No more Bollywood for me.

Never in the entire history of my existence have I witnessed a theatre act and ‘Delhi IBSEN festival’10’ gave me a whole new perspective to the concept of what acting is.

‘The Mountain Bird’ by Henrik Ibsen, directed by Lars Oyno (Norway) is a path breaking play that shook my sensibilities towards judging a good act. Despite being surrounded by middle-aged men and women and art connoisseurs that looked like pilgrims, the evening was worth my time. The characters lit up the stage with their exquisite performances and there was pin drop silence in the hall throughout the play. Their performances gripped every audience for nearly two hours. It is amazing to see how each actor breathe the character and how well they presented it. It must be challenging for the director and the casts to coordinate everything flawlessly. The sound of the violent at the background and the feet tapping of the characters reverberates throughout the play. What is interesting is that a good actor need not be a Greek god or anything closer. It is simply the ability to do justice to the character he/she is presenting. It involves a great deal of hard work, dedication and team effort. They performed as if there was no tomorrow and it is this energy, that the show was a great success. My only complaint is the sub-titles because I somewhat got distracted from the story. I couldn’t concentrate and I feel it is too much of multitasking. Guess I need to do a little research on the play to understand it profoundly.

Growing up in India, I am accustomed to a lot of masalas and cheap thrills when it comes to watching a movie so much so that I have unknowingly ignored content, social impact and above all fine acting. These are characteristics that would drag millions to the Oscars.

Given a choice, I would cast my vote to a theatre show and not a cinema hall. It is indeed ‘the new world’ to indulge in.

Go insane with technology.

Dilip Bobb’s ‘Pressing problems’ (TOI Nov’23) talks about the inefficiency of digital substitutes to telephone operators.

Technology for sure has made our lives easier and quicker. Take for instance the metros, online bill payments, ATMs etc. It has also revolutionized the corporate world by eliminating one employee from the corporate food chain and replacing it by what is commonly known as IVR (interactive voice response). Now all that’s required from the caller is to speak to the machine or simply press the buttons on the phone and the call will be directed.

As Dilip Bobb mentioned, outsourcing simple tasks to electronic or digital substitutes is a mistaken belief that it improves efficiency while cutting costs. He also said that sometimes, the human touch matters more than saving money.

It is a tedious pain stalking effort to listen to an animated human voice. It gets worst when one is in a hurry or when the call gets disconnected because for sure he/she would need to go through the same torturous procedure again. The frustration gets further accelerated when the call is diverted to a human being and you’re being asked the same questions. I mean 2-3 minutes just went wasted on the IVR and now another 2-3 minutes explaining the concern to the representative. A sheer wastage of time and credit! Can you just solve my problem? And by the end of it all, all that one can recall is inexplicable frustration and anger.

Companies should take thorough considerations while upgrading their systems to IVR or at least give enough training to their frontline representatives to avoid any disconnect and improve customer satisfaction. Clearly, technology and humans should be well integrated.

The Pope vs. condoms.

In regards to the article ‘A first step’ (TOI Nov’23), it is indeed a welcome step taken by Pope Benedict XVI’s to reconsider the use of condoms to prevent the risk of AIDS infections. However, the use of condoms as a contraceptive is still off limits.

The main motive of using a condom is to prevent infection and conception during sexual intercourse. So they should be encouraged and not abandoned. This is because both HIV and birth control are crucial to human existence. If there’s no cure for the deadly disease at least there should be ways to prevent it and a condom is one of the options. Birth rate on the other hand is growing at an alarming pace not only in India but also in other parts of the world. If this expansion of human population is unrestricted, it could pose a serious threat to the planet. Threats that are certainly unfavorable not only to the present but the future generation too. Nonetheless, the question of religion’s involvement in the issue is trivial.

Therefore, it should be understood that condoms does to a certain extent solve life threatening issues and that their use (whether as prevention of HIV or as contraceptives) should be made mandatory irrespective of whatsoever. It could lead humanity closer to the ‘promise land’.