Coconut Cruncher

24th Dec 2012 My (sometimes) sweet firm Atnovus sent me this for Christmas :) I had a really good day. I started off with Tennis and basketball, then a healthy mess breakfast, a good heavy lunch, worked hard for Atnovus (my Swiss firm) and had an amazing Chicken roast sizzler dinner at Jayshree with a couple of friends. We talked about various topics (the food took forever to come). From bargaining in different parts of the country, to awfully bad days, to our last internship at Studio Eeksaurus and many other things. What got us there was a conversation with a mean little friend named Aakash back home, who was at the barber's getting a haircut when little kids came there to sing christmas carols and gave him a chocolate! Went the other way round! He painted a picture of how home would look (Goa). Panjim streets all lit up, lights hanging in trees, stars in verandas, kids singing carols, people making cribs and christmas trees, oh I was jealous. I am here, working on ...

Posting a letter I wrote to Krithika about today. It was almost like a page out of my diary so I'd like to remember this.  Hey eggs, I was having a hard time these few days getting myself to work. But really, I need to stop giving excuses and just get my ass moving, because enough is enough. Today when I thought I was getting somewhere (I took time, but I made a nice painting for Atnovus), Alok gave me a huge talk because I was leaving early from college to sleep. I have been treating this like a vacation and I really need to stop it.  I really really needed that scolding Alok gave me. For the amount of bitching we do about this college, we need to make up for in character and will power and the drive to give time and effort to my film. Like we did gestures in Sem 4, 5. Even when we were full after dinner, we'd slog and push ourselves to do gestures EVERYDAY. I really feel terrible and guilty and very very disappointed with myself, but I won't let this day go with...

19th Dec 2012 A girl is brutally raped and her guy friend is beaten up badly for just being with her at night time. The girl defends her friend and fights back, so the bloody rapists want to 'teach her a lesson' and beat her with a iron rod for 90 minutes and rape her till she's unconscious, and they throw both the students out of the bus naked on the highway until the police arrive a few HOURS later. I am always having frequent debates with male and female friends on whether Indian women are independent and free. Once again we are reminded how safe Indian women are and how men look at them in society. And the govt. is still deciding whether the rapists need a death sentence when their victim is on a ventilator in hospital. So, ladies, the govt. or the police don't want you to fight back. They want you to get raped and die. It's disgusting and no matter how much we talk about this, NOTHING is gonna be done, even if you, as a woman are paying taxes out of your har...

22nd Nov 2012 I am overwhelmed. If I could ask an elder to bless me when I touch their feet, I would ask for them to bless me to get a job offer from Studio Ghibli. I can't believe I hadn't seen it earlier. The first thing that came to my mind when it started: Thumbelina. Later, I find a classic story about being brave, and fighting for the things you believe in; although truly, a love story. Maybe it's a Japanese thing, but their romance seems so beautiful and meaningful. Most of them end with the characters being separated in the end because one has to go away. But the feelings told and expressed in Ghibli movies are so true to life, and genuine, you can hear them in the voices of the characters and feel for them so deeply. The boys are so nerdy and emotionally deep. Poetic, almost. And the girls are adventurous, brave, something quite opposite of what we see in western films like all the princess stories. The worlds they create are so real and fantastic, like heaven...

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Heaven , God was missing for six days.  Eventually, Michael the archangel found him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired of God. "Where have you been?" God took a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through  the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made!" Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?" "It's a planet,"  replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's  going to be a great place of balance." "Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused. God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while southern Europe is going to be poor. Over there I've placed a  continent of white people and over there is a continent of black people," God continued pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely...

4th Nov 2012 Wow, it's been a really long time since I wrote. But a lot has happened today. Firstly Pris started talkin to me again. An old friend who I thought had suddenly decided to not have anything to do with me for no reason. :| And then I went to meet Rhutu in the evening. Spent an hour alone on the beach, happily talking to myself, splashing water in the sea, drawing on the wet sand. It was getting darker. Rhutu came an hour later, with his brother and his friend. (Another joke happened. I had earlier been introduced to his brother as 'Upaashi', which in Marathi/Konkani means - Hungry/Starved. Rhutu and his funny psychological experiments. I should try some too!) I remember the first time I actually spoke to Rhutu. I saw him when Shivani was talking to him in NID, during the first Chitrakatha. I didn't pay much attention to him, because I was too busy soaking in the environment. There's so much energy in NID, it was overwhelming. I had a wonder...

22nd Oct 2012 How wonderful to login my google account and find this!!! It's totally made my day. I'm already teary! Here's another photo which really touched me by my fellow HP fan mamta. :) This is absolutely 'wunnerful'! :)

20th October 2012 I was stumbling for information on dog intelligence for my colloquium paper, and I found this goldmine of knowledge! This is one of the best most interesting and well explained documentaries I have seen on dogs. From where they came from, to what they are now. Enjoy!

23rd September 2012 It's been a terrible week of a lot of sleep deprivation, depression, and the feeling of being squeezed of all creative juices. I feel terrible. I've forgotten the feeling when I felt amazing after drawing something. A lot of times I question whether I'm in the right profession. So much struggle, and such little visible progress. I feel homesick, and I really need a huge break without any work or any commitment for a while - but that seems so so farfetched. What a phase. A lot of experiences and thoughts have gone into the making of the mailbox - it never feels like I've gone ahead. Thanks to Alok I feel an extra push once in a while. Tension is creeping up on me and it's hard to articulate everything. Pressure works really well on me. I turn into life-saving-mode and everything becomes super awesome and super fast. It's like adrenaline. When the pressure's gone, I'm left with laziness and the stress of failure. I hope I can get t...

30th August 2012 There is something that runs in my blood as fast as RBCs - stingyness? I wouldn't exactly call it that, because I love gifting people stuff. I guess I'm very money-conscious. I try to save every rupee that I can. I find joy in saving even a paise. So I just can't get over the fact that things have become to expensive in India - and one of the most scary things that have become expensive besides the petrol is - FOOD! The most basic necessity of our lives. Somehow everyone seems to be used to this. They're used to paying 40-50 bucks for a sandwich and 100+ rupees for every meal of the day. Tomatoes have gone from 5 to 10 for quarter kilo. A pack of 10 Good day biscuits have gone from 15 to 22 bucks. The packet is much bigger than its contents and Lays! Don't even ask about lays potato chips. They're such frauds. The contents have around 20 slices of chips, that's visually 1/4th of the packet, and it costs Rs. 10 for that! I feel I can ju...

28th August 2012 It's nearing the end of the month and I am SO unhappy with my performance. I need to stop talking to people, going to the canteen for chai breaks and playing sports. Also one of my biggest enemies is the music industry and the internet. :( The only progress that happened last night is that I've finally found the right person to do Mascarenhas' voice! My buddy Ishan Sadwelkar! Since he's from Film and Video, he did some really good voice acting. I think I make a decent job at being casting director as well. I was getting really worried about the dialogue shots. Will start planning and animating it tomorrow. I really hope these go quick. I need a lot of acting help - all the help I can get, and I also need a voice for Mr. Postman! :( I am way past my deadline of finishing the animation. The whole day today got wasted in the ruddy MIT office, which passes you on from one person to the other like it's the indian government. It's corrupt...

Today is a brand new day. I never usually feel like that, considering my erratic sleep timings these days and a sincere lack of motivation. However after a good night's rest and a little reading and writing, I am ready to put in my 100% today. I started with a fresh cup of sweet chai and filled my water bottles so I don't feel drained. I feel like it's a bright day with possibilities of some good shots. I just hope I can use it well. I'm glad I didn't decide to go out to buy my cycle today, I would've wasted a lot of time. The movie's bringing on a lot of pressure, and sometimes a lot of apathy towards the subject. I have 5 days to go for the end of the month and I promise to this blog that I will really really try my best to finish a trememdous amount of animation. Let's see how this goes. I will keep updating this post. Here's my dedication to this post. 2 lame pictures taken from my lame laptop camera. Something went wrong here. Hmm.

14th July 2012 I have always wanted to learn french, but I never got the time or the opportunity! Luckily I was going through the TED videos and I found this AMAZING site called Duolingo that helps you learn different languages for free!! The only way you pay is with your time and you help translate sites like wikipedia, and you learn by translating! :) Isn't that cool? Here's a video explaining how it works: Here's the video through which I got to know of its existence - a TED talk of Lui von Ahn who invented CAPCHA!

I got to screen 'Wiped' (my short film) in the Film & Video projection room this morning! When Neogi sir asked me to come and talk about it, I was like - "yeaaahhh... about that." but he didn't take no for an answer. The freshers have just joined MIT-ID and they were having a briefing of what all they could take as disciplines. I was honored to be asked to screen my film (made by an Animator and a Product designer) to fresh minds. When I plugged in the pen drive and screened it, I started shaking. During the film's climax my heart was pounding and I felt all wobbly. Some laughed where they were supposed to (although I wished they would laugh more) and some were just going with the build up. I was really happy with how they took it - a bunch of people who didn't know me, or any of the actors and who had no expectation from the film. When it was over there was an unexpected applause and a lot of smiles! I thought they would just stare at my face, but...

www.geekologie.com/2011/12/i-cant-even-rescognize-you-disney-princes.php I love the original characters as well, but this is interesting!! :)

Somebody watch these cute kitehhhhs!!!!! :D :D How to walk your human Kitten's Dance of Intimidation How to introduce two cats to each other What a great reference for us animators!! ;)

22nd June 2012 When I saw the Brave trailer a few months ago, I was honestly very disappointed. I realized Merida's character design was beautiful, especially her hair and the change in the generic facial structure of disney/pixar characters, but besides her, the other characters resembled the characters from How to train your dragon. A lot. Sure, they were scottish with the skirts and the accents, but the features and the designs looked as different as those in HTTYD when it released. Also I was not too happy with Pixar making princess movies. All those pre-judgements kept aside, I went into the theatre to be overjoyed with the film.   THE PLUSES There are a countless number of things I loved about it. Story and Design The first thing I would say is the storyboarding. Everything was so well choreographed! The introduction of the immense Scottish highlands, the castle and its grasslands, the woods, the character actions really helps the audience follow the story. It c...

Reality shows Here's a show that takes reality shows to a whole new level. 'Breakthrough with Tony Robbins' is a show where Tony Robbins guides people in real life traumas or problems through an extraordinary journey to rediscover themselves and their worth. When I watched the first episode I was mved to tears. I was so happy to see that there are people in this world who selflessly go out of their way to use their talents and skills to fix other people's lives - people they have never even known! Apparently this show got only a 4.8 rating on IMDB, and after its 6th episode the TRP went so low that NBC decided to discontinue it. Here in India, the most nonsensical and pointless reality shows like 'Spitsvilla', 'Roadies', 'Big Boss' and 'Rakhi ka swayamvar' get high TRPs! So why does such a meaningful show like Breakthrough go so low on audience? Amir Khan's done his own breakthroughs in India with 'Satyamev Jayate', b...

day 14 15th june 2012 Abbazia Hotel, Készthely After I go home I have to get a dental checkup ASAP! I'm really getting freaked out about almost all my teeth getting really sensitive so early in life! And I love to eat!! :( Also my foot is injured badly and I have no idea how it happened. For the past two days I haven't been able to walk at all; I've been limping around like a disabled person. There's a baddass twist right below my left foot's ankle on the left of the foot and there's a slight reddish swelling. Something has gone very wrong inside - I just don't know what to do about it. I tried putting it in hot salt water and applied balm on it. Let's see if it's fine by tomorrow. I hope I don't have to go to the doc when I'm back - I wanna keep my healthy record of about 18 years. I have another goal I want to achieve - I want to go trekking. A proper trek; like the Enduro. I want to climb 12 mountains overnight and feel the exhaustio...

day 13 14th June 2012 Abbazia Hotel, Készthely Only two days left to get back home. What a weird vacation this was. The first week in Vienna and Budapest was exhausting but fun! After we rented to car and travelled to Készthely - the first 5 days included a lot of fighting over way-finding and directions! As Dory asked, "What IS IT with men asking for directions?" They are so full of ego and stubborness. Who are they trying to prove themselves to anyway? Besides that we played a lot of Rummy (card game), plucked cherries from the backyard, shopped a lot of SPAR, and drove around to local places like the lakeside, the wonderful Herand Porcelain Museum and factory (where we saw how it is carved, painted, glazed and fired), and the local Pottery making shops. We watched the whole season 6 of 'Friends', 'Satyamev Jayate' and also 'Breakthrough with Tony Robbins'. Throughout Puppa's been all about what we call in Hindi - 'Pét Pooja'; translated...

day 7 8th June 2012 Budapest We saw a museum of art and history, we saw the central library, a hot spring bath facilty which was very famous for the baths and massages, bought candies from a HUGEass candy store, saw the one of the oldest most elaborate done cafés in Pesht and even the city square where the statues of the 9 tribes of Buda had originally settled were erected. Mumma did her bits of composing and photography. I noticed in Budapest there were a lot of wonderful musicians who played for free all over town, so beautifully it almost made me cry. I wanted to know the songs they played and know them as individuals - why didn't they perform in concerts? This was one of the things that amazed me here. Another thing is - nowhere in Vienna and Buda can you buy a decent glass of water, everything is carbonated and flavoured. The reason you need to buy water is the one from the taps (which is apparently filtered) has a weird chemical taste, something like chlorine. Anywho, then w...

day 6 7th june 2012 Vienna - Budapest We left for Budapest this morning by the train which leaves every one hour. Vienna was beautiful, and I guess what I liked most about it was its infrastructure and it's beautiful people. Even though they couldn't communicate in English we managed to make it through. The means of transport are so well developed - the subway, the trams, the buses and cyclists and pedestrians. They have even taken into consideration - the blind and the disabled. We had a super heavy meal at a local café in the city centre with Nayantara! She hasn't changed much, just her English might've changed a little. Got some really nice photos. Buda-pesht is so much prettier to photograph than Vienna where everything had come over exposed. It's a lot like Italy with the Bistros, potted flowers everywhere and cobbed pavements. Even the architecture has a lot of roman influence. We saw the king's castle, the fisherman's __ (which is a vantage point fro...

day 5 6th june 2012 Vienna We left for the church in the city square. That church was this elaborately done Gothic church with too much work. While reaching there we had some yummy gelato and watched the beautiful city - it was so full and lively, and the sun was out nicely today. Things were looking good. Mumma and I wanted to see the Albertina hall's exhibit of Monet, Picasso and Gustrav Klimt's works. Raina wasn't interested so she waited outside for quite a while. We were tired after the walking anyway. Puppa also joined us and we saw the works. The first exhibit was ridiculous. It showed early works of artists who later got famous. The early works looked like they were done by 3 year olds! When we reached Gustav Kilmt's gallery I was stunned. His draftsmenship was stunningly accurate and gorgeous! His erotic works were so appealing, and my favourite piece was the one he was commissioned for for Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet. His drawings of Romeo and Juliet we...

day 4 5th june 2012 Vienna, Austria This morning I woke up to have to tell Puppa that I forgot the Canon charger back home. That's how the day started badly. Then when we left we realized we hadn't locked the luggage in the room - got a huge firing from Puppa which made me very angry and upset. I always end up being the one yelled at. Vienna (Wien) is much safer and friendlier than Cairo - they have a LOT of politeness, civic sense and chivalry; it is also EVEN more expensive. 1 Euro=70 Rs, and here they use 1 euro like 1 rupee!! :( We end up calculating a lot. We saw Maria Teresa's palace today - she was the main empress here. It's also FREEZING COLD!! I roam around with a lot of tops and sweaters and mittens and scarfs and I still feel cold. Freezing cold. :( we travelled by the super fast subway - saw people making out in public n all. Today we visited the empress Maria Teresa's royal palace - it has a gorgeous garden, a pretty difficult maze around the back, an...

day 3 4th June 2012 Egypt - Vienna After an amazing breakfast this morning, we saw the Pyramids of Giza from the inside! Kiosk's, and his two sons' pyramids too. I forgot their names, they are so hard to remember! When you look at them from afar they really don't look that big; probably as tall as a ordinary skyscraper - but they're HUGE when you come close! The largest one was made of 3 million slabs of rock, and each weighs about 3-5 tonnes. It took 300 men to move each slab at the time, and the first pyramid of king Kiosk took 20 years to complete with the workers working for 3 months in a year. Anyway, the one we went inside was the queen's pyramid - there are 3 of those next to the smallest one. It was super fun to get into! I thought it would be huge and hollow inside but it had one room - one chamber only! And there the tomb was kept with all the jewels. The way to enter it is getting down a slope about 10 metres, and another of 5 meters. The toughest one to...

day 2 3rd June 2012 Egypt Woke up early and Puppa's friend dropped us to the airport. The flight took 6 hours. First we were starving so we got just a slice of cake and water for breakfast - but we had a decent lunch at 12. I was royally bored, so I visited the loo twice. In my time there I pondered over how the drainage system in the aircraft worked. Where did my shit go? I know my pee would evaporate. Cut shot, a man many metres below is walking in a park. He hears a distant sound getting louder. He looks up - particles of smelly stuff splats over his face. Cut shot, I give a loud sigh and walk outta the toilet. Maybe something like that. Watched a funny Jim Carey movie about penguins with half the sound on the shitty inflight earphones and the shared sceen. We were finally reaching Cairo. We took a kind of turn. The weather outside the window looked scorching, like it was 45 degrees! Although our screens showed 31. I looked down, miles of desert and rock were seen, and we c...

Day 1 2nd June 2012 Mumbai Woken up at 6am and had delicious dosas made by Anju auntie. We soon said our goodbyes and left for Mumbai by a shameful 8am. The drive was pretty pleasant besides the fact that they didn't let me BREATH! I mean, I was trapped in an AC car without fresh air for a frikkin 4 hours. When we reached Mumbai we'd decided to buy some undies and all on hill road. The ones in Pune were 85-140 bucks and we wanted to save Puppa the thousands of rupees, but unfortunately everything was shut since it was only 10.30. So we headed to Ashok uncle's place for lunch where we had mind blowing taste-bud orgasmic round of starters. First these tortilla kind things with minched chicken filling, then jumbo fried prawns, then chicken. We were really full by then, but the starters kept coming! There were also cheesy kati rolls, more prawns, and lastly - lemon chicken. our tummies were exploding by then, so we gave it a rest. Puppa actually went for a nap since he was ...

18th May 2012 Lately the computer lab that I work in has been.. well - discomforting. Someone's releasing a lot of gas in the air conditioned lab, and this is how I deal with it.

26th April 2012 It's interesting how a simple change in the color of the layout in TV can change your attitude towards animation. It started making my frames look better! Here is the old one VS the changed one. I know, right? Anyway, the animation's finally kicked off! Atleast I've done something I'm proud of today. We went together to speak to Shyamu (our HOD) about getting our deadlines extended. Somehow came to settlement to finish atleast one shot complete with the inking, color, bg and sound. Phew. Will also get a briefing on our colloquium paper on Monday. That's kinda a thesis paper. Besides that on the Animation side, we're all going for 'The Avengers' tomorrow! Can't wait. We were so eager we pre-booked the tickets online and got top row seats! It better be good. The last one I saw was Thor, and I was horribly dissappointed with that. That's all for tonight.

10th April 2012 Wow, I'm speechless. Another brilliant Hitchcock film and it stood up to all I'd heard about it. I love the good old classic cinema. Besides the absolutely brilliant staging, lighting, color or black and white, there is a ton more to learn from it. I feel like pausing it and soaking everything in. It's becoming harder to watch good films for the story now. Animation makes you so sensitive to framing, continuity, lighting, acting, and all the other 1000 technical aspects of a film. Coming back to Psycho - the story was absolutely gripping. I was at the edge of my chair at all times. There's this thing I noticed Hitchcock does in all his films - he fools you into believing that something is very important (in Psycho, let's say the money she steals in the beginning), and then he just makes you realise that that wasn't important at all! (the money gets drowned in the swamp with her body). He seems to do this a lot in all his movies - he ...

6th April 2012 Phew, what a crazy eventful week. Yesterday we had our farewell, that was one really sweet party with a fun theme - rubik's cube. I guess this is what the Americans call - 'senior Prom night', except that the tucks and the dress aren't compulsory. For the first time I compiled my own clothing and En and I went on a crazy shopping spree in the city. We both ended up buying blue. Today was a BAD start. Woke up VERY late coz my body was aching badly from last night's dancing, and then we went to the laundry and then Loni to withdraw since the ATM wasn't working, and En was super frustrated with his phone. Anywho, in no time it was 3 and we made these really pretty origami flowers for the graduating seniors. Last minute plan. The convocation was done beautifully this time. Everything was in order and it was neat and organized. The lighting was really nice, the panels weren't screwed (maybe because the students themselves had to manu...