Coconut Cruncher

Hey guys! Some quick TV and Film Reviews of this week: Arrival, Moana, Westworld Arrival I went into this movie blind. Akshay was super excited for it since he was anticipating it for a long time, and I was advised to go without watching any trailers! I was pleasantly surprised to watch such a kickass film. The direction is so good, so subtle and smooth. I watched this last week and since then have been trying to figure what the story of the film is – I’m still not sure, but I like how it showed the concept of time in such a beautiful unconventional way. Most films involving time definitely have some loopholes – it is indeed a difficult subject to tackle in film; but Arrival conveys it smoothly with the help of SciFi devices fitting well in the world of the film. I especially loved the colour key of and pace of the film. It made it look so simple, effortless and void of distraction. Amy Adams as always was brilliant, and all the supporting cast did great too. The writing I im

      I had a really disappointing day today. Shraddha had come over to discuss Totem taxes and accounts. In the middle of our meeting, I got a call from the ambulance guy from yesterday. The day before around late evening, Arvind and I saw a puppy get run over by a biker. The biker and his pillion stopped for a second, turned back and saw the puppy on the road, yelping in pain whilst hurriedly trying to cross the road to safety, and rode away. I had a surge of anger, and we ran to the pup to see him.       Under the weight and speed of the bike, his hind leg was absolutely crushed. Arvind felt his femur – limp and loose. It was broken. We called Taronish from World For All, who forwarded us to another NGO owner – Sonal. Sonal said an ambulance would be sent the next day.       Yesterday after constant pressure and following up, the ambulance was sent with 4 men. A handler somehow got the puppy out of his safe shelter with great difficulty and the vet inspected his leg, render

21 Nov 2016 I loved Before the Flood​. It definitely focused most Coal Consumption, but I thought it could still be much more holistic covering all major sources of global warming. It seemed a bit biased, and gave little or no emphasis on other major causes of climate change like cattle consumption. I just came across Nat Geo's first episode of Years of Living Dangerously​. It covers the US energy situation where the powerful and corrupt utility monopolies are making it impossible for their solar to succeed. On the other hand, David Letterman covers India's energy consumption as an emerging economic power, and the decisions India has taken to switch to cleaner energy. The US situation got me so depressed, just like I felt with Before the Flood, but India's situation only felt positive. I was so relieved to see that we're actually taking steps and have energy goals to accomplish by only 2019! I always thought we were backward, and hated India's government for b

17th Sept 2016 So I watched Battle Royale recently, and finally understood why it's compared to The Hunger Games so very often. Battle Royale (2000) is a Japanese film where a class of 9th grade kids fight till the death on an island in a 'game' invented by adults. I absolutely loved the film, as gruesome as it was. I felt the overall theme of the film was friendship and trust, and how these two variables change depending on different individuals and the situation they are faced with. Each character, (as long or less as they appear on screen) has a clearly defined personality and a justification for it. It's interesting to see how the game forces each one of them to change. Some of the situations have so much irony. (SPOILER AHEAD) For example when the girl who poisons Nanahara's food accidently kills another girl, all the girls who seconds ago trusted each other turn on each other and die on by one - but the girl who started the whole affair gets ou

21st Aug 2016 Old Logo VS New Logo I can’t remember after how long I actually opened DeviantArt. It had been years. They've even changed their logo! DeviantArt is that great community of artists, novices, beginners, enthusiasts, professionals all sorts of people who come together to broadly share, discuss and learn art. I don’t know how I forgot about it. I had eve forgotten my password! When I remembered it and logged in, I noticed the 1999 notifications. It gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling to go through that site today. With all the instant platforms like Facebook and Instagram, people don’t maintain their blogs or Deviantart profiles anymore. But here’s the thing – Deviantart, CG Society, ConceptArt.org and Vimeo is where the real art community lies. Where you get love, critique and help from people within that community. I remember using Sketchaholic too, I wonder if that still functions. These platforms were exciting and inspirational! Besides professionals

12 July 2007 A Swach worker segregating pads, diapers and condoms from plastic I always knew that the sanitary napkins we women use cause HUGE amounts of plastic and chemical waste. Personally during a normal cycle, I use around 8 pads (and I don't bleed a lot). That's 8*12 months = 96 pads a year! And I'm just one girl! The last time I thought of this was in 2010, but there was really nothing I could do about it. There was no better alternative that would make me feel equally secure. During Chitrakatha 2013, a NID couple did a large crowd-funded project called 'Mentrupedia' - an educational comic book for young boys and girls on the subject of menstruation. In one of their chapters they mentioned the menstrual cup as an alternative. When I googled it, it wasn't available in India. Silky Cup Medium A year back, I saw it on Flipkart or something - and I kept thinking if I should buy it. Of course it's the best solution ever! Pluses: - Ze

Woke up to read this absolutely aweful news about Tiracol. Leading Hotels Ltd. has proposed to set up a massive resort on the northern most tip of Goa, in Tiracol village. They have already acquired 90% of the land by bribing the goan government. The proposal includes a resort with 198 villas and a US PGA Standard championship Golf Course set across the lush, rolling hills of Tiracol. The golf course will destroy (more like CRUSH) the livelihoods of all the local communities which thrive on small-scale businesses like cashew plantations and fishing. Not only this, but it will completely destroy the eco-system of the hills in Tiracol. Several ads in local newspapers featuring the project come with the tagline ‘From Barren to Beautiful’. LOL. However, Leading Hotel’s own Impact Assessment show that there are 19,000 trees and plant species on the property and at least 1966 trees will be felled for the project! It's so so disheartening to read things like these in the papers.

The Witch is directed by Robert Eggars. It's his directorial debut. It's based on true recollections of people who have witnessed witchcraft and evil spirits in old England. The film is about a puritan Christian family that encounters forces of evil and witchcraft in the foods near their farm. The story picks up when their baby suddenly disappears, and their daughter Thomasin is blamed for it. It evolves to discover a witch in the woods, who reappears later in the storyline. The characters all turn on each other at various points, and you see them all going through a steady mental and physical decline. Different elements are used to symbolize dark forces surrounding the family, like the rustle of leaves, the goat giving blood instead of milk, the male goat with the horns, and the rabbit who misses a bullet in the beginning. Initially the film was a bit slow to me, but the metaphors and acting really held it together. The palette is dull and desaturated, and t

18th July 2016 It's been really long since I felt like writing about something! Bobby's list I have been really motivated by somethings Bobby Chiu said in the StoryboardArt interview. He is one of the most talented and respectable people I've followed. He said, figure out how you'd want your life to be, ideally. Paint a picture of that, or write about it, and work towards that. For a few moments I was pretty blank - what I want out of life keeps fluctuating. It was only later today I got down to putting it on paper. I made two columns - one with things I want, and one with things I don't want out of my life. It isn't very concrete, but it's something to work towards. I realized a few things that are missing which I can definitely work on - like making my environment more creative, striving towards being a better artist, and travelling even more. And I was happy to notice that I am following a few of the things on the list already, like leadin

13th May 2016 It’s been just month since I’d kept my first batch of waste for decomposing, and it’s already ready!! I spent about 15 minutes sifting the compost through the sieve – this was super fun! I was so so happy to see that rich brown colour and wonderful earthy smell! I’ve now got some fine powdery compost to use for my pudina, dhania , chillies and kadipatta plants (biggest success being pudina which has multiplied three folds and been used for many glasses of mojito ;)). This process has taken much less time than I expected and it’s been so rewarding! <3 My remix powder is almost over though, it’s serves 2.5 batches of wet waste. I’m wondering if I should use the compost as remix powder or buy some. It’s also difficult to make sure my roommates and my maid chop their waste to smaller bits to help it decompose faster. About my plastic waste, it’s cut down to maybe 20% of what I used to consume; but all of us together generated a dustbin full of bottles in 2 months

1st May 2016 So weird! I don't even know how to feel about this. I am often in a conflict whether I should accept this crazy acceleration in technology or not. It's exciting and scary at the same time. It's a bit creepy - the only difference between the '2D technology' and '3D realistic world' is that you see it differently, but it's STILL virtual for godsake. It's not real, and I don't think technology can ever replace or come close to real human interaction. Especially touch. So I find what Alex said quite contradictory. He dreams of a future when techology blends with the human world like prehistoric times, and talks about how holographic technology is what'll help us get there; but actually, it's the same thing but better, and prettier. He wants us to stop staring at screens; by strapping screens to our head and staring a them all the time. It's not getting us closer to the way we used to communicate and have a sense of com

24th April 2016 Finally the khamba  (composter) arrived! I was really anticipating this guy! It's only been 3 days and I feel like a girl feeding her pet dragon. I even instructed by super co-operative roommates and my maid what we can feed it and how smaller bits should be made of all wet waste. I really hope I'm doing it right and I get good quality fertilizer by the end of this. Khamba inside out May I also say that thanks to the  Remix powder  I bought with this, it's not smelling at all as of now. I'm also mixing it up with some dry leaves or newspaper to absorb excess moisture and avoid fruit flies. I've successfully managed to live a week without buying some things I consume almost daily for snacks - chips, biscuits etc. Although, this is not a happy solution. I need to carry a container to buy my week's supply of junk food. :P Right now I'm eating freshly cooked food in newspapers - samosas, chaat etc. and visit shops which have their own plat

19th April 2016 Today was my first day after the personal oath I took to cut down my plastic consumption. We normally order chai in the office which comes in small plastic cups. I refused and so everyone refused, and we went to the tapri and had chai there in their glass cups. We always take our own bags for grocery shopping, but today we had to emergency shop in the evening, and we was out of bags! I collected a few left over bags from the office and managed; even with the dal guy, who refuses to use anyone else's bags other than his own as it's more convenient for him. Unfortunately though, even in the local market, we had to buy mushrooms which are packaged in two plastics! One like a tray and one cover. I asked if they ever come loose, or if it's possible to purchase them in bulk. He mentioned there's a 1 kg plastic bag and the small package he gave us; and that all the brands supply with this packaging to keep the produce undamaged and fresh. I was so disappoi

18th April 2016 Arvind and I recently read about the 19 year old who is solving the world’s ocean pollution crisis. Boyan Slat is a Dutch engineering student single handedly developing the gyers (floating booms and processing platforms) which would potentially clean up 20 billion tonnes of plastic from the world's oceans; the plastic which kills millions of animals and damages thousands of cargo vessels every year. Arvind stressed on the fact that he was 19 – he was exceptionally impressed by a kid who showed that much drive, determination and hard work at such a young age. For me, regardless of his age, this was so commendable. The age didn’t matter to me, infact I disagreed with Arvind, and mentioned how adults have it harder to do something for the greater good. Not only are they in a pathetic zone (they have full time jobs!), they also have responsibilities towards their families and are less imaginative and courageous than the youth since they are aware of the hindrances li

11th March 2016 Women don't really spend time in actual self-relflection. Rather, we've been giving an awful amount of importance to how we look. This has been an age old problem - the vintage ads were really demeaning, and considering we are now more aware of this objectification of women, it's surprising that ads have gotten more and more objectifying rather than progressive and genuine.  We don't realize when we let them affect our perception of ourselves, but it happens at a very subconscious level. People are the first to tell you if you've lost or put on weight - if you have bags under your eyes. If people don't tell you, you compare yourself not to the women you know - the real women; but instead the instagram models, skinny or voluptuous women in bras (or not). The facebook posts of actresses and actors and popstars post surgeries. We compare ourselves to the Yves Saint Laurent pictures and the Sisley fashion models. Skeletons with clothes portr

Blackfish Review - 30th Jan 2016 I watched ‘ Blackfish ’ tonight, and it’s one of the best documentary films I've seen. Blackfish is directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, and it follows the controversial captivity of Orca whales (killer whales), and it’s dangers towards both humans and whales. The documentary is incredibly shocking, disturbing, education, heart wrenching, and painful to watch. It just shows how low we can stoop as humans. I have always felt very strongly about wild animals held in captivity for human entertainment. I remember when I was about 13 and we went to Mahableshwar, my parents wanted to take me horse riding. Most horses aren’t wild anymore, they’re considered domestic animals. But I just didn’t feel right to sit on it for ‘fun’. I just didn’t want to be a part of it, and everyone else had a good time, and I was pretty relieved that I didn’t join them. They would call me oversensitive; But seriously thinking, how many times have you guys gone for sho

3rd Jan 2016 A very happy new year to you all! I hope 2016 is as exciting, fun, adventurous, happy, sad, and transformative as my whole life has been so far! ;) Today I had a exceptionally chilled out, yet awesome Sunday. We woke up late, had a hearty and wholesome home-cooked misal-pav - thick and creamy, and then watched ' The Hateful Eight ' by Quentin Tarantino. I had seen this trailer SO long ago, that I forgot it existed and didn't know when it came in and went out of theatres. Anywho, like any other Tarantino movie, it was AWESOME. I had this awesome storytelling like I was reading a book with all its cliff hanging chapters and gruesome yet eccentric and unpredictable characters. I love how in each of his films he makes sure the audience remembers the names of each of the characters and associates a personality to them. It reminded me to watch more films of atleast directors I already love; and made me want to draw out those characters - Jon Ruth, Daisy Domergue, M