Musings of an Idiot

This blog has moved

2010-03-08T12:14:00.001+13:00

This blog is now located at http://unkreative.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://www.unkreative.com/musings/atom.xml.

Lantern Festival

2010-02-28T21:21:00.003+13:00

Another week disappears - slightly more productive than last week. Graham Wallace helped us out with ADR for one of the scenes in the movie between Tarun and me. The whole process took longer than anticipated but Graham and Tarun were kind and passionate enough to lend extra time to the process. ADR works a treat and the scene has much better dialogue now without the inter cutting background music. I finished reading one of the scripts in my inbox and next one is lined up to read tomorrow. Besides that I did a good clean of my room and managed to take out some solid amount of clutter. Amazing how much you can pile on without realizing.

I managed to catch up with Angelique briefly at the Lantern Festival but soon parted ways to enjoy some awesome food {my favorite this time around being a Vietnamese dish - I don't know the name for it but it was beef wrapped in grape leaf}. The festival was PACKED. It has grown huge over the past few years. I remember that in 2003 - there were hardly any people checking out the festival but now it is an experience walking through the crowd. The problem this time around was entire families coming out to the event {which isn't a bad thing} with strollers for their toddlers and young kids. There is barely enough space to walk as it is and every time one of the parents with strollers stopped to look at something or talk- it would stop the flow of people immediately. Also the organizers need to be more creative with their stall layouts next time around - it was essentially the same as last time and walking through the place is like deja vu. Different varieties of food available was definitely the highlight. If only they had a weekly night market with all those food stalls somewhere in central city....sighhhhh.....

Here are some pics from the event.

Guys cooking mussels

Flames & Smoke

Crowds checking out the food stalls

Trying to walk

Nightfall = more crowds

More food

Lanterns

Lanterns Galore

Kids checking out a display

A better view

Kids amazed at the lantern displays

Climbing trees amongst the lanterns

This is the most crowded I've seen this road

Despair

Thats me for now

Amit

Forgotten Conversation - Hong Kong

2010-02-21T13:00:00.005+13:00

When you are travelling alone there are some incidents you relegate to back of your mind because it is too embarrassing to recount or you just don't pay too much attention to them in the bigger scheme of things. I had one of those in Hong Kong that I didn't write about originally in Oct'09.

One my second or third day in Hong Kong - I can't remember which, I was feeling pretty disconnected from everything because it was hard striking up conversations with people {without knowing the local language} and I was pretty much roaming everywhere on my own checking out places. At the ferry terminal I was the only Indian in the crowd and it definitely attracted some stares from curious eyes. I boarded the ferry to Lamma Island and as soon as I settled into my seat I saw another Indian walk in. Since I was so disconnected - my first thought was 'Please don't sit next to me', as I didn't want to engage in a conversation. I held my breath as he looked at me and then walked past. As soon as I relaxed, I heard a thick south indian accent from the seat behind me asking me if I was an Indian.

I grimaced and started conversing with the guy. It was hard work trying to follow what he was saying in his very thick accent and I would ask him to repeat what he said again, to figure it out. He mistook that for me not being able to hear properly and raised his voice a few decibels to the point pretty much everyone on the lower deck of the ferry could hear what he was saying. The conversation was civil to start off with and we exchanged information about where we were from and as to how we ended up in this moment in time. It was hard work talking to him as I had to crane my neck around to be able to speak to him through the gap between the seats. I told myself not to be a wuss and bear the pain since I was finally having a proper conversation with someone.

The guy said he used to teach yoga for corporates in HK. He was contracted to an american company and was earning US$5000 a month before they decided to cut down on benefits to the staff and let go of his services. Since he couldn't afford to live in HK without earning a living - he decided to shift base to Lamma Island where he could live a rural lifestyle and focus on learning new skills like massage. He was wondering out loud if it would be better to return to India since it was a cheaper place. I was curious and asked him what kind of massage and the conversation was all downhill from there.

He said he had started practicing tantra massage and body massage. I was thinking 'Oh dear, here we go.' And soon enough he was boasting about his exploits with women of different nationalities. I sunk a few head lengths in my seat as I realized that his booming voice was being heard by everyone on the lower deck and suddenly I was giving everyone the pleasure of stereotyping all Indians {including me} as sleazy, sex-crazed maniacs. The guy was oblivious to all social norms I suppose because he carried on talking in booming voice. Noticing that I was silent for a while and no conversation was happening between the gap between the seats he tried to judge if I was listening or not by saying 'You are from New Zealand yeah? I've seen kiwi chicks. They are chubby. You know too fat.' I turned around and through the gap in the seat I replied back with a hint of disgust and anger 'Oh yeah. They are like that but nothing you can do about it right?'.

I turned back to the book I had in my hand and pretended that I was reading it. That was pretty much the end of that conversation and the guy didn't speak any further. When the ferry neared Lamma Island he tried to strike up conversation by pointing to me where his village was but I didn't really encourage him. As the ferry docked I let most of the people disembark - including that guy, before getting down from the ferry. And that was the last I saw of him. Thankfully.

2010-02-17T06:45:00.003+13:00

Here are a few things that have happened over the past couple of days - in no fixed order - keeping in line with the non-linear time I seem to be in right now

ADR for 'Eruption' : Went well
HP8 - Carlton Gore: Disappointing
Nightmares/Sleepless nights: Frustrating
Random catchups with Amarbir & Sapna: Random
Gear Shopping for April Trip: Exciting
Statelessness: Annoying
2 scripts in mail box to read: Excited but afraid
The Wolfman: Frustrating

Thats me for now
Amit

Fragile

2010-02-14T19:01:00.003+13:00

I spent the entire weekend in bed fighting off a fever. Not the best way to spend the weekend. On top of that next weekend's Tongariro walk trip has been called off because Kit and Kelly can't do the weekend because of personal reasons. The only thing you can do when you are in bed is contemplate and I have to say it hasn't been the best of times doing that. My current state of affairs overall induces massive stomach churning and heart ache - even writing that right now gave made me think about things.

To distract myself - I started reading and finished 'Sun After Dark' by Pico Iyer and it was an insightful read. I also managed to finish reading the rest of 'Testosterone Planet' and different stories evoked different reactions but all in all it made me want to travel. April-end can't come soon enough.

Still feeling very fragile but I am hoping that a good night's sleep will have me ready for what tomorrow holds.

Later,

Amit

Fitness Freak

2010-02-11T23:43:00.002+13:00

I was talking to an old college friend online and one of the first things she said was 'It's great you've become a fitness freak.' I think that's when it struck me that maybe I have actually become a fitness freak. :-)

Fitness stats update:
Resting heart rate - 69bpm {would probably've been 65 or 66 had I not been ill-advised by a couple of new gym instructors to warm up for my fitness test, before the guy taking my fitness test came down} - Down from 72bpm.
Weight - 63.8 KG - Down 1.2KG
Bodyfat %age - 12% - Down 3%
Vo2 Max levels - 51.3 - Up 3.3
Blood Pressure - Normal range

The guy doing my fitness tests was very impressed by my jump in VO2 levels - which he thought was impressive since it came within a 1 month time frame. All in all huge improvements all round. I guess cutting down on my gym sessions while increasing the intensity of the workouts while I am there has helped. Target is to keep focussing on bringing the bodyfat%age down to 11% and try and up the VO2 Max levels to 53 before the April end trip.

FF signing off for now.

Random Review of FIVE

2010-02-09T09:47:00.003+13:00

I was surfing the net, searching for a layout I like for the re-design of Unkreative website and as things happen I stumbled across a review of FIVE on Empireonline's forum. Here it is for your eyes:

FIVE
Written by: D.F. Mamea and Anita Crisinel
Starring: Richard Thompson, Anita Crisinel, Marjan Gorgani, Andy Sophocleous, Amit Tripuraneni, Tahi Mapp-Boren
Running Time: 76 minutes

Wanna hear something crazy? I almost swear I dreamed this last night.

Five is one of those films that not even New Zealanders know about, and, to be honest, I didn’t either, until I saw it on the shelf of my local mainstream video store, a review quote on the front of the DVD sleeve touting it as a “beautifully shot film with a story that any fan of David Lynch’s work will enjoy”. While I am by no means a Lynch fan, I must say that I was intrigued that something coming out of New Zealand could be compared to his work, so I picked it up. However, this slow-burning psychological thriller, in which nothing is what it seems and everything makes as much sense as your typical Lynch film wrapped in a net curtain and thrown in a smoke room, should appeal to more than just the Lynch set, as it overcomes a pretty hefty number of flaws to deliver one of the most strangely compelling New Zealand films I’ve seen.

Five starts off as a fairly conventional tale of five ex-flatmates and good friends who come together to go on a hiking trip a year after the suicide of a close friend of the group and lover of one of them. Belinda (Crisinel) and Rajit (Tripuraneni) are happily engaged; Henry (Thompson) is still a little odd after the Emily’s (Mapp-Boren) suicide; Chris (Sophocleous) is unusually moody and secretive; and Zara (Gorgani) is heading off to Boston in a matter of days. The characters all seem to have secrets hidden from each other, and the film does take its sweet time revealing a fair number of them. However, the plot takes a turn for the fucked-up around twenty minutes in, with Rajit having a crazy dream that slowly begins to come true. I can’t say too much more about what happens, as every minute from then on is potentially a spoiler, but needless to say, shit goes down, and it goes down hard. The almost-painfully slow pacing of the twenty minutes beforehand, developing the characters and making you care for them, is paid off somewhat with the remaining fifty-six minutes, and while the pace doesn’t pick up a hell of a lot, the slow-moving nature of the film does become less noticeable by this point, the obvious Lynch influences, the stunning cinematography (making exquisite use of an environment that really should have been used for many more films of this type before this, the New Zealand forest) and the minimal but noticeable foreshadowing of the plot’s numerous strange developments creating a captivating jigsaw puzzle for the audience to put together and an incredibly ominous atmosphere to go with it.

Of course, as I’ve mentioned, the film faces a fair few hurdles in trying to achieve what it wants to. The score, composed by none less than three different people, is clearly influenced by the work of composers like Angelo Badalamenti (Mulholland Dr.) and Howard Shore (Se7en), but it often fails to match the atmospheric creepiness of their influences; rather, it strays into overly telegraphic territory at some points, and painfully overwhelming and intrusive at others. Much like the films of their primary influence, Crisinel’s amd Mamea’s script also suffers from some rather inane dialogue, and this problem is compounded by some inconsistent acting, particular on behalf of Thompson (worrisome, as he has a key role with some of the juiciest moments) and actor/editor/producer/director Tripuraneni. However, the actors do pull it together when required, and they excel when it comes to small moments, like Rajit’s ill-advised joke to Zara in the car on the way to the national park, or Sophocleous’ delivery of the line, “Just thinking,” one scene after a monumental outburst on his behalf. There’s a subtlety and intelligence to their performances that often buggers off for periods of time before coming back, but when it does decide to stay, watching these five act off each other is intriguing and gripping.

This psychological thriller wears its influences on its sleeve, and this is made all the more obvious by some of the film’s obvious flaws (Crisinel and Gorgani, though both two of the better performers in the film, have nothing on Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr., whose performance distracted from a lot of that film’s flaws). However, if you get through the first twenty minutes, Five pays off in a way more films should – it keeps you guessing, it keeps you hanging on, and, most importantly, it keeps you captivated, right up until the stunning conclusion. It’s a Lynch-esque film that doesn’t hold pretensions of high befuddlement – it’s a simple tale, but built and executed as such that it’s far more satisfying than the work of that respected auteur, and all the more laudable, given its obviously shoestring budget.

Verdict: A solid and gripping thriller-cum-character study with an ingenious storyline and stunning cinematography making up for the generic score and the often-dull dialogue. Don’t listen to the twats on IMDB when it comes to this, and try it for yourself.

4/5

I guess I owe a thanks to the reviewer for watching the movie and then taking the time to review the movie. I am sure the acting concerns that the reviewer has will be negated in 'The Moments In Between'.

Later,

Amit

Teaser, Armed Cops & Sichuan

2010-02-07T20:03:00.006+13:00

Crazy week!!! This whole week I've been pre-occupied with conceiving and then editing the teaser trailer for 'The Moments In Between'. I finally managed to finish editing it today and here is the trailer for your consideration.

Besides that we had a crazy morning on Friday when one of our flatmates had to call in the cops because she heard someone in our house. There did turn out to be a man in our house and he had armed himself with our kitchen knives. Quick action by the police meant that the intruder was quickly subdued without anyone getting harmed. The incident in detail would make for a whole post {it was about 4 and half pages of writing when one of the cops took our statements about the incident} but that would be sensationalism. The long and short of the story is that pepper spray is nasty stuff and the landlord is getting a second set of front door locks put in.

Last night went to dinner at HP8 {49, Nuffield Street, Newmarket} with Benji, Shuzhen {Benji's girl friend}, Vicky & Vincent {Shuzhen's friends} & Lance. It was an amazing Sichuan meal and it works out very reasonable when you share the dinner amongst many. All the dishes were great but my firm favorite is Spicy Sichuan Fragrant Eggplant. Most of the dishes were not that spicy accounting for various tastes of the group but I did manage to convince Benji & Lance to try Dan-Dan noodles along with me. It was the spicest dish we had and Benji couldn't finish his bowl and also said that he is not going to let me talk him into trying any of my recommended dishes in the future :-). Well worth the visit.

Sichuan dishes

Trying another awesome dish

Vicky & Vincent

Benji & Shuzhen

Lance enjoying a beer to ease off his Dan-Dan noodles

Benji & Me

Shuzhen & Vicky

Me finishing off a bowl of Dan-Dan noodles

That's me for now.
Later,
Amit

Auckland Anniversary Day

2010-02-01T10:14:00.001+13:00

It's a long weekend on account of Auckland Anniversary Day and I've spent majority of the time on 'The Moments In Between'. On Saturday, shot another scene for the movie and it was a smooth shoot. The performances were great and we managed to get it done in a couple of hours because it was just Sarah, Lauren and me. We were lucky that the weather was perfect for the shoot, especially considering that it's been bucketing down through later half of last week and even this entire weekend. Here are a few screen grabs from the shoot.

Caged

Trapped

Mistakes

Sunday was spent editing that scene and it cut together nicely. After that I went about compiling and stitching together all the scenes that we've shot, to make it look like one continuing storyline rather than individual scenes clubbed together on a timeline. So far it's working and the first 38 minutes of the movie are essentially locked for now. The task for today is editing another scene that we shot a few weeks back and once that's in place I'll be able to add another 2 scenes to the timeline. All in all - we are halfway through the movie and I'm pretty pleased with the way it is shaping up.

Last night went over to Devonport onto Mt. Victoria {it's more like a hill} to get a view of Auckland City since there were fireworks display at 10.30 PM. I was sort of apprehensive because when it comes to fireworks display Auckland is piss poor and the last couple of times I caught those - they were pretty poor and underwhelming. Thankfully the display was beautiful this time around and definitely worth the long drive onto the shore to get a more panoramic view of the city. Here are some snaps from last night.

Auckland Downtown & Harbour bridge

Fireworks lighting up the sky and water

Travelling through space and time

Mysterious conversations

Time to edit some more.

Later,

Amit

Sichuan in Auckland

2010-01-31T21:14:00.000+13:00

Ever since reading that book on Sichuan cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop, I've been searching for Sichuan eateries in Auckland and needless to say it was hard work trying to track down these restaurants as there are a prolific number of chinese restaurants which offer all kinds of chinese cuisine and thus hard to isolate Sichuan dishes there. After much driving and testing here is my list of Sichuan eating joints that I know off in Auckland. In order to compare them I decided to only try 'Kung Pao' chicken and the rating is out of 5 stars. I've left out service since I ordered most of them as takeaways.

Taste of Sichuan [471 Dominion Road, Mt Eden; 09-6390989]
Taste: 3.5 || Quantity: 4 || Ambiance: 3 || Friendliness: 1.5 || Price: $15-$20
Note: An authentic Sichuan joint. There weren't many people there both times I went there and the customer service was definitely a bit off as I didn't really feel welcome. The additional dish I tried here was Dan-Dan noodles which were yum.

Sichuan Cuisine Chinese Restaurant [95 Anzac Ave, CBD; 09-3091898]
Taste: 3 || Quantity:4 || Ambiance: 3 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $15-$20
Note: Another authentic Sichuan joint. The place was packed and understandably the order took a while to come even though it was a takeaway {about 25 minutes}. I also tried Dan Dan Noodles but I much preferred the ones from 'Taste of Sichuan' or 'HP8'.

Spicy House [557 Dominion Road, Mt Eden; 09-6315128]
Taste: 2 || Quantity:4 || Ambiance: 3 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $8-$15
Note: Not sure if it is authentic Sichuan{maybe it is} as I didn't taste any sichuan pepper in my dish and I couldn't find Dan Dan Noodles. Superfast service with very generous serving and very reasonably priced. The place is small but was packed every single time I went there.

HP8 [49 Nuffield Street, Newmarket; 09-524 8488]
Taste: 4 || Quantity:4 || Ambiance: 4 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $20-$25
Note: Authentic Sichuan place with nice ambiance. Dan Dan Noodles were awesome and were only $4 for a bowl - which more than fills you up as a snack. Overall slightly more expensive restaurant but the ambiance and the food more than make up for it.

Sichuan in Remuera [333 Remuera Road, Remuera; 09-5233038]
Taste: 2.5 || Quantity:3 || Ambiance: 3.5 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $15-$20
Note: Pretty disappointed with the dish actually - it wasn't spicy at all even though it tasted alright. The place has decent ambiance and people were starting to stream in but doesn't make up for the average dish. Maybe they have some other specialty dish.

Sichuan Restaurant [31-33 Broadway, Newmarket; 09-5231668]
Taste: 4 || Quantity:4 || Ambiance: 4 || Friendliness: 4 || Price: $20-$25
Note: Nice ambiance and it was busy when I went there. Pretty helpful staff. The menu didn't have any chinese dish names written on it - which is surprising considering that all the customers in the restaurant was chinese {bar me}. And I asked the staff taking my order about 'Dan Dan' noodles since they weren't on the menu but apparently they do make them. The noodles were alright but not like HP8's dan-dan noodles. The same restaurant has a branch in Glenfield {75G Porana Road, Glenfield; 09-4409642} for anyone wanting to check out the cuisine on the north shore.

It's been a expensive effort because of the price of the dishes, so I am leaving out one of the more central restaurants {Imperial Sichuan - listed below} and I also found a few more restaurants which are not as central and handy as the one's above but the list is as follows and I'll try them if I change upon them in my travels {or alternately you can post a rating in the comments if you've been to the restaurant}.

Imperial Sichuan Restaurant [164, Parnell Road, Parnell; 09-3089689]

Sichuan Steamboat [525-529, Ellerslie-Panmure Highway, Mt. Wellington]

Sichuan Restaurant [50B, Cavendish Drive, Manukau; 09-2637273]

Genius Chinese Sichuan Treats [115, Onehunga Mall, Onehunga; 09-6364284]

My pick of the lot - HP8 and then Sichuan Restaurant on Broadway. It's not somewhere where I'd eat everyday because of the prices but definitely worth going once in a while.

Till later,

Amit

Falling off the map: Some lonely places of the world

2010-01-23T20:20:00.001+13:00

Finished reading 'Falling off the map: Some lonely places of the world' by Pico Iyer & it turned out to be an enjoyable journey through 1989/1990/1991 through various lonely places like North Korea, Paraguay, Bhutan among others. The writing style is unique because of the sarcastic and observational humor & it does take a little getting used to before you truly start enjoying those experiences. I am now a fan of Pico Iyer's travel writing and I'll see if I can track down some more of his books at the library.

To me - one of the lonely places of the world is our own mind. I think even though we are social animals the increasing pressures of modern world {and our own prejudices} are making us more and more lonely. And as a result the physical social connections are being replaced by virtual social connections like online gaming, chats etc. And strange as it might seem - even though we are more & more connected to billions of people via technology, we seem to be heading towards a more lonely place in our minds. 'Solitude' and 'Loneliness' are essentially the same thing with our attitude & beliefs towards it changing the meaning of the words from 'solitude' to 'loneliness' and vice versa. Hopefully more and more people decide to choose 'solitude' over 'loneliness' as I think it's the healthier of the two. Talking of solitude - I watched a documentary called 'Encounters at the End of the World' by Werner Herzog and it definitely defines solitude in a visual form. Highly recommended watch as it is hauntingly beautiful and raises some very interesting questions from within.

Last week, I've had a script meeting on 'Apsara' and the next draft is due from Angelique in a fortnight or so and I am looking forward to it since the meeting turned out to be a fantastic brain storming session with lots of relevant and positive feedback passed onto Angelique to strengthen the story. I've got a script from Mr. Mamea to read through and I've been dragging my feet because of the hectic time schedules but I intend to get onto it this coming week.

Also next weekend planning on filming another scene for 'Moments' and once that is filmed and edited, I'll be able to lock down the first 40-50 minutes of the movie. Working without money on a small movie like this is hard work and I've got to keep reminding myself as to why I started the project in the first place and keep pushing myself to finish it, even though from time to time the challenges and circumstances tempt me to just abandon the project. But due to some faulty genetic wiring in my head I can't just abandon the project. So even though the project is going way slower than I had anticipated and planned, I am still determined to have it finished this year.

Thats me for now.
Till later,
Amit

Mt. Ruapehu Climb

2010-01-11T17:25:00.004+13:00

WOW, What a weekend it's turned out to be. Kit, Sara, Kelly & me climbed Mt. Ruapehu - the highest mountain on North Island - all 2797 meters of it. Oh and it's an active volcano. :-)

It might be easier to recount the experiences if I break them down into days since it was quite an experience. And a quick note - All photos are enlargeable by clicking on them.

Day-1 {Friday} THE WAIT
Friday turned out to be the agonizing waiting day. The plan was to leave Auckland around 12.30PM, so as to reach Ohakune by 5.30-6.00 in the evening and have an early night's sleep as we planned on starting the climb of Mt. Ruapehu at 2.00 AM in order to catch the sunrise at the top. But boy did the plan fall flat on it's face. We were taking Kit's car but he had booked it in for a service on the day - which threw the time out big time as the mechanic kept postponing the time when the car would delivered. It was constant text and phone calls between Kelly {Sara was at Kelly's place}, Kit & me and it felt like we would have to cancel the program altogether because of the delays but we finally managed to get going around 6.30 PM.

Sara kicks an embarrassed Kit as Kelly smiles

Happy to finally be on the road

Kit driving us to Ohakune

Long journeys can be boring

Something obviously amused me

A religious biker - you don't find many of those around

The drive itself was pretty uneventful and we had a dinner break at Te Kuiti before heading on towards Ohakune. The one observation that we did make was that we would come across 1 car every 5 KM in the stretch between Te Kuiti and Taumarunui - a distance of 65KM. Things you do to pass time. :-) We got to Ohakune at 11.00 PM which meant that we could get about an hour and half's sleep {after accounting for the time to settle in and fall asleep} before we had to get up at 1.00 AM in order to start the 2.00 AM climb.

Day-2 {Saturday} THE CLIMB

All of us woke up on time and got out of the house at 1.30PM. The good thing about climbing the mountain is that you don't have to start at the absolute bottom. There are car parks at 1600m level - which is the starting point even during the winter skiing season. On the way to the car park,we spotted 2 wild deer, which is pretty unsual and we were excited about that and that definitely put us in the right frame of mind for the climb. The last time I was at Mt. Ruapehu was in August 2005 during the winter season and I didn't know what to expect in the summer season, especially since we couldn't see the 'bigger picture' in the dark, with our head lamps. Kit had a spare ice axe which he gave to me and gave me a quick tutorial on how to use it to make footholds in the ice, break a fall etc.

Wild deer in the headlights

At the car park in pitch black

Kelly with a head lamp

It's a good thing we couldn't really see too much otherwise the height of the mountain might have daunted us. The only person in the group who had done the climb before was Kit and we were following his lead.It was a hard walk and we took a few breaks from time to time to get used to the thinner air and the falling temperature. It was a challenging climb moving from loose rock to more firm footing to ice to loose rocks again. Kit decided to carry a thermos of hot coffee while I carried a thermos of hot tea and it was nice being able to drink something warm when everything else was freezing. It is extremely hard drinking water since it gets so cold up there and all you can do is take small swigs from time to time.

Kit enjoying hot coffee

Sara enjoying Hot Tea

Kelly taking a break

The Mountain & The Moon

Climbing in darkness

Breaking Dawn

The night started breaking around 4AM and we started wondering if we had miscalculated the sunrise. At the same time we were doing good pace and we were wondering if we'd get to the top before the actual sunrise but Kit kept us focussed and on track by telling us that it'd get really steep towards the top and it would take us a lot more time towards the top. And he was right. We also changed our direction slightly to move towards the east side of the mountain, so we wouldn't miss the sunrise if we had indeed miscalculated.

Sara and Kelly take a breather

Kit finds a good route

Bird's eye view from the top

The ascent continues

2/3rd of our way up the mountain, Kelly started feeling unwell because of lack of sleep combined with the physical exertion and the height and temperature, so Kit asked her to turn back and return to shelter - the last {first from top of the mountain} chairlift station. Once Kelly started her descent back - Sara, Kit and me continued towards the peak and we caught the sunrise from near top.

Sunrise over Mt. Ruapehu

Light spreading over the land

We still had a little bit to climb and it was probably the hardest part of the climb.It was like a sheer wall and to add to the challenge it was pretty stony - small stones with big stones, so it was hard to get solid footholds to keep climbing easily. You basically have to use your entire body to crawl up. There were atleast 2 'Oh Shit' moments for me as the stones slipped away from under my feet and I was scrambling on quickly with my hands to hold onto dear life. One mistake up there and it's pretty easy to fall to your death. It's also amazing that in moments of danger your whole being kicks into another gear and you start doing things instinctively - in survival mode. Another thing that changed suddenly was the wind had picked up going from West to East and it was beating us into the mountain. It made the final ascent extremely hard.

Taking a photograph up on the mountain meant a long hard struggle to remove your gloves, unzip the camera bag, switch on the camera, compose a shot, take a snap, while keeping balance on uneven terrain while bracing against the wind & then putting the camera back and putting on the gloves back on again. Something so simple became such a big challenge in the extreme conditions at top of the mountain. So needless to say I value all the picks taken on this trip - especially the ones on the mountain during the climb.

Once we got to the top - we took a short break on the north side of the mountain, behind a small rock outcrop. It protected us from the wind and then we decided to walk across towards the main crater.

We take a breather behind the rock outcrop before heading towards the crater

Sky opening up

This was probably the most memorable part of the climb because it was a bigger challenge than any of us had anticipated. Kit was leading the way and because he was experienced on ice - he was making good ground but I was struggling against the strong winds as I was cutting in footholds in the ice on either side of the mountain as we were on the ridge and Sara was behind me {and she didn't have an ice axe}. Half way on the ridge - the wind really picked up speed and I was finding it harder and harder to make footholds as my face and tip of the fingers {even though I was wearing gloves} started going numb in the freezing winds and the sheer drops on either side of the mountain started playing on my mind. The problem was that there was no way you could take a break without freezing yourself on the top,so I looked around to see how Sara was doing and she was sitting down with one leg on either side of the mountain. I didn't feel like continuing any further and asked her about her thoughts and she said that she didn't mind going back down. On the mountain- one has to work with the conditions and it is better to be safe than sorry because there is literally no room for mistake. And with the wind really bashing our already tired bodies, it seemed more sensible to turn back rather than being fool hardy and continuing on. So we yelled out to Kit and told him that it would be better to go back as we didn't feel we could make the journey across the ridge successfully. Kit agreed to the assessment and so we turned back.

The descent begins

We started making our way back. If you are an experienced climber or trekker, you would know that the descent is always harder than the ascent. The ascent might take more time but the descent is where your endurance is really tested. Plus you are using an entirely different set of body muscles to balance yourselves as you try to climb down.The top of the moutain was again the hardest bit to climb down as you get used to shifting your centre of gravity and also the loose rocks combined with the super steep mountain side. Sara was like a race horse and she did awesome time climbing down and was ahead of us while Kit tried dragging himself down across the snow to save on clambering down the hard bits but he had to give up after a while and return to clambering down the rocks as he was feeling tired and didn't have enough strength left to support the fall of his whole body.

Mt. Taranaki in the distance

Back towards the Turoa side

We chanced upon 2 climbers around the half way mark as they were making the way to the top. The knees felt like jelly by the time we all caught up at the closed cafe on the mountain. Kelly was feeling a lot better and it was good that she did not sccumb to falling asleep as that would have been bad at that height. After eating some food and catching a break we continued our journey downwards and it was pretty uneventful for rest of the way down. I did get teased for wearing a pair of jeans for climbing. :-)

Crossing paths with some climbers

Kelly relieved while Kit takes a sip

After drinking last of the tea - which had gone cold after the climb to the top

Kit, Kelly & Sara looking back at what we had climbed

A successful ascent completed - the team @ the car park

All of us were thrilled that we had actually achieved what we set out to do. The whole climb had taken us about 7.5 hours round trip and a few congratulations later, we were back to the chalet in Ohakune to catch up on some much needed sleep.

View of Mt. Ruapehu from the chalet we were staying at

Ohakune town centre

We slept for 4 hours odd before we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed out to Tokaanu, an hour north of Ohakune, where the hot pools are located to relax our battered bodies. It definitely did us heaps of good as it relaxed the muscles. We took the long route back to Ohakune via the Desert Road, which is weirdly scenic. It's rugged landscape has it's own charm. The only thing I remember after that is that we grabbed dinner at one of the restaurants and I was asleep as soon as I hit the bed - an added factor to it would have been the severe cold I had picked up from the mountain climb.

Kit smiling at the mountain

Celebrating the climb and the trip to the hot pools with a drink

Desert Road

Power lines

Rugged NZ Landscape

DAY-3 (Sunday) THE RETURN

I woke up feeling much better at 6.30AM, which meant my body clock was almost back in synch. Kelly, Sara and Kit woke up in their own time and we cleaned up the chalet, which Kit's family {& Kit} had let us use for the trip. All of us had a good banter and great laughs on the way back - which made the journey back seem shorter.

Kit signing off on the calender detailing the successful climb

On Kelly's suggestion we stopped over at Waitomo to get some information about the caves and ended up doing an impromptu glow worm cave tour. It was fantastic and it's a pity that we were only allowed to take photos at the end of the tour, away from the main glow worm formations. It definitely whetted my appetite and I might go back later at some point to do their longer 4 hour abseiling adventure you go in deeper underground and explore the cave systems. We grabbed lunch at a cafe {I think it was called HuHu cafe} just down the road from the information centre. The service was extremely slow and the portions were small but it had an awesome spot and it was a good break to our return journey.

Waiting to get into the glow worm caves

Towards the end of the cave

The stalactites

Getting out from the cave

We got back to Auckland in the evening and after that it was farewell time, with the next trip being planned in Feb for doing Tongariro crossing {might add in climbing Mt. Ngauruhoe to make it more interesting and challenging} - supposed to be one of the best 1 day hikes in NZ. Overall it was an awesome adventure with friends and I am filled with a sense of achievement and excitement.

Now it's back to the humdrum of Auckland till the next trip.

Amit

Fantastic Mr. Fox & Sichuan Pepper

2010-01-07T22:39:00.005+13:00

I picked up a book at random from the library as it looked interesting. It was called 'Shark's Fin & Sichuan Pepper' by Fuchsia Dunlop. That was a day and half back and I've finished reading the book. It is compelling, funny, insightful and a real page turner. It's a highly recommended read for those wanting to get an insight into China - through their food, obviously. The biggest compliment I can give to the book is that it wanted me to search out Sichuan restaurants in Auckland and give them a go. There are also a couple of reciepes from the book I intend to try -especially 'Dan Dan Noodles'.

I watched a few movies in the meantime - 'Choke' {dark adult humor topped by Sam Rockwell's performance}; 'King of Kong' {a documentary which had me looking up the latest Donkey Kong records} and most recently 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' - which is one of the most charming and funny movies that I've seen in a while. The stop animation, the style, the pacing, the humor, the voice work -everything is top notch. A highly recommended watch. If you don't walk out with a grin on your face then something in you has died a long time ago. :-)

Tomorrow I'm going with a few friends to Ohakune - which is central north island and on saturday morning we will be hiking up Mt. Ruapehu. The weather forecast is good and I am out of my comfort zone as it's my first proper mountain hike - a fantastic combination to prepare for the Mt. Kinabalu climb in April.

Later,
Amit

Resolutions

2010-01-02T17:25:00.002+13:00

A New Year is a time for resolutions and I'm usually pretty good at keeping them. 'Memories of Tomorrow' started as a new year resolution in 2004. I just did a quick search on the interwebs and found this article. Out of the top 3 resolutions that people make - I am going in the opposite direction on 2 of them {while the third one is invalid as I don't smoke and I don't intend on taking up smoking}.

1) I don't want to loose weight. I am happy with my weight. My resolution though is to loose more body fat %age. Last year my aim was to get it down to 15% by the end of the year and I achieved it. This year the target is to get it down to between 8-10% - which automatically leads to the next resolution.
2) I don't want to exercise more. I 've infact reworked my fitness schedule so I'll be spending half the time that I spent at the gym last year. The key is increasing the intensity in the 1 hour at the gym, so I'm not overtraining myself - which leads to more injuries and muscle loss and is also detrimental to health in the long run. I'm also cutting down the active workout days from 6 to 4.

And the last resolution for 2010 that is not fitness related is to finish off 'The Moments In Between' by August 2010. Voila!!!!

That's me for now,
Amit

I'm good, Thank you.

2010-01-01T20:15:00.003+13:00

People who wish me 'Happy New Year', in person, must think I am a retard {sorry correction - mentally challenged} or something. I'm usually so startled by that unfamiliar phrase that I end up looking blank and after a minute I leave the person confounded by saying 'I'm good, Thank you.'

Why am I startled? I don't know - maybe because I've been working through the holidays {to save up for my Borneo trip} and for me - today is just another day. I'll eventually get used to the greeting and will probably start saying it as well out of courtesy in following social norms but it's still a pretty bizarre phrase to me right now. I am not mentally challenged - I am just stunned. Like I said 'I'm good, thank you.'

Here's to a great 2010.
Amit

Year End

2009-12-29T12:29:00.003+13:00

I sold off my Polaroid camera as I've been using my LX3 more and more and I can't justify keeping 2 cameras and also lugging them around with me on my travels. So farewell Polaroid. Here is what one of my bedroom wall looks like thanks to Polaroid.

It's my first day off in a while and I am just chilling out even though I've got to digitize and edit the scene that we shot most recently. I guess I'll get to it either tonight or tomorrow. Watched a couple of new releases recently ' Sherlock Holmes' {alright movie with fantastic character work from Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.} & a swedish movie called 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' {fantastic in every sense of the word}. And currently reading a book called ' My Desert Kingdom' which is proving to be an interesting read.

Going to the movies over the holiday season is crazy - the cinemas are packed and you get to see a lot of interesting characters & people. One of them was this girl who was standing in the line behind me along with her boy friend. For the 15 minutes that they did stand in the line -she was constantly nagging and annoying her boy friend on why she doesn't watch any movie. It was amusing for 5 minutes but after that you wanted her to shut up and wait for her turn or just go home. I think the boy friend got fed up after 15 minutes, so they left the queue. Another interesting character was a guy sitting 2 seats to my right, who brought into the cinema hall his own stock of whisky and soda and a full meal packed into his backpack - which he finished through out the movie. So no more movies at the cinemas for me till the end of the holiday season.

Hope you are having a good holiday season.

Later,

Amit

Holiday Work

2009-12-22T20:59:00.005+13:00

The year seems to flying past faster than I give it credit for. The business presentation went really well and I am pretty happy with how it shaped out in the end. The next major thing I can remember after that is the shoot for Tessa. Tessa wanted to make a video for her Phd presentation and that involved me sitting behind a red screen and then do a narration afterwards. Angelique and Xien helped out with that and it was good fun. Here is an image from that shoot (courtesy: Angelique)

Silhouette mine

One of the fun processes for making a shoot happen on 'Moments' is the borrowing of cameras and radio mics and I've been lucky that I've had supportive friends. I had to go and pick up one of the cameras from Simon but ended up having a few drinks at Dan's party, which is where Simon had lodged himself and it turned out to be just what I needed to relax a little so I could plan the shoot for 'Moments' between Tarun, Lorraine & Matt on sunday.

Mike Lowe & me having a chat while Simon poses

Enjoying the afternoon sun and a conversation

The sunday shoot turned out to be lots of fun even though it was an improvisational scene. Tarun was funny as hell and there were a few points where I couldn't control my laughter even though I was behind the camera. Alan George - a guy I met on the shoot of 'Rhodes 2' did the second camera and I am yet to digitize the footage but know from the shoot that we have enough material for me to edit a nice scene together.

Straight after the shoot was a drive to Lance's parents place for a christmas dinner with them and Tania & Andrew and Lance & Tai & her mom. It was an amazing evening with lots of great food and great conversations and laughs. Here are some pics from the evening.

Gorgeous Sunday afternoon

Tania, Andrew & Lance

Tai's mum, Tai & Tina

Chris looking through binoculars

Through the looking glass

Chris cooking some sausages

After the feast

Clouds rising

Andrew, Tania, Tina & Chris while sharing puzzles and stories

Tai's mum, Tai & Lance

Tai & me - she is not that tall - she is standing on a couch. :-)

Watched 3 movies recently - 'Avatar'; 'Observe & Report' & 'The Wackness' - Avatar was an amazing 3-D experience but the story was pretty average and predictable. It's a good watch in 3-D is all I can say. 'Observe & Report' was pure genius and so was Ben Kingsley in 'The Wackness'. Next up is 'Sherlock Holmes' when it releases later this week.

I finally did a fitness test after 2 weeks of recovery from my left shoulder injury and it was a mixed one but tending towards positive for most of the part. My weight is 65 KG's but my body fat %age has gone down to 15% {from 16.5%} which means I have gained more muscle mass. The downside of the test was my VO2 max levels - which have gone down to 48 {from 49.8} and I guess I need to jump straight back into getting my cardio levels up again after this extended break.

That's me for now.

Till later,

Amit

December in the park

2009-12-13T20:55:00.000+13:00

It's been an incredibly busy period since my last post. I had a very short notice surprise audition come up as the actor who was originally cast for that part couldn't do the part because of personal health reasons. I did get the part and did a 1 day shoot on the TV feature and that turned out to be a fantastic experience. The other audition that I did went well and that again was a fun experience.

Since the work on 'Moments' has slowed down in terms of production, I decided that a way to speed up the process in the overall scheme of things would be to start compiling the scenes that have already been shot and edited to find out where the holes are and what needs to be done to fill those up. One of the holes was covering up dialog cuts in the scene between Tarun and me, so I went and got some pickup shots at 'The Whitehouse' as we didn't get any cut aways the first time round when we shot the scene there. We'll be shooting one more scene next sunday, which is a meaty scene and that should give me some consolation about the pace of the project. It's been a hard year but after the past couple of weeks I am declaring my year closed on a high note. Anything good that might happen between now and end of 2009 is a bonus. 2010 here I come.

Friday evening was the staff Christmas party and there wasn't anything terribly exciting that happened at the party. Yesterday I had a long overdue catchup with David & Christina and it was nice way to spend Saturday morning and afternoon. In the evening, I went to 'Christmas in the Park' along with Benji and it was bizarre event. There was something terribly off with the whole vibe of the event - it was like one huge coca cola commercial. It's supposed to be a family event but then you look around and see people getting boozed and stoned while kids and teenagers are running around. Both Benji and me almost got food poisoning over there when the thai stall served half cooked chicken skewers and they gave replacement sticks that were half cooked as well. The jerky pork kebabs from the Jamaican food stall more than made up for the earlier culinary misadventure. But to be on the safe side Benji and me decided to get a tequila shot on our way back, to negate the one bite of half cooked chicken that we had earlier.

Christmas in the Park

Beautiful sunset

Auckland Hospital

Distant viewings

Walk back

Grafton Cemetery

Bunch of people enjoying the cool air

The tequila shot

Earlier this afternoon, had a picnic lunch at Grafton Road cemetery which Angelique organized. It was an odd choice of location but a good one. It is bang in the middle of the city but it has so many trees and is pretty quite. It was an opportunity to catch up Tessa after ages and also got to meet Angelique's boy friend besides meeting some very interesting people.

Picnic at Grafton Cemetery

Sunshine

Sun and Shade

Flowers over a grave

Angelique & Kelly

Anna & Xien

Me & Tessa

End of picnic

And now it's heads down, preparing for the business project presentation that I've got to give to the TVNZ top brass tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Later,

Amit

Movies and all that stuff

2009-12-02T06:40:00.000+13:00

My age and look and ethnicity means that auditions are far and few in between. I consider myself lucky even if I get 3-4 auditions a year, so it was pretty frutrating only having 2 audition till Oct and then suddenly having a couple of auditions come up while I was overseas. Typical huh!!! Well I had another audition recently and it went really well, even though I didn't get the part. As an actor - the best thing is to prepare well for the audition, give it your best shot and forget all about it as soon as you walk out of the audition room. If you get a follow up call then good for you otherwise you just carry on as if nothing has happened. I've got another audition this year, so I am pretty happy that this year will end with atleast 4 chances to showcase myself to casting directors.

'Rejected' is in the freezer as it has nowhere to go right now and the script is not in a position I want it to be and the script development process is extremely slow. The best option was to put it on freeze and concentrate on the existing project and other potential projects. Off the potential projects - 'Apsara' has got some legs and it is currently in active development. The script is by Angelique - a close friend and an ex-film school mate and it is being produced by Paula Jones. The script is funny, quirky and has a visual flair and it matches up with everything I want to explore and I guess I'm lucky that the script wasn't already picked up by someone else. More on that in coming months.

The production on 'Moments' is going slower than anticipated because of the holiday season combined with the usual scheduling conflicts associated with 'no budget' movies. Instead of stressing out about it, I'm just playing it by the ear and going with the flow. All this obviosuly means that we won't finish the movie in March'10 as originally planned and it might get pushed back by a few months.

An independent writer was in constant contact with me via email wanting to see if I wanted to direct her script in 2010 with a very miniscule budget. I said no to it because I wasn't getting answers to all the questions I was asking about the project and that's never a good sign. Topped up with unclear roles and responsibilities it was a disaster waiting to happen & all this without even seeing the script itself. After a lot of thought I wrote a very detailed mail as to why I can't accept the project and the response I got made me crack up laughing and I subsequently deleted all the emails related to the project. The final email from the writer/producer goes like this
"Subject: Re:Hey AMIT, in CONFIDENCE
Morning Amarbir, thanks again for the email - much appreciated, all the best for your future endeavours:-).
Kind regards"
Amarbir is another Indian film maker based in Auckland and he is also a good friend of mine. So she obviously asked Amarbir about directing the movie as well or her next person to ask is Amarbir or maybe she confused me for Amarbir all along. I don't know and I don't care. :-)

I scored a couple of free passes to NZ Premiere of 'Morris: A Life with Bells on' - a UK indie movie. The writer/main actor was there for Q&A, so I went along last night and it turned out to be a small but funny movie. Definitely worth a watch. It definitely puts a grin on your face.

That's me for now,
Amit

Weekend in photos

2009-11-29T18:52:00.004+13:00

The weekend has been long and fantastic so I'll try and let the photos do all the talking for the most part. And to get things started here are a few arty pics I took over the weekend time frame with the theme being 'RED'

FRIDAY NIGHT:
Lippizanears play Jazz Music @ Wine Cellar Backroom. Underground music scene with the musicians improvising the pieces in front of a live audience. Fantastic music and a very unique experience. Also got to catch up with Tahi {one of the actors from 'FIVE'} as well as Andrew {one of the composers on 'FIVE'}.

To the Wine Cellar

Improvised music gig

Symphony of sound captivating the audience

SATURDAY MORNING:
I had to cancel this weekend's shoot and the workshop because of continuity issues with the talent. It looks like the next window of opportunity to shoot that scene will be somewhere late in December and if not in February. Canceled shoot meant I could attend the Grey Lynn Festival. Awesome food stalls and I tried atleast 6 different kinds of cuisines. I wanted to try more but my tummy was full. Some awesome drum pieces from different bands and some unique stalls where you could pick up some cool stuff. It wasn't cheap though and I managed to pick up 2 very small items that I needed for my room for $2 each.

Kids gravitating towards the drums

An artist making a sculpture

Hungarian Candy

People just chilling

Food stalls

A drumming band captivate the audience

Knights and kids

Group drumming

People checking out the stalls

Walking

Hula Hoops

Craft stalls

The main stage and the people

SATURDAY EVENING:
Boxing class as usual which also turned out to be one of the toughest classes in a long time. After the boxing class - the core bunch of us who have been doing it for a while went out for some drinks on Sale St. Cool venue - expensive but a good vibe and the food was awesome. Ended up coming home around 12.00 at night.

Steven, Kit and Kelly

Dennis waiting for the food to come through

Kit obviously telling something exciting to Kelly

People on the dance floor

Kelly, Sara and their friend {I can't remember his name} enjoying the amped up music

Me sharing a laugh

Dark and mysterious

Walking towards the car

SUNDAY MORNING:
The first order of the day was a catch up meeting with Kathryn - who is one of the country's top script writers and was also my colleague when we were teaching at South Seas. We hadn't caught up properly in almost a year and a bit, so it was a breakfast at The Fridge in Kingsland. The Chicken n' mushroom pie at that place is amazing. Very divine and one of the best pies I've ever had. Also bumped into Richard - one of the producers on 'Nowhere to Love' - the project that I was doing that got shelved in 2006. It was brief since he was rushing off somewhere but we intend on catching up sometime soon.

Quite morning in Kingsland

The Fridge

Sunday afternoon went into grocery shopping and doing some cooking. And earlier this evening I went and had drinks at The Malt, as Dave de Lautour - one of my friends {who was in the same acting class for a while} had come visiting Auckland briefly and was returning to LA tomorrow. It was a good catch up as I got to catch up with other friends from the acting class as well as from the film school.

All in all a fantastic weekend.

Time to catch up my beauty sleep as a 6 day week beckons.
Later,
Amit

Transition

2009-11-20T21:48:00.002+13:00

Transition is permanent and I am caught up in it's tides.
Nothing seems permanent,
except for each moment that ticks by.
A speck of dust in this cosmos,
so insignificant and so adrift
moving away from everything
like the stars in the crying sky.

Space

2009-11-13T22:16:00.004+13:00

A very small and quick update. I am fine. The journey was long but uneventful. I love Hong Kong airport. Watched 'The Brothers Bloom' and '500 Days of Summer' on the flight from HK to Auckland and slept for the rest of it. The girl sitting next to me was fun to talk to. It took a day for me to get over the jet lag and just getting used to the space and the order in NZ. First day at work was cool - just slipping back into the thick of things. First day at the gym was hard work and could only manage 30 minutes of cardio and I definitely need to work harder to even get back to the fitness levels before this trip.

That's me for now.
Amit

Farewell India

2009-11-10T12:51:00.000+13:00

'Khansama' was a no go since it was a very small restaurant and we ended up going to 'Terrace Bay' in Punjagutta and it was a fantastic experience as the food was by far the best I've had in Hyderabad - that's besides mum's home cooked food. The ambience was nice and the service was impeccable. The only negative point I can think of is that even though it is called the Terrace Bay - there aren't any views to boast of - if only it was a couple of floors higher. Recommended starters Goulauti Kebab and Patiala Tangdi.

The last 2 days have been pretty weird for me - on one hand I've been mentally preparing myself for the grind as soon as I get back and on the other hand there is this sense of sadness about leaving mum and dad. I guess it is a good decision on my part to visit them every year - that's the least I can do at this point. The last couple of days disappeared into packing up and also saying farewells to everone either in person or on the phone.

In those 2 days I also managed to sneak in one more telugu movie 'Pokiri' {after abandoning 2 movies after 30 minutes or so as they were boring and nothing happened in those 30 minutes} - it was a popcorn flick and was entertaining for what it was but the problem I have with movies like that is the unrealistic expression of violence. The hero can single handedly kill 100 odd goons without breaking a sweat or spoiling his perfect hair style after a massive 10 minute fight. The other thing that struck me was that most of the female roles in bollywood movies are pretty minimal. The heroine is required to dance in a couple of songs; be able to first hate the hero and then fall in love with him without any emotional reasoning; and then should fall into distress so that the hero can come and save her. There are variations to those simple combinations but most of the movies do tend to do that - atleast all the ones I saw followed that pattern, I am generalizing and there are movies which do actually give the females an emotional arc and a better tie into the story but in general it reflects on the gender equation within the Indian society. Maybe I should try my hand at making a 'masala movie' and see how much I can enhance that equation. :-)

Today dad came down with severe cold, so only mum came to drop me off at the airport. The drive to the airport is now much quicker because of a new expressway which cuts about 20 minutes off the journey time but it is still a pain driving 30KM odd from the city to get to the airport. It was a quick drop off and I had to ask mum not to cry as otherwise I'd have cried as well. Hyderabad Airport has free 45 minutes internet access for travelers but the only hiccup was that you needed a cellphone number for them to send you login details - if you are using it for the first time. Apparently it is for security purposes but in a way it is silly because what if the international traveler doesn't have a local cellphone on which to send the login details to?

On the domestic flight I got a pleasant surprise as sridevi akka's husband was there, going to Bombay a.k.a Mumbai as well. We caught up at Mumbai airport briefly before we parted ways and I caught the free transit bus from the domestic airport to the international airport.My onwards flight to Hong Kong is not till 4.00 AM, which means I am here writing this from the waiting lounge in Mumbai Airport {no free internet access, so will be posting this once I get to Hong Kong} after finishing all the security checks and immigration requirements. My initial impression of Mumbai airport when I first arrived in India was pretty bad because of the state of the arrival lounge and all the construction going on outside but the departure section of the airport is actually quite good. Pretty flash I must say and I wasn't expecting that. I don't think i'll be able to sleep till I get onto the flight, so I'll just be drinking lots of water and doing some work.

My India trip this time has been fantastic in a very different sort of way. This is the first time in ages that I've spent so much time with my family and it felt really good even though I remained at home most of the time {instead of travelling heaps}. There were times when I was exasperated at the things around me but it was still good being in the midst of all that was happening. I got to know more about my family and also learnt a few things about myself - like i've changed a lot in the past 6 years; i was a pampered child in many ways when I was studying {i guess because I am the only child} etc. Most of all it cleared up some things in my head about things I need to improve and change within myself to become a better person.

Farewell India, for now.
Amit

Food and more movies

2009-11-08T08:10:00.001+13:00

Hyderabad is famous for various things but in terms of eating the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is Hyderabadi Biryani. Biryani from Paradise Restaurant is supposed to be really good but I tried it last year and I was pretty disappointed as it was nothing special and this time I decided to try some from Four Seasons Restaurant {they have a branch in Kondapur} and the biryani was amazing. I'd rate it 9/10 in terms of taste, texture and value for money and definitely a must try if you are in Hyderabad. The other restaurants I've tried are Blue Fox, Blue, Ginger Court & Angeethi - and of those I'd recommend Angeethi as the food tasted nice and the ambience was nice as well. Planning on trying out Khansama later this evening and will update this post to reflect on that experience. All in all the food the Hyderabadi food is amazing but the city needs to open up it's palate a bit more to give international cuisine like japanese, thai, vietnamese, indonesian etc a chance to titilate the taste buds.

Dad arranged for a driver to drive me around yesterday, as I am now completely useless at driving anything in India because of the chaotic traffic and lack of regard for any kind of road rules. The idea was to take a few snaps at Charminar and Hussain Sagar Lake before finishing off the rest of my shopping. I finally managed to take a few snaps that gives some inkling about life in Hyderabad. It was a saturday morning, so it's not crowded much which explains the empty space in the photos. Incidentally - this is the only city where I can use all the 3 languages I know while conversing with anyone and I do like that.

Sleeping under the tree

Fruit vendors setting up shop

A foreign documentary crew interviewing some cops

Street Vendors

Charminar

Lazy Saturday morning

Horses and Bikes

Traditional rural dress - Dhoti-Kurta

Fishing in the polluted stream

Afternoon nap

Traversing the streets

It's metal alright!!

Taking a break

Push cart in the midst of heavy traffic

Hussain Sagar Lake

Connecting the world

Waiting for nothing

Since mum and dad's old DVD player wouldn't play a bunch of DVDs i decided to shop around for a new one and at the electronics store I was switching between all the 3 languages without realizing it since the salesman was doing the same. After purchasing the DVD, I went ahead and purchased a bunch of DVDs so that the DVD player wasn't sitting there in the house just as a show piece. Once I got home I ripped into a bunch of movies. The best of the lot was a telugu movie called 'Gammyam'.

'Gammyam' flowed naturally and it was well acted {without overacting for most part}, well edited and well directed. It was a pleasant surprise as compared to 'Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani' that I watched a couple of days back at IMAX. The other movies I finished watching were 'Sarkar' and 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' - I had started watching those movies when they were screening on TV but had given up on them because of the 15 minute commercial breaks. 'Sarkar' was well shot and well acted but the editing was off because the pace was dead slow because of excessive use of looks and glances. The movie was short as it is at 2 hour run length but if it was paced right it would've been 1.5 hours only. 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' was again well shot but it was an action flick and the shoot out does get pretty mind numbing after a while. Another movie I watched was 'Welcome' - it was a comedy and half the movie was funny and good while the other half just dragged on and on and on. It's almost like the script writers spent most of the time writing the first half of the movie and just mashed together the ending to complete the script.

A thing which throws me off in all Bollywood movies is the dubbed audio. The film makers don't use synch sound while making a movie for obvious reasons - India is too noisy and there is no way that they can get clean sound without a massive production budget. The only movie I know in most recent times that used synch sound is 'Lagaan' and they had budget over runs because of that decision. I am dreading doing ADR for just one of the scenes in 'The Moments In Between' because it is so tedious and hard to capture the same essence and inflictions and meaning to the words recorded in ADR, even though the words are the same as those on location. So I do admire the fact that all the movies here are dubbed over from start to end and for most part the performers and the directors and the sound editors pull off this impossible task with remarkable results. It does get distracting when the words don't match the lip movement and that's something that can't be avoided when dubbing over dialogue and that's the price that bollywood movies pay for having crisp audio.

Anyway, that's me for now.
Later,
Amit

Movie this and movie that

2009-11-07T07:41:00.000+13:00

The past few days have been pretty chilled out. No shopping or outing or anything of that sort - just family time, which also means no photographs. Sridevi akka and me did go to a meeting with a producer from one of the top Telugu movie production houses and it was an interesting meeting.The crux of the meeting was that Telugu cinema is not ready for new stories and only big movies with big name stars sell - even if the story is the same old; and that there is no space for new directors. Hindi cinema has opened up a little and they are more open to new film directors and new stories as they can recoup the costs from screening at multiplexes. Either way forming contacts here would take ages - 6 months and upwards and if you add on the time for getting a movie off the ground it can be anywhere upwards of 2 years before you can even roll the cameras on set. So not an encouraging sign and will have to start thinking on how to raise money from the market here.

We went to see a bollywood movie yesterday evening and the first thing that came to mind was that IMAX was ripping us off in NZ. It costs about NZ$6 to buy an IMAX ticket here while it costs about 3 times that amount in Auckland. And the thing it is no different than the one in Auckland, right down to the seating. Unbelievable isn't it? The movie that we saw was a new release and it was pretty average - all style, not much substance - a masala 'fillum' to the core. I'm definitely not used to the song and dance sequences in movies anymore as they annoy me most of the time they come on as it breaks the flow of the story. If only they moved the story forward or kept the pace going it wouldn't be so big of an issue for me. After watching a couple of hindi movies my impression is that technically they are well made but it is the story and the pacing that they flounder on. In terms of cinematography - most of the movies tend to be shot simply with composed/locked off frames rather than moving image for the most part. It definitely speeds up the shooting rate and probably keeps the costs down. The only place where they go nuts with the camera movement is in the song and dance sequences - to add a dynamic to it obviously.

A noticeable difference in the way movies are now being marketed and sold in India is that the local market is now borrowing heavily from Hollywood style of opening a movie wide and recouping most of the costs within the first 2 weeks. And this is largely due to the fact that Hollywood studios are putting money into Bollywood since the market is huge and they are trying to get a toe hold in the world's largest film producing country. Even 10 years back you would see movie posters boasting that that the movie had completed 100 days or 150 days or 200 days at the cinemas - but not anymore. Now a movie that completes 100 days is a legend. Most of the movies come and go within 3-4 weeks and if it runs beyond that it means that it is super hit. Strange how foreign money has influenced and changed the way indian film industry markets and sells their movies - even though there is not much difference in the product itself.

Reading local newspapers is always interesting. In New Zealand I'd be annoyed that world news wouldn't get as much coverage in print or television and the focus would just be on NZ news but on this trip I realized that it holds true for all countries - the focus is always their own news with foreign news being touched on as an afterthought almost. The only true global TV Channels that I've seen are BBC and CNN as their range of news is worldwide. Reading some of the recent news articles here is worrying to say the least. There are articles like people committing suicide because they are unable to cope with the massive pressure exerted by the system for them to perform according to the system's expectation of them; or that of some farmers using Pepsi mixed with fertilizer to grow a bumper crop at a lower cost as the cost of pesticides is high; or the percieved threat India faces from China in several areas of trade as well as national security; or the increasing internal security threats in the form of naxalites and maoists. It's like the society is reaching a crucial point in time where a major change is bound to happen.

Your best laid plans disappear without a trace in India. I had planned on learning how to cook atleast 4-5 dishes and I had also planned on going to the gym to keep my fitness levels up and also to keep a regulated diet so as not to put on weight. Well the net result of those plans is zilch, nada, nothing. Maybe next time I'll bend the mystical forces at play in India to my will.

It's the last couple of days on this trip with my parents and I'm feeling sad as I feel helpless and useless in doing anything to help solve their worries and their pains. The only thing I can do is take that pain with me to keep reminding myself not to waste the sacrifices they've made ,despite my faults and shortcomings, to get me to the point where I am today.

Till later,
Amit