Gaurav Vaz » Bangalore

FOSS.in around the corner

Gaurav — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:40:14 +0000

FOSS.in, the premier Open Source Conference happens in Bangalore from the 1st to the 5th of December, 2009 at the brilliant NIMHANS Convention Center. I am part of the organizing committee and I can guarantee that there are a lot of cool things being put together for this to happen.

The Call for Speakers was met with a Huge response and we have over 150 submissions to choose from and that list is going to be out soon. The delegate registration starts in a couple of days and this time we will have online payment as an option as well, so things are going to get a lot easier!

So mark your calendars, and keep those dates free, the next big Open Source conference is in a town near you! (or me atleast )

Grace

Gaurav — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:43:45 +0000

Dance is all about the feet! That much I know from the little dancing I’ve tried You can do all you want with your upper body, but if your feet ain’t movin’ you ain’t doing it right!

At the dance performance at Kyra, I got close to the stage and this was the one moment when the light was just perfect to take this shot!

Sneha Kapoor

Gaurav — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:58:35 +0000

I know of Sneha Kapoor from her twin Neha who I worked with as part of the Musical ‘All shook up’ and before that, 7 brides for 7 brothers with the CAUSE Foundation. Sneha, like her sister is a brilliant dancer and has infact, represented India at the World Salsa Congress etc.

I got to see her perform along with the entire dance troupe from the Lourd Vijay Dance Academy at Kyra last week.

The Pose

Gaurav — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:56:08 +0000

Sneha Kapoor is an excellent choreographer based in Bangalore who works with the Lourd Vijay dance academy and is a Salsa dancer of International repute. I saw Sneha and her partner perform this very piece at the Kannada TV awards a couple of months back when I was playing there with The Raghu Dixit Project. But I got to see it again this time round at Kyra last week when they did a dance showcase of various styles.

I don’t exactly know the name of this piece but it is a stunner with some brilliant acrobatics and some sublime body control!

Kathak Feet

Gaurav — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:39:24 +0000

On a recent video shoot with Samira Kanwar and the crew from Sutasi, we landed up at a Kathak / Bharathnatyam dance recital in Malleshwaram’s Seva Sadan. This was a very nice Kathak recital that was in progress when we landed up and I managed to get right up to the front of the stage to click this just before it ended

Moo

Gaurav — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:19:02 +0000

I happened to be walking by near Wilson Garden last week and saw this cow eating lunch near a shop on the road side so I went on to try and take some photos of it looking into the camera and I ended up with this!

Yes, the guys at the shop having a snack did think I was totally wierd!

I cast my vote, have you?

Gaurav — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:44:38 +0000

My Grandmom is a LONG time voter and this time she was the most enthusiastic among all of us to go cast her vote! So she woke early this morning, got dressed and got all of us to go out and vote! I fully love her enthusiasm in this and her die hard support for the Congress right from the days of Indira Gandhi.

So if she can do it, whats stopping you?

Pritham on Lights

Gaurav — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:59:58 +0000

Pritham handled lights for ‘Woyzeck’, the play I helped with last weekend. He did a fantastic job of it as you can see from some of the pictures. Woyzeck, as a play, depends a LOT on the sound and lights to create various effects that are needed for it.

Some of the brilliantly lit scenes that I managed to catch included the green light at the scene where Woyzeck stabs Marie, the tavern itself was brilliantly lit and with the paper mache created a very nice effect!

Anish and Aashish

Gaurav — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:45:34 +0000

Over last weekend, I helped out backstage with the TFA / Rafiki collaborative production, ‘Woyzeck’ directed by Anmol Vellani. It is there that I saw first hand how much preparation and work goes into putting up a theatre production! Its much much harder than a simple band going on stage and playing a show!

Anish and Aashish are two of Bangalore’s finest actors and it was inspiring to watch them up close during rehearsal and the actual show and to be able to take photos standing backstage! If you get a chance to see any production that features these guys, go see it! you will love it

Rangashankara

Gaurav — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:40:19 +0000

Rangashankara has become like a Oasis in the desert of Bangalore for theatre lovers and infact I am sure it has enabled a lot of people to take up theatre professionally!

What I like about Rangashankara apart from the brilliant facilities that it provides for theatre companies and the lovely space that it is, is the discipline it has inculcated in the Bangalore Theatre going audience. Watching a play at Rangashankara is akin to boarding a plane, you make your way there well in advance or you miss it! It doesn’t matter whether you have paid for the ticket or not! It took some time to get used to it, but we are all better off because of it!