Published in The Hindu today.
“I am fascinated by the relationship between the puppeteer and the puppet,” says Anurupa Roy, founder of Kat Katha and director of About Ram, a new media theatre presentation that had the audience spellbound when it played recently as part of the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) New Performance Festival. Produced by Kat Katha in collaboration with Vishal Dar, About Ram germinated three years ago when Roy watched a Balinese Ramayan. “Watching the Balinese version made me realise that the story changes as it travels,” she explains. “As it travels, it takes on different nuances. I started studying different versions of the Ramayana and came across Bhavabhuti’s Ramayana, which looks at it as the ultimate, tragic love story. It revolves around the theme of universal loneliness—that each human being is ultimately alone. So when Ram chooses kingdom over Sita, the last lines of the poem say ‘he ruled for ten thousand years—alone’.” » Read the rest of this entry «
It’s the second time I’ve been tagged for this one, first by Chandni and then by Anasuya and the latter is family so I can hardly refuse. 
I’ve decided to go ahead and inflict the personal and the self-indulgent on you. So here’s the tag:
Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given (family, friend, yourself, your love, anything you like). Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.
Family: Now, this is tough because some time back, I moved / removed most of the personal posts from this blog but here’s what still remains — On Calcutta summers and something on Netaji.
Friend: This one’s easy. There’s Esther, Hajira, and Rita in Deorali, Jaigaon — all women I met during my travels and may never see again but who have affected and influenced me in various ways.
Myself: Ah…do this and this count?
My love: What fun! There’s chick flicks, beer, and my beloved city.
Anything I like: On sexism and Internet purdah and a piece on one of my favourite movies, Maurice.
And I tag OJ who I adore, Iz whose writing is both funny and heartbreaking, Falstaff who I regularly argue with on the blogosphere and who probably doesn’t do tags, and new blog friends Pongam and IndieQuill.
So the Toto Awards 2008 were announced ten days back. And I was one of the two winners in the creative writing category. Quite cheered up my month.
Besides a trophy and plaque, there’s a neat cash prize of 25k but what I like most is that one of the judges was Keki Daruwalla (the others being Gita Hariharan and Ravi Singh of Penguin). His approbation can only be a good thing. Also, Amitav Ghosh was there to present the awards and meeting him was fantastic.
Some of the poems I entered are here.