slumdog

I started the year by watching "Slumdog Millionaire" .....which was a brilliant movie to start the year with.

Firstly the fact that it was a Danny Boyle movie; his last movie that i had seen was "Trainspotting" : choose a life, choose a job....watched it in one of our NID 'laserec'-middle-of-the-night screenings, i think.Though the movie was made in the latter part of the 90s i think...ancient in a way....then again there was "The Beach". 

Now, Slumdog was a great picturisation....of the Dharavi slums and how this boy/"chaiwala" from the slums 'rises up' and finally participates in the Who wants to be a millionaire show hosted by Anil Kapoor. Certain scenes...where the two young brothers (the young hero and his elder brother) escape in a train and the young girl is left behind....and slowly as the train chugs along, the silhouttes in black are outlined against the frame in a yellow amber hue....was amazing..and im obviously finding it difficult to express in words here; or the scene where this young boy, who is a crazy Amitabh Bacchan fan is locked inside the makeshift slum-loo while Amitabh Bacchan's helicopter lands close-by...what happens next is quite crazy, yikes and cute (!!)  at the same time...this guy, unable to step out, jumps into this pothole of shit...and scampers across the field, obviously covered with/in shit and goes straight to the Man and asks for his autograph....which his elder brother convieniently sells off for 3-4 bucks; There are lots more to add to the list of i-liked scenes, but words will not do justice i think. ..so lets leave it at this.

Oh and  btw, the soundtrack was great too; 

its a sunday but feels like a monday......

its a sunday but feels like a monday......

whether it is the weather or whether it is not, i do not know.
There is this characteristic Monday-morning-soulful-mournfulness around.The birds seem to have lost all hope too, there starts another week, they seem to say.
Im sitting on the dining table, a change of place from my room next-door; overlooking the "garden" down below (though hardly one now,its a mess ) and the "chaath"/terrace on the right...i hear a crow crowing and the flatter of a pigeon's wings as it flies past......

Its a sunday but feels like a monday..still.

hell! the crows seem to be having some sort of a congregation; suddenly i hear a huge number of them..well...crowing! what else do they do!? Do they "croak"? nope frogs "croak" i think...anyways..

Its a sunday but (still) it feels like a monday.

...the crow is crowing still.........

(to be contd....i think)

...and i sang along...

Has it ever happened to you: something mundane that has happened somewhere makes you connect it to life's bigger examples?

This time it was a mere Cd that prompted me to procrastinate...on greater significances...and i can see i am already gearing up towards complex reasoning!

.....This always happens to me whenever i keep any high expectations of anything...and this time round too, it wasnt any different.
The more i expect, the more dissappointed i become.

Well, sorry but its nothing serious as it sounds...case in point is just a 2 pack Cd called "Laya Project" based on the musical journey of folk communities along the coastal belts where the tsunami's path had crossed and cancelled lives and habitat; Now the point is, i am usually very particular about the music i buy, since most of the times, after a patient wait, one ends up getting hold of the Mp3..but this time, i had tried and tried in vain, and anyway this was "hatke music" not to be found in usual limewires and torrents hence i bought the cd yesterday...I wont say it was a disaster (nothing i do ever is!...leaving all modesty aside..its overrated!) but it certainly was nothing like the glimpses and clips i had heard in their website or perhaps the songs weren't organised effeciently...maane, the sequence of the songs in the cd was such that it doesnt hold your interest for long.But having said that, i will listen to it..if played at the right time and mood, i dont think it would sound that bad.

Now now...i don't mean to dissuade anybody from buying the Cd...go right ahead...the dvd is even better i think, it has some interesting videos during and while shooting.
This sort-of-banter was just to explain a simple point: do not have high expectations, you could end up being dissappointed. That's all!

1000 bucks and more = an organised life

- did'nt know "organising" one's life was so expensive.Case in point is the Filofax organiser diary i had spotted at a bookstore counter yesterday... it was only yesterday that the thought struck me (a friend commented that it was quite a PJ) that organising one's life is indeed expensive and one has to actually pay a little over (depending on the size of "organisation" required) 1000 bucks to get one's life in order.
Another one was my "parrot dairy" by design temple that i had started using last year( i am waiting to buy this year's ..don't think "normal" bookstores stock it in Kolkata..the key word being "in kolkata"!) its a bit more sophisticated for this place: neat graphics and humour all in place.

reach out for the stars and reach the moon instead !! - part 2 (could'nt resist!)

In response to the comment of my previous post..this is part 2 !

that (the comment) was indeed a good one......but having said that, i still think i have few points to cover and yes, the underlying reason is far more complex for us to decipher...we can perhaps try for want of doing-something or to keep the debate going...and also it gives me a chance to do so, since a lot of times we can afford to wallow but not do anything more..... so here goes...

and yes there are flip sides to this mission etc....as to why it is great and all that and by saying that it is not justified and arguing that we are a poverty stricken country and we might need the Rs 350 crores for better things and repairing roads and what not....which is what i had opined in the post...and i think it is a problem of perception that we are facing here; and why i don't/ cant seem to agree is because i cannot bring myself to applaud the mission for the simple fact that the results (after the sucess of the mission)are not visible to me (directly or otherwise); i mean i am looking at it, the mission to be at the cost of the socio-economic advancement of a poverty stricken country....simple.

Then again on the other hand i am going to confute my own stand by saying that yes perhaps grassroot level problems need to be addressed/are being addressed and yes, as a nation we have earned accolades for the feat and i am not trying to lambaste them; perhaps good research is a growing symtom of a developing country like ours.
What is ultimately required is to change the mentality of the people....at the end of the day; good education etc and problems of the increasing population where the "poor" are increasing in number, by virtue of reproduction and otherwise. For eg: If we had not progressed in the IT sector, we wouldnt be the land of outsourcing and perhaps various other things would be at a primitive level (im just touching upon random egs here) . Just like saying, lets not have internet just cause people elsewhere (in the country) cannot eat or something like that ..im sure America also has its share of poor-people, where people die on the road out of frost bite..but it is a difference in degree perhaps and grass root problems are present in every country, developing or otherwise. I can keep arguing, but at the end of the day the point remains that we are not living in the stone age any more...guess this is how it has made people wish for the stars!! this is how a nation progresses ....so fine....go ahead....land on the moon!! im fine at home (on earth, ie. not literally ya!!)

reach out for the stars and reach the moon instead!

i know i might get mixed reviews for this one...but i do not think i support the fact that the unmanned mission to outerspace, from India, the Chandrayaan has had a successful attempt to cross-over and reach the moon..Call it a cliche or whatever...i know it is a brilliant feat..and loads of applause for it but at the same time i find it an absolute fallacy to be doing this, at a time when there are lakhs of people in India wanting to survive on more than just a one meal per day basis.Recession has set in...prices are soaring;Yes, it is a huge cliche but hey we are all struggling to survive: people are struggling below the poverty line, there are millions who need a house over their heads and are floating away in floods...and dude...what are we doing? we are reaching out to the stars and crossing over to reach the moon instead...!

what is the point? and for once i really want to hear things other than just the fact that we are trying to pave the way for further missions and launches and we are trying to map the surface of the moon and we might just be staying their in the next couple of hundred years and that,it is India's first attempt...so let the world applaud...what else besides this?

Besides this, what irritates the living daylight out of me is that the total cost is estimated at around Rs 350 crores...do you know how much money is that!!jeezz...tell you what, just give me a 0.005% of what you guys spend for the expedition..i need to get my business rolling!! I am selfish so can i please get some money...

Please feel free to criticize.

Benaras : snapshots : the end of an epic saga

Benaras- my epic saga (part 3)

The "Ganga Arati" is especially brilliant.
It is a daily hour-long affair, starting at around 6:15pm at the Dashsaswamedh Ghat and the adjacent Rajendra Prasad Ghat, where anxious people throng the area and line the steps ; there are the usual foreigners waiting for a photo-op and also professional photographers (with their characteristic long "zoom" cameras!). It is quite a sight: the crowd..with no one getting into each others way...eager devotees waiting to take a quick dip in the river; boat rides might be particularly interesting since one would get a view of the ghat from the river; but the charges are exorbitant and somehow one just would'nt be in the mood for bargaining.

The arati is performed by seven young "priests",standing in stone diases, their faces betraying no emotions,mechanical to a certain extent.The chants are audio-taped and boom through huge box-speakers.The effect would perhaps have been more interesting had it been a live telecast.


THE "UMBRELLAS" :
Not being overtly religious:If there was one thing that i was going ga-ga over, were the "umbrellas" along the ghats.I don't know what they are called..chattars or whatever, but i was in love with them.Period.
I loved the shape, the form, the fact that they were covered with random chintz prints of cloth and for the fact that the skeletal framework of the umbrellas were a great photo-op...against the covered fabric..layering..the light and shadow..it was an absolute OMG moment!!
...and i must have taken shots of each frame,keeping these umbrellas in mind!centred, off-centred compositions and what not!!

Benaras- my epic saga (part 2)

The Vishwanath-er "goli" (its Bengali for galli..not a pill!) is a narrow maruti-800-kept-horizontally sized galli with rows and rows of shops all along the sides; This is "Benaras" in its purest avatar, the quintessential "goli" is the real charm of the place and if you just about hate the sight of them, then this place is not for you,go to North-West Mauritius, dude!But yes, to be honest, at this point I was expecting to see the galli minus the shops and artifical artifacts, all old and crumbling, like i had seen in images, but guess that's some other galli (wait till i find out)
And i have to mention at this point, that i was actually expecting to see more of the "crumbling-breaking apart- broken apart" part of Benaras, because isnt that what this place is all about?Though its quite an irony and please let me not explain, How!

Here i must add, not all the shops bordered along the tradional..there were artifical stuff too, or perhaps that is the order of the day;that is what people want and prefer to buy; but yes, i was expecting perhaps, yardages of silk weaves, woven sarees and i had to ask for sarees minus the "tikis". Can i please just see the woven ones?

Going back to the galli..The galli must have been pretty long; but the fact that you are also "window shopping" does not make you realise the actual length or the distance that one has to cover...While all along, in the main courtyard of the temple,i did see old crumbling houses; surprisingly all the doors and windows were shut, to perhaps bar the monkeys who are quite a menace;there were some telltale signs of "hanging-and-jumping" monkeys...but anyways.

(P.S-the cows are an added feature; do not mind them)

Benaras- my epic saga (part 1)

Benaras / Varanasi.... I prefer calling it the former;
...and ...Benaras it was...for a week and half.

There is a certain bridge, just 10 minutes off the station of Mughalserai ( i love the name), which heralds the "arrival" of Benaras. while crossing the bridge,the approaching ghats unravel itself amidst the fog and mist depending on which time of the day one chooses to cross over.And, it is a beautiful sight; worth taking pictures of..a "good zoom" was what i had lacked, since i was relying on my digicam minus the "good zoom".Since anyways, Benaras conjures up a memory of images and the old-world charm (a term, im going to use generously, to describe Benaras) that I had seen around; the view was exactly what i was looking for/hoping for...the first sight of the ghat, the stretch of ghats along the river (Ganga, for all you ignorant souls..may there be none) bed and rows and rows of anchored boats (those quaint ones where a slight dis-equilibrium will topple the boat over).


The first station on the other side of the bridge is Kashi (and i don't want to go on to explain its history and its place in history); lets leave it at,"the oldest pilgrim spot" perhaps.A feeling of religiosity creeps in, as we near Kashi and yes it is a huge exaggeration but it is not-too-much considering one is entering Benaras,(and by-the-way) it is "older than history as mentioned in the "Lonely Planet"

And...once one lands in Benaras, one word is apt to describe the place: "crowded" !!
The road outside the station was my first insight and first impression of the place and crowded it was..with cycles, rickshaws, bikes and more cycles,rickshaws and bikes; Though i thought i should perhaps give it a chance since it was a railway station and all bordering areas around it, have that "look and feel" to it: "crowded" to the tee.But no, this was surely an exception.And the most surprising bit is that(or perhaps it is not), none of the vehicles seem to be colliding with each other, not that i wanted them to; they were all in this queer sense of directional motion (whatever that means!) and sense of timing and sense of just-how-much-would-cause-too-much (collision, that is).They were all in perfect harmony with one another,and in prefect unison, ofcourse i did hear few abuses being hurled around (but, anyways).

And i remember asking oh, but where exactly is the "holy- bit"!!
Guess it was around the ghats and the one lakh temples, certainly not around the station.

nirali

The power of visual communication...eh!

I had chanced upon this ad in an old Bengali magazine..."Sanonda" it is called.

Though i must say "Goan" momo is also a Nepali dish....infact it is more "Nepali" than " Goan", as far as my knowledge of cuisine goes...culinary specialist that i am not! (momos.....ahh...reminds me of this tiny smelly shack that used to be our "the-most-favourite" hangout during the Nid days...beef momos served with this red-chillified-paste from red chilly powder, a potent looking chilly sauce; never knew chilly paste could taste so ..well..tasty!)

What's really interesting is the selective classification of food under the various cuisines...the best one perhaps being "Bengali"... rosogolla on a spoon, what else!! Special mention can also go to "Chinese", the single stand of noodle on the chop-stick and the "spaced out" kebabs under "Moghlai" !! ("Italian",  reminds me of the game packman, though ...the packman trying to gobble up the single pizza slice!!) 

The power of thought I say! ahem...

longish blabber...

What does one do when one does'nt have any-thing, whatsoever to write??

You just blabber and the "words" flow...

But the last thing that i want to do here is to make this blog into a never-ending saga of my moods, mood swings, how i am, how i am feeling and the likes.puhleeze.goodness gracious.SO let me just switch over to better things: like for instance, this book i have just finished reading.

It's called "Eat, Pray,Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Let me straightaway go on to explain that this is perhaps very uncharacteristic of me; to choose a book which can be described as one women's (the author, herself) search for "herself". ..or something like that.I know this (sounds) borders along the philosophical, but that is exactly what the book was about; a travelogue of sorts, and also a soul searching self discovery and trust me, it was'nt a wee bit boring as books of "these sorts" tend to become. It was perhaps the language, the style of narration or perhaps her quest (that's a better word) to find "herself" which came across easily in the way the book was presented; the language was simple, unlike "these sort" of books which become characteristically complex and the narrative was easy to follow.

Hmm..so "Eat, Pray, Love" it was..for a week and a half.

Now its back to another book i had been reading many months back, perhaps last year; and to save myself from buying a new one, i decided to finish the old one first.The book is called "The Mammaries of a Welfare State" by Upamanyu Chatterjee; the same guy who's written the "English August" (yes..the same one starring Rahul Bose in the movie version) Its pretty hilarious, if one is able to understand the satire and the wit behind the paragraphs; and its pretty entertaining.I came across this hilarious dialogue (i found it so!) where the protagonist Agasthya (one can visualise Rahul Bose saying it!) is describing this lady and he thinks "....While fashioning her face, God had contemplated shaping a stunning pink pig, seconds before the finishing touches, however, He'd plainly been called away.Ah well..." Now! who talks like that!!? but entertaining all the same! If u want to lay your hands on the book, look out for an orange cover with the posterior of a goat and its hind legs staring at you.....that's the book.....just pick it up.

inspired...yet again

I chanced back to T.Vaikuntham's works again, today.

Was wondering what is it that actually makes his paintings so attractive: his dark voluptous Telengana women and priests and the awesome texture on the sari, is an interesting mix of tradition and colour...very South India, very earthy and very "i like!"

Heres two more of his paintings.

fashion has "ARRIVED" and HOW !!!

There are a couple of fashion shows, that just cease to amaze me.

One amongst them is the Alexander Mcqueen show with the very-famous Kate Moss hologram.I had read somewhere that this projection that was a part of his show, since Kate Moss (perhaps his favourite model) wasnt present during the show; and this was a brilliant way to commemorate her presence (err..absence).

The second one is titled the "weird science" of Alexander Mcqueen.

Click this link for a You tube video of the hologram : kate moss hologram  

Click here for the weird science of McQueen 

Another show which has got me awestruck is Hussain Chalayan's show where the architect- Hussain transforms a skirt into a table, or the one where  a Victorian style dress  gets transformed into a 20th century silhouette;  he has capsuled the entire history of fashion in that "span".

Click below for the link : hussain chalayan show-SS 07

anecdotes on "fashion" : part 2

I just love viewing the first glimpses of fashion weeks, online. Period.

..which goes without saying that i am always on the look-out for new collections that are hosted online..right after/during a new fashion week ( NYFW, LFW,WIFW...) ; for the first few pictures of designer collections. I don't know whether  i should call this a mere fascination or an OCD..its almost like some people being crazy about watching the "first day-first show" of new movie releases...this fascination follows a similiar course for me..i must have a look.

..which also goes without saying that i am usually pretty well-versed with the new designer collections and their new "stuff"; but mostly these border along picking-and-choosing certain designers whose collections i follow...Dries van noten ( he is GOD!), Marc Jacobs, bits of Prada,Yamamoto, Anna Sui and lots of Vera Wang, Philip Lim along with a host of others, but primarily these.

"just then" and "just when"

images taken in Old City : Ahmedabad, March 2008

At certain times, photography is all about the "moment", the idea is to capture the "frame" at that split second, otherwise you miss the "shot".There are times when one ends up seeing "frames" and wishes that he/she had a camera to capture it. Even though, the preceding shots have been taken on a heritage-walk-photography trip, i have aimed to capture the "frames" at that split second.

Like for instance, in the first shot, my friend in the picture was very co-operative! The minute i told him "freeze", he "froze"..and i could capture the "pink glow" around him (or the door!) at that split second...and wahlahh i had my freeze frame! (a lot of times, this process is done backwards; a person takes the picture and adds a series of explanations to justify how and why the image is the way it is...but trust me; "this" time i had actually "seen" the frame before i clicked the shutter!!)

In the second one, i wanted to capture the light and shadow of the pillars etc (yawwwwn!), "just then" the priest (im forgetting the exact term) walked by and i "clicked" ...though, later when i look at the picture ; it looks like it has been taken "just when" the guy was passing the spot where the sun-rays passes through the pillars.So the second image is an amalgamation of the words "just then" and "just when" to form a comparitively nice black and white image! 

(p.s- i know iv been using a lot of " " in the above article...but it just helps to emphasize certain pointers, better.)

kumartuli

I will let the images do the talking.....(just this time!)

the "design" err way of life. part -1

There have been times (upteen number of..) when i have wondered, what is the meaning of the word "designer"...now that i am one..or tryin to be one...or have become one; what does it actually mean? Yes, it is a "way of life" ..the designer-way-of-life...(something along these lines had been mentioned in our NID prospectus when i first joined the place...and i was overwhelmed by it. (p.s- i must have read that prospective "prospectus" a lot more than just a couple of times.

so, what is the designer-way-of-life? i wonder...

in a broader perspective, to the "non-designers ", this word might be taken to mean "designers" as "fashion designers" who make not-wearable (make that, "not-at-all-wearable") clothes...in torn tattered rags...who are famous and earn lakhs of rupees...and are seen on television sets.

in the same way , to "them" the animation-designers may mean anything from "Cartoonists" to "people who sketch for the newspaper"..u know what i mean!?

the fact that "Design" is just "a way of looking at life" was also mentioned in our NID "prospectus" ....and sometimes this "way" of looking becomes quite analytical and over-critical; i mean, from a personal standpoint i know that "we" always end up critically examining objects (art objects, human objects....) films, roadside signages, book covers, what people wear, what they "should" wear...etc etc and sometimes it ends up becoming a tad bit annoying!

But guess the "germs" have been sowed and the seed has germinated (whatver that means!)

....inspire.....(works of inspiration)

the artist is  T Vaikuntham; and i absolutely adore his work.
i chanced upon his painting one day while on google....his use of colours and the details...(notice the tiny dots in the fabric..adds to the texture) takes the paintings to a different level.
basically its quite inspiring, as a mood board!, for the colours, for the depiction..whatever.

anecdotes on fashion:part 1

fashion as i understand it....is an attitude.
a person can look "fashionable" even while wearing the most simplest of kurtas. it is about the way he/she carries it off....with elan or without it...it is about sporting the right attitude along with it.

my fashion story: PART 1

(in order of appearance-dries van noten,prada, rick owens)
these designer collections are worth mentioning: 
for their construction
for their presentation

for the way they handle fabrics ( i am also essentially a textile person, so i end up paying attention to the fabric, from where it all starts..) and above all, the "style" and elan. it follows a certain non-conventional route, nothing over the top sexy, but fashion in a mature kind of way.

people from a non-fashion background often wonder what is it that is so "great" about the fashion industry...isnt it just a huge mass of non-wearable clothes,the fame and the glitz and the blitz and the bling and the zing...the list is endless. to top it all, the clothes are "oh-so-expensive", "who-buys-them?" etc etc.these people are right in their view point to a certain extent...and i am also sometimes confused as to what is the aim of this industry...which is actually earning millions and billions of bucks.

in my capacity i am of the opinion that "clothes maketh  a man" and woman! and hence the hype and the hoopla.

it is perhaps the only field which offers an immense creative freedom, in terms of the options available for wear (and tear!) as well as for the design part of it....after all, had it not been for the choice in clothes, we would have been quite bored! on a serious note, as far as the designers are concerned, the creative freedom it offers in terms of the things that could be made with a simple piece of fabric, is immense; construction, de-construction, re-construction , do what you may. though i must say, all of this boils down to the fact that we are all trying to get dressed (dressed-up or down, take your pick).

a series of cycles

this is quite random...

I love photography, i would have loved to branch out into serious photography but somehow never managed to;but what mostly happens is, i end up seeing "frames"andwish i was carrying my digi cam along,which most of the times is never in the affirmative.

here are 4 of my favourite pics...
i am calling them: A SERIES OF CYCLES

my first blog...

hi,
this is my first attempt in creating a blog, in fact i see this as an opportunity to extend my personal self into the virtual world...whatever that means! this blog and the rest of the posts would follow a gradual process of "revelation" , of the kind of work i do, of the profession that i am in, what i intend to get out of life...and above all, an insight into the kind of person i am.
so basically, no serious discussions please!