Up in the air

I quite liked the movie, with it's wit, dark humour and action. Realistic, relatable and different.

Gorgeous Giraffes

The Giraffes at Select City Walk as part of Bon Jour India was wow. 18 feet tall pink giraffes, with one person being the back legs on stilts and one in the front. The front person manipulated the neck with strings. The clown said में दुनिया में सबसे महान हूँ with great glee. The opera singer sang Tintin style:) Fireworks, confetti, hoops of fire, cranes added to the carnival effect.

Junked on the book fair this Sunday. Bought six books, two of which are non fiction. Can't wait to read them, but have to:)

Music washes away
The dirt of the day.

Darling Pudding

The Maharajah of Gaipajama
Little knew of a girl named Nora.
Quiet looking, crabby Cancerian
Happiest when solo aquatican
Whether washing clothes, self or home
Cooking too, watching cells grow, roam
Guitar girl, threatens to flash a Chink churi
Incommunicado often, but does jadugiri
Knowing problems before they arise.
Is it science or is it art?
I just know she’s smart.
Babe with brains, Catholic queen
Hail Mary! I’m glad she’s ever been.

The F People

Friends are gifts from above
Unwrapped with years, love.
They view us with unjaundiced eyes
Ever ready with solutions, spies
Who divine problems we hide
Artfully from ourselves. Beside
Forcing us to confront scary things
Which once spoken, demand enactings.
Work too, so long live old friends.

Nine Months

When we first met you were another's

I didn't want to share, bothers

But when I heard you're cheap

I took you without a peep.

We met in the dark

When I told others, they barked.

Questions that should've come to mind

How much you were of a bind.

You seemed welcoming, you felt right.

I liked the envy you attracted on sight.

Played hard to get, although not

I wanted you to be my scene, i got.

Moving in, moving on

Just us two, the sun

Learning how I liked you to look

Though getting there, a while took

You brought out parts of me

Good ones, that were latent, see

I basked in the sun, the surprise

Of friends who thought we'd never cruise.

Sometimes you get on my nerves

But that's so as we stay long curves

The hours on the clock. I always

Return to you, so I can hear nays

Yeas in my head, drown the days.

Weekends are ours. In day's many moods

I travel though you, cleansed of falsehoods

I make you up when friends come

So you're praised, so me, hon bun.

When I think of leaving you

When you cold shoulder me, dew

Returning to one that I shared

We are no longer me and you. Bared

New clothes I can be myself

You're hot when needed, cool help

Entertaining friends when they stay

When I must share you, for days.

Now that you're part of me

I don't resent the care you need. Identity

Ours is fused. You'd be different

Without me as I would. No lament

For the missing link. We have each

other. Flat you may be, teach

You have to give. You suit me just

Fine. I look in you now, lust

Imbibed, expelled. You know me inside

Out, just as I do you, house wife bride.

Sometimes when I'm too tired to move

I let my marks on you stay, remove

Them later, although only my eye

Falls on them. I please myself by

Keeping you neat- even if I am not.

A bientot.

Writing down my bones

There is bright, warm light streaming in through my window. It falls in a rectangular, sectioned pool on my marbled floor, warming me while I sit on my bed. It merges with my yellow bedspread.Like a shy bride, I cannot look directly at the sun.
Today there is light. The light coming through my door has no such grid. It falls freely, a rectangle big enough to cover me as I write. It doesn’t come everyday and when it comes it is not warm always.
I can cross the grid on the shadow of the window easily; it’s the other way round with real life problems. My mind magnifies them, when in reality they can be crossed.
The window light is about six feet by three feet. It cuts up the tiles even more. I saw a section of light in my kitchen, as if it was being carried by an invisible pipe.
The window’s the vessel through which the sun pours in, filtering, sieving it before it hits me. As I look at it through my hair, I see strands of my hair too seem lighter. The light moves, forcing me to move my bed too, like a sunflower I too am a sun follower, I flow where the sun flows.

Plotting

I am so excited about my WIP! Holly Lisle's tips on plotting worked like a charm- for the first time ever, I have a plot! Yay! I read the tip, think it sounds too complicated, do it like she shows me, and it works. Last night I wrote for 45 minutes, probably the longest I've done prose for. Didn't bore myself either, in fact surprised myself. Not knowing where I was going had led to dead ends in the past. This way, I wrote 400 words- one scene. This DIY author is highly reccomended. I used her free ebook on plotting.

Media

Also watched Medea in Italian at the same venue yesterday. There was a three floor tall construction on stage, from where some of the actors declaimed their lines. Cloth fluttered from the sides to give a ship like effect. The shadow play on the back wall of the stage brought the tragedy to life, as the actor hung from her harness. Another death had the actor standing on a white sheet, the corners of which actors pulled while he moved. A smaller sheet of red on this sheet was pulled out gradually, so that he seemed to be drowning in a pool of blood. Indian music, dance added to the innovation of this production.

Kamaal

Watched Habib Tanvir's Kamdev Ka Apna, Basant Ritu Ka Sapna at the NSD Theatre Festival on Saturday. From the title to the script, Tanvir has done a marvellous job of adapting Shakespeare's A Midsumer Night's Dream in Hindi, with lines in verse. The actors of Pyramus and Thisbe spoke in Chattisgarhi but the music and dancing kept us riveted. The Wall stole the show, keeping us in splits.

Period Piece

I liked Sherlock Holmes, although it was more a Guy Ritchie version of Holmes than a Doyle version. Was surprised to see how much I've forgotten about the stories. Ritchie's got London of that time to a T. The supernatural elements reminded me of Doyle's interest in the occult. Holmes and Watson are action heroes, twisting in the superbly weird convolutions of plot Ritchie's known for. The cinematography stayed in my head long after the credits ( written beautifully in parchment with sketches) had rolled.

Took a chance at the NSD theatre festival- Bharat Rang Mahotsav and got tickets for Johnny's Midnight Goggles on Sunday. Although the performance began half an hour late due to a technical snag, it was well executed. The story was a little thin. The celloist put up a one man show, singing too. In the open forum after the performance, a lady pointed out that the imaginary land connoting evil in the play, ended in stan. The actor promised to change it for the 9 o' clock show to something ending in shire or ham:)
Also managed a ticket for Naseeruddin Shah directed The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, which had a twist at the end.
Yesterday, I saw Strange Lines, which was...strange. The Indian spoke about India, the Swiss about Switzerland, while images danced on screens behind them.
Capped it off by walky talky from NSD to AIIMS. Google Maps says that's 9.3 km. Wouldn't have believed I could do that on such a cold night.

Mmandarmani

Had a very restful break this time in Cal. the two long weekends saw get triple the days off that I had taken:) Mandarmani beach was beautiful- you can drive the car on the beach. Our hotel too was on the beach.
Takes me a week to get used to being at home with family. Missing my folks now.

Inglourious Basterds

I really liked the film. The subtle menace of the lead villain, the build up by the New York Times Review, the unique experience of watching a film by a living legend on the big screen, in real time. The cinematography was excellent, the circling shots, the music, but I thought it could have been better edited. It was fun giving Hitler what he should have got.

Singing Singapore's Praises

It started with a Singapore sling

Learnt, lived, loved the fling

With the city, the seminars, the speakers.

Neat and clean roads laid out, Sentosa stunned

In the habitat of fishes & dolphins plunged.

Veg sushi Vietnamese, dessert before second course

No space for the second dinner, अफसोस

We spiders wove our way through the agencies network

Tattooed, watched an MD dunked topless, smirked

Awards were glitzy, glammy, and afterwards

Purplehaired, we sat on the purple sofa

Rupee room, Clarky's beat a desi dil

Where we danced the wee hours till

Red carpet withdrawal syndrome struck

A world exposed to, I want to go back

To that time, place, people that's fading away

Not letting me be, when I see the snaps gay.

Rain pain

Feel like writing an essay on a rainy day, like we used to in school. Should've stayed in Gurgaon yesterday, or at least left my laptop in office. Got lucky- took an auto to Ladosarai, walked to Ahinsa Sthal, took a relatively empty bus which stood at Ahinsa Sthal for half an hour, but then gethered speed. There was waterlogging along the way, but managed to reach office in two and a half hours- pretty decent.

Attendance is low though. Left my bag on a bus, but a Good Samaritan pointed that out.

A Sing a poring we will go

I am so excited about attending Spike! Was shortlisting seminars, planning where to go in Singapore, what to buy. Santa Singh's definitely come early this year:) Am saving up money, although there isn't much time. Hope I can extend my stay. Looking forward to networking, experiencing Singapore by night, the awards, the workshops, the talks, the accents...

Weekend with a wham

The Medicine Show was very refreshing yesterday. Venue mismatch continued, but I guess performers' comfort comes first. The stand up comedy had us in splits.

Sang at All Sports Bar- Always by Bon Jovi. Karaoke solo is something else- you stop for breath and realise the voice has stopped. I barely knew the lyrics too, so was feeling very born in the USA types.

Made papri chat- hunger will work wonders. Was good and felt a sense of achievement too. Motivation to entertain.

Crystal gazing

Crystals--the scientific back up could have followed the experience. i did feel lighter afte encountering them. Sometimes too far out though. Obsidian and smoky quartz's suitable for screen grazers...here I come.