All Things Considered

900 kms on a bicycle to the Nilgris !! Can’t wait !!

More info at TFN

The last time I was in Budapest, Cycling was still a very small movement popular only amongst a thinking few..Definitely doesn’t seem like that now, does it !

The first time I heard about Critical Mass was from a Hungarian friend-  about what it was, about how CM was shaping traffic rules there, how it is shaping the way new roads are being built. I clearly remember wondering how something like that would ever take-off in India!

I can’t wait to see what Bangalore biking scene will be like 5-10 years from now.

Cyclists held up their bikes outside Budapest Town Hall Tuesday. The “Critical Mass” event aimed to promote more environmentally friendly forms of transportation. (Balint Porneczi/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images).

Source : WSJ Pictures of the day.

“If the concept is there in the book, it doesn’t mean you need to know it. I mean, you could know it, I suppose. But, it isn’t necessary to know it. But if you would read it, you could appreciate the simplicity of it. And if you read it, you should be able to understand it fairly easily, as well. I suppose one could argue that if you did read it, it might improve your understanding of the subject and give you a holistic view. But in the priority of things, it is really not at the top, I would think.”

Phew !! I swear I didn’t make this up !!! All that came to my mind when I heard this was Sir Humphrey Appleby (played excellently by Nigel Hawthorne) of Yes,Minister fame !

A discovery of wonderful poems by Emily Dickinson -  from a friend who quoted her today.

I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed
I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.

When landlords turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove’s door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!

The only thing that is going right these days: The evening rains of the summer.

The question that begs asking is just when are these red-robed apple-cheeked little monks most adorable ?

–

A series of posts on Ladakh shall soon start..

It is amazing how people come to you with plaguing problems that need solution and when you actually start fixing them they hate you for doing so ! :)

Just as most Kathakali performances are, this one too was an act from Mahabharata -  The performance opened with the scene of the game of dice and concluded with the slaying of Dhruyodhana and Dhusshasana.

[The young man ,who played Shakuni, is deep in thoughts] Probably wondering what a dozen photographers might want in that small green room ! :)

[The Making of Yudhishtira]

[Shakuni - A work in progress]

[Mr. Peethambaran turns into Drowpadi]

[Chutti - by Kalamandalam Shivaraman (The hands that apply make-up in the picture below)]

[I will slay the man who insulted my wife, says the angry Bheema]

[What the heck ! How long am I supposed to dance ?] It was 2.5 hours of arresting performance at Chowdiah last Saturday !

The ‘bestest’ parts were the interactions with Kalamandalam Shivaraman, Mr.Peethambaram (who played Drowpadi) and most notably, Mr. AchuthanKutty. The wealth of Kathakali knowledge I gained from a two hour crash course with  these people merits a post by itself. Now, whether that will happen is something that time will tell.

1/ BRTFF   After almost  a year of dormancy, BRTFF ,which is really a bunch of lazy cinephiles such as me,  twitches it’s muscles. Come and watch us laze around. You can read up on earlier ones here, here and here.

2/ This blog.   This is only just a mean trick that I play with myself. Sometimes, I like to keeping telling myself that I eventually will get around doing things that I haven’t been doing. So that I just might end up doing them. Whaddya know , right ? :)

Is 2008 seriously gone ? I’m staring in disbelief ! How *can* a year pass by so quickly ? This is not the usual ‘Time-flies-quick’ yada yada. This one just flew !

This is an attempt to answer that question that people seem to be asking too much lately. “Not writing on the blog ? Whatz up lately ?”

- Was at IFFI Goa - 3-4 days of movies back to back. Life seemed too perfect. It was, too.
- Idlyllic Karwar and that unforgettable sunset with green(yes, green), magenta, orange, pinkn, yellow and blue hues.
- Revisited FoodStreet after about 5 years ! Twaz a light dinner. Need to go back again for a stuff-myself-full session.
- Nandi Hills, albeit on a no-fog day; Drove down the OMR.
- Valley School trip
- A few photoshoots
- Planned a two week trip to go Northward
- Canceled the planned trip
- The freelancing work
- Processed some pictures from 2008 trips
- Wrote a few write-ups from the North East and Ladakh travel diaries. Sent them for hibernation to hard disk
- More Movies: Persepolis, Blue, White, Man with a movie camera, Mon oncle, Frame within a frame, 8 1/2, Samsara.. many more.
- Compiled a list of movies I have. Something I didn’t expect myself to do. The same needs to be done for books too
- Realizing Creme & Fudge isnt worth all that hype. I remain, yours truly, a fan of CornerHouse
- But that said, discovering Irish Coffee at Gelatissmo has been a pleasure. Just the right amount of caffiene and sugar
- Cycling on a borrrowed Thunder MTB
- Planned & postponed visits to BOTS
- Got a film camera fixed, loaded Provia 100. Yet to complete the roll
- Lived a few days exclusively for melodrama. And a few days when I actually tried to let go of things, and even had some success at it.  The reading has come down significantly. Needs attention.
- Spent time wondering if 2009 will be as wonderful and action-packed as 2008 turned out to be
- Wondering why I haven’t been able to apply myself to write something on the blog
- Made a list of all the places I have travelled to outside India (Not the stop and run cities, but places where I actually spent time). The idea is to convert my paper-based diaries into digital format. Eventually, that is.
So, eventually, if I still am too chilled out to be bothered about a blog post, I might end up posting this list as well. The movie list, the book list. And now this. Too many lists, you say ?
- Admitting to self that one still has to pay up for the bread and the butter, and the dough for the occasional cheese needs to be earnt too.
- For those who believe in this NewYear buzz, I’ll start the NewYear with a small getaway. With the hope is that more travel will follow through the year.

For those who don’t, I’m just heading outta town for a coupla days. So, hang in there. Catch you all on the other side of the new year !

Wishing you all a fun-filled 2009 !!

Someone asked me this evening if I was done writing all that I wanted to write about Varanasi. No, I hadn’t. But then, most of the stuff I hadn’t written about were enormously touristy places.

But, a coupla hidden treasures need mention.

1/ Ustad’s house. An unassuming, old, a typically Banarasi building that was once Ustad Bismillah Khan’s house. The drawing room has those all familiar plaques on display - from Padma Shree signed by Rajendra Prasad to Bharat Ratna awarded during KR Narayan’s presidency. Unfortunately they don’t sell his music at the residence. But with all the pictures of the Ustad , the cartloads of accolades that hang from the wall and a shehnai on display, it isn’t very long before the music starts playing in your head.

2/ So, there is this place called Tateri Bazaar that is on no Lonely Planet. The shop owners busy themselves the entire day making these delicacies of rabdi, lassi and lal peda and throw the shop open by about 6PM. So an ideal thing to do for a soul-satisfying evening in Varanasi is to check out the ghat & arti scene, catch a mild dinner(optional), gulp some jal jeera to digest it and head to Tateri Bazaar by 9ish. Here is the ’soul-satifying’ bit. This knee-weakening sweet fair goes on well beyond midnight. Stay there as long as your digestive system allows you to..

If I honestly (i.e if you still believe in that outdated idea) have to put something nice here with that theme, I’d have to go out and shoot some to start with. If I know myself well, that ain’t gonna happen for a long time. But if I know KK well enough, you should see a ‘New & Improved’ version very soon.

I know it is a weird picture and all that, but what the heck - I like it.

White and Red will follow. When you get these ‘aha idea!’ moments, it becomes very easy to inflict it on innocent people.

[6AM, Commercial Street]

[8PM, IndiraNagar]

[6PM, Haridwar]

[7PM, Varanasi]

[12 Noon, PangongTso],

(For those in the know, this post could alternatively be titled ‘cheating’)

One of the many things that I was obsessed with on my trip to Ladakh is the sight of scree slopes in light and shadow. When I say obsessed, I quite mean what the word is supposed to mean. Really obsessed. Really really obsessed. Really really really.. Ok, you get the idea. I was clicking away ,quite incessantly, pictures of that brown barren nothingness. Just plain slopes of mud and rock and soil in light. And then in shade.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to process atleast a few of them. So, if this dry brown isnt your cup of butter tea , you’ll have to bail outta here - like today. I will present you many such opportunities to make an exit in future - but none might be as sincere :)

A scree slope at Alchi

Yet another ever-interesting subject was the Buddhist monk. Here goes one. More will be thrust upon thou as more posts on Ladakh make it to the site.. (Warnings apply)