Arbit Scratchpad

Title: Naaow (Boat) Genre: Doodle + digitally modified in PShop

Sunday, 13th Dec 09, 11:00 AM: At the Bengaluru Habba venue Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat (KCP), Bangalore, India the Crafts Mela (Fair) and the India Art Trail were fascinating - I had been there today! As soon as you enter there are 3 large light coloured wooden deities made of Sandalwood (I guess - not sure), quite captivating and all around stalls selling arts and crafts. This fair is being conducted by Kala Madhyam - an organization, as it claims, to be dedicated to supporting and empowering traditional (folk and tribal) Indian artists and artisans. More at http://www.kalamadhyam.org/ At the mela, first I went on to meet Deepak, a businessman who is working with artisans who do Kerala Temple art. Being in the interiors these artists are on the verge of giving up the art. He is running an initiative to bring the artisans to do custom artwork on corporate areas etc. Another stall was also on Traditional Mural Art from Kerala (Bhavm from Wayanad, Kerala - http://www.bhavmmurala...

Details of his keynote address at the conclave here: http://www.yourstory.in/news/1063-frontpage/2734-guy-kawasaki-on-entrepreneurship-20-at-nasscom-product-conclave-and-expo-2009 His presentation (PPT): http://shamit.googlepages.com/GKawasakiAtNasscom-entrepreneurship-.ppt

2 States - the story of my marriage In the land of Gandhi, Ahmedabad begins this story of Krish and Ananya – which turns into a family cold war. The protagonist Kris, a Punjabi guy falls in love with the Best (or best looking?) female student Ananya, a Tamil Brahmin at IIMA. They study together, crack examinations and in the mean while things get more and more and more intimate. Krish gets a job in Citibank and Ananya in HLL – dream jobs so to speak. When the time comes to leave IIMA, they decide to get married. You would expect that to be one major battle won. They even make their families meet each other, but things take an explosive turn when the families come together leading to misunderstandings. The Hema Malini - Dharmendra analogy here left me bursting out, laughing. Kris shifts to Chennai in order to be near his lady love. How does Krish convince Ananya’s Tamil Brahmin parents and Ananya Kris’s Punjabi parents - the story explores this in detail, as it flits from one incident ...

“An Indian and the Arts” “With the most primitive means the artist creates something which the most ingenious and efficient technology will never be able to create” says Kasimir Malevich and our Young Entreprenur seems to fully comprehend the implication of the words. Our young patron of the arts has taken it upon himself to provide a new haven to the Indian genre. The rich history, variation and tradition behind Indian music, Art and Design are all set to receive an infusion of fresh ideas from Shamit Bagchi, who is the founder of DHONUK (INDIAN ART ECOSYSTEM). The Young Entrepreneur outlined his vision for the arts saying “A social network based online Indian Art/Music /Design Ecosystem with a 3 point model whose constituents include, Source of arts, music as Individuals , Institution/Galleries, Content generation from our end, Consumers - Buyers – bring in revenue and Participants in the community.” His venture is one of a kind and soon expanding into other areas. He speaks o...

Titled: 'Despair' - Sketched and edited in P'Shop.

Learnings from the lecture by Gurcharan Das . Gurcharan Das is a seasoned speaker and has his own mesmerizing way of speaking. It was midway during his spell (spiel?)  - no, actually a lecture at the IIM Bangalore auditorium on his latest book “The Difficulty of being Good” he did just that – left me and many more folks spell-bound! In his own words he had studied the Mahabharata for a period of more than six years to draw lessons from it with an eye on capitalism. He speaks of the many conditions of being human for example that of envy, revenge, the want for status that can muddle up worldly affairs.   To start off, speaking on envy he dwelled upon Duryodhana’s envy of the fact that he could not accept someone else’s coronation – this ultimately leads to the war of Kurukshetra . Sometimes we have this tendency to writhe in envy at others’success although he/she may rightfully have achieved it and that can be the root cause for a lot of evil in society. The way he explained i...

The second day turned out to be better and much more enjoyable than the first at the Bengaluru International Arts Festival 09. It started with the recital by Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Grammy Award winner) and Suma Sudhindra on the Veena along with the members of the troupe Laya Taranga. Vishwa Mohan Bhat reached epic proportions with his Mohan Veena (an improvisation of the guitar with many additional strings) on one piece of music. Sheer joy and at such times the mind explodes and goes numb. The ending was in typical Laya Taranga style with jugalbandi - the relay among the percussionists (Mridangam, Kanjeera, Ghatam, Tabla and drums) finally merging into an amalgamated interplay by all the percussionists and the Veenas. Next was Padma Vibhushan  Sonal Mansingh the master dansuese and one of the foremeost proponents of Odissi dance. She did the Krishna Leela - 8 rasas which she portrayed with aplomb and amazing vigour even at this age. The different rasas included...

Attended the first day of the Bengaluru International Arts Festival'09 yesterday at The Sheesh Mahal, Palace Grounds. The violin recital seemed insipid at first perhaps because I had just gone into the BIAF zone after office and its tensions. And then the violin jugalbandi entered a high frequency stage with L Subramaniam and his son - it reached a crescendo of sorts with short bursts and mesmerizing strains. A befitting ending worth all the cheer. This was followed by the energetic and full throated Raghu Dixit of the Raghu Dixit Project fame. He started with a Kannada folk song and then went on to the 'Hey Bhagwaan' number. Apparently he got frustrated that the folks were all seated and not standing, cheering and dancing - he threatened to not continue in his jovial-furious manner and guess what the people just stood up and that's when the 'Mysore Se Aayi' track was belted out by the members of the Raghu Dixit Project. The violinist, two guitarists and the...

On 1st September, 2009 was born the INDIAN ART ECOSYSTEM - http://dhonuk.com YourStory.in is carrying a story as an entry for their Most Popular Entreprenur Contest '09. RATE AND COMMENT FOR US FRIENDS: http://www.yourstory.in/entrepreneurs/pa rticipants/2564

A braid of plaited memories is all that shall remain, years from now...

Discovered through insights, and a very strong intuitive feeling, the PIVOTAL framework is essentially a combination of passion, imagination and verve that can be used almost in every aspect of human life. The PIVOTAL framework -> Passion + Imagination + Verve in equal measure = TOTAL SUCCESS. It is essentially these which drive perfection, discovery and inventions of the highest nature in humans as well all of those day to day 'WOW' moments or incidents. But it could be extended to anything and every activity that we take up. Putting the whole soul into the moment... It seems to have a spiritual angle to it too of having belief in that highest of universal consciousness - which is common in us all and can be reached and gets connected in such a fabric of commonality, as if into a single whole... The aim is to tirelessly strive and serve and be best at what are your strengths or maybe a higher purpose! Hypnosis ( alluding to an incident during a presentation in class ) The s...

Debi – The Shakti-Shanti Duality. Yaa Devi Sarvabhuteshu – Shakti Rupen/Shanti Rupen Sansthitaa – Namastasyay, Namastasyay, Namastasyay, Namo Mamahaa. DIGITAL MODIFIED ARTWORK.

CARTS - Yes this elective by Prof B Shekar has been a revelation... From music (the essence of which is 'contrast' - subtle vs obvious, continuous vs discrete) to films, and imagery, creativity in all its aspects is covered. Artwork being a primary area (we were studying Escher's artwork including Metamorphosis and Ascending and Descending and many others). Mathemetical concepts are yet to be covered. Concepts in music have been the main focus area with concepts such as shadows, reflection, gesticulations etc were new things I learnt. The notes - Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni - are based on ratios to the Golden Ratio (approximately 1.614). FACTOID: Upto a max of 12 notes or 8 notes are decernable to the human ear. ESCHER's BIRDS - Developed taking snatches from Escher's 'Liberation' - copied during class ... Currently listening to CONVERSATIONS by Ulhas Bapat & Narayan Mani - deadly combination of Santoor and Veena... Heady Music! Heaven! Hooked to this track...

Genre: Digital Art, On July 12, 2009 for July 21 (marks my mother's birthday) - Click above to view larger image. Dedicated to my mother and all mothers, past, present and future.... who bear the symbols of love and later care and nurture them! How I wish I could roam free, Careless of all that the world demands. But mother, for the thoughts of thee, And on my head thy peaceful hands.

DIGTAL ARTWORK Titled: Black = Hope (Click image above to expand) Life is no pleasant game, Yet a game all the same! Come with me, let us Go forth to tear thus, The occasional pall of gloom. Awaits the dawn of consciousness. Darn the naysayers, Burn their demoralizing prayers. The beats of music, And human company, keep up The zest for life, the trick Is to yearn for the very best! Enjoy every step, wait not With bated breath, To reach some illusory goal. Feel the oneness of each and every soul! Black equals Hope, since it’s A matter of raising your eyelids. The ennui shall vanish, Gain You shall zest, Zest, ZEST. -------------------------------------------- Watched Vijay Tendulkar's play 'Silence the court is in session' (English version of the Marathi original Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe) by a budding and getting quite adept troupe called VODO - http://www.vodo.blogspot.com/ - at the Rangashankara on 11th June 2009. Current...

(Click above to enlarge) 'DONT YOU WORRY, BABY!' Genre: DIGITAL POP ART -  EXPERIMENTAL Inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's work. Also here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/shamit/DonTYouWorryBaby#

GENRE: DIGITAL POP ART. Her Tattoo Blooms! Inspired by artworks of pop art gurus such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol - the quality no where near them in terms of the fine art work - however a decent start in my view. Need to work harder on the sketching part - this one was done in like 10 mins, and then heavy digitization and touchup... The end goal was to make a Pop Art style art piece and very, very colourful - a tattoo on the female form make for a appealing combination, perhaps a tattoo parlour... Listening to the Delhi 6 title track helped make the overall piece as vivid as it has got! How would the end product look on the wall of a pub or a restaurant? FEEDBACK WELCOME.

The writer Ernest Hemingway in one final moment of insanity shot himself. Is L K Advani going to do the same? The drubbings in the elections - I have to give it to him that he managed to escape an attempt yet – poor guy his party’s SMSes extolling him as the next PM itself would have turned off the electorate – I am sure that is the reason. ‘Theory of the errant SMSes’ from my end – yet another absurd reason for the BJP’s (NDA) setbacks and King Cong, UPA’s (Ulta Pulta Alliance as per BJP – Ravishankar Prasad must be kicking himself on his rear end now) unwittingly thumping victory (they were themselves surprised it’d seem). Also no such escape hatch for us, IIMB PGSEMers – our batch of 2008 after having stretched and strained to snapping point finally touch finish line. One full year completed! Almost two more to go... With ups and downs (an understatement given the accompanying volatile job scene in the IT sector) – a volcano of activity last one year it was with studies (sleep-rea...

We didn’t have the voter ID cards made, but we had voted in the last assembly elections for Karnataka (and it was a breeze back then - no hassles, no delays; also the parties had distributed the slips containing details beforehand, which was not the case this time). So our names were for sure in the electoral rolls. The key problem injected this time was the fact that the part no. or book number had changed and the old set had got distributed among 2 fresh sets of book numbers which created tremendous confusion. Everyone and his brother were busy searching for their names. A search of close to 2+ hours resulted in finally finding the names and a sigh of relief. I’ve got to get my voter ID card made sometime soon, but even those with cards had to face the same laborious searching process. The entire electoral list outside the polling booth where the searches were being done was in Kannada here for the Yelahanka assembly constituency which falls under the Chikkaballapur constituency (som...

From the PGSEM Student Affairs Council (SAC) Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore: Star of the Quarter Award is given to an individual who has significantly contributed to PGSEM community through extra curricular activities in an academic quarter, as part of various activities done by PGSEM-SAC and committees. SAC members will nominate significant contributors for the Award and the voting will be conducted among the current batches to decide the Star along with SAC members' points. SAC member is not eligible to be nominated for this award.   You will be getting a mail on voting for Star of the Quarter - Q3 2008-2009. Please take your time to vote for and decide the Star.   A voting happened (to decide amongst 11 equally strong and capable contestants) and guess what? I polled 32.65% of the votes and yes  I won!!  My immense gratitude towards one & all who felt I was worth it!! It takes an institute of IIMB's stature and star students to recognize a STAR! :D Also have t...

From Sketches Sketch: Onion, Lotus or an Unborn Foetus? My inspiration would probably be the Onion that you peal as an analogy to uncovering a person's core personality/values... right from the hereditary traits to the true personality that he finally attains - like a lotus blooming.  The new art format used could be described as the concept of JUSTIFICATION : Where in I justify the sketched object based on certain thoughts looming in my subconscious mind.

Justed finished watching the 2007 movie from Dreamworks 'Bee Movie'. Lately watched Pixar's 'Wall-E' and 'Kung Fu Panda' too... Also 'Madagascar 2' - Wall-E was the best in terms of realism and sheer graphics (won the best animation Oscar 2009, having beaten Kung Fu Panda), Kung-Fu Panda was absolutely hilarious and Bee Movie the cutest of them, including some cool music by Hans Zimmer... (Image Source:  http://blog.beliefnet.com/moviemom/beemoviepromo.jpg )

The annual business fest ‘Convergenz’09’ conducted by the IIMB-PGSEM student fraternity happened on 15th March 2009. The pre-lunch session in the morning saw the finals of the business plan - Alchemy (judges panel consisted of Venture Capitalists and Professors of the NSRCEL, IIMB) and Case presentation competition (on the topic of beating Nokia’s market dominance in the Indian mobile handset market); with the finalists vying for the top slot; the sessions were thoroughly contested and interesting pitches were made. The ‘Turing Test’ business/technology quiz finals were conducted by Prof Rajeev Gowda in the afternoon after the written elimination rounds and Arul Mani the VP of Karnataka Quiz Association was also present for the show.  The panel discussion at the end of the fest, in the late evening was well attended and consisted of panelists of repute from the IT Industry including Srini Rajam, CEO Ittiam Systems and Y V Prakash, Director R&D, Honeywell Technology Solutions and e...

A wrong move can do you in and be very costly. You got to keep playing. Are you ready for the next move? It is often tempting to make a move – think of all the possible traps! One move at a time. Rarely otherwise. That was a sure trap. You figured it out… You got to follow the rules. Each piece has it's unique style. You have to 'sit through the match' to win it. Never underestimate your opponent. Sometimes to elicit the level of your opponent, make a reckless move. If the opponent is repeatedly making stupid moves unable to acknowledge - that's the sign of an unworthy opponent.  Sometimes pawns dont matter much, but they are often the most useful. Often what you see on the board is not what you get. You can go a long way, but then your own pawns are blocking you. It is not easy to checkmate. More easy to check. Sometimes it is hard to keep playing - but the sharpest, grittiest mind wins! Think upto 10, 20, 30 moves ahead??? The next move is based on a future consequenc...

Poetic Soul ---------------------- The poet sings a merry tune, Verses flow and maidens swoon. A tingle in the air makes me rhyme, I sing in carefree joy, all the time! - SHAMIT BAGCHI

I pray to the almighty creative energy store. Bestow in my heart enough love, and Bountiful affection; with which,  Can I gift every passerby, all those  With whom I have ever met, and who are yet  To appear, as I traverse this path of life!

The newspaper DNA (Daily News and Analysis - http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore ) seems to have involved in not verifying its sources of photographs and having used my photographs (does this amount to plagiarism? I think it does) after it carried some of my pictures in the 'After Hrs' section of its newspaper on 31st January 2009, which I had taken at the IIMB Yamini 2009. It is good that they covered the event but they should have cited/verified the sources of the photographs. In all probability they or their sources just picked up the photos from my blog, with the belief that no one would notice anyways - seems they could not escape as luck would have it, I spotted them in the DNA paper on Saturday. It was early in the morning when as I flipped open the last page of the supplement that I was stunned to see my pics, which I was able to recognize immediately - however there were no credits anywhere in sight! Please check the photos below from the e-paper version on their website...

Close to 8 hours of classical arts (music and dance) on a single day – usually people watch one recital in a day we watched four of them back to back. I have gone to a couple of classical recitals till date but something of this nature was a dream come true! Not that I am bragging, but then the sheer experience of it all was stupefying to say the least. Let me start from the last item which got over at 4:30 AM, yes 4:30 AM on 26 th Jan, 2009, that's today, our Republic Day. The dusk to dawn musical concert 'Yamini 2009' in association with the Spic Macay chapter at IIM Bangalore was an experience for me like never before. The last item - the flute recital by Pandit Ronu Majumdar reached its crescendo in a Druta Teentaal at around 3:30 AM, when the speed of play along with Sudhir Pandey on the tabla reached so high that it was just impossible for me to keep track of the tala , which I had been trying to keep track of throughout the recitals – so I just sat in silence soa...