reflections

We've moved!

2015-03-16T03:36:00.003+05:30

Have you updated your feeds yet?

I now blog at http://blog.kritibajaj.com/

I'd love to see you there! :)

Moving!

2015-01-15T03:13:00.001+05:30

I have a new (virtual) home! It's not quite furnished yet, but I've done up the Blog Room quite a lot and it's not bad to look at, just a few bean bags missing...

Check us out - and update your feeds! I will take this blog down soon, so make sure you don't miss out. I love visitors and I always have chocolate.

Thank you for the love these past eight-ish years :)

2014-10-10T02:25:00.001+05:30

Unfinished conversations are like...

Presence

2014-09-24T04:10:00.000+05:30

you can hum tunes with me now
and sometimes, the same music
courses through both our veins
sometimes at the same time
so i can't tell the difference
between your songs and mine

two colours speak to me now
as i fill up the cracks
in the empty winter
black for absence, frozen haze
white for presence, no rainbow
cuts through our days

and i think i was
an unanswered question
my presence in the spaces
between people, a spark
my absence unnoticed
a shadow in the dark

still this absent presence
with its long fingers of smoke
draws spectres from dreary hope
dreams from nightmares, from words
and touching two-coloured piano keys
draws songs from silence, no blackbirds

One day in Budapest

2014-07-16T03:44:00.000+05:30

(The eleventh instalment of the Backpacking with a Suitcase series, in which I document my travels across Europe in July 2012. Click on the pictures to enlarge.)

The bus reached Budapest past 8pm, but the day was still bright. One of the great things about Europe in the summer. Here, too, I faced a language barrier - even more so than Prague - and hardly anyone spoke English. I finally asked a group of (what appeared to be) students for directions to the nearest metro station. The guards who checked my ticket didn't speak English either, and their only response to my inquiries about validating the ticket was "super!" (su-pair) I took their word for it.

The directions on my hostel (Paprika) booking were indeed "super", and I found it with ease, with only one stop at a stately-looking McDonald's to buy dinner (sigh - it was getting late and I wasn't sure where I'd venture alone to find food, so I took my chance). The hostel was very different from any of the others I stayed at - they strive to be more informal and friendly, while not compromising on quality. It's situated in a huge, old residential building in which it occupies an "apartment" (?), so it's small - you enter through the kitchen and the living room is full of people (when they're not out partying or pub crawling together) who all seem to know each other like one big family. A bit too intimate for me, especially because I was alone, to be in a room full of people I didn't know - but that said, I interacted with and got to know some really nice people and would have probably got used to it if I had stayed longer. I was only in Budapest for one night because I got the cheapest flight back to London from there. (Definitely worth another visit.)

What do you do if you're in a city only for a few hours? Take a three-hour walking tour, of course. I hadn't planned on this, but my Taiwanese roommates were going for one and I joined them, which turned out to be a great decision. On my own, I probably would have ended up seeing less than half the places, getting lost a lot, and missing out on little nuggets of interesting information about Hungary that our guides were very generous with. Moreover, the tour was "free" (with a request for donations).

The meeting point

Budapest unified to become a single city on 17 November 1873, occupying both banks of the river Danube: Buda and Pest. A number of bridges, the Chain Bridge being the largest and most beautiful, link Buda and Pest. Pest is pronounced "pesht".

Looking out on Pest from Buda - and the Chain Bridge

Occasionally, during the tour, we'd sit down and have a mini history or Hungarian lesson (one of the toughest languages to learn, apparently, because it has no relation to any other language); occasionally, we'd rub a statue for good luck. After exploring Pest, we walked across the Chain Bridge and up to Buda Castle, which looks like something out of a fairytale.

Buda Castle

The tour culminated at the castle, after we'd witnessed the changing of the guard and taken a group photo. Everyone then parted ways and I decided to explore by myself for the next few hours, before heading back to the hostel for my luggage.

Ice creams in Budapest are the BEST - cheap and with cookies or huge chocolate chunks embedded in them. I sat by the Fisherman's Bastion to enjoy one, and also got treated to some beautiful Hungarian music. Also spied a busker who "played" (or pretended to) what seemed to be a wooden dish and spoon without any strings - making funny "music" with his mouth. I left some change in his case. It wore glasses.

I walked back through very quaint streets; I got lost but all I needed to do was follow the Danube.

The Parliament building was modelled on Westminster Abbey.

I next visited the Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe. I've never been to one before, it was absolutely beautiful.

Dohány Street Synagogue

I got lost on the way to the famed Opera House.

The Opera House

I made a friend at the airport. She had daughters my age; we had the best time all the way to London talking about my dissertation and her job and finding "cheap" postcards at Budapest airport and laughing at the lifeguard illustrations on the plane safety manual.

I kept leaning over the guy in the window seat to get a glimpse of the night view during the take-off. He was reading A Midsummer Night's Dream and probably regretting his chosen seat. The view was stunning.

Humans of Vienna

2014-06-30T03:14:00.003+05:30

(The tenth instalment of the Backpacking with a Suitcase series, in which I document my travels across Europe in July 2012. Click on the pictures to enlarge.)

The bus made a stop in Brno, Czech Republic, on its way to Vienna. I got off at the station to buy something to eat, spending the last of my Czech Koruna, which I'd kept aside as souvenirs. Back on the bus, a young man sat next to me in lieu of the older gentleman I had started the journey with. He read Memoirs of a Geisha in German, and watched a Harry Potter movie, and I suspect he may have been fun to talk to if he had taken his headphones off for a few seconds. I stared out the window and took shaky videos of the dazzling sunflower fields and gave him a life-story. Do you ever do that? Give strangers a story, imagine what their life must be like, where they've been, where they're going?

Hütteldorf

The hostel was in Hütteldorf, slightly far out from the city centre (the last stop on the U-Bahn) but a really lovely suburban area. I got lost, despite the clear directions, because that's what I do, but a kindly man helped me out. I huffed and puffed on the uphill(ish) climb, and wasn't disappointed; the room, to be shared with five others, was charming, and this hostel served the best, hugest breakfast spread as far as hostels go. My Russian roommate was easy to befriend once we started talking. She was in Vienna for an opera master class for two weeks. She braided her hair in a zillion braids as I watched from the corner of my eye, which turned into the most gorgeous curls the next morning. She told me I ate like a bird, and we talked about fellow travellers, careers and asthma.

My interaction with the other roommates was even more fleeting: a Chinese girl who was a student in Gent and let me borrow her laptop to copy my photos onto a disk, all the while chatting pleasantly; an American mother-daughter duo that didn't speak to me once till I gave away my bottle of (accidentally bought) sparkling water (the most pointless drink in the world?) to the mom, who then asked me about my trip and told me about theirs. And then we all went our separate ways. Maybe our paths will cross again - you never know with travellers.

Schönbrunn

Just a couple of U-Bahn stops from Hütteldorf is the Schönbrunn Palace, where I was due to attend a (kiddie version, because it's cheaper, of a) marionette theatre performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). I was sleepy from the journey, had the worst seat imaginable - last row corner - and hungry (to quell this, I had taken the liberty of ordering a "waffle" at the cafe which turned out to be one of these forlorn things). A family of four sat in the vicinity, the dad and kids in the row in front of me and the very anxious-fidgety mother next to me. They were beautiful, and the parents spoke English to their kids, but they also (all) knew German perfectly, and I spent far too much time wondering how that worked. At one point the mum asked me something, and her daughter exclaimed "She speaks English!" in wonderment. I understood less of the performance than I'd thought, though it was stunning. I also dozed a little. Then I took a solitary walk through Schönbrunn's magnificent gardens.

Starvation is not fun. The fact that pretty much everything is closed on weekends, combined with my woeful (on that occasion) map-reading skills, meant that I couldn't find any food near the hostel. I was starting to think I'd have to take the train back towards the city centre when I saw two boys walking up the road, eating takeout noodles. I made a beeline for them. "HI, where'd you get THOSE?" "At the station!" The station? How had I missed food at the station? Back I went, passing a lady with a giant pizza slice on the way and sure enough, there it was. I started to order my noodles in German, but got caught out. "Are you Indian?" (sigh) "Yep." He was more chatty the next day when I returned for one of the huge pizza slices, speaking to me in Hindi (!), telling me he was from Afghanistan, but had learned Hindi from watching Bollywood movies and from Indian colleagues when he worked in Dubai. And now here he was, working in Vienna and speaking perfect German. Some people make you feel like you haven't lived at all.

On both evenings, I took my dinner to a nearby park, perched on the bench, and enjoyed the traquility, feeling almost free of the constraints of time itself. Almost.

The park bench and the pizza

Then there was the boy who laughed.

It was raining on Sunday morning, and I was sitting on a couch in the hostel surrounded by a few strangers. He came up to us and said hi, and no one responded except me. He sat down and stared into the distance, and occasionally he would laugh. He didn't talk to anyone - or no one talked to him.

When it stopped raining, I walked to Hütteldorf station and saw him coming up the escalator while I waited for the U-Bahn. I didn't much feel like chatting, but he'd seen me and there was nowhere to go. So I replied to his smile with one of my own, and he tried to make conversation in broken English. He was from Slovakia, and he said he spoke better German than English.

"Ich kann Deutsch," I told him, thereby squashing a great excuse to stop talking. He seemed nice enough, and now conversed in broken German, but by this point the paranoid Delhi girl in me had taken over and the laughter scared me. I began to grow colder. When I got down, he didn't follow.

Later, I told my roommate about him. "I've spoken to him too," she said. "He's very peaceful."

At one of the U-Bahn stations was a woman busker who sat on the steps and sang. She looked young and beautiful. She had no instruments, only a hauntingly beautiful voice. I couldn't understand the words of the song, but that didn't stop them from moving me. I stared at her (and the policeman trying to get her to leave), transfixed as the train moved away.

Apfelstrudel

Somewhere in the midst of checking out all the places where Before Sunrise was filmed, losing my precious notes near the Museums Quartier, desperately retracing my steps and finding the papers miraculously nestled beside a staircase, eating Frankfurters and Apfelstrudel and admiring the blue sky, I found myself staring at a golden statue in Neuer Markt. Beside it, a man created the most glorious music from his Glockenspiel (I think) and voice.

The golden statue had some sort of net over it, and as I searched for the best angle for my photo, a voice chimed in to advise me. It belonged to a Mumbaikar now living in Melbourne, and led to some pleasant chatting before we both went our ways.

On the U-Bahn to Friedensbrücke, I sat opposite an old hag. I don't normally use that word to describe people, nor any of the other words that I actually use for her in my head, but she was huge and spotted and looked a lot like an old Marge Dursley without any dogs, and she punched my head on her way out. I saw her humungous fist come at my temple from the corner of my eye, and she was gone before I could react. I spent the rest of my trip keeping a safe distance from old women.

Writing Updates | April - May 2014

2014-05-31T23:41:00.000+05:30

A round up of the articles and interviews I've done for Art Radar in the last two months.

Kookoo and Ku, ‘Welcome 2014′, 2014, spray paint. Image courtesy Kookoo Ramos.

THE PHILIPPINES | Manila's mean streets: The Filipino Street Art Project

A three-part series on a very cool project documenting street art in and around Manila. Part 1 is a general introduction, part 2 is an interview with the founders, and part 3 introduces seven exciting Filipino street artists.

SENEGAL | 10 African artists to know at Dak'Art 2014

The main exhibit at Dak'Art features artists from African/diaspora working across various media, and I picked 10 of my favourites.

HONG KONG | Artist Nadim Abbas talks bunkers, cocktails and weevils - interview

Nadim Abbas told me about the art scene in Hong Kong, his year so far and what lies ahead, and his big project at Art Basel Hong Kong - the sci-fi inspired Art Bar called "Apocalypse Postponed".

BEIJING | Serenading visitor's at Lee Mingwei's first Beijing show

Lee Mingwei is a unique artist whose past exhibitions include visitors sleeping over with the artist at the museum, and handing out flowers to strangers. In "Sonic Blossom", museum visitors are asked a question and if they agree, serenaded by an opera singer.

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND | "My Country": Indigenous Australian art in Auckland

An exhibition called "My Country" by indigenous contemporary artists - in pictures. Some very interesting work here, using media as diverse as emu feathers and text art, and making a strong political/historical comment.

TAIWAN | Taiwan's first "Art Bank" opens in Taichung

Seriously, it's an art bank. They loan you...art. How cool is that? It features only local artists, since the idea is to promote them through this initiative, and the art takes turns to be housed in big fancy buildings in Taiwan as well as diplomatic buildings internationally.

JAPAN | Yokohama Triennale announces artists for 2014 edition

The Triennale begins in August and it has some very interesting approaches, including the entire layout of the triennale being like a book - the various exhibitions are named "Chapters" and everything.

HONG KONG | Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2014: Hong Kong's Adrian Wong wins top award

This is the first time the top prize went to a sculptor (no wonder Wong was so surprised), though not the first time it went to an artist from Hong Kong.

HONG KONG | Para Site conference on performance art

This year's conference focused on performance art, and I live streamed and summarised two talks: one by Gabi Ngcobo on historical legacies and another on performance art in the museum.

RUSSIA | The V&A's Islamic art collection goes on tour in Russia

The Jameel Prize finalist exhibition heads to Kazan (a first) and Moscow as part of the UK Russia Year of Culture.

MISCELLANEOUS | Art Basel Hong Kong 2014: First time galleries prepare for the fair

I asked 4 galleries from Australia and Europe what they were taking to the fair and what they hoped to achieve.

And somewhere in the midst of all these, this blog turned seven.

Writing Updates | February - March 2014

2014-04-03T02:18:00.001+05:30

A round up of the articles and interviews I've done for Art Radar in the last two months.

News from the art world

INDIA, UK | Tate to work with Indian culture ministry on art initiatives

The Indian Ministry of Culture and UK’s Tate signed an agreement on 6 February 2014 in a bid to collaborate on projects and initiatives related to the modern and contemporary art of both countries. Read more.

AUSTRALIA | Sydney Biennale faces boycott over sponsorship controversy

The 19th Biennale of Sydney faced calls for a boycott due to links with sponsor Transfield, which runs Australian detention centres and asylum services on a for-profit basis. Read more.

CHINA | Christie's opens first Asia-based gallery in Hong Kong

Christie’s expands its reach in Asia by opening its first Asian gallery in Hong Kong, The James Christie Room, targeting the region’s rising art market and affluent collectors. Read more.

QATAR | Qatar announces new artist residence centre amid booming cultural infrastructure

The Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) announces that the former Civil Defence headquarters will soon re-open, housing the programme “Fire Station: Artists in Residence”. Read more.

AUSTRALIA | Melbourne on the global art map with Australia's newest triennial

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) announces the new NGV Triennial that will celebrate the best of contemporary international art and design, and will put Melbourne on the global art map. Read more.

Reviews and overviews

SOUTHEAST ASIA | Southeast Asian women in the diaspora - Troubling Borders book review

Troubling Borders, a new anthology of Southeast Asian art and literature, looks at how the Diaspora’s women artists are pushing literal and figurative boundaries. Read more.

CHINA, USA | Chinese artists at Armory Focus 2014 - Alexandre Errera's watch list

Alexandre Errera, Founder and CEO of online platform Artshare.com, reveals to Art Radar his five favourite artists and artworks from the Armory Focus: China section at the Armory Show 2014 in New York. Read more.

AFRICA | 4 West African photographers to know now

Art Radar profiles four West African photographers that are challenging stereotypical representations of their countries, people and culture through art. Read more.

BANGLADESH | South Asia in focus: 5 curated shows at Dhaka Art Summit 2014

Art Radar highlights five curated shows at the 2014 edition of Dhaka Art Summit. Read more.

MALAYSIA | Contemporary Muslim calligraphy debuts in Malaysia

To celebrate its 15th anniversary, Kuala Lumpur’s Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAMM) is displaying its private collection of contemporary Islamic calligraphy publicly for the first time. Read more.

TURKEY | Contemporary visual culture from Turkey and beyond

As part of a series of events for its 10th anniversary, Istanbul Modern presents an exhibition titled “Neighbours – Contemporary Narratives from Turkey and Beyond”, highlighting contemporary art from Turkey and its neighbours. Read more.

USA | Armory Show 2014: China steals the limelight? - media round up

The 2014 Armory fair brought Chinese contemporary art to New York and tried to address the organisational problems of previous years, but did it impress the critics? Read more.

UAE | Central Asia in focus at Art Dubai: Marker 2014

The Marker section of Art Dubai 2014 (at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, from 19 to 22 March 2014) featured art from Central Asia and the Caucasus region, curated by the art collective Slavs and Tatars. Read more.

INDIA | 6 artists contemplate freedom in "Waiting for the Wind"

“Waiting for the Wind”, at Kolkata’s Experimenter gallery from 7 March to 26 April 2014, features artists whose videos, installations and images explore issues of militarisation, violence, captivity and freedom. Read more.

Features and guides: Delhi

INSERT 2014 | Re-imagining Delhi as a cultural space

INSERT2014: The Sharp Edge of the Global Contemporary, a series of events and exhibitions in New Delhi from 17 January to 28 February 2014 curated by Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective, rethinks the use of galleries and the infrastructure of the city. Read more.

Art Radar Guide | Contemporary art in Delhi

Art Radar’s city guides series continues with tips and suggestions on what to visit for contemporary art and culture in India’s capital, New Delhi. Read more.

Interviews

IRAQ | In the shadow of war: Photographer Jamal Penjweny on Iraq today

Iraqi photographer and filmmaker Jamal Penjweny speaks to Art Radar about his art projects and the everyday life in Iraq that they portray, a side of the country not often seen in the media. Read more.

INDIA | Indian artist Jayasri Burman on mythology and imagination

Indian artist Jayasri Burman talks to Art Radar about her inspiration from mythology and folk art and merging tradition and modernity in her work. Read more.

Reclaiming the gaze - African photographers

2014-03-20T03:35:00.000+05:30

"A photograph is a window and not the view...
don't photograph what you see, photograph what you feel."
- Emeka Okereke, photographer

Recently, while researching for an article for Art Radar, I came across a brilliant six-part documentary series on Al Jazeera titled Artscape - The New African Photography. Each of the 25-minute films profiles a photographer from and working in Africa, their journey, experience and project(s).

For a continent that has too long and too often been represented in the global media through a lens that focuses on aspects like poverty and exoticism, more often than not by those who are visitors and who pursue an image that they have been predisposed to find, this is a refreshing look at what's going on in the African art scene. The media also often forgets that Africa comprises of 54 countries, each unique, diverse and very different from the others (I'm not sure you'd see, for example, a documentary series on "European photographers"). Nonetheless, these videos provide an insight into the fascinating projects that these six photographers undertake, as well as their relationship with their art, country, and history.

Mario Macilau is a documentary photographer. Having grown up in poverty, acquiring his first camera through unusual means and pursuing photography with diligence against all odds, he now turns his art to similar social issues: documenting poverty in Mozambique. As with most Indian cities, he describes the ever-widening gap between the ultra rich and extremely poor; as we watch, he photographs the workers at a garbage dump, his compositions finding aesthetic beauty that is a stark contrast - and hence highlights - the hardships of these workers and their situation.

Baudouin Mouanda's project "The Dream" involves women in Congo and later in Dresden being photographed in various scenarios wearing the same wedding dress. I wasn't so convinced by the concept (every woman's dream is to get married and wear a wedding dress) but it was really interesting to watch the progress and reactions, and how Mouanda staged and framed his beautiful shots. George Osodi takes us on the journey of documenting the oil devastation in the Niger delta, his earlier project which made him a known name; and then we travel with him across Nigeria as he photographs royalty and provides an insight into how politics and monarchy go hand in hand in the country.

As with many other professions, it has been doubly hard for women to pursue their passion and elbow their way through the industry. Neo Ntsoma, who became the first woman to win the CNN African Photographer of the Year award in 2004, talks about her experience as a black woman in a South Africa in which Apartheid was still prevalent. She was the first black woman to make it to photography school there. Her early career as a crime photographer earned her the CNN prize but she was more attracted to the positive image of South Africa, and in this film she, along with fellow artists, musicians, designers and DJs, recounts her struggles but also her exhilaration at being a part of the new generation that was able to break the mould and follow their dreams.

Barbara Minishi's project is slightly similar to Mouanda's: it involves a red dress that she takes with her on journeys through Kenya, meeting and photographing women who are making a difference in their society. The dress raises interesting questions throughout the film (is it Kenyan? is it colonial? can you separate the two, can you separate history and identity?) and much of the film is also a discussion on being a woman, especially in a male-dominated profession.

In one of my favourite lines in the video, Minishi and her friend discuss the idea of an independent woman: "do we call men independent? We just assume that they are." Is anyone really independent? Should they be? What does it mean? Is 'independent' meant as a compliment only as far as women are concerned?

In another powerful scene, video and performance artist Ato Malinda, wearing the red dress and with her face painted red, talks about how much freedom women are still denied, and says "I would love to be able to walk in the streets of Nairobi at night." It's amazing and tragic how much can be similar across countries and continents, how some of us are still fighting for the most basic rights.

"I never left Nigeria, I just lived in Europe. I'm a border being. I live in two places all the time". Emeka Okereke proves that photography is a journey, literally, as he and fellow photographers venture on an Invisible Borders road trip across West Africa. They encounter problems but it's not the destination that a photographer maketh; art and beauty can be found amidst obstacles. Okereke is an inspiring teacher, as can be seen in the progress of the young photographer Lilian Novo, who he mentors, but also in the extremely insightful and quotable things he said throughout the film and that I obsessively noted down.

"Everyone has what it takes to make themselves better but you have to understand that you have to move.

...Movement is the word."

- Emeka Okereke

Fragments

2014-02-08T03:48:00.000+05:30

the idea of you

power
vulnerability

sweet talking
brain baring
bittersweet

second chances.
no thirds.
though life may plot otherwise

pictures. puzzle pieces.
songs that torture

haze. identity.
silver linings
are hard work.

ours is a relationship built on words
words written
unwritten, unspoken

i miss you.
miss, as in wish you were here
miss, as in missing from me

you break, i break
silence
loud
the sound of a heart breaking

abandoned
dispensable

tell all your secrets to someone
who'll forget them tomorrow

one, far away from someone
two, far away from their thoughts
three, an afterthought

but you are not one half of a whole
you are one
"one person in one head"
you are whole.

Writing updates - Jan 2014

2014-01-31T20:47:00.000+05:30

Here are the articles, interviews and features I wrote for Art Radar the past month:

THE PHILIPPINES | Art after the storm: Filipino artists respond to Typhoon Haiyan

A feature on how artists have responded to the devastation caused by the second deadliest typhoon in the Philippines, both philanthropically and in their art practice. I contacted many artists in the Philippines and the Diaspora for their inputs, and the way the community has come together is so inspiring. From fundraising drives and exhibitions to art as therapy and culinary arts in the most stricken areas, to a desire to address issues of death and devastation through art and challenge representations of the Philippines in mainstream media, they've done it all. And this is only the beginning.

BENIN | Sub-Saharan Africa's first contemporary art museum opens in Benin

News from the contemporary art world - Benin's Zinsou Foundation inaugurated the first museum dedicated to contemporary art in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa. Good signs for the growth of art in Africa, where the art market in most regions is still virtually non-existent.

INDIA | India's largest public art project lands at Mumbai airport

“Jaya He” or Glory to India, which is a 3-km ‘art wall’ museum composed of 7000 artworks housed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport’s Terminal 2 in Mumbai, is the biggest art collection at any airport in the world.

CHINA | Dystopia in Beijing: Cao Fei's Haze and Fog - book review

Review of an e-book of critical essays on Cao Fei’s Haze and Fog, a film commissioned by the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) in Manchester and shown at the CFCCA from 26 October to 7 December 2013.

SINGAPORE | 10 great artists at Art Stage Singapore 2014 - picture feast

My picks from artists and artworks that galleries sent us that were on display at Art Stage Singapore 2014. Includes lots of interesting and unique media and styles.

SINGAPORE | Art Stage Singapore 2014 builds bridges in Asia? - media round up

A collation of the reactions by media, critics and gallerists to gauge the response to Art Stage Singapore 2014, which introduced a new format and ended on a record sales high.

CHINA | "Beyond official culture": Philip Tinari on Chinese contemporary art - interview

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art’s Director Philip Tinari talks about the upcoming “Armory Focus: China” in New York, curating and censorship in China.

HONG KONG | Art Basel Hong Kong announces first film sector

Details from the art fair have begun to emerge. Art Basel Hong Kong 2014 will include a three-day film programme for the first time, to be curated by multimedia artist Li Zhenhua.

INDIA | Making art accessible: Neha Kirpal on India Art Fair - interview

Founder and Director of India Art Fair Neha Kirpal shares her insights into the Indian art scene and her plans for India Art Fair’s future in this interview. The art fair closed on Sunday, Feb 2, 2014.

The End (or, the one with the Lists 3)

2013-12-31T23:30:00.000+05:30

The 31st of December always feels slightly weird. As the final hours of the year draw to a close, I can usually be found reminiscing and recording moments from the year gone by, which usually seems to have sped by and dragged along and I can't decide which. Our notion of chronological time is more than a bit strange, and I'm sure if analysed, it would be the root of many of our problems and worries. It causes us to strike days off calendars, count the heartbeats in a minute, count the minutes in a memory, the memories in a year, impose some semblance of order in our chaotic existence, and believe in all these hopes and expectations and magic that a new year will bring. And, of course, deal with all the clichéd cynical tweets about how it's all codswallop. (Why yes, I have been dying to use 'codswallop' in a sentence).

So, in an attempt to be really unoriginal, here are my favourites among the films (new and old) that I watched this year:

Silver Linings Playbook
Annie Hall
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Tangled
Spirited Away
Zelig
Before Midnight

Before Midnight

Persepolis
The Mexican Suitcase
The Lunchbox

Aaaand for more clichéd lists, my favourite books from 2013:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Peterson
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams (and the entire Hitchhiker's series)

One Hundred Names - Cecelia Ahern
The Hunger Games trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

The Cuckoo's Calling - J.K. Rowling
Blackberry Wine - Joanne Harris

On 1 January 2013, a friend shared this idea on Facebook:

And I thought I'd try it, I suspected I may need it. So I took a little orange notepad and every day, I wrote down the good things, the little things, compliments and songs and things that made me smile. And it was so amazing to read it right now. I was kind of happy to let this year go, but I now realise how special it was, even if that little notepad only presents one side of the story. I'm ringing in the year reading The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, and I think the book's philosophy of optimism is so powerful, because even a thin silver lining shines through the biggest raincloud. It's stronger.

Happy 2014!

Writing / editing updates (or, The one with the Lists 2)

2013-12-26T20:10:00.001+05:30

BRICOLAGE MAGAZINE ISSUE 3

The September-November 2013 issue has been our best and most diverse yet, with submissions from all over the world. I'm so proud of how far we've come. I also have a photo feature in this issue.

THE UNFAMILIAR ANTHROPOLOGY JOURNAL, VOL. 3 NO. 2

The new issue of the University of Edinburgh's student-managed anthropology journal, for which I am an Editorial Director, came out last week. The theme was "Death and Resurrection", and the submissions were really interesting. I haven't finished reading it but I edited/proofread the poem "Dead People's Things" by Kathryn Watt, and a paper on rituals for the departed in Georgia and how internal displacement has affected them, and they were great. Read the issue here.

ART RADAR ASIA

Since November 2013, I've been writing for the lovely Art Radar Asia, for which I'm currently a staff writer. It focuses on Asian contemporary visual art and culture, and I'm really enjoying it and learning so much with every piece I write, in addition to contacting artists and galleries all over the world. You can find all of my articles here, and I'm sharing some below:

SYRIA: Between displacement and dissent: 8 Syrian contemporary artists

This article introduces the work of eight artists from Syria: Ammar al Beik, Ammar Abd Rabbo, Asaad Arabi, Tammam Azzam, Safwan Dahoul, Othman Moussa, Thaier Helal, and Elias Izoli. Researching for this piece was inspiring and humbling, and I was blown away by some of the work. Azzam's "Freedom Graffiti" went viral on social media earlier this year so probably many of us have seen it. During my research I also came across this wonderful Facebook page dedicated to Syrian artists, whether emerging or established, and it's a great resource. Read my complete article here.

BANGKOK: "Currency Crisis": Southeast Asian artists talk money in Bangkok

Introducing the artists, works and themes in the exhibition "Currency Crisis" at Whitespace Gallery in Bangkok. Featured artists are Pisitakun Kuantalang (Thailand), Latthapon Korkiatrakul (Thailand), Pornprasert Yamazaki (Thailand), Green Zeng (Singapore), Sai Hua Kuan (Singapore) and Moe Satt (Myanmar). The exhibition deals with interpretations on the ideology of money and currency. Read the full article here.

NEW YORK: Asian artists on the world stage at New York's Performa 13

An overview of the work of ten artists from Asia who are presenting at this year's Performa 13 in New York, which is New York's only biennial dedicated to live performance art. Read the article here.

INDIA / UK: A constellation of stories: India's Amar Kanwar exhibits in Yorkshire

I really enjoyed writing and researching this. It's about an ongoing exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park by Amar Kanwar, called The Sovereign Forest + Other Stories, and deals with local communities in Orissa and their struggle against the government and corporations who are trying to take over their land for bauxite mining. Read the article here.

TAIWAN: White Fungus art magazine to go global

The gorgeous, avant garde White Fungus magazine that was born in New Zealand and is now based out of Taiwan signed a deal for worldwide circulation a few weeks ago. This can only mean good things for anyone interested in art. Ron Hanson, the editor, told me a bit about it AND I got a free copy. Yay for job perks! Read the article here.

MISCELLANEOUS: Holiday art gifts: 7 best art books of 2013

Art Radar has been compiling lists and suggestions of artsy stuff to gift art enthusiasts, and this is our pick of the seven more interesting books on art that were released this year, with a little intro to each of them and links to the ones we reviewed earlier this year. Check it out here.

INDIA: Total eclipse: The "Black Sun" across cultures

Overview of the Shezad Dawood and Tom Trevor curated exhibition featuring various Indian and international artists who have dealt with the iconography or metaphor of the 'black sun'. The exhibition is on at Devi Art Gallery in Gurgaon till April 2014. Read the article here.

OMAN / WASHINGTON D.C.: Oman donates $1.8m to the Smithsonian's African art museum

The Sultanate of Oman made the largest donation in the museum's history to go towards new programmes fostering the cultural relationship, common background and art exchanges between the two countries. Read details in the full article here.

INDIA: Translucent: India's first video art festival

India finally has a festival dedicated to video art and how. From December 2013 to February 2014, the festival will screen nearly 50 films at its venue in Goa. Read about some of the participating artists, video art in India, and what video art is all about in my article here.

HONG KONG: Negotiating urban identity: 5 young Hong Kong artists

Through an overview of the five participating artists at Rossi & Rossi Hong Kong's exhibition These Shores, I discuss the themes of rapid commercialisation and urbanisation in Hong Kong, what these have meant for the artistic community and citizens, and how artists have attempted to react to or express it in their work. Read the article here.

VENICE: Okwui Enwezor named first African-director of the Venice Biennale

It seems sort of unbelievable (or maybe not really?) that in the more-than-a-century history of the Venice Biennale, not once has it had an African director. Okwui Enwezor seems like a great choice, he has previously spoken about the nature of the Biennale as pitting nations against each other owing to its pavilion structure and other issues besides; he thinks of nationality as a fluid concept, and I'm sure his vision for the Biennale is going to be really interesting. Read my article here.

UK / CHINA: Oxford's Ashmolean Museum acquires world class collection of Chinese art

The late Prof Michael Sullivan bequeathed his entire collection of modern and contemporary Chinese art, which began nearly 70 years ago, to the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum (the first public museum in Britain). Many of these works have never been seen in public and will now be displayed on rotation. Read my article here.

MISCELLANEOUS: Unpacking contemporary art: Ode to Art lecture video

Art historian Jeffrey Say, who teaches at Singapore's LASALLE College of the Arts, gave a lecture on understanding and appreciating contemporary art. It covers the basics of what contemporary art is, and why it invokes such varied reactions. In my article, I summarise and elaborate on some of the points he highlights in the lecture. I learned a LOT from it, and for anyone curious about art in our times, it should be an interesting piece. Read my article here.

The one with the Lists

2013-12-25T05:33:00.000+05:30

I won't lie - this hasn't been a great year.

But recently, I've begun to really put things into perspective. I have a lot - a whole lot - to be thankful for, and even in the times I was low, I haven't forgotten that. But now, with the holidays and cheer and so on, I'm going to try and focus on that even more. For the initial part of 2013, and spells in between, I haven't been the most optimistic person, but I really do know how very lucky I am. So the next few posts, if all goes as planned, are going to be looking up!

But for now, here's my Christmas playlist. Isn't Christmas just the most infectious festival ever? I've been tweeting songs from this playlist one by one to ~~annoy~~ impose Christmas music on people, because it's fun.

1. Christmas Lights - Coldplay

2. Shake up Christmas - Train

3. Let it Snow - Michael Bublé
4. All I want for Christmas is us - Jason Mraz and Tristan Prettyman
5. Mele Kalikimaka - Gianni and Sarah
6. Last Christmas - Wham!
7. Thanks for Christmas - XTC
8. Mistletoe - Colbie Caillat
9. Fairytale of New York - Gianni and Sarah
10. Winter Wonderland - Jason Mraz
11. White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
12. Phoebe's Holiday Song

13. I feel it in my fingers - Billy Mack
14. Sleigh Ride - Carpenters
15. Overture (Christmas Portrait) - Carpenters
16. Jingle Bell Rock - Walk Off the Earth
17. All I want for Christmas - Michael Bublé
18. It's the most wonderful time of the year - Andy Williams
19. Christmas Day - She & Him
20. Hurra es schneit - Nena

And here are the things I'm grateful for:

1. Parents who let me be a freeloader every time I'm trying to 'find myself'
2. The chance to revisit London and readjust my priorities and attitude
3. Jennifer Lawrence

4. Lots of published work
5. Chocolate, which will be extinct in seven years
6. Humans of New York for affirming my faith in humanity and life lessons and teaching me to be kinder and liking children (in a non-creepy way)
7. Best friends who get my sense of humour; such people are hard to find. Who else can you have these conversations with:

A: So looks like I got past the Cornucopia bloodbath but got taken out by the Careers :(
B: Oh no, the job interview?

A: So I've had two missed calls from Albania.
B: Voldemort?!

Yeah, okay.

And some resolutions for 2014:

1. Make a serious attempt to be awake in the morning and asleep at night
2. Start hoarding chocolate in preparation for the Apocalypse.
3. Think of more resolutions.
4. TBA

Prague's Golden Lane

2013-12-17T00:55:00.000+05:30

(The ninth instalment of the Backpacking with a Suitcase series, in which I document my travels across Europe in July 2012. Click on the pictures to enlarge.)

House 12 - Josef Kazda

One of my favourite places in Prague was the Golden Lane at Prague Castle. I did some research on it and wrote a short feature on what I saw and found out for The Culture Trip:

Located in the Prague Castle complex, this quaint lane traces its origins back to the 16th century. It is lined with rows of picturesque, colourful houses on either side, which were occupied until the 1950s, and then used mostly as souvenir shops. Though opinions about this narrow cobbled lane vary, with some considering it charming while others deeming it a tourist trap, the Golden Lane (or Zlatá ulička, as it is locally known) has undergone quite a reconstruction.

Read the entire article here.

The Third Eye

2013-11-06T16:24:00.001+05:30

Here's a short piece on the exhibition "Vision Unseen", curated by Rakesh Nagar, that was on display in the quadrangle of the India International Centre from September 20-29, 2013.

“Inspiring” is the first word that comes to mind upon viewing this exhibit of photographs by three visually impaired photographers: Evgen Bavčar (France), Flo Fox (USA) and Kuniaki Ito (Japan). Though with differing circumstances and approaches, their work is a testament to their passion for their art in the face of adversity, and perhaps deserved a larger indoor gallery space.

Evgen Bavčar’s photographs play with perceptions of light and darkness, and have an almost surreal quality. Other senses – hearing, touch – are represented through an accordion, music in braille, and the repeated motif of hands, on which he relies to measure distances while creating a photograph.

Flo Fox’s largely monochromatic images of scenes from the streets of New York are full of life. She often photographs reflections because they “distort reality”, transforming it into “dreamy renditions”.

Following an accident that robbed him of his vision, Kuniaki Ito embarked on a world tour with his wife, who assists him by describing the scenes he can hear. The vibrancy and colour of these vignettes from diverse places depict, in his own words, “peace and family”.

In an age where cameras have become easier to use in many ways, the focus has shifted to the composition and content of the photograph, for which “sight” would seem necessary. Curated by Rakesh Nagar, this exhibition of “non-retinal photography”, however, demonstrates the difference between “sight” and “vision”. The realities, complexities and possibilities of human life find expression in the artists’ need to create, and to share the images in their mind – Bavčar refers to his mind as a “gallery” – with the rest of the world.

Writing / Photo Updates

2013-10-26T18:46:00.000+05:30

Some other places where you can find my work:

The second issue of Bricolage Magazine came out on September 5, 2013.

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I also did a photo feature for our third issue, called Walk:

It is those moments that enchant -- the magical millisecond between the pressing of the button and the closing of the shutter, where people and their paths are entangled -- there one moment, gone the next.

Check it out here.

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For the Visual Culture Blog's world photography maps section, I created a map of Delhi highlighting galleries, bookshops and libraries that feature photography/photography resources. Click on 'view New Delhi Photography Map' below the map to see a complete list of the places marked. Feedback and suggestions are more than welcome and the map will be constantly updated.

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My poem "Iris milesii" appears in Miracle magazine's 7th issue (October 2013). They've only released a preview so far, so I haven't been able to see my poem published yet.

But maybe Atavic Poetry's very beautiful website more than makes up for it - they published my poem "Phoenix" yesterday. This is a magazine dedicated to canonical and traditional verse, which I think is absolutely awesome. It's rare to find rhyme and form in poetry these days as most publications outrightly scorn it and it's being considered weaker, somehow. Ironic, really, since it's so much harder to write in rhyme and metre - without making it sound forced - than free verse. And there's so much music in a poem like that. I'm not saying mine is that good, and I hardly ever write poetry like that any more either, but (good) rhyming poetry always thrills me - there's nothing today like Tennyson or Rossetti.

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For Art Radar Asia, I wrote a feature on the Delhi Photo Festival which recently concluded.

Delhi Photo Festival 2013, under the banner of bringing photography into the public space, returned to the Indian capital as an experiment in inclusivity, collaboration and diversity. The second edition of the Delhi Photo Festival returned to New Delhi, India for two weeks from 27 September to 11 October 2013, with a few pre-festival events through the month of September. Co-organised by Nazar Foundation and the India Habitat Centre (also the primary venue), along with 26 partner galleries across the city, the biennial fair included a selection of varied events designed to have a broad public appeal.

Read it here.

Prague's a Charm

2013-10-15T22:42:00.000+05:30

(The eighth instalment of the Backpacking with a Suitcase series, in which I document my travels across Europe in July 2012. Click on the pictures to enlarge.)

18-20 July 2012
Prague

I got lost while exploring Berlin, and arrived at the bus station twelve minutes after my bus to Prague had departed. Due to a stroke of good fortune, though, there was another - a far more expensive one - leaving for Prague within the hour. The best thing about travelling by road in Europe is the gorgeous landscape that flashes past the window. Fields of dazzling sunflowers, emerald meadows, tranquil blue lakes nestled amidst a circle of trees that look so inviting you wish you could get off the bus and live there forever. Even the girls who giggled loudly the ENTIRE journey couldn't ruin those moments - or maybe the desire to escape humankind was because of them.

It was about 7pm when our bus rolled in, with a few hours of daylight still remaining. Prague took my breath away like no other city had (except maybe London - I always got similar goosebumps when I was on buses that drove by the Thames and Westminster). I couldn't stop staring at the water, the skyline, the architecture, the sheer feeling of having stepped into some sort of fantastical storybook. I couldn't wait to explore it.

I read A Streetcar Named Desire (which everything I've read of Blue Jasmine reminds me of, can't wait to watch it!) while waiting for my friend to pick me up from the bus station Florenc. Prague was the first place where I keenly felt the strangeness of being surrounded by a language I didn't understand (I don't speak French either, but somehow it feels a bit more familiar) - which didn't last too long as a group of students from India came into earshot and I rolled my eyes at my book.

Of all the places I visited, it was actually summer in Prague. The weather was warm for the most part, though we had a few showers and strong winds. I spent most of the next two days walking around the beautiful city with friends new and old. The market was exciting, with all sorts of souvenirs, artifacts, fresh fruit...it helped that Prague was much cheaper than other places in Europe I'd been to. The Old Town square was picturesque but very crowded; we waited for the ancient clock to do its hourly chiming thing before I went up to the top, from where the entire city looked like it was made of Lego. We also witnessed the end of a wedding, with a Barbie-bride and old groom.

Wenceslas Square

A wedding

The Old Town square from the Clock Tower

It was grey by the time we went across the Charles Bridge, with its cobblestone and tourists and music and paintings, and made a beeline for the first reasonably priced restaurant that had a traditional Czech menu. We shared svíčková (marinated beef + bread dumplings + cranberry sauce), followed by the most wonderful trdelnik (a type of sweet pastry) outside. Our final stop for the day was Petřín, accessible by tram, where the labyrinth of mirrors and beautiful views of the city were enough to satiate any appetite.

Charles Bridge

A trdelnik stall

Mirrors and labyrinths at Petrin

The next day started off lazy (and rainy) but my afternoon was set aside for an exploration of the fairytale-like Prague castle with the nicest companions imaginable. The castle complex is quite huge, with various halls, a cathedral, the Golden Lane, among others. When buying a ticket, you can choose one that includes all of the sites open to visitors, or a partial ticket (which is what I went for). It gave me access to the gigantic St. Vitus Cathedral with its beautiful stained glass windows, the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica and the Golden Lane (which I absolutely loved - full of little houses that have been furnished to mimic various Renaissance and other historical professions or famous residents - more on it later). There were also more gorgeous city views to be had, and the changing of the guard in their powder blue uniforms, which it turns out I find amusing no matter where I see it. This was followed by a walk/waltz in the cool breeze by the river Vltava, and a glimpse of the Opera and Dancing House before we headed to the metro.

Entering the Prague Castle complex

The Golden Lane

The Vltava

Later, I thought about the lovely woman (who tried to talk to me in German because it was better than her English) who told me how brave I was for city hopping in Europe all by myself. It was quite an adventure, but I don't feel particularly brave. Truth be told, it's quite easy to travel alone in Europe, and it would actually be a shame to not do it. Everything feels relatively safe, help is forthcoming, there are enough women out and about even after dark, there are hostels where you bunk with dozens of people you don't know without really feeling queasy, and it's not even all that expensive to take buses across borders. In fact, the toughest part of the whole deal was the Schengen visa. I'll probably feel 'brave' when I manage to do it all in my own country.

Next: Vienna.

Of Photo Albums and the Impatient Generation

2013-09-23T17:16:00.001+05:30

I was looking through photo albums from when I was a (seemingly) happy little tot when it hit me. We’ve become a generation that expects instant gratification, haven’t we? Of course we’re not going to wait for weeks to see how our photos are going to turn out, or for a much awaited letter to arrive (or worse, get swallowed into oblivion in the incompetent postal system; with email, at least it always turns up in the spam folder). We’re obviously not going to have healthy discussions over trivial facts (“You’re wrong!” “No, you’re wrong! Harry was the eighth horcrux!”) when we can ~~hit~~ touch (hitting is too much effort) some buttons on our smartphones to verify the facts. We’re most certainly not going to wait for a book we really want to turn up in a bookstore, or ask a friend of a friend to get that DVD with them when they next come to India when we’ve got Kindles and torrents and Amazon and Flipkart. To expect otherwise is absurd.

We’ve got the ~~world~~ dictionary at our feet and Google in our pockets.

Even the clouds store data now. Everything is about gadgets and apps and clicks and pings and blips. So what if I feel like some omnipresent being is watching me watch videos of Jennifer Lawrence being funny, and I don’t mean god. So what if most of our waking hours are spent staring at some sort of rectangle screen, or that writing (not typing) exams for three hours makes our hands (literally) shake. So what if Google has little cars trawling streets everywhere making our houses visible on one giant map, or wants to replace our eyes with video cameras.

Some days it really feels like dystopia is just ‘round the corner. Other days, you really need “face time” with the boyfriend halfway across the world.

I will be lying if I say I didn’t panic slightly. I dug out my pretty Paperchase photo albums and arranged all the glossy prints from last year in sequence. They filled up nearly three albums. I calmed down a bit. There is hope yet. But then I started losing weight (and my temper) when the internet died for a bit. I mean, what the hell is that all about? How am I supposed to ~~tell the world how I feel~~ blog without internet?

I’m proud to say I got through it. Which made me realise how much we need to start learning how to be patient. I secretly think prospective employers these days are out to teach us exactly this. Why else would they keep you waiting for months and force you to conclude that you were unsuccessful? They don’t even have to sacrifice trees to send you a letter of rejection now, no sir; all it would take is a copy-pasted “We’re sorry, and we wanted to let you know so that you could get on with your life, isn’t that considerate of us? Yours recessionly, etc.” – free, instantaneous and eco-friendly, so forget it.

Obviously, it’s not all bad. Life has improved tremendously, and why else would we fall into this trap? We can’t ALL be stupid. Plus, going against the tidal wave of progress is clearly like fighting a losing battle, even though no one can really define the word “progress” anymore (what is it? Is it iOS 7?) Some of us are desperately digging out our parents’ film cameras and buying photo albums, because it would be seriously uncool to leave a legacy of impersonal hard disks with blurry photos of a concert we can’t even remember.

I suppose the key is to find a happy middle and not fight everything. Because everything eventually becomes obsolete. Rhyming poetry did, letter paper did, telegrams did, floppy disks did, the Travel Bookshop at Notting Hill did, BBM did, and so will we. We can buy typewriters, vinyl and vintage dresses (for now), but we can’t turn back time, and to be honest, for all its romanticism, we probably wouldn’t like it if we could. I mean, what if you met Jesse on a train to Vienna but couldn’t stalk him on Facebook for the next 12 months? And it would be so much easier to find Mordor with GPS, and just fly there, and then we wouldn’t need three whole books describing every twig on the journey to it.

And now I’m going to re-watch Midnight in Paris and Before Midnight for a dose of perspective on these troubling issues of nostalgia. Yay for torrents.

PS- Thanks to the brother for sharing that video.

48 Hours in Noida

2013-08-25T20:23:00.002+05:30

This is the story of how making a film about time travel turned into a race against time.

Last weekend, I participated in the 48 Hour Film Project's Delhi chapter. I'm not quite sure what convinced me to do it; I'm definitely interested in film and film-making, but taking embarrassing videos of my friends (and of flowery fields, and bubbles...) is the extent of my film-making prowess. Well, I did make a short film for a class once and I don't think it was too bad. Anyway, so there we were, the five of us (joined by three others over the course of the weekend) attempting to come up with a story, script, storyboard, and shoot and edit a film in less than two days.

All the teams are given the same character, prop and line that they must include in their film. Additionally, teams are also asked to pick out a genre from a weird hat. This is the part that most people are nervous about, for good reason - what if you picked out "martial arts film", or worse, "operetta"? N and I discussed the genres and I distinctly remember saying that sci-fi wouldn't be too bad, though all I could picture when I said it were Lightsabers. So, of course that's what we got.

What followed was us coming up with a mildly weird story, which got weirder as the night wore on and we kept unearthing wondrous loopholes. For some reason, we were bent on killing a character but couldn't decide who it should be. We slept in the early hours of the morning, and woke up with dreams about car crashes and inspiration, so that the first thing we did was grab a notebook and pen. Then came the news of our lead actress backing out, and a minor war about which of us would have to take her place. I got out of that one, and I was neither the protagonist, nor the receptionist, nor the unlucky pedestrian who had to play dead (I did a couple of voice-over-ish things though).

We then drove around Noida (which to me was basically uncharted territory, not unlike the Heart of Darkness. I mean, technically I was born there so it was my first home, but one-year-olds are too busy bawling and eating to notice much else.) looking for the perfect location for an accident scene. Shooting car scenes is hard. It took four hours, lots of driving up and down the same road, sudden brakes, an entertained audience, creepy stares, placating suspicious policemen, (deaf) jaywalking pedestrians, and buffaloes. But finally, we were satisfied just as the rain came pouring down.

There was a maggi break before shooting again, and we were already exhausted. It was a night of coffee, alarms, lots of swearing, a few misunderstandings, grumpiness, red eyes...and night became morning as two hours of sleep apiece (we took turns) fed into exceeding desperation. All morning and afternoon we worked; editing, looking for sounds and tunes, checking that the paperwork and documents were in order. Perhaps it's the sheer thrill of feeling you're not going to make the deadline but trying anyway that makes this event so popular. Perhaps it's the act of making a film, watching it come to life, a million retakes and frantic editing later. Perhaps it's making friends out of creative people (and dogs) as you work toward a common goal. It couldn't be the two sleepless nights.

There was lots of laughter, lots of camaraderie, lots of great moments, but my favourite was probably when Casper the dalmatian trotted over to me and laid his lovely head in my lap. Maybe I am a dog person, after all.

We ended up with a film that wasn't too bad, albeit with a few inconsistencies (boo you, space-time continuum. And sci-fi), and found ourselves in a race against time as we sped to the drop-off location with half an hour to spare, only to be stuck in a traffic jam on the road outside the venue. There was no choice but to run, which felt bizarrely like a situation in a movie, and we heard a voice yell "five minutes to go" to add to the drama as we huffed and puffed towards the gate.

We made it.

And here's the poster I made using a photo I took while one too many pedestrians (or was it buffaloes?) sauntered in front of our car...

One Week in London

2013-08-13T03:37:00.001+05:30

So I went to London in the last week of July 2013. The occasion was my graduation, the excuse was my graduation... It was an expensive and long journey, but maybe happiness shouldn't be measured in money. Emirates is a nice airline, with nice food (like lamb biryani and apple blackberry crumble. They even have menus. Menus.) and I read stuff about flamenco and Bombay jazz in their in-flight magazine and watched German and French movies. I've now seen Dubai airport, though I'm not putting U.A.E. on my countries-I've-visited list because it feels like cheating.

London was warm and friendly.

I graduated. Threw the hat up in the air and all.

Thanks for the photo, Thomas/family!

I bought some second-hand, broken-spine books.

I may or may not have been hungry...

I walked around my favourite spots and hung out with some of my favourite people.

I enjoyed not being stared at.

I enjoyed alone time. Especially in parks. I went to Regent's Park, St. George's Gardens, Russell Square Park, Gordon Square... and I stared at nothing, or sometimes at laughing children frightening ducks, or I read.

St. George's Gardens

I also went to some places I hadn't been to before, like Neal's Yard, where it turned out Monty Python used to live, and Brixton Market, and Abbey Road, and the Royal Albert Hall.

I ate some really great food. You should try it.

FOOD

Leños & Carbón, 5-7 Rockingham Street, London SE1 6PD

It was raining on Saturday night, and I was with Sid and Ro in Elephant & Castle. We'd decided to walk around the area and check out local restaurants, but because of the rain, ended up at this one close to my friend's house. A wonderful choice indeed. It was loud and friendly, and I've never eaten Colombian food before so it was quite an adventure - and not a too-expensive one, at that (as restaurants go). Between the three of us, we ordered 3 starters (empanadas, arepa con queso, and patatas bravas) and only managed to share one main course (bandeja paisa) - which we couldn't even finish - for a total of £8.50 each (this would have been unthinkable for me when I lived in London or even when I was backpacking across Europe, but because I was way below my budget, and hungry, some luxuries were permitted). Everything was absolutely delicious. The couple (and kid) seated next to us managed to down three main courses, each of which looked like five of ours piled on top of each other; and the music was fun.

Franco Manca, Brixton Market, Unit 4, Market Row, London SW9 8LD

Sourdough pizza! Pizzas from £4.50 to £7, plus drinks, salads etc. I rolled up my slices, much to Fran's amusement.

The Kati Roll Company, 24 Poland Street, London W1F 8QL

The BEST kathi rolls I have ever eaten. I used to come here when I lived in London, ever since I was introduced to it. It's small and orange and well-hidden and with Bollywood posters all over it. The rolls are cheap and just so unbelievably tasty, costing from £2.75 to £5.

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Finally, there was cultural entertainment, London-student-style (i.e. cheap but awesome).

THEATRE

Austentatious, An Improvised Novel, Leicester Square Theatre

I'd read about this on lastminute.com but hadn't booked tickets; so when my friend asked me, out of the blue, if I'd like to go, I didn't hesitate. Jane Austen and improvised theatre - yes please! I'm a complete newbie to improv theatre and this was my first experience, but what a first experience it was. From beginning to end I was chortling, with tears running down my face for good measure as the six-strong cast cracked joke upon brilliant joke. The audience is asked to write down potential Austen-novel titles before the play starts, one of which is then drawn and acted out on the spot. They also pick three best titles each time that they will not be performing - on that day these included Arrogance and Arthritis (HOW do people come up with these?!) and it is worth following their Twitter just for the hilarious titles. The play performed for us was titled Darcy and Jeeves go to Mansfield Park, and, gosh, who can not love Jeeves. Riot, I tell you, absolute riot. They are performing at the Edinburgh Fringe till August 25 - FREE - so if you're in Edinburgh, go, go, go!

MUSIC

Naturally 7 and BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall

The BBC Proms is the world's greatest classical music festival, on till September 7. If you queue about an hour or so before each show, you can get tickets for £5. The night we queued was my last night in London, and Naturally 7 blew me away. They are an American a cappella group, but they can recreate pretty much every musical instrument with just their vocal chords - and they're amazing singers too. Read this article about them to get an idea. Even though R&B isn't really my thing, I was thoroughly enjoying myself, and then they covered 'Fix You'. And then Simon and Garfunkel, and The Beatles.

Such a perfect last night.

Muse

2013-08-09T02:07:00.005+05:30

I tittered in annoyance. She had disappeared yet again. I needed to find her, and soon. I knew she needed to wander, and she needed her periods of respite. But this was urgent. And she had taken to leaving me at the most inopportune moments these days. If she didn’t return soon, we’d have to go hungry again. Cold days lay ahead.

Sighing, I realized there was nothing else for it…I’d have to go and find her. Luckily, I knew where to look.

Green. Of course she’d be here. We were so similar, in ways perhaps we’d never understand. But I saw flashes of them, now and then. This was why we were connected in the first place, wasn’t it? This was why she had chosen me. She must have sensed them. The similarities. Green. It was so serene, so resplendent. So inspiring. And familiar. For she had brought me here many times. Many a story had we woven here in this dale. Together.

Story. My heart skipped a beat, and the urgency returned. Softly, I called her name, hoping that the tremor of panic hadn’t entered my voice. There was no answer. No sound. No rustling of leaves or soft, playful footfalls. Frustrated, I repressed a sigh. She knew I was here, of that I was sure. Nothing ever escaped her here. She was the princess of this dale, and she knew it. No, she just wanted me to find her, as always. But this time, I couldn’t. There were more important things to be done. I called her again impatiently, louder this time. Silence.

Then at last, a giggle. The leaves in the laburnum in front of me parted gently, and a pair of big, dark blue eyes peered out. Blinked coyly, demurely, playfully. Rosy cheeks and lips followed, and then she extracted her delicately dimpled frame from the dewy bush. A crown of flowers sat on her head, iridescent like jewels. They certainly spoiled her here. She smiled at me warmly, welcoming.

Frowning, I grabbed her by the wrist. This was not the time for games, I chided her, and started back, pulling her along. She came without protest, keeping up with my urgent strides.

Opening my eyes, I took my pen and the words began to flow. Without protest, keeping up with my urgent thoughts.

Berlin from (and below) the Streets

2013-07-18T02:20:00.001+05:30

(The seventh instalment of the Backpacking with a Suitcase series, in which I document my travels across Europe in July 2012. Click on the pictures to enlarge.)

17 July 2012
Berlin

Concealed under the U-Bahn stations of Berlin are bunkers and bomb shelters, remnants of its troubled past during WWII and the Cold War period. The continued existence of these is no secret - Berliner Unterwelten e.V. runs tours of these sites, taking tourists through the locations, and introducing them to the history as well as perceived future of these spaces in the event of a nuclear disaster or other emergency. For 8 EUR (student price; actual price is 10 EUR), I bought a ticket for "Tour 3: U-Bahn, Bunker und Kalter Krieg (Subways, Bunkers, Cold War)" - the tour is 90 mins. and the price includes a metro ride to and from the tour location. I hopped out to the kiosk next door for a quick bite - currywurst - before the tour began.

This was possibly one of the most interesting things I've done, but it was also mildly disturbing. To navigate underground, in darkness (following neon lights), looking at what is essentially a space meant to sustain survival in the barest sense of the word - equipped with beds, kitchens, oxygen - is sombre enough, but being told how inadequate it will likely prove to be is just depressing. Surrounded by this space, you can't help but envision a situation in which a group of humans may find themselves here, escaping certain death above ground; and because no photography or filming is allowed for the most part, it doesn't feel much like a tourist activity.

Beds

I was in Berlin for just over a day, and it feels like a lot of the places I saw were somehow related to the war/Holocaust - maybe because the city plays it up so much (it was an important part of its history, and you can see bits of the Berlin wall and various memorials all over the city), or maybe because I've always been interested in that period and so I sought them out. I did go to the touristy places too, like the Fernsehturm (TV Asparagus!), Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church), Rotes Rathaus (Red Town Hall) and Neptunbrunnen (Neptune Fountain) at Alexanderplatz, followed by Museumsinsel (Museum Island), and a short interruption in the form of rain and a buttery, jammy Schnecke (a bun shaped like a snail - schnecke in English is snail).

Fernsehturm and Neptunbrunnen

My next stop was Friedrichstraße, which used to be the last stop between East and West Germany before the fall of the Wall. The Reichstag looked glorious and menacing beneath a fiercely grey sky, and a girl made giant bubbles in the Tiergarten (Animal Garden), and people sheltered from the rain beneath Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate).

Reichstag

I then came across an open labyrinthine space that wasn't a cemetery but it was all I could think of. Below this was the Jewish war/Holocaust memorial, only I was on the wrong side of the road and so it took quite a lot of weaving between the towering grey stones to find the entrance. Wikipedia says that the architect, Peter Eisenman, designed this structure to create an uneasy, confusing atmosphere representing a supposedly ordered system that lost touch with human reason. The memorial was, like everything else in Berlin, well organised and highly informative, with all kinds of information media and services - even search facilities where you could search for names in a database and see what happened to those people.

The outside of the memorial

One of my favourite things about Berlin is how the street itself is utilised as the site for art/memorials/exhibits - designed to withstand rain and often with audio to accompany the visual and written. This makes them more inclusive by not shutting them in a closed space but infusing them within the fabric of the cityscape, so that one is more likely to stumble upon them than seek them out.

At Checkpoint Charlie:

At Bernauer Straße:

There is also a small and tranquil Chapel of Reconciliation here, where daily prayers are held for Jewish victims:

with this sculpture, "Reconciliation", outside:

Created by Josefina de Vasconcellos as a call for reconciliation after WWII, copies of this sculpture exist at sites that were deeply associated with the war, including Coventry cathedral and Hiroshima Peace Museum. The Chapel and site are a part of the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Memorial), which also include the Berlin Wall Documentation Centre and tower, and a 200ft stretch of the Wall.

View of the Wall from the tower of the documentation centre

West side of the memorial

Gravestone/site

I was here so long that I missed my bus to Prague.

***

Transport (Heidelberg to Berlin) - DB (overnight train) 89 EUR

Accommodation - EastSeven Hostel Berlin (16.20 EUR, highly recommended)

Parallel/Future

2013-07-07T21:37:00.003+05:30

I've been reading (books that qualify sort of as) sci-fi lately. I've had a list of books I've wanted to read once academia was behind me, sort of revisiting the voracious reader I used to be in my school days - picking up fantasy, classics, thrillers and anything that caught my fancy without really knowing how it was going to turn out.

One goal was to read all five of the Hitchhiker's books by Douglas Adams. **SPOILERS AHEAD** Luckily, the best friend has the box set, and they have now been duly devoured. I am yet to decide whether I will attempt And Another Thing, because I'm a bit saturated with the series for now, but I do want to explore the TV and radio series eventually. True to expectations, Adams was brilliant, and even though there were many instances that boggled my brain so much I'm still not sure I understood them, what I loved most was how different each book was from the others (and consequently, sometimes confusing). For me, possibly the strongest aspect of the series is not the imagination or the technology or the characters, but the humour that doubles up so often as powerful satire. I also enjoyed moments when Adams slipped almost into poetry, with some stunning lines strewn in, but not taking themselves too seriously.

They were not the same eyes with which he had last looked out at this particular scene, and the brain which interpreted the images the eyes resolved was not the same brain. There had been no surgery involved, just the continual wrenching of experience. - Douglas Adams, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

And can anyone forget the beautiful description of Hyde Park, or of Arthur learning to fly? In so many ways, perhaps because of the way it was written, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish was set apart the most from the series (allegedly, Douglas Adams had to be locked up in a room so that he would meet his deadline, resulting in a rapid novel and love story) - set on Earth with minimal inter-galactic travel, and hardly any appearances by otherworldly beings.

The absurdity, hilarity and profound insights into people and our world - so relevant even today - are probably what make it so timeless. Religion/god (who else loved meeting Him?), vegetarianism (hanging out with the Dish of the Day - I don't think I've ever laughed that much), politics ("To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"), the corporate world and marketing (I feel Ford's angst at the idea of a "universal" Guide, don't you? Those idiots in Accounts.); nothing escapes censure in the form of critique or satire, sometimes biting, sometimes mocking mercilessly, but always managing to hit home.

And if none of that were enough, he invents verbs.

"Consider it made, my dear friend," flurbled the mattress, "consider it made."
"A bridge?" quirruled the mattress. "Here in the swamp?"
"I sense a deep dejection in your diodes," it vollued, "and it saddens me."

Here are 42 quotes from the series - hysteria may ensue. Be warned.

***

The other series I've been glued to is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I heard about it sometime last year and the whole broadcast media angle made me especially curious (I should do a post on that, and the use of media as surveillance and propaganda...I should also do the Harry Potter media post I've been thinking of focusing on print/newspapers and radio. Hmm.) I read the synopses because I wasn't sure if I could be bothered reading the books, but it has been quite an experience. The first was riveting in terms of plot, though I wasn't too sure about the first-person-present-tense writing style - but by the end of the final book, it clearly came off as an excellent and effective choice. The POV also made it refreshing in terms of being completely subjective to a strong female protagonist, which is something that hardly ever happens in the sci-fi/fantasy genres. Sure, strong female characters may appear: McGonagall, Hermione (Harry Potter), Nynaeve, Egwene (Wheel of Time), Holly (Artemis Fowl), Arya (Eragon), occasionally even as protagonists like Lyra (His Dark Materials) and in Inkheart, and I guess they deserve credit for not being, well, The Lord of the Rings. But it still doesn't happen enough, especially not an entire series where we stay with one protagonist, who also happens to be female, if not typically "feminine". Equally refreshing is Peeta (and Finnick?) as subverting stereotypes of what we have come to expect of male leads.

Katniss; fan art by Patsie

The movie was bleh, as always. The second book was perhaps my favourite, though Mockingjay is the strongest of the lot. I didn't expect it to be more than entertainment, but I was pleasantly surprised by its resonance with media/war/politics issues today, and therefore, its relevance. Collins said she was inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur (killing children as punishment for a society's crimes), Roman gladiator games (killing in the arena for popular entertainment), reality TV and war coverage in the media. The themes of power, dissent, control, biopolitics, performance, media and celebrity culture come across quite strongly. The drama in the arena and the whole concept just keeps me coming back to this quote from King Lear:

"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods

They kill us for their sport."

Of course, this realisation comes with helplessness, and the need to rebel, followed by revolution/war where no one can ever be a victor. The psychological effects of violence and war are nuanced, and rebellion is never glorified. At the bottom of the fight for survival is the recognition of a larger morality, a desire for autonomy (to be more than a piece in their Games) and the fragility of any society and any rebellion - that certain forms of thinking, on both sides, can all too easily turn into a way to justify violence against the Other.

I don't think I've ever voluntarily sought out fan fiction, but these characters stayed with me. Here's some really good work I've come across:
- Young Blood (Mockingjay pre-epilogue - Katniss and Peeta grow back together)
- Worse Games to Play (Katniss POV, Mockingjay pre-epilogue - Katniss and Peeta as parents)
- Where Soul Meets Body (Annie POV, from Annie's reaping until the end of Mockingjay. Absolutely excellent portrayal of Annie's "insanity", trauma, the effects of torture and war, and Annie and Finnick's relationship)
Check them out if you're into the series!

***UPDATE (14/12/13): I never thought this day would come, but I'm now writing some HG fan fiction myself.
- Something Borrowed (one-shot from Catching Fire, Peeta POV)
- Diamond (Catching Fire AU, 5 chapters of probably 15 done)
Let me know what you think if you read them! I'll be doing a post on fan fiction and my experience with it here soon.***

Letting Go

2013-06-30T04:31:00.000+05:30

It's night again. The hardest part is about to begin.

Pain is a part of life. So is letting go. Of places, of people, of memories. Well, perhaps not memories. Maybe those I can keep. To remind me of how it felt, how I felt, so alive, so consumed, so addicted, and so dead to the world outside.

Goodbyes are a part of life too. Everything that begins must end, even life itself. To be fair, it's not like I didn't know this was coming. I knew the minute it started that it could last for only so long. But I can't help feeling as though it took a part of me with itself. Maybe it gave me something in return, too. Time will tell. Of course, I'll move on. I've never doubted that either. And I'm sure I'll find it again, that feeling of being alive and consumed and addicted. Or maybe a similar one, at least.

I'm not quite sure why I'm making such a big deal out of this. I mean, it was only a book.

I think it's time for another visit to the bookstore.