KalaKriti rocks the stage ...

It was almost an year ago when a bunch of culturally active members at KritiKal formed a cultural club named KalaKriti to promote and organize cultural events at KritiKal from time to time. Yesterday (5th August) was KritiKal's anniversary and we had a function at Hans Plaza, Delhi where there were a host of cultural events organized by KalaKriti.The KalaKriti members (Atul, Phanindra, Karthik, Saurabh, Gaurav, Deeksha, Akhilesh, Nehul, Tarun and myself) reached the venue by 5pm since we had to set up the stage. The function was scheduled to start at 7pm. We started with our pre-function preparations. Nehul started setting up the buzzer right away while Atul positioned himself with his synthesizer. While the music system was being set up, we had a last round of practice of all the events. The buzzer ditched us at the last moment, though when we tested it at the office it worked perfectly. The guests started coming by 7pm but we had to wait till all the professors had arrived. Finally the function started at 8pm with ganesh vandana by Atul and me. Then Nehul (Master of Ceremony) requested Prof. Bala to say a few words before we started with the cultural events. Tarun's high voltage (rocking) song performance of "Aadat" set the perfect mood for the rest of the evening. Next in line was Phani's rendition of In Dino from Life in a METRO which had a charming effect on the audience. Then came the star event of the evening, "Gajodhar ki Mumbai Yaatra", a skit performed by Saurabh(Baijnath), Gaurav(Manohar), Tarun(Chachcha) and our local raju srivastava - Akhilesh(Gajodhar). And boy !! From the moment these people took the stage, people were rolling with laughter at every dialogue of Gajodhar bhaiyya and every action of Chachcha ji. Then I had a couple of solo performances one of which was special in the sense that I had never before played an instrument on my own song on stage. Last event of the evening was Antakshari hosted by Gaurav and Deeksha. Though Deeksha seemed nervous at the starting but she soon got used to the stage and it went kewl (read cool). There were four teams whose names were based on our products and the captain of the teams were members of that product. The teams were Trazer ke Deewane(Phani), LPRS ke Parwaane(Me), Zenscan ke Mastaane(Akhilesh) and Amsaki ke Afsaane(Tarun). There were four rounds, normal word round, dumb charades, hint round and Audio/Visual round. Not only the teams but also the audience enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Finally we had a sumptuous dinner but the party was not over yet. We had a cool sound system, we had laptop with cool numbers, and we had the perfect tempo for a DJ nite :) So we danced and danced and for a moment everyone was back to his college days. People who were scattered around the hall were dragged to the dance floor and we ensured no one had been spared from doing a jig or two. A fun packed night, smiling faces all around and most importantly, a satisfied mind that our efforts paid off. All the events were thought and practiced in not more than 5 days. And with busy schedules and everyone being in different projects it was only commendable how each one of us practiced after office sometimes in the office basemet and sometimes at my house. In all this I missed out an important event. The background music for all the events be it the skit or the songs. Atul was on the synthesizer all along standing at one corner of the stage. And he is the best keyboard player I have ever met in my life. He is just too good. But at the pace I am learning from him, the day is not far when I'll be the best, hehe. Just kiddin.

Three cheers for KalaKriti, hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray
Three cheers for KritiKal, hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray,hipp hipp hurray

Photographs taken by Deepak, Phani and Me. Do visit the album KritiKal Anniversary 07 for more photographs.

Instrumentals galore !

Though I knew about this site "http://www.apunkabollywood.com" but I had no idea that they have this huge collection of good instrumentals and karaoke music about which I learnt just yesterday. We have our Annual Day celebrations in KritiKal on 5th of August for which I was searching for some original instrumentals and was glad to see the collection here.

I want to download all the instrumentals from here but I was just wondering if there was a better way than clicking on each and every link on every page to download them. Coz that would take me days together I guess :)

ne suggestions ?

Spiderman - A love story

Yeah, thats what it is. A love story. The movie was not as promising as its promos. Infact I was disappointed with the movie altogether. Looked more like a typical bollywood flick with all the necessary ingredients. Romance, Suspense, Drama, Sacrifice, Action, Twists and Turns. The only consolation was a few action scenes which looked complicated but great. And also a few comic scenes involving the Chief of the bulletin - The Bugle.

If you cant stop yourself from watching it, at least go without any expectations or hopes and you might just like the movie !!

Times Global Village

Past week for me could be termed "work hard ,party harder" because thats how it has been. Two office parties, a movie, Global village trip (snaps) and today its gonna be a pizza party at office :D Had been hearing about this Global Village since long and really wanted to go there. Its located between Delhi and Noida. Infact it is on one side of DND flyway which connects Delhi to Noida. And that is what makes going there from Noida a little pain taking and awkward too. Ever imagined going to Punjab from Delhi via Madhya Pradesh having to take a U-turn and then traveling almost the same distance back ? Off course its an exaggeration but this is how you get to the Times Global Village from Noida. You start from Noida, cross the DND toll bridge (5 kms), drive all the way till aashram in Delhi(another 2-3 kms) until you find the first cut on the divider, then take a U-turn and drive back to reach the destination.

But it was worth the effort. The place has been built over a huge area. Its basically an exhibition of crafts and consumer goods from various countries like South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Pakistan, UK, China, Arab, Thailand and many more. There are models of Taj Mahal, Twin towers, Egyptian Pyramid and the Sphynx, Roman Colosseum, Eiffel Tower which are an attraction of the place. And there are too many food stalls with cuisines from various parts of India. Things are a little expensive there but not everyday do we get a chance to experience so much.

We made sure we had seen each and every section of the world and it was fun to roam around. We had Neembu paani, Aam panna and Matar kulche for the starters. Then roamed around and I bought a nice gift for my brother from one of the shops. We also had kesar kulfi and I tried Tom Yon Gong soup which is a special Thai preparation. It was awesome !! We had dinner at the "Murthal ke paraanthe" and then "Bihari tikka with paraantha" at the pakistani food stall. Finally we had "baraf ka gola" (chuski) which was a delight in itself.

A kewl evening !!

Bheja Fry

A total entertainer. There is nothing special about the story but the acting and the dialogues make the movie a full dose of laughter. A must watch if you are stressed out. Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shourie (V tv VJ's who are a well known comic pair of the recent times) are the two people to watch out for in this movie. Not many directors are able to impress with a remake (of a French comedy Le Diner De Cons) at their debut. I have'nt watched the original movie but would like to. But for now, I am happy to see this flick for the second time tonight :D Offcourse, for free :P (Office party)