on multiple listenings however, they are closer than i thought- though marthas’ sources are somewhat different- country and folk rock- while rufus sources everything from classical music to big band- the faith in the pop song as a work of art stays the same. the crafted arrangements, the careful wordplay and the brilliant singing.
the heroine of the first of the quartet of novels by a s byatt is a teenager who reminds me of a few girls i know- fiercely independent, intelligent, well read- who are able to see themselves constantly as performers in a case study of a greater theoretical premise. they know the theory and critique it through the practice of their own lives and seem torn between the complex emotions that they genuinely feel and the analysis of the reasons for them that they have heard through second hand sources.
to all of us who were too dim in our teens they might seem precocious, sometimes annoying for throwing in our faces the facts of our own incredible ignorance; but I think this discomfort might lie in the unease that we have with women who exude power in domains that we consider the prerogative of the male.
like all the other byatt books i have read, beautifully written, modes of language are flirted with ridiculous ease; the descriptions of the everyday are painstakingly detailed and tiring and the character sketches are spot-on; extremely literary the book is difficult, long and rewarding.
it felt good to get out of the city even if it was only for a day when amit mayuri anushree and me got into the car on a drive where ella fitzgerald kept getting played even on shuffle mode. we got to alibaug ostensibly to take a look at the houses vandana is building in alibaug.
alibaug is really strange with tons of rich peoples' large designer estates in the middle of tiny villages that seem unaffected by them. vandanas contributions to the landscape were simple low rise, far flung homes with sloping roofs and laterite clad walls that stood amid the barrenness that summer brings to the area. samira's mad mariwala house was just next door with its metal barrel double heighted living room and its other whimsical eccentricities that may seem awkward to conventional eyes. i loved the ‘meditation room’ – the metal container from where you look upon the woods.
whats it with kihim beach? absolutely no places to eat. after attempting unsuccessfully to find a beach side restaurant we ended up at some place called ‘windmill’ for lunch, bumped into ameya from the first year, debated the relative merits of bar dancing (i was for it while anushree was against) and came back home after a detour that involved mayuri and me on a low hung branch over a flowing canal, amits incessant photography with nishesh's digital camera, cut watermelons and mirchi and salt on cucumber.
as a reaction to this, film makers decided to start an alternative film festival just opposite the ravindra natya mandir where the official film festival was taking place in a building called the ‘bhupesh gupta bhavan’. this building i am sure has some strange history which has led to it becoming an icon in the left-wing world of the city, with che guevara posters, etc. this building was also the center of the world social forum in mumbai. anyways, all this low cost left wing ness is not very comfortable. the ‘auditorium’- if you can call it that is this multipurpose room where makeshift arrangements are made to see the films. it is extremely hot and the sound isnt very good. in spite of all of this, the auditorium was full and the films were all interesting.
paro commiting hara kiri after the screening
the controversy around the development of the mill lands was covered by more than one film, ‘a tale of two cities’ was one – pretty much straightforward issue documentary, madhu’s amitabh bachchan film was i guess also looking at similar issues but with far more sophistication and humour. there were two films made by the children of mill workers that were also shown- one about hair cutting saloons in the area and another about the impending demolition of the only marathi language theater of the area ‘bharat mata’.
paro showed two films – one on the mill lands and another on the new trend of 'vegetarian only' high rises in south mumbai with her and renuka shahane dressed up as godesses by tushar. hmm.. and then there were the others.. a film on dhol players living off azad maidan (very interesting), one two shot film about ‘what goes around comes around’ ('right here, right now'), one nri tribute to his mother by showing how samosas are made (?) and one black and white film noir tribute that looked like it was american- ‘the incredible shrinking woman’ which according to me was trite. the last film was on the slum demolitions mentioned in an earlier post- but it was so hot inside i could not wait anymore and spent most of the film outside in the slightly less sweltering lift lobby waiting for the film to end.
later cakes were cut and birthday candles were blown before which i emotionally blackmailed kalpit into contributing to abeers collection box for the continued survival of ‘vikalp' and am asking all of you to do so too. hopefully they will afford air conditioning one day- but will it be politically correct? will we feel the trauma of mill workers if we are not sweating, i wonder. am i being too flippant? have we lost our sense of humour?
a 'go vikalp' cake
We presented the status of the three design cell projects - the juhu market proposal, the aga khan housing study and amisha presented the sustainability of commercial buildings project. Long and packed with so much tension these meetings are even though there is nothing really to get tense about.
Also this week saw the final Thesis presentations of the leftovers of Ateyas Class. Eshraj, Nehal, Noella and my very own Khyatee and Kiran Kolhe. Khyatees rather well made annex ot the Opera House got into a controversy because she did not 'respect' the earlier building enough. Kirans project suffered from a severe lack of architectural skill. I wish I had a photograph of Khyatees model.
The office refrigerator is still largely empty and amit keeps taunting me about it. I am going to get some bread an butter and keep it in it to make him happy. Meanwhile, our phone from MTNL has not yet arrived and Mukul completely blew his top at the smiling obsequious man who came to solve the problem. Letters to the press have been threatened. Hopefully, that should make someone act a little more quickly.
Meanwhile my swimming plans seem destined to fail. Every evening on my way back I plan to go to the club to swim and reduce the burgeoning ponch that makes my mom so livid. This week when I got there the pool was invaded by the crew of a 'd' grade hindi film with
I had to retreat to the lap pool where throngs of kids were learning to swim, until the film crew followed me there for the beauties to pose seductively under waterfalls. I should have tried out for a role as an extra- maybe I could have then finally been able to get a dip. But I don’t think I will look good in a two piece.
this week our cultural evening was when madhavi mami, mom and me went for ‘hum to tere aashiq hain’- a play that i was told is extremely funny and entertaining, having won loads of different highly respectable awards.
the play was formulaic froth about the travails of recently married couples with the usual one liners about the laziness of men or the cantankerousness of women, except in this case the man was hindu and girl muslim- the big twist being that the differences that emerge between them are not because of their differing faiths. and this rather conventional story was told in a school play idea of entertainment by inserting hindi film song interludes to entertain and a sutradhar who told the story while participating in it. very disappointing.
the project is to look at the existing list of heritage buildings in mumbai and examine its anomalies and contradictions (of which there are many) yesterday was the pre-final presentation which went off all right with a great amount of debate on whether we or abha or neera should list new buildings within precincts. everyone is trying to pass the buck to the other. neera- whom we all think should be doing the work is trying to pass it on to abha and us- saying that it is within our scope- while we obviously differ. after a long discussion i think we kind of succeeded in ridding us of the responsibility.
another discussion centered around whether completely transformed buildings would yet be considered worth listing. that was a strange debate where 20 storied buildings built over the past year were considered worthy of listing- merely because they once were important- but they don’t exist now! that did not seem to matter. weird.
above: Jhulelal House- on D N Road. a completely rebuilt building. not a single part of it is original. by using a pastiche of 'classical' elements it claims a slot in the existing heritage list. should it be deleted? the argument against its deletion is that once deleted the building will be rebuilt as a glass tower. but if there were precinctual guidelines for the development along D N Road this point would be moot. so i think... and what exactly is wrong with glass towers anyway?
meanwhile sukhtankar who has been part of every single important decision regarding the heritage movement in mumbai since its inception was eager to point out that we should not do anything that might challenge the validity of the earlier listing. but is not the entire basis for the re-examination of the original list as well as exploration for new buildings the apparent inadequacies of the old list?
other such strangeness- the grading mechanism. there are three main grades for heritage buildings: grade 1, grade 2 (which has two sub grades 'a' and 'b') and grade 3- in descending order of importance. with the regulations being as lax as they are on the protection of these buildings almost all of the grades allotted are pretty pointless because the offer the building no protection at all. changes are rampant everywhere as perhaps they need to be. an example is the high court building which was a 'grade ii a' building where no changes were allowed in the compound. with an amendment to the rule prodded by the judge now a new annex is being built in the compound of the building. so we are upgrading everything as the lower grades mean virtually nothing. the only really protected grade is the grade 1 category - because no changes are allowed at all. now do we want to live in a city of hollow monuments?
perhaps we need to look at the conservation and heritage movement a little more holistically to make it more relevant- like an urban renewal and design approach rather than an artifactual. what that exactly entails i dont know. but i do suspect that unless we are able to develop a strategy to dovetail it with development, as against 'against development'- the way it stands right now- it might become more and more irrelevant.
a long sunday outing for aaji- first mom and me took her to the office which she saw for the first time. met mayuri anushree and amit there.
then aaji wanted to buy me a refrigerator for the office. at ‘sony mony’ in andheri we got a fancy white one which now sits in the ‘beer lounge.’.
lunch at rahuls house where sushma had made chicken; and then sat to see the beginning of ‘lucky: no time for love’ with salman khan and ash look alike sneha ullal doing incredibly cute things in
i had to leave the film before the ending because dad was waiting for us at inorbit. we met him there in the throngs that descend upon the place on a sunday evening. you cant imagine how bad it is. i don’t know how paul and prasad live so close to the mall.
bought me a new pair of trousers, mom a bag and other such stuff. aaji was quite a sport and even jumped on to an escalator in spite of all our trepidation.
exhausted right now- cant believe i have a whole long days work ahead of me.
after the fellowship juries in college where kiran did not seem to understand anything but kept insisting on screaming ‘and stuff like that..” amit and me went to fame andheri post juries and saw ‘kaal’.. and don’t ask me how the film was..
it starts off with john abrahams navel, moves to esha deol’s, then vivek oberois hair and finally lara duttas legs. ajay devgan comes in as a guide turned ghost towards the end. there seemed to be absolutely no good things about the film. and even then i find it difficult to really judge whether i liked it or not ‘cus no matter how bad a horror film is- i can never watch it. too scared. I remember trying to watch ‘vaastu shastra’ in
but i can still vouch for the fact that ‘kaal’ directed by this dude called sohum who seems to have half learnt something at ram gopal varmas factory was terribly acted, badly written, terribly shot.
karan johar must have known the dud that was being unleashed at the cinemas and seems to have pulled all stops in an incessant promotional campaign including ‘kutting with karan’ slots on mtv and a supposedly sizzling item number with shah rukh and malaika which was very hohum. the theater was full- so i guess he has been successful.
can i just end with an aside on the supremely untalented longhairs masquerading as musicians salim and suleiman. overdone, acontextual thumps and bleeps, desperately anglicized ‘baybahs’ and ‘oooo yeahs’ to kinda y’know … be kool. '
kool’ it sure was – just not very good.
home early from jury duty at the academy of architecture- completely disappointed with the work.. a 'rural' project meant to be created in the vernacular 'flavour' like it is some kind of a formula.. case studies of other sloping roofed buildings in mumbai were supposed to help them build more huts in valsad. vernacular flavour = sloping roofs and courtyards.. awful awful buildings.
but perhaps less oppressive than the 'convention centers' at sion which was their 'urban' project.. enormous, scale less.. the only exploration there after a design brief that even went so far that it specified the colour of the internal walls (off white) was in roof and plan shapes. there was only so much one could say- no wonder me and pitkar got done early.
miles and eons worse than the experience yesterday at d y patil where i quite honestly was not expecting much. a young dynamic faculty was willing to risk the university by allowing the students to develop programs and choose sites. the projects were an art gallery in vashi with 'porosity' as a key word and the rural project was in kutch where the students through site studies decided the exact program and site for a handicraft center.
the projects were all right enough- but the students were enthusiastic and interested. vidya, my co-juror and me had very interesting discussions with the kids- especially this guy called ashish- i dont know how many of you remember the daniel libeskind lecture in college- but ashish was the guy who attacked his royal libeskindness with the accusation of being a scavenger of death. his projects, caught up in the architectonic urge to formalness could also be accused of the same- but it was good to talk to him.
i must say that neelkanth, satyajit and his co-faculty were able to inspire the kids like i think we at krvia have forgotten to do. as i mentioned earlier in the blog- we have become completely safe- all excitement has dissipated..
we have become the Man of of the 'School of Rock' - we need someone to stick it to us.
get some youthful charisma and charm back into the school.. i take back all i ever said about the danger of heroes.
at least they can inspire us when we are young as long as we remember to grow out of them when we get older.
a film that is set in the time that i was born, during the emergency of the 70’s- around the intertwined lives of three characters, all dealing differently with the political climate of the time. the characters being- the daughter of a civil servant in delhi (chitrangda singh - who is probably one of the most beautiful women i have seen on the hindi screen),, siddarth- the naxalite son of a marxist judge (kay kay menon) and vikram (shiny ahuja) a small town middle class man who becomes a ‘fixer’ in the circles of the powerful.
i had seen half of the film in 2003 when sonal shah had sneaked a copy of the film to college until i destroyed the vcr by walking into the cables in the darkness of the av room.. and though i had loved the bit i had seen then i was expecting much less from the film today.
in spite of my initial reservations though i cant rave enough about the film.. compelling, serious and epic in proportions- the film explored so many complicated issues vital to our selves as indians unflinchingly and intelligently.. if ever there was a film that portrayed the machinations and tribulations of the development of the indian nation it must be this one.
so far removed from the fluff that passes as alternative cinema nowadays.
and so i must say that when shekhar kapur endorses the film as undoubtedly one of the best films to come out of
highly recommended.. please go see..
since i had promised myself no blogs for a while after my blog roll over the weekend, this one to break that vow.. to note the japanese ghost story ‘kwaidan’ told through a korean artists eyes -a story involving a faceless woman, a blind artist, a haunted lake and an army of ghosts in superb drawings and water color like renderings.. an ‘adult’ comic book it is with a sex scene thrown in to underline the point. it was so much of what i expected it to be and extremely satisfying as such.
but can the imagination of japan or korea or china or the ‘oriental’ in the movies and books that i have seen (kurosawa to tarantino) ever go beyond samurais in robes, mysterious spiritual forces and archaic codes of conduct that are followed with such great rigor. can a contemporary love story set in japan ever capture our imagination without it being couched in the rhetoric of the japanese conservatism or its strangeness to an outsiders eyes?
kausik says that tadao ando is famous in the west because his work is quintessentially ‘japanese’ in the way that the west would like to imagine japan. all tatami mat austere minimalism.
i wish i could also accept it as such and not fall into the trap of wanting to see beyond but be absolutely unable to break the caricature of a people that gives me such a sense of power over them.
i have heard many times that american citizens do not know why the world hates them so much. my suggestion to them would be simple to watch this show that was on the ‘discovery channel’ right now on the ‘bikini islands’ in the south pacific. yet another in the never ending list of stories of american imperialism and wide eyed self righteous ignorance. the show itself has to be seen for two reasons – for the disturbing story it tells and even more for the disturbing way the story is told.
a recap of the story for all of you- as i was- unaware of the story. post the world war two devastation of hiroshima and nagasaki the usa wanted to further test the effects of nuclear bombs on entire populations- (duh- they get decimated -i could have told them that!). to check the various levels of destruction possible they emptied an entire group islands called the ‘bikini islands’ in the south pacific of its population, promising them a safe return, filled the waters around the islands with aircraft carriers and battleships and bombed them- with over two dozen nuclear bombs for around a decade. the largest bomb ever dropped anywhere was dropped on b
they recorded these tests, filmed them, analyzed the destruction caused and left- leaving in the wake of the tests an entire portion of the land and the water of the area simmering with radioactivity. naturally the original inhabitants of the place could not go back to the land; many people died and many are still suffering the mutations and diseases caused by the tests.
the show (american made) i saw today on tv swerved between two stories- that of the original bombings and that of the fabulous relics of battleships that lie underneath the waters for divers to discover.
it was truly amazing how with the simple act of describing the blatant atrocity of the act it was assumed that forgiveness has been granted for all the violence caused. this ease by which a wrong is righted by the supposed acceptance of a ‘mistake’ was only one part of the show that angered me. the rest of the show, with lingering shots on the drowned guns and bombs, spoke about the fact that today the remains of the battleships are tourist attractions making the local economy boom- isnt that just great!
first you bomb the place, kill an entire way of life- then to make it better you say that it finally turned out all right because at least there are people coming to see what we did to you. you're making money because of our atrocities - be grateful! and of course the locals were presented in that wonderful way that ‘otherizes’ them further- wearing flower garlands and dancing- as the friendly ‘locals’ whose capacity for anger has been sucked away by the american propaganda machine convincing them of both the american regret (like a child saying sorry after he has eaten the stolen sweets); and of their own banal smiling acceptance of it all.
the show went further to say that this chain of islands is a 'paradise on earth' for all who want to see what the ravages of history can result in- if you are a junkie for the extremely surreal thrill- you cannot give the bikini island a miss! like a ride in an amusement park.
and this is a country that is now serving us more platitudes on world peace and the irresponsible leaders in the third world who would not behave 'in the best interests' with nuclear power. sometimes I almost empathize with terrorists.
the ‘bikini’- by the way- the two piece swim suit – symbol of lazy summer afternoons to help white skins get tanned on california beaches was named after the islands during the testing period by a french designer who thought that it was wonderful how his creation made women look like they would after a nuclear bomb blew all their clothes away- cute story, eh?
