Bessie.

Elliots beach, Chennai (Madras), India. It represents the character of a city that has changed slowly but drastically. As the tides rise and fall, the cycles of the days in Elliots are almost set in stone, though written mostly in wet sand. 

As the morning comes, the sun peeps through the blue sea. But already, we see a few fishermen are in their boats, ready to row into the sea. And before long, they are back in the shores with their catch, welcomed to land by the horde of obese and old joggers that flock the pavements and never touch the sand. Their sweats are just as salty as the fishermen’s, “but why” wonders the young Raja, a 11 year old from the fishermen community. “Why do they run like that, everyday?” And he slowly drags the boat into the wet sand, leaving trails of the sharp nose and footsteps.


As the day grows older, the beach forgets the sweat and the fish. The boats are upturned, the fish drying on the shore. And there are the few stalls, selling soft drinks and cigarettes. Yes, smoking isn’t allowed on the beach, but again, this is India and rules are always optional here. And thus, the wet sand gets burnt by the cigarettes being put off by the people who are lost and know only one place to go to.


In the peak of the day, the wet sand is mostly left alone. Except by the occasional visits from the boys selling snacks there and the old lady fortune tellers. Why do they hang there? For the couples of course. Those college kids and office goers who escape the society’s harsh looks and sit on the beach for some private time. India is still India, rules of law are broken, but rules of culture are rock solid. “Get a room” is sinful. The beach is the couples’ haven and the wet sand is (almost) the only witness to their private lives.


As the sun dies, the couples leave. The families run the show now. And finally, the shops can earn some money for the day. Fast food is selling and the balloons are flying. Kites are ancient now, it’s flying lights that the kids seem to like. And of course, good old beach cricket is on the southern part of the beach, mostly being played by the kids of the slum. But kids from the richer, northern parts are more into frisbee these days. Isn’t that beautiful? They sweat the same, but they don’t wanna play the same. And the wet sand enjoys the tender footsteps of the children, of course, it knows no difference between rich and poor.


Cometh the night, the families leave too. For it is time for the college kids. Those drunk insolents who flock by the dozen, come and dive into the sea. “They die all the time” says the wet sand. Of course, the sands have seen so many of them being dragged back to the shore. “It used to be only boys, but that was a long time ago. Girls are also visiting these days. Drunk.” Maybe the rules of the culture aren’t as rock solid as the afternoons show us. Times are changing. Women’s rights are mostly good!


Post dinner time, the wet sand is freed of the occupants by the cops and the friends of police. They drive everyone out. Like they should. “Because murders happen.” “and rapes.” “So, get out!”
And finally, by midnight, the wet sand is finally alone, to continue it’s perennial romance with the Bay of Bengal.

And Bessie gets ready for another day.

A Moving Image

Conceive. 
Bring it into the world. 
Make the light bounce off it. 
Make it dance. 
Push the trigger. 
Swallow all the bullets and magazines. It's pink as a baby now - 
Push it. Pull it. Or just do nothing.. 
Cut it up - stitch. 
Let it grow... 
Add soft tones and blaring ones. 
Breathe! 
Wrap it up.. 
Store it away - put it in the attic. 
Forget it, dear. It's over. 
It's not worth anything anymore. 
Forget it! 
Except of course.. We wait for the applause -
the closure we want but never get. 
From conception to the pin holed product.
It's never complete. Never. 

TDKR.. Blow by blow

First up, I wanna say this blog post is my opinion and might be a little harsh at times, despite the fact that I'm a fan of both Batman and Nolan. I will try in by best reaches to analyse crucial parts/events/characters of the movie and will be attempting to be as complete as I can with criticism, both good and bad.

SPOILER ALERT if you've not been to the movie already

Wake up!

By now, we’ve all finished considerable amount of coursework in this college. So, we’re all well into the brand “NITT”. So, give yourself a pat on the back for getting through the rat race of getting into one of the best colleges in the country for technical education.

Before going any further, just stop and think. Think where you’re headed. Think what you’re doing. Most importantly, think if you’re happy. While definition of happiness changes from person to person, it is important that we keep revaluating our happiness quotient in this increasingly changing world.

We need to go through a thought process called “waking up to oneself”. When it’s really quite simple on the outset, the challenge is to take the elementary ideas farther and form a complex picture of ourselves, a picture that extends far beyond the simple boundaries of the education system.

We all need to start this thought process not by routine or asking ourselves a questionnaire but by realizing the presence of ourselves in a world where there are at least a thousand other people who have the same resume as you do. This is where we need to extend ourselves beyond resumes and grades and try reaching a greater height in what people call “personal satisfaction”.

When having a college degree and a rich resume helps one fetch jobs and set a career, very few of us dare to think beyond the idea of a “stepping stone”. The sad truth is that in the process of getting ‘educated’, we marginalize the importance we should be giving to ourselves and our uniqueness. Most of us have actually changed the idea of what we think is important to us through the process of ‘standardized education’.

Looking back at the time we spent in college, one must see a development of character and more importantly, the development of an idea of what one actually wants to do in life. The decision about the future should happen more out of choice than out of compulsion. While it is disheartening to see that more people “shift lanes” after completing engineering, it should be seen as an indicator the sense of “cluelessness” that people are in when they make major career choices.

While the fact remains that an engineering degree at NITT offers you’re a great chance of ending up at a high paying job, the sad truth is that most of the people who go through the process of “educating” themselves, lose themselves more than they can imagine.

It is not even in the hour of death after one gets “offer letters” that one is able to wake up to oneself and find what he actually wants. However easy it may sound, it is impossible to wake up to oneself overnight or settle down happily to the idea of working at a company that picked you from 200 other people because you suit their job better than the others. The most important thing from a personal point of view has to be whether the job suits you more than the million other career paths that you could choose.

So, if you’re still in your early days and haven’t really decided where to go after NITT, start thinking already. Because “waking up to oneself” is a process and not a decision to be made. It needs time. So, give it a thought.
ps : It is true that "survival" plays a major role in life decisions, but at least open your eyes to things and pursue them as a hobby if not anything else. The most important thing here is "self satisfaction" :-)

Paper planes

Please watch with complete attention. This short film is metaphorical representation of the process of reaching God. Like my dad always said.. It is important to keep three things in mind when trying to reach God.