Coconut Cruncher

I've heard that journalling is a nice way to keep a record of one's experiences so that we can later recall, learn and introspect, and that's it's also a form of meditation where we can clear our minds before heading to bed. I have a horrible habit of starting things and never finishing them; the list of these things is so long that I don't even know where to begin. Journalling is one of them. It's a habit I want to cultivate for myself and see if it provides enrichment to my life in any way. I also have a horrible memory, so this way I can always refer back to the thoughts and ideas floating in my brain and dump them out here to make it the world's problem :P Since I don't have a lot of followers I welcome you all to unfollow if I get too boring. Making this public is an easy way for me to stick to it and be consistent. So let me start off by talking about how my day/week has been. Since the beginning of the lockdown in India because of Covid19, my ro...

We landed in Hanoi at around 11am by flight. We quickly withdrew some local currency and bought a local SIM card with data, costing only 200 VND. Having travelled all night we decided to head to the hotel and rest for a bit before exploring. While we walked out looking for Bus 86, a guy tried to redirect us to another bus stop. Once there, he told us that we'd have to go to Terminal 1 for Bus 86, and that terminal 1 was 4km away and we had to walk. Soon after he suggested he would drop us to our hotel by taxi, which would cost 450 VND/roughly 1350 INR. We politely declined and asked another staff for Bus 86. He said it was right outside the airport. We saw the bus and quickly hopped on. The ride cost us only 70 VND and took us right till the homestay we had booked. The buses here looked so efficient and clean and the average speed was 80! Noi Bai Airport Airport Shuttle Bus 86 The road to city was wide and clean, with lots of trees lining it. We walked from the...

17th July 2018 What motivates us? To answer the first, it's easy to think of the generic statements: Art, culture, other artists, music, people, life experiences, nature etc. But honestly, it seems like a real task to stay motivated. To stay focused. To achieve 'flow' i.e: being in the zone. Today I felt a slight tingling warmth, a small burst of excitement. I couldn't point out to what it was, but I felt a vague sense of motivation.       I haven't done anything differently today. Why was I feeling motivated? Last night I watched Anurag Kashyap and Kalki's interview on TapeCast. He mentioned how he has stopped evaluating himself and comparing himself to other film makers. Whether he's great, or mediocre; instead he is focusing on just doing. Expressing, creating, failing and succeeding. It's not something I haven't heard before - me and Polo discussed the other day how it's the age of doers and not thinkers . Everyone has ideas today, bu...

Tonight after a weeks of slogging, I made some time off to watch a documentary I’d been meaning to watch since I first saw the trailer. The film ‘An Insignificant Man’ has been released on ‘Vice’ – a film directed by two young independent film makers – Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla. The film was largely crowdfunded, and was shot during the period of 2012 - 2015. The film covers the establishment of the AAP right until its massive victory in the 2014 Delhi Elections. 
 
 
 The thing I liked the most about the film is how neutral it is in its political stand, how it focuses on Kejriwal’s journey, and provokes discussion on idealism VS politics. In India we are always surrounded by politics, but one doesn’t get to see it first hand in its entirety and truth. It is always seen through the lens of the media – which comes from mostly unreliable and biased sources. It was amazing to be able to see it presented as what it was. During the course of the film I learnt the many iss...

7th Dec 2017 I have been thinking of making video essays for a while now, but hadn’t thought of it through fully because of work. Today I found out that ‘Every Frame a Painting’, one of my favourite channels on youtube that does video essays on Cinema - is officially dead. It was extremely saddening to hear that they have decided that this was the end for them, and that they had to move on to other endeavours. EFAP taught me a lot about film, about art, and about making video essays as well. Their article covers their journey so far, along with their learnings, challenges and rewards. I thought to myself - if they couldn’t do it, who can? But I’m so glad that something so great has been put out there that will be available to anyone anywhere - forever. I wish them good fortune and all the best the world has to offer, and a big thank-you for all the learning and inspiration. :) You can read their overwhelming article here > https://medium.com/@tonyszhou/postmortem-1b338...

27th July 2017 When I saw the trailer for Circle something like a year ago, it seemed pretty interesting, something similar on the lines of Black Mirror. As the film progressed I only noticed how bad the writing, direction and acting was (despite the renowned cast). There was an obvious, in your face message of the dangers of a world surrounded by surveillance and a lack of ‘privacy’ in a futuristic digital world. The main character Mae’s decisions are so contradictory to her established personality, she feels very superficial and unrelatable. Her actions seem to be without motive or any prior driving force.   The very apparent difference between a series like Black Mirror and a film like Circle, is that the former allows room for question of ethics and basic human rights. It provokes deep thought and discussion. I guess they intended to present a larger-than-life social commentary on the ‘dangers of technology’ but instead leave you absolutely disappointed with...

23rd Jan 2016 I watched La La Land today.  I’m not really one for musicals, but the story completely overpowered the ‘genre’ of the film. The trailer didn’t excite me much, but I was curious to know why it won SO many Golden Globes, and besides – it was directed and written by Damien Chazelle, the same man who made ‘Whiplash’; another film I was awed by.  I still have first-screening frenzy, but I’ll try to look at this as clearly as I can. This was not just a musical. It is an honest and heartfelt film about dreamers; a subject which is very relatable to us all. Emma and Ryan are so cute and charismatic, and it’s lovely to see how their ambitions unfold and how one makes the other push forward and become someone more. I don’t think it’s a love story, but a story about the honesty and drive with which the characters dream. However you do root for the two of them, and the love story is beautiful to watch at parallel. I was left speechless choked up by the end....

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 hi...

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...