Backdrop

Well, this is the backdrop i made for the cauvery hostel night which was held on march 3, 2006. As you can see, it is incomplete. Well, the theme is supposed to be "Rang de basanti". Wanted to put these captions like "A Generation Awakens", "2B or not 2B", "Be a rebel" etc..

I did a backdrop after a gap of almost two and half years and so, didn't estimate the required time properly. I assumed that i would be able to do a backdrop all alone in three days time. I forgot that i required three days for painting alone and two days for sticking up the whole stuff and making rough sketches and deciding upon the colour combinations and making adjustments to the design. On Feb 27th, i realised that february has only 28 days and that i don't have much time. I got the required material (well, i had to run around three four times to ananda to get all the material i needed). I overestimated the number of charts required. I got 100 A1 sheets while i finally used only 50 of them for the backdrop.

On 27th and 28th, the common room was not free and i didn't start the work (I know, i should have started then only). Finally, on march 1st, vikas made sure that the room is all mine. he got two locks and gave me the keys. Those three days, march 1-3 , were totally hectic. lots of people coming in, asking lots of questions, disturbing, offering help, giving suggestions, telling jokes, singing songs, chit-chatting, taking photos and videos etcetera etcetera. Finally, it did look like a hostel night. i never thought i would have so much fun in a matak hostel after living in btech hostels for five years. first day went off in sticking the sheets and making a rough design. Second day went off in modifying the design and making the rough sketch on the backdrop. In the afternoon, i saw the stage and gave up in life. there was no wooden backing to pin the backdrop. that means, i had to make my own base to put up the backdrop. I decided to buy some plywood strips and make a base like i did for the Kharagpur thing. So, bought the wood and fevicol in the evening. That evening only i started the painting work and by night 3, i finished about 60% of the background work. I totally forgot that shading with a small brush would laboriously slow. I bought sponge also for colouring the background but decided to use brush only. Benson was also there for a while. We coloured green and orange together. then i had to color prussian blue which took a lot of time. Yellow was much easier in comparsion. Before sleeping, i finished the tiger and the dark profile of the person. By the way, forgot to mention that it rained in the evening and all of us got pretty gloomy because of this unexpected flash rains in the middle of hot chennai days.

On March 3rd, i got up at 8-30 and got back to the work by 9-15. work progressed little faster but not fast enough. Just a couple of minutes seem to mean a lot. And by 11am, the dark clouds gathered and it started drizzling. I was almost at the verge of giving up the whole thing. Didn't know what to do. So, left everything on fate and continued working. Flame took one hour, prussian blue took one hour, orange recoating took one hour, hand took one hour and so on. Finally, i finished what ever is there in the picture by 5:30pm. They shifted the venue to SAC because of the rain and now, i have to stick the whole thing on the wall.. the function was supposed to start at 7pm. i just went and washed my face and sat down in my room for fifteen min or so. Then, came down, rolled up the backdrop and took it the SAC. We bought just two rolls of double sided tape and i asked someone to get more. By the time i reached SAC, it was already 6:45 and already many people were seated in the chairs. I was in my shady attire (without bath for two days and torn t-shirt and soiled pants). I somehow called people for help, and told them how to help me with the sticking part. They reacted pretty well and we finished sticking the backdrop by 7:40pm (The secretaries were hurrying us and kept on announcing sorry and all for the delay). As soon as i finished the sticking job, i just ran back to my room. i didn't even turn back to see how the backdrop looked.....

I took bath, changed into some better clothes and came back to SAC only to find that the backdrop fell off exactly two minutes before i reached SAC.. Well, thats FATE. Whatever happened, it was a great experience working on this one. i made lots of friends in the process and many people did admire the work. DJ came to me and asked "are you the one who painted the whole thing all alone? well, what exactly does that mean". i explained him the theme and that i didn't have time to write the captions.. anyways, that was one memorable day. Oh dear, i love making backdrops.

A memorable day this shall be. Can you believe it, Australia hits 434/4 (50 overs) and then South Africa actually chases it with one ball to spare (438/9 in 49.5 overs). I was totally stunned when i saw the news in the night.

Well, I saw the F1 race (Bahrain) in the evening. It was asusually thrilling. Alonso was really hi-funda. He didn't allow Schumi to take over.

And India puts England in a tight position 112/5 on the fourth day of the second test match at mohali. Kumble deserves a lot of applause. India has lots of chances to win the test tomorrow. Who would expect this kind of result even after a washout on the first day and bad light on the second.

Today, I finally met Nirupa. She came to chennai on November 7 and i haven't met her till now. So, finally decided to go to her place and then luckily she was also free in the evening. So, took the directions and reached TCS (vadapalni) in 40 min. Then she directed me to her house. The house was pretty decent but she told me that she was having trouble with her roommates. anyways, we chit-chatted for a while and then we went to her office and she showed me the TCS buildings and all. It was pretty huge and had lots of facilities. She said she liked the work and the campus, and so that should be fine. Well, guess what, we played carroms over there and as you guessed it right, i bet her 29/0.. well, the next game i didn't wan't my lil sister to look dejected, and so let her win a couple of games and finally stopped at 20/12. After that, we went to sarvana bhavan and had some nice grub. its costly over there but tasted pretty good. After that, we went around on the bike and then dropped her back at her house. By the way, she made me enter TCS office using her friend's id card (yes, thats a girl's id card and i had to be pretty cautious all the time). Anyways, it was nice meeting her and we talked a lot about lots of things. Have to bring her to IIT campus some time.

After that, i went to koyambedu and got the info regarding the buses to pondichery (vaish wanted to know the details). Well, she was very happy to get the required info. And then i drove back to IIT and crashed big time.

Rang de basanti

It was a memorable experience watching this movie with friends. Kota, utkarsh, chotu, bhallu, and nasheela were lot of fun. I really felt what amir khan says to sue in the jeep when the others go to drop aslam in his house. "andar hum zindagi ko nachate hai aur bahar zindagi hame". When sue says, "aise dost kahan milthe hai", i got totally senti.

Well, guess what, on feb 11th, they screened Rang de basanti in OAT.. it was an awesome experience watching the movie in OAT on the full moon light. but it was not as good as i felt in the theatre. Theatre was much better. here, they cut lots of scenes. But, what happened at the end of the movie was the best thing. The director and producer of the movie along with Madhavan and siddharth came onto the stage and there was a question answer session with them. Well, the girls went total nuts seeing maddy and sid. Hmmm, have to appreciate their style and simplicity. They were pretty cool infact. On the whole, the evening was a rather enjoyable one, something out of ordinary on a saturday night in the OAT.

birthday

I was in my lab at 10:00pm on august 5th, one day before my birthday. Didn't know what to do. I didn't want to expect any phone calls, sweets, greetings, gifts but deep in my heart, i did wish for them. I felt very lonely and thought that i shall go for a walk till the main gate and come back. I wanted to be with nature for a while, away from the people and computers. So, i started walking towards the gate contemplating about my life, my joys and sorrows, my friends and parents. The trees looked beautiful beside the street lights. The bright light from the sodium lamps gave a painting effect to the night scenario. I wished i were a good enough painter to capture that effect on canvas. I went to canara bank on the way and withdrew some cash. When i reached the gate, i got a message from priya that her work is over and that she is waiting in the spot. I thought of going to Hi-look and getting a watermelon juice for her and then walk back to spot. Lavina messaged to wish me for the birthday. She told me about these figure drawing classes she is attending this sem and about the stuff she is doing these days. felt nice to talk to her. That hi-look fellow took a lot of time to make one watermelon juice and by the time i came back to the gate, it was already 11:20pm. So, i started walking back towards spot hoping to get a lift on the way. Luckily, a security guy on a rajdoot gave me lift till GC and i reached spot by 11:40.
Priya gave me the poems she promised to show me. she asked me to read them later and not to show others. While talking to priya and aditya, ajanta, madhumita, ankita and sowmya joined us. Pratyush and Utkarsh were on the way it seems. At 11:55, cola called up from the train and wished me. As usually cribbed that i am having a party without her :) Then i saw these people setting up a cake with candles on it. I was damn thrilled at the prospect of cutting a cake. It was very sweet of them. They even brought me sweets, gifts and greetings. I cut the cake at exactly 12 and they sang the birthday song for me. It was very cute. After a few minutes, pratyush and utkarsh also joined us. Then all of us sang a song each. Obviously priya helped those (like me and ankita) who were shy to sing all by themselves. Aditya told us how to whistle with two fingers in the mouth. It was damn hilarious to see madhumita (blow her tongue.. well, thats what she said). Shashi called up and it was nice to talk to him. As usually made these funny comments. Later we played anthakshari. Priya and aditya one group, ajanta, madhumita, pratyush, utkarsh and me in the other group. Priya and aditya were simply amazing. Pratyush comes up with these funny anecdotes in the middle and we stayed there till 4 am. Then we dispersed and I slept off at 4:30.
Mom called up at 6:50 and i was not able to stay awake after the phone call. So, i slept for 20 more min and then decided to go for swimming. It was total cool. Fresh air and cold water early in the morning, it is divine. After i came back, i had a nice bath and then went to temple. When i went to the lab, harish realised that its my birthday and then they bumped me (well, not hard). Then we decided to go out for lunch and me, harish, rohit and sendil went to t-nagar to some gujju place. It was pretty good. We ate a lot (the sweets were too good. chapathis were very very soft).
From there, i went to odyssey and bought glass paints. Then to adyar and bought glass. Once i came back to my room, i fell flat on my bed and slept off till 6:30. Then, i went to flute class. It was very nice to listen to master playing the swarajatis. raa ra venu gopaa baala was amazing. I got the birthday song notes from net and showed them to master. He played them and it was beautiful. I decided to practice that and record it. After coming back to IIT, we went to kwality for dinner (priya, ajanta, madhumita, sarvani, me, pratyush, utkarsh and aditya). It was total cool. Had a great time. Priya was as usually looking like a model in one of her designer wear. Wanted to take them to fruit shop but because of some unexpected stuff, we were not able to go there.
On the whole, it had been a memorable day. Thanks to the sweet juniors i have.