City Scape

What about a commen8217; stage?
It has become a dreaded experience for the reporter on the art and culture beat to cover Punjabi quot;variety entertainmentquot; programmes. For, attended generally by the family members of the organisers and a few quot;majboorquot; souls like press reporters, these shows are often dull and gaffe-ridden from start to finish. A few days back, one was present at one such show at Tagore Theatre8230;. the city8217;s culturally most-misused venue. The event was organised by the International New Era Creations. Don8217;t worry if you have not heard of it. The sponsor? Department of Public Relations, Punjab Government. And that too when renowned artists of the region find it so difficult to get sponsorship from this very same government department.

May be the secret of getting government sponsorship is to take some of the PR officials into the fold, either to sing or to act or to dance. The New Era group did. There was a quot;ghazal recitalquot; by a district public relations officer. He was introduced by the squeaky compere as a quot;professionalquot; but he hardly knew the basic balancing of pitch. Finally, as the singer went on non-stop, the compere had to come and stand next to him in the form of a reminder. And what followed was a political satire which fitted into a street play format.

But what was hilarious here was the banner. quot;INEC organises a commen8217; stage for election meetingquot;. Let us hope that there is no more of this sharing of the so-called quot;commenquot; stage with the harried viewers in future.

What8217;s the question?
It is the same old story which is repeated at just about every seminar at Panjab University. It does not matter whether the seminar is about a topic of sociology or politics, or whether it concerns western philosophy or Indian literature. After the talk by the expert is over, the session is left open for the audience to ask questions. A gentleman gets up and starts narrating his experiences _ the question is nowhere to be heard. But, he goes on with his speech till interrupted by another who, too, would prefer not to leave the mike till asked by the others to do so.

This time too at the recent PU seminar in the department of Gandhian Studies, one such person got up to ask a question and spoke for about five minutes. Till someone in the audience prompted him and blurted out quot;What is your question?quot;. The speaker was left aghast and tried to wriggle out by saying that he was only stating his observations. quot;We can have another session for your observations where only you will speak,quot; was the response. The gentleman, however, continued with his comments.

A couple of minutes later, he was again interrupted and asked quot;What is your question?quot; This time, however, he was forced to ask a question and quietly leave the stage.

Cryptic message
Dasshera celebrations in the City had their share of funny moments. The celebrations held in Punjab University were preceded by a fight between Rama and Ravana and their respective armies. At about this time, the compere was handed a chit by some worried parents, saying their two children who had been separated from them should come to a particular spot. 8230; quot;under the treequot;. After the compere announced it, he himself wondered aloud: quot;Now there are so many trees around this area; under which tree should the children park themselves?quot; And he looked around in confusion and again said this out, much to the amusement of the audience.

No to polythene
At the function organised by the Lions Club Central on October 2 to mark Mahatma Gandhi8217;s birthday, the speakers observed that cleanliness drive, if launched in the city jointly by the clubs, could have been the real celebration of Gandhiji8217;s birthday. quot;We should pledge not to use polythene bags to save the environmentquot;, one of the speakers said amidst thunderous applause.