Chitra Santhe...

I came to know about Chitra Santhe - the art mart- happening on Jan 27, 2013. Last year I wanted to attend, but could not. And while looking up on it online, I found it figures in one of the must - dos if you happen to be in Bangalore in January. That turned out to be very true! I had a great time roaming around, checking out the stalls on Kumara Krupa road.

It was a nice sunny Saturday afternoon. Had a good lunch and left home, it is only about 3kms from where I stay. The afternoon sun was not a worry as the road is lined with trees on either side of the road. In the shade, on the pavement there were hundreds of stalls set up by artists showcasing their art. It seems like a wonderful concept - not only making art affordable - since the artists need not pay galleries - but also a platform for the not-so-art-aware general public to check out some wonderful art from all across the country. The street was lined with stalls on either side of the road - most stalls had paintings of all sorts, water colors, on canvas, portraits  landscapes and the list goes on(that's all I can manage to list, with my limited art knowledge, as of now!). One could talk to the artist and know some history of the painting that one wanted to buy. There were paintings that were not framed available, and the person could get it framed the way they chose to - some some amazing flexibility available. Some of the artists were kind enough to share some wonderful information. Like I was wondering whether to buy a certain painting and was taking a closer look at it, the artist told me that was not how to view a painting. You need to place the painting vertically and move back about ten feet from it. I felt quite grateful for the information.

There were lots of vendors selling ground- nuts, popcorn, ice creams, khara puri, fruit bowls and a dozen other things to eat. It looked like a fair. There were also artists selling some jewellery and painted diyas, both made of terracotta. They were so beautiful.

I also saw artists making caricatures of people, mostly of children. My plan was to get a caricature done. I wished I had gone earlier, when the crowd was much lesser(in fact when I reached the venue the crowd wasnt much, but I spent a lot of time checking the paintings and only remembered about getting my caricature, when I saw them being done, by then there was a considerable crowd!). The problem with the crowd is the wait time increases for you to get your picture drawn and you have to endure a crowd of onlookers(probably that is why mostly kids were getting it done, they dint care much who was watching! :) ).
I had not seen so much of art in a day in Bangalore. It was very refreshing. After watching few hundreds of stalls of art work, I kind of felt saturated and got very choosy at the fag end(choosy as in, what interested me very much and least crowded stalls).

I found a stationary shop(not a stall, regular shop) and they were offering discounts on some items because of Chitra Santhe. I bought myself two sketching notebooks, lots of pencils - of all HBs available, fine erasers - for my old-hobby-revived-with-some-new-enthu hobby of pencil sketching. I was so excited to see so much of paraphernalia for artists that I asked a couple of times, if there is anything more I need to buy! It was a child in a candy store kind of a feeling! Am going to be a pro now...yaaaay!

It was a wonderful experience. I would like to go there again next year, and may be with my camera to capture and cherish, how that street looks on that day!

Gran Torino...

Watched the movie, Gran Torino. Directed, produced by Clint Eastwood. He is also in the lead role, Walt. It is a simple, moving story of an old man. The story begins when he loses his wife and deals with how he  lives the bereavement and tries to find peace. There is a car- a 1978 Gran Torino, a dog, and some neighbours of Asian origin. Walt minds his own business and goes about doing his chores, but life has other plans and he gets involved in things he never planned, and how he touches the lives of some people around, without being preachy is the movie. 

A wonderful movie. Recommend it. 

To awesomeness...

Well, the title has not much to the actual content of the post! Its the 200th post on the blog and just feels good to know.

I watched 2 interesting movies over the last few days:

One was a Korean movie called "My sassy girl". It was a sweet romantic comedy, the movie felt slow and dragging in some places but overall a cute movie. There were scenes in the movie that feel a little strange, may be due to the cultural difference, but the joy, pain and insecurities that young people go thru seem the same all over the world. A nice watch.

There was a Tamil suspense thriller called "Pizza" that I watched. It seems somewhat like a "Kahaani" kind of a movie. It seems like a horror movie at first, then reveals some interesting psychological aspects and when you feel you got all the plot, the story gets a surprising twist. A good watch. If you are a horror movies fan, it may not scare you much, but for people of my type - who keep away from full on horror movies, this one seems just creepy for a while than scary, go ahead, watch it for the twists.

This post is dedicated to Barney Stinson, one of the interesting characters on TV. It is awesome that this is my 200th post on the blog and what does one think of when one says "awesome"- of course, Legend-wait-for-it-dary Barney! :P

Amelie

Amelie is a movie about a lone child, who loses her mother as a young girl, withdraws into her own world and  grows up to be a young woman with a rich imagination. A chance finding of a an old tin box filled with someones's childhood memorabilia, makes her want to find out to whom it belonged to and the curiocity of what the response would be on finding it. One thing leads to another, with many interesting turns and Amelie ends up finding love. Its a simple story of an introverted young woman, her ways of finding joy told beautifully. 

Confusions....

There are very few times in life when I have felt that I did things like they were the most natural things to do. Felt like a flow. What was common in them was that these appeared wishful to begin with, it did not matter if the ways of realising them was unclear or unknown at the time, but they just seemed like things I wanted and kept thinking about them on and off, weighing the possibilities, dreaming, threatening(to my optimistic self) to give up the idea only to come back and dwell on it a little later. After realising them, some in forms I had perceived and some in others, it sometimes makes me wonder how did I get to want it in the first place!

When what you wanted happens to you, that process would have used your energies in a focused way, either consciously or not so consciously. And you feel grateful. There is a pleasure in applying yourself. Initially if you imagine achieving what you wanted, when the path is unclear, you most likely imagine pride. But when things happen, through effort, planning, it is most likely to make you humble in those moments, just thankful that some of "you" was "usefully" applied!

When you taste these humbling experiences, you want more of yourself to be applied to things that matter to you. There is this crazy desire to make more sense of your being. But there may be times when you do not know what next, when there is no deep desire you know of, which can use up all of you at the moment. You want stillness to hear any voice inside your head to tell you what next. The restlessness doesnt help. 

Even with distractions of people, hobbies, etc in those moments of solitary meditation, the same question of your purpose and being begin to gnaw. It is probably just a matter of acknowledging that such a feeling exists and that it is normal and continue to do what you were anyway doing. Also have an action plan to try something new in that direction(there will be clues, just be on a look out, when things ring a bell, take note) that may lead you some place you want to be.

And it is important to stay foolish and believe that there is something in the future that will use all the energy that you wanted channelised, to be used in a way that would be very satisfying, that feels like the flow and add that "meaning" to life! :)

P.S: I dont know if would make sense to an older me years from now! Should I be even wishing it does, I don’t know!! :P

Raincoat...

One of my favourite hindi movies is "Raincoat", inspired by a O'Henry story. I like the backdrop - Kolkata on a rainy day. The protagonists played by Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgan suit the characters and the pace of the story and the way the story unfolds with flash backs from the past every now and then is quite engaging. The tender affection that remains and the sparks of the old romance flickering often during a rainy afternoon that the protagonists spend with each other is subtle and moving. 
Watched it again today. Enjoyed.