Coconut Cruncher

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...

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...

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...

Quick review of films watched last 2 weeks! Inside out: Absolutely beautiful! The design wasn't extremely unique, but the thought behind it and the storytelling was lovely! It didn't follow the usual pixar story structure with one character and his/her arc (which is also awesome), but was great nevertheless. Terminator: Genysis: I didn't have extremely high hopes for this film, but it was really below whatever expectations I had. The action was good, but they took some of the iconic shots from the originals. The storyline was haphazard and the time-travelling was so overused. The characters really needed to be fleshed out better and Khaleesi was terrible casting for Sarah Connor. She looked chubby and cute instead of badass, and trust me, I love Emilia Clarke. But no. The rest were pansies, besides Schwarzenegger of course. He never ceases to be awesome as the terminator (a.k.a: Pops) Jurassic World: I really regret not seeing this in the theatre. Lakshmi total...

This isn't related to art, but it's so important that I had to share it on as many platforms possible. What an absolutely insightful, thought-provoking and inspiring story. I hope this spreads like wildfire and touches people the way it touched me. Humanity has gone at all lengths to destroy itself. I really hope for once, we reconstruct to restore balance. Please send this to as many people as you can to create awareness, and hopefully it would reach governments and important officials who can help us plant more trees and kill fewer animals. Economics PhD Sebastião Salgado only took up photography in his 30s, but the discipline became an obsession. His years-long projects beautifully capture the human side of a global story that all too often involves death, destruction or decay. Here, he tells a deeply personal story of the craft that nearly killed him, and shows breathtaking images from his latest work, Genesis, which documents the world's forgotten people and pl...