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!)