A flower. A woman. An opera. ... Mallika!

"What can you not write about?????" wrote my friend, Sudha, in an email, after she read this post on non-veg.

Feeling awesome with such feedback, I asked her, "so, what other topic do you want me to blog about?"

"About pretty women."

To quote Barney Stinson from How I met Your Mother, "Challenge accepted."

Thus, this post is about Mallika. 

Of the various flower names that I can think of, Mallika works the best as a name for a pretty woman.   

Mallika is the Sanskrit word for jasmine.  Now, wouldn't you agree that Jasmine is a pretty name for a beautiful woman? 

Perhaps you suggest "Rose."  But, then a rose should remind you that there are thorns too.

A lotus is pretty, but the pond is typically never appealing to look at.  

On the other hand, a pretty flower like hibiscus cannot work as a woman's name--it is quite a mouthful to call her hibiscus!  People might then shorten that and call her "Hibi."  Nah! 

Mallika is apt for a pretty woman. If you prefer the English name, well, Jasmine also works.  

In the Thamizh language, Mallika might be shortened to "Malli," which is also how the flower is often colloquially referred to.

Perhaps that is why the opera, Lakmé, has that second character named, yes, Mallika.  Not hibiscus!

Years ago, when we were new in Bakersfield, and I was beginning to explore the operatic world, a much older friend, David, gifted me with a CD of Lakmé.  And talked about it.  Up until then, the only Lakmé I knew was the cosmetic product line in India; who knew there was an opera by that name!

And then David played the duet from Lakmé--the "flower duet" and I fell in love with Lakmé. The opera that is.



From the old country, where pretty much every movie was always a musical, here is a lovely melody; even if you can't follow along with the lyrics, note the jasmine decorating her hair, on the floor, ...


I wonder whether Sudha will be impressed! ;)

Dance of the day: Scherezade Grand Pas De Deux

For an arts-challenged guy that I am, well, I actually like to watch and listen to music and dance.  And, no, I am not talking about a Britney Spears jumping about letting out some constipated sounds, as a cousin recently put it :)  I am talking about real music and real dance.  It is like how I intentionally check C-Span and C-Span2--intentionally!

Anyway, there I was, yet again, checking to see what might be out there on the wonderful Classic Arts Showcase channel.  An aria from Lakmé was ending, and I stayed on to see what would be next.

Boy, was I in for a treat!

It was a wonderful dance, choreographed to the music from Scheherazade.  Months ago, I bought an old Scheherazade LP, and have played that only once.  The music did sound lovely to my caveman ears. But, listening to music was very different an experience compared to having my eyes and ears follow the music.

I waited for the piece to end--I wanted to know the dancers names, which, I didn't pay attention to when it began and I was confident, would lead me to the YouTube clip. 

"Ilze Liepa and Victor Yeremenko" were listed as the soloists.

A simple search for the dancers names and Scheherazade was all it took:



I blogged once earlier about such a serendipitous experience.  The craziest thing is this: that post was about Lakmé itself!  What a coincidence!  The Indian in me and Lakmé; well, luck me :)