Citygritty — Pune

Bro turns pro!Music is serious business. Why else would pubs, originally meant to be places where people met for a chat, blare music? In ...

Bro turns pro!
Music is serious business. Why else would pubs, originally meant to be places where people met for a chat, blare music? In keeping with their commitment to music, loud and soft, Jaws Events has brought in artistes from Delhi and Mumbai for a live performance at 10 Downing Street and Gera Plaza. And who will sing for us Punekars? Well, Nitin Bali, of the Na Jaana fame, and Mika Singh, of the Daler Mehndi fame! What has Daler Mehndi got to do with Mika Singh’s fame, you wonder. But Jaws Events explains that easily. “Mika is Daler’s real brother, so bhangra pop is in his blood” Well, well, seems as if music, much like genes, is all a matter of familial connections these days!

Let’s face it
The Mr and Miss Photogenic Contest is the next event Puneites can look forward to. Kodak Professional, a division of Kodak India Limited, endeavours to promote talent and the culture of photography among the youth this way. Interested contestants are invited to get themselves photographed at 15 Kodak outlets in the city. All the participants have to do is fill in an entry form, which they get after buying one Pepsi from select Pepsi counters. The closing date for entries is October 5, and the winners will be selected only on their photogenic ability. Model Mehr Jessia Ramphal and fashion photographer Ashok Salian will jugde the most captivating faces. Many attractive prizes are to be won, the winners getting a trip for two to Cidade de Goa. A gala finale at the end of October will be held to crown the lucky twosome.

This boy’s life
Addressing the burning issue of the day, the theatre group Manoranjan recently presented a thought-provoking play on AIDS, Asa Zalach Kasa? (How did it happen?) at Balgandharva Rangmandir. In its two acts, it also brought notice to social issues concerning AIDS such as ostracism of the patient by doctors.

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The characters belong to an upper middle-class family. The advocate father is busy with his career, the mother with social work. The younger of the two children, a spoilt teen-aged boy, is packed off to a boarding school by the father following complaints from his teachers. Despite protests by the other family members, the father hopes that hostel life will discipline the erring child.

At the boarding school, the boy is ragged, turns homosexual and contracts AIDS. The family is shocked, but more so because he’s gay, rather than because he is suffering from this dreadful syndrome. Added to that is the fact that even doctors refuse to treat him, and the boy is taken by the grandfather to a quiet place where social workers look after AIDS victims.

While the play is topical, its impact is lost as it tries to cater to the entertainment aspect. The artistes Suhas Kulkarni, Jyoti Chandekar, Ketan Kshirsagar and Govind Dharmadhikari, in the roles of the father, mother, the boy and the grandfather respectively, have done full justice to convey the motto. At the end of the play, Kulkarni announces his plans for the play, having taken it upon himself to spread the message to young and old alike to fight against this killer disease.

Intending to get the play translated into Gujarati, Sindhi, Sanskrit and Malayalam, the Hindi version was already staged in Pune, while the English one has opened in Mumbai.

Amid India’s push to extradite Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, British officials visit Tihar jail to inspect conditions

British officials inspect Tihar jail as India pushes to extradite Mallya, Nirav Modi

Cities5 hr ago

A team from the British CPS visited Tihar jail to inspect inmate conditions and security, amidst India's efforts to extradite fugitives Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Sanjay Bhandari from the UK. They discussed setting up a specialized enclosure for high-profile prisoners and addressed concerns about violence within the jail. As of 2024, India has made 178 extradition requests to various countries.

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