Summer Workshop in Verna, Goa

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

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!

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

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!

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!

...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

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...

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

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!!!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...?

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?

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...