Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Two Facts And The York Show

Dear Diary,

I was made aware of two facts of life over this weekend.

Fact 1: If there is a poem that makes no sense, lie like hell to girls.
Fact 2: You can be ice cool when your car is being "stolen". Again, a girl was involved.

Dear Diary, I went to this show at York university over the weekend. It had suddenly become the hottest ticket in town, with every young Bengali in T-dot (and even from remote outposts such as Hamilton) rumored to be attending. In that show, there was this cultural part - a poem/dance/song combo.

The 'story' of the poem was this. Three girls are singing near the river. Apparently in Bangladesh it's customary to sing and dance when you are a female, bathing in public near a river. Three princes appear to see them, and propose on the spot. Each prince promise their respective beauties lots of gold, silver, land, slaves and palaces. Each of the village belles refuse their advances because the princes only love their beauty, which is fleeting.

Soon, a loser/pauper /Devdas/poet/guy-with-bipolar-disorder combo proposes to one of the girls. She bats her eyelids at him and says yes. The man marries her, but then goes off to fight in a war. And never returns. The girl now sings sad songs by the river. The End.

Guess which half of the audience was in awe of the piece. Not just awe, gushing admiration for the moral of the story (which is?). "Finding lessons" in the skit about the "metaphors of life".

And now guess which half of the audience was bored to death during this piece.

At this point, if a girl asks you what did you think of the poem/dance, what should you say?

Wrong answer: WTF was all that?

Fact 1.1. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, then the way to a girl's heart is plain out lying.

Right answer: "You have to feeeeel the anguish of the girl's last song" or "how the poem above underlined the social contrast between the poet's perspective of royal lust and regal love".

As for the rest of the York show, man, they have some serious talent on that campus. UofT still rocks though (I have to say that, I am biased towards the institution that tortured me for four years). But York, good, keep it up. It's good to see kids do well nowadays.

Now for Fact 2. When my car got "stolen". And I was Mr Ice-cool.

Dear Diary, I am at this friend's place in the village. Otherwise known as Brampton. It's a guy's night out. I had taken my laptop there to copy some of his DVDs. I was surfing the net. Suddenly, a girl friend came online. Dear diary, please note the space between "girl" and "friend". We were just chatting casually about movies, of all topics.

Suddenly, one of my 'friends' came rushing into the room.

"Mezba, your car's missing! It's not on the driveway!"

And in his hand was the club I use to lock my steering wheel with.

Oh great! Since this friend was usually the stoic serious type, I started to inwardly panic. Second, my keys were in my pocket. So they could not be playing a prank.

But, to the outside world, I was cool. All I said was, "OK, gimme a few minutes."

After all, I was chatting to a lady. And you just don't disappear like that. So I continued to chat. She talked some more, and then I told her I will be right back. A full five minutes later, I turned to my incredulous friends.

"Holy f*** it didn't work." One of them said. The others started to bicker as to whose bad acting gave it away. And the mystery of the club? Well it wasn't mine to begin with, just another one in the house with the same colour.

All in all, a great weekend.

Here are a few pictures of the York show.


Students form the Bangladesh flag.


Heaven and Hell co-host the show.


Singers dance to a poem that is sung.

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22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah! What a treat! I loved this. Can we have more of your diary entries, please???

So men are generally liars and darn stupid when their cars are stolen? :-) Just kidding!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun show, but... err, as a girl mez... I *still* dont get it! Whats the moral of the song & dance skit???

BTW, lol, congrats on keeping ur cool with the "stolen" skit... you know what... ur brains... to be a gentleman to the lady.... saved the day!

lol

mezba said...

Suroor: Thanks.. this blog was originally a dear diary kind of thing. I think I will go retro from time to time. A lot of stuff is going on, and some of it I can blog about without repercussions.

Isheeta: I think I can make a couple of generalizations.

1. In old days all the good women were taken by the princes. The poets were paupers, so in their poems and stories they made themselves to be the hero.

2. You can be a loser and still get the beautiful girl. Just be the proper type of loser.

Other than that I have no idea what some of these old poems mean.

Anonymous said...

LOL@ the village. Well,I would rather have a guy tell me the truth than lie to me. I know some girls especially nowadays act up to be so romantic bla bla,just be yourself dear but avoid the WT's, if you can,unless you just want to be buddies with the gal! hehehehe!sf

nalumoni said...

*snickering*
Talking about movies...riighttt! :P

Anonymous said...

Salamaat,
hilarious. I love your wit.

:)

Also brother, there is no space between girl and friend. It's the shaytan dancing in there brother. Astaghfirullah.

:)

J/K.

Anonymous said...

I don't know how you can call the York show good. It was very boring. They even managed to screw up the fashion show segment! It was a waste of 10 bucks. And then I heard some UofT BSA people saying they wanted to try some similar ideas in their show! Lord help them....

The poetry section was the only good section after all.

What the poem signifies (I think IMHO) is that men and women love differently. Men prefer the superficial and women prefer what is beneath the man's looks, thus their love is more fulfilling, even though their man is away.

Not that I share belief in any of this crap. Give me a hot rich prince any day!

Phew! Longest comment ever....

mezba said...

Sf: No, no buddies. Enough of that :D People should just be themselves (or a polished, refined, version of themselves, preferably with long, straight, silky hair and glasses) but we don't do that now, do we! No, it's a vicious circle of life. Girls pretend to be romantic when all they want to do is pick their nose, while guys...well.

Nab: well.....

Maliha: Thanks. I like how you say salamaat. Should I say Jazak-ait? lol

Farah: That was an interesting take on the poem. Someone was telling me the same about this recent movie she saw. That men and women love differently. These movies, poems and stories always seem to end in quasi-tragedy though.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it a fact that men and women love differently?

Anyway the way you made that poem sound, it does sound really bo..zzzzzzz

-SH

Anonymous said...

its seems a great function :)

Anonymous said...

Ewww,pick their noses? sf

Anonymous said...

you morons, that was a "dance drama "at the York show!

There are always some wise people who has not learned to appreciate. IF this was boring, what excites you? Hindi movies?

Thank your God that Canada has such gifted and culturally enriched individuals (all at york)! Why doesnt UofT or any other uni for that matter, come forward and put up a show as huge as this? In a decade maybe?

mezba said...

SH: Oh it really was zzzzzzzz. I almost fell asleep. Thank God for the dancing guy (near the end - see flickr).

Samiha: Well I enjoyed the last York show better.

Sf: Girls can be quite gross too.

Anon (12.33) if you have to call someone moron don't be anonymous. That section was boring - and I asked one of the people involved with the show what it was - it was a poem in a dance/song format... zzzzzz.

You are dreaming if you think the York show was as good as UofT. York could be good, but doesn't come near UofT. We rule!

Anonymous said...

I went to the York show too, and yes, the dance drama did have a little bit of high-powered bangla that perhaps most middle-east-born-and-brought-up-now-living-in-north-america folks may not understand – how much do you wanna bet that apart from the pure desis that were at the show, more than 95% of the audience were not the population I refer to? ;) I will admit – it was a bit challenging for me too to get a grip on the language of the drama. However, I didn’t get whether your beef was with the performance of the dance drama itself, or on the fact that Bengali culture is still quite deep-rooted in “abritti” i.e. recitation of poetry, villages, princes, belles, romantics, and rivers? Bangladesh is a land of rivers… someone ever mention that? True, we’re in the 21st century now, and for many, such content may feel out of place. But if someone would watch the theatre in Bangladesh, or even the “jatras”, which are immensely popular, one would find such stories abundant – because that is what bangla folklore would like to tell – about beautiful villages, flowing rivers, village belles who dream about their “princes”, hapless romantics, etc. C’mon… give the York kids some credit to have been able to present such a dance drama whose core goes back to entertainment for the common Bengali folk, what with the dances (quite impressed – don’t get to see such stuff nowadays) and the narration (very good diction I have to say!) Your profane outburst to reflect your opinion on the dance drama kinda rips apart any effort the York kids took on to show a different side of Bengali culture that most 21st century geeks would not see. You are wholly entitled to your opinion – it’s your blog – but c’mon, be a little considerate and nice, it is a PUBLIC site… ;)

And oh yeah, these York kids DO have immense talent… they’d beat down the U of T show any day – at the least, they’d definitely overrun the Rang De Basanti spoof natok seen in the last U of T show – HAHAHAHA! Talk about originality! :P

Peace out :D

mezba said...

Hi SA,

well first.. to make it clear, I don't think the show sucked but some of commentators did. I only thought the poem/dance/drama/whatever part sucked coz it was sooooo boring.

second, you got me with the Rang De Basanti part. Ouch! - can't reply to that.

Anonymous said...

OK since I am the original commentator who said the show sucked and NOT mezba (jeez looks like York people can't even read 'if you can hold a fork you can go to york' and all that), I should reply to SA and anon.

THE YORK SHOW SUCKED.

IT DRAGGED ON AND ON.

It was boring. I mean I am all for classical nritto and all, but there are good songs and popular songs they could have staged. But no, they dragged it for four hours (starting 40 minutes late), no interval (except before the last item). The only good part was the national anthem and the family skit.

And U of T, well their natok may have been inspired from RDB but it was good. Their show was entertaining. You weren't bored. And you were genuinely unhappy when it was over. Same with McMaster, which I thought was even better than UofT.

Farah.

Anonymous said...

farahi ji,
do u have the guts to walk on stage? i would say nooo..else u wouldnt say fashion show segment was screwed up..i am sure if u would choreograph fashion show segment for any show, ppl would call what the heck is this? b4 criticizing anything, u should know what you are capable of doing..so yeah if u r paritipating in any shows let me know..i would come n cheer up for u..lets c how u walk on stage or even perform..put ur make up on..i am sure without make up u will look ..thak bollam na

Anonymous said...

To respond to that last comment by whoever you are, you have no right to lash out personally offensive comments at anyone. You have not got the slightest clue of as to what you are talking about.

FYI:Farah has more knowledge about fashion show co-ordination than you will accumulate through your lifetime. She single-handedly choreographed the McMaster University 's fashion show last year in a span of 2days - FACT! And trust me when I say this, the fashion show at MAC would destroy 'Fork'(Good One Farah!:p) on any day - 2days!

And dont go for the tissue box if this makes you weep. Just go get a life.

Love You Farah.
-Nashdat...

Anonymous said...

Nashdat, thanks for the vote of confidence yo, but lol, I am not that Farah, though I used to do shows before with UofT so I know how stressful it can be. And York did a baaaaaaad job.

I know what you are talking about though, and mcmaster show rocked. And Fork totally copied the Chalo Bangladesh from you guys.

Baraka said...

Wrong answer: WTF was all that?

ROTFL :)

Unknown said...

what do u mean by copied Cholo bangladesh from u guys? (btw who are the "guys" here!)York just sang a song by Cryptic Fate, now if u say that neone who covers a song shud be labelled as a "copycat" then i must stay shut here, otherwise :o!

and listen Farah u shud relax now we all understood how u didnt like the show at all... id advise you to stop thinking abt it and rather keep dreaming abt how good the previous uoft, mcmaster, etc etc etc shows were. Thank you very much for all ur feedback and interest towards the York Bsf Show btw :D

- diya (the stupid "meye" from the York natok) :D

mezba said...

OK everyone please take a chill pill. Whether you think the York show sucked or rocked, the point here was the poem which I did not understand (and later people telling me it's not a poem at all) so if you can explain the poem to me please do so otherwise I won't approve any more comments bashing a show (which is result of hard work by some people) or bashing my commentators (after all, most of them are my friends or have become like 'friends').