Day 199 : And the Preparations Begin!

Madam is turning 4 on October 30th!

And preparations have begun!

She is gonna get two parties - one with our NUS gang friends and one with my film gang friends. I have found it easier to split the gatherings because well, then there is double the fun and also people obviously tend to enjoy more within the company they are familiar with.

So two rounds of cakes have been ordered (after much to and fro briefing from Madam herself). Ther first one is Paw Patrol themed. Paw Patrol is a cartoon series about a boy called Ryder and bunch of dogs who save people in trouble.

I showed her several sample pics of Paw Patrol cakes and she rejected every single one of them. Sigh!

Apparently some didn't have Ryder. Some didn't have Zuma or some other dog. And when every dog in the cartoon and Ryder were present, apparently it didn't have the watch tower with the lookout. And apparently the watch tower with the lookout is absolutely necessary because "It is SOOO CUUUUTE Mummyyyy!!!"  Sigh again!

Anyway, I have managed to brief the cake artist with a combination of multiple pictures, so let's see how that turns out.

After the drama behind that cake, I decided that the second one would be simple with flowers and rainbows and bows and other such random girlie stuff she likes.

The food has been ordered.

The folks have been invited.

So now we wait and count down, which is happiest part I suppose!

301 more to go. 

Day 198 : Another Award!

Our little film 'Pularum Iniyum Naalekal' has won the 'Best Original Score' award at the Cinema World Fest Awards Summer edition!!

I am absolutely thrilled, especially because my music director and I go a long way back! 

To 2004, to be precise. 

We did our first musical theatre together in NUS, he composed for my first independent theatre production, my first feature film, my best short film till date and now PIN. So I am so super duper happy that he picked up an award for a collaboration with me! 

What an incredible journey this has been! Feeling so blessed and so grateful! 

302 more to go. 

Days 191 - 197 : Kanpur!

I had a last minute planned, beautiful short holiday in Kanpur where I relaxed a lot, shopped a lot, read a lot from my Flipkart overdrive purchase, ate a LOT, spent a really good time with the in laws, visited the beautiful Sai Mandir & Iscon temple and in short had a fab time! Madam enjoyed thoroughly too  and didn't want to get back to Singapore. I believe it is all best explained via a bunch of photographs. Actually I was so relaxed that I didn't even take enough pics, seems like! But still, here you go.  

Madam all set for her flight to Lucknow, with her luggage, her activity book and big smile! 

Enjoying the chairlift with her Dadi!

Super happy times with Dadu & Dadi! 

Super happy times with Dadu & Dadi! 

Super happy times with Dadu & Dadi!

Attitude @ Kanpur

My Flipkart purchase!

303 more to go.

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.