Night Lighting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlXZWxoE2wM

The god of destruction shiva

http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/shiva.htm

Samudra Manthan

Angels and Demons Gathered to churn the Milky way, in search of the elixir of life. Apart from many other things, They Came upon the most dangerous poison which would destroy the universe. Shiva came to the rescue and drank the poison. Thats when his neck turned blue, and he became neelkanth.

Shiva Calendar

The character in my film might have
A calendar like this in his room.
Every night at 12, when the day is done, he crossed out the date from the calendar.

moharram self torture

leopards in the city

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/spotted-and-feared-in-leopard-city/988781/

I'm interested by the phenomenon which is becoming more and more common. As cities expand into the homes of wild animals, There are more and more instances of lost animals straying to the cities.

animal market in bombay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ol-MMrb-kE

Jal chakra

Sandhya ab apni kitaabein lekar neeche nahi ati, aur akela baitha main apni purani kitaabon ki dhul jhadne laga hun. Saalon purani school ki meri kitaab mein maine aaj ek sundar sa diagram dekha.
Dharti ka paani sukh kar aasmaan ki or uthta hain toh uske baadal ban jaate hain, aur monsoon bharat ke upar aa jata hai, Varsha ka swagat mor apne nritya se karte hain. Ise Jal Chakra kehte hain.

Jal chakra ka diagram

Purani biology ki kitaab mein yeh diagram bhi mil gaye

Phoolo Ka Kurta

touching story set in a small village, I haven't been able to find an online version but a must read!

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=dGLmLfxaPcIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Looking for a flat for my character

This is a shot of a complex in dwarka, delhi.As soon as my script is in a better place i need to look for flats in bangalore as well

From story to script

Think of story as the plan and screenplay as the execution. A screenplay is a story told in scenes, each scene necessary to tell the story. At this stage you’re just testing if each scene is necessary. When planning a screenplay, I try to write the story in prose first, without dialog, with each scene represented by either a sentence or a paragraph. Then I read and revise the condensed story, omitting what is unnecessary.


— Greg Marcks

Interview with a telephone lineman from Delhi

This is a transcript of an interview I conducted with a telephone lineman from Delhi.Since I'm In Bangalore,The interview happened over the phone. 

Me: Hello, I'm calling you to ask a few questions which will help me learn about your profession.I'm making a film who's protagonist might end up being a telephone lineman.

Him: Sure, go ahead.

Me:Are you from Delhi? 

Him: Yes. I've been born and brought up in Delhi itself, and have been working as a lineman for more than 30 years.

Me: Does one start as a lineman or did you start with other jobs?

Him: I started when i was 18, I used to do digging work at that point. After a few years of doing well, I was encouraged by my peers to give an exam which i passed, and then went on to a 6 month training period where I learn all about telephones and wires, the colour codes, the connections, those sort of things.

Me: Ok. What kind of uniform do you wear?

Him: There used to be a uniform which has been discontinued for the last 6-7 years. Now people wear whatever clothes they have. Some dress up neatly and smartly, and some don't care.

Me: Would you recommend the job to your children or other people who might be interested?

Him: Not at all. It's a difficult job and has it's dangers. The Pay isn't great and currently I'm the only lineman in an area of atleast a good 3-5 Kms. I start every morning at 9 and go on till 5 in the evening, Fixing all the faulty connections. Since there's only one person at this point,  I have to climb the poles and there's no one to hold the ladder in place. Just recently i fell of a pole when a biker nudged the ladder.Im pretty tall so thankfully i didnt get hurt badly.

Me: What kind of equipment do you carry for this?

Him: I have a box with wire cutters, A tester, a receiver.

Me: What exactly is a receiver?

Him: It's just like a receiver of a regular telephone but has a keypad.

Me:Is it possible to connect it to a line and hear the conversation?

Him: It is possible , but there is a strict rule to never do that kind of thing. We only connect it to check faulty lines.

Me:Do you have to go out for emergencies, say faults caused due to rain?

Him: I work in a hospital campus, so for us everything shuts by 5. There is regular timing and all faults that might happen in the night are fixed the next day.

Me: What about your breaks? Lunch etc?

Him: It depends from day to day. But everyday i report to office by 9 and on an average it's hard to get time for lunch. Im eating my lunch only now ( 6pm)

Me.: What about your house is it far from your workplace?

Him: Yes, it's around 15kms from here, I live in a DDA flat. My house was demolished and all of us were rehabilitated there. Theres one room, one kitchen, one bathroom, thats about it.

Me: And your family?

Him: I have a son and a a daughter and both of them are in school, the daughter is intelligent and is giving her 12th exams this year.

Me: How do you travel from work to home?

Him: I use my bike. 

Me: Do young people join for this job nowadays?

Him: No not at all, only those apply who don't have parents, havent studied etc. The average age at my office is very high and I'm considered a young man over there (laughs)

Me: Thankyou for your help sir, I'll call you sometime soon when i have a few more questions.

Him: No problem.

On Adaptation

Linda Hutcheon argues that adaptation may “keep that prior work alive, giving it an afterlife it would never have had otherwise,” for “adaptation is how stories evolve and mutate to fit new times and different places” 

- Penny Gay

The kiss- Anton Chekhov- how to deal with interiority in a film

http://www.online-literature.com/anton_chekhov/1243/

A beautiful story about a soldier who leaps into fantasy when a girl kisses him at a gathering in a dark room.
I'm interested in how interiority, which is relatively simple to express with the written word, can be expressed cinematically using images.Cinema is comprised of physicalities, and all meaning and feeling is constructed from what we see,hear, touch around us. It is a material medium, and hence it's harder to touch upon intagible thoughts and feelings. The story im currently working on has a lot of this and it'll be a challenge that i'll have to face at the adaptation stage. The challenge is to abandon the script and start visualizing the film anew, To take the story as a foundation to base the film on, and not necessarily to get attached to the images and the events that comprise the story.

some images

Makreel - Yashpal

I have been reading a small collection of Yashpal's short stories and out of all the books i've been going through recently, this one has ended up staying with me the most.

A brilliant story about ageing , youth  and passion.

I've only been able to find the english version here; the hindi one is better.

http://www.4to40.com/story/index.asp?p=Makreel

the sound of a peacock calling

http://www.freesound.org/people/dobroide/sounds/59186/