The Music Room

The Music Room is written by Namita Devidayal, a Princeton graduate and a journalist with the Times of India. The book takes you through 'her plunging into the world of Indian Classical music at the age of ten' and the stage is set for the story of her teacher, Mumbai based Dhondutai Kulkarni (b. 1927) and Dhondutai's gurus, Alladiya Khan (1855-1946) of the Jaipur Gharana and the great Kesarbai Kerkar (1892-1977).

The book predominantly focuses and takes us through Dhondutai's life from her Congress House residence near Kennedy Bridge to Shivaji Park and finally to Borivali where she currently resides.

The Music Room is an unputdownable book which I really liked and read cover to cover.

A book reading, interspersed with recordings, of THE MUSIC ROOM will be held at the Crossword Book Store at Kemps Corner on Saturday, June 28, 2008 around 6.30 pm. Srila Chatterjee will be "in conversation" with the author Namita Devidayal.

You will also be treated to the enthralling voice of Dhondutai Kulkarni through a recording of her performances. So be there.

Mumbai rains prediction and MRF

Around 8:30 pm yesterday, it poured in many parts of Mumbai. These were pre-monsoon showers as confirmed by the weather bureau in the DNA and Indian Express.

MRF, the tyres company has been releasing an advt. every year predicting MRF rain day and telling Mumbaikars to switch to MRF tyres. And mostly every year they have been wrong with the prediction. They then follow up with the release of another advt. telling us that the MRF rain day has been extended so that we could switch to MRF tyres. Here are the dates of MRF rain days for the past five years….

June 6 - 2008
June 6 – 2007
June 4 – 2006
June 7 – 2005
June 2 – 2004

Either every year they get their information from the weather bureau else have the same two advertisement inserts. This year they have predicted June 6 as rain day in Mumbai and I am sure they will issue the second advt. on June 7 if the monsoon does not arrive in Mumbai.

And not only MRF but other people are trying to predict rain and even making money on it. Here is a story about people betting on not only when it would rain in Mumbai but also the quantum of rain that Mumbai will receive.

Though the weather bureau has predicted monsoon to hit Mumbai on June 10, it has this forecast for today. So what's your prediction ?