The Grand Finale

Looks like the grand finale is around the corner and the spectators are mildly aware of the scenario. Sony PIX seems to be big on the event and is broadcasting 2012 movie on the 21-12-12 at 12:00 am.  NASA reports that if not the end of the world, due to Nibiru, a black out from 21^st to the 24^th December 2012 is assured. And furthermore, 17^th December; that is today is said to experience no night. Which simply means; we’ll be witnessing sunshine for 24 hours. Is all this inevitable? Most probably so. But what if it is just a matter of time? What are we going to do with our last few days and hours on earth?

The telephone lines are bound to be down, and electricity is a doubt; so calling loved ones is not an option. And if we are faced with the END, wouldn’t you want to make sure that your messages are expressed to the people important to you? It would also be the best time to talk it out, sort out differences and leave with closure. But most of all, we need to be prepared. Not in the way like charge your batteries, fortify your catastrophe cellar and backup your energy with canned foods. More like be prepared for the fall, and brace yourself in case it might just happen.

I, for example, am hoping to get an iota of the action and be a part of the survival, just so that I have something adventurous to say about my life when I grow old. To be a part of history, (if life exists after it), and make a heroic bibliography. Nothing big, maybe a flood or earthquake, whatever fate deems fit. When I voice out this agenda, my mom says it’s better to be a part and die than to stay and have one or both legs taken away or my eyesight blocked for eternity. That makes sense. And there’s no point in fasting and praying that it does not end. Because if it is meant to be, it will be.

Renewal is a part of life. We see it in nature, when the snakes shed; we see the forests burnt down to give better growth. So why can’t earth do something for herself after all those years of destruction we’ve caused it. It’s almost similar to formatting the PC. Sorry for the comparison; and it is pretty sure that life will begin again, and when we see ourselves in comparison with the entire universe, our life is not even molecular. Even after seeing the bigger picture behind the predictions, man is man himself and does not pause to think about nature. Bank statements, new customer policies, product launches and movie openings are arranged and decked for another year ahead. So why should nature pause to think about us, the greedy pigs?

The point I’m trying to bring home is that, the end or not, brace yourself for it. Say goodbyes, take a moment to look through the materials and stick by your loved ones on the destined day. The grand finale inches closer and even though it might not happen it’s good to say we’ve lived in that time, signed our name and moved on into the future.

Film Making for Promising Kids

While the country was immersed over the strike for the hike in petrol prices, I was among a bunch of creative heads, doing something unrelated altogether … so where was I? I was at Promise Personality Development Centre for Children at Pimple Saudagar, Pune to deliver a workshop on film making along with my friend Krithika Krishnan to the little ones. Though I had my own doubts on our performance and our ability to rejuvenate the class, I must say I had a fantastic time with the kids of Promise.

            We both entered into the centre and were immediately received with smiles and polite greetings. I saw that drawings of the children were plastered over the walls and that made me dive into my own pool of childhood memories. Back in US where I did my schooling, everything that we drew, created, and wrote would be displayed in the corridor, proudly boasting the work of growing minds. The other side of this coin was what it added to the children. If it weren’t for someone encouraging my scribbles and believing in me back then, I would’ve never gotten so far now. And that was all I wanted to do at this workshop. I just wanted to believe in them, and whatever fantasies they were conjuring in their minds. ‘Last exciting workshop – Film Making’ was sketched onto their white board and I honestly hoped I lived up to that expectation.

            When we started off with a power point presentation, approximately 25 eyes stared at me. Out of that, 20 were those of little ones, wide with awe and innocence. We went according to plan; Krithika briefing the technical, history, parts and genres of films. I tried breaking that down into things they can relate with, things that would make it easier for them to understand what we learnt just a year back. I think I won over Ronak when I explained about the Dark Night Trailer; the lad who was a statue before nodded his head and zeal filled into his eyes.  I don’t know if it worked, for some of them I was not able to win over…talk about strong personality! But by the end of the presentation in 45 minutes, majority of them were charged up and ready for the activity. The children were going to pick out a concept, write a script, conduct auditions, direct it, edit it and cherish the film as their first movie making experience ever. I feel good saying it right now also! I won’t get into how we executed it, for we did just fine. I could however like to share my views on the workshop.

What makes these kids so adorable is that they are modest, but filled with talent. I remember myself saying to my little script-writer Renuka: ‘your concept is say an apple… you have to make it into a script. It can be a green apple, a red one… but not a-’ ‘orange?’ came the answer. I laughed silently inside for she grasped. When defining the one liner with Finding Nemo example, Kush stood up confidently and impressed us with his one liner, suddenly making filming seem like a cake walk. Madhur took our autographs and that was my third one for the day, in my life. It made me glow inside all the while. All the kids were amazing, though I’m not able to recall their names, I mean it when I say they were little angels who certainly made my day!! What an experience to teach kids, knowing that you are putting something into their heads at least for a few hours, knowing that you’re changing something in them!  Does this mean I want to become a teacher? Don’t know… does this mean the workshop is going to turn them into film makers? Don’t know… but do I want to look back on this day after many years and be glad I took this opportunity to believe in them? YES!! 

Herds of Sheep- Answers to Practices

The human race is by definition like a herd of sheep. Someone says it and the someone believes it... and before even you know it, it is a fact. There are a few pages from history that I've read a long time a ago, which speak about the things we're still practicing without knowing the actual need for it. I'm not sure if you would know either but its interesting to look back into our ancestry, so here it goes.
                        Polygamy is practiced even today, and some of us thunk it's unethical. But do you know how it began? During the times when we were at war with empires, the soldiers used to lay down their lives without second thought of family. The widowed women were left with the burden of finance, upbringing and other such matters. To remove those problems, men would take the widows as their wives into their homes and support them. The relation would be termed as the wife, whereas the true reason was something else. Now a days however the reason has changed and polygamy is looked as a way to avoid marriage fall outs due to divorce.
                        I guess we all might have noticed this on the roads while driving or else where. Do the words 'O.K' behind heavy duty vehicles sound familiar? Wait, its mostly accompanied by the words 'sound-horn, sound- please'. The reason is that in those days when the British were the rulers here, our heavy vehicles used to run on kerosene. And to let it be known that only kerosene should be filled in it, the words 'on kerosene' were  painted as 'O.K'. But over the course of time that changed but the words remain till date!
                         The anklet is an ornament that the Indian women wear so often especially in the rural areas... but this has a hidden meaning to it. Back in the days when women were considered assets to the man, she was given no freedom and was constantly under observation. She was restricted to the household and nothing beyond. If a girl was to disobey and leave at any time of the day, the bell son the anklet would denote her presence and the men would track her down and ring her back. It was almost like she was a prisoner with a fancy chain that kept her down. Halfway through the transition the reason was buried and it became a normal ornament. And now is a fashion quotient!
                              These are just a few things that intrigued me but there's so many reasons out there. Start questioning and you'll see what I mean!

Nursery Rhymes- Decoded Messages

We have all gone through that phase of life when nursery rhymes were so dear to us and every time we finished learning one, we felt like we had accomplished something. They were the only mountains in our kindergarten classes we had to climb. Nursery rhymes have been recited all over the world by children and hence handed down  by the word of mouth. They play an important role in introducing the child to the tools of the language.
Rhymes like the Itsy-Bitsy spider teach the child hand-eye so-ordination or multi-tasking. Even our favorite 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' is used to relate the sounds to the right animal. But did you know that Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle little star both had the same tune? Well, that's not all that's hidden.
                  Nursery Rhymes are forms of coded messages of the political events and historic eras. Some of them take a gruesome turn such as the simple Jack and Jill. Originally Jack is colloquial for King Louis who was beheaded in the ancient ages. This is symbolized in the poem by "lost his crown". His Queen is said to have followed the same fate and so does the poem go. "Came tumbling after". Ring a Ring a Roses preserves the memory of the great plague of England that lashed out many lives. The roses or posies were held under the person's nose to prevent them from catching the plague. 'A tishew' refers to sneezing or that the person has already got the plague. And soon afterwards?... we all know how it ends...'We all fall down' (fall down dead that is).
                   Similarly, Humpty Dumpty, London Bridge all have tragic histories behind them. Yet we teach our innocent children such complex and negative rhymes without realizing what we're putting into their head. Is it right? Well, i'll let you decide on that.

Chocolate- The Nectar for the Gods

Chocolate fan? I mean hard-core chocolate lover who loves everything from shampoo to coins coated in chocolate? Then you’ve got to read this! Let’s see how well you know about the one thing other than money that makes this world go around.

 If you’re a chocoholic then wouldn’t you love a world made of chocolate? Keeping aside the craze for it in today’s era, did you know that there was a time when chocolate overruled money itself? It all began when the Mayan’s stumbled upon xocolatl, which means bitter drink or otherwise known as the “Nectar for the Gods” The cocoa beans were even used as currency in Latin America till the 19^th century. Imagine if you had to buy a shirt and give away just seven coca beans for the trade…quite valuable right? Maybe too valuable for some clever person came up with the idea of counterfeiting the beans from clay (Seems like frauds learnt before repeating history with fake notes from paper today). It was also used in religious rituals often taking the place of blood for the God of Chocolate (chocoholics get ready to patronize)…Qnetzalcot’l. And it just didn’t stop there.

In marriage ceremonies, chocolate was exchanged between the bride and the groom, an old fashioned form of dowry now-a-days. How I wish that was the case now?! After that, the Aztec conquered the Mayans and found a way to make money from the cocoa beans. They imposed tax on the plantations and preferred the drink cold. Since then, only the rich would drink chocolate in golden goblets. It became a status symbol soon after that as only the Gods were deemed fit to drink Chocolate. The Aztec emperors would be buried with jars and jars of chocolate as it was clearly the treasure that they wanted to take along with them to the other side. Eras rolled and the Cortez conquered the Aztec. At the same time they captured the Caribbean islands. And on that island was sugar.

            Then man did what he does best, he mixed the two and voila!- the first solid chocolate was born! Then they started molding it into different shapes and then those pretty shiny wrappers came and caught everyone’s eye. In Spain it was used to cure fevers, for digestion and as a pain reliever… the person just had to know which chocolate to use that’s all and it became a wonder drug. Now the whole world is so crazy behind it that a 100 year old bar of chocolate was auctioned off in France for 470 franks! Diamonds are named after chocolate; movies are made where the sole star is chocolate. And check this out- A Palestinian was poisoned with Belgian chocolate. What a great way to die right? Sigh. Chocolate. No I mean seriously, the chocolate that quivers your taste buds. Say whatever…other things are just food. But chocolate is a standard of its own… its CHOCOLATE!

FTII's Theatre Production- Faisla

On the 17th and 18th of this month, The Film and Television Institute of India's (FTII's) acting batch of 2009 put up a wonderful play within their vast campus. The show "Faisla" was adapted from Reginald Roses's Twelve Angry Men and the Hindi adaptation was done by Ravi Kiran Shastri. The Final Theater Production, directed by Arvind Pandey who has done more than a dozen plays so far, directed this Final Theatre Production, as his second in FTII.   The cast of 10 characters were different for both the days and splendidly delivered.
                 I went to watch the play on the last day for the last show at 7:30 pm. Seeing the crowd that the show had gathered I awaited patiently to get into the Main Theatre. The play began with a voice over about a trial of a young boy who was convicted guilty and that a jury of 10 were to decide the fate of the lad. Every juror was of a different character, impersonating the different personalities in our daily lives. Votes are taken for the boy to be guilty in the case, and all but one juror, differ in opinion. He highlights the concept of Reasonable doubt that a juror must have other wise he is biased. Throughout the play, the different jurors express the basic human nature thus deepening the plots, making the verdict intricate. How does Juror number 8 pick out the invisible threads to win the other jurors and get them to consider the possibility of reasonable doubt is what the whole play is about.
                  The acting batch was highly skilled; not one twitch of a smile appeared on their faces when the audience burst out in peals of laughter. The makeup and dressing were apt for the jurors that one could not relate to the pamphlet of the cast with their pictures. After the show ended, the audience stood for a long standing ovation while the students brought the people behind the success of the show into the limelight. All in all, it was a great experience that wasn't to be missed. The lights, sounds composition of stage and modulation of voices of the cast made a great impact and I'm happy that I was there to witness a well put up play!