Anchoring....

 

I saw the BEACH for the first time on my life-changing trip 10 years ago. It was in Chennai and over the years I have visited many beaches and even now when I touch that wet sand, I still have the same excitement with in me. When I stand in line where I see land on one side and water on the other, that beach line seems to be the dividing point. Half the world on my left (or back depending on how I position myself) and the other half on the right(or front..), half completely solid land and half completely with water, half where I can run walk, live and explore and half dangerously powerful and yet tempting to be explored. Its very exhilarating to stand at the point that makes sure both the land and the water dont cross each other. So, if land and water are so powerful in their own way, imagine how much powerful the Beach is, anchoring both and Im standing on it. Its almost like Im in the Space! Wonder how that would be like....

Why Google's Street View is not available in India yet...

I have found a great number of interesting things that work in the States and some how are not feasible here. MapQuest caught my attention when I was still new to US. At that time I, like any newbie, used to compare each and everything from the two worlds. Some how the idea of having all the geographic information of a city or state online was amazing to me, and also it occured to me that it wouldnt quite work for India, well you know why. I mean I myself get confused sometimes when I find a new building in place of a road that was there a month ago. Well, it might be a while before solid(read permanent) streets and roads are laid out which might be you know, a while. Until then hang on to your phones and random pedestrians for Street View in India!

Enter the "DRAGON"

Hey a quick thought to ponder on....can you guess how many times we press the "Enter" button in a day? You wont believe if I tell you. Dont bother about the number, but try to ponder about the significance of doing that. Well, as I tend to think, we spend too much time at it. Not that its absurd, but actually it is. Just think otherwise and you can find many things you could do that dont have to be in front of your work station. I know there are (too many) people who make a living, practically living in front of their computer. But at the end of the day these are all there just to help us "LIVE" the life comfortably, but we are finding comfort in using them and loosing track of the larger picture. May be we can start by spending a little time in doing things like having actual conversations with friends and family or playing a game of shuttle with our colleague or take out that rusty bicycle and go for a ride or climb a local hill or go for an evening walk till the farmers market and pick up some farm fresh fruits & vegetables and on the way back visit a temple for some pleasant ambience and.......or..........the list is endless. So, how about for a change you try these incase you havent already....
PS: Dont forget to check this blog though, before you go to bed!

Bull's Eye!.......Just missed!!

As a kid I was always fascinated by anything sharp and deadly like arrows, guns, knives youknowwhatImean? I dont know whats that abnormal phobia(trust me, its not philia!) called. At that time many of my friends including my brother too were like that. We used to make darts with a needle, four match sticks and a rubber band back in high school. To add the the gliding effect, paper cuttings were used to use as fletching. Then we upgraded to ball pen refills and so on. After about a decade I found the safest option for my craze : "The Magnetic Dart Board". It was back when I was in Omaha when I first bought it and my roomies liked me more than ever. I mean I also bought a case of beer with it which might have something to do with their sudden affection. We had a lot of fun with the board and I brought it with me when I moved back. Those were some great times back in Omaha.

'WALL'aikum Assalam!

In Brief, about a year ago, government decided to demolish the famous age old "Moula Ali Kamaan", as it was not safe for the busy and congested traffic underneath. Obviously the local religious groups disagreed and both groups had several discussions and meetings. One morning when I was driving that way, I had to apply sudden breaks with awe to see a WALL raised overnight. Someone has truly said, "Where there is a will, there is a....W A L L!!".(That someone might as well have been a local here..). The last I heard, the wall will be there until the arch is refurbished and the roads layed on either sides, which means the wall will become famous too. Neverthless for over a year, rest of the people have been following the "actual" quote by finding a way around the walls to commute.

10 Ten 10

The first sms that I got this year has something interesting about dates that this year we will have 1-1-11, 11-1-11 and 11-11-11. Ofcourse the timings on the respective days at one point will also read 1:1:1 blah blah blah. Okay, so what! Ever since this decade started the whole drama with the dates emerged starting with the controversy about when actually the millenium starts, from 2000 or 2001. I remember one of my professors telling about half an hour that we could see something that day which comes only every thousand years. Yeah, it was 20th February, 2002 at about 20:02. Hmm, really? I normally dont believe in this stuff but from 2006 it became very public about the repeating numbers in dates. Surprisingly(read stupid), I bought the idea and had some big plans on 9-9-9 and I bet most people have had, as 9 seems to be a special number for half of the worlds population. Alas, it was gone even before I woke up from my "rest-after-you-return-to-home-country" period.  Neverthless the thought remained and last year on 10th October I convinced my team and we started working on our first animated short film. For that we needed some random footage and photographs in the city and outskirts. We found some beautiful places on location scouting, like the one above. The project got shelved after a few sessions of work. Hope it'll see light soon....er!

On location...

Place: Araku Valley, Vishakhapatnam

Time: About 11 in the morning

Altitude: About 2000 ft above ground

Item : RED 4K Camera hanging at the tip of a Jimmy Jib

Well, as some of you know that I have been sort of working(unofficially) for films from last year. Being a data manager I had to be there on location everyday they shoot and make sure that the recorded data is safe guarded, backed up for recovery, yada yada yada, since it was a digital movie. With the emergence of RED 4K last year many films have opted for it especially because of its low production cost, though some camera professionals are not quite satisfied with its lattitude and focal speeds. RED is more an option based on the subject rather than the cost, but who cares in telugu film industry about subjects! All they are concerned about is how far they can tailor the script to suit the traditional formula. My favorite project so far hasnt seen the light of the day though it started almost a year ago because of its experimental nature. GAGANAM is one digital film that Im looking forward to this year which has many creative aspects regarding the camera work, thanks to K V Guhan, the well known DOP of films like Athadu, Jalsa etc. and his team headed by Arun who actually dragged me into films. BTW my favorite director David Fincher made "The Social Network" on RED 4K. And he has already started shooting for his next big movie, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Wonder if its digital too(doesnt imply just RED, as ALEXA is on the loose now..).

NYE in SMC at SCBD

As usual in search of variety, this time it was about where to welcome the new year (cant believe its already there!). After dropping a friend at jaw dropping speeds from Tarnaka to Secunderabad to catch a train just in time, we still had an hour before the midnight event. Just traced the roads for half an hour shouting new year wishes to random pedestrians and traffic police(ya right!) we decided to stop at St. Mary's Church. I caught a glimpse of the Holy Mary statue from outside the gate hundreds of times while going that way and was amazed at the beauty of the colossal sculpture. And now I finally made it to the other side of the gate at quarter before midnight on New Years Eve. It was amazing with huge crowds singing gospels(I think) and priests performing the ceremony which was quite similar to the hindu worship at temples. We left the place at half past midnight, came home, saw "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" movie (swedish) and hit bed at 5....Happy New Year Folks!!