London Update

Went to Edinburgh, Scotland. The trip was a dampner, mainly due to bad weather and somewhat due to our bad luck. We wanted to hire a car and drive & enjoy the beautiful country side of Scotland. Couldn't do since we didn't have any credit cards on us. It might have worked with our debit cards also, we didn't have the pin numbers! The highlight of the visit was our trek up the Aurthur's Seat (which I abandoned mid-way :-). But it's a great town and nice place to visit. May be some other time I'll make a better visit to Scotland and spend more time.

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The TV channels we get at our service apartments suck big time! Very rarely do we get to see some interesting program. Between time to watch a cricket match & telecast of that match, till now I've been able to get just one. I missed the world cup final too (oh well, but that was a let down anyway).

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Routine during weekdays has ceased to look so bad. I've got used to it, I guess. I get up around 7, reach office by 8:30, lunch at around 12:30 and dinner around 7:30 (in office), be back home by 8:30-9 & sleep by 11:30. Started to get hang of the work also, actually liking it. Another three weeks before I fly back to India. Got somewhat encouraging feedback from office junta, but have to push a little more. I guess coming three weeks are going to be busier (wish me luck ! :-).

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Things I learnt the hard way -
1) You can visit Switzerland on UK work permit, but 3 months' work permit won't do.
2) £80 can get you round trip to Geneva with Easyjet.com.
3) Easyjet.com refund in case you want to/have to cancel.

Sigh!

Deja Vu

Proud to present - Deja Vu. A film by IITB alum, Anshul Singhal, dealing with the issue of suicides at the campuses. The film has been received very warmly, it seems.

So impressed was Bollywood screenplay writer and actor Ranjit Kapoor (of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Na fame) with the film that he said after the premiere, "With a little bit of trimming, the film can actually be sent to Cannes. I thought I would view Deja Vu a bit patronisingly, but this film has taught me a thing or two."

While I'm not totally convinced that the suicides were totally due to the academic pressures, any step towards addressing them is appreciable. And what better way than a film by friendly neighbourhood directors & actors.

I tried searching for the movie on youtube and all, but obviously it isn't uploaded over there. They are planning to send it to various national and international film fests with the active support of IIT. Great!

In a way, they are living my dream. Me and couple of friends are also very enthu about film-making and likes. Our music video - Early Days @ Joka - was our first foray in this field. It was frantic! We didn't start with a proper script or anything; most of our ideas evolved while shooting and we learnt a lot about it, while filming. But it was fun too. We had a great time as a team! We did shoot lots of redundent footage, which now won't see the light, most likely.

Anyway, don't mind the ramblings. Looking forward, we are getting together again in June and planning to work on some short fillers, advertisments and kinds. One constraint we face is the camera. We shoot with Sreeni's panasonic and tho' we still have to try a lot with its controls, I doubt it has all that professional jazz to offer. Another constraint is the lack of actors; at the campus we can find people within certain age groups. If the story demands some child or old people, we don't have any way to get 'em. Anyway, these certainly won't dampen our spirits and we shall keep trying. You keep watching this space.

P.S. : Jagmohan Mundra (of recent Provoked fame) is the bigger name in film-making from IIT Bombay. I hope Anshul will go on to be the bigger name eventually!