That’s one hell of a (happy week) story to tell!
It all
started last Saturday evening (19th October) after I returned home from my
weekly drawing class at college. I wanted to go out and watch ‘Gravity’, the
new Alfonso Cuaron film. I asked a few of my friends to accompany me. The
problem was that nobody seemed to be saying a direct ‘No’ and instead a ‘May be’
was what I was getting as an answer. So that delayed me for each and every show
of the film that PVR Saket had over the weekend. The moment I would decide that
I was going to watch a particular show and I would check the seat status
online, the show would seem to be getting housefull about 4 hours prior to the
showtime. I got irritated. The online booking didn’t seem to be working for my VISA
Debit card and I didn’t want to go to PVR Saket twice, once simply for booking
the show tickets! And so, I finally dropped the idea and instead focused on
completing my 200 sketches a week assignment which was to be submitted on
Monday.
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| Working on the Sand Animation, Animation Lab, AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi |
And this
led to an awesome week ahead…
On Monday,
I had dinner and fell asleep almost immediately.
On Tuesday,
I went to PVR Saket, booked tickets for the night’s show of Gravity and a
Thursday night show for Shahid. That night, I saw Gravity 3D. A housefull show.
And man, what a film it is! I re-fell in love with Alfonso Cuaron. (The first
time was when I saw the Special Features DVD of Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban back in August 2006 and decided to venture into the film industry- a
tale I proudly tell in all of my interviews!)
On
Wednesday, I went to The Oberoi Hotel, for the Zee Dance India Dance Season 4
Indiblogger Meet. An evening of complete fun, dance, celeb-spotting and fine
dining. Meeting the judges of DID, Mudassar Khan and Feroz Khan and dancing
with them was fun. This was my 5th IndiBlogger Meet and surely, the
best one till date! #DanceItOut Yes, that was the theme and yes, I danced! Hahaha…!
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| #DanceItOut, DID Season 4 Indiblogger Meet, The Oberoi, New Delhi |
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| My team performing on the issue of Child Marriage #DanceItOut, DID Season 4 Indiblogger Meet, The Oberoi, New Delhi |
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| Now I know how it feels to actually stand there and listen to the judges when they are critiquing your performance, #DanceItOut, DID Season 4 Indiblogger Meet, The Oberoi, New Delhi |
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| Ok, so we were not on National TV, but yeah, we got our performance judged by the judges of Dance India Dance S4- Mudassar Khan and Feroz Khan, #DanceItOut, DID Season 4 Indiblogger Meet, The Oberoi, New Delhi |
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| The after-meet photo-ops- With Mudassar Khan, #DanceItOut, DID Season 4 Indiblogger Meet, The Oberoi, New Delhi |
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| The after-meet photo-ops- With Feroz Khan, #DanceItOut, DID Season 4 Indiblogger Meet, The Oberoi, New Delhi |
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| The Meet Card, I haven't yet clicked a picture of the IB Mug we received as a souvenir, #DanceItOut, DID Season 4 Indiblogger Meet, The Oberoi, New Delhi |
On
Thursday, I went to PVR Saket for my planned movie show- Shahid. Another housefull
show. And another proud moment during the credits of the film. Prior to seeing
the film, I thought it was just Guneet Monga, the co-producer of the film, who I
know from MBICEM. But then seeing the end credits I found another name- AnujDhawan, Cinematographer of the film and my college alumnus- and I was like, “Yaar
MBICEM wale har jagah hain!”. It feels great to see names of people who I know
and have heard so highly of in college, in those credits! Khuus ho gaya mai!
Proud! :)
On Friday,
I got free from college early and met a friend and mentor after a long time.
On
Saturday, I left college at 7.30 PM, after completing the Seven Hundred and
Twenty frames and editing them and putting them together, and did nothing apart
from cyberflaneuring and watching a movie (Now You See Me) that I had wanted to
see from a long time. Althought he final editing is yet to be done, this is how
my part of the sand animation has come out to be-
On Sunday,
I had no college, but the biggest thing was to happen this afternoon. I got to
learn a few days back that the 3rd season of Indian Languages
Festival was happening at India Habitat Centre (IHC) this weekend. Piyush Mishra,
the lyricist, singer and actor was to make an appearance for a discussion
today. I let this bit of information pass to my friends and faculty at Jamia.
Considering that the song on which we were doing the Sand Animation was Tom,
Dick and Harry by Piyush Mishra, it was a golden opportunity for us to go there
and try to show what we had done on his song. I completely believed he wouldn’t
give more than a glimpse to our work! Well, today a few of my friends and my
professor went to IHC, attended the discussion session, and then, showed our
rough-edit to Piyush Mishra. He not only patiently sat and saw it, he also gave
his smiles and comments on it! We loved it. I felt proud. To do a work and get
to show it to a Master- Wow!
Something
which I didn’t expect was meeting the other people I met there. Ravish Kumar,
from the famous news show- Ravish ki Report and Shilpa Shukla, the famous Chak
De India girl. I couldn’t have asked for more! :D
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| Piyush Mishra reviewing our sand animation work, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi |
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| A group photo with my Jamia friends and faculty and Piyush Mishra, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi |
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| On the dias- Piyush Mishra and Shilpa Shukla (Chak De India and B.A.Pass fame), India Habitat Centre, New Delhi |
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| A group photo with Ravish Kumar (Ravish ki Report fame), India Habitat Centre, New Delhi |
Another very
very very very important thing that seemed to add to the amount of work this
week was the constant threats from my college authorities to submit the ‘Migration
Certificate’ immediately or else, face expulsion. I so hate these government
office works! Early Tuesday morning I went to my previous university and
managed to get the certificate issued. The work was done, but one thought
lingers in my mind- why the hell do we have so much paper work in India? Why
can’t we just have some kind of an ID or something (with all our personal
identity details and work details and everything else) which can be universally
acceptable across the country? Wouldn’t things be so much easier when it is all
computerized? If nothing else, I am sure the stress level of the people of this
country would have a dramatic and steep fall! I have to get my passport and
Voter ID cards made, it is this ‘horror’ of government offices that keeps on
delaying this process and as a result, I have already missed two ‘all-expense-paid’
trips to two different countries of the world!
One crazy
thought that just occurred to me- I can judge how good and active I have
been over a period of time by the amount of updates I make on my facebook wall!
This past week I have made so many updates! Hahaha…! I truly am a facebook
addict and I don’t regret admitting it!
Aaah, yes!
I did miss F1, something I have wanted to watch for the last three years now at
Buddh International Circuit. And probably the next time it happens, which is
going to be at least two years away, I would be paying for my own Grand Stand
tickets from my earnings! But that’s a long way to go right now and I am happy
with the way this last week passed. It has been one hell of a story to tell!
PS: The
title- it’s inspired from George Clooney’s dialogue in Gravity! ;)
PPS: Sorry
to the readers who are eagerly waiting for my Wagah Border story from my
Amritsar trip series. I will put that up really soon. Promise. :)
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