Bombay Diaries - Day 6

I am so tired, I cant even think.

Significant achievements:
Filmed a roll of film, 3 minutes worth, in a complex way such that it took us 7 hours to complete.

That's significant enough.

Also, had some beer, at Bandra - Toto's, and bumped into dear old Jovan. (Always, always bump into him there, its uncanny).

Bought a big fat map of Mumbai. Bought Time Out to plan our weeks coming up.

Took loads of photos for the 'Found Words' assignment. Will explain this later. It's fun.

Fixed plans to meet the Split boys tomorrow.

Quote for the day:
Nothing like a good night's sleep after a hard day's work.
- Afrin Sopariwala

Song for the day:
umm.... Here we go again - OK Go (Thanks to Priya)

Bombay Diaries - Day 5

The day -

Made an English breakfast - scrambled eggs, with toast and tea, after managing to spill milk all over.
Created a fancy undercover container to hide our camera.
Bought a Nikon D40x camera.
Went to Colaba, fixed location and setting for next shoot.
Got beer.
Saw Star Wars.
Watched football game.

Can't bear to write tonight. But, must blog this. It is 2:20am.
Good night.

oh.

Quote for the day:
Just being yourself, being who you are, is a successful rebellion.
- Unknown.

Song of the day:
Stuck in the middle with you - Grateful Dead

Bombay Diaries - Day 4

Significant achievement:

Discussed 2 dozen experiments about the dematerialization or art, and about conceptual art.

Went to Colaba and lived up to Tuesday Night Beer Drinking Club tradition at Cafe Mondegar.
Took the midnight train home.

Song of the day: Glug glub glug.

Quote for the day:
Beer. Helping ugly people have sex since 3000 BC.
- Unknown

Bombay Diaries - Day 3

Achievement of the day:
Picked Brad from the airport without knowing what flight he was on.
Got back in shape to run on and off local trains (that too general compartment with a firang in tow)

Places visited:
Dadar railway station and adjoining crazy market place
Koolers (Irani Tea Joint With Amazing Chai and Bun Maska)
5 Gardens

Best thing about being in Bombay today:
Pav Bhaji

Song of the day:
Unintended - Muse

Quote for the day:
The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
- Unknown

Bombay Diaries - Day 2

Today is Sunday.

Significant achievements: None

Trivial achievements: Managed to keep parents in a favorable mood. Slept. Lazed.

Song of the day: Wedding Nails - Porcupine Tree

Quote of the day: God gave us a penis and a brain, but not enough blood to use both at the same time.
- Robin Williams

Bombay Diaries - Day 1

Achievement of the day?
Resolving to maintain a Bombay Diary. (and starting it.)
Showing my parents ridiculous videos of us dancing in Hyd, and spending some neat time with them.

Funny post of the day: How to shave your friend's head by Kalhan.

Quote for the day: Love is like an electric blanket with someone else in control of the switch.
- Anonymous.

Bombay Diaries

I've resolved to maintain a daily catalog of my one month (plus) here. It will be archived as um.. Bombay Diaries.

Purpose: To study the success and observe the progress of the one month experiment.

Method: A little note about the significant achievements of the day.
Also, fill up a little survey form.

Achievement of the day-
Quote / song / photo of the day -
Person I missed most today -
New thing learned of the day -

I guess that's enough. Let the games begin.

I wonder what's on my mind

My mind, and yours too (possibly) has so many... layers. Layers, for lack of a better word.

Like ---
The top of my head.
The back of my mind.
The gap in my memory.
The slip of thought.
The bottomless store of memories.
The someone always on my mind. Always.
The in between from where I function.
The... um... fountain (?) of inspiration (not very reliable though)
The space of my dreams.
The comfort of my day dreams.
The black hole of my fears, worries, and stress.
The little treasure of my imagination.
The voices in my head - the good, the bad, and the confused.
The non stop roller coaster of my emotions.
The background of music. Always.

All these facets function together sometimes, and sometimes disjoint, randomly, unexpectedly, without warning. How we deal with them constantly is what I'm wondering about right now. Oh, yea, and this is the layer of fascination and the asker of questions.

Wow.

On the road again

I'm on the road again, in a bus... nearly in Bombay.

The ride's been good. I woke up at around 4:00 am and saw the nearly full moon. We were driving straight into it. It was beautiful.

I'm listening to music. A Million Ways to be Cruel is playing (again) and my jaw just dropped. We went over a bridge and I got my first glimpse of Bombay. Rather, of the grey dull cloud that is Bombay. It's horrific. The smog and smoke that lives clinging to Bombay seems to get worse each time... and I guess the remnants of Diwali is still around...

I'm reading a book. Wikinomics. Wiki is here. And wiki is the future.

While I read, I think about the various instances of wiki I've seen recently. Besides my job - which primarily revolves around Geo Wiki, I've seen loads of wiki.

Like an idea I hd a few weeks back about writing a novel with a few friends with Google Docs. A wiki novel.

And like how Mel told me bout him making music over the internet with his musician friends from Bangalore.

And the music video by Pentragram, which used clips of video shot by their fans who were invited to make their own video for the band.

Wiki is here.

I'm on a holiday for a whole month, and his time mst be fully utilized for a creative explosion. It's now or never, young Afrin, says my head.

I'm going to be working closely with Brad on his project (one that I've very little idea about yet, but am not worried about that.. ) and then I have to work on a project for myself too. Anything I want.

I already know what I want to do, but because I'm superstitious and scared to jinx it, I'll reveal the supercool plan once am sure its really happening. But I'll say that its going to have an element of wikii. Somehow.

I still can't believe I'm on vacation for a month.

Here's what I need to make this vacation perfect: (Yes, another numbered list coming up, sir)

1. My home to myself. With someone looking after everything.
2. An excellent internet connection.
3. No traffic on the roads when I'm out visiting the girls, or drinking with the boys.
4. A weekend riding with the bikers.
5. Three Split gigs and Kalhan visiting.
6. Nice weather, of course.
7. My sister visiting for a weekend, and then going away (hi zoozie)
8. Film / art / music / theatre festivals galore.
9. Bumping into random friends each time I take the local train.
10. A bus ticket to Hyderabad whenever I want?

Ah, well, I guess I cant have everything. But this is a humble enough list. I didn't mention that I want to go to Goa.

My bus is now within city limits. 'Vashi' says the bright blue board. Another 40 minutes to home. Now, I must get back to looking outside the window.

I'm suddenly reminded of my camera. The first time I saw my camera and touched it was on Jaunary 1, 2007, in Bombay. I left for Hyderabad the same day. And came back to Bombay on January 6th, for Michelle's party. I remember being so cautious with my camera. I never took it off from around my neck. I remember seeing and admiring its reflection in the bus window. And I remember the sound of its beautiful mechanism. And the look of awe and admiration of people who saw it.

Anyway, that was just a passing thought. From some corner of my mind.

What follows can be blamed on the brandy and painkillers.

I've got a supreme headache,
and I want to write poetry.
I can't somehow manage,
to make this poem rhyme.

But then, I think, to myself,
why must a poem rhyme?
I will write a poem, anyhow.

It doesn't even have to have,
uniformly sized paragraphs,
or simple, melodic words,
like breeze, and moonlight.

It can be
abrupt.
Absurd.
Silly.
Pointless.

Because! It's my own
sweet little own
poetry.

My headache is better,
because of that brandy and water,
my holiday is near,
and my mind is clear.

And that was to,
demonstrate, and demon state,
That rhyme I can...
make no mistake.

And as I write,
this ridiculous verse,
I hear a voice in my head,
sing out these words...

In a style similar to
the opera of the Italians,
or Russians...
A fat old woman in my head..

Singing. My poem.
In.
My.
Headdd.

A million ways to be cool

I know I still have to complete Neville's tag about a writer's meme, (have had a few interesting thoughts), and also an update about Black Jack Tuesday Night drinking club.

I'm in a bloggy mood today, and have 3 unpublished drafts that are stuck and not going anywhere.

But, instead, I'm going to post a a video, of this super fun song, that we fell in love with, and have been dancing to as often as we feel like. Pretty often, that is.



What we actually do is, play the video on my laptop, and pick a person from the video to be, and we do the exact dance while the video plays. (I'm usually the bald guy.)

It's incredible fun. Here's proof:




This is Sasidhar, Manisha, Priya and me at the super fun farewell-to-our-house party, before we moved out. Mariam - who's always in the dance generally, is missing here, out of her politeness to let Manisha try. (Mariam's the one who discovered the song.)

What the head says to the heart

(I still can't get over my red hair)

Anyway, I'm blogging about something personal today. Relationships.

I haven't had too many, but I'm thinking about all the possible ones that could have been, or the ones that didn't happen, and the one's that I wanted to happen, but couldn't.

Well, as soon as people meet, they instantly share vibes. Of course, over time, these vibes change, they either completely die out or vanish, or change into something magical. And the relationship takes its journey.

There are people who instantly attract you. (God, this is so complicated, coz I'm thinking of something, I'm not sure I'm saying it correct.) Anyhow, so this attraction can be the spark-y kinds (which most often means trouble) or the comfortable kinds.

From my experiences purely, I've known men who're like restless dynamite. They're the wandering, restless souls, who can thrill and can kill. It's exciting at first, but then turns into like going on a crazy drive with a lunatic in a car with no brakes. It's exhausting and emotionally draining, and completely not worth it. But tough to get out of, coz you're addicted. It's a good idea then to take a holiday to a remote mountain or something.

Then there's the fawning, all-adoring kinds. The guys who're terribly sweet, and look after you (all the time). They wont let you take ric by yourself, or will gasp each time you sneeze or trip. It's unhealthy. These kinds of initial vibes never translated in a relationship for me.

There's also the unexpected. Like the classic - friend who's been around, and suddenly you realize you can't do without, and then the love hits. Nice, but rare. Haven't experienced this distinctly, but a close version of it.

And the rarest of all, is the comfort zone. The person who can make your heart flutter, and at the same time, you can and completely can be your most ridiculous self with. Many people have made my heart flutter, but very few have I ever been able to be myself (yes, I'm very ridiculous) with.

Anyway, this is a bit too ... silly and vague, so I'm going to end it here.

Will just say, to complete this difficult thesis, that its possible to be in love with multiple people at the same time... and its OK as long as you're honest about it. And another thing - if someone makes you cry, and knows that he did (or she did - do boys ever cry over girls?), it's a good sign to hit the detach and set free button. That's my rule. One tear for the boy, and I say to myself - damn, he's finished too. What a shame, but a sign I can't ignore too long.

I can't believe I'm publishing this.

And revealing what's been playing in my head and driving me nuts for the past 3 months

It's nearly time. I've been longing to blog about this for ages and ages... but my head wouldn't allow it.

Now, its ok, I think.

I'm off to Bombay this Friday for a Whole Month And A Bit More. Brad Butler from n.o.where is going to be down in Bombay, and is working an interesting experimental art film project (more about this when I know more about this). And I'm going to be working with him. Filming... on 16mm film... in Bombay, on the streets... traveling (hopefully) to a few more cities... and living ze life.

Other things I have to accomplish are as follows:

1. Hang out with Split and get the music album recorded.
2. Teach Brad to speak Hindi and get it to sound like Hindi when he speaks it.
3. Get to know a lot more nooks and corners of Bombay.
4. Not shop too much.
5. Build up on artists' contacts for Ze Future.
6. Take loads of brilliant photos on the new Nikon D40x Brad will buy for our use (wowow!)

And work on my own mini film project - Brad insists I do.

I've noticed I make a lot of numbered lists in my posts. Even for silly things.

But anyway, all this is terribly exciting, and am happy to be going to Bombay in November - December, when the weather is bearable, and Bombay is lit with festivities and art. But, strangely, I'm also a bit sad to be missing winter in Hyderabad, and time with everyone here... (Not to forget a super exciting gig in the outskirts of the city, celebrating Jim Morrison's birthday that I'm going to miss.) Yea, I didn't think I'd ever feel this way, but I'm going to miss Hyderabad, Google, and my life here.

However.

Change is in the air... I can feel it, and very very soon, I'm going to be outdoors more than I've been in the past year and a half stuck indoors at Goooooogle. 'Ere comes the sun. (I hope my now orange hair doesn't get golden in the sun). But what the hell, I'm a 22 year old Googler, going off to work on an experimental film, I guess I can afford to look a little experimental (experiment-gonewrong that is). Wish me luck!

Repost

This blog started off on a brave note. I wrote about fuckbuddies. I expressed myself openly. I used another name to post. And I promised myself that I would post as honestly as I could - without twisting and turning facts to not offend anyone.

That's how it started.

Now, I don't feel like I can honestly blog about what's really on my mind. I can blog about movies, and music, and some place I visited, and some photos I took. I can be noisy and blog about my beer club, and the ridiculous things we do. But, there's a lot I can't blog about.

I can't blog about much about work. (Top Secret Confidential Information I'm continually exposed to... :) )
I can't blog about my love / sex life (if it exists or not). I mean I would if people I knew didn't know this was my blog. etc. etc.
I can't blog about how stupid I really am.

I bought myself a diary last week. For 2008. I've never had a diary before. But this blog... is now... external.

Nice, in its own way. But nothing more than a put-up presentable self. Hello.

New Energy

Wow... It's 1:11am on a Monday (morning) and I was just about to hit the sack, when I got hit by this sudden energy and need to blog. It's a good thing that my Internet is back on since yesterday, so, it's good timing.

Anyway, its been a great weekend - 4 whole days off, with nothing to do, but laze. I shopped. Walked. Watched movies. Hung out, and hung in. Danced. Excellent stuff.

I've been tagged by Neville. Never been tagged before, so not quite sure of the etiquette and suchlike, but it seems interesting. I have to write, from what I understand, about writing... and what makes a good writer, etc. Philosophical ideas and balderdash. And its good, coz I haven't done any philosophical thinking ever since my dear friend Nanga Swamy extracted himself from our lives, and ran off to do his PhD in philosophy.

Anyway, the blogging energy is quickly being replaced by an urgent need to sleep, and so I'm going to sign off with a list of movies I managed to hit this weekend:

1. The Usual Suspects.
2. Om Shanti Om.
3. You got served.
4. The Last of the Mohicans.
5. Tom Jones.
6. Big Fish.
7. Napoleon Dynamite.

* Incomplete films we tried to watch and couldn't finish due to falling asleep were: Taxi Driver (wrong timing) and Closely Watched Trains (same reason as previous).

Alright, goodnight.

Colours and lights

I have absolutely nothing to blog about. I've been spending long hours on the phone (and my internet has been disconnected for the past one week) and I've moved out of my sweet house, and I've coloured my hair red.

Besides all this, life has been perfect, as someone mentioned yesterday. I was cribbing about having nothing to blog about, and he said that was because life was now... more perfect.

Strange, but looks like I only have interesting things to say when life is not perfect... or is rocky, and lonely, and frustrating, and difficult. Well, am sure this state of perfectness ( I know there is no such word) wont last forever.

I have colored my hair red. Unfortunately, it's not red anymore. And is turning into various shades of - orange, pink, blond, and other such unflattering colours, especially in daytime lights.

Here's what it looked like on the day it got coloured... I can only console myself by imagining it still looks this way.

Anyway, a nice long weekend is due... Happy Diwali.