The show was meant to showcase upcoming local talent and it was heartening to see many young and eager faces among the participants. The highlights in the first part of the programme included Raghav Revankar's mellifluous rendition of raag Kalawati on the sitar and two beautiful ghazals by young Sheetal Jivangikar. What caught the audience's fancy was a novel fusion of percussion instruments presented by Laytaal Vihar. In this demonstration of East-West fusion, 15 young tabla-players and one man on the drums wove their unique composition of Vande Mataram.

The stage came alive to the vigorous dances that comprised the second part of the programme. The colourful dances ranged from the traditional Rajasthani wedding songs and Mohiniattam to Bhangra. If the enthusiasm and interest of the participants - many of them exceeded their time limit - was anything to go by, the programme did succeed in its aim.

Ganesh's glory
One subject, myriad forms. That's the impression you carry away from the exhibition of 60-odd Ganesh paintings organised by the local Chitari Academy at the Balgandharva Kala Dalan as part of the Pune Festival. From illustrations to oils, collages to sketches, embossings to reliefs to stained glass work, the artists have employed a range of techniques and put to use different media to actualise their interpretation of the trunk God.

While one of the artists has used two canvas boards to complete her picture, another has used a bamboo sieve as the base to paste an idol of Ganapati. The dancing Ganesh, another in a female form, simple strokes forming the outline, intricate paintings with ornaments embellished in gold powder, geometric designs with the lines suggesting the form of the deity... a whole lot of creative thinking has gone into these pictures.

Though the image of Ganapati remains the central figure, it has been given different contexts - like scenes depicting his birth (with the figure of Parvati and a Shivlinga in the background), another a profusion of colour in bold strokes suggesting the cosmic nothingness out of which Ganesh takes form. And not missing out on the conclusion of the golden jubilee of India's independence, there's one picture that has the Ganesh form outlined on a map of India.

Mother's day out
A major part of Pune's Gujarati population was at Balgandharva Rangmandir on the evening of August 31, witnessing the Gujarati play Janani Ni Jod. A one-and-a-half-hour play, the family drama's dose of comedy, topped with meaningful dialogues, kept the audience enthralled.

The title Janani Ni Jod has been borrowed from a portion of a Gujarati poem by Kavi Botadkar. It means, ``A mother is matchless, there is no alternative to her.'' Written by Meena Karpe, directed by Laxmikant Karpe and produced by J. Abbas, the group, under the banner of Shri Ajar Arts and Shri Sai Art, had already performed the play in Mumbai many times before staging it here.

The play is about a mother who is tortured, troubled and neglected by her sons, daughter, daughter-in-law and husband. She tries her best to keep her family together but finds herself failing in her attempts to do so.

Until the day she meets her school friend who has come down from South Africa. The friend boosts her self-confidence and decides that the two of them should inter-change their personalities.

And then ensues a total change, with the suppressed mother becoming bold and confident, returning home with a mind of her own. Kalpana Diwar plays the role of the mother, Devendra Pandit is her husband, Nilesh Joshi plays the elder son, Nitesh Thakkar, the younger one.

The same old feeling
If you were a Brit who was feeling nostalgic about India, what would be the first thing you'd miss? Traffic jams! At least that is how Michael Bates, Deputy High Commissioner of U.K., felt. Having lived in India on previous postings, Bates returned to the country that ``has got under my skin.''

Within 10 days of resuming work, he had to travel to Ahmedabad. While there, he was stuck in a traffic jam, surrounded by fumes from diesel trucks, incessant honking of the cars, cows ambling across the road, the hot summer sun... And what did Bates do? Instead of grumbling, he looked around the road with the glee of a five-year-old and gushed - ``It's so good to be back here!'' Home away from home, should we say?