Defense against Ants

Though I like animals in general and pet animals in particular, Ants are an exception. They are hailed for their hard work-of collecting and storing food in anticipation of difficult times. But I don't like ants, because instead of “collecting” their food from a nearby supermarket, they STEAL it from my kitchen. They attack my food materials and render it useless, by infecting entire packet while all they can eat-their entire army put together is probably 1% of what the packet contains.

Most of you must have had bad experience of dealing with ants-it may not be a menace with modern homes but ants are a common problem in village homes and even city homes which are a bit old-this post is a quick collection of some preventive measures and Ant removal techniques, when they attack your food items (Mind you-labeling sugar jar as ‘salt’ isn’t one of them). Suggestions and ideas in this regard are welcome.

If you thought ants attack only those food items which are sweet, then you’re mistaken. They feast on wide range of food products- Raw Noodles, rice grains and so on.

DDT based Lakshman Rekha was a popular product (which I do not use) to keep ants away, but I guess ants have developed immunity against it.

Innovative Preventive measures against invasion of ants and other related thoughts:

• Just in time procurement: Whatever Japanese industrialists invented, can be implemented right inside our homes. Just in time is a manufacturing methodology which suggests purchasing raw materials just when needed, thereby eliminating need to maintain high inventory. Though buying your food item in small quantities just when required denies an advantage of wholesale prices and makes you do frequent visits to store, it ensures that ants do not get a chance to claim ownership on your goods.
• Keeping infested items under hot sun is the easiest way to get rid of ants. Due to heat they escape to a shady area within minutes. If the infested food items are expensive or very large in quantity to discard, it may make sense to shoo the ants away, clean properly where feasible and use it. But the thought that these ants might have camped there for days, adding their body waste and other impurities, makes it difficult to convince ourselves that we can re use it.
• Change location: Ants take several hours to locate a food item and another few hours to march their army towards the same. Couple of times a day, move the food item from one place to another. By relocating their target, you’ll buy several hours of time.
• Ants make their way through plastic bags and even supposed to be air tight containers-so extra tight containers are essential. All steel containers are the best-plastic containers are highly vulnerable as we may not close it tightly or the gap between lid and the container might be enough for an ant to squeeze in.
• Haven’t seen ants attacking food items kept inside refrigerator-so that can be one safe place to keep it, but again, space inside the refrigerator will be limited.
• Giving them a bait or trying to compromise with them will not work-if you keep a small qty reserved for ants, they consume the one on offer and attack the main consignment as well-so double loss. So no revenue sharing or seat sharing agreement with ants- its either them or you.
• Water is an effective barrier-they can’t swim and cross. But difficult to make use of this idea.
• Just like we have mobile signal jammers-which prevent mobile devices from receiving signal, wish some scientists invest an ant jammer-which ensures that ants fail to detect a possible food item by smell or other parameters. (Don’t think they search visually) We already have devices which attract mosquitoes and electrocute them.
• I’m not aware of any counter animal that can be used against ants (For example, if rats and rodents pose a menace we can have a pet cat which will reduce this problem). So ants need to dealt manually.
• What are the best ways to make an ant get lost? Any idea?
• Are institutes like CFTRI (Central Food Technology and Research Institute) doing something about this issue? Can be an interesting assignment if they wish to take up the challenge.
• I've only seen them carrying solid food. Won't they need some liquid food too? How do they transport and store water and other liquids?
• Since ants store food for future, I am sure they would have enough stock to survive the recession phase. If somebody can study their storage habit (for how many days they're storing in advance) we may get some idea when ants anticipate recession to end? Also if I had an opportunity I would recommend ants to change their strategy-instead of stealing and storing, they should focus on being self sustainable, by learning how to grow/produce their own food.

Its only in movies we’ve seen alien creatures taking over our plannet. But if we’re not careful enough, ants will slowly take over our kitchen-so we need to unite and defend ourselves.. hehe.

These were some of my random thoughts on ants. Feel free to comment and add your thoughts regarding this.

Also read: AWPT Pet care centre * Cute squirrels of Agra Fort * Making Tomato rasam in easy steps * My dog marcus *

Alamparai fort and backwaters off ECR

Alamparai fort is one of the lesser known places of tourist interest on the east coast road (ECR) that connects Chennai and Puducheri (Pondy). Not much has been done by tourism department to promote this place and in a sense that is good. Too much of commercialization spoils beauty of the place.
Alamparai fort is a severely ruined fort with only few fragments of the wall intact. Along with a beautiful backwater and adjoining sea, this scenic and serene place is ideal for spending few refreshing hours.

Where is it? How to go to Alamparai fort?
It’s off ECR (East Coast Road), some 40 kms from Mahabalipuram while driving towards Pondichery. No major signboards available on the roadside. After driving for about 40 kms, drive slowly. You’ll spot a village/town- called Kadapakkatrum, wherein you’ll see a small signboard- white letters on a blue/green background, which indicates that you’ve to take left turn to go to Alambarai fort. Take that road-drive for 2kms, road splits into two- take the right one, you’ll reach the fort in about a km. Share autos are available from this town to this fort.

History:
Refer the photograph for a brief history. It was built in 17th century by the Mughals and has subsequently changed hands several times, British were the last known owners/rulers here. The fort was damaged due to several wars and also due to recent tsunami that his the east coast.

What to do?
Backwaters is very scenic- I find it better than Pondy backwaters-Good and safe for a swim. Local fisherman offer to take you for a ride on the boat-charges will be in the range of Rs. 200-500 for 30 mins-depends on number of people, how good you can bargain and other factors. It’s illegal, No life jackets offered and not much help around if something goes wrong. So use your discretion before opting for the boat ride.

Other than boat ride and swim, fort area is nice for exploration, photography or for just relaxation. Not much of shady areas available to protect one from sun in the noon, but evenings will be nice. Very isolated area, so move out before its dark.

Except one small makeshift shop that sells few items not much refreshments were available. Carry your own food, but please do not litter the place.

Be sure to add this place to your itinerary if you’re planning a Mahabs or Pondy trip.

Ooty trip Day3: Nilgiris Heritage Train

Day 3 of our Ooty trip. Read about Day 1 and Day 2 if you haven't.

Highlights: Journey in Heritage train, Conversation with police, Botanical Garden, Dodda betta, Shooting Madu.

Day 3 began with leisure. Everyone catching up with pending sleep and getting ready leisurely. We had 2-2 cups of Masala tea and did some shopping at Mayur teas- home made chocolates, tea powders, Oils and creams etc. All five of us put together made a purchase exceeding Rs 3000.

Few minutes past 8 AM we left, thanking the owners for their hospitality. First objective was to try the heritage train which shuttles between Mettupalyam and Udagamandalam, via Coonoor. The end to end journey one way takes more than 4 hours and we had two challenges: One-the car. If we had a driver along. We could have asked him to drive the car to destination while we travel in train. But having opted for self drive, we couldn’t do car and train journey together. Either I had forgo the experience of travelling in heritage train or come back after train journey to collect the car. Second challenge was time- 4 hours in train, another few hours to get the car would mean we'll have to skip lots of other places.

Hence we didn’t have time to enjoy end to end journey from Mettupalyam to Ootakamund, so opted for a part journey, from Coonoor to Ooty. Train was to start at 10.45 from Coonoor- so we split into 2 teams-one would go to Ooty, park the car and come back, while other team would get tickets, pack breakfast and keep the other team informed on timing and other happenings.

Myself and Devi drove to Ooty-found some place and parked the car. There wasn’t much traffic and 17 kms could be covered in 30 mins flat. It was 9.10 when we parked the car. Had 90 mins to get back to Coonoor railway station. I wasn’t sure how much time a bus would take, so checked a cabbie how much he would take to drop us at Coonoor. I had thought Rs 200-300 would be reasonable, but cabbie started at Rs 600 and came down till 450, which I knew was too much. We left it and walked little further where we got into an express bus heading towards Coimbattur. I’m glad we decided not to opt for cab, because for 8+8 16 bucks (2 tickets) we could reach back Coonoor by 10 am. (in case return journey took time, plan B was to board the heritage train at a later station, say Wellington)

Train was late by 15 mins. It had a diesel engine and not steam one, as I had expected it to be. First class tickets were overpriced at Rs 75 while normal tickets were just Rs 3. Nothing so special about first class, except that it is at the front of the train and seats are spacious (since only 4 people occupy a row instead of 6 in normal coach). Coonoor-Ooty stretch had very few number of tunnels and bridges, while Mettupalyam-Coonoor sector would have got much more of them.

Journey was good. Nice scenery outside and an energetic crowd inside-yelling, shouting, clicking snaps. The trip lasted for an hour and ended at Ooty station by noon. Raveesh bought some books and photos here and we came out. Now I had to go and get the car-I’d not noted the name of the area where I’d parked it-all I knew was that it is somewhere close to Coonoor road. Took an auto and managed to locate the car. While driving back to railway station to pick up others, police directed us through a slightly longer and jam packed route. As I was inching ahead, suddenly saw the Scorpio which I’d rented last year for Wayanad trip. [read more]

Next stop was at Botanical Garden-which was overcrowded on a Sundar afternoon. Finding parking space was tough-took 15 mins of time. One of the most expensive places to park at a fee of Rs 45 for a car. A vast garden, which I’d seen decades ago in a family trip, was revisited. Shortage of time and rains made us exit this place soon and we were soon heading towards Dodda Betta, stopping for a light drive in refreshment on the way. Dodda betta area was flooded with vehicles and we’d to park few kms away and walk. View was nice and weather was pleasant. We helped ourselves with fresh carrots, raw mangoes, baked ground nuts and more. A telescope view point showed us a distant village in Coonoor.

We left Dodda betta, reached Ooty and started driving towards Mysore, not forgetting to fuel up (saves 2 rs per litre). There were no khakhi+white clad traffic police in Ooty-regular all khaki clad police were regulating traffic and were very helpful in guiding us in the right direction. However one police man on the outskirts of the city was an exception.

We’d reached the junction where we had two options- go straight to take the regular highway to Mysore via Gudalur or take right and travel through Kalhatti ghat (through which we’d come). We wanted to try the Gudalur route and just to be sure we thought of cross checking with the police again. What happened next deserves a mention.

One of us (to the police): Sir this road goes to Mysore?
Police: Pull over
We: Why sir?
Police: Driver, come here.
I get out and go there, one more person accompanies me.
Police: Where do you want to go?
We: Mysore
Police: Tell me in which gear you’ll drive.
Me: There’re 5+1 gears in the car-I’ll drive in the most appropriate gear.
Police: No. Tell me which gear you’ll drive
Me: how can I specify any single gear? It depends on the driving condition
Police: Listen, don’t argue-you should drive in first or second gear only.
Me: ok sir. We can go?
Police: Give something.
We: what? Why?
Police: (hesitantly) registration
We: What registration? How much?
Police: Give something-say 50 Rs

At this point we went back to the car to tell others that this police officer is demanding Rs 50 bribe and were contemplating what next to do. By this time this officer got busy with other cars and lost interest in answering our questions (like what registration fee he is referring to). We got into the car and drove off.

We’d thought that was end of our trip, but we came across few more interesting places- Shooting madu-an open hill with a very nice view and green cover-where lots of movies were reportedly shot. Horse ride here costs Rs 100 for a quick ride till the peak and back. Jeeps are also available to take you for a round. I made an attempt to take photo of carrots stacked nicely for sale and the lady manning that stack of carrot literally attempted to snatch my camera- I didn’t understand what she said, but basically she was upset that I was taking photo of her carrots without paying her anything. I managed to walk away as she continued her dialogues-little did she know that I’ve enough zoom to capture her carrots from a distance. We stopped for few minutes at another view point and a reservoir. Pykara Boat house was also on the way, but it was exactly 6PM, closing time that is, when we spotted the signboard showing how to go to the boat house.
Road was good and by dinner time we’d reached Gundlupet. Hotels would have closed by the time we make it to Mysore, so we went to an Udupi hotel for dinner. Reached Mysore few hours later and spent 20 minutes circling the outer ring road, struggling to find an exit to Bangalore. If we’d entered the city we could have made it faster (we could have even seen Mysore palace illuminated).

Reached Bangalore few hours past midnight, ending a memorable trip. Fiesta didn't give any trouble during the trip and gave an economy of about 16+ kmpl (diesel)

Places missed/Could have been covered: Droog Fort, Pykara Boat House, Visit to tea factory, Pasteur Institute.

Update: Relatives to whom I gave the Oil and tea powder purchased at Mayur tea have given a feedback that the products were very good.

Also read other travelogues: Wayanad * Yercaud * Binsar * Talakona *

Play time-Theatre plays by Evam, Rebelz n more

Some updates first:

Ex classmate BM Giriraj (he is also associate director of a movie-Moggina Manasu) has released a Kannada novel recently, called Kathege Savilla (no death to stories)- grab a copy if you can.

A Hyderabad based magazine, PRISM, has quoted my opinion, with credit, in one of its articles about Begging menace. You may wish to read the article here (My inputs are hidden deep somewhere-either read it fully or do Ctrl+F for my name). In case you wish to buy the print version, Magazine is available for Rs 10 at Walden stores in Begumpet and Banjara Hills

Play Time

Hot sun and other factors have cut down my travel plans in past few months and instead made me divert attention towards theatre, music and other fine arts. In the span of last 6 months I’ve attended about 10 plays/performances. I’m not an expert in this field and do not have time and content to write detailed review, so just giving a mention of various performances I attended and a brief review.

1. Battle of the Sexes, by Rebelz at Alliance Française (21st December 2008)
Two small plays performed back to back on the theme-difference of opinion between men and women. Play was good to watch, though nothing new in the story/content. More about Rebelz Entertainment

2, 3. Inspirations 09 and Summer-n-Groove Dance show by Swingers
Have written in detail about Swingers in a separate post- Read it here.

4. Hamlet the Original Spoof by evam, Vinayaga hall, Nungambakkam
Came to know about this show by a friend just 30 mins prior to start time. Dashed to the venue just in time. The play is performed by only 3 characters, performed well by Karthik Kumar, Karthik Srinivasan and Sunil Vishnu (excluding some audience invited on stage) I’ve not yet seen or read the original hamlet, so the spoof almost went overhead. But the play was slightly different and innovative from others- other than the regular performance, it was re enacted in slow motion mode, fast forward mode, reverse mode etc to entertain the audience. Some audience were invited on stage to do some small actions, the introduction was also different-running all around auditorium, killing time, pulling each other’s leg etc, which may look silly for serious observers. [More]

5, 6. Patala Bhairavi and Mayaa Bazaar (Telugu)-by Surabhi Group, coordinated by Evam, Music Academy, Mylapore
Hyderabad based Surabhi theatre group (aka Sri Venkateshwara NatyaMandali) is reportedly one large united family of some 60+ members whose prime activity is performing theatre. They are known for on stage animations and effects, which we got to see firsthand in these two plays. Surabhi group was founded in 1889 (yes, more than 120 years) and is running since 3 generations. Everyone in the family-small kids to elderly people will have some role/responsibility to undertake during each show.

Play was in telugu, so audience were provided with a synopsis in English, which helped us get a brief overview of the story. The 100 Rs ticket was full paisa vasool, while higher denomination tickets didn’t have much of a value addition. Complementary beauty products from Citibank promo, discount coupons and free perk, parrot reading etc added to fun-which we missed on day 1 but exploited on day 2.

Some of the on stage animations/graphics used in these plays deserves a mention. Difficult to describe or narrate in words and should be enjoyed live. Romantic scenes involving moon and dreaming, scenes in which the rakshasa chops off his own hand and several such tricks were executed very well. Sitting at balcony we could view some accessories used for these tricks-which we wouldn’t have seen has we been on ground floor.

Both Patala Bhairavi (The Goddess of Underground) and Maya bazaar (Illusionary Market??) are available as movies, for those interested. First one, Patala Bhairavi, is about a common man winning heart of princess, while having to face lots of hurdles, including an evil man who attempts to con this man and sacrifice him to Patala Bhairavi for some personal gains. However our hero gets the hint just in time, manages to escape, win hands of princess and so on. Mayaa Bazaar is a relatively weaker story.

Surabhi group frequently performs in Hyderabad and other cities like Bangalore (keep an eye on Ranga Shankara schedule). Watch their next performance if you can.

7. Music Concert at IIT-M Open Air Theatre, on the occasion of Easter

Forgot the name of the singer-Was a nice performance.

8. PC Sorkar Magic Show
Except a few tricks others were conventional and boring. Not really worth, mainly because we would have seen the same stuff several times over-in TV, in other shows etc. Kids might enjoy it though.

9. Two 2 Tango, by Rebelz, Alliance Française
Both Rebelz plays I’d seen were two in one- two short plays performed back to back. In Two 2 Tango, first play, Playwriting for Dummies, was about how a script writer tries to control the play by varying dialogues or significance of each characters. Second play, Alice in Blunderland, was about a person who had created a false image in the eyes of his boss about a strong relationship he has with his loved one, while in reality he had none. Now that his boss is visiting his place for dinner, he has to get a girl to act as his fiancée. The play depicts the trouble he faces in the process. Overall rating: Ok to Good.

10. Summer of Love-Western Music concert by Unwind Centre, Museum Theatre, Egmore
Organized primarily to showcase talents of newly enrolled students of unwind centre, the concert included several songs in mass singing. Since they were not professionals, but amateurs who just learnt some singing, Rs 200 ticket fare was a bit high. But like swingers I guess here also parents of kids singing were the ones who composed most of the audience, having to buy tickets at whatever rate quoted by the organizers. Some songs were good, but melody was somewhat missing as 25-30 people on stage couldn’t sing in perfect synchronization. For a few songs they displayed lyrics on screen, which helped making sense of what they were singing, while many other songs didn’t have the same. Audience was also made to sing a few lines

Coming up in near Future

Run for your Wife- By ASAP- Museum Theatre, Egmore, Chennai
To be performed this Saturday and Sunday, 13th and 14th June 2009, 7PM- Watch it if you can. I’ll update this post with a brief review of this play next week. Run for your wife is A very popular play in England. ASAP productions are performing it in Chennai, with assistance from Bhoomi.

Run for your wife: Post play update: The play was good, though started little late. I felt some dialogues and actions could have been toned down a little. There were no refreshments on sale during the break. Museum theatre is not the best place to perform a play-due to its semi circular design, only those sitting at the centre can get proper view. Also number of seats are much less compared to a regular theatre.

Chicago- A musical by stagefright theatre group
Scheduled to be performed in August, the team is rehearsing hard. Based on an English movie- Chicago-story of a few ladies who murder men for various reasons and land up in jail. To be performed by Stagefright productions

An Idiot for Dinner by Evams

Performance of this play is going on at Rangashankara, JP Nagar Bengaluru this weekend. Next weekend (20th and 21st June) it will be happening in Chennai, 3:30 and 7:30pm at Sivagami Pettachi Auditorium in Mylapore. [More]

Ticket prices to these shows are 2-3 times (and more) that of a movie ticket. But watching live performance is a different experience compared to viewing pre recorded video. Also some of these theatre groups are into charity and social welfare. Most of them are very successful in getting enough sponsors.

Also wanted to attend performances of Ram and Indira Kadambi, Jayanti Sundar and others-didn't materialize.

Similar: Saligrama Makkala Mela performs at Infosys Mysooru * 16 in 1 movie reviews *

eNidhi India Merger plans unveiled

eNidhi India Board of Directors met secretly at an undisclosed location (probably in an abandoned LTTE Bunker) recently and discussed the option of acquiring two lesser known blogs under eNidhi India banner- the Ad critics blog and Shrinidhi’s photo blog and merging them into the main blog: eNidhi: A professional amateur.

Rationale behind this thought and some key considerations are listed below, though a final decision will be taken during annual general body meeting of eNidhi India, after taking all stakeholders into confidence.

The Proposal:
Merge the ad critics and the photo blog (both received lukewarm response and negligible page views) with the main blog and discontinue posting new entries in the acquired blogs. Make all new posts related to photography or ad reviews in the parent blog itself in order to consolidate reader base.

Rationale behind this move (consolidated from a Hi-Fi pptx that Chief Operations Officer of eNidhi India presented to its board of directors)

• The photo blog and Ad critics blog aren’t getting expected response from readers and efforts invested in them is yielding negative returns
• Quantity of new contents at these blogs were very minimal compared to parent blog and with such a low rate of new posts, comments and reader-base, it is not operationally viable to run these blogs
• The interest from fellow contributors at the ad critics blog appears to be non-existent, which is suspected to be primarily because of poor readership
• These blogs are causing dilution of visitors who land at profile page
• Dilution of page rank and visitor count can be avoid by directing all visitors to one blog
• During this time of recession eNidhi India needs to consolidate its reader base and contents effectively under one blog itself, instead of running several ‘not so successful’ blogs.
• Existing contents on these blogs will not be disturbed, as republishing them on the main blog can irritate readers who’ve already read them.

Note: eNidhi India Chief Blogging Officer has clarified that all his blogs were real assets and this is not an attempt to replace fictitious assets with real ones.

Stakeholder opinion and investor reaction is being keenly awaited for this move.

Swingers Dance School Inspirations Show

In recent past, I attended two dance shows organized by Swingers. Swingers is a company operational in Chennai and Bengaluru that provides long term professional, short term courses and summer (crash) courses on western dance forms (hip-hop, bachata, salsa and the likes-I can hardly differentiate between them) and conduct stage shows wherein their students perform to display their recently learnt dance skills.

This post shares information and some of my observations about (western) dance schools like Swingers and their shows. Disclaimer: I’m not qualified enough to pass comments on dance performance-these are my simple observations/opinions. I do not have any rights to criticize them-children had fun, parents are proud and Swingers got yet another successful show to their kitty-but since I bought tickets to the show I am taking some liberty of publishing my thoughts.
The business model is excellent- a 15 day crash course for wannabe dancers, priced at approx Rs 1.5-2k per person, during which they get to learn a set of dance steps which forms a 4-6 minutes dance item. At the end of training season there’ll be a 3 hour stage show will have about 15-20 dance items (of various types, from different batches, each involving 15-20 students). So anywhere about 200-300 people get to perform per show. Tickets for the show priced at Rs 250-300 and upwards, no complementary tickets given to the members who are performing. When a child is performing, its proud parents will buy the tickets at any price, so at least 2 tickets per performer and 600 tickets will be sold easily. That directly makes 1.5-2 lakh rupees per show by sale of tickets alone. Income from sponsors extra. Expenses are studio/theatre rentals and lightings (costumes by performers, at their expense).

I’m given to understand that John Britto’s dance school, SDIPA (Shaiamak Davar’s institute of performing arts), Bal Bhavan, Unwind Centre and several others also have similar approaches. Nothing wrong or worth complaining about it-just a mention.

Other comments
1. Compared to the first performance I attended (on March 15th 2009 and Music Academy Chennai), the second one (May 23 2009, Music Academy, Chennai) was cheaper and better. For the dances meant for small kids, this time they made a elder dancer dance with them, so that kids can refer to him/her and follow the steps. Last time kids were left to their own.

2. In addition to the technicalities, music , coordination and MCing , managing 300+ performers backstage, most of them kids, for 3 hours, is a challenge. Swingers has managed to accomplish the task gracefully.

3. Both the shows I attended staged Lion King and it appears to be their trademark. With several “animals” and poised rhythmic movements, the hullaballoo generated is contagious..

4. Several dances were however a repetition. May be the performers were different- couldn’t help but notice that the dance steps, music and costume of certain items were a copy-paste of Inspirations ’09 ( the 1st show I attended)

5. They thanked the sponsors, management, partners everyone, but didn’t thank the audience who paid a price and bought tickets

6. I was initially hoping there will be some Bharatanatyam or other Indian classical performances-there weren’t any. Only western ones. (Bharatanatyam takes several years to master-why bother when Swingers can teach you hip hop in 15 days and make you dance on stage? I asked a veteran bharatanatyam dancer Indira Kadambi if Bharatanatyam is losing sheen among pupils or if there’s a decline in demand. She assured me that there’s still a good number of students joining Bharatanatyam classes) Also Bharatanatyam is predominantly a solo dance-they won’t be able to put 300 people on stage with solo items

7. I’m given to understand that they didn’t force the participants to buy dance dresses from a specific shop-most performers had the option of buying one for themselves/manage with existing dresses they may have. Though this meant minor non-uniformity in the costume, it should have saved some cash outflow for the performers.

8. Generally, it’s a practice to announce the names of the performers-but this was skipped during the show, understandably due to huge headcount in each item. I later noticed that they’ve displayed a board outside, listing names of performers in each item.

9. As far as I know, ticket sale opened just 48 hours before the show-shows that they are fully confident of selling all tickets (parents and friends who wish to see the performance of their ward/friend will anyway have to buy the tickets)

10. The first show I attended, had an item called one minute to fame, wherein several members were given one minute stage time, to do anything they want and impress the guests-some danced, few played instruments, it was a good concept indeed which was missing in second show.

11. Lots of energy was seen on stage with everyone trying to put in their best. Because most of them weren’t professionals and had only 15 days of training, at times some deviation from perfection was evident, but that doesn’t really matter. Couple of solo performances by well qualified dancers would have spiced up the show a bit.

Even if you do not intend to take up dancing full time, Courses from Swingers or other such institutions are a great opportunity to overcome your inhibitions and learn some steps/body movements, make new friends in the process and have good time in general. They seem to have different courses for different age groups, ranging from small kids to adults. Different batches at various places keep happening throughout the year. Wanna try?

Related posts: Saligrama Makkala Mela performs at Infosys campus * 16 in 1 Movie reviews * Raga Chintamani-Book review * Watch eNidhi in an ETV show * Bhagyada Balegara classical song *