noro's ark

untitled1

2011-09-07T00:01:00.001+05:30

BluD

2011-09-06T23:49:00.000+05:30

BluDada is what I've always known him as, from a blue bus he used to drive when we lived in Nagpur. My dad's younger brother, who from whenever I can remember has been in Germany. He is a priest there, tho now retired.

This photograph is a from our visit to Goa when he took me back in time to show n tell me all about their childhood. I was trying to get to know a lil about my dad through him. He limped up a steep hill and down to the Chapora river to show me where they learnt swimming and caught fish with lines made out of coconut leaf stems.

But that's not what I started writing this for. I go tomorrow to Germany to see him. He's getting older n slower now and says he won't come to India again. I'm sad about that. I am taking a Samsung Galaxy Tab for him - a tablet phone so he can call and use the net from his room itself, without needing to climb down to his office. The excitement I feel for him is just like I had felt when he got me a really cool pair of roller skates or the first portable radio he got us. I cannot wait to see his face...

As a kid, we'd go up to Nagpur to spend Christmas with my dad's family. Bundled up for the cold, I'd wait impatiently for him to set up his slide projector. My first glimpses of Europe! I packed all those slides I found many years later when the ancestral house was sold...and the projector too :) I have his photography diary too where'd he made meticulous notes about his exposures. And the delightful little behind the lens filters.

I guess I'm just going to say thanks!

Everybody's Meenaka

2011-05-28T22:05:00.001+05:30

he couldn't live without her (or was it the other way round?)...with him gone, what reason did she have to hang on?...how quietly she went and so suddenly... without even saying bye...

...while I wait for the phone to ring at 8.30 in the morning. May you live happily ever after...

From Ovid...there was a god who wandered disguised on earth with the intention of learning about his creation. One cool spring by the sea, he comes to a farm on the edge of the village, occupied by an elderly farmer and his wife. They invite him to supper and a night's lodging. The next morning the god continues on his journey after the couple has been allowed to make one wish: they do not want death to separate them. The god responds to their wish and turns them into a huge tree to shade the farm.

In their cool shade, if I can be even 1% of the person she was, I'll be a better human being :)

my appa

2011-01-26T05:28:00.000+05:30

1921-2011

may his soul rest in peace

one cold january morning...

2011-01-26T05:01:00.001+05:30

...it must've been around 4am, i'd have been woken off the red dhurries that lined the arched corridors outside the hall at xavier's. janfest - the indian music group's annual celebration of indian classical music was always neatly timed around my birthday :)
i'd have slept off through the more rigorous daagar brothers...but the moment pt bhimsen inhaled his first lungful to launch whatever the raag it was...that first intonation seemed to travel straight to me in that hallowed quadrangle. gently lifting me from my slumber and into complete entrallment. miyan ki todi, bhimpalasi, puriya dhanashri, multani... didn't make much sense to me then but it simply didn't matter. i was hooked! it was only much later that i learnt that kirana was also a gharana!
he'd sing well past the magical sunrise and we'd applaud and applaud and he'd simply join his palms and bow and shuffle off the stage. i'd turn around to birthday wishes and hugs...and go home beaming ear to ear. the goencho had been corrupted...and happily so :)
as sadanand menon says in the beginning of his obit "may his voice continue to wake us up and keep us alive for generations".

beauty in the mist

2010-08-07T18:26:00.000+05:30

sunticoppa, kodagu

green

2010-08-07T14:54:00.000+05:30

Archaic green colours time. Passing centuries are evergreen. To mauve belongs a decade. Red explodes and consumes itself. Blue is infinite. Green clothes the earth in tranquility, ebbs and flows with the seasons. In it is the hope of Resurrection. we feel green has more shades than any other colour...

- Derek Jarman in Chroma

Green is the colour which exists in narratives...it always returns. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence! :)

in goa, the erosion continues...

2010-07-12T11:11:00.000+05:30

...physically and otherwise.

62years later :)

2010-06-30T12:50:00.000+05:30

the cup half full!

2010-06-01T08:53:00.000+05:30

midway into the year, a sense of urgency creeping in to complete things/projects i had abandoned to other quests...yesterdays israeli attack on the gaza aid ships increases my resolve to work on that conflict. i've been trashing my hands around in the deep end without getting anywhere. joe saco is a welcome relief. his footnotes in gaza is just the o2 burst i needed. his very keen eye following his journalistic nose as he gets to the bottom of two footnotes in the conflict's history. over fifty years later, not much has changed on ground there...and that feels depressing...very depressing...how much longer can we watch helpless from the sidelines? closer home, kashmir strangely seems as far :( such beautiful places reduced to rubble, halal-ed out of existence...almost.

there's a story about two guys in jerusalem - one, an arab taxi driver and the other a jewish american ex-harvard professor. over the last two n half years they've been trying to find peace in the region by organising education/peace workshops for teachers and students from both sides. but what do i have to offer save document their effort? how lame!...is it just a simple story of hope in these seemingly bleak times? is that enough? what does the land of gandhi and the buddha have to offer?

elsewhere, the wall...the concrete barrier amplifies all that is wrong...it is not just physical...and i want to express the sense of isolation, the enormity, the desperation, the inequality, the rigidity of mindsets...in one continuous loop...

i am the dam

2010-05-30T04:44:00.000+05:30

...the tallest, biggest dam in the world...holding back an enormous reservoir of water. pristine n placid full of the most beautiful fish n plant life. a giant lake you'd want to go boating on amidst the verdant valley that surrounds me.

i am suddenly also the water that had submerged vast swathes of thick rainforest and even snuffed out entire villages and scores of people. it is dark n murky down here, i thrash about to get out...that's when the dam bursts n i surge over. rumbling down those immense high walls with such force that i am this white frothing bubbly...powering up turbines and filling up hundreds of canals.

these canals fan out through parched dry cracked brown earth and as i flow through, a carpet of lush green keeps sprouting...greeen endless green...

happy new year!...

2010-01-08T18:05:00.000+05:30

...but where's the photo icon? :(
so how does one upload images now?

kafka in goa!

2009-11-17T09:07:00.004+05:30

the undergrowth had gotten thicker n the clearing took a lot longer with more labour...the babus threw some more paperwork at me...but what's new?! c'est goa!!...but what does one do about the undergrowth in the mind that's getting denser n thicker?! stuckness reigns on my dad film front n not much else happening on the work front either...a good time to experiment one might think...but but but...am most excited about the spot we finalised to build...diagonally up across the plot facing northwest looking over the treetops all the way west to the sea!...

the labour situation being what it is in goa, every now n then, i feel i should just get a truckload of "ghantis" n do whatever it takes...but each time i go with the slow, steady, sometimes lazy local labour...so what if they work only from 8 to 11 and then 2 to 5...they're a mine of knowledge n folklore...there's this huge anthill just about bordering the "spot"...and they insisted that is what made it "not a good place" to build...i mean, what the hell, it's just a anthill after all...but nay, the king dwells therein n it is his place!...they tried reasoning with me but that much konkani i could not comprehend...turns out that there'd be a king cobra in that anthill and i'd have to appease him first with prayer n offerings before i embark on busting his home :) you live n you learn n i've been learning tons here...about dog ticks, about kingfishers, about which caterpillar results in which butterfly!...about how little one actually needs to get by...about how we fill our lives with so much distraction...

i try to generate as little garbage as i can...this time i trumped the last with just one small bag after a week!...and just 2 half blocks of ice over 7 days for all my chilling needs (beer mostly ;)...but so much around is already changing along the quiet road that winds up from handka to the plot...two apartment blocks, two row house projects, two fancy restaurants tucked deep near the local spring...the spring i was looking to do the summer workshop around...

it's the beginning of the season n there was a lot happening... stalin's dalit film played at the snooty new goa centre for the arts. up in altinho, my guess is that it's gonna be lost in the heady mist of ysl n channel, inert n out of bounds to those who'd really benefit from a space like this. a brazilian jazz concert got washed out by that bitch phyan....o but such awesome lightning and thunder!...madness tho, this climate change is showing up too often now...then there was the nsd repertory ka festival at this huge 800seater in margao...i went for 'kafka ek adhyay'...a hundred of us looked apologetic in that giant space. cellphones rang n calls were taken right thru :( an energetic performance it was combining video to cut betw archive n story. but waltzes, corsets, vienna didn't sit well in hindi, me felt...

lost my train of thought :(

yoga music film!

2009-11-03T08:32:00.002+05:30

...i might as give up this blog, i remind myself each time i don't feel like writing...but then sometimes it all comes together...like this tuesday morning when the day ahead beckons brimming with energy!...
it's been over a month now of yoga n i never thought i'd last :) but it is such a good achy feeling after an hour of being put thru the blender!...so what if i still don't know the names of the asanas jawahar sir puts us thru...so what if my toes still don't touch the ground (let alone the entire palms!)...but man, yoga certainly reaches parts that other beers don't :) "your kidneys are coming in the way", he screams at me, eyes locked like heat-seeking missiles...fuck that hurt...never imagined i'd feel so hungry after.

last week, i began attending a weekly western classical music appreciation workshop at ncpa. riding high on beethoven's ninth, i signed up...who'd have imagined that the little theatre would be spilling over with young n old enthusiasts...i mean, they clocked a hundred n thirty participants! all surrendering to zane dalal's bewitching sweep of a thousand years of history...brilliantly presented with perfect references to the architecture of each age to illustrate music...they even pulled out two pairs of high-end speakers for the workshop! now to arrange my aunt's record collection composer-wise n go thru them one by one...hmmm perhaps even start a western classical lp listening club...say?!

and then there are films!...mami - never mind the acronym, slated to be better than usual with mostly 2009 releases at fun republic in andheri...what hits you at first is the complete corporatisation of film festivals. it's all about marketing n sheer visibility of the sponsors. in this case 'reliance'...we're still willynilly contributing to 'papa's sapna' ;) so what if the projection sucks, so what if they don't provide drinking water, so what if improper earthing makes ear-splitting crackle n so what if wannabe rj's are thrust upon us...you grin n bear it n hope to catch at least a couple of really good films...so far, winterbottom's 'genova' and soderberg's 'the girlfriend experience' have been good...

spellbound in spiti! - chotta dhara

2009-09-29T12:02:00.009+05:30

rajkumar the guestkeeper agreed to put us up for 250per person incl dinner n chai...basic room with blankets n attached bath toilet...couldn't have asked for more in this spectacular location
nestled deep in a wide valley with the enormous chandra-bhaga ranges on both sides, the pwd guest house at chotta dhara looked miniscule. as day slowly turned to dark, a veritable magic show had begun!
sunset was obscured by clouds but then it cleared n the night sky was so thickly crowded like i've never seen before...spotted two satellites in 2minutes!!...and then this huge blazing cool moon rose with jupiter for company sans it's moons! shivering cold but what an incredile sight to see the entire valley light up...talk about images being imprinted in one's mind!goodnight!
we left early the next morning for chandra tal but not before almost kissing my dear friend goodbye!...he'd adopted us for the brief time we were there :)we stopped ahead to take pics of the glacier after which this lil place is named...my first glacier!

spellbound in spiti! - rohtang to chotta dhara

2009-09-28T14:05:00.007+05:30

much of the conversation over that fab jap dinner was planning our trip, esp the drive to spiti...the plan was to stop over either at batal, which is almost halfway or at chotta dhara, just before batal. the choice was between a basic pwd guest house at chotta d or shacking up at a dhabba in your sleeping bag@batal! gramphu comes 85km from manali - the junction where one road turns southeast towards spiti n the other continues up to ladakh. we stopped here for a hearty meal of deep fried aloo parathas! hardly 14kms into the lahaul valley and the greenery has all but disappeared...no tall deodhars n other evergreen pines...just a few scrubs n v little grass.the air feels colder n the sun drier...the road is almost non existant, just a mud n gravel path that forces our qualis to15kmph at the fastest...but there's no hurrying about, no 8.09 fast to catch...it is amazing how everything here slows you down to sanity...we're moving now beyond the central himalayan range to the greater himalayan range...the pwd guest house at chotta dhara appeared out of nowhere...3huts dwarfed deep into the valley. of course, we didn't have prior permission or booking but hardly anyone ventures into these parts n of course, there's room for us...it must've been around 5pm when we got here...in time for chai n sunset!

spellbound in spiti! - manali to rohtang

2009-09-28T12:15:00.011+05:30

so it was over that absolutely super jap dinner that we decided to hire a jeep to spiti instead of taking the direct 15hr bone-rattling bus...this way we'd get to be on our own, stop wherever we felt like, choose our pace n most importantly, be able to go up to the magical chandra tal...the next day it pissed down like it does in bombay n the big joke around town was that these bumbaiyas have brought crazy amounts of rain with them...not funny at all, we weren't able to go around manali or walk up to the vashist springs :(so cafe phuntsook once again provided much solace with her consistent roasties...grated boiled potatoes, extravagant amounts of grated cheese n garlic and stuffing of either spinach, tuna or chicken!...yummm...got to crack how to make this at home. mercifully, it didn't rain at night n we left the next morning.
manali to spiti is a mere 200kms...but nothing could've prepared us for the mind-boggling continuously changing landscape. but more about that later...the take2 drive up was completely different from our earlier trip up...it had rained, the roads were a mess n there were more delays...it was around this time that sur called from bombay in panic...the road from keylong to baralach-la has been closed thanks to heavy snowfall, hundreds of tourists have been stranded, so guys, pls don't go! luckily for us, we need to turn right before keylong n the road there is open...more delays?
but it hardly mattered this time round...we didn't have to reach anywhere at any particular time...we had just begun our journey!...it reminded me somehow of robert pirsig's 'zen and the art of motorcycle maintanence'..."and what is good, phaedrus, and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these things?" fresh snow!...of course!! wow! so much of it...just the other day it was all dry n barren...amazing!...once again steered clear of the honeymooner hordes went ahead n went berserk into the snow!...but right up at the pass, bihari labour!!i mean, far from the bowels of their coalmines, here they were in sub-zero temperatures, eating their sabzi-roti unmindful of the apparent incongruence...we drive on, our driver -naresh, patiently stopping for photos...like this oneit is bad enough doing it on motorbikes, but we encountered couples on bicycles on roads like these!! riding all the way from shimla to spiti to ladakh! loco! complete madness! moments after i took this pic, the guy skidded n i ran to help him up n pushed him back onto the road...from here on, we had the river chandra for company all through the lahaul valley.

spellbound in spiti!!! - manalii

2009-09-28T11:59:00.002+05:30

angmo!after an authentic japanese dinner in vashist complete with sushi(!!) it was 2nhalf yr old angmo who took a group pic of the 6of us!! she's totally obsessed about taking pics n no, no toy cam for her...she'd click incessantly n dive to you asking, "theek hai?" what a sweetheart! - half japanese, half pahadi fully adorable :)

spellbound in spiti!! - manali

2009-09-28T09:43:00.013+05:30

..so like i was saying...we decided to do the round trip - enter spiti from manali n return via shimla...that way we get to go thru the kullu valley then lahaul next spiti and finally kinnaur...being able to appreciate the dramatic changes in landscape n drive those bloodcurdling roads!so back we were at vineet n rimli's absolutely gorgeous home by the beas at vashist...the last time i was here, the mountain tops were all covered with snow n the apple blossoms had just about begun to sprout...this time, luscious red apples shone thru the green...every shade of green...the view from each of their rooms was so fabulous...i kept wondering what the hell am i doing in the city!their bedroom!the beas raging swollen with recent rain.
the plan was to spend 3-4 days with them, go up to rohtang-la, walk around, acclimatise...going from 0 mt above mean sea level to 5000 is best done slowly...and given our fantastic levels of fitness ;) imperative! but then, it is never easy going up to rohtang. there's always traffic jams due to perennial road construction, widening or landslide clearing.so you just sit back n enjoy the views or walk around a fab day it was, clear skies n strong sun. what should've taken two and a half hours took over 5hrs!! the border road guys are quite amazing...day in n day out toiling to keep the roads open mostly for us n occasionally for the army (or is it the other way round ;) rohtang itself, arrived shrouded in fog crowning a long drive with exhilaration.but once the fog lifts, the highest parking lot in the world reveals itself! complete with dhabas, yak rides n ski photo ops for honeymooners!...we fled right past n walked towards the lahaul valley overlooking the chandra river...as expected, the altitude kicked in with the heaviness in the head n deep rapid breathing...to acclimatise well they say, climb high but sleep low...we were at 13,000ft! cold crisp n beautiful:)

spellbound in spiti!

2009-09-22T21:44:00.006+05:30

...haven't been writing...haven't felt like for some time now...various reasons...but that's another post...ever heard of spiti? am suprised to learn that very few people know or even heard about spiti...tucked deep inside the twisted himalayas, spiti - the "middle land" lies betw tibet n the indian sub-continent...
while doing geo at xavier's i remember spiti being geologically a very imp site but never imagined i'd ever go there...i mean, for starters it is far, very far...you got to go from bom to del then to manali (like we did) or via shimla then cross two very high passes, go thru the lahaul valley n ONLY then are you in spiti!...no wonder then, that Kipling described it as "this is no place for man".

shine on you crazy patrook!

2009-08-21T21:44:00.005+05:30

the worst news in the recent past came this afternoon in the form of a brief email - my cousin, patrick passed on suddenly in london. past 60, he was to have an angio done next month...but i guess there's no need for that now...that bolt from the blue couldn't have struck harder n deeper...he was afterall the guy who introduced me to tull, floyd, salif keita, stevie wonder, mj, etc...painstakingly he'd make tape-to-tape recordings n airmail them to me in these bubblepack brownpaper envelopes...i'd squeal with joy n hug the postman whenever he'd deliver one of those packets...each one labeled on tdk d90s...he'd record live concerts off-air on vhs n send me...and films...derek jarman, one world one voice, peter gabriel...i'd see them so often that the tape wore out n he'd have to make me a new recording...this is before cd's n dvd's...tape.....analog!...and i'd sync the vhs video of peter gabriel's secret world live tour with the cd when i finally got one...and we'd dance to it, blast it...
he died alone n i don't even know how...in a sparse cold state-provided home outside london...on my first trip abroad, he was was the first one to greet me with his huge bear hug n his chinky smile when i got off enroute to miami...he took me home to a hearty meal n we talked our heads off n i nearly missed my connecting flight...
he dreamed of coming back home to goa to his ancestral property in colvale, of having a family...but that was not to be...he came often while things were still good when he had a job n the economy was booming...the proverbial santaclaus!...he even gave me his walkman once before leaving...we were his family he used to say n i now feel we weren't around when he needed us most.
he'd end his letters with love and xxx's - bamboo...how much we wrote each other...almost every week for years...until email came...i'd write less n less to him n started this blog primarily for him to know what i was up to...he'd check EVERYDAY...and i wouldn't have written...
he was the first person i interviewed for my goa pedophila film when he had an organisation 'people against pedophiles abroad' papa...i better stop...fuck , am going to miss him so much...i don't think i've come across a person who gave more n expected so little...

jullllly she will fllly!...

2009-07-13T20:43:00.005+05:30

give no warning to her flight...
so many things happening n me just not feeling like writing...the rains they finally happened n me was ready with clear acrylic sheets that kept the rain out but not the fab view...something i'd been wanting to do for years!...chai n bhajias by the window IN the rain :)
am back to class again!...every year i go thru the motions that this is my last year at sophia's but then i go back to another enthusiastic lot, feel all charged up, etc...this year the majlis bmm project also gets off the ground. five bmm students each from five courses get to make a short film around the 'cinema-city' theme. lots of work n tons of excitement!
a quick dash to goa to figure progress of permission to construct...but then, goa is goa...even a snail is faster ;) but the train to n back was awash with green n swollen waterfalls...just the time of year to travel...haven't been on a monsoon trek in years :(
my first ride over the bandra-worli sealink was long overdue...our first attempt ended with a hasty about turn after being stuck in bumper to bumper freebies!...but it is quite a trip! esp how the landmass over shivaji park gets silhouetted by the dancing flames of the refineries further east! the view itself marred by the high barricades that deny a view of the sea. bleah!

...and the first screening with my new projector!...'waltz with bashir' - a film i had seen before, after coming back from my israel palestine trip. brilliantly executed but with some seriously flawed n problematic politics...an animated docu! now that was a first! brilliant but disturbing...however hard we try we can never wash away guilt...it seems...

this time last year i was at camp in maine having the time of my life by the lake pleasant...i need so desperately to get down to my plans for my goa plot n of course my film about my dad...the roller-coaster's still in spin...hopefully will stop soon n i'll be able to get off n do some real work...

delhi in summer i have avoided like plague!...but on a whim, dropped in to say my namaskarums to ramathatha n meekapati...
meanwhile, back in bombay, my sister is hosting an exchange student from belgium for a year...while my nephew readies to fly off to amrika on an exchange...next year, xavier's! :)
also worked on easily the ikkiest show i've ever done for television...moment of truth...never before have i come back home feeling worse about what i've been working on...see it for yourself n tell me what you think...star plus mon to fri 1030pm. or maybe it wasn't as bad as i was making it out to be...maybe just my own state of mind...

saturation!...would i ever be able to quit it all n go do live music lighting design!?!or a commercial bollywood film, perhaps?..

that mesmerising night...13yrs ago

2009-06-27T11:07:00.002+05:30

me a mj fan..nah!...never. way too much of a snob to even listen to his music considering how big it was then. my cousin, pat introduced me to his music way back then even before i'd even heard of floyd n tull. but it was pop...cheee!...turned my nose up n walked away...until while at tv18, i couldn't resist any longer n joined the gang going for the concert. mj live in bombay! is really going to come? will thakeray "allow" him to perform? that too at the andheri sports complex...uncertainty prevailed...but then he came...and how!!...we had tickets way back from the stage...but that rocket capsule entry catapulted us over barricades and to the front...a few hundred feet away from the biggest stage i'd ever seen, speakers stacked higher than ever before and so many moving lights, etc that it filled four planes!!...
a hundred thousand watts of music...my heart hasn't pounded like that since...nothing after has come remotely close to the scale of that performance that night of november first...two hours non-stop back to back he moonwalked from one side of the enormous stage to the other...such energy...appearing disappearing magically just like he did in his videos, save that this was for real!...the stage and lighting effects were stupendous like at the end of thriller when this white sheet rolled down out of nowhere n covered the entire front of stage n the song ended with men falling in silhouette to a staccato of ear-piercing gun fire...
the concert ended as suddenly as it begun leaving us riveted to the ground mouth open unblinking...we did not know what hit us. i remember walking up to the stage which was some 2storeys high in a daze...shaking hands with the guys who'd worked backstage thanking them...
the next morning, in office, a colleague lay sprawled on the floor still in a trance...another walked in...no, you cannot share this space sonia, you weren't there last night...
like a shy pre-pubescent boy i trolled the music shops for HIStory, coyly asking, "would you by any chance have any mj cds?"...of course they were sold out!...three days later in sheer desperation, i send an sos to all my friends to puleeze pick up the cd for me...no luck...desperation to dismay...when hemu bails me out...he found one last album...blew the house down finally!

good morning!

2009-06-26T22:19:00.002+05:30

spot

2009-06-14T09:37:00.003+05:30

class 2A dabba batli matunga! i remember almost all their names!!

pure blisssss!

2009-06-14T08:14:00.003+05:30

so it arrived finally yesterday!...my technics 1210mk2...after years of looking!...and i haven't stopped spinning since :) for years, my aunt's western classical lp collection sat in boxes ever since i salvaged them from nagpur...bach beethoven haydn tchaikovsky strauss vivaldi handel...music we woke up to during the christmas break...such a purist she was...berlin philharmonic for her, that too conducted only by karajan!
o to hear them in their analogue beauty...warm, rounded, scratchy n unhurried n most importatntly, uncompressed! of course i was way to young to operate what looked like an immensely complicated piece of rotating machinery...it was the madman who let me...years later...first, to only touch the records n eventually pretty much everything. that i think was my first taste of hifi!...arphi aquarius speakers, soundcraftsmen equaliser...shakti mahavishnu manhattan transfer paul simon eric clapton jean luc ponty ...i remember exactly how it sounded even now...and today, remembering him 25years later n wishing him the sweetest sound of music...

50 years ago (pt2)

2009-06-10T21:51:00.011+05:30

let's do mass here, she said...only us familyfor it was here they got married - don bosco matunga...moments before mass...such happiness!we later settled in to a cozy quiet chinese joint that anil m had taken mira to over 25yrs ago!over dinner, we got her to recount for us that day, 50yrs ago!...for the first time :) slowly n very reluctantly...

finally!...

2009-06-07T00:46:00.003+05:30

...2years after we won back some family property n lots of family pride...and 6months after we had celebrated the win, anil n his family moves into the spacious chembur apartment today. such a momentous moment (!)...anil had been pivotal in this n it is just right that he's going to be staying there now...one guy up there is gonna be smiling so widely :)

50 years ago

2009-06-01T17:43:00.003+05:30

summer's almost over but the drought is not :(

2009-06-01T17:28:00.002+05:30

...it's been a torridly hot summer parching my brains dry...barren...desperately waiting for the monsoons to revive them...
the further you travel , the less you know...n even after getting to know, i haven't been able to write all about my israel-palestine trip. project goa languishes meanwhile and my dad film...the less said the better...n the only silver lining is some work end june n july...till then, i'm hoping for an early monsoon :)

anju's farm@dahanu

2009-06-01T16:15:00.012+05:30

end-may june is that time of the year when the family goes out for it's annual overnight picnic...last year, we'd had a fabulous time at gupte's farm at amba ghat...this year, the picnic almost didn't happen...as the years go on, it seems harder to get all 12 members free at the same time esp when the kids have grown beyond school...after much juggling we settled on last weekend at dahanu. anju's farm 120km from bombay seemed next door...ac rooms with food in a sprawling 12acre chickoo n coconut plantation.da car just back from servicing, purr-ed down nh8 with half the family...mum stayed back n so did ro n s. somehow, this year felt differentmaybe, just in my head...next year, baba won't be there :( but we're all excited about his year ahead in amrika!pooja finishes with srishti this year-end as an editor!...while ro hopes to finish his be-it...mira pondering...jim n anil celebrate winning pictionary - the family's official game!!the next morning, dahanu beach beckoned...dirty black sand, brown churny waters n a garbaged beach ensured the fat lazy noronha clan got no walk at all!

Summer Workshop in Verna, Goa

2009-05-11T11:50:00.001+05:30

Summerfun by the Uddear Spring!
19th to 23rd May 2009 (9am to 1pm)

Springs have long been nature’s bounty to mankind but man’s increasing disregard for nature has seen a rapid deterioration of such springs. How will this affect our lives and the life of our planet? Is there anything we can do to reverse this change? How can we express our concerns and share information with each other?

Join in a five-day multi-media workshop, by the Uddear Spring - one of the last remaining springs in Goa. And explore the world & the environment around us using various media - digital photography, video, pottery and art.

Participants will be encouraged to write, draw, paint, use clay and take photographs to express their ideas. In doing so, they will learn the basics of creative writing, story telling, digital photography, film-making and pottery. An exhibition of completed works will be held on the last day.

The Workshop will be conducted by Valentino Gaspar and Ajay Noronha at the Red Earth Pottery Studio. The Studio is tucked in a quiet, lush corner of Voddlem Bhath at Verna, 2km away from the old Panaji-Margao highway at Verna.

Valentino Gaspar – is a ceramic and terracotta artist who runs the rustic Red Earth Pottery Studio. He is an accomplished stain-glass restorer and theatre director.

Ajay Noronha – is a Bombay based film-maker, cameraperson who divides his time between shooting for television game shows, documentary films and teaching.

Course fees: Rs 1500 inclusive of consumables like paint, clay, videotape, etc. Please carry your own snack, compass box, brushes and camera (if you have one).

Registration open! Hurry, limited seats only. Last date: 18th May 2009
Email: redearthpottery@rediffmail.com or noro69@gmail.com
Call: Valentino (0832) 2888308 or Ajay 09820291396

palestine/israel - meanderings

2009-04-15T11:33:00.011+05:30

what a trip this has been...midway into my trip n my head is swimming. didn't think i'd ever realise this one big dream i had. ever since the seeds of peace camp last year, i'd been aching to come...to see for myself n understand the situation on the ground as it were...we had spent 3weeks discussing, arguing, crying over the conflict then...my journey here started as nastily as my worst fears...el al security went thru me n my baggage with the finest tooth comb...i just made it in time for the flight! i guess, travelling single with a videocam, big still cam n one instant cam with just an invitation letter wasn't enough :( they almost didn't let me carry my cams as cabin baggage...at which time i said i'd go home!...
mercifully, at tel aviv on arrival it was smooth...tho they tell me leaving will be another ordeal. but screw all that now...here i am in haifa, by the mediteranean sea...up on the hill!...its so quiet...not long ago, missiles rained in from lebanon.
before i got here, while i was reading up in bombay n seeing films...the two nation solution seemed most appropropriate...but now, after going around in jerusalem, ramallah, bethlehem n now haifa...n seeing how enmeshed, intertwined our past was, i think it is going to be v v difficult to try n divide, to demarcate n live...
the way forward seems to me to look at things that unite us, make us similar not things that divide us n polarise us...but obviously, easier said than done :(i mean, everywhere i go, places of worship are adjacent to each other n were historically looked after by all the communities involved...how does one divide a city like jerusalem?...at prophet samuel's tomb there are 3 separate enclosures under lock n key for devotees to pray! madness!!
how can you have a country that is divided in two parts separated by another country? will we ever be able to live as one?..like all religions supposedly profess.
at the end of the day, it is all about power...mighty dynasties and rulers have risen n fallen...man has done unspeakable unimaginable things to man...we know it n are horrified by it but we're unable to stop ourselves in the present. the wheel continues to be in spin...the present now will later be past...while we try to do our lil bit for history...the museum of the holocaust was the toughest so far...the closest i had been before this was alain resnais' "night and fog"...my blood curdled then, silencing me for a long time...but to see it all for real depressed me no end...the museum itself, designed to make it experiential...not allow you to forget, quite like resnais.
dates and events are of utmost importance to everything here...not as casual as my history class back in school. every conversation is marked by an event n the date it took place...2000yrs ago or 1948 or 1967 or 2002...with so much living in the past, i cannot imagine how we will even begin to look at how we want to live in the future.
there was a hymn we used to energetically sing in church when i was at school...
"i rejoiced when i heard them saying
let's go to the temple of the lord
and now, at last our feet are standing
within your gates, o jerusalem.

jerusalem, o mighty city
so strongly bulit
one united as_____
it is here where the tribes now gather
all the tribes to worship the lord

there are those who have eyes
but refuse to see
the inhumanity to men
there are those who have ears
but refuse to hear
cries of men in agony"

i suprised myself!...i sang it in my head after over 25years!!

manaaaahli!

2009-04-07T17:05:00.008+05:30

apricot blossoms! n
:)
one day v woke up, pointed to the "rock" 2000ft above n said let's go there
pfunsook...THE place to hang out with v and r by the beas...the best roasties ever!
the view from my window :)

shimla kalka train shoot

2009-04-04T13:11:00.010+05:30

my first time to shimla...for a docu film shoot on the hilltrain for the bbc...flew into chandigarh for the first time...this obviously wasn't parts that corbusier designed...from here, a long car drive to shimla 4hrours away from nothing in the middle of nowhere...rises this monstrously huge mall but at kalka, the last of the plains...the beginning of the rail line. over a hundred years ago, this was the angrez getaway from the heat n dust...mighty deodhar groves stand tall against the otherwise denuded mountain sides...hadn't expected to see so much bare brown :(
i don't know, if any of you remember solan number 1...the most visible whiskey when i was growing up...imagine, i didn't even know solan was a place!!...so, much excitement happened as i passed the brewery :)the timing was perfect...by sun down, i had almost reached shimla...but nothing could prepare me for the shock the first morning when i drew the curtains...

off to palestine and israel!

2009-04-04T12:52:00.003+05:30

come tuesday night n i go off to palestine n israel...cannot believe it is actually happening...eversince that wonderful month in maine at the seeds of peace camp, i've been totally inspired to want to extend my current work to the area of conflict resolution. i'd been proposing digital photography workshops for kids from both sides - india, pak...palestine, israel on the theme of self-portraits and identity and using it to help better understand self and the "other".
out of the blue, one day i get this email, asking me to do a 3day workshop in ramallah for a group of palestinian educators to introduce them to the wonderful medium of film, to help them use it for educational purposes...
i jumped to the idea...and immediately got down working on it...the visa was the first hurdle...rude rude guys at the consulate. kept my calm, answered the questions that were being barked thru bulletproof glass...they agreed to give me a visa n i left...but the tone stayed with me...
several nights later, while in shimla, i had this elaborate long dream about a mossad agent coming to my bedside at 10 to 4 in the morning and interrogating me about my reasons for wanting to go to israel...i remembered his face from the fuzzy silhouette n even went later to the israeli consulate to complain about him! :)
crazy!...
the nice part is that by now, i have friends in all these places i want to visit - bethlehem, nazareth, jerusalem, jenin, nablus, etc... i have 10days to trip around after the workshop...the hardest part is deciding whether it is prudent or plain stupid to carry my video camera...yes no yes no...i guess, i'll just take it...and my laptop n still cam...phew!
meanwhile, i've been reading, watching films, etc...quite depressing...how small i feel...n will i really be able to do something meaningful....

anurag rules!

2009-04-01T02:01:00.002+05:30

...just back from watching gulal for the second time in two weeks...he is easily the most exciting, biggest risk-taking director in recent times...if dev d was scorching for turning devdas on its head, gulal spiralled brilliantly out of control in the seeming pursuit for power...enough has been written about the man, his passion, his contemporary story-telling...but what i stay with after watching the two films, is a man saved from the brink of self-destruction by these two films (back to back)...manic n possessed, his anger seething from every frame...and above it all - love...or rather, unrequited love...which drives him to utter n complete destruction...
piyush mishra...what a revelation!...and to think he lives in the same building! superlative performance crowns excellent music n lyrics (so what if i didn't get all of it)...dev d too, the music was brilliant...and rekha bharadwaj - just wah wah!
both films wonderfully shot by rajeev ravi - the way he interprets the spaces the characters inhabit most refreshing...paharganj, rajasthan...guess it must all come from anurag's lived experiences...the intimate details all adding up to the multi-layering of both these films...
intelligent, in-your-face, raw n provocative...love him or hate, you just cannot ignore him...he's certainly scaling the peaks for this generation of filmmakers (ok i'll stop now :)

journeys

2009-03-08T12:24:00.011+05:30

so many lightyears ago i begun working on this film about my dad...so many years it took me to write proposal...i finally wrote one in a desperate attempt to kickmyownass back to the film. i even sent it to docedge - this annual circus where european ringmasters get to crack whip on an assortment of performers. i was thrilled to learn that my proposal was accepted n that i'd have to come to cal to srftii to pitch...er, sell...(you get the drift?)
tired of travelling so far n so often, i decided to train it to cal...the last time i took the train to cal was over 25yrs ago...it still takes thirty hours for the gitanjali to do it...but how much i loved it...realised how much i miss train travel...
where the bodymindsoul gets enough time to leave one place slowly n prepare for the next place...ofcourse, i didn't think so philosophically about it then when i booked the ticket...i just wanted some time to prepare for docedge...read write rewrite sleep eat music read sleep...this pyt trainee airhostess sitting opposite suprisingly wasn't much of a distraction.
i was going thru the newly carved states of chhatisgarh n jharkhand for the first time...stepped off onto the platform n kissed the earth kind of thing ;) things were more or less the same in the compartment...talking poilitics n cricket...sharing chiclet n oranges...but a lot more people on their mobile phones n mp3players...sometimes playing music so loudly, i had to keep pleading with them to turn it off...why don't they just carry earphones?!
nagpur came...and went...but i didn't get off...felt so strange...all my growing up years, we'd take the train to nagpore...the most keenly awaited winter holiday to the family home...that was "native place"...i was born here n so was my dad. aunt no more, house no more, trips no more :( for years when they'd ask me, ajay noronha, are you from goa? i'd say no, nagpore.

25years later...

2009-03-08T11:15:00.005+05:30

it's been coming fast n furious...and more often...that feeling of having turned old...really old!...last night, the class of '84 all met up...what a fab idea! don bosco's was dabba batli to the others but that was where we cut our teeth (among other things ;)
that was where i met amal...in class two! like he loves to say - he knew me but i didn't know him!! but twentyfiveyears later, some names n faces camebackinaflash just like it was yesterday...rahul rege, who's mother came to school EVERYDAY with lunch! i even remember her face!...sameera oza, my 10thstd partner i forgot n got roundly abused for that...rajiv bhatia actually came! i had forgotten he even passed the 10th...
most, like me, had grown paunches n lost hair...but not samir shah, piyush majithiya, bhavin shah -
the rich kid in class with the fancy magnetic compass box n whole lead pencils (which i used to steal)...so many gujjus then...so many stockbrokers now! was happiest to meet ashish...we'd dart across the wall when hunger panged to shovel yum tepla n chhunda in the middle of a football game!
anantha had finally grown tall but looked just the same...but nareen was a curious case of benjamin panjabi...jitesh shetty - the school captain is now a very successful make-over doc in lokhandwala...but i missed rohit, his cousin n my partner who'd buy me homi's samosapao almost everyday only because i liked it so much but could not afford it...some things you just cannot "repay"...
but where were baldy, paadhrya, chick, lamb, paper, kaania...n so many others? :(

milk

2009-02-22T22:10:00.002+05:30

just stepped out of wacthing gus van sant's 'milk'...tears well n flowed over by the end...a brilliant film - simply told. beautifully shot n lit n what music!!...sean penn...words are just not enough...i mean, he lives his characters...it's not a performance, a 'role'. van sant is a wizard n i want to see more...

a depressing thought passed my mind while peeing after the film...at tonight's oscars, slumdog is going to sweep em all...that's just so fuckall.

travelling februaries!!!

2009-02-15T08:48:00.011+05:30

over a thousand years ago, india was truly shining!...a little over 12km away from dahod, a long winding desolate road leads up to this ancient shiv mandir in bavka...

i want this india back!

travellin february!

2009-02-06T16:43:00.011+05:30

after that bom-goa-bom rash, it's been a crazy schedule of docu shoots i've been on. first, the northeast - my first time to those parts...shillong and guwahati. a rude start at guwahati, when my camera bag was almost stolen on arrival. very early morning still waking as we stumbled out of slumber n onto the platform...only to discover to our horror that my cam bag was missing. the coach attendant said he saw someone running with a bag, the lady on the platform said the same...deja vu! lighting can't be striking the same place twice, i said, my head in a daze...someone said we should quickly go lodge a complaint...we scurried towards to the foot overbridge...when sur exclaimed, ajay! there your camera bag, pointing forward...lying abandoned right there in the middle of the platform...i couldn't believe it!...took a while for my pounding heart to ease off...not again!
the drive to shillong was beyootiful...dawn breaking over hill n tree as the road snaked upwards while we slipped in n out of sleep. a few kilometers away, we stop...not just us...a long winding cavalcade of buses, jeeps, trucks n cars...stuck...jammed...but no honking...a quiet acceptance. we step out and have our first local breaka - rice with pork n roti with sabzi n this awesome dried prawns ka chutney...some chai n a few pics later, it moved...
el dorado! indeed it was...a quiet refuge from the mayhem of the city...do all cities HAVE to be like this? dirty overcrowded chaotic n noisy? this was the city of lou majow n dylan, pork momos n christ!

maximum hypedog millionaire

2009-01-26T11:02:00.004+05:30

i'd been waiting long n eagerly to go watch. avoided the dvd's n downloads...first day second show and thirty minutes into it the disappointment started creeping in. it was the cliches that did it for me - taj mahal, dharavi, dhobi ghat, vt...i mean, of course, it was well shot n edited, etc but left me as cold as the half empty cinema hall. anthony dodd mantle is one of my gods n one of my highpoints last year was meeting him when lighting up the millionaire shoot for them...but i guess when you shoot 2 film n 5 hd cameras rolling all at once, you will have an excessively edited film, right. slick yes but so shallow. the kids who played the middle part were the best...n the music - rahman has done much better stuff in the past...
smells of the beauty pageants thing - need to find new markets, shower them with faux attention. lapped up soo well...first, firang technicians infiltrated the industry, now they're gonna be making our films too! it's gonna take me sometime adjusting to this globalisation where i cannot go shoot in their country but they can come here...even in times when projects/films are being shelved due to "recession" while we sit home write blogs, drink or attend yet another meeting!
of course, it's gonna win a handful of oscars...or course, it's gonna be a blockbuster grosser...right film at the right time, nothing extraordinary. go see but we're not gonna blow an evening talking about it...banned any conversation about it last evening at the party :)

bom-goa-bom-goa-bom

2009-01-12T10:05:00.006+05:30

man!...in less than a month i have been more often to goa than i have been to churchgate!!...my brother anil's been kicking my arse to step up my flaccid pace on the learning centre project on the plot at verna. in his inimitable way, we did more than i'd ever imagine...met up with a local architect and a contractor...sought advice, got an idea of costs involved, the permissions required, etc. so hopefully by the next trip, will be able to put in the file n let it take its time.

but such a sense of desperation n hopelessness one gets from talking with the locals...almost like they've given up the fight. makes me wonder why am i even moving there. but now starts the most exciting phase...the dream taking shape. two horizontally displaced hemispheres at differing levels - one the private space n the lower, the public. where the money will come from i have no idea, nor how do i make it financially viable...but i know it will happen...

my dreamgirl

2009-01-06T17:31:00.001+05:30

she tiptoed into my life n pirouetted me away...been smiling ever since...

may it happen for you... this new year :)

2009-01-01T07:23:00.001+05:30

Sometimes

Sometimes, things don’t go after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people will sometimes step back from war;
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.

~ Sheenagh Pugh

that chooth nandan

2008-12-01T23:57:00.004+05:30

are these the people we elect? patil, deshmukh, naqvi n yes, that chooth nandan...slowly but surely we are succumbing to exactly what the terrorists wanted...insecurities of every kind...divisions, war cries, blame games and fear. my good ol friend from another lifetime urges us to look within and address the pain.
today also marked a significant step forward in my own 9/11...even the sky smiled! jupiter, venus n the new crescent moon in perfect conjunction.

wanted

2008-12-01T09:59:00.003+05:30

there's another rally on the 4th, at azad maidan, i think...and i've been wanting to get some banners, posters, t-shirts going...actually paint them myself...but been struggling to put out some messages in 2to4 lines. positive messages about love, trust...reminding ourselves about the futility of violence...may be some kabir dohas...but something that goes beyond "enough is enough"...pls to reply with some lines...thanks!

enough is enough

2008-11-30T23:29:00.006+05:30

after having spent 3 full days feeling totally impotent, numbed by "breaking news" tv...a few friends n family decided to go to a candle-lit march at marine drive tonight...
but before that, m and s n i went from the taj, to leo's, to nariman house n finally to oberoi's...placing flowers n lighting candles. walking down colaba causeway, it felt like the city had been taken over once again by its citizens...out in huge numbers, curious, shocked, enraged n anguished...i overhear a father firmly telling a journo that he was here with his 6yr old daughter to demonstrate that she should not be scared n that "they" should know that we will not allow them to cow us down. later, at marine drive opp the oberoi, a class 12 boy engages me with the most astute observations he'd arrived at...he angrily denounced the politicians who've "been selling us" n wondered if a year of military rule would help fix things.
as we walk down towards churchgate, a sea of candles greet us...helplessness gives way to empowerment...strength in numbers, belief in self...the posters, banners, slogans all expressing the deep-felt anger towards the politicians.
my mind races on...how do we sustain this energy? it has happened before and it will happen again...alain resnais implored us back in 1959 not to forget...but we are human n we forget easily...what can we do to remember?

do we have to...?

2008-11-29T19:08:00.002+05:30

do we absolutely have to know everything NOW?...in whatever unintelligible incoherent idiotic way it is being presented. do we have to thrust cameras n microphones into bleeding faces or tired exhausted souls? can't we stand back for just one time and acknowledge just once that the other is human with feelings and has a right to privacy? what is it about having a camera, being "press" that gives me the supercilious belief that i can commit this violation for the greater common good? and do we have to scream...and scream louder than the others like in a fish market auction...look i've got a better bigger catch...exclusive!

is this what we are to leave as textbooks for the next generation? to excel burkha dutt's faux pas'? as someone who's been teaching wannabe mediapersons, i share the blame...and take it as a new challenge...there's so many lessons to be learnt from the last 3days in bombay...can i be part of the healing? and how?

do you believe in india?

2008-11-27T16:42:00.003+05:30

do you believe in the idea of india? of the unity in diversity, of religious tolerance, of freedom, democracy, plurality, of whatever else it is that you hold dear about india...stand up n be counted...enough is enough! such a complete failure by the state to protect it's people...utter disarray n chaos i have never seen. the guardians should be hanging their heads in shame...no, not the nsg, armed forces, etc but our super-pampered thick skinned shameless politicians. off with that wimp home minister, off with the cm... if there has been an intelligence failure, it is only because we've alienated the community so much that we've killed the very sources who'd tip us off otherwise...did we have to lose our 3 top guys in less than 30mins?

after spending most of last night trying to make sense of the unfolding mayhem n pacifying anxious relatives across the globe,..by the morning anger had seeped in...i felt so angry that it took them over 9hrs to send the nsg in n that too after day break and even as i write, almost 20hrs later they are no where near securing the 3 locations under attack.
i took the train down to vt this morning to donate blood at st george hospital...in a desperate attempt to "do something positive". the trains were up n running...empty. the otherwise bustling churchgate station deserted...i walk gaping around the silence as if in some funk...reality hits home at the hospital gates. army, police, ambulance sirens, blackboard list of the dead, worried-sick relatives...more dead bodies being brought in...stoically i join the long line to donate...there must've been another 60 of us. dentistry students volunteering thru the night...my pouch filled, i walk back down thru the hospital thru the ground floor open morgue...more cops, more tourists, more worried relatives...still more bodies coming in.

i step out into the glare n heat...into a city barren at noon. walk across to vt station...become one of the "terror tourists" - everyone pointing for the newly arrived, " there, see that bullet mark on the wall...and over there on the column, n there up shattering that glass, n there the broken indicator."...struggling hard to keep the numbing feeling growing...i began to speak to some railway protection force jawans...pathetic n heart-rending...this guy had lost 3 of his colleagues in last night's gun-shower. all he had was a fibreglass lathi. even if they carry a gun/rifle, he informs me, they are not allowed to carry ammo. if they do carry ammo, they are instructed - one bullet, one man dead wanted! better not to carry a gun, sir, he trails off...

i hurry out n hail a cab to the taj...my heart's been bleeding seeing those images of the top floor of the old taj burn. i mean, it's not about being the most expensive suites in the country, it's our heritage, history being burned. those suites played host to the biggest and the best...heads of state, jazz greats, hollywood stars, fashion czars, sportspersons...you name em all. by the time i go there, most of the top floor was ash...smoke still billowing out...my heart just crumbled. more anger...more desperation...did someone ask, what next - "secular terrorism"? am seriously considering it...

clearing cobwebs

2008-11-25T10:28:00.003+05:30

the cobwebs grew thick n fast over the last year...obscuring any trace of progress i had made on my dad's film. on sunday, while dusting some debris off my head (not my brain, pls note;) i realised that it was exactly a year ago i had begun writing a proposal for docedge. the coincidence was eerie but significant...significant enough to want to get back to it...i hadn't shot a frame nor written a single word...some said it would happen when it happens...whatever that means...but all i know it's back on my radar, a faint blip albeit...but hopefully the venus jupiter conjunction will ignite it back to life :)
working title: in the name of the father (o how original!). gtkd - getting to know dad (cuteseely yuckk!) so help me god

dostaana & dasvidanya - such extremes!

2008-11-25T09:49:00.003+05:30

just had to watch these two films and am glad i did...dostaana was a friend's first film as production designer and dasvidanya another friend's first film...dostaana starts off with these languorous body-caressing shots of john abraham, usually reserved for the female of the species...down to his skimpiest lil undie pulled down...nervous giggles around the almost housefull sets the tone of what was to follow...what starts off as a comedy drags miserably in the second half...wafer thin script that goes nowhere. i slept off somewhere in the second half n was rudely awakened by the very loud "gay gay" song...i mean, trust kjo to push the envelope but hopefully he'll inspire more meaningful scripts where homosexuality is as natural n common place...o that priyanka is so hot ;)
dasvidanya was such a contrast! none of the kjo ott-ness, no media blitzkrieg, no big star line-up...just a hugely big heart. and vinay pathak!...carries the film single-handedly with such ease n confidence...how do actors become producers? to showcase themselves? a simple enough script reminds one of the bucket list ...but not cancer for god's sake! i liked the slow deliberate-ness of the film...but save vinay's role the others were terrible caricatures - the deaf tv serial stuck mum, the fat slobbering over food boss. rajat as best friend seems wasted...but all-in-all a nice feel good film modestly told. Go watch!

time to pull out the telescope!

2008-11-25T09:46:00.003+05:30

The two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, are set to unite and light up the November sky.
The two planets will continue to get closer and closer to each other the more the month of November goes on.
As the month goes on though, it is believed that they are only going to be around 2 degrees apart.
This means that they will be coming together to create quite a light show up in space.
Venus will be setting at anywhere from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. throughout November, while Jupiter will be setting around 10 p.m. at the start of the month, and end at around 9 p.m. by the month’s end.

wonder if they'll be close enough to fill the frame together...o what joy that would be!

mcrc lighting workshop

2008-11-17T18:51:00.012+05:30

i couldn't believe my ears/eyes when some weeks back, i get this email from jamia mcrc asking me if i'd be free n willing to do a week-long lighting workshop...i mean, it was what, 15yrs since i graduated from there. never felt particularly good about the place, held some grudges...but was secretly thrilled that they wanted to do something like this. we never had anything like this when i was studying there. whatever we learnt n did was often despite the faculty there...but yes, the resources we had n the access to equipment was unrivalled....
i didn't take much time to think n almost immediately said yes. no shoots happening. i had done a lighting workshop at sristi earlier this year. ended up being most intense but very satisfying. but 50 students!!! daunting, to say the least...we were a mere 27 in comparasion. they'd fly me down, put me up in the guest house n even pay me...nice, i thought!
i had been there just once since passing out...but now, as i walked in, an overwhelming sense of decay greeted me...i dunno what it was at first...it seemed stuck in time n we had moved on...gotten worse as we got better. it bothered me but only increased my resolve to enjoy myself n get the students to have a fun time learning. very dull they seemed blinkered by their tv news presenter aspirations. what could i do to change that, i pondered...
in these many years of teaching, i've often been asked, "so how's this batch?"...i never know what to say which would be a suitable response to some expectation...i'd like to think of each group of students quite like the other. soft moist clay on a potter's wheel...tho i never thought of myself as ajay kumbhar!...we just dived in together into the deep end, splashed around, swallowed some water occasionally but came out on top, mostly.
enjoyed it immensely...tho the numbers did make it exhausting this time. i tried my best to dissuade them from coming to class. all will be marked present, everything is optional...but nothing worked...day after day, session after session, they'd be there like good dry sponges...soaking it all in. even at 6am on a cold misty winter morning! to look at available light...and till 830 at night to watch the evening film.
i'd meet friends over dinner, classmates too who're teaching...and we'd crib endlessly about the abysmal quality of students these days...yes, we too were one n twenty once upon a time, but then, our seniors said the same disparaging things about us too, remember? it seems to be a universal phenomenon...to the problem seems to lie with us, not them. the onus is on us. yes, they don't read the newspapers, nor watch movies, are lazy lumps of undeserving @#$&...we rant on...this is exactly what drives me...to figure how to make a connection...figure what their pre-occupations are...
they spent an entire day realising the one situation they had scripted in order to evoke a particular "mood or feeling"...what a day it was!...i hardly spoke...they experimented, slogged, skipped lunch n by the evening shared their work nervously but excitedly like it was their first film! later they told me they'd never experienced anything like this here...i've been smiling very widely since ;)

bombay to goa my first drive

2008-11-09T08:47:00.007+05:30

six months ago i learned how to drive rather reluctantly...hated the idea of driving in bombay's manic traffic...but that drive to taleigaon on the bom-pune expressway changed all that. goa began to appear in the horizon of my fledgling car ambitions. sent my baby for a complete overhaul n had her ready just the day before we were to leave. meanwhile, i had already figured that a full tank of lpg n a full tank of petrol would take me over 750kms! goa was well within!
we - my sister mira n her friends in their car - set off early on 31st morning. we'd decided to do it nice n easy considering this was my first time. no way was i going to do it in one go. so we planned an overnight stop at tarkarli about 540km away!
i'd always dreamed of this - to be able to stop enroute n take in those gorgeous sights which one is unable to do while in a bus or train. my fiat sienna was as happy as me to be get out of the city, open up the throttle n zip down the straights at 110kmph! but it was those vedi vaakdi valuns that pounded the heart while mira grabbed the door handle firmly trying to calm her nerves.
such fun it was, tho not so much fun when one maniacal bus driver wanted to overtake a trailer down a hairpin bend as i was revving up-ghat. many gaalis later, we continued...phew! lunch at sangameshwar, powernap n off were went. now, tarkarli was futher than i had imagined...light was fading fast n i was growing increasinly uneasy. mercifully, the turn off to tarkarli came soon afterdark...those blinding headlights totally suck!
crawled into bed exhausted n woke up eaarly to this fab mtdc resort on the beach at tarkarli...cool, clean n desolate. such bliss!... walking down the beach, in the distance there seemed to be much excitement. the seagulls were going crazy, women n children were seen filling their plastic bags while the men hauled in a mountain of tarlas...i mean, two trucks weren't enough to take this mornings bounty away!
back on the road, we decided to ditch nh17 n go down the sagari mahamarg up to vengurla n then on to the mangeshi calgutkar mandir at assnora in north goa - amol's family ka presiding deity. so many lifetimes ago, the temple chief priest had a dream that the christians were going to be coming so take her inland to save her. that explained why calangute-kars came to assnora...
the short drive to verna was uneventful...but i felt weird to be driving in goa...complete disbelief!...no scramble to hire a kinetic, no manoj to call for a pick-up, no thumbing a lift...it felt rather nice, in fact ;)

...and very happy dipawali to you!

2008-10-28T09:06:00.002+05:30

hope this diwali lights up and brings you lots of cheer

...and she's buying a stairway to heaven!

2008-10-17T10:15:00.003+05:30

for those of you who missed that spectacular sunset last evening :)

go read!

2008-10-16T12:35:00.001+05:30

my article about the whole analog-digital fracas in our image making world!
http://fracthis.blogspot.com/

ajay vernekar

2008-10-05T19:31:00.006+05:30

so! en fin...verna becomes second home in goa...an old portuguese house built at turn of the century...n view from my window :) come let's go!

three monkeys vs a wednesday

2008-09-26T00:06:00.005+05:30

i've been to turkey but didn't have a clue about turkish cinema n hadn't heard of nuri bilge ceylan...but "three monkeys" last night got me to sit right up in my seat riveted to the very end...a dark, very dark tale of denial and silence...brooding n deathly slow but brilliant!...a family plunged into a spiral in order to save a local politician's honour and his re-election following a car accident. the camera hardly moves n the long takes force you into the slowly unfolding narrative...no shifting focus to relieve you of an unsettling image, no cutting away or unnecessary pans. you confront the moment squarely in the face digesting every morsel of information it holds...and what performances! soo understated yet so powerful in a gut-wrenching story. hatice aslan - what a face! hauntingly beautiful...now, i learn that ceylan was a photographer before he began making films...raw gritty de-saturated, almost 'digital' imagery...there are two absolutely dramatic images when the past slips into the present!... haven't seen nothing quite like this before! so a must-watch!

"a wednesday" on the other hand, was among the worst films i've ever seen with THE worst cinematography possible...was there even a cinematographer? o it was fuad khan? no wonder! atrocious shot-taking and worse, so much of the film out of focus! the story even more disturbing - simple common man takes law into his own hands and ends up a hero complete with bhaashan that has the nation cheering and police in awe! pathetic n scary! o of course, there's this pretty bimbette utv news reporter in dilemma ...faux shallow torn betw news duty and service to the nation...in i have no idea what people were raving about :( i mean, yes, there was naseer doing what he does best so easily and anupam kher trying hard to keep up with naseer's demands as the jimmy jib swung to n fro and up n down like someone had just discovered it's function! terrible terrible terrible...

mama, they dropped the bomb...so many!

2008-09-14T14:13:00.003+05:30

...to all the bigots out there...kabir's got something for you...
"Where do you search me?
I am with you
Not in pilgrimage, nor in icons
Neither in solitudes
Not in temples, nor in mosques
Neither in Kaba nor in Kailash
I am with you o man
I am with you
Not in prayers, nor in meditation
Neither in fasting
Not in yogic postures
Neither in renunciation
Neither in the vital force nor in the body
Not even in the ethereal space
Neither in the womb of Nature
Not in the breath of the breath
Seek earnestly and discover
In but a moment of search
Says Kabir, Listen with care
Where your faith is, I am there."

sunday morning tull

2008-09-14T10:55:00.002+05:30

There's no double-lock defense; there's no chain on my door.
And I'm available for consultation,
But remember your way in is also my way out, and love's four-letter word is
no compensation.

...from "0 to the power of ten equals nothing at all"...how? just how does he do it?...the most unusual compositions and instrumentation with such brilliant lyrics...

tahaan vs padre neustro

2008-09-12T00:13:00.003+05:30

it's like lycra - either you have it or you don't!...and we, indians definitely don't.

tahaan- thin plodding plot beautifully shot with fantastic performances by the boy, anupam kher and sarika. bose, on the other hand, should be banned. however hard he may think he tries, he cannot act and will remain as stuck up as frozen carrot. but above all, i was most disappointed with sivan's handling of the plot. didn't expect him to succumb to using the boy for some specious hair-brained terror act. showcasing kashmir in it's rugged beauty coupled with taufiq's music distanced me even further n left me cold (of course, 13 people in a freezing multiplex didn't help either;) i guess i keep going back to sivan only because of his brilliant "halo"...but then, that's what first films are all about - the passion, the exacting detail and control...no "cutting away" to beauty shots coz your plot lacks depth.

padre neustro had my heartbeat racing from the opening minute!...a lil like the way cidade de deus opens but there ended the comfort. such control, crisp succinct riveting dialogue, intimate in-your-face camera filmed at the just the threshold of exposure, your pupils dilated opening up every pore of experience and a sound track that melded atmospheric sounds brilliantly with music to heighten that unsettling edgy feeling...and this continued till the very end, by which time you let out this huge phew and go, 'fuckkk!' ...chris zaalaa - all of 35, had us wrapped firmly around his lil finger with this story of migration n identity. not for a second does he show you new york as the big apple...the big american dream. you are in that frame...face to face with each character, twisting at every turn, reeling n being repulsed by the city's underbelly...and what performances!...paola mendonza in particular.

kya hoga apun logo ka? mera toh, kuch nahi...with my penchant for the beautiful, glossing over all that is uncomfortable. my challenge to myself as i get back to my film...

...while gauri was being appeased...

2008-09-09T16:44:00.005+05:30

mridula n new lil sis spent one ganu morning

full moon n solar eclipse

2008-09-09T06:17:00.003+05:30

...been reading murakami's "wind-up bird chronicles"...
is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts in order to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything really important about anyone?"

woke up again well before dawn...with these n other such thoughts about the universe within... complete with black holes, milky ways and a sun that i go around...

mama noronha unwinding!

2008-09-07T21:47:00.003+05:30

it must've been a tough trip for her...one sunday morning after mass, we just decided to juts chilllll!...florentine's @sailgao is such a safe bet...

bombay in goa

2008-09-07T21:41:00.001+05:30

...imagine that!...all of goa looking like bombay...highrises, et al :(

post monsoon brilliance!

2008-09-07T21:04:00.012+05:30

such colours!....

bom-goa

2008-09-07T15:19:00.006+05:30

so much green..all along...such blisss!

everywhere is war...

2008-08-25T20:45:00.003+05:30

...and what a noise they make about it!
here, mad bose with his ott installation!!

good evening!

2008-08-25T20:40:00.001+05:30

when? just when will they ever blast off??!!

good morning!

2008-08-25T20:27:00.005+05:30

view of the newly thriving "forest" and beyond!

old friends

2008-08-25T20:22:00.004+05:30

mira and swati went to nursing school together some 25years ago!
Can you imagine us
Years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.
Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears...

brother n sistah reunion!

2008-08-25T19:49:00.011+05:30

when they were kids my dad would take them double-seat on his bicycle...ride out to town (nagpur/goa) and show them the sights. two years ago, anil (madman) n my sister came up here to taleigaon for the first time n feel in love with it. robbing mangoes n beros n getting pasting!...the older you get the more you reminisce... rohit didn't come coz he would get bored with us "old people"!...jim didn't make it nor did s or lin...but our hosts more than made up for them! ;)

wheeeee!

2008-08-25T19:23:00.006+05:30

driving with my sister is to drive back in time...promptly she hooked up her ipod to the music system n we begun with "honey, you are my shining star" and wound right back to our childhood...riding the bicycle with her walkman blaring in my ears...remember "flashdance"? the unfolding swollen deccan landscape segued perfectly to scenes from teacher's colony to telenkari ...o to be able to stop up before rajmachi point n soak in the mist...something you can't do when you're whizzing past in a bus or cab...o what joy! thanks baby!

wheeee

2008-08-18T13:19:00.007+05:30

i did it...finally! drove to pune and back on the expressway for the first time since learning to drive 2months ago! and man, it was such fun!...since the time i've been back from camp i've been aching to drive out of town n with everyone making plans for the long weekend, i didn't want to feel left-out...so quickly checked with mira n she was game...i was nervous but sooo excited i almost didn't sleep. the idea was to drive out of town, find a nice picturesque spot by a river/lake n pitch my newly acquired tent!but there wasn't need for that coz mira's friends' parents insisted on us coming to their cozy bungalow nestled in taleigaon, near pune.aunty o she made the most divine meal for us - alu leaves with kaju, stuffed capsicum, steamed rice coconut jaggery in tumeric leaves, etc...she n uncle tend this lil garden full of plants, veggies n fruit...uncleall of 80...what stories he had! how mr cambatta of cambatta aviation and eros cinema fame would step into his buick convertable, light his cigarette at four bungalows n wooosh! he's step out in front of eros n stub off the cigarette - that's how fast he drove way back then in the 1940's when there was only that much traffic! even then, he'd tip the cops along the way 5rupees to let his car zip thru!! amazing! his memory is razor sharp n i must go back for more stories...about the war, about independence, about the patils in andheri west...but it was the first drive that thrilled...my speedometer, i realised didn't go beyond 70kmph so i had no idea of the speed i was doing...but we reached in 2n half hours!! of course, i stalled once in the fast lane which made mira v nervous, but other than that it was fairly smooth! man, the car wasn't the fuel guzzler it was like it is while inching along in bombay...i did 300km n still had a quarter tank of gas left!! and whoever said lpg compromises pick-up etc...it was a breeze! i hope more n more people move to the less polluting gas option...so goa here i come ;)

yaay! our first gold in years!

2008-08-11T11:35:00.003+05:30

cheers to abhinav bhindra! quiet, unassuming and sans emotion...he stood on top of the podium making us o so proud!...secretly i am hoping we lose cricket ;)

the dragon is king!

2008-08-09T01:32:00.003+05:30

...if you caught even so much as a glimpse of the spectacular opening ceremony of the beijing olympics, you will agree that this century belongs to china...who tibet what tibet? while india pales into oblivion...higher faster stronger just got "bigger" added to the motto...the biggest, most expensive yet...

ranjan's forever young

2008-08-06T18:48:00.003+05:30

...just watched ranjan palit's "forever young" - his latest film or should i say labour of love? i mean, we knew he'd been going each year to shillong for dylan's birthday celebrations and we knew ranjan's wonderful dylan act - guitar harmonica n song and we know how extraordinarily good a cinematographer he is...so when i heard it was ready, i couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy n see it...the usual suspects let me down, but thanks naresh...
...so much love!...in every frame, and tenderness...the man - lou majaw shone thru with all his imperfections and brilliance! what a character!...the narrative unfolding with just the right balance between the music and the spoken word. hardly felt the length, something ranjan seemed so concerned about when we spoke later. and some lovely transitions...of course, the end makes me want to send my daughter to that all-girls convent school in shillong where the head-mistress/principal invites the band to play for the students because exams are just over!! and what does the madman break out into? - everybody must get stoned!! :)
now to get a nice big screening going here in bombay...(and no, not a sweaty overcrowded sittingcrossleggedonthefloor screening ;)

when will we ever learn o when will we ever learn :(

2008-07-29T21:04:00.004+05:30

another bleak black day for the child rights activists who doggedly pursued duncan grant n company to a lower court conviction, extradition n imprisonment...only to find the high court acquitting them. makes me angry makes me sad makes me despondent. how do we ever allow notorious previously-charged pedophiles to get away...even as their native country awaits their arrival to start child-abuse hearings against them.
what will we tell the kids who stuck to their statements?...how do we encourage so many more to speak up in future? by the time the appeal to the supreme court gets thru, those vile ol men will be laughing their asses off at us...twenty years later, we still hark back to freddy peats...sheila tai where are you??

navel gazing!

2008-07-29T20:46:00.005+05:30

it's been some time now that i've been mulling a "belly-button" exhibit...a culmination of my unabashed obsession devotion passion for belly buttons. you can now be part of it...embellish it, keep it stark, it is yours...anonymously, if you so desire. email pics of your glorious centre to bellybutton69@gmail.com.
meanwhile, here's the first entry!

i have seen the light!

2008-07-29T08:46:00.001+05:30

"No!" interrupted Owl,
who was wise. "I have good eye-sight, insight, and foresight. How could an
intelligent hare make such a silly mistake?" But all this time, Owl had been
sitting on the fence, scowling!..."
i'm kinda slow...very slow...sometimes when you divide 4 by 2 you don't necessarily get half...cheers to the next one fourth ;)

dark knight indeed!

2008-07-28T23:56:00.001+05:30

what a performance!...may his soul rest in peace :)
ps: i don't think chris nolan is going to be making another film in a hurry

back to class!

2008-07-25T06:11:00.003+05:30

so i finally heaved myself out of bed n out of the house yesterday...for my first class this year at scm. 3weeks late, i was anxious to catch up. 44 bright-eyed young uns lay in wait...mostly from bombay, mostly immediately after graduation...all having computer and digital camera which is a historic first...got me thinking about new ways of learning and sharing work. need to figure an efficient way they can submit text, images, video n audio clips, me to be able to review n comment on them n everyone able to see each other's work. a blog? any ideas?
while on the trip to harvard, heard stories of how mark zuckerberg hacked into the college computers n accessed students' data n started the local social network which went on to become the biggest rage - facebook! imagine, they expelled him :) ...walking around in harvard you cannot help but be overwhelmed...the place feels very special...

early morning blues!

2008-07-25T05:47:00.003+05:30

each morning i wake up around 4am unable to fall back to sleep...one crazy koyal keep me company as night turns to light in the deepest hues of blue...i have returned but am still not all here. i wake up in time for line-up only to find a messy room around me. i'm back at camp - dialogue at the dl hut, swimming in the lake, volleyball, long chats on the bus, turkish coffee n the fireplace!...but the best part about camp, is that i have come back really fired up with some broader ideas for my space in goa.

meanwhile, who's taken the rain away? n now that singh is king, can we get on with some real, more pressing issues that bog our nation down?

dc

2008-07-20T06:16:00.016+05:30

my first trip to the capital. we stayed at the liaison hotel 2blocks away from capitol hill!!...a far cry from the quiet woods of pleasant lake in otisfield, maine. but like most capital cities - gentrified and antiseptic. the same ol story plays out- blacks n hispanics as cleaners, drivers, waiters and america's growing poor out on the streets. my aunt cautions me n i'm happy to be back without losing anything this time round ;)
a brilliant full moon greeted us into dc that night
the jefferson memorial peeks over all the govt buildings n other landmarks...remember seeing something similar in buenos aires the seeds at the us state dept waiting to be interviewed by the media n meet with deputy secy negroponte
the national museum of modern art, where we breezed thru some matisse, picasso, giacometti, warhol, mondrain, miro, etc 'twas hot...very hot, close to 40! so was most happy to slip out into the night to meet george n sush one night in georgetown, then with a friend's friend in his beamer(beemer?) to dupont circle n on the last night with abi n hussain...after being moslty clean for over 3weeks, the beer sure tasted bloody good!

back in bombay :(

2008-07-20T05:57:00.002+05:30

got in not so late last night...after a mind-numbing 16hr flight which was after a 5hr bus ride from dc to newark which was after half day at the pakistan consulate...back to the long lines at immigration, back to the chaotic airport makeover, back to the mosquito-infested stinky fiat taxis, back to the crotch-scratching bleary-eyed bhaiya driver, back to the pot-holed roads, back to traffic-jams...but right back to my c!, to my bed, to familiar tasty food n a stiff rum n cola ;)

i'm so sad i'm so sad

2008-07-13T18:36:00.001+05:30

...camp ends tomorrow :(

no pics :(

2008-07-09T18:01:00.003+05:30

damn!...been trying to post pics of all the wonderful things i've been up to at camp but for some reason haven't been able to do so :( let me see...we've gone kayaking, did zipline, went sailing on this beautiful wooden boat at bath, followed by a bbq dinner with the local community of sailors. then, we spent a day in boston day before. after being in camp amidst tall pines n a lake, the big city certainly looked bigger ;) just the kind of day i was looking fwd to....loitering around, watching street performers, live music, microbrewery beers, decent indian food, a visit to the state house, walking down what they call the freedom trail. the birth of the country happened here..so!...n of course, we went to harvard where i learnt that harvard is the second biggest non-profit org with endowments running into billions of dollars.
this trip, my second to the states, has been so so different from the first - when i worked on board a cruise ship in the caribbean. then i was like a second-class cheap third world labour...fear lurkink around...always...but this time round about 13years later, i feel special...v special. have met some really nice americans ;) bush-haters n antiwar...who worry about the govt policies n their country's future. they've embraced us whole-heartedly, taken us home, fed us n generally been so nice!...i must sound like a weirdo :)
of course, the dialogue sessions (what we are here primarily here for) are tough, real tough - not so much betw us pakistanis n indian, but the scene betw israelis n palestinians is explosive...some of their stories is totally gut-wrenching...everyday, day in n day out...i cannot even imagine what it must be like to live in those parts. i've been to kashmir n i thought that was real bad :(
got to go now...another new day some more dialogue some group physical challenge some swimming some singing but such a packed day i just drop off each night in seconds...but then what's new about that ;)

4th of july @ camp

2008-07-04T22:38:00.004+05:30

tap tap tap! these americans are crazy!...now otisfield is this real small quiet town in the middle of nowhere...but today they ALL come out with the flags cheering an independence declaration thomas jefferson made way back in 1776...freedom, something and the pursuit of happiness...that they surely do unabashedly ;)
we @seedsofpeace joined the parade n made a lot of noise n got a lot of cheers!this is zoe, i think, one of the cousellors

day at camp

2008-07-01T08:08:00.008+05:30

in case you've ben wondering the hell i been doing here...i wake up around 7am and join "line-up" at 7.30m, which simply means ALL at camp gather at one place before breakfast. so we're about 160 kids, 18 counsellors, facilitators n us delegation leaders. the kids have their own program n we have ours. we "dialogue" from 9 to 12.30 ...in small groups or all of us together, discussing the nature of conflict betw respective countries - india pakistan, israel palestine, etc. can be quite explosive sometimes.
afternoons, usually are free...we sleep, play volleyball, swim, or go out to portland or freeport. dinner is at 5.30 which is the hardest part:(
evenings, there's usually some activity, like last evening we the DL's did a treasure hunt for the kids n had a song n dance by the bonfire. the weather here is totally fickle! you can wake up to a nice bright sunny warm day n then an hour later the fog rolls in n it begins to rain making it all cold n wet.

camp site

2008-06-26T22:43:00.003+05:30

here you go guys, eat your heart out!...my cabin by the lake!camp site, lake pleasant spread over a mile of waterfront, the camp houses over 200 people, mostly teenagers from around the world, counsellors, facilitators n delegation leaders like me. has a baseball field, basket ball, tennis courts, volleyball n of course the entire lake to swim, go boating, sailing, etc...

i mean, what a far cry from the camps we used to go to while at the ssl in xaviers. two of us went a couple of days earlier to dig bogs (loos) for the 40 that would follow. buy provisions, arrange transport, etc. but i think i've said that before ;)

off to america!

2008-06-26T16:12:00.005+05:30

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all gone to look for Americanew york arrived under cover of pre-dawn...i'll need to fly in again just to see more!

football nights n late mornings!

2008-06-23T01:34:00.002+05:30

the european cup's been throwing too many suprises too late...am so pissed off that holland is out n my favs portugal :( germany is so boring, so i'm gonna be rooting for russia!

go see persepolis!...now

2008-06-22T01:01:00.005+05:30

n if you haven't read marjane's satrapi's graphic novel yet...then do so, quick! it's just fantastic. the story itself n of course the illustration is brilliant in it execution n detailing, stark gripping tale of a young outspoken girl growing up in tumultuous iran. the film takes the novel to even greater heights - the way they've maintained the integrity of the style n adapted it to motion so beautifully!...go see!

off to camp!!

2008-06-16T14:23:00.002+05:30

yes! so it is all happening...am off to an international youth peace camp by the lake pleasant in maine, usa!...as a delegation leader of 12 teenagers from india who will interact with other teens from around the world, from nations in conflict...india, pakistan, afghanistan, israel, palestine, lebanon, egypt, morocco, yemen, etc. it is a us state dept funded project called seeds of peace. no, not a shooting assignment...need to take the kids there n bring them back n be responsible for them at camp. 3weeks starting 24th june...with daily discussions/interactions in order to get to know each other better, reduce hatred n foster peace among the next generation...
all very well this, but we should not forget that the us has been the main culprit in a lot of the ongoing conflict n hate we are experiencing across the globe today. a good way to assuage guilt n spend some blood money, i guess ;) "they're not all bad, ajay", some of my friends have been beseeching me...
but i am so looking forward to this camp...while at xavier's we used to go to a rural camp in nov every year to do some kind of manual work at the jesuit-run schools in talasari distt. we dug wells, foundations for school buildings, helped build roads, etc. for 10days we'd be cocooned in some desolate village with no access to running water, electricity n toilets. two of us would go earlier n dig loos, organise rations n transport for the group of 50 that followed. we'd work our butts off n enjoy every minute there. but more than anything else, i learnt a lot there...learning for life - they'd call it. a lot of my insights i gained there which helped shape my outlook to life...
almost 20years later, i'm off again to camp...will keep you posted! :)

second workshop in goa

2008-06-15T14:44:00.012+05:30

so once again the dried leaves were swept off n the fallen over-ripe cashews cleared...up went the blue tarp while tino n me anxiously waited for the participants to stream in. we weren't expecting a deluge for sure! but yes, to break even this time...by 9.15, we had 9 paying participants and we both smiled in relief. the previous evening, the sky grew dark n with the cloudburst, we lowered our expectations too! cursing the fact that we had to postpone this workshop till end may (thanks to paachvi pass)... >but all that was a haze when this enthu bunch landed up. from benaulim, from altinho, from vasco... the youngest - a 4th std boy n the oldest, a granmom...and two special kids! this time, we wanted to explore "summer" as a theme. but that kinda fizzled out with the overcast wonderfully cool weather! we started with associations, imagery n drawing before moving to story-telling. they brought along their digital cameras n wanted to know everything that was on it! tino did his thing - began with clay n went on to tile painting. o we even made it to the newspapers this year ;) n tino to page 3!!pooja, my niece came along...in her final year at shristi, i was keen she help me here. anything for beer n sausages, she said!! in fact, she even took the entire session one day when i had to fly back for p pass! the best part, this year was the decision to do a half day workshop. that way, afternoon siesta is taken care off n evenings by the sea gauranteed ;) but the bad part was we were hopelessly short on time, esp for the film-making part. we never got there. on the last day, one of the boys goes, "uncle, when's the next workshop?"...i beam widely, "soon, perhaps diwali"...then, i'll pursue once again my idea of exploring a theme, learning different media n then choosing any medium - be it clay, drawing, theatre, film, photography, writing to express oneself. We drove to the verna springs n tino goes shit shit shit...it's a mess now. empty beer bottles, styrofoam cups, food plates, etc...the usual gandh...and the spring reduced to a mere trickle...thinking about taking up issues/projects like these and get into every aspect thru a workshop/camp...what say you?

alien in transit!

2008-06-12T09:30:00.002+05:30

...while applying for a US visa, you need to mention if you've travelled to the us before n what visa was issued to you. some lifetimes ago i went there as a cameraman on-board a cruise ship...a c1 visa it was...an alien in transit is what popped up!! :) ahay noronia, i was...very alien indeed!!
this time round i hope it's a regular b1 visitor visa...going there for an international peace camps for youth from conflict areas around the globe...more about that later...

here today there tomorrow!

2008-05-28T21:24:00.003+05:30

what a month it has been...one weekend in delhi, the next in amba with the family, following weekend in goa...phew!...and if that wasn't enough, the guys at paanchvi pass decided to shoot the grand finale tomorrow, so i flew in back to bombay n fly back day after...dimaag ka toh poora dahi :)