The Gili Gilia of the Jumping Japang

Disclaimer: This may not be nor will be the worst I had or would blog! So read on...

I never imagined there ever would be a day when I would be headlong diving into discussing the extra, miscellaneous, all and sundry part of IPL. Leave alone that, I never ever fantasised playing an IPL Fantasy League or even discuss IPL circus in all its nitty gritties. Yet, here I am...

Ridiculous as it may sound and most irritably hated as it may come through, I guess the most imaginative and catchy thing about IPL 6 has been the Jumping Japang signature.

Someone asked me why do you endorse it. Do I endorse it? I don't know. I am not sure! But one thing, I have been culpable of humming it or even singing it and chiggy wiggying myself to the tune with some kids at the summer theatre workshop for no reason, except because it is silly absurd and pure fun with no sense! So why has it caught the imagination of people as never before did any other IPL signature song? Perhaps excluding the greatest IPL Franchise anthem of all times - I am biased, but with good reasons - THE CSK Whistle Podu tune!

C'mon, we've seen and heard anthems and anthems of franchise and franchises from NFL to EPL to AFL to what nots... and I do not think honestly there is anything remotely a patch on Whistle Podu. Why? Because it is so innate Chennai. It is not even Tamil, it is Chennai. The quintessential gaana of the Chennai slums that has been elevated into a ubiquitous Chennai anthem. Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo? We don't hear it anymore, do we? Even SRK has not been saying it,  leave alone singing it! How often do we hear HALLA BOL? Not as often. I don't mean on TV... am sure in Jaipur it is all over as obviously as any other city-based team's anthem is! But... what makes WHISTLE PODU click? Next to it perhaps Halla Bol? Because they are Indian... closer to culture than the Bollywood item numbers to which the fair-skinned pom-pom girls in the Extra Innings Studio cluelessly dance and pout lips in a smiling fashion! Closer to culture than anything a-cultural RCB can get to! I mean... RCB is quintessentially Bangalore as Bangalore can get cultureless in an Indian sense! Seriously... Bangalore can never call itself culturally a crucible of Karnataka as Mumbai to Maharashtra or Kolkata to West Bengal or Chennai to Tamilnadu is. It is such a poor pseudo-westernised melting pot that more westerners are comfy with the city than localites. The localites... well, they have to put up a brave face, don't they? On the other hand, Chennai or Kolkata or Mumbai never has to. Even Pune! Oh... oh... the PWI dance-girls have been sensational in a very Indian cutesy way. A brilliant and lovely testimony to the fact that cheer-girls need not be item-numberish in a sort of baring way! You really feel good as an Indian about the PWI cheer-dancers than the White Mischief RCB beer-dancers. Aesthetically attired and not copying or aping the west! That perhaps is the second best thing about Indianness as far as IPL 6 can get, next to Whistle Podu! So,  back to Whistle Podu.

It has the soul of Chennai enshrined in it and the image of that old lady in shades indelibly etched in the viewers mind with her whisle and dance. On the other hand... I saw the Sunrisers anthem! The second Chennai based outfit (technically it's Chennai, ain't it? With Sun TV as Franchise owners rather than Hyderabad!)... naaaw! Not ok! And for all the Indianness they try to reach out to, Mumbai must have something very Aamchi, but  no they haven't. Delhi anyway doesn't count and Sherry is more KXIP than KXIP are. What's their anthem  again? That is why... next to Whistle Podu, I consider Jumping Japang is worth the rage it has become. It is sooooo cheesily Indian, cheesily Bollywood, Kollywood and all other woods rolled into one for the cheesy dance and gestures and the expressions and the unimaginable GK and Samir and Sherry and Kapil jigging to that tune, howsoever ridiculous it might come through. But.... but... in its ridiculousness lies its rub as the Bard would accept!

So... let's jump and japang!

The Masquerade Family Summer Theater Workshops

Welcome to the Masquerade family! This summer, we go one step further and do one better than anyone else. We have not one but three workshops to offer you!

All age groups, whether kids from 8 to 12 or teens from 13 to 21 can attend!

Who can attend ?


The workshop for Camp Neuve ( 3B school of Music, Jeevarathinam Nagar, Adyar) is restricted to people between 13 and 19. Number of participants restricted to a maximum of 20

The workshop at bear and the bean bag( 3B school of Music, Jeevarathinam Nagar, Adyar) , is restricted to people between 8-12 years. Number of participants restricted to a maximum of 20.

The workshop at Kalpataru ECR, is for those between 8-12 years.

How long is the workshop ?

Camp Neuve- The sessions would run at 3 hours a day for a total of three weeks ( 6th May to 24th May) from 10 am to 1 pm.

Bear and Bean bag at 3B- The sessions would be for 2 hours a day for a total of two weeks ( Weekends excluded) from 430 pm to 630 pm from 6th to 17th. Performance on the 18th at Kalpataru!

Kalpataru, ECR- The sessions would be for 2 hours a day for a total of two weeks( only Sunday excluded) from 4 to 6 pm, from the 6th to the 17th. Performance on the 18th at Kalpataru.

What about the fee ?

The course fee would be 

Rs. 2500/- per participant for the Camp Neuve workshop ( 13-19 years)
Rs. 1500/- per participant for the Bear and bean bag workshop at 3B school ( 8-12 years)
Rs. 1200/- per participant for the workshop at Kalpataru (non-refundable under any circumstances). 

For any further information, call us at 9884029865, or mail us at masquerade.madras@gmail.com

Fill in the form here @ CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE

The Masquerade Family Summer Theatre Workshop 2013

Warnings and disclaimers

This is a post to warn / warm as one may choose to choose... that many a post on many a book as well as many a movie I've been reading / watching have been pent up in a long-drawn labour and are about to be mid-wived on to hapless few who chance upon this blog! Be Warned...

Disclaimer: It may take as and when to happen. Meanwhile... Please continue to support Chennai Chennai Super Kings... namma Yellow Jersey Super Kings!

The Little Clay Cart

Finally... started work.

The Little Clay Cart or Mrichchakatika by King Shudraka

Hopeful premiere - World Theater Day, March 27 in Chennai

Details shortly!

For a nation obsessed with cricket!

Or should it read "To a Nation obsessed with cricket"!. No... that would sound like a Tribute post.

Or, given the magnanimity of the situation - Sachin missing his 100th  100! - which is an even worse a tragedy to this country than the loss of Kishen to Maoists or lives of 1000s of people that get lost in Didiland due to train derailments (who anyway die in this country one way or other or would anyway die sooner or later!)  - or should I say, given the gravity of the situation? it may sound like the opening phrases of an Epitaph! Or should it read, "Against the backdrop of a nation where cricket is more fundamental to this nation..." or even better! Where a Sachin's century at Wankhede or Brabourne is more fundamental to some (who are more fundamentally Mumbaikars than Yorkshire men are more Yorkshire than the Terriers, Pugs and Pollicles) than if it came at Kotla or at Kolkata... who cares if India follows on or wipes the lead!

Btw, prayers were aplenty both in the ground as well as on tweets, sms', fb wall posts (where the country these days communicate more than in real time) that India PROBABLY MUST FOLLOW ON because SACHIN GETS ANOTHER GO AT 100TH 100! Gods Zounds and Odd and Ends! We have inexplicably and irredeemably morphed into this self-obsessed Frankeinsteins (or is it Chitti now?) who are bothered more about personal achievements and self-interests that take primacy to bigger pictures! You get the picture? There is a whole album behind this!

We have essentially come to accept the culture of coercion, exhortation and do or die philosophy! Survive or sink? And what of the meek inheriting the earth? And what of the adages that celebrate the beauty of god's creation where the best and the worst co-exist and goodness gets its validity from the existence of badness! To put things in perspective... we have lost our perspective as well as perspicacity! We are just about data, facts, statistics, cups, victories, woes, failures, suicides... This is the India FDIs are made of!

There was a time when the west came here for other things! They don't need to come here anymore because we have become one! Anyway... coming  back to where we started.... Kohli is from Delhi, playing for Bangalore and India... Ashwin is from Chennai playing for India and they are still playing to save the invaluable follow-on millions of cricket watchers pray should happen so Sachin shall score his century in Mumbai! And I just now even heard a few shouts (INDEEEEYAAAA... INDIA!) Anyway... sanity has been restored after a moment of cliched deafening silence that followed the heartbreak that Sachin's out at 94 gave! I mean... these guys are not only after runs, but are playing in a way Test Cricket is known to be played. Leaving the right balls out, pricing their wicket than the streaky 4 that can take us through the nervous 90s! You price your wicket... that's what happens when you play for your nation, to save your nation!

Oh, but what about the million voices that say, "we've anyway already won the series 2-0, who cares!" Is it alright to have won the series 2-1 at the end of the series? People from the culture of win or die, answer, please!