Day 189 - 190 : 35th Anniversary Gift!

It was my parents' 35th wedding anniversary! To celebrate this momentous occasion, I decided to gift them a trip to Rajasthan. So on the 25th of September they set out for Rajsthan and covered a 9 day trip of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer. They had a ball and couldn't stop talking about it for a long time! This blog entry should technically pan across many days because they kept sending me pictures and messages, updating me at every stop, recounting what seemed to have been an amazing experience for them! It was so heartening to see their excitement and happiness that I felt pretty proud of this idea for the gift!

This one is for my lovely parents and their 35 years of togetherness!

310 more to go. 

Day 188 : The Lovely Note from Cine Pobre!

Cine Pobre Film Festival from Mexico, a festival focused on self funded films, will be screening Pularum Iniyum Naalekal on Oct 16th Sunday evening in the Southern Baja region on the Mexican peninsula.

The festival organizers said they are screening our film "under a full moon in an old desert mission". 

When I probed on what a desert mission is, they sent me a picture of a ruin, together with this message-

"Mexico, as much of the world, during colonization, was riddled with Jesuit and other missionary outposts. Here in the Baja desert, in 1720 +/- European friars wandered around and spread the gospel according to Vatican bankers and merchant interests, as a result the natives all mysteriously died, from joy, I suppose. Now over 300 years later, we are left with sometime spectacular edification - mostly ruins, but in this case a desert palm oasis and some old buildings, we'll be projecting in that setting with villagers coming from miles away to enjoy an encounter with foreign cultures other than American tourists and Colombian drug lords."

Prime slot. Full moon. Ruins. Desert Oasis. Locals. Isn't that just beautiful?! :) :)

And am so grateful for the PIN journey that has taken us from one desert in the Middle East to another on the other side of the planet.

For sure on Oct 16th, my heart will be in a Mexican desert oasis. Also, one of these days, I really should make it to a screening.

The "old desert mission" - Venue for Cine Pobre! 

212 more to go. 

Days 180 - 187 : From Flu to Food to Festivals!

Well, what can I say. Just like that, another week whizzes past and am happily seven blog posts behind. So I am just going to stop pretending that I am going to continue this consistently for 500 days. As a famous Malayalam saying goes, "Nadannaal nadannu." or "If it happens, it happens."

So, let's see how it goes.

But I think I have a good excuse for the latest bout of procrastination.

After a really long time, I had caught a massive flu. Like the type that makes you want to do nothing but sleep, sleep and sleep. So clearly, blogging was the last thing on my mind.

But several awesome things did happen - so here you go.

1) I got notified that "Pularum Iniyum Naalekal" is officially selected for the online Cinema World Fest Awards. Next step is for them to announce the awards and post which the best of the fest will be screened publicly in early 2017 in Canada. So that's the 7th festival we have managed to get in!

2) I was stuck at home with the flu, so I used some of the time to write 50% of a feature film script. Yes, that's 51 pages of fresh, fresh writing of a brand new Malayalam feature! How exciting! I had been developing this idea for a while... I had a lot of situations super clear in the head but not the entire storyline. As I was nursing my running nose, somehow things fell into place and now all that's left is writing the whole script! (And of course, then making the film, but first things first).

3) We re-visited Lakshmi Narasimhan, my favourite haunt for several years but one that I had not been frequenting as much, and I got to relive the joy of an Andhra dosa (and of medhu vada and filter coffee... bliss!). Not once, but twice over the last few days. That was enough pampering for my flu-ey self.

4) I also enjoyed some amazing home made Sri Lankan Chicken Biriyani and Fish  Curry, which was nicely packed for me because I missed a party at a friend's place, again thanks to my flu. So there I was, digging away at some really good biriyani and curry at 1am!

5) Madam has a recent fetish for locking doors as she walks out. It's fine if one of us is inside the room, otherwise it's a bit problematic getting locked out. When she did it once, I scolded her, even though the husband was inside the room and we weren't technically locked out. But the husband readily defended her, thereby completely undermining my effort to make her realize it is the wrong thing to do. After a while he went out to a friend's place, and she locked another door. And this time, we were indeed locked out. Given the husband had such a strong opinion that locking people out wasn't a crime, I called him to ask for a solution. The conversation went like this :
He : Oh, you are locked out?
Me : Yes
He : Oh
Me : What do you suggest we do now?
He : Hmmm
Me : Well?
He : Oh I know!!! Get a knife...
Me : Excuse me?
He : Get a knife and poke it in, twist the lock and it will open.

Yup. My man, very earnestly suggested getting a knife and breaking in. As if this is a talent I am born with.

You may wonder what this particular point is doing here, but it astonished me so much (and later cracked me up so much) that I thought it should be here for posterity. And no, I didn't get a knife. I had anticipated this particular situation, so my super awesome self had already put spare keys in different accessible rooms.

6) But this amazing man also appeared on CNBC talking about his company Teamie, and completely rocked it! So proud!

7) For the first time ever, I actually completed a full round of a fitness program. OK, so it was easiest one maybe - the 4 week low impact Fitness Blender fitness program. I didn't do it 4 weeks straight, but mixed it up with yoga and dance in between, but at least am through with it, which is oh so awesome!

8) And last but not the least, Madam drew this!

The Fish

313 more to go.

Days 174 - 179 : Being Lazy!

Yup, it's official. I have become really bored of the blogging. Rather I have become rather lazy about it. Not that things haven't been good. But the quiet days continue to be quiet and with quietness, I realize, comes laziness.

So quick recap.

Sep 10 - Had a fab time at a friend's place celebrating his dad's birthday. In the evening went with the husband on a "date night" - with a little bit of shopping from Raffles City (trying to spend the vouchers I received at work for my "excellent service"), dinner at Podi (after a really long time and I thoroughly enjoyed their pasta with curry leaves) and drinks at the Gravity Bar at Carlton Hotel, which my newest find for a nice, quiet place with some good music of numbers from 1990s.

Sep 11 - Back to Shanghai, but not before I bought myself many books from my favourite airport bookstore at Changi! I watched a couple of films too, including Hail Caesar, which was set in the backdrop of Hollywood a few decades ago, and was fun with many a surprising moment.

Sep 12 - It was a public holiday in Singapore, but I was working away in China. A day full of meetings, productive ones thankfully, some yoga in the evening, and some reading before bedtime. Not bad.

Sep 13 - A couple of meetings in the morning before the flight back to Singapore. Watched a couple of films, but nothing to write home about. In fact, I don't think I actually ended up watching anything fully. Back home, was surprised by the husband who had come all the way to the airport to pick me up!

Sep 14 - The husband took off on his business trip, so it was me and Madam and Onam. To celebrate Onam, my brother in law and sister in law came over, we went to the temple (I even wore a sari!), got a really good sadya packed from Swaadhisht, relished it, and felt pretty happy about the whole thing.

Sep 15 - The husband was still away, so it was me and Madam again. We talked a lot, painted a lot, "worked" a lot, exercised a lot, played a lot and goofed around a lot.

Am loving these quiet, lazy days!

321 more to go.

Day 173 : El Ojo Cojo!

Just got notified that we have been selected as a "Semi finalist" for the El Ojo Cojo Film Festival from Madrid, Spain.

Am not quite sure what "Semi finalist" for a festival means, but awesome news for the day!

327 more to go. 

Days 170 - 172 : Quiet Days!

For the first time in a long, long while, I have had a relatively relaxed work week. Not too many meetings, not too many deadlines to meet (at least not any that caused any stress), no calls at night, no travel. And the movie is done too, so no work there either. It's been an incredibly quiet week and I can't begin to say how much I am enjoying it!

I have plenty of time to spend with Madam - we play together, we draw together, we watch films together and we learn together. I downloaded a few apps that can teach her phonics and reading and they seem to work really well.

And incredibly enough just that bit of extra attention to her seems to have gotten her to do better in her school work too - she has had two encouraging notes from her teachers this week for how well she did her weekly show & tell. While that's not unusual for her English show & tell, it was the first time she was getting that for her Hindi class, which was great!  She has also improved in her comprehension and writing of small letters in English, which is also great.

I don't really bother much about how fast she is learning or whether she is at par with her peers, but it was fascinating to see how even such little extra effort was helping her so much. Lesson learnt, I suppose.

This quiet period isn't going to last for too long - to start off, I have three trips to China coming up in the next one month. But for as long as it lasts, am going to enjoy every bit of it.

328 more to go. 

Day 169 : Artworks All Over!

I just love it that Madam is so into creating things these days. Everywhere I turn, there is a little drawing or there is a little structure with blocks. Somehow I find that super cute!

331 more to go.

A little drawing on a cardboard carton lying around

A little house on the windowsill! 

Day 168 : It's All About the Friends!

The whole day was spent with the "gang".

First, it was the baby shower of one of them, and that effectively meant we got to enjoy a LOT of great home made food. There would have been at least 18 dishes made and I made it a point to go through all of them, thereby successfully looking pregnant myself.

Then all of us got together in another friend's house, where we enjoyed coffee, cakes, wine and got the kids together (there are two in the gang, including my own Madam). I talked a lot, laughed a lot and basically had the most amazing time.

Here you go, that's me with the two cheeky monkeys and as you can see, all of us are thrilled to be falling on top of each other.

Today is all about the friends.

332 more to go.

Day 167 : That Thing Called A Club!

I have never been a clubbing person. The loud music, the smoke, the close proximity of people and the freestyle dancing - none of that is my cup of tea. So I try my best to avoid any such occasion where I might have to enter one.

However, today my friends managed to drag me to a club. We had met for a celebratory dinner for my entreprenuer husband's successful investment round for his company. And as part of the celebrations some of the folks, including the husband, were keen to go to a club.

So I tagged along - but only after making it pretty clear that I would not be dancing.

So there I was - in an Indian club, with Bollywood "item" songs blaring, sitting in a corner and watching the proceedings.

And I actually had fun! The songs were catchy enough (the DJ even played the dhol, and I am always a dhol fan), the people were amusing enough, and my friends who kept checking in on me to see if I were "OK" sitting in that corner on my own, well they were cute enough.

Nett, I had an unexpectedly decent time in a club!

334 more to go.  

Day 166 : Varnam Challenge!

After attempting Bho Shambho, Alaripppu and a Thillana, as of today, I am starting to learn a full fledged 35 minute Varnam for my Bharatanatyam practice. What a varnam is very well explained here.

Yup, 35 minutes. And am at minute 4. One needs to note that the first 2 minutes was spent in singing by the vocalist, so effectively that's 2 minutes of dance.

The rhythm and footwork is so complicated that I am struggling to figure out just what on earth is going on. This is the most frustrating downside of having to learn off Youtube videos. A real teacher in front would have made this way easier.

Anyway, now that the challenge has been taken up, I want to see through this. If all goes well, maybe in 2 - 3 months I can come back and say that I have completed learning it!

For today, I am happy that I took up the 35 minute Varnam Challenge!

Day 165 : A Portrait Sketch!

I am not the most confident artist when it comes to portraits. I think it is bloody hard to get the likeness of the subject exactly right. And it is even tougher when I refuse to draw a grid to get the likeness, which is what a lot of artists do around the world.

So I usually keep a distance from doing portraits of folks I know. I am very open to draw portraits of strangers, because who's to say if it turned out right or wrong!

But thanks to a dear friend who asked for a sketch of her son, I decided to gave it a shot.

And this happened. I would probably give a 7 on 10 for the likeness. But my friend seemed rather happy... so maybe she gives an 8.

Nett, am happy I gave it a shot!

335 more to go.