Coconut Cruncher

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...

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...

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...

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...

21st July 2013   I had saved Steve Levitan’s writeup here as a word file on my desktop. I’m a seriously moody reader, but today I finally read it, and I felt that it was so awesome to read such fresh juicy stuff! Modern Family is one of my favourite sitcoms, and I had to give it a shot. At the bottom there was a link and t led to this page, so I ended up reading quite a few ‘Why we write’ and I decided ‘Hey, I can do this too. If anyone would give me a read!’  The earliest I remember (there must’ve been earlier instances) being was introduced to writing was in 7 th grade. We had to write comprehensions that we were graded on in English literature. I was decent with grammar, but I was terrible at writing. Atleast that’s what I thought and what my marks told me. They focused too much on spellings and length too, which turned me off from writing whole-heartedly. For obvious reasons, it never occurred to me that I could ever write professionally. Art, on the ot...

5th May 2013 Karina McBeth is a fellow blogger friend of mine. She is an aspiring story artist, out to pursue her dreams in the field. She stays in the U.S and has studied in one of the colleges there. Recently she made a post telling us about how she got into the Disney story intern program! I was so happy to read it. It gave me so much hope. Even though I don't know her personally, I know she is a step closer to her dreams of being a story artist. I wish I had the work and the confidence to apply there too. I was so taken aback to read it. Even though I'm really happy, I'm partly really jealous of her too. Unfortunately I'm here, and I don't have a Visa to work or intern there. I don't have the skills yet, neither the opportunity because technically I'm already a graduate and the deadlines have passed. I wish I was better informed and more focused on story 2 years back. I would have channeled all my energy into it. Anyway. After seeing her portfolio I...

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!! ;)

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night aski...

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates. The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion. Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influ...