Thursday, May 31, 2007

My Fav Artists


Sunday, May 20, 2007

Am I still dreaming?

After a very long time my heart has again started pumping fresh and tender dreams of beautiful life. Dreams - bright and colorful – that are dazzling my eyes to differentiate between the reality and fiction. Dreams - mad and frantic – that are tangling the sane thoughts to the extent of defying the logic. Dreams – young and vulnerable – that are ridiculing my intellect and mocking my reasoning. Dreams – sacred and holy – that are comforting my soul and soothing my senses.

From morning till evening, the sweet and the short time that I spent that day with the angel has still been tickling and thrilling my body. True, angels do come at night but, perhaps, I was blessed by the Ultimate to be able to found her in the beautiful summer morning. I was curious and excited like a nursery kid desperate to see the angel for the first time. I had heard a lot about them but I always thought that they did not exist until I met her. The moment my eyes met hers my body got stoned. For a second my heart stopped pumping blood, brain became numb, thoughts got frozen, and eye balls rolled down. I was completely hypnotized and transfixed by her mesmerizing and magnetic beauty. I was seeing a beautiful full moon on earth on a scorching summer day with the fierce and fiery sun in the sky. The comforting cool silver light of the full moon had overwhelmed the irritating hot rays of the sun and caused it to shy away. Confused and apprehensive about the uncertainty of the next moment and strangeness of the angel I took my first step towards her.

From close distance I could notice her moon white lustrous sheen of silver skin. And as she spoke, the words dropped off her mouth as musical notes and danced together to form a magical song that made my heart dance. As the angel smiled I could see the swirls and whirlpools on her cheeks that were sucking my heart and body without letting me loose or escape. I shook myself, came out from my stoned state to find my date. I could see the real world now, real people, and cars passing by and honking. I know I was not dreaming, but to my surprise the angel was still there. Am I dating an angel? I pinched my skin so hard that the eyes become watery but the angel was still there. I indeed was with an angel. Dream or reality? – Still figuring it out.

We sat together and the angel painted the picture of paradise in front of me. She started with canvass. She made a fine canvass by weaving the threads of hopes. She collected her hopes with mine in a bowl made of our hearts. If the thread of my hope was thin she would add her hope to make it perfect. She weaved a perfect canvass. The canvass was hanging in air between her and me, right in front of our faces, and was tied with our tacit promises that were still lingering in the air. She then plucked her and mine emotions and created a brush out of them. She asked for my dreams and used color of my dreams to color the picture. Red, green, blue, yellow, etc. all colors were there. I had given her all my dreams with none left to me. To add interest she added dabs of her exuberance and bubbliness here and there. And I kept seeing the angel working like a perfect magician without breathing. I was afraid that even the slightest puff of my breath could disturb the air, and the tacit promises might fall down, ultimately leading to the fall of paradise. I kept seeing and dreaming about the paradise with her sitting in the restaurant. The music was loud but with her magic wand she froze everybody and controlled it. I was not bothered about anything around as my eyes were immersed and indulged in the beauty of paradise.

And she spoke finally to tell me, that the paradise is not for human beings but for angels. I should not desire and long for it. She pulled away the tacit promises and the paradise fell down and disintegrated. She was in hurry to go to the real paradise else the door would close. She returned my colorful dreams and my stranded emotions that belonged to me. But, in hurry she took away the canvas to make me realize later that my threads of hopes were gone with hers. The angel still has my threads of hope with her.

I dream, I feel them, but without hopes. Do dreams have significance without hopes? Do they really exist without it? Dear Angel, when we meet again or whenever you come to earth again from paradise, please, return my hopes.

The angel disappeared and I was back again in the real world. The world that works on fake principles those are twisted and tweaked every other second. Shocked and lost, I pinched myself again to found me on bed. Was it a dream?

I checked my clothes and found a lean thread of hope on my collar. I easily recognized that it belonged to her. A gush of gentle evening breeze swayed the thread in front of my eyes and as it dangled past my eyes I read her hope, she indeed wanted me to join paradise with her but unlike earth rules in paradise are inflexible and stringent. Human beings are not allowed. And all drenched in profuse perspiration, I pinched myself again. Am I still dreaming?

Monday, May 07, 2007

Bhay - The Fear

Dreams and reality are different. It is very easy to dream but difficult to implement. I always wanted to make films. By films, I mean story about real people. I love documentaries and aspire to have a few in my name one day.

After a lot of hustle and bustle of life I decided to go ahead with my first movie. I never wanted to do fiction but my friend Ritesh insisted to start with that. Osian talent campus hunt was another reason to choose 1 minute movie over others.

There was no scope for endless arguments as Ritesh and I unanimously selected a feasible story with least of the budget and time requirements.

Bhay – The Fear - did not turn out the way we wanted but I am satisfied with the way we completed it in just three days over two weekends. Arranging resources and managing everyone with different commitments was indeed a difficult task at hand. However, I could use my resources and contacts, and above all my rapport with various people around me. Everything went smooth and on time. We chose Sunday Apr 28, 2007 for shooting and May 05-06, 2007 for editing.

As expected, editing revealed our various flaws such as loose script, low quality direction and camera work, issues with the sound, and the final editing itself. However, the encouraging part was that we could deliver the product, even of an inferior scale. But there is no concept of a perfect product as there is always a room for improvement.

How many people actually step forward and realize their thoughts in reality. I am happy that I could do that even on a smaller scale. I am much more confident and better prepared for my next movie.

I did not get an opportunity to thank people in my film in such a small time frame but here on my blog I would certainly mention everybody’s name.

Thank you Ritesh for partnering with me. I am sure that we will make better and better movies with time. I would like to thank Pantji and Ravinder who spent their weekends away from their family with us working on the editing table. Special thanks to Ravinder for not only editing the movie but also teaching me and being a patient listener for my stupid editing related questions. Also, thankful to Dr. Ajit Kumar for being so helping, supportive, and confident about my endeavor.

I would like to extend my thanks to my friend Sriram for his honest critique, support, and encouragement. Mukesh Srivastava, Praveen Shukla, Sarvesh Chinagi, and Nitika Sood for their continuous support. Thanks for listening my stupid stories and giving your valuable inputs and suggestions.

Last but not the least, greatly thankful to my parents and my sisters who could instill me with positive thoughts, never dying energy, and confidence to realize the dream into reality. Thank you Mummy and Papa for the fantastic upbringing.

Please go through the movie. Criticize and make me better.