two films / two books / bad week blues

built on the predictable foundation of a hollywood drama in the ‘lemon tree’ a farm of lemon trees is the center of controversy. for the palestinian woman it is her memories of childhood and her livelihood while for the israeli defence minister and his staff a possible shelter for terrorists. perhaps i am unreasonably cynical but it felt like when violence is meant to be borne peacefully it runs the danger of being merely lip service that actually continues to allow things to stay as they are.
‘yours emotionally’ ups the camp meter to a level that i think few films can. the love affair between the sikh boy from london and the shy boy in small town karnataka as mediated by a local mustachioed diva and his agin boyfriend was way over the top- colour saturated, black and white, fast motion, slow motion, strange camera angles. it did it all.
'black hole' is a graphic novel where young men and women begin to develop a strange sexually transmitted disease. slowly they turn into half monsters. when they move into their own community hidden in the hills near seattle slowly a murder plot develops. i finished the whole novel inn one sitting from mumbai to delhi on the flight and felt nauseous towards the end. on the trip i slowly got through the second volume of proust's 'rememberance of things past' within a budding grove, where our hero in love with two different girls in the two chapters grows up through the embarassments of teenage love.
and then there is the harrowing past week. first the desperate scramble to put the paperwork in order for the staff selection meeting on monday. suddenly new gaps in the paperwork appear and enlarge into gaping crevices. all of these have to plugged before we are interviewed by a university appointed committee. tragically prasad is again not a part of the faculty. while trying to come to terms with this we learn that kudalkars son died in an accident on the way back from a site while our senior management member has also died. today is mr valecha’s funeral.
two other days were spent at the academy of architecture trying to navigate a reasonable syllabus within the new structure prescribed by the council where the course has a whole year of professional training.