Coconut Cruncher

28th Oct 2013 I had a wonderful time in Ahmedabad. The first day we got there, we settled in Athithi hotel. It was such a dirty looking place, but we cleaned it up and made ourselves comfortable. We used to have breakfast at this south indian restaurant called 'Udipi Palace'. It had pretty decent breakfast but it smelled so badly of cockroaches and phinyl that it got really unpleasant. Everyday we started waking up a little later, often talking in the morning or trying to convince the others that it would be a great day. I was busy trying to keep everyone positive - somehow it was upto me to satisfy everyone's wants. When I failed at that, I'd fall into the pit and pull myself out. I told myself there was something more important happening at NID than people's eating preferences or personal problems - I had come here for inspiration and I'd decided to take it under any circumstance. By day 3 everything started getting better, and that's how it had happene

2nd October 2013 – Nashik It’s the second day of work at Regh animation, and it has been tough. I feel mentally exhausted and overly emotional. The small sign of home, a thought of comparison can bring a huge lump, an uncomfortable swelling in my throat. I feel my heart ache in pain, and my eyes start watering uncontrollably for no reason. I don’t feel weak, but tested, really. My heart gives up, but my mind tells me to fight and be stronger. It’s a new place, with new people. A new language and a new culture. Fitting in has never been easy, but I always end up finding the right people and getting comfortable; that – has been exceptionally difficult here. Marathi is not my forte, and whether I wear a loose Tshirt, or a spaghetti, I still have a few eyes on me. Maybe it’s my fair skin, or my ‘different’ features, but one look, and the locals know that I’m not from this part of town. My roommate Rekha is really nice. She must be about 25 and reminds me an awful lot of my old housekee

31st August 2013 I hate that technology can do as it pleases to us. I am an artist. I come from a very creative background. My ancestors used only their hands to do the work they do. They used pencils, charcoal, pigment colors, and papers. Today's artist uses the traditional mediums as well; but with the growing demand for digital illustration, and it's advantages of getting work done so much faster and cheaper has forced the artist to learn new techniques of producing their work. The same goes with the animator. Back in the day animators used papers (cells) and ink and paints. They used cameras to capture every frame on a reel, and project it onto the screen. So many hours went into trying to hone their skills without a preview of the animation. Previewing meant developing expensive film, and so the animator made do with flipping the sheets to create persistance of vision. We solely depended on the naked eye, and groomed it, trained it, and honed it to see art in the broade

17 th August 2012 Today we went to a small place by FC road called Little Italy. I first went there when it had newly opened in Goa; probably in 2000 or 2001. At the time I had never tasted Italian food in my life, and I don’t even remember tasting it.  In 2011 we went to Italy on a family vacation. It was one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever seen. I’d say it’s my favourite amongst all the places I’ve visited.   I had never really enjoyed Italian food before I went to Italy. I found pastas too heavy, fatty and bland, and the pizzas I’d tasted at Dominos (the first and only pizza joint in Goa) were so dry and had such thick bread and less vegies that I had a strong disregard for Italian food.  Of course when I came to Pune for MIT, I tried some delicious Italian pastas at good restaraunts, although I was still not fond of all the pizzas after trying local pizzas as well as the popular pizza brands like Dominos, Pizza hut, Smokin’ Joes and Papa Jones. Maybe I’

21st July 2013   I had saved Steve Levitan’s writeup here as a word file on my desktop. I’m a seriously moody reader, but today I finally read it, and I felt that it was so awesome to read such fresh juicy stuff! Modern Family is one of my favourite sitcoms, and I had to give it a shot. At the bottom there was a link and t led to this page, so I ended up reading quite a few ‘Why we write’ and I decided ‘Hey, I can do this too. If anyone would give me a read!’  The earliest I remember (there must’ve been earlier instances) being was introduced to writing was in 7 th grade. We had to write comprehensions that we were graded on in English literature. I was decent with grammar, but I was terrible at writing. Atleast that’s what I thought and what my marks told me. They focused too much on spellings and length too, which turned me off from writing whole-heartedly. For obvious reasons, it never occurred to me that I could ever write professionally. Art, on the other hand

28th June 2013 So I've had a terrible 3 days here. I realised my Sc. 5 was accidentally missing from my Film Folder, and when it hit me that my last backup was a March backup that had 2 months of work done after that, I was feeling absolutely broken-hearted. I didn't know if it was worth continuing this film. I was drowning in sorrow at the thought of having to do all that work again. I googled it, got a few recovery softwares that mostly hung and some showed some files I wasn't looking for. I called a good friend who suggested two good data-recovery softwares. 'Wondershare', the best one I'd tried took 12 hours to scan my PC for all the files that were deleted from my Recycle bin. It didn't have it. At 3 am I decided to give up. It was gone. I tried to get over it and move on as quickly as possible. I could not afford to give up now. It would be like dropping out of college in your final year. I was on the verge of finishing the film, and would probabl

12th June 2013 Sooo, I have been travelling a LOT. One gets pretty tired of sitting at home and procrastinating work once one graduates. Life is very uncertain after graduation, and there's avoid you have to fill or you get depressed quickly. I was dying to go to Leh Ladakh, Kashmir for a very long time. Finally my family and I decided to go north where it's a climate we're not familiar with (being Goans and living in the South with the heat and rain and humidity). It was an adventure. It was not what I expected, which made it an adventure all the more.  Besides having motion sickness and severe migrains thanks to the low Oxygen levels there, I got to enjoy the most gorgeous senery and be with nature. It was wonderful. After we got back to Delhi, I left my parents and went on a trip to Ramgarh, Uttarakhand where my friend Prachi recently built a house. That trip was just what I needed. After Leh these mountains were nothing. Ramgarh is a place in the

5th May 2013 Karina McBeth is a fellow blogger friend of mine. She is an aspiring story artist, out to pursue her dreams in the field. She stays in the U.S and has studied in one of the colleges there. Recently she made a post telling us about how she got into the Disney story intern program! I was so happy to read it. It gave me so much hope. Even though I don't know her personally, I know she is a step closer to her dreams of being a story artist. I wish I had the work and the confidence to apply there too. I was so taken aback to read it. Even though I'm really happy, I'm partly really jealous of her too. Unfortunately I'm here, and I don't have a Visa to work or intern there. I don't have the skills yet, neither the opportunity because technically I'm already a graduate and the deadlines have passed. I wish I was better informed and more focused on story 2 years back. I would have channeled all my energy into it. Anyway. After seeing her portfolio I

12th April 2013 Left for Margao for some work. Had a hard time talking to an annoying relative. Debated over muslims in India causing riots and the Babri masjid case. Read GoT (Game of Thrones) Went to a clothing exhibition and bought some pretty Gujju fabrics. Had a meaty dinner and played cards with my younger bros. Reached home and tried to download GoT S03E02 for the 5th time. -_- Not as eventful as I'd hope, but its alright. Tomorrow - in desperate need of a speedpainting.

10th April 2013 Today was a little more productive than yesterday. I managed to get a few things off the list. I woke up at 10:50. Just before 11. Gotta push it earlier. Got a few chores done, breakfast, did some graphics for my friend Aakash's photography event, and went for an evening walk with my parents. Here's the stuff I did. >> So, overall it was better than yesterday, and I hope tomorrow will be better. I'm still feeling bad that I didn't do a speedpainting today, but maybe tomorrow if any time is left after returning from my cousin's place. This was a boring post. More tomorrow. tata!

9th April 2013 Major update!! I am now a GRADUATE!!! :D :D Since that day, my life's not been pretty. But I'm glad it's over. I'm already missing college terribly, and I thought that day would never come, but it did. Now I am home, relaxing, and trying to enjoy a much deserved break. Today I decided to turn my life around at home. I don't want these vacations to be useless and lazy, but they are proving more and more to be so. So, after reading my dear friend Krithika's wonderful letter about how she's turning things around in MIT, I decided to set some goals for myself too. Coming back home has not been easy. I feel lethargic and heavy and I have only been eating and sleeping and watching TV. I feel lonely because throughtout the week my only friend who's available (Aakash) has college on weekdays and my parents are practically never home. I miss college so much. I miss being busy already, even though I had asked nature to give me a huge br

24th March 2013   I am definitely posting this here very late. This is my colloquium paper written during Semester 9 of my course at MIT ID. If you don't know what a colloquium paper is, it's a paper that you write in your final year that shows your growth in thinking as a designer. It can be written on any topic of your choice and has to be more of less than 12 pages of text. I'm not generally very good at writing research papers. It also has to be 'colloquial', which means a c haracteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech; informal. 2. Relating to conversation; conversational. I would love to hear your views in the comment section. Thank-you for reading.  Nikhita Prabhudesai Topic: Understanding the mutual communication between man and dog.  Description: A paper about understanding how dogs have developed ways to communicate with humans over the years, and how they prove to help us become be