Genius on Genius

Read a very interesting book on Leonardo da Vinci by Sigmund Freud. Apart from it being an extremely engaging piece of work, it took me back to the works of both these geniuses. I had a long conversation about the book’s hypothesis, about the works of da Vinci and then about Michelangelo, about Renaissance in general. Today I am reading up more about da Vinci.

It is a very small book. To think that people spend so much time in researching about specific topics, however simple or complex it seems, and write books about these topics… interesting. Thank god these geniuses took the pains to write. We would have never got to experience such thoughts ever otherwise…

In the world of Padmarajan

Padmarajan, a malayalam film director, screenplay writer and author. I have rediscovered his work, fortunately. Been watching his movies and spending time with the plots, characters and styles of narratives. Watched about 12 of his movies in the last two months. The stories are invariably about something that you cannot really pinpoint. There are layers to each narrative. Powerful female character, unlike the ones usually depicted in movies of those times. Real emotions, nothing artificial or drastic. Real relationships, real conversations, that which do take place, but are preferably not shown in popular culture.
I keep wondering how he would have come up with the story. Which part of the story would have been the initial trigger. Which character is the central one. Sometimes you cannot even find out which is the central character, or relationship, or conflict.There are many, each one equally faschinating. And there seems to be varying styles of direction or storytelling. Still exploring. Wish he had not died under strange circumstances...we could have had many more of these movies...

midnight in...

its 15 minutes past midnight... and i just finished watching 'midnight in paris', a wonderful movie by woody allen.

i wonder how he could come up with the plots for his movies. absolutely out of the world.

been watching quite a few movies by woody allen lately - the purple rose of cairo, annie hall, manhattan, everything you wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask, a midsummer night's sex comedy... love his movies. didnt like vicky christina barcelona though.

moving on to some other directors...fahrenheit 451 was another recent favourite. saw 'carnage', by roman polanski, in the movie hall, yesterday. absolutely loved that one too. what's eating gilbert grape, heavenly creatures, were some others i enjoyed.

hope to watch many more movies this year.

:)

taking stock after a year...

it's funny how you seem to learn so much more when you take off from work.

when you take a year off. when you are not in a typical school.

the last one year i have been working.

i realised i have not written much. i moved from one top advertising agency to another within that one year. i have worked on a distance education brand, an instant pasta and noodle brand, a chewing gum and bubble gum brand, a fashion retail brand, a fashion brand, a real estate brand, and a stationery brand. i guess i know quite a bit about these brands, their competitors and those who consume those brands.

to give myself credit i have read quite a bit. non- brand, non- advertising stuff.

roland barthes- camera lucida, bertrand russell- marriage and morals, some asterix comic books, joseph campbell- the power of myths, devdutt patnaik- myth vs mithia, marguerite duras- moderato cantabile, some malayalam novels by vaikom mohammad basheer, zachariah, m.t. vasudevan nair...

the most interesting development has been that i have tried my hand at cooking. and i realised i m not horrible at it. i make food that is edible, even liked by some people, :) some say its really nice.

i dabble with paint as well. a few small canvases have been completed, some gifted to friends, some forcefully taken by friends :)

writing somehow has taken a backseat, i shall try to do this more often yet again.

but the key learning this year has been that, learning is lesser when you are working. i like the learning that happens when i am not working. :(

Back to Bangalore

I got back to Bangalore.

Feels like I have come back home.

My awesome flatmate still has a room free for me, so hey, I am back in the same old house with the same old flatmate, in the same old city.

And wait that's not all. After trying so hard to get a job in random, inexplicable areas of interest, and then getting back to my earlier field and visiting every possible advertising agency big and small, my old job comes a'calling. I have no clue why I did not think of that first.

So yes, back to where I was working, where I was living, with who I was living in my favourite city.

Buddhist leanings

Just when I thought I was almost agnostic... I learn more about Buddhism. One of my professors was Buddhist, but he did not preach Buddhism at all. Two of my friends research on iconography in Buddhist art and Buddhist settlements for their final project.

My ex roomie from Bombay visited me. She gifted me a book called 'The Buddha in your Mirror'. I am enjoying the book. And I can feel myself leaning towards the Buddhist principles and thoughts.

Moreover, I like the colour symbolism in Buddhism. The Buddhist colours are red, yellow, white, black, green and blue. (blue and black are sometimes interchangeable in Buddhist colour symbolism)