Disaster

Unbelieveable...it's absolutely unbelieveable. Who would have thought that a disaster of such magnitude could take place? I think it's the first time that half the world has heard the word 'tsunami'. Imagine going out for a morning walk or a sunday morning beach ritual and never coming back or worse still, coming back without your loved ones. I can only imagine myself sitting there-enjoying the waves and marvelling at the size of a big, huge wave approaching and the next moment being taken away with it. It sends shivers down my spine. The magnitude of the loss of lives (estimated at 1,50,000 world over) seems to be out of a fiction novel. The Indian Air Force base at Car Nicobar has been completely wiped out. First it was the base at Bhuj during the Gujarat earthquake and now Nicobar. I know that in time life will be back to normal in terms of infrastructure and loss of property but what about all the lives lost and the people who are left behind to cry? God help them deal with it.
-M.

Well, what to say?

Well, what to say early morning?
Had a looooong chat with Ruch last evening. It was real good fun. I was missing her a lot. She has forgotten her password and also the answer to her secret question and I found that REALLY funny. I laughed my head off! By the way, only 12 more days to go home!Yippppeeeeeee!
Well, we had our dissertation discussion yesterday-so I can't enjoy my holidays in peace(as I had suspected). I'll have to work out my topic and start my research over the vacation. What a pain man! Then there's that stupid Art and Culture assignment to do. Grrrrrr...I hate all this man.
Chatting with Milind at the moment-he's busy with his year end reports and is enjoying the Christmas decorations in New Zealand. Spoke to Ankur last evening-he has his practical exams going on. Then, what else?
I think I basically don't have much to say. I'm just passing time. I think I should go and do something more constructive! So, ciao for now!:)
-M.

My new column...

I happened to send in an article to www.sawf.org and as it turns out, I have a regular column there now. It's called "In Focus". The direct link is http://sawf.org/newedit/edit12062004/infocus.asp
Right now the website has not been updated and there is only one article on it. I have sent in a few others too. Let's see when they get published. I really wanted to write a short story for this competition that's on....but am just not able to find the time. It has to begin with-"It was impossible to take a walk that evening." I can think of things I'd like to write to make it into an interesting story but I just can't find the time to do it. The last date is 10th Dec which also happens to be the last date for our documentary submission...so, that's the scene.
The irritating thing is that Yahoo Messenger has disappeared from our college computers. Ok, we're not supposed to chat in college but obviously we all had downloaded messengers and almost all the machines had it. Suddenly, they've all disappeared. I think the faculty has been at work!
Now I'll have to download it all over again (sigh)!
I just remembered, I have given a camera roll for developing. I need to go and collect it. So ciao then.:)
-M.

Documentary Updates...

It's Monday morning and I am experiencing the blues! It's like there was no weekend at all. We were out shooting all of saturday for the documentary film. Well, we decided to interview members of this very extended family-totally Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii types...the reason why we chose them was that there are people of all ages at their place right from a 6 year old to 80 year olds and characters of our film have to be related in some manner, so we decided to do only one family. So we spent the whole day shooting there. They were very very nice and cooperative people. Moreover, they had a very tastefully decorated house..so we had a blast shooting there. But it took us the whole damn day-12 hours to be precise and I was dead by the end of it.
Then, yesterday we went to shoot this Tarot card reader and I thought she's some arbit small-time reader. Turned out that she writes the column for The Economic Times and also came on NDTV, Zoom channel etc. She is also a wonderful person. Had a good time talking to her. I wish to do a story on her alone someday. Ok, I have to mail Ruchi now so ciao:)
-M.

Documentary Workshop

So, the documentary workshop has begun. The people teaching us are from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). They teach at various places and are independent documentary film makers. We are supposed to make a five to seven minute documentary by 10th December. It's crazy-the amount of work that goes into it. We are starting shooting tomorrow. Well, our team is making the film on the "ambiguity of the future"...we have some ideas in mind...the important thing is to treat them well. We will be shooting over the weekend and post production begins on Monday.I hope this comes out well. I have all my apprehensions about it.
I can't believe it, next saturday we have to leave for Kudremukh-for our covering deprivation trip and I have done no research on the place yet. Need to do a lot of homework before we set out to make a documentary on it. I am all excited about the trip and more so about my trip home...will return from Kudremukh on 19th and push off to Delhi on the 20th. Can't wait to get home. But before that there is also the dissertation discussion coming up. As if there isn't enough work in life already!!! Don't they love to ruin our holidays? I'll have to work out my topic over the vacation. In addition, there will also be that Art and Culture assignment to finish.Grrrrrrr....can't we holiday in peace or what? But I still wanna be homeeeeeeee....
Talking of home, it's mom dad's 25th Wedding Anniversary today. Wow! It's so wonderful to share a lifetime with the person you love. Well, I still don't understand the funda of arranged marriages-(I mean how can you marry someone you don't love?)-and what makes them click???? And ironically, why are they usually more successful than love marriages? Well well...I know the whole lot of scientific explanations given for it but I still wonder...how CAN you marry someone you don't love? Beyond my understanding....and at times I have an intuition that fate might make me understand it by landing me up in the same situation(that's how it operates most of the time)-scary thought!
Ok, I need to go out for an early morning shoot for the documentary. Might as well catch some sleep. Ciao. Goodnight:)
-M.

Up next....

Today was the last show of 'Good Morning Chennai'. I can't believe it's already over. I have mixed feelings about it. Although, it means that now we can sleep for more than 4 hours a night and can have more time at our disposal, I am really going to miss working on the show. It was an absolutely wonderful experience and a big test to our creativity, talent and team efforts. Up next, we have the documentary workshop from monday. This should be exciting. We all really require it as we'll be going for our covering deprivation trips on 11th Dec. We'll have to make documentary films in some remote forest areas of Mangalore. I am looking forward to that. Apart from that, Romila Thapar is in town so I am planning to attend a couple of her lectures. That's all for the moment. Ciao!

Of Draggy movies and camera angles....

Well, I saw Veer-Zaara today...man, what a drag. Too melodramatic. I understand that it takes a lot of effort to be melodramatic but it takes an equal amount of effort to bear it! Grrrrrr...
But the best part is that I can now enjoy any kind of movie...ANY kind at all..coz I can now figure out the technicalities-headroom, looking-room, camera angles etc. etc. So, it was not all that bad for me. It was like a three and a half hour class-only it was learning from observation! I can now make out where they cut a particular shot and where they dissolved it into another one. It's good fun.
Went to shoot at a Go-Karting place called "Kart Beat" yesterday. It's Chennai's first indoor Go-Karting track. It was great fun. I had a wonderful time behind the camera coz I could shoot at all sorts of camera angles.
Did I mention that I covered day two of the Kanchi Shankaracharya arrest? I was camping outside the Madras High Court all day. Got footage of members of the BJP and RSS protesting and subsequently getting arrested. My teacher was happy with the footage and believe me he's almost impossible to please. He can manage to find flaws with the story that fills you with pride and almost never compliments your work. I think he does that so success doesn't get to our heads. His purpose might be to keep us grounded but at times it becomes demoralising. But I have immense respect for the man and I think he's simply the best. The man has an unbelievable amount of energy. I wonder if he ever gets any sleep. He's always on his toes.
Anyways, I have to get going now. Will keep you posted.Ciao:)
-M.

Injured!!!

Well, there I was- running down the college stairs to give in a copy of my news bulletin to my teacher...reading an sms at the same time..the message said "...it'll save you a trip..." and that moment, I tripped! As of now, my right ankle is wrapped up in a bandage...seems to be a sprain...and an extremely painful one at that! Ouch!

A trip down Bangalore Lanes...

I'd been waiting for this for years...ever since I left Bangalore in 1998, I wanted to go back. Finally got the chance to do so. I went there over diwali holidays. It was a totally fun trip. Met Dhanya after all these years. It felt wonderful to catch up on old times. Apart from her, I met Abhishek, Arunav, Vandana and Ruchi of course(coz I was staying with her!). The 2 days just flew past...didn't realise when I reached there and when I got back. Visiting Vishwa Vihar was also quite a nostalgic affair. Lots of memories attached to the place and the city as a whole. It was wonderful stepping into Army School again. I only wish it had been a working day 'coz I really wanted to meet my teachers. Maybe that's a sign that I'll go back someday-I'd like to think of it like that!! That's it for now. Ciao:)
-M.

My New Blog

Hello! So I have a blog now. Let me talk about my work(that's all that there is in life these days...and besides, I love it!).
Broadcast Journalism is a fun thing to do even though there's a lot of work involved in it. These days we produce a one and a half hour morning show called "GOOD MORNING CHENNAI". It's really exciting. We change roles everyday. I was the anchor yesterday and today. Good fun. I am the Production Assistant for tomorrow's show. So basically, my work starts when everyone else's finishes. I have to write down all the details of the programme-which story is recorded on which tape etc. It's quite a painful job and the Production Assistant is the last one to go home-somewhere close to midnight! On the positive side,I had all afternoon to myself...hence, the blog! Other than that, I have been playing games on the net:tetris,pac man and snake-all those games that I used to play in school:) It was fun.
Ok, better get to work now. Will update you on more at some point of time. Ciao:)