Also camel with a shimmy going on in the hips. I haven’t practiced that yet. I’m managing all the rest, but managing is the key word. I can perform it for a non-knowledgeable audience. From the video taping I just did, I see that I need to keep every move sharply distinct from the next. Each sequence must end nice and abruptly and not try and flow into the next. I also need to work on suppressing some bounciness again. Ouch. My Egyptian shimmy also needs to be made distinct from the “regular” shimmy. This one is prominently knee-driven and must have a totally different look.

All in all though, it’s been immensely fun learning this solo and it continues to be fun performing and practicing it now. It’s too lively not to get a great reaction from an audience. It’s got a nice collection of moves that add an amazing amount to one’s repertoire. I plan to continue polishing it until I get it right! Hopefully some day!

Oh, a final point on the most recent drum solo video by Jillina. This is part of a 3-DVD set that hit the shelves a few months ago. Now this one is not an IAMED video and has a different format. Here there’s a very nice short warm up that I’m itching to try out. Jillina is looking wonderful and fit in this warm up.I love warm ups. The drum solo is infinitely more advanced than this one and is overflowing with shimmies and rhythms and detail and stomach work. But that’s another story…. J

I finished reading Bombay Rains Bombay Girls with a huge sense of achievement. I used to be a-book-a-night person, but my unenviable, largely non-correctable eyesight soon put a stop to that. But I so miss reading that I picked up the first book that seemed to have comfortable-looking print at Gangaram’s, Bangalore and made off with it. Ignoring the fact that the world began to look considerably more blurred than usual as I read on, I polished it off in about three days.

Now that I’m done with the book, I’m not sure how much of the enjoyment is from the fact that I’m reading after such a long time and how much is from the book being good. I suspect it’s a happy mix of both because I’ve currently moved on to another book which is not holding my attention as easily. I’m even left with that lingering post-book feeling one has when one’s thoughts turn to the characters wondering what was happening with them now. I suppose that’s testimony enough.

II hadn’t heard of Anirban Bose before — but that isn’t surprising considering this is his first book. In his other life, he’s a doctor and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Rochester. I read somewhere that he’s now moved back to India. Calcutta, maybe. But just like the main character in the book, he’s from “small town” Ranchi and went to study medicine in Bombay. So yep, the book draws from his own life and experiences.

If Adityaman, the main character, had a small-town complex, he sure got over it pretty quick. He was confused, sure, but show me someone who isn’t. In record time he adapted to medical college, did well enough to get brilliant grades, became immensely popular, gave everyone great advice, and got the girl. Sure he got into trouble every now and then – but everything magically worked out. There was always a convenient coincidence waiting around the corner to save the day.I thought things resolved themselves way too easily when the author tells me, “The story is fiction. But the coincidences are one thing I didn’t make up. They really did happen. The exam scene, the young girl falling ill, Jagdeep turning up in the bus… I didn’t have to think about them at all.”

In the two years covered in this book, our Adityaman seems to have sorted out all of life, up and down, inside out. He got his thoughts clear on love, work, parenthood, morality, honor, religion, politics, friendship, politics, medicine. Did I leave out anything? Lucky guy. I want my money back — both from the coincidences and the life deparment.

Actually, the issues and events the author takes up are real enough. Very real. I’ve worked at a hospital for six years and can relate to much of what happens. The descriptions and expressions here are all pretty true to life. The detailing, the way people react, the attitudes are all part of everyday life in big city India. The story doesn’t just plod along – thankfully – but bubbles with mini-stories. But each story gets all its loose ends neatly tied up before moving on to the next. You’re left with no excess baggage. That may be good in some ways but it also means there’s nothing further to think about. It’s happily ever after.

While I found myself engaged by all the characters, everyone was colored with a certain amount of naiveté, even juvenility. Things work out too easily, too simply, too predictably. I think the story-telling needs to be a little more skillful for the next book. And I hope there’ll be a next book. This is an author I’d like to see ripening. I certainly hope he doesn’t along the way, go off and learn the nauseating art of intellectualizing and trying oh-so-hard to be Indian or Kafkaesque or some such.

I’ve no doubt that this first novel has a heart. Oh, and a soul too. It has feeling. It takes up things that matter. Maybe it just takes up too much though. Catharsis is sputtering all over the place and you can almost feel the author’s immense relief at the end of it all. Like he just had to get it all out.  I hope he moves on next to something interesting. And stimulating.

I asked Anirban Bose just how autobiographical his book was. Here’s what he said:

“Clearly I’ve borrowed from my life. Adi, the protagonist, has a lot of the characteristics I did and many of the other characters are also people I encountered, maybe just not in medical college, but also in the US (Harsha for example). Still other characters are purely a product of my imagination. In my defense (and I’m not sure I have to defend myself but I’m doing it because I’ll be accused of simply reproducing incidents in my life) most authors borrow from life or find inspiration in articles, news items and experiences to draw and paint a picture with words. I suppose I am not an exception to this rule!”

I also asked him whether he thought Adityaman didn’t just have it too easy.

“I wouldn’t exactly characterize Adi’s life it as being easy. The fall from grace, from popularity, especially at an age when we are very subject to the tribulations of peer pressure are enormous. How he learns to live with that is what makes it seem easy. I suppose that is the hardest part… learning to live with it. We all want something, and sometimes, in the race to get it, stepping back to see if it is worth it is not exactly a thought that crosses one’s mind. But then one person, or one incident can make all the difference…”

And what of all the coincidences that pepper Adityaman’s life?

“The funny part is that the coincidences that you talk about that may seem like deus ex machina, are real incidents!!! What can I say other than fact is stranger than fiction!”

Anirban plans to write a set of short stories next and these are to be in a different direction to Bombay Rains Bombay Girls.

Bombay Rains Bombay Girls has a website of its own. You can read an excerpt of the book there too. And elsewhere, you can have a look at Grant Medical College, Bombay, where the story is set.

In most households, a pen is just that — a pen. In mine, a pen was something to be treasured and treated with careful reverence. That’s because, the rest of us have always wanted to be as brilliant at calligraphy as my father is.

Very recently, my father, after nearly 55 years, managed to get in touch with an ex-RAF officer Henry Chambers who was once with him on a Pilot Attack Instructor Course in Leconfield, Yorkshire, UK in 1953. Two years ago, he saw a letter of my father’s in the Daily Telegraph in UK and sent him a letter just addressed to Gp Capt Kapil Bhargava (Retd), Bangalore India. The letter reached him with only a slight local delay.

Henry Chambers and my dad had many good times together during the course, where they claim they were the only ones not “chasing skirt”, preferring instead to spend hours talking about classical music and calligraphy.  calligraphy. My dad had given Henry a sample of his calligraphy on a sheet from a notebook. Henry suddenly found this calligraphed piece and sent my father a scan of it. The paper was yellowed and frayed at the edges and had some smudges in places. But it still looks great.

Although he hasn’t done it in a while, my dad also used to do the most amazing nail etchings.

But I must say, this isn’t the best example of his calligraphy I’ve seen. He’s written out Shakespeare’s sonnets on handmade paper, using red ink to embellish capital letters at the start of a sentence. All the lines always looked 3-dimensional, or “thick and thin” as we used to call them.

I tried and tried but  I never got anywhere near as good. I had a nice Victorian good-girl writing when I tried hard, but it would lapse into an all-over-the-place scrawl if left to its own devices. I even tried writing decoratively in Hindi in my music book. The results were at best, amusing, as you can see in this photograph. .

I will still only write in black ink and I still lovely delicious, juicy blank paper, but my little bit of a copybook-neat handwriting has been stomped out by my keyboard.

When I lived in Maadi, Cairo very long ago, I treated the Maadi Club as a second home. There was always something to do there; if nothing else, just walk around absorbing the surroundings and what people were doing. It was in Maadi Club that I met Omar Sharif – for real!

But one afternoon, as I was aimlessly walking around the quieter parts of the club, I saw in the distance, (no no, not a shimmering light) a little stone hut. From inside of this small hut, came the deepest, most sinister sound I had ever heard. A profound and foreboding drum sounded a regular, sepulchral doom-da-doom-da-doom doom-doom-tekk! I froze. What mysterious march was this and who was about to be devoured by what creature? I didn’t really want to wait to find out. I fled.

I never did get to know who was playing that drum, but I do know now that close encounter was my first with the beautiful, sensual chiftetelli rhythm. The basic rhythm doesn’t have quite as many dooms as I heard then. Dum te-tek te-tek dum dum tek is thought to be a Turkish and Greek rhythm and it’s used for slow belly dance and floor work.

I wouldn’t have known back then that I’d love dancing to Chiftetelli and the soulful music that is often set to it. The basic beats are often filled in and improvised with and sound passionate and emotional. In my iTunes, I’ve playlisted every chiftetelli I can find. To my amazement there are now 90 of them. What a choice of rich, beautiful music!

A few days ago, thanks to a friend, I discovered a beautiful Chifti piece called Desert Rain. It’s by Desert Wind and I got it from a 2CD set called World Dance. Not to be confused with a zillion other songs and groups called Desert Rain. You can hear a sample and buy it from PayPlay.

Chiftetelli can also be a fast rhythm and it’s also lovely in that form. I like it best when it’s slow and very filled and decorated with improvised beats that leave the dancer with lots to accent and play with.

This picture if of Sarah Skinner doing a lyrical chiftetelli performance on her I Love Turkish bellydance DVD.

The Indian national anthem sung to perfection by this perfect doll, Sia Iyer. Sia also manages to sing another tongue-twisting national song, Vande Mataram.

And another incredibly sweet, charming little girl does the same, with a little bit of help.

There are so few tribal fusion choreographies taught on DVD! There’s the fantastic Arabian Spices from Sahira, of course. Also her Ali, which I’m personally not fond of because of the forced Indian moves. And then there’s the Fantasy Bellydance series which has at least one tribal choreography on each of the 3 videos. Some are short and some are partially taught – but they’re there. And I don’t know of any others.

So… no one was surprised when I bought Aubre’s Tribal Essence choreography as soon as I heard of it. If you’re like me and your eyes are bigger than your wallet – just put yourself out of your agony and go buy it. But if you’re watching your budget, here’s what to consider.

Difficulty level
I’d say this is perhaps a medium difficulty level choreography. A few quick comparisons:

Arabian Spices – TE is more difficult
Ali – TE is more difficultCombos on tribal fusion DVDs – TE is more difficult
Fantasy bellydance – TE is tougher than Ariellah’s and Darshan’s but not as tough as Sera’s.

What makes TE difficult is the focus on the stomach work. While other choreographies also have quick stomach rolls and pos but they mix it with a greater amount of other bigger moves. In this choreography, the torso and stomach is in an almost continuous flow of movement. So—you must have your stomach rolls in at least passable shape. There is one backbend and a drop but they can be done to whatever extent you want. The stomach work, you have to do to the same extent as the instruction.

Are you ready?
Beginners… go do something else first! This is definitely not a beginner video. In fact, if you haven’t done enough tribal style isolation work in particular, and haven’t worked with any of the tribal combinations, this video is going to be too much at once. But if your omis look 3D enough and if your stomach rolls don’t look like you swallowed a porcupine – go for it.

Instruction style
The teaching moves fast. Clear and adequately detailed, but fast. Aubre is matter of fact, but not cold or clinical like some instructors. Sahira, for instance, is hugely warmer. But Rachel Brice is considerably colder on her DVDs.

Format
Now here’s an odd thing. You’d think there are only 5 combinations and this is a smallish choreography. Not so. It’s a long one because each of the 5 combos is so detailed it needs to be broken into two halves. I’m wondering why they didn’t just break the whole thing down into smaller combos! So you have a section that says “First six eight-counts” and then “Second four eight counts” etc to make up one complete combination. I’m guessing this format is because the moves flow into one another more than usual and a further breakdown may be too fragmented. Also, dancers of the level the instruction is targeted at can handle this sort of breakup easily enough. There are also repeats that include one combo building on the one before it. That’s a good thing because it’s really needed here.

The issue of how to learn fundamental moves has been handled here by putting in a separate little section, “Video Glossary”. Here, Aubre takes up some of the fundamental moves and explains what she means by them. You don’t get into absolute basics ad nauseum,  and yet you see some basics her way.

The choreography
Whether one likes a choreography or not is fairly subjective. Speaking for myself I’d say I like parts of it. Some segments are very pretty but I’d have preferred some larger and more dramatic moves waking it up a bit. In the beginning, it’s spellbinding, specially when done by a group of three dancers. After a while, I feel it could do with some moves that have a stronger presence. But well, someone else may feel differently and I’m no expert on choreography. The music is a lovely piece called Teasing Ways from DJ Mosavo’s Serpent’s Garden. You can see the choreography here though it’s filmed separately for the video.

Performances
The video has a solo performance followed by a group done by dancers from Aubre’s Lumina Dance Company.

Extras
Ain’t none.

(The photo here is an awful picture taken of my screen A workaround until my laptop can remember how to take screenshots again. The screen itself has some problems. So, keep in mind that Aubre and her dancing look a lot nicer!)

Continued →