Relationship/Thoughts

Unrealized friendships

Posted on by Archana K B / 5 Comments

Everyone has one of those dark days. The times spent gloomy and not feeling good, you know. I have it often. Most of my days are spent in retrospection. One of the many ways, I get back to blogging is by thinking on some thoughts or experiences in the past and then weaving more and more thoughts on them. Writing a post has uplifted my mood in many ways.

I remember in 2008, after I came to Bangalore, and was at home, without job, I was so eager to make contacts, and get into conversations. I was so active in twitter, and also tried back to back blog posts, so as to relieve my mind of unwanted thoughts. I read many blogs based in Bangalore, and sent them appreciating mails. One of them immediately responded, and we started chatting up, and ended up calling up. She has grown so popular and has even started a brick and mortar store now in Bangalore. And though I know, she is extremely busy in her new passion, I sometimes have wished to be part of  or one of those lively gang of friends, the updates of which she posts on Facebook. But, something hinders me from being too personal, maybe its her busy life or her popularity or my diffidence, but the relationship seems to be stuck at formal.

Talking of the gang of friends, takes me back to the college days. After studying in a girls only school, I was eager to make new friends in college as well. I cannot explain the reasoning, but there are times I felt that the opposite gender can make very good friends. A good example is a marriage in which you treat each other as best friends. It doesn’t mean they should be the only one. I do have a friend from the school days, who has been my best friend till date. In college, I realized that leg-pulling can ruin many emotions. I am not sure whether its the narrow mindedness of a small town, but every time I spoke to a boy classmate, there were giggles, unwanted eyes watching our body language, and then the subtle hints in the every conversation afterwards. There were days I wondered where I went wrong, and why I cannot make the friendship advances to the people I wanted to be part of my circle. And thus, there were many such unlucky(??) people from those days.

This also hindered my mind from growing broad. The ripples of this after-effect haunted me in my initial workplace too. I have lost many relations owing to the fact that I could not respect and appreciate the purity of friendship in those precious times of my life.

After I moved to Bangalore, very few people called me. Almost nil. One more important aspect I then realized. The investment of time and effort to keep the relations alive. This was another tip from my mother. At this older age, she is so busy on phone, I wonder how she could get so many friends. She revealed that most of the times, it was she who made the call. The famous blogger turned author, Preeti Shenoy, too talks of the same, on how to invest in creating friendships.

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This post was a result of her TOUCH writing prompt, based on her forthcoming novel, The One You Cannot Have.

films/Reviews

Film Review – The LunchBox

Posted on by Archana K B / 1 Comment

Lunch box had a great rating in the initial week. And so I had great expectations when we went to watch it last Saturday evening.

The start was great, captivating and intriguing. The conversations were sharp and meaningful. The emotions in the words and some of the scenes gnaw at your heart, asking you to reflect your philosophical and emotional take on living life. The photography well captured the fast life of Mumbai. There were no songs or background music which diverted your attention.

Those were the positives. A great theme indeed for a new director.

What I didn’t like was some missing links and the ending. There was no visible efforts of a daughter-father relationship in a failing marriage, or on why there were no conversations at home. I felt more importance was shown on the lonely man (Irrfan Khan), and how his heart is melting down after each letter, though personally, I felt it was more about the housewife seeking some desperate measures, rather than emotions of love. If one young daughter could invoke the feelings of a family in a lonely man, how could another daughter run away from a mother who lost his husband and son and does not have any one to turn to. On the ending, I would have preferred to have more clarity and clues to think about rather than the abrupt full stop. Overall, the second half was bit dragging and kinda boring.

Nevertheless, as I said before, good theme, good take on emotional loneliness without all the clutter, which is so good to have in a Bollywood movie. A one-time watch at home with a rating of 3.5 out of 5.

Thoughts

Slow Realization

Posted on by Archana K B / 2 Comments
I was making dosa batter today morning, when the mixie suddenly stopped. I complained or cribbed as usual to RK, that the mixie has gone kaput. My mind had already thought of the future events.That we had to repair it in the evening in the coming weekdays, that I would need to keep reminding him, that I would have to try to find time to go and repair it, and that I would have the guilt of killed the mixie somehow. All in fractions of second.

And then, he replied, you need to reset the button at the bottom of the mixie. And he did it. The mixie worked. It was as simple as that.
It was just my futile mind which is so restless and seeking for topic seeds to catch and grow itself to a big tree to become fruitless ,wasting space in my garden of mind.
He went onto say a remarkable philosophical thought. On overload, the mixie just stopped working and became silent, just like his character sometimes. Impressed. Considering the fact, that I am more philosophical than him.
Haven’t you seen that film scene?  When people around keep talking saying this and that, and the reel rolls around the central character and shows silence, as if all the surroundings and the talks go over the head without getting being heard. It means there are so many typical characters who draws a blank.
So what reply did I came up with? That I am like a pressure cooker!
Strange na, how day to day incidents gives more answers at this age. Is this what they call to gain experience through aging?
A few years ago, when I was younger, there were only questions in my mind, and I was struggling to get answers. There were huge brainstorming sessions within myself, like the chess pieces movements, to reach a justifiable answer. Some of the thoughts became posts of this blog. Now, I feel answers appear more faster, and even if I do not get, I have understood and believe that the answer would surface some day, later, as we live by everyday.
So what do I do nowadays ? Just live the moment, without worrying who am I, what is my purpose, and write this damn blog post. Because if I don’t vent it out here, the pressure cooker inside me is going to blow up soon.
Bangalore life/Photography/Reviews

Photography Workshop

Posted on by Archana K B / 4 Comments

I got my first point and shoot when I was in college. I do not remember what drove me up to buy that, but I remember I did a review at Techenclave. It was a Canon Powershot A400.

In July 2013, I attended basic photography workshop from Bhaskar Dutta.

After quitting job, and reaching Bangalore after marriage, I remember carrying RK to Lalbagh to quench my photography thirst. And then two consecutive years for the flower show.

I had been searching for the workshops in Bangalore but most of them were conducted by wildlife photographic experts and professionals, in one or two days, over the weekend at big hotels at the heart of the city. I kept prodding him to get a DSLR initially, but after N was born, I rarely got time to take photos, and if at all I did, it was with my phone camera. But then, in December 2012, we got our first DSLR, Canon 600D. For 38k, it was quite expensive, but RK is like that sometimes, unlike me, who will keep thinking for long whether to buy or not and will skip at the end.

This one by The Academy of Photo Art, was very close at walking distance, and conducted at his home, near Marathahalli, only on Sundays, for 4 weeks. The distance attracted me very much and I jumped in at the last moment, without giving much thought.

The basic topics were covered beautifully and detailed explanation were given. There would be printed notes for the same, and some cheat sheets, which you think would be useful for later, but will not touch it ever afterwards. Why? Because that would be the lesson you take after the classes. That only practice can make you perfect and nothing else. There would be simple practical sessions in between. But at present its indoor photography. Complimentary snacks and drinks are provided.

It was already six months after we got the SLR, and so we had gone through major tutorials available online, regarding aperture and exposure. But in-class theory and interaction can clarify many lingering doubts and provide very good foundation.  I was expecting more on practical sessions and complex settings like white balance, metering modes but it was to be covered only in the advanced courses.

Now onto what I liked. Bhaskar was way too cool and down-to-earth than I expected. To be frank, I never completely read his long introductory page fully, which spoke of his achievements and runs two pages long. I assumed there would be a studio room with chairs and tables, just like a headmaster at his home tuition class. But he was like the next-door neighbour, who was just trying to share with others whatever info he mastered on its own. And this makes you very much at ease. His stories on his photos inspires you to weave a story for yourself and makes you think in angles you have not ever thought before. There were weekly assignments which I looked forward to. Not that you were given star badges, but I realized it was something you needed as a photographer. Ideas and prompts. Just like blogging.

I have been hooked onto various online groups since then, to motivate myself to get more photos. Thanks to this session, I also got Photoshop installed after ages. The last stint was during the college, when I was active at the Techenclave forums and Deviant Art. The new Flickr and 500px along with the Facebook groups overflow my daily dose of photo cup. 

Won’t you catch me there? At Flickr and 500px?

Bangalore life/Travel

Trip to Ooty

Posted on by Archana K B / 3 Comments

For Ganesh Chaturthi weekend, we went off to Ooty. I already told you that the road trips are growing on me.

We started at around 5.20am on Saturday and reached our hotel just in time for lunch, around 2pm. This includes 1 hour break at Kamat Upachar, Mysore for breakfast. The Mysore road was good, but the bumps at every nook and corner took away the icing, and also the cake! We could only touch 100kmph and that too at very few stretches. The route we covered included the two forest areas, Bandipur and Mudumalai. The silent and serene ride through both the forests scored the top points in our whole trip. We spotted lots of deer, few peacocks with tails down, lots of monkeys and a lone elephant.

Ooty was crowded, especially the city center, the botanical garden and the boat house! The climate was too misty and chilling cold (and September 1st week is off-season!) but what I liked about the place is the flowers. Even in such harsh climate, there were flowers here and there. We stayed near Doddabetta Junction at the Highland Hotel. The food and stay was good. 

The tea estates looked good and green. We visited the Doddabetta tea factory and museum. This was the first time, I entered tea estate and factory. The process is shown clearly, and as expected everyone came out with tea packets. Obviously, the complimentary cardamom tea was awesome.

The Doddabetta peak was supposed to be good, but we reached there at wrong time, when it was fully covered with mist, and we could not see anything other than white.

Some things I missed were the “Shanti Sagar” or “Saravana Bhavan” kind-of restaurants where in we expect to get decent food at an average price. We did do our research before embarking to Ooty, but could not get any results.

On our way back, we entered the NICE road from nearby Kengeri to Hosur exit, and climbed onto Hosur expressway and then to Outer ring road. There was less traffic apart from the lorries, and we could speed upto 80-90kmph, thereby reducing the travel time. One-way trip took us around 7 hours excluding restaurant breaks.

So will we go again? Of course yes, but next time we would try to cover less visited places nearby, say Coonoor, or the waterfalls we saw on the Masinagudi curves, or the forest safari etc.

Note:- At the Tamilnadu border, a policeman enquired about our whereabouts and demanded Rs.50 as entrance enroute Ooty. This was unexpected as it was not mentioned in internet during my research.