Arbit Scratchpad

(Image Courtesy: http://oscar.go.com/ - From the Oscar Nominees Page) I may have watched it a bit late - but nonetheless this movie is an epic in every sense of the word. It is first and foremost such a beautiful movie - and then it's outstanding! It is a sharply political movie too but not in any negative sense. It has a message that reminds us of the havoc and mindless destruction that war causes. Right from the way it develops - the beautiful forests of Pandora and its creaures and the Na'vi people to the progression with the human WMDs on display! It highlights the irrationality behind the 'other' people that we so often love to hate/despise - be it racial, religious or liguistic or of any other nature. And rightfully Avatar deserves the Oscars (I am assuming they would have won on 07 March 2010!). Some people told me it is a pure 3D animation movie and CGI/SFX and all of that without exactly a story - it is not; absolutely not. It is a perfect concoction...

‘The Amul India Story’ by Ruth Heredia is a story of ideals transforming into building up of one of India’s greatest success stories in the dairy sector. It traces the the birth of a small movement in Gujarat the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producer Union and its evolution into a fantastic new paradigm of development - the story of Amul. The vision was laid by Sardar Vallabhai Patel with the focus of use of appropriate technology for rural community organization of producer’s cooperative marketing institutions serving the twin purpose of augmenting rural income and developing local industry. His central question for success of a cooperative was “Are the farmers happy?” and if the answer was yes it meant the cooperative was meeting its intended purpose. After the establishment of the University for farmers with which the story begins we get to see how Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel uses cooperation as the key to solving the problems of the milk producers in Kaira for getting a fair ...

L to R - Me, Granny and Mitul da The end game - death came. Took away another name! Thoughts, memories stay, The bustle of life eventually replaces the initial dismay! Time stops, in a trance Leaping flames eat up the discarded body As if cleansing or purifying the putrefying A balm of relief against painful suffering. Anything that starts, has an end The road from childhood to a second childhood had many bends! Now, when the cold numbness meets the searing fire,  A serene calm greets the burning pyre.

A superbly sketched, entwined set of thick, wavy, black branches of a tree on a white background made from charcoal pencil or black drawing pen – move in and you figure it’s a man and a woman embracing, the intensity of the artist while he had been sketching this strikes you and blows away your mind! Two Rajasthani (?) women - one frontal view, one side profile, squatting in a traditionally set room and as you are staring at their colorful dress and the expressions on their faces and at the techniques the artist has so skillfully applied you suddenly figure a third woman somewhere; no, no it is a reflection of the side profile on a mirror she is holding as a glimpse of the eyes staring back - a massive piece in mellow yellows and blues of two friends perhaps. A beautiful woman, her alluring eyes looking at something ahead, a growling tiger its sharp teeth jutting out of the jaws and the ignited ferocity reflecting in the waters beneath, next, next, next – you can’t just stop gap...

The best book I have read in a long, long time! Orhan Pamuk's novel 'The Museum of Innocence' (splendid translation by Maureen Freely) is one of his best and the genius is only getting better! Beats Marquez at times... Sample this: "Even on our worst days, our reason does not stop speaking to us; even if unequal to the power of our passion, it continues to whisper with merciless candor that our actions will serve no purpose but to heighten our love, and therefore our pain". Never read anything as stunning before...

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...