Bombay Diaries - Day 21

Today was interesting. (That seems to be everyone's favorite word these days. Interesting.)

We wanted to go up North Bombay today. Really north to the suburbs, and we got onto a train and went all the way up to the end of the line. 40 kms from home. Got a rickshaw, and he took us around to the beach some 10 km away, and we filmed at a lovely little village around there. It was amazing to get such a nice peaceful reaction from the villagers. They looked, but just let us be. Didn't crowd around or ask silly questions.

After that, we stopped at the some salt pans, and were going about our business peacefully, when a nosy busybody came over and asked us silly questions. In a very annoyingly arrogant manner. We really couldn't understand what could possibly be bothering him, and when Brad firmly expressed that he wasn't going to back off, this chap backed off, and shuffled off.

After that, we came back home, rested and then set off for a nice social evening where we met Brad's friends who've just flown into India, and are heading off on a rather unplanned holiday in the south of India. I was quite concerned about them - just imagining them having to manage so much alone! But I guess that's that part about being a tourist, and well, they'll manage I know. We had a nice Indian dinner. (veg)

We also met another couple of friends who're Bombay based filmmakers. Had an interesting couple of beers, before we left to catch the last train to leave Churchgate. 12:50am.

Which brings our grand total of kilometers travelled today to: 170km.

Fantastico.

Tomorrow is weekend. Seems packed. Breakfast date. Lunch date. Post lunch date. And evening concert at Bandra to attend. (Garreth's first ever solo performance.)

Quote for the day - He had a really bad vocabulary.

Nigel, while describing someone's poor singing skills. Not enlightening in the least, this quote, however, it will serve to provide me with a laugh some 3 years hence. Thank you for your co-operation.

Bombay Diaries - Day 20

Dull day. We seemed to have been hit by blues and lows... Guess all that beer, and high energy of the past 2 weeks had to dip for a bit. I feel miserable and sluggy.

Anyway, didn't really get much work done, some errands and a couple of shots.

Discovered the lovely Universal Cafe at Fort. Stuffed ourselves with sizzlers and then went to the in-the-closet DVD shop we visit... I found the long loved and looked for Oliver! and we bought a few more DVDs.

Christmas plan looks like a day-in with back to back movies - Lord of the Rings, and more. Possibly Sholay. Glad the weekend's nearly here.

Anyway, that's all folks.

Bombay Diaries - Day 19

Day nineteen!?

Today, after waking up late again (strangely, I'm not enjoying these odd hours of sleeping and waking - it's quite horrid to wake up at nearly noon and find half your day gone), I lazed about some more, and then found that Shammi (exboyfriend) was visiting. Had been hoping to buy some weed off him, and also rope him into a performance based experiment we want to shoot. Was nice to see him again, after ages.

After that we went to Bombay's best bookstore - Landmark - and bought books. I bought 2 Haruki Murakami s and 1 Terry Pratchett book. Very nice feeling... and oh boy, what a great bookstore + movies + music. It's hard to resist buying everything.

Our shoot for the day was at Andheri Railway Station, at 7:00 pm. It took us exactly 5 minutes to finish. I had to look out for cops, and read a newspaper, trying to hide Brad while he shot off the railway bridge. Was glad to have this shoot finished off, we'd been talking about it for ages.

Finally, the exciting part of the evening was heading off to Blue Frog's opening night.

Blue Frog is the company Mel works for. It's a -
1. Record Label
2. Recording Studio
3. Production House
4. Club

The club opened tonight, and they've promised to have a live act every single night. No easy feat, that. Mel was there of course, and so was Kalhan, a crazy kid who's doing a month long internship with Blue Frog.

Hmm. Nice place, this club. Fancy decor. Really fancy. Expensive bar. Big nice performance area. Funky video screens overhead. Nice wooden roof beams. And boy, the crowd tonight - utterly the really rich. So many hot women! And the regular rich people. I couldn't help but want to eavsdrop on their conversations, and keep looking around at them. So many of them. A whole different breed, these rich humans.

There were two live acts. Chromosome i (jazz band I could take about 10.2 minutes of) and Shaa'ir and Funk.

Hot chick she was, Shaa'ir. But, still all together quite too much upper class for me to deal with. We left, and caught the latest local train I've ever taken. (1.06 am).

Quote for the day from a song of the minute -
I don't want to sit across the table from you wishing I could run. -- Love you madly by Cake.

Bombay Diaries - Day 18

Short day. Woke up terribly sleepy, due to the fact that I was up blogging at 3:00 am, like I am right now.

Brad's second session of pin hole camera experiments (conducted while I was away biking) proved to be much more successful. We only got around 12 photos out of 2 whole rolls of film, but a few of them are amazing. I really am thoroughly thrilled about having discovered this, and will take it up full time. Pinhole photography. And my camera is really a matchbox.

We filmed a bit at Bombay Central station, and had a disastrously junk-foody breakfast and lunch. I think I'm getting fat.

Then found that we had nothing to do all evening, and decided to rent films and watch some. Shamefully, couldnt find a decent place to rent films - all we really wanted to do was see the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and it proved impossible to get a nice copy of any of the films. I was sad, but then... there was beer, and we finally watched Star Wars. That was complete fun.

We saw two movies (The Last Hope, and The Empire Strikes Back) back to back, but then, the beer got the better of us and I fell asleep in towards the end of the the second film. Woke up some 45 minutes later, and decided it was time to go to bed. And then of course, came online.

Cool thing to learn for the day: About Lighthouses.

Bombay Diaries - Day 17

Today was a great day. Successful shoots, one that I was quite worried about.

We filmed, undercover, in a train. As easy as it may sound, its not easy to hide a camera, in a bag and place it in a train where people are always expecting a bomb in any bag unattended. You can hide the camera, but the lens is always pointing somewhere.

But, well, we succeeded. We were nervous the whole trip and had to plan it very carefully. I had a dozen stories ready on my lips if anyone pointed out the camera or made a noise.

The most interesting part was, that we were sure that at least 2 people looked directly into the lens, and of course, probably recognized it to be a camera. But didn't say a thing. I guess it's not easy for someone to make a noise and as Brad put it - break social conventions. Thank God.

We had a celebratory fancy dinner in a really nice restaurant in Bandra. Silly love songs, beer, a Goa type setting, and excellent food. Place called Out of the Blue.

We still had some late night filming to do. And this time, Brad let me shoot. Was an interesting experiment, though its not right for me to describe it online. We also got shooed at by a cinema guard who thought we were filming his cinema and I easily lied and told him that the camera was not even running. Its strange what being a film maker requires you to do, to get your content.

But I have to keep making up stories. Like, when asked why we were randomly filming a inconsequential little lane in the middle of the night, I had to say that Brad was teaching me to use the camera. They still didn't think we were perfectly sane, but didn't ask us any more questions.

Nice day. So far, my favourite rolls of film filmed.

Bombay Diaries - Day 16

Monday, back from the ride, and have to be ready to hit work. Brad had picked up the pin-hole camera film rolls yesterday, but the results of our first trial experiment were not very exciting. Mine had some images, but there was a fair bit going really off exposure. More experiments due soon.

We had a heavy day of shoot planned. The hexagon shoot. Six locations. Picked off a map. In the shape of a hexagon.

Was interesting, loads of reactions / interactions with people on the street. I had to make up all kinds of stories - we're doing a location shoot for a TV serial, news, etc. At this one place, an old lady who lived in the tiny gulley where we were shooting asked me what we were doing, and I had to explain to her that we were doing a location shoot for a TV serial, and that if my boss liked these pictures, we would shoot a TV serial session there. She got so thrilled that I felt almost guilty. She went around happily yelping to anyone who'd listen - shooting hai, shooting hai.. and something about Shah Rukh Khan coming over! I just had to smile and politely accept the glass of water she gave me, secretly praying that it was safe to drink.

Its also been fun to be back on the streets, eating vada pav and anything I can find, whenever I want. That's something I've really missed in hyd.

Oh, at one of the points we filmed at, a young kid, the witty / cocky kinds, kept walking bravely in and out of the camera frame, but also dismissed us with a casual - arrey, who cares what they're shooting, someone or the other is always shooting something.

Was fun. Then went to a fancy mall and blew up money. I'm really shamefully impulsive.

Bombay Diaries - Day 14 & Day 15 -Travel Log

Woohooo. Am back from the ride. My internet had conked off, so I wasn't able to get online the past 3 days. But I can still adjust my blog post settings to pretend that I blogged on time. Weird, like playing games with time.

Anyway. Garreth, Edwin and I met up at 6:30am on Friday morning, and pulled out Outlook's 52 Weekend Getaways and looked it over. Finally, Edwin mentioned that he's been meaning to go to Murud-Janjira for a long while. Looked at it, pictures looked amazing (a gorgeous blue sea beach, with a fort in the sea!) and we set off.

The ride was amazing. I felt so liberated to be on the bike again, clear blue sky, and wind keeping us cool. I took a zillion pictures while we were riding. It was quite nostalgic too, coz it was the same route Gary and I had taken last June when we rode down to Goa.

Reached Kashid at noon, grabbed hammocks, coconut water, and plonked for a rest. Kashid is a sweet little beach a little further south of Alibaug, on the coastal highway in the konkan area of Maharashtra. Murud-Janjira are some 25 km further south of Kashid.

We checked in at The Shacks, and went off to lunch at the highly recommended Patil's Khanaval. For fish and beer. And meowing cats. It was great to eat fish after ages of being in the un-fish-friendly Hyderabad.

The evening we tried to visit the fort, but were too late, and so rode around to the top of a hill, climbed up and saw the sun set. After that, we rode into the little village /town, bought random things like soap, toothpaste, and a pack of cards, and of course, a whole assortment of beer. Played cards (rummy) until dinner time.

After a nice sea side dinner, where Edwin tried his best to scare me with 'supernatural' stories, lucky Garreth was around with his obvious scorn for anything unnatural, I absolutely insisted we go for a walk.

And this is when.. it began.

The uncanny resemblance to a Famous Five setting, straight out of Enid Blyton's book.

A beach (with dogs). 2 island forts. 2 glorious lighthouses.

Let me describe the scene. Jal Jeera (now called Janjira) was a fort build by Africans, and is called the unconquered fort, because Shivaji (or anyone) never managed to capture it. But, on an island nearby, Shivaji's son built another replicate fort (which is now quite in tatters.)

So this Shivaji's son's fort, is restricted. Used by the government for no body knows what.
Garreth said he was sure the ministers used it to have sex whenever the wanted to. But I was happier imagining some secret undercover operations, which hopefully involved pulling treasure out of the sea.

Ya, so that was Enid Blyton enough, and then we saw the fantastically strong light beam of the lighthouses. Sweeping across the sea. Wow, stunning. We were so mesmerized, and marveled at how it worked. Finally, Edwin pulled out his fancy phone and we Googled it and read about lighthouses and their fascinating source of light. The most interesting fact was that there are only about 1500 functioning lighthouses left in the world, and there there were two, right in front of us. And the stars on the crazy black velvet night were stunning. Except for the fact that there was no moon and Edwin kept trying to scare me.

We got back, played more rummy and drank more beer. And woke up the next day and headed off to see the fort. Took a sweet sailboat, on which we were seduced by the sailor(?) to take him on as guide and be toured around the fort. Nice job. Nice fort. Pics here.

Ride back was nice. Cool, airy, and ass soring. But totally worth it.

Think that

This is a ‘heavy’ moment. Emotional, I mean. I’m just back from a wedding. I’m slightly high on whisky. I’ve met Mel today, for the first time, since being in Bombay for nearly 2 weeks. I can’t comprehend my immense love and admiration for him. I’m listening to Pink Floyd. And I was nearly in tears a minute back with a terrific ache for my beloved lost camera. What did I do to deserve to lose it? And how much longer do I have to wait to get a new camera?

Coming back to life.

The past 2 days, it has slowly dawned on me, have been full of conversations and exposures that are giving me a great insight and direction about what I should be doing with my life.

When I’m talking to Brad about what his life and work is like in London, it seems to me, that it would be so difficult to replicate and create that energy and work and interest and circuit here, in India or Bombay even. Of concepts and intellectual spaces and arts revolving around them.

But yesterday, in one of our conversations, Brad said something, that shook me, and hit me, as I mentioned before, a pure moment of truth. About only me, but still.

He was telling me stories about New York and a music concert he’d attended, and people he knew, and I said that I was so frustrated about how much I was missing out… my life here seems so … pointless and vacant. And Brad said, ‘You could be in New York, and still missing it all out. It’s not easy to know what’s happening, even about things that interest you.’

And I wondered, but I realized it’s true. There’s so much probably happening, that I don’t have the remotest idea about. And things that I would probably love to be aware of, but am not.

When Brad was talking to the boys a couple of days ago, when we went out drinking, he told them, that it was important for them to have a strategy. To get them to where they wanted to. He said it was terribly important that people know that they performed somewhere, rather than people attending the shows. It’s all about the buzz and the talk. That’s the only way to gather around you an energy of people who like and admire and are interested in what you do.

It makes sense.

I’m still terribly vague in my head about where I really want to go.

But, to complete this interesting progression in my mind, this revealing circle of ideas and moments of pure truth - today, at the wedding I met someone who sort of gave me a complete spark to confirm what I’m thinking really makes sense.

Anuja Ghosalkar. Known her since my college days with being president of the film club. She teaches the film course at a college in Bombay, and along with that, has worked on quite a few research papers about film (its history, etc) and is now curating festivals, and incidentally mentioned experimental and conceptual art, which is so close to what I’ve been exposed to through Brad, that it was amazing to hear it from someone in Bombay, and based in Bombay.

We spoke a bit, and she was thoroughly kicked about Google Maps, and its super potential.

I’m glad another person agrees that Google is a great place for me to be right now, and my time with film will come, and this time with Google, will prove (possibly, and hopefully) to give me an interesting road to film, eventually.

I’m game for that.

Anyway, Pink Floyd is so calming now, and I have a early morning bike ride to be ready for.

Nice. We still don’t know where we’re riding to. Will be referring to a road guide in the morning, and then decide which way we want to steer towards. Sounds right, that does. Pretty much the way I go through life.

Bombay Diaries - Day 13

Well, today was light shoot day. We woke late, after the late night shoot last night, I had some errands to do, and to plan out my evening – wedding to attend, and two day vacation biking.

We were to head off to Worli to film by the sea, but instead landed up following an incredibly large number of people walking to Shivaji Park to celebrate the 51^st death anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar. Such a fantastic, peaceful mass of thousands of people. We filmed a whole roll there.

Finally, headed back to Andheri, grabbed greasy MacDonalds burgers, and then came home to allow me to ‘beautify’ myself, as Brad put it. Found that my ancient desktop’s monitor’s blown off. Either really the monitor, or its power supply. I wont know for a couple of days now what things are like.

Anyway, glad for the break. Now, time for bed. Riding tomorrow!

PS: Wedding was great. Met the boys, and Michelle, and Simrat, finally. There wasn't any alcohol served at the wedding, so we bought some and mixed it under the table. Was fun, coz we tried to keep it as secret at possible, and then were silly enough to give it away by loudly clinking cheers all together. I wore a skirt.

Bombay Diaries - Day 12

I really don't feel like blogging tonight. But, forcing 3 lines.

We saw Beowulf.
Did loads of errands.
Am going riding with some friends to Udvada on Friday - Saturday.

Quote for the day - None.

Bombay Diaries - Day 11

Its 3:00 am. I'm intoxicated.

We went to Chor bazaar today. I shot a whole film roll on my pin hole camera. Completely looking forward to the results of that.

That took nearly all day - buying postcards at chor bazaar, and pin hole photography. Finally, back home, and then left for the long journey to the outskirts of Bombay - Thane, for band practice.

It was great to see the boys again, and go out drinking and cursing with them. Mel didn't make it though, Blue Frog keeps him busy. Split is great- loads of new music, and the crazy spirit going strong.

And then we filmed some on the streets between 1:30 am to 2:30 am.

Good night.

Bombay Diaries - Day 10

Week 2!
Today was fun. We had to stalk cops. Take photos of cops on the round, obviously without them knowing. Have never done anything of the sort, and it was fun... would have been easy, if we didn't stand out so much. Brad, for being white. And me, with red hair and wide hat, and a fancy looking digi cam dangling around my neck.

Well, we got roasted in the really hot Bandra sun all afternoon, but it was superfun. We took turns following the cops, and while one was photographing, the other would follow a bit way off. Our cops, we discovered, don't step out too much. They step out of their stations, to do one of the following tasks:
1. buy paan.
2. buy newspapers.
3. take a bus home.
4. buy wada pav.
5. stop at their local fruit seller and gossip.
6. wave at random passers-by.
And then go back inside. No beat-walk. No checks. Anyway, it wasn't like there weren't any cops. They were just lazy, and chilled out.

Also experimented with pin hole camera. This is what it looks like:


And this is what it took to make them (we made two):


Disaster of the day:
Brad dropped the camera. The new Nikon D40x. When I picked it up and looked, my heart nearly stopped. Glass pieces, splinters. But, only the external filter we'd fixed was broken. Lucky we'd fixed it. The camera is ok.

Persons I missed today -
Karen Mirza of no.w.here.
And Mr. Poopoo.

Quote for the day:
Sex, without love, is an empty gesture. But, as empty gestures go, it is one of the best.
- Woody Allen.

Song for the day:
Promiscuous Girl - Nelly Furtado. Yea.

Bombay Diaries - Day 9

Day nine. Sunday. My day off, but barely any progress, socially.

Started off lazy enough, with two plans to meet girlfriends, that just didn't work out, and after that decided to head off to Bandra to buy tickets for the night show of Beowulf.

Enter Agent N, who insists that I'm stupid if i don't buy tickets online, and I buy his argument, and buy tickets online. Of course, after I've paid for the tickets, I realize that they aren't good seats, and aren't at a good time, and not at a cinema I'm keen to go to. I feel really stupid. Feeling utterly frustrated, I head out for some urgent errands, still contemplating if I should forgo these tickets and try and book the Bandra cinema. But, then, I cool off, and decide to go for this show anyway.

Head back home, realize we have to be at the cinema in half an hour. The journey would usually take 40 minutes. I despair again, and rush Brad to get ready, rush the rickshaw to get us there, and when we arrive, (around 7 minutes late) and I try to get the tickets I've paid for online already, I am told that there are no tickets for me. 5 minutes of oh this can't be happening, and I finally heed to the little voice in my head that says, I think we're at the wrong cinema. Correct, little voice in my head. We were at the wrong 'Cinemax'.

The moment of misery stretched. We decided we should go back home. Suddenly, felt better. Realized there was so much to do, and we felt like we had an unexpected free evening. Went to my favourite local shady bar, and then went home to work on project Pin Hole Camera.

After gathering all our material: beer can (really), matchbox, film, black electrical tape, and sand paper, we were ready to go.

We started at 10:00 and were finished by 1:30 am. Two beautiful, incredible pin hole cameras. Photos soon. Packed week ahead.

Quote for the day:
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
- Howard Aiken

Bombay Diaries - Day 8

Saturday. Day off.

Dear old Krishnaswamy was in town, and could manage to meet me for lunch. So, it was up to me to decide where we'd go.

I looked up Google Maps and picked out Tamba Handi (just because the name was interesting) and I thought I knew the way. One hour in traffic, and we were still in the rics. Brad and I, without breakfast, and Nangaswamy chattering on about philosophy and art.

I was losing hope, and feeling miserable about Google Maps letting me down, but after a phone call to a friend who lived nearby, and another 15 minute detour, we found the place.

It wasnt what I expected, full of noisy teenage kids smoking hookah and causing a huge ruckus. But, we had a nice time. Brad and Swamy got along capital. With their Brit accents, and me giggling at them.

After that, the agenda for us was to head to Chor bazaar again (we still have some unfinished business) and then go to Bandra for an interesting project by some Indian artist friends' of Brad.
Swamy joined us at Chor Bazaar. We looked up a crammed up store with all kinds of trinkets. Looking for post cards. Old used ones. Found some.. Rs 175 each!

But, oh God, what an wierd experience, reading those post cards. From people around the world, writing to their friends in India. 1914! 1922! Love letters, and the words themselves took you back a century. I was most affected when I read a post card addressed to someone in St. Xavier's College Bombay. Calligraphic script. Talking about pot, and girls! In 1922. And the street where St. Xavier's College now it, wasn't even called what it is now. It had a real snazzy name...

We'll be going back next week for the post cards. Who would think a post card you write today will cost someone probably Rs 500 in 50 years.

Anyway, Swamy soon left, and we wandered around in the Bombay Central area, taking photos and recording street sounds. And then head off to Carter Road, Bandra, for the interesting project.

It was really neat. A kiosk put up on Carter Road, with a touch screen monitor. The kiosk had also, a control board, with gave wireless signals to light switches to around 10 points on the streets. For example, the window to someone's house in the building 50 feet away. And the light in that window would turn on and off - controlled by someone touching that touchscreen monitor. Also, videos and photos of those points, and a mic and radio connecting sound. A bit complicated to explain at 3:00 am, but wooo... new engaging experiments by Indian Artists. Excellent.

Finally, we went to dinner to another restaurant I've never tired but just looked interesting - Grill and Toss, off Carter Road.

And then, back home, for pin hole photography preparation, and a few brilliant rounds of poker and beer. And Jim Morrison.

Quote for the day?

The commonest mistake in history is underestimating your opponent; it happens at the poker table all the time. ~David Shoup

Your best chance to get a Royal Flush in a casino is in the bathroom. ~V.P. Pappy

Bombay Diaries - Day 7

Today was a mixed day. Went off to Chor Bazaar (late -thanks to me) and then realized it was Friday, and everything would be nearly shut. But, still we went ahead and went there, and found that there was a special market on. The regular shops were shut, and these crazy sellers had spread their wares in front of these shops, on the ground, of the already very narrow lanes. Chor bazaar is crazy. Always.
They were selling the oddest bunch of things. Old, unusable bits of film, rusty paintbrushes, stolen Nokia phone chargers, stolen car radios, dusty lanterns, and everything else since the time of the Flintstones.

Then we went off to Colaba (again) and met up with my photography professor, David DSouza, who I hadn't met in years. We spoke to him about a couple of experiments we have in mind, one of them involving a pin hole camera. He showed us an excellent example of a pin hole camera, made out of a matchbox. We're hoping to work that one out.

After that, off to Bandra to look up a place to rent for Brad. At Pali Hill. Nice posh place, where the landlady did a good job of trying to seduce us with stories of all the interesting art she's seen in the past few months around the world. I occupied myself with the enjoyable company of a miniature pincher called, incidentally, Titty.

We then extracted ourself from that elocution, and walked down to Pot Pourri, and indulged in a nice dinner, at the hip and exciting Pali Hill.

Finally back home, hit the wine shop for some beer (Haywards Black after ages) and then watched a really cool Brit movie from the 60s called Withnail and I. Really funny.

Now, good night.

Song of the post - Love Buzz - Nirvana. Because its playing now.

Quote of the day - A child is like a flower man, his head is just floating in the breeze.
- Jim Morrison