Kala Ghoda Festival Part 2

As mentioned in the previous blog, the David Sassoon Library is right opposite Kala Ghoda. The building  was erected for the Bombay Mechanics Institution  in 1870  (originally founded way back in 1847)  

The Venetian Gothic styled structure using yellow malad stone was completed in 1870 

the old and the new

As you enter you see the statue of Sassoon

The library is on the first floor. Inside I found this wooden spiral staircase which is a testimony to the proper maintenance of the place.  

Once you are inside the courtyard you realize what a quaint little peaceful place it is with tall trees and  greenery all around.  I spied the Elphinstone college on one side 

It was in this courtyard that the children of Little Angels School put up their skit and the Lezim as a part of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

Neish Singh started off by playing the tabla, followed by Deeptanshu Thakkar who gave a good performance on the keyboard. 

This was followed by the Lezim. Taking the space constraint into consideration, the boys did very well and managed to keep up the pace with the beat. 

They say that if you want to keep your city clean, then start educating the children, and it becomes more effective when there is support from the parents. 

The skit “Swach Bharat” was entertaining as well as educative. 

Highlighting the different possibilities in which a place could get dirty was a good idea as the children will always remember it. 

The parents and the audience were very appreciative of the program. 

In the first picture I purposely kept the BEST bus in the frame as I was/am always fascinated by their efficiency and service.  From the first electric tram car in 1907, it has come a long way.

Did you know that BEST buses are only equipped with those rubber bulb air pressure horns (and not the high decibel fancy electronic ones)

So next time when you are on the road (driving in Mumbai) and you hear that Pom Pom behind you, then you can be assured that it is a BEST bus. 

    

If its October it is Oktoberfest

For all those who missed out on this year’s Pune Oktoberfest, here are a few snaps clicked on the three day event. The snaps are of two days as I was there only on Saturday and Sunday. 

As usual the beer counter was always full with no elbow room.

The difference I found (when compared to last year) was that the band was a wee bit better and they came up with a variety of songs played perfectly by the group. It was sad that I could not get a perfect ‘group photo’ of the band. The nearest I could get was this: 

Now who is missing in this? Oh yes the drummer boy, so here you have one of him 

And another one of the crooner: 

The guy on the key board was multi-tasking (without missing a note) You can actually see it in the video on YouTube

This year I had more video footage than still pictures. Will keep adding more videos as and when they are edited and processed.The second video is on Mamma Mia by Abba

Meanwhile our beer counter is still full 

For a change I found many Germans who had turned up and they were really enjoying the evening 

The food was good and I found that the service at the counter was very pretty fast and efficient: 

On the down side, space was a problem. I mean in a crowd like this how do you expect people to dance. 

But still I found many making room for themselves and enjoying the day

It was difficult manoeuvring through the crowd to get some good shots, but I managed to get a few 

These two (above) were really having some fun. Later on while adding the watermark on the pic I realised that the figure on his Tee shirt had some significance as it was the year when I landed in Pune. 

The scramble is still going on at the Beer counter. I think the design of the counter opening was too small, or was it that they were not expecting such a big crowd?  

This guy just saw me clicking as he was singing along, and I caught him with his full energy. 

Later there was a repeat, this time along with his friends. Each one with a different pose, but it clearly sends across the message – they were enjoying. 

I think I ended up clicking many pictures with their mouth open, a good indication of participation.