contento mucho contento!

mama noronha shares her joy with the rest of us as we decide that anil lina baba will go stay in the recently won chembur flat this may!

the buddha smiled....finally!

the sun, it rose at 2.35am today!...and i saw the light...clear crisp dazzling n warm...just gonna enjoy that for now...n hope to radiate some too :)

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i didn't go to bangalore for over 6years n now suddenly in the last four months, i find myself going there thrice!...tomorrow with sunil to shoot astad deboo's performance at rang shankara. see you soon!

mantle-piece!

"The name of the judge who sentences Björk to death in "Dancer in the Dark" is Anthony Dod Mantle. In "Breaking the Waves", a man of the same name is laid to rest with the words, "Anthony Dod Mantle you are a sinner. You deserve your place in hell," while the camera pans across his tombstone."

got called out to help light the kbc set for an international film production "slumdog millionaire"...cursorily asked who the dp n director were...o my god! anthony dod mantle and danny boyle...a completely different aesthetic n working style. wished i could've worked on this film. needles to say, i've asked anthony if i could work with him on laars von trier's next film this autumn. we'll be in touch, he said...while i learnt he has a team of 20!!

my first nomination!

...as the weather warms n the fog lifts...some forgotten fragments glint thru...like my first television awards nomination - best DoP for koffee with karan...not that i won it, just the excitement was fun but being on the other side of a tv production was the best part!!

the first indian television honours, originally conceived for dubai...felt kinda ott here at the andheri sports complex...

i me pic post

old wine older bottles

...every new year for the last 4, i resolve to finish my film on my dad...n every year somewhere along the way it gets derailed n i get increasingly lazy...no not lazy (yes! lazy) kinda struggling to find the motivation...last week, on an impulse, i decided to fly down to spend a couple of days with my uncle. my mum said she'd come along too...the night before the departure i had an idea! let's not shoot this time...enough of your boring camera-in-your-face shoots...i decided to do some audio recordings with my uncle n mum n her sister there...my usual last-minute scrambling around..my poor friends now inured to my ways chipped in - paro, suresh, mohandas, madhu, mahesh, sur, muks...so walkman dat in tow with two mics i went ...thought i'd take b/w digital stills in a desperate hope to get me thinking afresh anew...but na...i just wasn't thinking enough...of what i wanted n how. recorded random conversations with old family friends...n even took some pics...but haven't come back happy...the blessing of "the plot" never happened - mum forgot to carry her holy water n eddie didn't call to remind me of the good ol coconut n my uncle couldn't walk up so stayed back in the car...sighhhh! kya hoga mera??!! angry at myself n v disappointed i spent the next day alone on the beach...

the goa it is a-changin!

and fast n furiously!...altho i've been going there once in 2-3 months, the rate of change boggles me...largescale unplanned development...buildings, bungalows, industry...the global juggernaut is in spin here n how!...the same paranoia about the "outsider"...aggression n distrust rapidly replacing the sussegaad spirit...politically at an all-time naadir...while stashes of crores buy n sell the very soul of this state...

i scratch my head as i walk around "the plot" in verna, dreaming up my idyl...a place where kids of all ages, religion, caste n class can interact n share n play n learn...am still scratchin my head n chewing my nails...

BluD on the beach!

just back from goa...a quickie 'twas...to take my uncle (dad's brother) to verna to see "the plot". reverand father gregory noronha, is how he'd have answered the phone, but we kids always knew him as blue-dada...apparently after a blue bus he used to drive around in nagpore! like all good migratory nri's he comes in once a year around winter to remember "the good ol times"...besides work.

at 82, he's amazingly active...getting slower n lonelier...not much of his family left n whatever lil is left he don't seem to enjoy. so i'd walk with him down the crowded calangute beach as he let the once-golden sands massage his aching right foot...and we'd sit n watch the sun go down...right down today since there was no mist on the horizon...and he'd tell me things "just between you n me"...dreams, disappointments n hopes...

kept thinking of meeka n appa n my slow interrupted walks with them in the cold winter sun of delhi...much the same...they'd talk i'd listen...makes me think about how little they need now n yet how little we seem to be giving them...

picture-time!

trekked to town last week on one of those deliciously cold winter afternoons... was amazed to find bombay out in hordes consuming public art like i'd never seen before. so what if some of the works were bad...they made for unique backdrops ;)

the fog it is lifting...finally!

there are some things ian anderson (of jethro tull) just says so much better...

There's a haze on the skyline, to wish me on my way.
And there's a note on the telephone some roses on a tray.
And the motorway's stretching right out to us all,
as I pull on my old wings one white duck on your wall.
Isn't it just too damn real? One white duck on your wall.

I'll catch a ride on your violin strung upon your bow.
And I'll float on your melody sing your chorus soft and low.
There's a picture-view postcard to say that I called.
You can see from the fireplace, one white duck on your wall.
Isn't it just too damn real? One white duck on your wall.