Coconut Cruncher

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....