July 2005

OK Day

July 10, 2005 General

I seem to have gone mad after I was introduced to Corel Painter and WACOM Intous by Shyam. Infact I was ruing about the fact that I could not get the tabby on saturday itself :-( But anyways, I am trying to pick the basics right now although doing the same with a mouse seems very difficult but I will manage till this weekend when the tabby will be there for me :-)

I went to Jayant’s place for a luncheon and a get-together today. I liked the place a lot which is located at Prabhadevi, right next to the Arabian Sea & the view from his 9th floor apartment is fantastic. I found a few books on art at his house and it caught my fancy immediately. I did mention earlier that I now want to diversify into fine arts with the aim of digitalising and the book on the Louvre Art Gallery put more oil in the already raging fire inside me. Anyways, the food was good and both Jayant and Ranjana were excellent hosts for the day. Thanks a million:-)

Since I and Aadesh are spiritually inclined we decided to drop by the Prabhadevi Siddhivinayak temple to pay our respects to Ganesh. If there was anything that caught our attention instantly, it was the high security presence there after the Ayodhya incident. It seemed more like coming to some airport or a defence facility rather than a temple. Sadly, it seems like Lord Ganpati will have to live with this for sometime now.

Good Luck Shyam

July 10, 2005 General

Shyam ShriramI met Shyam from the SurfUnion gang for the IAF Aeroshow at Mumbai. Before that he had already carved a name for himself by posting some awesome sketches from his portfolio. The guys at SurfUnion instantly developed a liking for this “great” illustrator since they hadn’t seen anything like this before. Shyam was working for CHIP magazine at that point of time. If you really want to know who shyam is then you should see some of his work here and here. And this work is his self portrait which he revealed today that he used only a mirror (to see himself) and a mouse with Adobe Illustrator (gulp!). Also you can find him at his GFXArtist page where he has a good fan-following.

He’s now off to IDG at Bangalore which publishes such magazines like MacWorld, PC World, etc on a global platform. Since this was going to be his last weekend in Mumbai I decided to spend some time with him. Actually he’s inspired me a lot to take up illustration since I do some caricatures and hence we had decided to buy the WACOM Intuos for myself from Andheri but it could not happen. Later we went to Cafe Coffee Day at Carter Road and then loitered around the promenade there itself. The evening was supposed to be over by 6:00pm but we went for a dinner at Golden Orchid & rounded it off with a Sundae Treat at Cream Center.

It was a great evening no doubt where we discussed, gossiped, shared jokes, & whatever else that means fun :-) Good Luck Shyambhau. I will see you at Bangalore someday…definitely :-)

Sarkar

July 9, 2005 General

Amitabh as SarkarI went to see Sarkar today with Aadesh and a couple of his friends. Unfortunately I had to go back to office and missed the beginning a bit but thankfully I could complete my work and enjoy the movie at ease. The movie is about a don called Subhash Nangre whose wish is the final command to his men. He rules over the city and even the chief minister is his puppet. “There is no right or wrong. Only Power” is what the posters say and that is the reality of today’s life. This was the first time I saw Amitabh and Abhishek together. I have yet to see Bunty Aur Babli. Both the father and son outdo each other in some sequences. If ever there was an actor who could play Sarkar it was only Amitabh.

Ram Gopal Varma undoubtedly has come to reign the Gangster movies genre. He’s now made Shiva, Drohi, Satya, Company, D and now Sarkar under his ‘Factory’ shed. I liked the cinematography – the sepia tones, which look pretty much real-to-life. His another style is his close ups of actors till you can see their pores on the skin :D There are no songs in the movie but only one track ‘Govinda Govinda’, which keeps playing in the background.

On the other hand, I have got, so much used to the multiplex seating arrangement, that it hurt while it lasted at Eros :-( But please go and watch Sarkar because it’s going down as one of the best performances by Amitabh in recent times :-)

London Under Attack

July 8, 2005 Happenings

London Bus BlastBarely 24 hours since I last posted the news of London winning the bid for the 2012 Olympics, it has been attacked by terrorists with calibrated bomb explosions on its underground trains and bus services. Till the last news came in there were 37 dead and still counting and over 700 people injured.

Since I travel by Mumbai’s crowded local, I get a closer look at the reactions of the general public. Surprisingly I saw more frustration and anger vented towards the western powers than sympathy towards the blast victims. “Ab unko pata chalega terrorism kya hota hai!!” (Now they would know what terrorism is all about) said one of the my co-passengers. A remark most definitely aimed at the Americans who have conveniently turned blind towards the everyday terrorist killings in Jammu & Kashmir and I personally didn’t think this was the right time to reflect upon domestic problems. My heart goes out to the victim’s families of the London blasts. This is a terrible thing to happen to any living being on this earth and it should be condemned strongly.

The incidence has once again proved that the terrorists still hold the initiative to strike at will. Geography or military might will hardly threaten their existence or resolve.