Snippets to Pieces @snippetstopieces - Tumblr Blog

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oh wow. stumbled back onto Tumblr after years and it feels like nothing has changed. everyone’s still emo and writing poetry and i still have 10 drafts waiting to be finished someday.

#new #back on tumblr

dinosaurdaily-blog

Juice cleanse

snippetstopieces

Story of my life!

#truestory #trying to be healthy

Baggage

I have moved five countries, nine cities, thirteen houses, seven schools, two colleges in the twenty five years of my life. I've always considered myself a pro in this business, but now that I'm shifting again - different house, same city - I find myself wishing I didn't have to, only because the physical labour involved in this completely puts me off! In just nine months in this city, and seven in this house, I have accumulated two large 20 kg bags, one mid-size trolley bag, two duffel bags, one small carton and two large plastic bags full of clothes, shoes, gadgets, home stuff, books and more.

To give a little more context, I landed in Bangalore with less than half of this.

You could say I've got way too much baggage, yo. Sigh.

#movinghouse #Bangalore

Back in 2010, when I was in my fourth year of architecture, my friends and I participated in a movie-making competition conducted by JJ College of Architecture. The theme was 'Life' ... or something like that.

As most architecture students would tell you, the fourth year out of the five years, is less hectic and more easy than the rest. We had a lot of free time on our hands. So, driven by sheer boredom and the desire to create something that was not connected to architecture in any way, we took part in this competition.

In one day, we conceptualised the script, agreed upon a cinematic style, fixed a cinematographer, designed props, trained actors, edited the raw shots, and put together the entire movie on the humble Windows Movie Maker software.

The next day, we handed our movie over to a representative from JJ, who seemed fairly surprised that anyone had bothered to take part in the competition in the first place. Months passed by before we heard back from the organisers, and when we did, we were told that we had got the second prize in the competition!

We were promised that the certificates and prizes would be in our hands soon. And that was the last we ever heard of them.

Anyway, coming to the movie itself, I was responsible for the editing of the movie, for the simple reason that nobody else knew how to use the software. I also starred in it - to be precise, my hand did. If you watch the movie, you'll know what I mean!

Go watch!

Disclaimer: This movie was made by a bunch of over enthusiastic, highly untrained 21 year olds so please do pardon our errors!

#oldstuff #movie #friends

Meet Bada, the office dog.

Bada spends half the day basking in the sun in the frontyard of my office, and the other half of the day sleeping under the staircase. He is a little shy, a little overweight, and very lazy. The furthest he has ventured out of the compound, is across the narrow lane from his home. He is terrified of the stray dogs in the area and takes to barking at them from the safety of his kennel.

He is usually fed a strange concoction of curd rice, turmeric and milk which I do not think he likes very much. Once, he secretly finished meat leftovers thrown in the garbage. Then his master found out, and locked him away for a bit. Poor Bada.

Bada's greatest strength is his indifference. It makes people go weak in the knees, when they come across a dog that doesn't yelp when they pat him, or bark when they recognise someone they see. Not that it happens to me though.

Bada talks to me. Sometimes when I come to office, he smiles at me. We talk mostly about the weather - that is, I talk, and he nods knowingly. If he is in a good mood, he will stand up and greet me, though that has happened only twice so far, and he could have actually just spotted another dog, but never mind.

He knows I don't like butterflies. He knows I like taking photographs of plants. He knows that I don't like the sun, and that whenever I enter or leave the office, I always hold the gate open for an extra five seconds, just in case he wants to get through.

To tell you the truth, I'm not really a dog person. But I like Bada. He understands me.

OHMYGAWDDDWHATISWRONGWITHME. A dog understands me?!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I think I might be going crazy.

#goingcrazy #office #dog

It is possible that Cubbon Park is one of the greenest places I've been to, in Bangalore. After Lalbag, of course. But as the 'lungs' of the city, as the 'urban green' and all those pretentious things that it can be called, Cubbon Park definitely caught the attention of the urban designer in me.

It is a 120 hectare garden named after former British commissioner Mark Cubbon and was laid down in 1864. The location of Cubbon Park in Bangalore also has a reason to it - in the days of the British, it separated the Indian part of the city from the British Cantonment. Its importance also lies in huge role it played in creating the character of Bangalore, as it is known today.

But when I walked through Cubbon Park, all I saw was the sun's rays falling through the tree canopies onto the soft green grass bed below, making playful patterns of light and shade. When I looked up, I saw blue paths in a green sky, like cracks on dry earth. Ahead of me, I saw huge bamboo trees rise to terrific heights, making deliberate clearings for us to pass through, as if guarding a fort or a city within. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, I saw vehicles driving by on a road cutting through the park. Large trees lined this road, creating a buffer between the park and the road, almost as if they were protecting the park from the evil motorised creators of pollution and noise!

There were parts of the park that I felt were unkempt and dry, parts that had a tad too many shady men lounging in dark corners and I must say, the sprinklers did have a tendency to jump out and spray water on unsuspecting visitors. But all in all, Cubbon Park is definitely a pleasurable experience for all the senses.

Must visit again for sure.

Sugarcane juice on a hot summer day, and the mechanics behind it.

"Madam, nobody thinks about us."

"Why do you say that?"

"They make us take them on small and narrow roads. The roads are not constructed properly. My auto will get spoilt, I tell them this, but they threaten to complain against me. What can I do, I have to ferry them."

"Then what happens?"

"What can happen - my auto falls apart. I have to take it to the repair shop and spend money to fix it. I don't have that much money. Whatever I make goes to my wife and children. I have to take care of them also."

"But why do you trouble your passengers by asking them for more money?"

"Its not about troubling you people. Nobody thinks about us. For you it is only ten rupees, madam. For me, that ten rupees makes it worth my while to drive on a bad road. I come all the way inside, in front of your house, but who will pay me for driving back from there? It is difficult to find passengers in the middle of these houses. Nobody comes. There is the police also. They just need a reason to flag us down. I am telling you madam, nobody listens to us."

Public transport getting swanky. Yeshwantpur Metro Station, Bengaluru

#bangalore #metro

Yesterday, I found myself at one of Bangalore's most well known theatres - Ranga Shankara. I was accompanied by friend SB whose student was one of the actors in the play 'Treadmill'.

First things first, Ranga Shankara is a beautiful space. Designed by architect Sharukh Mistry, it reminds me of Mumbai's Prithvi Theatre, but has a lovely charm of its own. The eating areas with the bamboo and wood thatched roof above it, the steel staircases juxtaposed against the white walls, the wide double-height entrance - I loved it all. The actual auditorium is brilliantly designed with excellent accoustics. The actors' voices were amplified naturally in this space, and all audio was clear. I have heard that the library at Ranga Shankara is also very good, but I didn't get the chance to go there.

About the play itself - over a cup of tea, SB told me that this play is actually based off a Hindi play with the same name. It is supposed to have won multiple awards. More about the play here. She also told me, belatedly, that it was to be entirely in Kannada. Gasp!

Now, while I know and understand Kannada, I have trouble following the different dialects of the language. I also find it difficult to understand the purer forms of the language. I entered the theatre with my fingers crossed that I wasn't about to spend ninety minutes in a play that I would not be able to understand. I was pleasantly surprised! Not only was I able to follow the language, the metaphorical meaning of many of the dialgoues was not lost on me. Strike one for the awkward Mumbaikar!

The acting, I personally felt, was a little over-the-top, but SB told me that regular theatre-goers would understand that this acting style is common to plays in regional languages.

What I liked best though out of everything, was the post-play informal interaction between the actors and the audience in the canteen, on the steps, at the entrance and in every other possible space in Ranga Shankara. Our traditional ideas of theatre design revolve around smooth circulation and compartmentalisation of the different components such as canteen area, loading area, green room, separate exits and so on. While that makes for an efficient theatre space, in Ranga Shankara, a casual conflict is created between these different areas, allowing theatre-lovers to linger and interact with the stage actors. Lovely!

Definitely a must-visit-again spot in Bangalore!

#space #rangashankara #theatre

Time to get healthy

Today I got myself some Vitamin D. My first morning walk, in a while. Being the terribly unmotivated person that I am, I got S, the flatmate, to accompany me. We walked to the nearest neighbourhood park, did some rounds of it (I did 6, she did 7) and walked back. It was a good experience, but maybe not the most calorie-burning activity that we could be doing. I especially, am way too slow and I tend to focus too much on the aches and pains of my not-used-to-exercise body.

Anyway, it's a good start. Tomorrow we're taking trial classes in a hep and young fitness centre that S heard a lot about. We're going to try zumba and yoga on alternate days, and do walking in the park on the other days. Sounds like a plan. Oh, and we're going to ensure that we make our own healthy-shealthy food at home and eat it all through this week. While this all sounds SO awesome (in my head, of course), the challenge here is to keep at it, and stick to the routine. Hence, the decision to blog about this. If nothing else, the guilt should work its magic.

Till the next fitness endeavour then. Tada!

You know something's wrong when reading Murphys' Laws gives you an epiphany.

#murphyslaw

Rain

Rain is just rain,

It just wants to rain.

Whether its a little rain or a lot,

It just wants to rain.

#rain