Official Trip

On the eve of World Tourism Day, MTDC took a bunch of journalists to Sindhudurg district to see the beauty of the place. The incentive was a alleged press conference with the revenue minister Mr. Narayan Rane.
Being from the programming side of the channel and waiting to shoot a travel show with the minimum amount of expenditure, I jumped on to the bandwagon with as much gusto as the journalists, armed with 5 bags of equipment (camera, lights, et al) and 2 more bags with personal effects.
The rest of the team gave me suspicious looks, they were armed only with a pen and a note book (the weapon of a true journalist) and an occasional camera or so... I ignored the looks and the language (predominantly Marathi...I only knew a smattering of it) and started briefing my cameraperson on the kind of visuals and treatment that we would need to do.
Seeing our enthusiasm, the others also decided to shoot a small feature or documentary to impress their top brass... more often than not, I found the other camera persons shooting from the same angle as we were.
Unfortunately, the organizers hadn’t counted on trigger happy camera crew like us and most of the 2 day trip was spent on the bus travelling from one place to the other with 5 min stops to see the beauty of the district.
Our first stop was on a roadside restaurant for dinner, where I took out my Handycam to shoot the group in an effort to break the ice and overcome the language barrier, but I wasn’t quite successful.
Early Friday morning found us at a MTDC resort called Madhuvan where we stopped to freshen up and continue our journey towards Vijaydurg. The resort was one dilapidated one where the towels had two big holes as its USP!
Vijaydurg was a fort where few local politicians had gotten together to light the Maashal which was to be carried by a group of runners for the Meet on World Tourism day at Sawantwadi. The fort was surrounded by the Arabian Sea and as part of the run up to the event; there were folk dancers in green skirts (all men!!) and dhol beaters (trance at its best!) and school kids in Shivaji costumes. Unfortunately we could only stay there for few minutes as we had to rush to the next location - Kunkeswar Temple; But not before some 'Ghawne & alu sabzi with Thalipeeth" as breakfast. So what if breakfast was at 1230 hrs in the afternoon, it gave us the energy to play Antakshari in the bus.
We reached Kunkeswar all charged up and shot as much as we could in those 5 min that were allocated to us as we had to rush to the next location Tarkali Beach... I did get the feeling that we were playing the "Amazing Race - Sindhudurg" although there was no prize money at the end of this marathon!
We hit Tarkali Beach around 1700 hrs and headed straight for a sumptuous lunch of "Surmai fry, Bangda curry, rice and Sol Kadi" and post lunch we did manage to shoot some more footage.
Then we were on the road again ... on our way to Amboli resort... we reached the MTDC guest house (thankfully no more towels with holes, although there was no hot water in the shower....actually the shower didn’t work...we had bathe the old fashioned way of bucket and mug) around 2130 hrs. After freshening up, we headed straight to the dining room...there was a lavish spread of chicken tikkas, fried prawns, chicken biryani, chicken curry, rice, chappatis, salad, mango srikhand, etc albeit all cold...since we were running four hours late on schedule.
After dinner, everyone went for a walk, but Sunil (my cameraperson) and me got into battle mode and made plans to get up early to shoot... we reasoned that since the rest of the group would sleep till late, we will get some advantage over them as well as get the morning light.
Saturday Morning at 0600 hrs, we were ready with our camera and tripod in place and shot whatever we could manage till the others got up and joined us.... it was at that point that I just realized what the word “Competitiveness” means... none of the other journalists had a brief from their seniors on making a feature, they were supposed to cover the press conference only, but when they saw us shooting a feature, they wanted to do the same and earn brownie points!
Then we were on the road again to Sawantwadi for the press conference stopping for 5 min en-route to shoot some waterfalls.
Sawantwadi was a small bustling town all ready to welcome the high profile Revenue Minister ... the seminar went as planned (although I struggled to understand the language...I also dozed off in-between) and as soon as Mr. Narayan Rane left the podium all journalists breezed off after him to “Shilpagram” – the art & craft village where the minister answered questions to the eager journalists and where all of us feasted on a lavish spread of Malvani cuisine. There were crabs, different varieties of fishes, prawns, modaks, rice, ghawne, solkadi, etc.
As the day drew to an end, I realized that I had not got enough footage to make a travel show, I pulled all the strings that I could (the producer in me rose to the occasion) and I managed to convince a municipal officer to arrange for our stay and facilitate our shoot. From here onwards the shoot went on smoothly since we were not dependent on a third party.
We left early on Sunday morning to Sindhudurg fort ... to reach the fort we had to take a boat ride and once inside the fort, we lost ourselves in the serene surroundings and beautiful ruins.
After pack up we returned back to Sawantwadi to catch a bus back to Mumbai ...since I was dead tired from the shoot, I slept like a log in the bus till we reached Mumbai... however, that was not the end of the day for me... I got a call from the office for yet another shoot... this time it was to capture the fastest singer in India (or should I say the world?) Shankar “breathless” Mahadevan for the recording of our channel ID...but that as they say is another story...err another blog post ;)

Cellphone wonders

These pics happened by accident... this beauty flew in and sat on my laptop... There was no time to get lights and professional camera organised, had to click on my cell phone camera... maybe thats why they are a bit pixelated...but still ... a thing of beauty is a joy forever...

OMG, I'm finding butterflies beautiful...what is wrong with me... is this the Smruti that I knew?? hehe multiple personalities at work... wink wink.

Homosexuality

I want Ramadoss to be successful in his mission of legalising homosexuality in India. I am not a closet lesbian, happy about the whole thing ...nor am I a homophobic who secretly hopes that legalising it would make all homophobic breathe a sigh of relief.
I am just an observer who cannot but help notice that the vast Indian population is made up of homosexual beings. Look anywhere and you will find that I am not wrong. Men dance with each other in all kinds of religious processions (behold the frenzy, the fervour, the closeness of the anatomies), at shopping malls, at cricket matches, at work, at watering holes... you name it and I bet that you will find at least one such pair.
I haven’t had the chance to observe much about other societies hence I can’t comment on how normal this situation is, but it certainly is ironical that in a society where people of opposite sexes rarely mingle with each other, there is no sensitivity or legal sanctity for homosexuals.
Right from childhood we are groomed to stay away and fear the opposite sex; hence we grow up as misinformed prudes. It is ok for us to hold hands with our girlfriends, but if we even speak for more than fifteen minutes with a guy, everybody including the guy thinks it’s an affair! Can I also include crimes against women as fallout of this theory??
I am just hoping that Ramadoss uncle manages to legalise homosexuality so that at least we as a society stop being hypocrites. We will at least then accept our true identities. Like my friend Charu explains “We are all born homosexuals, all of us possess latent homosexual tendencies but due to societal pressures act otherwise. A same sex relationship has far better chances of surviving than a relationship between opposite sex as both the partners would understand each other much better”
Well Charu, if Ramadoss has his way, we certainly will test the validity of your theory, till then I shall continue to watch men dance with each other during the procession of drowning elephant God. Amen.

God is Deaf!

I don’t understand Religious Processions
I seriously don’t. There is some kind of fervour in the air that defeats my idea of religion...isn’t religion supposed to provide you with the path to God/Nirvana... isn’t that supposed to be an individual thing...then why does the whole community descend on the streets with all the religious finery amid nerve rankling noise passed off as traditional music. Why oh lord why??
Since light travels faster than the speed of sound, you can see disco lights and huge halogen lights from a distance, getting closer, you know that you can save some energy in your house by switching off the light bulbs inside as well as the TV...unless you want to watch it in mute.
Then comes the cacophony of drums in the same monotonous beat which clashes with some other troupe...some troupes get innovative and use Rakhi Sawant’s item songs (item songs are ok as long as they are performed by a Marathi person).
The funniest thing is the dance... its one hand raised up (usually the right hand), fist rolled up for a punch ...like somebody doing ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ with feet’s marching...what is this dance???
But the thing that irritates me most is the noise... why do they have to use loudspeakers... Is God deaf??? Do we need electronic devices to reach him these days now... is that what’s called technologically advanced?
And why do people get into frenzy?? Why is there so much excitement...I don’t understand this... people stay up nights for these processions... to watch and take part. Traffic snarls worsen, shops keep erratic timings...hell I just don’t like all these.
First there is a procession to bring the God home (why did you let go of him in the first place...besides isn’t God omnipresent...why does one need to bring him home), then there is another procession to drown the God (now that you have finally got him why let him go?? Why can’t people just get posters and frame them...saves the trouble of getting and disposing the idols)
Ufff... I am getting agitated with all these processions... I think I will start a procession of my own...just need a reason...now what could be a good reason that would need drums, funny dance steps and loudspeakers???

Ok Fine

Ok fine, I didn’t keep my word and didn’t keep my word on writing on so many events gone by...but what the heck, I will make it up with this one...it has everything...action, romance, mystery, comedy, etc...
So let’s start with work... (It is top of the list in my life anyways)... work has been hectic, deadlines to meet, new people in the team... have to manage them...diverse backgrounds and work experience...it’s been quite a task actually....explaining stuff to people who simply don’t get it and have a closed mind. I don’t understand why people hesitate to take risks...I have done that all my life... in fact last week I went for a hair cut which was not nice and in an effort to damage control I had to rebond my hair (it’s a fancy shumacy name for straightening the hair) and it cost me almost as my monthly house rent....that’s an obscene amount of money to spend on ones look (especially if you are not in the glamour industry and don’t have moneybags as your dad or BF)...but what the hell, the deed is done... no point in crying over it...even though I still have to come to terms with straight hair... I somehow think that I am more of a curly haired person... straight hair is simply not me... its straight and boring...maybe it’s the universe’s way of telling me that “straight is in”...not that I was any other way in my preferences...but i never clarified if anybody thought otherwise ;)
There was a bit of re-bonding with Anu as well... over wine and fondue ... really enjoyed it but was surprised at some of her revelations ...do such things happen?? (Can’t write them here, censored stuff ;))
Then there was the marathon meeting day (I’m jumping back to work...but hey work is 80% of my life) and I quite lost it with one of my associates... I guess they are called associates coz they are ‘asses’... btw I made an ass out of myself after watching the terrorists –hostage situation in Jammu the other day. I kind of imagined that I saw one of my friends there...and I was needlessly worried... he is a competent Major and can handle such situations easily... it’s the media which overhypes situations... but it was his unit which was there... so I guess I was not over imagining things...well gotta go now...loads of work piling up... even as I write this post in between work... (I am not shirking work... I am doing this during my lunch break...since these days I am fasting ...roza’s...so I can technically use my lunch break time for personal work ;))