Some stuff this week

Illustration/Uday Mohite

It's been a week filled with activity, and dominated by events both triumphant and tragic. The visiting Aussies, true to their whining and whingeing ways are unhappy with the Indian pitches. Elsewhere in Turkey and Syria, we're seeing heartbreaking images of little babies being saved from the debris of one of the worst earthquakes to hit both those beautiful countries. Indian Ricky Tej won his third Grammy, along with Stewart Copeland. Remember Copeland, dear reader… circa 1980, he came to Bombay and performed at Rang Bhavan with The Police, it was the first time we heard the artiste who later came to be known as Sting. For an unsuspecting teenager like myself, this was the rock show of rock shows. Legend has it that the fine ladies at the Time & Talents Club, had asked for a police band to be imported, instead they got The Police.

Indians are killing it in the music world, first RRR won a Golden Globe for "Naatu Naatu" and now, Tej wins Best immersive albums. This in the same year that Beyonce became the singer with the maximum Grammys ever.

Another African American, broke a record… in basketball - if Beyonce and Jay Z had written him a hip hop song… it would go something like this…

I'm James, LeBron James
I'm LeBron, LeBrawn, LeBrain
Got the fame, the name, I'm king of the game
Cavalier, Laker, I'm a mover a shaker
Dribble, double double
Almost 40,000 points dude
Pipped Kareem at the post
I'm James, LeBron James
I'm LeBron, LeBrawn, LeBrain
LeGreatest to ever set foot on a court

Elsewhere, in a humble home in Ahmedabad, a poor multi billionaire has been reduced to a mere millionaire. A cruel debilitating report, from some financial research firm named after an airship that exploded, had done the damage, frightened investors - and reduced this poor man to just short of rags.

Also Read: Forget pitch doctoring, look for cure!

Here is a song, can be sung roughly to the rhythm of "He's got the whole wide world in his hands" -

He was once the richest man in As-ia
He was once the richest man in As-ia
He was once the richest man in As-ia
All that's disappeared
He lost half his fortune in a flash
He lost half his fortune in a flash
His personal fortunes cut by half
His bank balance is severely cut
He's now barely in the top 20
He's now barely in the top 20
Oh sure, oh sure he still has plenty
But he ain't in the top twenty

In other news, I saw the Banshees of Inisherin; in a few weeks the Academy will decide if it's worthy of Best Film and Colin Farrell of Best Actor.

Martin McDonagh is one of my top two playwrights… his writing is so dramatic, and terse, so closed and claustrophobic, that I was certain, he would and could never make films - and then he made In Bruges, followed by the spectacular Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. And now, dear reader, he's made the Banshees of Inisherin, where two lifelong friends face the ultimate crisis, when one decides he doesn't like the other one anymore, filmmamking of the highest order.

That's all for this week, dear reader.

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com