Fish Fanatic

Gajar - Journey of the Soul

2011-05-11T11:44:00.005+05:30

Last Sunday on the advice of my mother-in-law, I pushed myself out of bed to catch a 10AM show of "Gajar - Journey of the Soul" at Plaza. My home to office route being from Mahim > Shivaji Park > Dadar > Bharatmata > Lalbaug > Byculla, I never miss the posters of the latest Marathi cinemas. The perceived production quality from these is nowhere compared to what we would associate with regional cinema (on Doordarshan) but one that matches up to mainstream Hindi cinema.

The film starts with a struggling director (Parth) expressing his frustration and anger about how the entire Hindi film industry revolves around the stars and getting dates with them. His girlfriend (Geetali) however constantly supports him in doing work which might not be necessarily mainstream but more creatively challenging and satisfying.

As the story pans out, the Parth meets Eric, a foreign university student who is researching the 18 day long procession to Pandharpur in worship of Lord Vittal. They soon agree to work together documenting this "Journey of the Soul" and head out to follow the devotees in the procession.

The film captures Parth's character well - delving deep into the thinking and mannerisms of the nascent creative soul who as a angry young man sets out to make something which is path breaking. The entire film revolves around Parth - his plan and preparation for the film, his interaction with the rest of the crew while shooting and his own transformation in this entire process. Working on the theme of 18 days and 18 chapters of Saint Dnyaneshwari, Parth finally comes a full circle in life and the subject of the film develops a personal and emotional bond with him.

Apart from the story, the Gajar is really well shot and edited. It's very difficult shoot in a moving mass of 25 lakh people when you have limited time to shoot and are also dependent on natural lighting. Keeping with such restrictions, Gajar addresses important issues from time to time related to agriculture, poverty, health and sanitation are addressed in this socially conscious film. The film is clearly directed with a lot of passion and you have to be deeply connected to the subject in order to deliver a product like this.

The only downside is the time of release. Gajar releases at the same time as that of "Tareyanchi Bhet", "Balgandharva" and a more commercial "Mast Chalalay Aamcha". This timing along with a limited audience who appreciate films like Gajar might not make such ventures very common in the future. A friend recently browsing through the movie titles in a multiplex termed films like "Dum Maro Dum" and "Source Code" good and films like Gajar as "noting great."

Somewhere we need to publicise such films more so that a top quality film reaches out to a wider audience who know about it in the first place. But talking about publicity, directors of films like these care less about publicity and more on what they just love doing - making quality films!

Shrink Speak - 1

2010-09-29T10:42:00.001+05:30

Problems remain problems only till you think of them as problems!

Homecoming

2010-07-29T02:57:00.002+05:30

Its been so long, I missed you much,
Its been so long, i have kinda lost the touch,

At war with with myself, I must express,
I have woken up again to the virtual press.

Bombay City !!

2009-05-10T11:14:00.003+05:30

There is always something happening on the surface, below it and above it at any given point and any given time in the city of Bombay.

I need a PACE maker !!!!

2008-05-30T22:47:00.001+05:30

Today's Orkut fortune: You are going to have a very comfortable old age.

Judging by my current pace of work that is understandable.

Can you help?

2008-05-29T19:12:00.002+05:30

The heat is getting onto my nerves. I cant sleep at night because of the heat burning my face and the bed neither can I work in the confines of an AC box during the day. Its been 10 days that I have been in Ahmadabad and this has been the situation with me.
Still looking for reasons why I cant get going with work, I have posted my Facebook status as " Looking around for my spark plug."

Can you help?

Patience

2008-03-23T01:46:00.003+05:30

Patience is not a virtue !!!!! In today's world it foolish to be patient.

Patience doesn't help in much but just cost you for the time lost.

Why can't people just do it now. NOW !!!!

HELLO, VOGUE INDIA WOMAN

2007-10-12T09:58:00.000+05:30

I have often found it difficult to explain to others what I feel towards fashion ( specially when people say "But you don't look like a fashion designer" meaning you don't look like a wannabe) and the correct role of fashion in one's life. So I came across this article by Sally Singer in VOGUE India (which I have been glued to ever since I laid my hands on it) which according to me, gives the correct perspective about what it is to be in trend.

An excerpt from the article: What does Vogue, used as an adjective, mean? The vogue woman – and she has been around for 100 years—is someone for whom personal style expresses a love of life and a matchless sense of discrimination. (Style, in this sense, is not just about what one wears or carries, but about how one entertains, reads, travels, and, in short, exercises and takes seriously the choices that the world offers up.) She doesn’t buy everything that is on offer each season; she buys the right things; clothes and accessories that update and amplify who she already is and is in the process of becoming. This is not the same as being trendy, because trendiness is not the same as being on trend. Looking merely trendy is, at bottom, a manifestation of insecurity, of allowing oneself to be manipulated by fashion; to be on the trend, by contrast, is to have fun with strong, fleeting currents without ever getting dragged out to sea.

Wishful thinking

2007-10-04T14:40:00.000+05:30

Clicked this image of nearly 23 people in one auto rickshaw on the way to office. Outskirts of Delhi are spotted with such vehicles dangerously carrying more than the allowed limit. Add onto that, chances are half of the people are drunk. Travelling in and around Delhi in these autos and blueline buses is a commuter's nightmare. I'm just waiting for the time when the aam janta will stand up and force these people to get civilized. Will it happen during my short stint here? I surely doubt my wishful thinking.

Books

2007-10-03T12:48:00.000+05:30

Summer vacation is a time for reading, and my friends come to me to borrow books because I have most than many people. In their innocence, they have no idea what I go through in lending a book.
They don't understand that I think of myself as offering them love, truth, beauty, wisdom, and consolation against death. Nor do they suspect that I feel about lending a book that way most fathers feel about their daughters living with a man out of wedlock
- Something that I read at the Oxford Bookstore.

As I read it, I find so much truth in it.

The Footlong Kabab

2007-10-01T15:30:00.000+05:30

Nizams ! Nizams !! Nizams !!! My tummy was chanting the magic word ever since I read the review in Timeout Delhi. So finally I landed up in CP last Sunday with the excuse to roam about in Delhi just to put my hands on a magically delightful Kathi Roll.

Tucked right at the beginning of the middle circle adjoining Plaza, Nizam's looks much smaller than its counterpart in Calcutta. Not having any idea about the ambience, the space inside looked crammed and noisy. Though small, the space is well divided between tables where you sit and eat and ones where you have to stand. I cant help drawing references to Calcutta but the white laminated cash counter resembles the one in Nizams Calcutta and the token display board also brought back fond memories of Big Max at India Hobby Centre where I would drag my parents to buy Hot Wheels.

The extensive menu with 18 different varieties of kathi rolls put up a difficult task for me. Running out of patience, I ordered the Mutton Sheek Kabab Egg Roll and waited while eavesdropping onto other people's plates. Looking around, I also found a few interested signages like "We will be happy to speak to you in hindi", "Discourage us from using plastic" and "Please flush as a courtesy to the next user" ( I wasn't ofcourse just looking around to discover that one ;-) ) which were sweet and crisp.

Finally after waiting for about 15 mintues and counting from 116 to 125 ( token numbers) my kathi roll was infront of my eyes. The characteristic crisp edges followed by juicy chunks of mutton sheek enveloped in a layer of egg tasted divine and transported me to the lane between Chaplin and Stuart Hogg Market. But there was this one thing I wanted to ask the guy at the conter and I finally did. "Are you the same NIzam's as that of Calcutta"? Yes came the answer and I told myself no wonder where the taste came from.

All the more contended after establishing the connection, I walked out promsing myself to come back here time and again for another lip smacking footlong, just in order to be transported.

ADsense

2007-09-28T16:36:00.000+05:30

I don't really need to give an introduction about the state of traffic in Delhi. Though central and south Delhi may seem little under control, control itself is a missing phenomenon as you spread radially. Bad roads, poor street lighting, horrible traffic planning all add up to long serpentine traffic jams.

Well, this post not a crib-trip on Delhi, but how intelligently someone has used traffic jams to their advantage.

I had noticed this car while on the way to and back from office on NH1 before and thought its a great idea to have an ad scroller tucked behind the the rear seats.

By virtue of unending traffic signals this car manages to get noticed always by the people behind it.

Though I don't like the AD as such but that again is a sad story I leave for another post on my fanatically hibernating blog

Design Magnetism

2007-09-28T15:30:00.000+05:30

I was munching a pack of Lays in office when I was asked to leave for some urgent work. Not knowing what to do with the packet I did something impulsively and left.

On returning I reailsed that what I did was actually a cool application of my memo board which is otherwise very boring and office types.

Since I am working with a company specializing in stainless steel products thus my boring memo board is by default made of steel and is heavy and very cold to touch. So other than the papers nailed to it by magnetic bullets, the packet of chips looked different and interesting.

Soon I found more applications by what we in design terminology call explorations.

Others in office soon took notice and said " Cool !!! Abh ho gaye na tum sahi designer !!! "
I was left wishing if someone took notice.

Snakes@middle of night

2007-05-31T22:50:00.000+05:30

Oops!! Too much of this place is growing upon me that I am picking up the local accent... lol... guess you have figured out both the puns by now. Sorry Mr. A, no offence - just pulling your leg as usual.

Its just that Mr. Diamond was hungry last night at 3 so he, me and THE MAN went out for bun omlette to Jamalpur. Though only Diamond was hungry but the rest or us built up the appetite by walking quite a bit. Debating over topics from movies to current affairs to girls and indulging into their favourite passtime - I guess we did it all on the way up.

With food in tummy we decided to move our bummies - and landed up in a Sabji Mandi hustling bustling at 4:30 in the morning. Already telling each other how much of the city we left unexplored in 2 years we stopped over in the middle of Sardar Bridge. Design students turned environmentalists suddenly - commenting on the much much much hyped Sabarmati Riverfront Project. If you ask me, the riverfront is so prominent that I wonder where is the Sabarmati at all. Guess its hurts more now as I have been in the habit of waking up with the Sabarmati reflecting the sunlight on my face every morning. With all the ups and downs I have gone through in 2 years, the river has been a silent reassuring friend.

With the glow of dawn we headed back home - the three sleepy heads - three people who got to know each other a little better before they went their own way. Truely better late than never.

P.S. If you still havent figured out replace Snakes with Snacks ;-)

Brand and Personality

2007-05-20T22:53:00.000+05:30

Post jury we had a course on Branding conducted by Dr. Hemant C Trivedi, Head – Retail Academic Area at MICA. As a part of the course we did a writeup on celebrities endorsing certain brands and how much does a particular celebrity justify him or her endorsing the brand.

Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind - Walter Landor

“Aiye, aiye - kya lenge? Thanda ya garam?” This is the most common question whenever an Indian welcomes another - may it be at home or in office. Coke has been smart enough to capture this and turn it to their advantage where Coke and thanda are synonymous today. Coke also has been even smarter by not targeting urban India but rural and semi urban India and popularizing the culture of soft drinks there.
Aamir Khan has been a brand ambassador for Coca cola for quite a while now. Though as an individual (Aamir Khan) I do not think that he would be my first choice for the brand, but there is more than the individual which connects with the philosophy of the brand.

Aamir Khan in all the Coca Cola ads has comfortably and dexterously donned regional personas which have targeted different regions of India. These ads connect with the targeted region and the country as a whole and the wit factor added to the idol like status of Aamir Khan hits the consumer spot on.

Lux has for always had this association in our minds that it is the soap of the filmstars where they once had the catch phrase “We bring out the star in you.” Lux surely could have had better ways to celebrate it’s 75th anniversary but chose to cache in on the rising metrosexual phenomenon, yet keeping Shahrukh’s masculinity well hidden below the water lined with rose petals.

Probably Lux wanted to get a good amount of publicity on its 75th birthday that it came up with something which would be more talked about than followed. As for a product which has little differentiation from others in it’s category, quick publicity was intended and thats what they got as well.
Talking of reality, Lux will have to fall back on it’s angels sooner or later - thats if they want business.

BSNL - The country’s No.1 telecom service provider with maximum coverage was for long using modes of communication which were cliché. May it be the drab print ads or the TV commercials where the connection happens through the transformation of umbilical cord to telephone wires, BSNL was just not being aggressive and to the point.
With its competitors sporting Ajay Devgan & Kajol and Shahrukh Khan, BSNL was badly in the need of an young indian who the youth could connect.

Roping in Preity Zinta for a 2 crore deal, BSNL has given its brand a new face and has built a much younger brand image for itself. In one of the ads which is on the lines of Salaam Namaste, the use of vibrant colours and catchy tune along with crisp communication makes the brand image much more youth oriented.
In the BSNL broadband ad, keeping aside the weird samurai costume, the speed of the communication acts as a metaphor for the high speed internet that they are promising. In this 19 seconds spot, it talks about GPRS, datacards, picture messaging and the likes thus bringing out the multi benefits of BSNL broadband.

Our success is a direct result of knowing how to market a brand and having the right people representing the brand - Greg Norman

missing......

2007-05-08T20:19:00.000+05:30

an incomplete in the complete,
seeking presence of the present,
i look here and there looking looking for the last jigsaw piece,
least realizing that the last piece is within me.

Ali

2007-03-05T03:17:00.000+05:30

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines and the gyms out there on the roads long before I dance under those lights - A quote by Mohammed Ali which I came across while reading through an interview with Dada.

Time = Money? Urs or mine?

2007-03-03T00:49:00.000+05:30

"ok.sire..ur time is my money" - Someone messaged me while chatting on Gtalk.

Thinking over it, I guess its such a true statement going by today's standards where one is paid for the time he or she spends on charting the growth plan and strategy for a company.

We designers will surely be smiling and patting ourselves on the back when we look forward to entering the industry which will be paying us for our ideas, where we are the people who will make others make money; well hopefully atleast. Amen !!

I have my fingers crossed till I cross the Major !! ;-)

Pagla

2007-03-02T02:56:00.000+05:30

Demented thoughts of an infected mind,
Abuzz with thoughts of any kind,
Social or contextual - I dunno,
Trying to capture ideas that come and go,
Dustbins or chairs - which is the need of the hour?
Remember !! you have to raise your bar,
Which is the major one - I try to find,
Demented thoughts of an infected mind.

Jari Mari: Of cloth and other stories

2007-02-19T01:32:00.000+05:30

A review written by me for a documentary shown to us during our Science and Liberal Arts (SLA) class this semester.

Documentary Name: Jari Mari - Of cloth and other stories
Hindi/ Colour/ Video/ 74 min./2001

Credits
Director, Producer: Surabhi Sharma
Photography: Setu Pande
Editing: Jabeen Merchant
Sound: Gissy Michael
Music: D. Wood, Vipin Bhati

Set in the slum dwellings of Jari Mari, an area adjacent to the International Airport in Bombay, the film Jari Mari talks about the inhuman living and working conditions of the people living there.

The film starts with an image of one of the old mills of Bombay where the masses used to go to work every morning but now only a minuscule fraction of the staff come for work to the mill which looks ghostly and deserted.

Moving ahead the subject shifts to a mill worker originally from Bihar. Recollecting glorious days of the mills in Bombay he cites reasons why such a huge and flourishing industry is today broken down into a network of narrow lanes filled with sweatshops. According to the government’s laws, any company with an employee strength above 100 people cannot stop it’s employees from forming an union. This is the main reason why the garment export industry today is fragmented into dotted jobworkers where the employee strength is weak and their pay devoid of any perks, provident funds or any such basic facility.

Shifting focus on a jobworker’s workshop, we are appalled with the huge difference between the money that a tailor gets for stitching a shirt (Rs.10 - 15) and it;s actual retail price abroad ($9.99)

Though the documentary starts with the aim of bringing to light the depleted state of the once flourishing mills but I think the focus gradually shifts to the lives of the people living in the slum colony of Jari Mari.

The first person accounts bring us close to reality and hardships of life. In one such account a lady talks about the hardships she went through while working as domestic help in one of the middle east countries. Away from home for years this widow had to raise money for the upbringing of her three children and later on their marriage as well. As she expressed her desire to go back to the middle east and not be part of inhuman living conditions in Jari Mari, it leaves us wondering that gradually people are losing the pride and pleasure of living in one’s own country.

The documentary is an eye opener for all of us who are happy in our own world of living in the present and not bothering about the future. Nobody today questions as to why did the mills actually shut down? Who are these people who have not paid these workers any compensation and are scot free today? Rehabilitation is promised as usual, but today rehabilitation is just a promise to earn votes and the traces of it remains only in blueprints but not in geography. We hear of lots happening for the ex-workers of mills but none of it gets a tangible form. With shifting timeline and builder’s pressure, soon the landscape of Bombay will change with lesser public spaces and lesser wetlands which would soak up water, leaving Bombay to the continual fate of yearly floods.

Summing it all up and having attended four SLA classes in four semesters, I am left wondering that how much we as designers are doing for any social cause? We probably only cite examples where we feel that a problem exists and leave it there without a solution. It is quite a pathetic situation when we are blind all six months in a semester waiting only for a one week SLA course to open up our eyes about what is actually happening around us. It’s time we ask ourselves, “Are we really needed or are we just satisfying our egos”? But I guess we need to be optimistic for atleast we have started asking the right questions.

Individuality ???

2007-01-21T15:23:00.001+05:30

" A true artist should never be bothered about what anyone has to say about him"
- quote from a film I saw recently at NID. Directed by Alan Parker, the movie Fame is about the life of students in a performing arts college.

Probably in this world of artists there are very few who actually do what their heart wants to do and not what others want them to do. Being in a design course at the so called premier institute of the country I am so appalled to find the acute crisis of individuals where individuality is supposed to be one's USP.

Chettinadi Chennai - Wandering wisdom

2006-12-12T12:28:00.000+05:30

As if the Bangalore auto drivers were not enough for me that I experienced their brotherhood in Chennai who are a bunch of hooligans on the prowl to rob you the minute you park yourself in their vehicles. Not only do they demand more money from you but even threaten to leave you at some dark desolate place where you will find no conveyance if you do not pay them the amount quoted by them.

Thanks to all this, I chose to wander around Chennai by foot. The weather being pleasant, I didn't face much difficulty stayin in the sun. Just putting down a few things at ramdom which I came across while stroolling for a couple of hours.

Though I am not a very good patron of fruits being cut and sold in the streets by vendors, I think this person here has done a fairly good job. The cut fruits are put in a transparent packet, the opening of which is sealed by by folding the excess of the bag and binding it with a toothpick. The user can easily open up this packet and use the toothpick to eat the fruits - very simple and effective.

Down a few steps, I saw the first local movie poster in Chennai; looked like some sci fi movie to me where the hero and heroine would set out on a quest to go to some fantasy land ... something Vikram n Betaal style.

I little further I was tempted to pick up a couple of Tommy Hilfiger vests being sold on the pavement for a meagre price of just Rs.40/-. I'm sure Tommy would faint to find his knock-offs being sold so freely in a city where his originals would be priced atleast 1o times the amount in the showroom.

Lastly, I saw this young guy sitting on the pavement with his parrot in a cage and pulling lots of fast ones on this lady sitting down in front of him with grim concentration written across her face - I'm sure they will still do the same 10 years down the line and nothing much is gonna change no matter how fancifully this astrologer presents his client's future on a platter.

Chennai turned wasn't much of a surprise and turned out to be like any other metro, though I somehow go back with the impression that Chennai is "The Delhi of the south".

P.S. Forgot to mention that Chennai has a very well planned placement of subways and the next time you are in Chennai dont miss food from Saravana Bhawan - it has totally kick ass south indian food.

Chettinadi Chennai - The US Visa Exam

2006-12-08T10:25:00.000+05:30

Gosh !! I thought that the last exam I gave in my life was the class 12 ISC exam. Little did I know that the greater exams in life are due to come. In Chennai last tuesday, I was amazed to see the queue outside the US consolate office for Visa interviews.

There was everyone around........ kids, teens, youngsters, mid-aged people, old men with sticks and ones on wheel chairs as well. And the extra baggage with them being their family. Youngsters helping the elderly and the elderly praying and blessing the yougsters before the latter go to appear for their interviews.

People waiting to get into a queue

Just leaves me wondering that what is so great about going to the USA when our country is at its peak of development? Seing the huge daily attendance of people to immigrate it makes me wonder as to how much of potential knowledge base we are losing out everyday. Some people differ by saying that its leads to greater foreign exchange monitarily due to NRIs; but we need to decide as to what is more valuable - knowledge and the belief in oneself as a nation or short term monetary gains?

I was under the impression that today the youth is more inclined towards staying in India as this is the right time when we are growing from all quaters - but that impression lasted till I was in Chennai.

Nearly 100m from the US consulate
where people are waiting on the pavemant.

Zip Zap Zoom !!

2006-12-07T14:08:00.000+05:30

Last Monday I made a one day visit with my sister to Chennai and the trip though refreshing, as I got to catch up with her, had with it a few experiences attached - which were a mix of plesant and no so pleasant ones as well. Well to start with, a pleasant one.

As I reached station early for a change (one of the rare times that I reached the station an hour in advance) I had the chance to look around a bit of Bangalore Central station. What attracted my attention in particular was the automated platform ticket machine. There have been many times when I had to queue up for a long time to get a single platform ticket for just Rs.3/- .

To start with, this machine looks pretty clean ( according to general standards at railway stations) and thus inviting. The signage is placed at a good height and protrudes at a right angle from the top of the machine thus increasing visibility from both sides.

Taking a look at the instructions, being broken down into two clear columns makes it much easier for the user to comprehend based on which mode of transaction to opt for.

I was often irritated to come across machines which accepted coins of just a single denomination. However, this is well tackled in this macine with it accepting Rs. 1/2/5 coins in a combination for a maximum of 3 tickets for a single transaction. So we have a new machine here which accepts all the coins in my wallet and recognizes each one of them once inserted. It is also clearly communicated that " Machine gives no change!"

The display comes alive once you have put in a coin and recognises the coin you inserted and tells you how many more coins to insert depending on the number of tickets you want.

Ok..... now talking about the real output - the ticket. The ticket is a neat square piece of paper with the relevant information on it and more importantly the right ones highlighted by a larger size.

For me the experience of using this machine was abosolutely new and more importantly hassle free. Kudos to South Indian Railway for experimenting and introducing this macine and I really hope to see these machines installed all across the important stations thus leading to lesser queues.

My sisiter being with me alongside commented that this must be a foreign made machine which I being a design student vehemently opposed saying that in India also we have the manpower to come up with such a technology. Well, my belief didnt serve me right till I found out that this machine is produced by a german company called Hectronic who are in this business for 50 years already and have a few models ready for parking and ticketing machines.

Whatever it might be, I will surely be looking around for this macine next time I visit a station to drop anyone :-)

Santa Sadhu

2006-12-07T12:22:00.000+05:30

In Bangalore for the last couple of weeks, I got to see a fair bit of the city thanks to a friend of mine who was kind enough to lend me his scooty.

Well, at one of these junctions i saw a man dressed in a sadhu-like attire selling something to vehicles waiting at a traffic junction.

As he came closer i realised that keeping up with the mood of the season this person is selling Santa caps to people...... lucky that i could find time to take out my cam n click him.

Dressed in a lungi and a saffron shirt with a carelessly tied pony this man was a perfect image of a homogeneous culture which we are headed towards today where we clelebrate all occasions keeping aside cast, creed, religion and alike.

Though a bit of a visual jerk ( in terms of mechanics ;-) ) I somehow liked this concept of a Santa Sadhu...... just that if Santa would have seen this man he would have probably said, " Dude!! Thats ma cap - wear it like I do and not like a clown "

Failed outings

2006-10-26T01:42:00.000+05:30

My take on plans that are made beforehand about going out with friends have a low success rate. Out of my experience one should just make a plan n then ask people " Are you coming or not?".... n then set out even if it is "ekla cholo re".

Pulling through the drab day - I make a plan,
With friends i wanna chillout for a time-span,
So I call them up n fix up a time,
And make myself some tea with lime.

The hands circle a couple of turns and its the time to go,
But alas! nobody turns up to show !!!
Dejected at one more failed outing - I feel so lost,
Finally - I write a post at my dejection's cost.

Ok ... now you know that I can be poetic when in a melancholy state of mind ;-)

Sorry for subjecting you to my rustic poetry but yes I hope we had a little less of failed outings to save me from my fits of melancholy.

Dor - Post Mortem

2006-10-07T02:25:00.000+05:30

For a lazy blogger like me, something to write on has be really really inspiring to awaken me from this blogsnore. Dor happened to be that which inspired me to write this blog.

Strong and bold in its concept, I feel Dor has lived up to the expectations one would have from Nagesh Kuknoor. Now is the time when new directors are willing to work on stories which are new and that too turning them to mainstream movies. Dor as such is a quite a serious film, though Shreyas Talpade comes in now and then to plug in some humour also proving his versatility as an actor.

The story is of two women (Meera and Zeenat) whose husbands (Aamir and Shanker) have gone to work in Saudi and stay together. Alls well............ so wheres the twist? Meera on one of her monthly calls to her husband (and that too from the top of the village's own miniature Mt.Everest) gets to know that her husband has fallen off the 10th floor balcony of his flat and is dead. Since Aamir used to stay with him thus due to lask of any other evidence (of this so called 'haadsa') he is considered to have killed Shanker and is to be hanged in 2 months time.

Twist part 2 is when one External Affairs official takes a holiday to drive up to Himachal in order to inform Zeenat that there is a way out to save her husband and that is if Meera singns on a "maafinama", thus forgiving Zeenat's husband. Zeenat is a typical Bharatiyan Nari who does not waste a minute to decide that she will comb the entire Rajasthan to find out Shanker's widow and thus bail out her husband. In comes Mr. Bahurupian, Shreyas Talpade and smartly not only gobbles down Zeenat's bread-butter but also does a disappearing act along with her bag. Hindi film co-incidences return to haunt you when Mr. Bahurupian saves Zeenat at the middle of the night from two stalkers and thus giving back her bag and turning a philanthropist at heart by offering to help her to find Meera. So after scouring the rest of Rajasthan, Zeenat does reach the right village thanks to a magnifying glass held Masterji. Being rebuked by Shaker's parents Zeenat stays back in order to get a chance to meet Meera, which she does soon. Meera's humility completely stupifies Zeenat and she is not able to break the news to Meera though she feels that she is cheating the latter. Twist no.3 comes when Zeenat gets to know that there are just 2 days left to her husband's execution. She finally tells Meera about her husband and Meera is all ready to take revenge by not signing on the "maafinama" and the two sahelis give each other a dose of their previos dialouges learnt from each other. Back home Meera is locked up in a room as she got friendly with Zeenat. The other widow in the family (Meera's grandmother inlaw) comes to her rescue and freeing her asks her to do what her heart wants to do. All of us know by now that Meera has had a change of heart overnight and now its her turn to scan half the Thar desert to find Zeenat at the train station(not to mention the competition she gave to the train engine). So both of the sahelis are milli once again. The last twist is when the makeup-less Gul Panag extends her hand of freedom to Meera from the moving train and Meera obliges (this time she beats the train) adding onto a little bit of extra drama at the closing stage.

The film is shot at exotic locations and had excellent shots of Rajasthan, though at times I feel that it gets a bit overpowering. Though I am no big film citic but I felt that every frame composition has been handled very well. The music by Salim Sulaiman is very well composed and is quite a challenge for a film like this.

Just a closing note for Mr.Kuknoor - " Please try and be behind the camera till the time you get rid of that accent of yours"

The future is Stainless

2006-08-10T01:43:00.000+05:30

Comeon !!! Hurry up guys - I shouted out to Ashutosh and Khushboo trying to register us with the NID portal while Maithili and Sunil were in the process of typing the final text for " Action Objects-Emerging needs for changing lifestyles". Talking about me, I was stationed inbetween them like in a F1 pit stop waiting to transfer the file onto the former computer using an USB drive which reminded me of passing a baton in a relay race back in my school days. With the writeup safely attached and mailed just before the deadline of 11P.M. we gave ourselves a high five each and dispersed hoping that we are one of the 12 teams which make it to the final round based on our writeup.

A week down the line when the results were declared we got to know that only 14 teams had registered, thus validating all 14 teams for the O.P. Jindal Stainless Steel Contest.

So all the team members met the following weekend with executives from Jindal Stainless Steel briefing us about what the entire contest is all about. Faculty co-ordinators Meena Kadri, Praveen Nahar and Dimple Soni then talked about the methodology we are to follow and basic protocols.

After a break, we all met again to collect stationery and then off we were with an exercise quite popular in NID called BRAINSTORMING.

With two hours of intensive brainstorming we listed down possible categories in which we feel that there have been significant change in lifestyles. Some of these are transportation, public spaces, communication, food, education and environment just to mention a few. We chose to work in the field of food, citing problems like food storage, food packaging and leftover food disposal.

In the segment of food we started looking at the problems in the traditional tiffin carrier/box or dabbas as they are known commonly. The problems with the existing one are as follows:

It is difficult to open the frame of the dabba.
The frame/skeleton holding all the containers (4 on an average) occupies a lot of space when opened.
The bottom of each container is greased with the food in the container below it.
Sometimes containers get deformed and thus are a problem to re-assemble after eating.
It is difficult to eat from the containers of the dismantled dabba and a plate to eat on is always preferred.

Based on the following problems, we decided to design a modern tiffin box which

One would be proud to carry.
Where food would remain hot.
One could use as a plate as well, when opened up.
would be compact and occupy least space.
would have just the right volume to contain an average healthy diet so that people dont overeat ( Infact it was ovserved that in the case of the traditonal dabbas, people used to eat more than their diet just inorder to escape from the guilt of wasting excess food).

After a week's work we designed a tiffin box which is dynamic in its formal aspect and leaning at an angle with respect to the ground thus naming it "Obtuso". Obtuso is broken down into an upper and lower chamber, so designed that the upper chamber slides open forming a support for the tiffin to stand on as well. The lid of the upper chamber opens and forms a support with the help of the carrying handle thus making it a surface where an inner container can be taken out and placed on.

Finally, we had to articulate the entire design process in only three A3 sized sheets on which we would be evaluated for the top three awards. A night out followed for the same purpose where all of us sat together and complied our work on three sheets thanks to the help of graphic designers Sunil with Adobe Illustrator and Ashutosh with SketchUp. The output looked crisp, as you can see in the three pictures above.

Though there were still loopholes in our design we were quite happy and satisfied with the effort given an a week's time. Needless to say that we had our fingers crossed when the awards were being announced but sadly had to be consoled by the last slide of the awards presentation - "The future is stainless".

Shubh-arambh

2006-07-12T01:25:00.000+05:30

I dont know why it took me such a long time to begin writing this blog. I didn't know much about the concept of blogging till one of my colleagues introduced me to it. So from thereon i plunged into the world of blogging reading the blogs of Rashmi Bansal, Amit Varma and ofcourse my colleague's, of whom i have been a regular reader till date.

So it was with the advent of one of my closest friend's travel diary blog that i thought that i should also join the bandwagon and make my presence felt on the web..... well that not being the main reason, but there are issues i feel for and about which i wanted to talk about......... not with the intention to make people read it or to be another popular blog but just feeling good about expressing myself.

Well, a little bit of introduction about myself - Born and brought up in Calcutta and not Kolkata, I did my schooling in La-Martiniere for Boys followed by my graduation in Fashion Design and Informtion Technology from NIFT, Calcutta and currently a PG student in National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. A diehard Calcutta fan at heart and a even more ardent patroniser of the streetfood of Calcutta, I just cant stop singing praises about Calcutta, though there are greater mortals in my batch singing day and night about their city being the capital in all possible fields.

Talking about my batch - we are quite a mixed bag of people from all over the country. The eleven of us - from Pune, Bombay, Goa, Yamuna Nagar, Dibrugarh, Manipal, Chandigarh, Benaras and ofcourse Calcutta are possibly one of the best examples of compatibility. It is in their company that i feel proud to be part of the family where i can totally learn and then unlearn without any form of embarrassment where each one of them is a silent teacher to me.

To my batchmates whom i dearly love..... this is for you..... and hopefully all thats more to come will be a lot inspired from you. Godspeed.
A pic from our visit to Diu last year