Isolation

"Only in relationship can you know yourself, not in abstraction & certainly not in isolation" - J Krishnamurti

Where : Bugis, Singapore

When : 25th Jul 2009

City Without A Horizon

So Biju lay on his mattress and watched the movement of the sun through the grate on the row of buildings opposite. From every angle that you looked at this city without a horizon, you saw more buildings going up like jungle creepers, starved for light, holding a perpetual half darkness congealed at the bottom, the day shafting through the maze, slivering into apartments at precise and fleeting times, a cuprous segment visiting between 10 & 12 perhaps, or between 10 & 10:45, between 2:30 & 3:45. As in places of poverty where luxury is rented out, shared, and passed along from neighbor to neighbor, its time of arrival was noted and anticipated by cats, plants, elderly people who might sit with it briefly across their knees. But this light was too brief for real succor and it seemed more the visitation of a beautiful memory than the real thing.

- extract from "The Inheritance Of Loss" , Kiran Desai

Where : Suntec City, Singapore

When : 25th April 2009

Instutionalized

"These walls are funny. First you hate 'em. After long enuff , you depend on them. That's - instutionalized. "

- Frank Darabont, "The Shawshank Redemption"

Where : An overbridge across Pan Island Expressway, Singapore
When : 18th April 2009

Vigilante

"I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed & that I stood next to you like this ?"

- 'Norwegian Wood' , Haruki Murakami

Where : Sultan Mosque, Singapore

When : 12th April 2009

Evanescence

"Beauty is the eye discovering in our world what the mind already knows."

- 'My Name Is Red' , Orhan Pamuk

Where : Thian Hock Keng Temple, Singapore
When : 11th April 2009

Darkness

"The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out under you. And once that happens, you've had it : things'll never be the same. All you can do is go on living alone down there in the darkness."

- 'After Dark' , Haruki Murakami

Where : Some obscure park off Potong Pasir, Singapore

When : 4th April 2009

Solitude

Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth.

For a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures,

and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.
- Francis Bacon

Where : Fort Canning Park & some obscure park off Potong Pasir, Singapore.

When : 4th April 2009

Mind Over Matter

After months of deliberations, I finally jumped onto the DSLR bandwagon. The pics you see here are from my first outing with Canon EOS 1000D. I had a particularly awful night on Friday. My acidity flared up & it kept me awake throughout the night. Had 2 bouts of forced retching ( vaman dhauti) one at 3am & another at 6am. The easiest option was to stay at home & mope (like I always do) and put off the picture taking outing to another day. But i didn't, hence the title 'mind over matter' . Just took a quick shower , drank cold chocolate milk (to pacify the acids) & left home at 7:30am. Though the pics are nothing to shout about but I am happy just the same to have gotten over my inertia.

Sprite - Seedhi Baat - No Bakwaas

It's another dreary afternoon in office. I am killing time & in turn time is killing me. In between all of this mayhem I am browsing rediff. I see a link which says "Chat with Kalki Koechlin". In a blink of an eyelid i don the nick of "sg-fanboy" and jump onto the forum which is already swarming with thousands of fanboys like me. I see desperate shouts like "Mam, please atleast say Hi to me". I pray that I don't end up with a plea like that loser & quickly start drafting a question in my mind. Something which would make her notice me, without resorting to blatant flattery.

It seems like my stars were aligned favorably as Kalki (or whoever was moderating the forum) deemed my queries (yes, 2 of them) worthy enough for reply. Here'z a cut 'n' paste for posterity..

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Sg-Fanboy asked, Hi Kalki, the scene in which you are seen coloring Abhay Deols face in the balcony.. what is it meant to signify ?

Kalki Koechlin answers, It was improvised at the shoot, it was kind of a reflection of how Chanda and Dev paint on happy faces when there's so much pain going on inside.
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Sg-Fanboy asked, What was the need of re-interpreting Devdas story ? Minus all the gloss , it is still a very simple & linear story. IMHO, a talented guy like Anurag should use his energies on telling new universal stories. The kind of stories which would bring an Oscar home. Dev-D is totally India centric.. don't you think so ? AK is meant for bigger stuff.

Kalki Koechlin answers, It is India centric. But it's a step for Indian cinema, I think this allows him to do bigger stuff.
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There was a 3rd question which I slipped through shamelessly.
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Sg-Fanboy asked, Will you be my Valentine.. plz plz say Yes.. (lie if you must, but say Yes)
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Unfortunately, it didn't make the cut. One would hardly blame me, for being so blunt. At my rapidly advancing age, I am entitled for little bit of desperation. Sprite, "Seedhi Baat. No Bakwaas". That is my mantra for finding everlasting love, in 2009.

Cheers to me & my never ending singledom.

p.s : Happy Valentine's day to all of my loyal readers & disloyal valentines.