Letter from Steve Jobs (August 24, 2011), to the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

The last five words of this statement really shook the world. Although it was followed by actual earthquake in Virginia but of course that is not what am talking here. But more than the impact that world felt that day, it has been what Steve did to world in his life that I would call earthquake.

There are not people in world who have strings of offerings which change the way world works. What Steve has done is the destruction of the present and bringing in the future – sudden, abrupt and accompanied by high earnings growth. Result? He not only forged ahead of the company he competed for most of his life (Microsoft) but became CEO of most valuable public company in the world (albeit briefly, and then it came back to its rank as #2). The reason? He dared to dream and dared to believe in his dreams. Steve will long be equated with the letter “i” – which has come to mean internet, innovation, inspiration but most importantly individual.  He leaves a legacy as our generation’s Thomas Edison: both proud, determined inventors who would not rest until they sparked equal technological and cultural revolutions literally empowering people to reach higher and dream bigger.

Being individualistic has drawbacks too, not many remember that Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Woznaik and Ronald Wayne. But just after 12 days later Ronald sold off his stake to the two Steves for $800. Had he kept his stake, his stake would be worth about $22Bn today. But instead, he has never owned a single Apple product to this day. If his interview to Fox Business is anything to go by, he surely had a difference of opinion and felt overshadowed by other two founders. Even Woznaik had differences with Jobs. Before starting Apple, a recent Buddhist convert Jobs was working with Atari (a video game manufacturer). Jobs was given the task of creating a circuit board for a game. According to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari had offered $100 for each chip that was eliminated in the machine. Jobs had little interest or knowledge in circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari, Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was impossible to reproduce on an assembly line. At the time, Jobs told Wozniak that Atari had only given them $700 (instead of the actual $5000) and that Wozniak’s share was thus $350. Jobs after all was a salesman and a marketer.

But Steve wasn’t as clear as today and had his share of mistakes, just that he kept learning from them. His biography shows how he absorbed and learned from whatever he saw. After having attended calligraphy classes at Reed, while sleeping on the floor in friends’ rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple; Jobs later said, “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.” Coming from a publishing industry background (I started my career with Quark) I can really appreciate what he did for this industry. While Jobs was a persuasive and charismatic director for Apple in early 80s, some of his employees from that time had described him as an erratic and temperamental manager. An industry-wide sales slump towards the end of 1984 caused a deterioration in Jobs’s working relationship with Apple CEO John Sculley, who eventually fired Jobs. (!!!) Jobs later claimed that being fired from Apple what the best thing that could happen to him; “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” Commentaries on his temperamental style can be found in Mike Moritz’s The Little Kingdom, one of the few authorized biographies of Jobs; The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Alan Deutschman; and iCon: Steve Jobs, by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon.

You may love him, hate him but surely can not ignore him. The term Reality distortion field (RDF) was coined in 1981 by Apple employees to be Steve Jobs’ ability to convince himself and others to believe almost anything with a mix of superficial charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement, and persistence. RDF is said to distort an audience’s sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and makes them believe that the task at hand is possible. From 1978 to 1983, Apple’s compound growth rate was over 150% an year and a lot of it is attributed to Jobs.

As one of his ex employees put it, for now began the love affair we now have with technology – formerly cold, austere and beige and now sleek, reflective and affectionate. Thank you, Steve Jobs. For daring to dream, and bringing your vision to the world. For not being afraid to make changes, teaching us to Think Different.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” - Steve Jobs

‘What do you Love?” or abbreviated as WDYL, aggregates or in technical terms creates a mash-up of the results from more than 20 different Google services, including Google Translate, Trends, YouTube, Maps and Groups. The results are presented in little boxes that can, in some cases, be expanded by clicking on the icon in the lower right corner. If you need even more results, you can always click the button in the upper right corner of the box and go directly to the chosen service. To be frank I did not know of some of the services which throws the result on wdyl page.

The WDYL page bears the simplistic and minimalistic trademark of Google and is very similar to its Google Homepage search.

What made Google decide to launch the new service?

“A while back, a few of us wanted to make a little tool that we could use to show just about anybody more of what Google makes. That led to some simple ideas, and then a few more ideas and ultimately, to a challenge: how we could connect people to products they might not know about and may find useful, but make the discovery relevant to them and keep it fun,” a Google blogger said in a post.

“Playing about with that challenge produced a website-What Do You Love?-that we hope meets at least some of the challenge by demonstrating how different Google products can show you different things about any particular search query.”

But there is a thought that Google has launched some small services along with Google+ to take off the media’s focus and create a hype on Facebook competition. I would buy this thought!

The service reminds me of my once favorite search engine – vivisimo.com. Privately held Vivisimo’s researched the concept of clustering search results based on topic: for example, dividing the results of a search for “cell” into groups like “biology,” “battery,” and “prison.” This process allows users to intuitively narrow their search results to a particular category or browse through related fields of information, and seeks to avoid the “overload” problem of sorting through too many results. Vivisimo’s main product offering is Velocity — an enterprise search platform that unifies access to secure business repositories Vivisimo was first to offer social search, which lets enterprise users share their knowledge with coworkers by tagging, ranking, and annotating search results. Vivisimo developed and formerly owned the public web search service Clusty, now known as Yippy.

So do you plan to use WDYL service after the initial hype (if any) of say a month?

1. He is Avi Arad, ex chief executive of Marvel Entertainment’s Marvel Studios unit.
2. He is the one who got Marvel from bankruptcy to million dollar revenues and introduced licensing and movies to it.

In 1998 toy executive Isaac Perlmutter bought bankrupt Marvel and put Arad in charge of getting Hollywood to base blockbuster films on its characters. The results speak for themselves: Under Arad, the first seven Marvel-based films – from the low-budget vampire-hunting epic Blade to the first Spider-Man and X-Men movies – each was a hit No. 1 at the box office. All told, the 12 Marvel-character films made during Arad’s tenure at Marvel have grossed $3.6 billion+ worldwide. Profit has catapulted in the past decade, revenue has surged, and Marvel’s stock, as low as $3 per share at the time of the 1998 acquisition, trades at about $54 when finally Disney bought it over.

Hulk, Iron Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Captain America and Blade are few of the 5000 odd characters of Marvel Comics which have made a rage with the kids and were selected to be made into movies by Marvel. Arad’s animating belief about Marvel was that the company could unlock the maximum value from its comic-book characters only through films, with that medium’s potential for huge paydays. Marvel’s main foray into movies began with a 1998 vampire epic based on Marvel hero – Blade which earned $133 million at the box office. Though Marvel made almost nothing (Arad says Marvel made only $25,000 from the first Blade movie, thanks to lousy licensing terms negotiated years earlier), the movie’s success gave Arad leverage with reluctant studios. Fox bit into X-Men which grossed nearly $300 million globally following its 2000 release. Hollywood jumped on the Marvel bandwagon, pumping out two Men in Black films (total worldwide gross: $1 billion), the Spider-Man megahits, and profitable films based on lesser  known Marvel characters like Daredevil and the Punisher.

Tired of having production houses earn the meat of the profit, Marvel decided to make the films themselves. Marvel tied up with Paramount to handle distribution of the films. After paying the costs of a film’s production, distribution, and marketing, Marvel retains 100 percent of all revenue streams, from box office to DVDs to TV licensing. Marvel, now with Disney, has a tough competitor in DC Comics who owns the rights on heroes like Superman and Batman. DC Comics too have been taken over by Warner Bros. DC Comic’s Batman Returns remains the best comic hero movie ever made. Marvel’s characters are more complex and having conflict of the mind than DC’s.

When Hulk, one of Marvel’s most loved comic hero, did not really shine at box office, Arad decided to remake the movie with less darker version of the character, hence the strong love angle in Incredible Hulk, Iron Man also bought in good amount of moolah to the company and lowered its debt. Marvel is now working on releasing Thor, its most famous Captain America and Avengers in 2011. Meanwhile the rights for X-Men are still with 20th Century Fox and hence will be made by them.

Money comes from strangest of places once people start believing in themselves and take the control!

Google scored with some logical and inspired guesses and soon raked up 40 points, after which they just maintained status quo till the end. This score of 40 kept them with the winning title, but Infy scored a bumper in the last question of the last round to emerge winner of the Hyd Finals.

Following are the questions asked during the prelim round (not in same order):

1. What was originated via the partnership of scientist Samuel Ruben and businessman Philip Rogers Mallory, who met during the 1920s. A famous brand connected with photography.1. What was originated via the partnership of scientist Samuel Ruben and businessman Philip Rogers Mallory, who met during the 1920s. A famous brand connected with photography.

2. Li Ka-Shing, the Hong Kong based business tycoon, was referred to as which famous comic character?

3. United Artists was founded by D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and who else?

4. What version of Band-Aid was specially developed keeping the Indian market in mind?

5. Who is the ET Global Indian of the year 2010?

6. What is the name given to the system of financial incentives designed to keep an employee from leaving the company?

7. Who was the master of mint in England in 1717?

8. In the early 1900s, what did a New York socialite by the name Mary Phelps Jacobs, daughter of steamboat inventor, develop?

9. What is the name given to a stock market crash where the loss is in excess of $ 1 trillion, which gets recovered soon?

10. What was established in 1972 by Air France “to provide a home away from home for its customers.”

11. Picture of Bindeswar Pathak

12. Pic of Capt Krishna Nair

13. Logo of Natwest Bank

14. An ad for Jockey

15. What latin word means “good” that is added extra to your salary?

16. Which object made by Masincedane Sport in 2001 was popular as rage in 2010?

The answers for these questions are:

1. Duracell

2. Superman

3. Charlie Chaplin

4. Turmeric

5. Ram Charan

6. Golden Handcuffs

7. Newton

8. Bra

9. Flash Crash

10. Le Méridien

15. Bonus

16. Vuvuzela

Amélie Poulain is a young woman who has grown up isolated from other children and hence gets dissolved in the small exhilaration of life like peeling off the dried adhesive gum (like fevicol) from fingers, slurping away the last of liquid in a glass with straw, cupping your ears and removing to hear how sound changes, perfectly spinning a coin and putting strawberries on all fingers and then eating them quickly one after another. She loses her mother to a freak incident when a woman trying to commit suicide from Notre Dame Cathedral lands on her mother. This makes her more taciturn and she develops an unusually active imagination.

The movie is tied to the death of princess Diana, who died in Paris only, the news of which changes the track of movie as she hits on a fifty year old small box of mementos. She decides to return the box and in process realizes that she derives much happiness in doing good in the lives of others. Amélie becomes a secret matchmaker and guardian angel, executing complex but hidden schemes that impact the lives of those around her with subtle, arm’s-length manipulation, leading to several sub-plots and episodes. In one scene, she helps a blind man to cross a road and takes him along with a vivid narrative of the ambiance, “Step down. Here we go! The drum major’s widow! She’s worn his coat since the day he died. The horse’s head has lost an ear! That’s the florist laughing. He has crinkly eyes. In the bakery window – lollipops. Smell that! They’re giving out melon slices! Sugarplum, ice cream! We’re passing the park butcher. Ham, 79 francs. Spareribs, 45! Now the cheese shop. Picadors are 12.90. Cabecaus 23.50. A baby’s watching a dog… that’s watching the chickens. Now we’re at the kiosk by the metro. I’ll leave you here. Bye! ” and the camera supports the scene beautifully!

Amélie’s cinematography describes the way Amélie thinks within herself. Her mind is vivid, shy, full of excitement and artistic; it gives the audience a better look into how the world can be different in different colors of thoughts. She looks upon the world like it’s a game, and script follows just that.

The scene where Amélie meets her love interest, Quincampoix, is beautifully captured as she kisses him slowly on cheeks, neck and eye and then subtly gestures for him to return the favor. That he remembers to drag his nose on her cheek after kissing her neck is beautifully scripted! Each shot within the movie sequence is like a line within a poem.

Director could not have taken a better thespian for the lead role. Audrey Tautou exuberate  a very soft feminism with charm and effervescent flair.  The scene where she tries to phone Quincampoix from ad and reaches Porno Video Palace is so beautifully expressed by her with a shy awkwardness on questions being asked; something that fits the physical expressions of Audrey only. Probably the first movie of her which I saw was Hors de Prix (Priceless), which again is another smooth and lovely movie.

If you haven’t watched the movie, I would suggest you should at least put it on your wish-list, you would not be disappointed if you watch it at leisure!

PS: The concept of the post’s flow has been borrowed from my friend, this should settle the plagiarism case later!

Catching the crazy flight

The basics: Catch the SpiceJet flight SG 226 of 10:25AM from Hyderabad to reach Delhi by 12:25PM on a sunny yet breezy Friday of November.

Friday 9:02AM: I can see the airport pick up bus of 9 AM taking a U turn about 100mts away from me and then speeding away in the glory of sun, my heart beat has already risen to 120 beats per second (bps), my auto driver’s heart beat has just moved an inch to 78bps.

Friday 9:04AM: I reach the boarding point and ask when the next bus is. “10AM”, comes the terse reply. It doesn’t take a Bill Gates to calculate that the next bus is useless for me (bus journey time – 55mins).

Thursday 11:05PM: I decide to pack my bag for the trip next day. A little calculation and I decide to take the 9AM airport pick up bus, and leave home at 8:40AM. The pick up point is about 2+kms from home, to be filled by auto travel.

Thursday 11:50PM: I manage to end the call made by my mother to make sure I have put all the necessary items, I tell her that am yet to move an inch over there as she points out the things which need to go in my luggage. Screen says “Call duration 00:42:35″

Friday 01:45AM: I pull the zipper of the bag and sleepily set the alarm for 7:00AM in my mobile handset. Mobile prompts me to set the date and time; I ignore that and go to sleep.

Thursday 5:00PM: I change the SIM in my mobile and start it. It asks me to set the date and time, I cancel it.

Friday 8:10AM: My roomie is tapping on my shoulder shouting, “Jassi wake up! You will miss your flight!” Startled I look at my mobile, it is not showing the time, I go to Alarm menu and it asks me to set the date and time. I dump it and run for washroom.

Friday 8:40AM: I reach the main road, and hunt for an auto. I get one and he charges Rs.50 (for 2+kms), I grunt and put my bag in there and ask him to start.

Friday 8:44AM: A little further we find ourselves into a traffic jam; you can find such a jam on this road once about in a six months. I pass a louder grunt and look at my wrist to check the time. I have forgotten my watch. I take my mobile out, it doesn’t show any time or date.

Friday 9:05 AM: With my bus having gone in front of my eyes, I ask a guy at pick up point if he can arrange a taxi cab? He looks at me empathizing and tells that the cab will take 20 mins to reach us here. I ask him the time and set the time in my mobile, it now shows the date and time. The auto driver holding the Rs.50 note I have given him. My heart beat is 137bps and auto driver is at 97bps.

Friday 9:07AM: A cab company tells me that there is no free driver near me and it will take them half an hour to reach me. Auto driver is still looking at me, he says he can drop me if I can give him Rs.450; am cribbing that amount is too high as auto starts for the airport.

Friday 9:37AM: We are struck in another traffic jam, am being convinced by driver that it is just a small one and that he will get me there by 10AM flat. Estimated time to Airport: 23mins, estimated distance to airport: 9+kms.

Friday 9:57AM: I can see airport road, its race against time now; zero margin for error, 100% margin for miracle. I call my sister if she can get me checked in via web; she checks website and tells me I need to web check-in at least 2 hours prior to departure. My heart beat is 130bps, auto driver is at 120bps and my sis is doing somewhere above 145bps.

Friday 10:10AM: The departure terminal is at first floor and a long arc of road will take us there, I can see the departure terminal clearly with everything else blurred, its still 350mts away from us. A constable stops us, saying the auto can not go further. I use all my salesman ship, push my auto guy to pitch for me, show him my flight tickets. “Sorry Sir, I will lose my job if I allow you.” He points me to a nearby bus which is supposed to take me to the departure terminal in another 2 min. I settle the bill with auto guy and run for the bus.

Last week: I have been down with undiagnosed fever for over two weeks. Doctor has made me take tests for Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Hepatitis, Typhoid and multiple samples of blood, and he is till unclear.

Thursday 6:20PM: Doc advises me to get hospitalized and be under constant care. My joints are already aching like hell and it has become difficult for me to even walk. Doc tells me with smile that if I get hospitalized all my bills will get reimbursed and it will be cashless admission. I smell commerce and call my parents who order me to come ASAP to home.

Friday 10:12AM: I push hard to walk fast to reach the bus as my joints cry foul. Bus is filled with passengers but not the driver. I scan the periphery and can see long line of Mahindra Logan taxi’s of Meru. I ask the guy if he will drop me on departure terminal up 350m for Rs.50. He looks and me says he can do so for Rs.100. I grunt as the cab race on the arc.

Friday 10:17AM: I thrust hundred rupee note on the guy and race for the entry, get through the initial pass and bang on the SpiceJet counter. The guy’s name plate reads ‘Sikandar’; I plead customized pleas to Sikandar and put on counter all the doc prescriptions.

Friday 10:28AM: He prints my boarding pass and tells me flight is late by few minutes and asks me to rush through the security check. I thank him profusely and tell him that I will always remember this favor (it’s been a year now, and yes I still remember his name!)

Friday 10:40AM: I call my sis to let her know I made it. My heart beat – 72bpm, my sis at 78bpm and average hear beat at that moment on earth – 80bpm

Friday 11:15AM: Flight attendant says we can use our laptops and non interfering electronic devices. I put on earphones and turn on my Sony Walkman MP3. Ozzy Osbourne’s lyrics “Mama am coming home” fill my ears.

For WP Geeks: Where all complex ways of copying database, creating new installation, dropping tables from new database and inserting old tables in it left me with a scratched down versions of my blogs but still with issues, a simple reinstall on same location and updation of wp-config file made the day (night infact, its 1:02AM right now!) for me.

Well, all is well that ends well. So I will look forward to be in touch with you again through this channel.

Aloha!

~Jas

Cinemax, 10:45PM show and am still feeling as fresh as 5AM breeze in forest on banks of a river in mountains. Credit goes to Karan Johar, for a change. Wake Up Sid is as refreshing as a lemonade and as cool as a cucumber. The story is very well 21st century and urban without ever getting ‘sexy’ or ‘adult’ as Yash Raj’s films. I could not help to notice the similarities in performance and music style with Lakshya movie (whose first half is very very fresh and crisp and similar).

When at 8:30PM today my friend told me that he was going for a movie, I had no idea what was there in store, and movie came out to be ‘Wake up Sid’. We left by 9:20 as packed my stuff from Gym, throwing myself in his car with my backpack still on. We raced through the troughs and crests of Banjara Hills Road no.36 to hit Cinemax looking for food inside cafeteria there. A little good news after months and months of gloomy news had me perked up already for the night. Ladies in the eatery there looked finely dressed and two faces just caught my attention for such cute were they! Wearing IIM Indore shirt gifted to me by my friend I sat down with my friend once we got the pranthas we had ordered. Just then I hear a feminine voice address me asking if I was from Indore. I take a look and there stands one of those pretty faces; Boy! she was beautiful! As I clarified that I was from FMS Delhi and the shirt was from my friend only. the simple nods of the glowing face just made the day/night. Human, aren’t we!

The opening shot of the mobie looks so similar to our story, trying to read night out, trying till an hour or two, then hit for food/laptop/net etc and spend crucial 2 hours there, coming back to study at 3/4AM and deciding its better to sleep and study tomorrow. When the results would come, we would decide that next time onwards we will study on regular basis from very start, but then that day never does come and plans are made, scrapped and sublimed.

I really liked acting of Ranbir, it made the evident harsh truths so easy to come out. And the credit here goes to debutant director, Ayan Mukerji. There’s a subtlety with which he repairs the relationship between Sid and his mother (Supriya Pathak). The distance between the two is born out of the different cultures the two belong to. She is uneducated, he is westernised and the twain don’t meet. There’s a grave dimension to the Punjabi mother who tries to speak English with her son, even though it is pretty awful, hoping that it will make her a friend of him as his other friends whom he talk to in English. It’s grave because we know it’s so real, we see it all around us.

Even when Sid ruffles up Ayesha’s place and when she is upset for a reason, it does not get melodramatic, as she doesn’t intend to make him feel guilt from inside, as melodramatic women would do. Instead it is as smooth and plain as a chocolate bar. And Sid’s animated T shirts with perky colors pep the screen up.

Neatly lensed, the movie looks at Mumbai — with love and affection. The picturisation is very vivid and colorful. The painting of Ayesha’s home, the interiors of Mumbai magazine the leads are working for and the  colorful paintings of areas around Ayesha’s home add an array of colors to the story. Amit Trivedi’s Iktara, a song filled with an unbearable lightness of being, keeps the promise made from songs of Dev D. Songs make the movie soar; they help us look inside the head and mood of Sid and Aisha and help carry the story forward.

Actually, Wake Up Sid is a slice of life film. It’s not merely real in concept, but has also been told most realistically, so much so that you can’t help but draw parallels with your own life or with someone you know. There are so many things I have done myself which Sid does, so once the movie ended there was a lightness in the mind and a big smile on the face. While we moved to go back from the cinema (it was already 1:30AM), I wondered if I will again find those Indore people! As my friend went to loo, I just stood near stairs lost in self. After some time I just turned around and saw the Pretty Face. As the I started walking slowly towards their group, the sweet music filled the mind inside me. Just when I was going to approach them, a voice says “Lets go”. It was my friend who had come back from loo, suddenly the music stops, and I look between the two and know what needs to be done. Still next moment I am stepping down the stairs, walking back to his car with mixed emotions. Still appreciating the freshness of the movie, we cozied ourselves in the car, as the speaker stared blurting out the appealing title song of Wake up Sid. It was time to wake up, go home and sleep.

Note: Some truths have been dramatized for intended hue.

“This is a belief deeply rooted in Indian society. Couples are willing to do anything to ensure that the baby is not born on that day,”  Shivani Sachdev Gour, a gynecologist at the Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, told AFP  .

Some astrologers even warned of impending terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and civil wars too. Many also took a dip in holy rivers to cleanse themselves after the eclipse and some avoid cooking and eating during the eclipse.

But do not think this superstition thing is limited to India only, its everywhere. Lets see why people thought earlier that we have eclipses, as per mythology.

PAST

India – In Hindu mythology, Rahu is a snake that swallows the sun or the moon causing eclipses. He is depicted in art as a dragon with no body riding a chariot drawn by eight black horses. The rahu kala is considered inauspicious.

In China, it is believed that the dragon swallows the sun during eclipse. So they would beat drums to produce great noise and commotion to frighten away the dragon while, the Japanese would cover the wells so that the demons in the cover of darkness during the eclipse would not drop poison into them.

In Romania people believed that werewolves and demons ate up the sun during the eclipse. To frighten them away they would light up huge fires and ring church bells would be rung throughout the eclipse.

Tahiti believed that Sun and Moon were in love with each other but still could not be together as they used to fight a lot. So once in a while they meet each other and make love, which causes eclipse.

At a time of a solar or lunar eclipse, there is a recommended prayer (salatul-kusuf) that is performed by the Muslim community in congregation.

Present

Knowledge has changed things now, though it has not eradicated them all. The new age of informed people are more keen to witness the historic event, and accept it as just another celestial event as Leonid showers, Jupiter hole, Mars and Venus appearance. Here are some pics where you can religious faith people enjoying the event.

Sadhus, or Hindu holy men, watch the solar eclipse through specially-designed viewing glasses in Allahabad, India.

Devotees observe a solar eclipse as they take holy dips in the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Sarawati River in Allahabad.

Photos courtesy – http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/1448-2.html

The show was performed by newly floated Hot Shoe Entertainment Company, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the legendary Greek fable-based musical Mamma Mia. The show is a veritable treat for Abba fans who slip into nostalgia, courtesy pop favorites like Waterloo, Dancing Queen, Money money money and a whole range of ABBA hits. The energy and enthusiasm with which the crew performed, showed they haven’t taken audience gratis a bit. You could see the enjoyment on the faces of crew members as they danced away the play and showered the euphoria, being part of it. The very face of the lead lady here (on the right) who played Sophie, the bride, says it all! Am impressed beyond limits young lady, hats off to your enjoyment of the career, for many lesser and higher mortals miss it. The way she could dance, act and sing at same time, reminded me of a friend from Nagpur who has similar skills.

And to make sure the energy gets siphoned in the audience too, crew invited audience too to be the part of the all time famous Mamma Mia song, which saw about 50 people taking stage and stairs to join the troupe in singing and dancing on the song. As Jeffrey Vardon, co-producer and choreographer, put it this evening – “Mamma Mia has history of running house full and still having 50% of seats vacant as public could not keep their feet from dancing along!“

For those who do not know about ABBA, they were the legendary group of Pop culture of 70s. Mamma Mia just collected their songs and threaded a musical play around it, tweaking the songs a bit. Over here the troupe has made sure the dresses and play’s flow matches the actual movie. The songs, which are sung live by the way, captured that charisma of ABBA. The lady who plays Donna (mother) also happens to be single mother in real life. I must admit I was lucky that I had not seen the original so could take a fresh look at the performance, rather than compare it all the while.

After the play ended on lines of original musical, the two producers came on stage to give a damn neat performance dripping with elegance and panache. The control that beautiful Varalaxmi Sarathkumar showed here, stamped her élan over the final sequence. (see below)

Another thing that happened was that I could not convince any friend of mine to shell Rs.770 for a musical play, so I was left all alone over there (with other families, essentially two fat ladies  in post 50s to accompany me on either side!) to savor the performance. And do I regret it? No way! Maybe one of the best Sundays I have spent in Hyderabad!

Psst.. next performance of the crew is in Banglore, then Mumbai before they leave for Dubai and Colombo.