Coconut Cruncher

It's been a while since I wrote something. I went through some old journal entries to instrospect on the kind of person I was back then. Here's one from 26 th July 2014. . . . . . We’ve been in a long on-going period of flat hunting. Now that that’s finally done, we’re all working towards getting a tenant for the current house that the guys lived in. I wonder how long it’s gonna take India to move on and let people live their lives. Basic human rights that people have are not given here. One’s right to have animals in the house; right to live with whomever you want. Right to love someone of the same sex openly, and the right to choose who to be with. Sometimes I look back at myself when I judge someone, and wonder where it’s all coming from. Was it my upbringing? The society? Was it me? There are things I still feel I need to change about my thinking and approach towards other humans. Today evening, I went to buy groceries in Hypercity; we were so out of...

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...

17 th May 2015 Mad Max – Fury Road Mad Max is the 4 th film in the Mad Max series directed, produced and written by George Miller. We went to see the film in Inox Screen 1 with Dolby ATMOS sound. I couldn’t be more lucky to have seen it there.  This is evidently the BEST action film I’ve seen in all of time. The film is based in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have now become a wild inhumane race. In a stark desert landscape, the story is about journey of two rebels, Mad Max – a blood bank for the War Boys, and Imperator Furiosa on a wild ride to escape from the Citadel with their ruler (Immortan Joe)’s child brides in desperate hope for a better home.  The film’s characters are so well rounded and their goals are so evident. The film is thrilling with some glorious visual effects. But what I was absolutely floored by was the fully rounded world that was created in the film. Everything seemed to have been so well thought out, from the vehicle rigs, th...

7th May 2015 I had to share this. It's been a long time since I saw some genuinely moving and effective film. This one's close to me because it's got to do with animal welfare. For the past few months I have been considering doing social work fulltime when there are no animation projects going on. I'm still in the process of figuring out how to contribute. Hopefully Ill be making films like these. In creative fields we never know whether our work affects people or changes the way we look at things. I hope someday I can do that through my work, even if it's over the course of a year or a lifetime. Please watch and share to spread the message.

26th March 2015 Bad drawing. But drawing nonetheless. My grandfather, 'Deddy' was a very good man. I used to think in his old age that I barely know him. In my growing up years he was already bed ridden. Deddy was the only doctor in our family, n he was a great one. He was an orthopedic surgeon. It was sometime in 2000, that he had fully lost function of the right side of his body and was suddenly paralysed. The deddy I saw after that was a short tempered crabby demanding person, who only seemed to live for his love of food. He would need help to sit up on the bed, bathe and eat. He was like this for 12 years until I was in my 1st year of college and got the call. I wouldn't say I was very close to him, but he did talk to me a lot about his younger days of apprentice, his travels to Britain and his violin. He was very proud of me because I loved sports and he thought I was intelligent because I aced biology. But the reason I loved him was because I had flashes of m...

27 July 2014 Image not owned by me Santa Cruz station. I passed by this station on a fast train, and recognized it even in the small flashes on train. The station pretty big, connected by pink skywalks and bridges. Baby pink. It's been 3 years since I interned here, and I don't know how many more it will take for them to change the colour. The colour is probably not as horrid as I see it. The horrid part must be the time I associate the color with. Agla station, 'saanta crooze' - said the machine voice. My friend would call it santra juice (orange juice). After an eyesore like that, the next stop Bandra is an absolute pleasure. White walls, arched platforms and passages, and a wooden British station which has withstood time. Outside the stations yellow lights twinkle - crowds eat, laugh and fight. Stories unravel. The pavement is more cobbled and a bit cleaner. This is clearly one of my favourite and most charming spots, but I've heard that south Bombay beats ...

August '14 She looked at me now and again. I didnt know she was goan. She was checking on me see if I was okay. She was probably well over 60, thin, dark toned with deep set eyes. She never saw a girl of my age travelling in a long distance train alone.She had never travelled out of goa herself. Her son had taken her to visit his work in Mumbai. She had lost all her teeth but one. There was one long tooth in her lower mandible. When I asked her a question in Konkani she wore a look of surprise. Most of the goans I've met outside goa wear that look. I guess I don't look goan enough. She beamed, and told me about her journey, and her son. "Bombay is not for me. It's so crowded, so dirty. Still people go there. I got sick there." Yet she went. And now she will love goa more. We passed the open fields and crossed broad clean rivers with coconut palms on both sides. We knew we've touched down goan soil. She smiled at me - "I think we've reached....