Weeks 11 & 12: From "Mainstream" Producers to Indian Plays!

First I was blogging on a daily basis. Then I changed that to a weekly basis. And look like now it has moved to a fortnightly basis. It is rather sad. I see this blog dying a slow death. But before we get to that, let's recap all the awesomeness from last couple of weeks. 

Firstly I had the good fortune of watching an Indian play featuring none other than Naseeruddin Shah and Rajit Kapoor and directed by Ratna Pathak Shah. The play called "A walk in the woods" showcased the conversations between an Indian and a Pakistani diplomats and in two acts and four scenes, it managed to engage the audience with a socially relevant, thought provoking and highly entertaining conversation between just these two individuals.  

I spent a nice Vishu day. I took off from work, met a friend for lunch, visited a charity organization to discuss potential tie up for Aravindum Aarumughamum as a fundraiser for them, went to the temple with the little one, and finally, very unexpectedly, managed to catch the Vishu Sadya (feast) at Swaadhisht when the hubby rushed back from his work in Malaysia just in time to make it for a late night sadya. Overall, it was a pretty good day. 

I had written a feature film script during my maternity leave. It was what I call a "mainstream commercial film" which basically means that to make it, I need more money than I usually tend to put into my films and people who really know the craft in the technical team. And that means it needs a real producer from the industry. It so happened that my editor friend in India knew one such producer who expressed interest in reading the script. I was excited to share it with him - not because I think I will be making this film with real stars or even a real camera for that matter - but because, I was curious to hear what a "real" producer would have to say about my "mainstream commercial script". I even have added song sequences in there to make it totally Indian in feel, so I was eagerly looking forward to his feedback. His feedback came and apparently he loves the script and was asking questions on whom I planned to cast etc. Needless to say, it made my day. 

I also had a reading session for my Malayalam sitcom with one of the actors. The sitcom is to feature only two key characters and I wanted to kick start its making at the soonest. I know whom to cast for the lead male role and I am contemplating about the female role.However, it was good to do a reading because it gave me a good idea on whether this is going to work at all or not. I tend to think that the first reading was promising. After a few more rehearsals, we should be able to kickstart the shooting. This is going to be a totally different project from all that I have done before, so that's going to be exciting. 

I had an almost private lesson at yoga ! It was a Friday and there was a major downpour in Singapore. As a result my yoga class saw me and just one another girl during that time slot (usually there would be more than at least ten of us in a class). So the teacher made it a super customized class with really good individual attention and I think I gave my best and the got the best out of it too! I felt closer to yoga than I had been for a while now. It was wonderful! 

There was a nice gathering in my house of all the creative people I am close to here in Singapore. It included the full team of Aravindum Aarumughamum including by incredibly talented music director from India who happened to be in town, as well as a few other friends. It was fantastic to have all of them together and I had a lot of fun chatting away and felt blessed to have this team to associate with. 

Last but not the least, a few compliments came my way too - on this blog, on my film Inganeyum Oru Katha and my performance in it, as well as at work. Needless to say, I love compliments and it felt good. 

 

Alright, on that note...I am going to take an extended break from blogging and will get back when I figure out how exactly to go about this in the future. I don't think this weekly process is working for me - the summarizations kind of ruin the detailing and beauty of all that was beautiful and yet I dont have the time nor commitment to write on a daily basis like I used to. So let us see what's the best way to go about this. 

Until I figure it out, Adios! 

Week 1: Some Progress and a Lot of Fun!

25 January - 2 February, 2014 

I have to admit that this blog had not been on my list of priorities for the past several days. Of course, this is evident from the grand total of ONE post I wrote for the whole of January 2014.

It is not that I don't have enough things to write about. In midst of all that relaxation, there's been a lot of good stuff happening and I will come to that in just a bit. But the point is that I still didn't get myself to write anything beyond a single post in a month. I believe the reason for that is with this whole moving away from writing on a daily basis (or at least summarizing something for every single day) with each post even counting the days in its title, to this year's of resolution of "not more than 1 post a week", I kinda lost a structure to conform to. And I work best with structures - I like set process to follow, I like organized way of approaching things than otherwise. Without it, am indeed lost.

So that made me think. Do I really want to continue with this blog?  Both my previous blog and this one initially had a clear purpose. The former ensured that the days leading up to my 30th birthday were put to the best possible use and the latter ensured that the first year of motherhood has been maximized (and by that I mean, while I had a fulfilling time with my daughter, I also ensured that I did my best at work, I wrote, shot and edited a short film, I travelled a lot, I spent quality time with my parents and in-laws, so on and so forth). Both were important milestones for me, and the blogs helped me go through them in a way that I am happy with. But now that these are in the past, what next? Should I continue?

I gave it some serious thought and have decided that I should continue. Reason being.... (I will giving this in the usual list format, to further prove how organized I am). 

a) What am capturing here always make for memorable reads later on for myself - be it about a new film I am making, a new place I am visiting, a light moment I am enjoying with my family or friends. Many a time, I don't remember the details had it not been for the blogs. 

b) I still don't want to lose the focus on being happy. Sure, I don't want to stress myself and write blogs on a daily basis, but that stress was exactly what made sure that I do something worthwhile each and every day.

c) Last but not the least, I think it will make a treasure trove of experiences captured of the little one. I can't help but notice how fast she is growing and each day is one of discovery. I would love to capture most of that, and I believe this could continue to be the avenue for that.

So there, my three good reasons.

But then I still don't want to write on a daily basis. Because that really does get me worked up at times. So here is the solution - I will write on a weekly basis. Brainwave, yeah?

Ensuring every week is beautiful one way or the other, is good enough. I can live with that.

So there, that's that. From here on, it's gonna be a Weekly count in the titles. Starting with this week.

Meanwhile here is a recap of what's happened since my last post here.

1) Work - On the work front, things are moving at breakneck speed but I am enjoying myself. There has been some progress on a lot of different projects and am happy with that. On the other fun side, the culture team that I lead organized a super fun Chinese New Year celebration. We had everything from calligraphy contests (apparently am very good at Chinese calligraphy...I thought the characters that I painted looked nothing like what they were supposed to but the Chinese colleagues seemed to think otherwise), to Lo Hei celebration, a God of Fortune who came and distributed red packets with "gold" (chocolate) coins (I didn't even know there is a Chinese version of Santa Claus!), and even an activity of eating dumplings some of which carried a sterilized 5 cent coin - indicating immense amount of luck to the person who got one (I got one!). It was all very enjoyable and I had a great time and felt super proud of my team for having pulled this off!

2) Little One - The little one is a hoot these days. She has progressed to walking with only occasional bouts of crawling. It's almost like sometimes she forgets that she can choose to walk instead. Then all you need to say is "Come, Walk!", and she will be like Oh yeah... and then will get up and walk. Initially she used to hold both her hands high up, to help her balance as she walks but now that she can balance herself without that extra support, it seems like she doesn't know exactly what to do with her hands, so she flops them to her sides and walks around like a drunkard. Which I love. We also celebrated Chinese New Year together. She helped me put up some red and gold decoration on our door (she basically held on to the cellotape and also pointed out where she would like the dangling decorative pieces to be tied up on the gate). Later, she watched the Lion Dance performance next door with much interest. She was the only Indian kid around and the only kid to not cover her ears or wail and also was the first and only person to clap post the performance. She clearly appreciates the Chinese culture. We also have been frequenting her new found favourite place - Spruce. It is a brunch place with decent food but good service and a playground for children. The little one really warmed up to all the staff there, constantly giving them instructions in her baby talk, reading the kids menu with much interest, and enjoying her new found ice cold lemonade with mint leaves (totally an adult drink which the dad and mom had ordered). Am really enjoying watching her as she does her 'growing up'.

3) Writing - I wrote yet another episode for the Malayalam sitcom. I am planning to write another 4 episodes before we start to shoot, which means a long, long way more to go. But still, any progress is good progress!

4) Yoga - Maybe it is an outcome of the "realization" but  I have been totally hooked to Ashtanga yoga. So much so that even during the Chinese New Year public holiday, I woke up early in the morning and did 1 hour of it every day! So proud of myself! In the month of January, I exercised a total of 19 days, most of which was Yoga - Ashtanga Yoga, Bikram Yoga and 1 time of Kundalini Yoga too. I am beginning to see small improvements in my  postures and strength, and am incredibly thrilled about it!

5) Guitar - This one is definitely an outcome of the "realization". I dusted up my old guitar as well as my two decade old books with guitar lessons and settled down to play some of the simpler stuff. It was not easy for sure, but it felt great to get back to it after so long. My finger tips started to hurt very soon from the lack of practice but given that I had a very enthusiastic one-man audience - the little one who encouraged me throughout with claps and laughs, I kept at it for a while. I hope to get back to learning it very soon, from the scratch, but this time never to give up.

4) Friends - Thanks to the Chinese New Year holiday, I also had a great time catching up with several friends. I had multiple dinners and drinks with the usual gang, I had a great time at a lunch thrown for the film gang by one of my good actress friend, in short, we made the most of it! 

5) Hubby - I also got to spend some quality time with the hubby. One day we even took a long 4km walk together, something which we have never done before. Such fun! 

6) Aravindum Aarumughamum - This film is currently in the post production stage and that basically means sound design, music, colour correction, final edit and all that. These are being done by my friends in India. The progress has been slow for several reasons, but over the last few days a bit of the background score has started to flow in. And I love it! I think it is going to take the film to a totally different level and I can't wait to see it to completion! 

7) Holidays - Quite a bit of progress on the holiday planning has been taking place. In May, we are planning to do a roadtrip with my parents and in laws and I have finally managed to shortlist the accommodation options at every stop. That was no mean task - given I had to find affordable places big enough to hold all of us. Then my dad is visiting us in March for  a few days, mainly to see his grand daughter and I am planning to take a short break with him as well. After much research and thinking, the destination has been fixed for Krabi because I want to go snorkelling with him. I think that is one activity he would really enjoy. So that's progress on the holiday front and am really looking forward to it all. 

So yes, it was a remarkable bunch of days that went past. There was progress at work, in yoga, in writing, in film making, in holiday planning and in guitar, even. And of course, there was a ton of fun to go along everywhere! So far, this new year has been great! 

Days 303 - 316: 14 Interesting Days!

31 October - 13 November

Today is November 13th. Which means I have not written any post for 2 whole weeks! What a bummer.

But in my defense, it has been a rather tough two weeks. As soon as we got back from Kashmir, I caught the flu and the husband caught the stomach flu. Just when we recovered, the little one caught the stomach flu. And just when she recovered, I caught the stomach flu! Yeah, it was messy. And I was completely spent after about 12 days of this sickness extravaganza.

But then beautiful things still do happen. Let me list out 14 good things over the past 14 days, just as a means of compensation.

1) Diwali - I was pretty sick during Diwali, so we weren't planning to do anything special at our place. But thanks to some encouragement and help from our helper, we ended up celebrating Diwali in style! All of us got dressed up, lit the lamps placed around the house, did some puja, ate sweets, took pictures and felt pretty good. Especially now that we have the little one, I really want to celebrate every festival, and am glad that we had our own small, beautiful celebration! We also attended Diwali parties at my brother in law's and a friends's places - complete with cards and other games, great food, lights and sparklers. Nett, it became a pretty good Diwali!

2) Winnings - Diwali became even more awesome because, for a change, I actually won a few rounds of Bingo (also called Tambola/Housie) and Teen Patti (a card game). My winnings are of the range of $6 - $15 only but as we all know,  it is about the experience of winning than the amount. I usually have terrible luck when it comes to these games and it felt great to be on the other side!

3) Hubby's office - The hubby, who is working in a startup that he has co-founded, had recently expanded his office. I had not been to the new office and just got an opportunity to take a look when we went there to perform a small Diwali puja. I fell in love with the walls in the brand colours, the bean bags scattered around, the ergonomic chairs and the excellent chococino from their espresso machine! It was all pretty awesome! His partner and family were also present and we had a short but nice time together, while the kids...they have a boy and we had taken our little one along as well.... had a pretty merry time themselves. It was fun!

4) Aravindum Aarumughamum team comes together - We were supposed to shoot the film end of this month but one of the lead actor's dad fell ill and he had to rush back to India. I decided to postpone the shoot but in a heartening turn of events, was asked not to do so, by the team including this particular actor. They encouraged me stick to the plan and committed to make the most of the time that we have, instead of postponing indefinitely. His  dad is better now and  we are sticking to the original schedule. We are no longer as prepared as we should have been by now, had things gone according to plan, but just the fact that the team believes in the project and wants to see it through, makes me super happy!

5) Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - She is my most recent literary discovery. I am always on the lookout for interesting books by Indian authors and came across a collection of her short stories and man, she is awesome! Turned out that she is not an Indian but only married to one, yet her stories set in India give incredible perspective on the way of life there and she has managed to capture so many of the nuances typical of the country! I am definitely going to look out for more of her works, but for now, thoroughly enjoying myself reading her "East into Upper East: Plain Tales from New York & New Delhi"!

6) Little one's final birthday celebration for the year! - Yes, her birthday celebrations are still continuing! We didn't really get to celebrate the event with our friends here in Singapore and hence, now that we are back from Kashmir, we decided to give them a "treat", Indian style. Even though the original plan was to treat them for brunch somewhere outside, our helper insisted that she wants to cook for the event and got me to invite everyone over! It was a rather nice gesture by her and I was pretty touched. She made Pulav rice, Gobi Kheema, Kerala style chicken curry, Aloo 65 and Baked yogurt! Everyone came over, showered the little one with gifts - including a gigantic soft duck that is now occupying half my living room, had lunch, sang "happy birthday" as we cut a really cute cake that I ordered last minute, played games and made it all very merry and happy. Thus, her birthday celebrations for the year came to an end with this last round of small, beautiful gathering! Wishing her many, many, many more!

7) Kitchen & Cooking - Cooking is a rather rare activity for me. But for the little one's birthday celebration, when the helper said that she would like to cook for everyone, I decided that I need to help out as well. So after a long hiatus, I was back in the kitchen and was given the task of making baked yogurt dessert. And I enjoyed that - figuring out the mix, decorating with different types of jams, packing it all up in tiny serving cups for refrigeration and finally serving them all with relish, all under her able supervision, of course. Post baked yogurt, I even grated a ton of cauliflower for the gobi kheema, which made me feel like a pro! Totally awesome!

8) A good cause - I managed to raise some funds for a family back in my hometown. The husband is suffering from kidney failure and requires transplant and the wife is the donor. This puts them in a pretty tough situation with both being out of job, with three kids and hefty bills to pay and debts to clear off. When my mom told me about this, I did my best to spread the word and collect some funds to help them. I guess one is supposed to do these things selflessly but I would be lying if I say that it didn't make me feel good. Because, it did.

9) Kashmir blogs - Even though I was sick, I did manage to write the blogs on the Kashmir travel in detail. Initially I was planning to put a couple of pictures and get done with it, but then decided against it. That gorgeous place deserves every bit of writing about it and am glad I took that trouble. Now all the details could be forever remembered. Also, after reading the blog, quite a number of people said they will be planning trips to Kashmir and that makes me happy, because the locals thrive on tourism and due to the tensions in the region, are in quite a bad situation. So the more tourists, the better for them!

10) Yoga record - Including what I managed over the last couple of days, I have now done 60 days of yoga this year, which is kind of a personal record for me! The previous highest was 59 in 2011. I know 60 doesn't sound like a lot but each yoga class takes 3 hours including commute, so am glad I managed so much.

11) Exercise record - This also brings the total number of days I exercised this year to a grand total of 150 - 50% more than my target and 20% more than my highest annual number ever! I will do another check at the end of Dec, but I already feel pretty good about this.

12) Lost a kilo - am not sure whether it is the effect of the exercise or just the sickness, but looks like I have dropped a kilo. Even though am no longer too hung about the extra weight am retaining post pregnancy, it felt good when the scale showed an unexpected drop. Let's see how long this will be maintained!

13) Little one's tricks - The little one is becoming quite an entertaining person to watch every day. She goes into these melodramatic acting sequences - it is like watching a Tamil movie from the 70s. She screams, stretches, quivers, pops her eyes, rolls over, sticks her tongue out and end it all with her toothless grin. She has also now figured out how to use the iPhone and iPad - switching the main button, swiping it on, glancing through the pictures, playing games and so on. I never thought that it would be this fascinating to watch kids on their discovery journey. She also imitates every single thing - if I "shush" her, she does the same to me. If I talk on the phone, she pretends to talk on the phone. If I pretend to go into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, she will go into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. What fun! Plus her first words are out - "amma", "ta ta", "nah".

14) Transcendental Meditation - And last but not the least I have discovered transcendental meditation. This simple but rather fulfilling method has really got me hooked! Hoping that it would turn into a regular practice now.

And with that - I conclude on the last 14 days. I was sick through most of it, but it definitely wasn't bad at all. Thank God for that!

Days 285 - 290: Packing, Durga Puja, Pind Balluchi and Getting Over 14 Hour Work Days!

I realize that I haven't been updating this blog as frequently as I would have liked to. But it's been crazy the last several days. Like C.R.A.Z.Y. Work's been super hectic. I can't keep track of when the day starts and when it ends, and time's passing by before I can even blink.

The good news is that I will soon be on a week's break, to celebrate the little one's birthday (yes, she is turning one already and YES TIME PASSES BY SOOOO FAST!), together with both sets of her grandparents back in India. But before the holiday, it's like I really have to earn it by bending backwards and breaking my back with the workload. But it is OK. As long as there is light at the end of the tunnel. So here's a quick recap.

1) Packing - in anticipation of the workload and business trip that's coming up before my holiday, I started packing well in advance. I am not a fan of the packing process - especially these days when the little one's list of things run for a few pages, but it does give a great deal of satisfaction once it is done. And I did get it done - so yes, am satisfied and am looking forward to the big fat family holiday!

2) Durga Puja - For the past couple of years, I have been a regular at the Singapore Bengali Associations Durga Puja celebrations. I love the huge pandal with the gorgeous idols of Goddess Durga, the festive spirit with the performances and delectable food and the hordes of Bengali women decked up in their typical cotton (and non-cotton) saris and beautiful jewellery. This year too I wanted to take part in the festivities and dropped by their pandal. I have to say this year it was a bit disappointing because there were separate entries for members of the association and the non members, like myself, gathered directly in the part where the idols were placed, thereby making that the most crowded with a lot of commotion and resulting loss of sanctity. Nevertheless, I did enjoy being there and watching the ongoing activities. The idols were still gorgeous, the women were still decked up and the spirit was still festive.

3) Pind Balluchi - after a weekend that somehow turned out to be more hectic than it should have been, we decided to have our routine Sunday date night at somewhere new and different. And by chance we found Pind Balluchi in Clarke Quay. It is apparently a popular high end chain in India, but I wasnt aware of its existence until now. But I absolutely loved the ambience, the food and the fact that they were giving everything away at 20% discount as an opening promotion. It was a good date night indeed.

4) 14 hour work days - Most of the week saw me working for 14 hours at a stretch. And I really mean at a stretch. There was hardly any time to even attend nature's call or have a proper meal. I was rushing from one meeting to another, or working on one document or other, with my head in constant state of high frequency buzzing. At several points in time I felt frustrated, I could feel my temper rise and my mind and body really feeling stressed. In other words, I was in a state I was not proud of and something I wouldn't and shouldn't be writing on this blog about. But I am writing about it because after about 3-4 days of that high intensity marathon, it hit me that I am not really doing the right thing. I very consciously stopped and took a step back. I consciously told myself that all I can do is do my best and then let it be. There was really no point taking things at work so personally and to try and fix everything perfectly. After that conscious talk with myself, thing have been far better. Work days are still 14 hours but at least I don't feel as bogged down by it anymore. Also, to end every hard working day with a little bit of cheer, I got the hubby to come on a few gastronimic-centric date nights during the week. We hit our favourites Ichiban Boshi for Japanese one day and Fifth Season for Indian Chinese another day.

Like someone wise said before, it is really all in the head.

Day 123: A Day of Fantastic Opportunities & Great Progress!

It was indeed a day of progress and opportunities.

Firstly, the little one has managed to say "mum" and then "mum-mum" when I was teaching her how to say "mummy". Great progress!

At work, I made major headway in a project that I am handling, which gives me immense pleasure!

Then I got an offer for a very exciting assignment. The background is that post my maternity leave, am currently on a temporary role with specific projects for a couple of months, before moving on a to more permanent role. There have been a few discussions on what that new role would be and today, I got to know more about a potential one which seems to be a great fit for me. So that's an opportunity I am looking forward to taking up.

After work I hit yoga, and got a "Good one, Shilpa" for my Eagle Pose or Garudasana. It's the first time am getting a "check" on this particular pose postpartum, so that's great progress in my yoga practice as well.

Then I went for a very close friend's dance concert. It's my first concert post pregnancy and my first solo trip to a concert in a really long while, both of which I take as progress in my social and personal life.

And last, the icing on the cake with cherry on top - I have a producer for my feature length film! A dear friend from India, who had recently turned part-time movie producer, was in town and I met up with him together with the hubby. Over a good dinner from Mirchi @ Esplanade, we discussed various topics until he asked me where I was with my script-writing, especially the one that I had worked on during my maternity leave. So I gave him a rundown on the theme, the production requirements and how it can be marketed and before I knew it, he was saying that he was keen to produce it! He immediately called up his producer-partner and asked him to get details on how to go about this given that my movie is meant for the Tamil industry, while they had experience producing films only in Malayalam and Hindi so far. He was insisting that if this film gets made, I should be in the director's chair and not just be the writer. While that won't be possible for me right now given my work and family commitments, am definitely excited about the opportunity for my script to be turned into a film!

What a fantabulous, exciting day! 

Day 104: Vishu!

It’s Vishu, the Malayalam New Year!

Mom and I woke up early – or rather, got out of the bed early because “waking up” works only if you have slept in the first place. The little one decided that she will turn Vishu to Shivratri and was quite active the whole night. (For the uninformed, Shivratri is an Indian festival where you are supposed to stay up the whole night). Anyway, after getting ready and a small prayer, mom gave the hubby, the little one and I the “vishukaineettam”, a token of wishing prosperity for the year to come.

All of us then made the customary visit to the temple, followed by the Vishu sadya (feast) at my favourite restaurant Swaadhisht. I met a few fellow Mallu friends there, who introduced me to a Mallu couple. The husband told me that he had watched my films while the wife told me that she reads this blog! Woah! Nothing like a bit of ego boost and resulting gratitude on New Year’s Day! So thank you folks – for watching my films, for reading my blog!

Later in the afternoon, one of my most favourite persons, my teacher mentor from my Junior College days, paid a visit to meet the little one. She is one of the nicest, most selfless and generous persons I have ever come across and it is honestly a pity that I don’t see as much of her as I should. We met each other after a few years now, albeit being in the same city! But it was lovely to have her over and catch up with her. Took up the beauty of the day by several notches.

So that’s it. Another Vishu has passed by. But once again, a really special one.