masterclass by steve mccurry

yes, it is the same steve mccurry who shot the afghan girl - a photo that would became one of the most iconic covers of national geographic. there was a masterclass organised by the folks at epson at the asian civilisations museum. the class consisted of a talk by mccurry - or more like a show-and-tell, wherein he went through some of his works, and talked about the photos and their composition. there was very little 'technical' stuff covered, and i was quite surprised to find out that he rarely changes settings on his camera - just uses the 'p' mode and sticks to the 'auto' setting for much of his work.

the second part of the qorkshop consisted of going out and taking photographs. the idea was to capture the play of light in any way we could in the photos. we were to come back and show one or two photos to mccurry for his comments. (the photos i shot are shown below.)

the shooting part went ok, but the debrief was a bit of a fiasco. unlike my expectation, our photos were not shown on a projector screen - people queued up and showed mccurry their photos in their cameras itself. and this turned out to be a long session, as people started to get mccurry to autograph his book and take photos together to show off later. well, anyways, atleast i got to the man who shot the afghan girl, and a free printer as well :)

on a big mistake

everyone makes mistakes. i do too. but the one that sticks out the most is from my first year in university. i joined the debate team. with sheer lack of information, excessive belief in my abilities, and a huge crush on a guy who was on the team, i signed up. no other decision ravaged my nerves as much as that one.

i regretted it from minute one.

the debate was made up at its core of people who were primarily from the law faculty, and some super-intelligent economics and engineering students, with huge storage chips somehow transplanted into their brains. they could spout current affairs, history and expert analysis all at the same time—in a debater's tone, mind you. they would wag their hands, flash trump points, thump their fists or go low and dramatic. even their 'jokes' were so intelligent that you would have to know the 2nd clause of the 3rd article of the Geneva Convention to understand the pun.

so there i was, week after week. made to join a team, take up some silly topic, and then talk about it. standing there, all i felt was sheer terror. at one time, i imagined all the debators to have hideous fangs and claws that would suddenly appear and rip me apart for my lack of solid political opinion. it also made me understand the phrase—"have you for breakfast"—much better. and the most torturous part of all this—the debate sessions were held on saturday, which effectively meant burning up a significant part of my weekend for no worthwhile cause.

so i decided to leave the club. there was a lingering sense of feeling that i wasnt good enough to last out the challenge. but looking back, i wish i hadnt been so imtimidated. i could have had a good laugh at their pompous act— as i do now!

on the oba-ma-nia

everywhere i turn, everyone is (still) talking about obama.

i was at 7-11 yesterday, and the reader's digest had the obama family on the front cover, with the feature article on how the obamas raise their kids (and hence, telling us how we should raise ours). on the news last night, there was a segment on how obama slapped off a house-fly that bothered him during an interview. the US president's attempts to ward off the fly and his oh-so-accurate slap that decapitated the bug was clearly documented, and repeated for the viewer's benefit. and as if that wasn't bad enough, the reader crooned over how she found his razor-sharp reflexes so amazing.

so obama looms larger than life in all possible contexts. he is the ideal man, the leader we all want to look up to, the embodiment of the qualities that we see exemplified in movies that have the 'US president' as a major character. i wouldn't be surprised if marvel comes up with a comic character that is modeled on him.

no, there ain't no analysis going on here. this is just another instance of how humans always like to overtly praise other humans for no other reason except that they may have more media appearances than the rest of us.

i prefer batman.

'to maintain a healthy level of insanity'

the following was a post on a friend's FB notes. it is a sure way to make you laugh, even if you are really really grumpy! :) and to whoever came up with this ingenious list, kudos!!

to maintain a healthy level of insanity:

1. at lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. see if they slow down.
2. page yourself over the intercom. don't disguise your voice!
3. every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addiction, switch to espresso.
5. in the memo field of all your cheques, write 'for marijuana'.
6. skip down the hall rather than walk and see how many looks you get.
7. order a diet water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
8. specify that your drive-through order is 'to go'.
9. sing along at the opera.
10. five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you have a headache.
11. when the money comes through at the ATM, scream 'i won! i won!'
12. when leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling 'run for your lives! they're loose!'

musings at 11.45 pm

it is 11.45 pm on a sunday night. and other than a desperate attempt to enjoy all that i can of my weekend before it fades away, i cant think of a reason for this post, or for even staying up and working/playing on my laptop. but it is at such stray moments that some deeper thoughts come to mind, and make you think about them. today, the thought of my room came to mind - i cant really refer to it in the singular, cos i have moved considerably. but i am really talking about the first 'room' i had to myself, back in india, where i spent the a large part of my childhood.

what i do feel, looking back after all these years, is this - had i had access to some junk furniture and paint, i could have done wonders. sadly it wasn't within my reach. my first room in india was pre-designed with built-in shelves and cupboards, and a large part of the design was dominated by my parents' decisions of what was good/relevant/workable. it had a balcony attached, but that was used later to store a bicycle (i remember the bike too well - i caught my little finger in its brakes once, and it has been slightly wonky ever since), tools and other things as well (if i remember, it had a step ladder as well). my brother's room was no better - it had two huge bookshelves with books on thermodynamics, the classic epics and piles of videotapes with hindi movies from the 80's recorded over and over again - not exactly what you would expect to find in a 5-year-old's room.

even if i wanted to add in stuff, there were few places to look in for cool add-ons - things like garage sales were unknown of back then, so i couldnt even salvage any old speakers or other things to add some spice to my space. there was no ikea or any such store selling room stuff. and well, interior design mags were not popular back then, so there were very few resources to turn to for options. oh, and beg-borrow-steal wasn't an option. i did try to unleash my designer talents on the work desk (which was part of a book shelf-cum-study desk all mounted on a wall, and looking like it was suspended from mid-air) - i used all the markers i had to scribble my name over and over, in varied languages and forms, drew random figures and basically made it a graffitti art-piece. some years later, my aunt's family stayed in the house, and my hapless cousin (who got my room) taped a huge sheet of white paper over the desk - i guess he cudn't appreciate the nuances of my art. tut tut.

hmm...so what do i make of all this? nothing much, except that i could have expressed my design talents much earlier in life, and in other parts of my room. would i turn the clock back and redecorate the same room? nah, its just far too much trouble. but hey, knowing that i could have done an amazing job - had i had resources - is a good enough feeling for now. enough to make me stop writing rubbish and get to sleep.

after hours

not too long ago–wait, it was a while back–i was a university student. a happy undergrad skipping lectures, fussing over assignments and tests, and breezing through the days with no idea of what lay ahead when i would graduate.

work life at that time seemed like something to look forward to–there was more money to be had, cool workmates, your very own 'work' jargon, and dinners and parties after work. i imagined myself in cool work clothes (like the models we see in G2000 ads), sashaying into meetings and wowing everyone with my presentations, making notes in my little appointment book, and then heading out to dinners and parties every day. of course, there would be the balancing between friends and colleagues, and the mandatory - 'ooohhh, i would love to go, but i got something on. lets take a raincheck!'. 'after hours' would be a time to loosen up and enjoy. sleep would be less, but hey, who cares when life is so great!

when i started this post, i thought of providing the inevitable balance to this fantasy–all working adults know what reality is all about. but i think i will stop for now. let the fantasy remain as it was...for keeps :)

my 25...whatever(s)

there was a silly tradition going on at facebook where people wrote down 25 random facts about themselves and put it up. they also tagged a whole lot of their friends and made them write their own notes. i found it quite stupid at first, although i had a lot of fun laughing over other peoples' notes.

only when i started writing my own did i realise how much harder it is to remember the not-so-obvious details about oneself. so as a memory, i have put it down here.

here goes...

1. my name means 'night' - and its kinda cool that i was born at night :) not that my parents saw it that way when they named me. it took some years before i developed my talents of synthesis and speech to make the connection and tell them about it.

2. i love coffee - i spend time and effort searching out good coffee. i also hope to fulfil my two aims of owning a espresso machine (a sleek one with the works) and becoming a barista someday (i mean a knowledgeable barista, not the starbucks kind)

3. i once developed a sci-fi theory about parallel worlds that are born out of and exist to play out the many different consequences stemming from every action on our planet - i later found out that it is a real, accepted scientific theory, and the basis for a novel called 'timeline' by crichton. i felt like a genius when i found that out!! :D

4. i have found out that it really pays to have a friend who is into photography - you get to pose as his/her unofficial model and have some amazing photographs taken for keeps!! :)

5. i tried learning french (once at uni, twice at a french school) - i realised i don't have the ear or tongue for the language. and i cant understand how u call a thing a 'he' or 'she'. i have given up.

6. i love good food. i think that rest is self-explanatory.

7. i cant stand 'organic' vegetarian restaurants that serve up bad food in the name of health. i mean, why shud i pay (and a bomb at that) for bland pasta and dry cake? on the same note, i find it weird that people would pay a whole lotta money for tomatoes with their leaves still stuck on.

8. i lived in canada for close to a year. i got to experience winter, spring and summer but not autumn - and that is the season i always wanted to see. i still haven't had a chance to go back in time for autumn.

9. i love batman - he is my all-time favourite superhero. i used to have another favourite called phantom when i was much younger, but didn't see many comics about him as i was growing up, so the interest slowly went down.

10. i love chocolates - sweet and dark. there is no comfort food as good as chocolate! i visited the ghirardelli factory in san francisco, and was very impressed by just how much work it takes to make good chocolate!

11. i enjoy travelling - there is something very liberating about getting on a plane or train and going away someplace be it familiar or new.

12. i like CSI, but get quite freaked out by pyscho movies. i saw 'bone collector' and very affected by it. i actually refused to take a taxi alone right after that.

13. i have a mouse-pad with the year's calendar on it, a stand-up calendar and a pencil-holder with the month's dates on it. but every time i need to check the date, i end up looking for my phone or my comp's calendar. talk about memory loss!

14. i once tried curling my already curly hair (to make it more evenly curly). it ended in a disaster. i learnt a worthwhile lesson that day and decided not to mess with chemicals anymore.

15. my mother tongue is tamil, but i never went beyond speaking it until the end of my school years. when my brother was in primary school, i used his tamil textbooks to learn how to read. i can now read tamil (albeit very slowly).

16. i have a terrible sense of direction. i have gotten lost even in familiar places. i walked to the back of my block and found it to be a whole new area. even when going to something as popular as the national library, i have to get full-scale directions and landmark pointers. oh, and i cant read maps for nuts.

17. when i was about 3, my parents got me a picture book for learning alphabets. i took the
'e for elephant' to heart. one night, i saw a mouse running across the room and screamed, "look, an elephant!" needless to say, the adults couldn't stop laughing. not too long after, my parents took me to a zoo to see a real elephant :D

18. i am accident-prone. i have fallen in buses and down flights of steps, jammed my fingers and toes, and bumped into furniture numerous times. not to mention that i have spilt coffee on my desk and drenched documents far too many times.

19. i used to have a fascination for encyclopedias when i was younger (until i entered my teens, i think). i used to read them back-to-back, over and over again. i cant remember what caused that fascination, but i do remember an encyclopedia collection that my cousin owned - it was beautifully illustrated with entries written in as stories. it is still one of the best books i have ever read, but sadly have never come across it since.

20. i discovered a love for baking when i made a cake for my brother last year. he seemed a bit hesitant to try it at first, but later said it was 'quite ok' (thats a compliment for him) my latest accomplishment was a batch of cinnamon buns, complete with frosting. alas, i don't own an oven yet, but i got to bake my buns in my fren's oven.

21. like many kids out there, i once nursed dreams of being a doctor. i imagined myself as a surgeon who would go out there and save people. biology in secondary school rid me of such aspirations. i now satisfy any left-over ambitions by watching Grey's Anatomy.

22. i have a horrendous fear of thrill rides and animals (includes insects). many people have tried to convince me of the merits of both, and even offered suggestions of how to go about conquering my fear. to date, i haven't been able to overcome my fear of either.

23. i am quite fond of my brother, but sometimes cant remember exactly which year of uni he is in right now. i am also a bit confused as to what course he is studying.

24. i never realised how much i like the combination of bus rides and music until last night – when i sacrificed a taxi ride i could have claimed for, just so i could take the bus home and listen to my ipod.

25. some four years back, i went to disney land for the first time, and saw the 'snow white' musical there. it brought the story alive for me, and i was as mesmerized by it as the five-year-olds sitting next to me. to date, it is one of the best shows i have seen :)