Sunday, November 28, 2004

Things that a man would do for a pint and things that cider makes a man do

This crazy chicken and egg phenomenon is explained by what happened on Friday.

Location: A pub

Characters: A girl with spare lacy, frilly, black underwear; a couple of guys in various stages of inebriation

Dare: Can you guys wear this? Free booze!

Result: Guys promptly walk into the bathroom, take off their clothes and walk into the pub wearing the lacy, black thingys

Eventually: Get free booze from the girl

And then: The other girls join in to apply makeup on the guys

So: Made an absolute fool of myself

Proof: Somebody had a camera phone

Monday, November 22, 2004

A Brief Encounter

I somehow feel 30 years too late:
I am a vegetarian, I listen to rock music, have long hair and sizeable side-burns.
Yes! Thirty years too late. Because right now, none of these things are fashionable. For that matter, they are proper 'turn-offs'!
Add to all that my admiration for The Godfather!

Last week Bristol hosted the 10th edition of the annual Brief Encounters short-film festival. I managed to catch a few screenings. But most of all I managed to spend 6 quid to attend Anthony Minghella's lecture.

When I began to worry that not too many of my classmates looked up to it, Anthony did me a huge favour by devoting a considerable amount of time discussing the restaurant scene in The Godfather. His focus was on Walter Murch's contribution.

Just that morning, we had had a nice discussion in class about sound design where I spent a considerable amout of time discussing the very scene.

I felt thoroughly vindicated!

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

PSBBians

Not the Malayalees, not the Chinese, but there is one species that inhabits every corner of the world: The PSBBian. Obviously Bristol is no exception.

I spent all of Sunday chatting in Tamil, watching the Simpsons, and eating rice with Vengaaya Saambaar. Thanks to Mahesh from the batch of 1992.

Now all you PSBBians, raise your hands and leave a comment telling me which corner of the world you inhabit!

Random Tamil encounters

This post would sound best written in Tamil, but then I am still not too sure about how to rig this blog to display Tamil; worse still, I cannot install Murasu on my Uni computer.

Anyway here goes. Like always, it was a miserably cold day. So I decided to wear as many layers of clothing as possible. I was wearing a rather stuffy jumper, and for some strange reason wore my blazer on top of it. Now to literally top it all, I wore my woollen cap. I has a slight stubble, and if I had worn my oldfashioned sun glasses, I would have looked exactly like Kamal Haasan from Guna. I was very conscious of this, yet, knowing fairly well the British tendency to be not too shocked by terrible dressing in public, I hopped onto the bus home.

Just as I settled into my seat I heard a woman's voice from behind:
Paduthinenna andtha maama kitta pudicchu kudutthuduven!
Roughly translating into If you play any pranks, I'll let that guy take you away!

Having suddenly been made poochandi I turned back and simply asked the family sitting behind me if they were Tamil.

I then realised that it was some white bloke who was the boogeyman. Not Guna!

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Extra work

After so many years I walked into a studio set and got a good whiff of the familiar and comforting scent of plaster-of-paris singing under lights. I did extra work for a music video. Yeah they still call them 'extra's here; unlike a more union-enforced (politically correct?) 'junior-artist' in India.

I was one of about 50 people needed for a crowd scene walking on a bridge across the Thames. Unfortunately we were not carted to London. They just shot us in front of a green screen.

Nice to be back on a studio floor.

Bonfire night

The fifth of November is Deepavali here. But it was not Kamsa, but an Irish chap called Guy Fawkes whose death (more like public lynching) is celebrated.

It is simlar in many ways. You wake up when it is still dark, (which has got more to do with the season than any tradition of early rising here — we set our clocks back by an hour last week). Then you have a steady downpour (quintessentially Deepavali). And you have juvenile delinquents who scare the neighbours' dogs setting off firworks. It was a nice feeling waking up to screaming 'rockets' and bright colours illuminating the city sky outside your window. The only thing I miss (actually not much nowadays) is Solomon Pappayya and his repetitive domestic wit.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

In other news

I have not passed the UGC Net exam. Yay! That puts on hold, at least for a while, my ambitions of becoming a university lecturer in India; much to the delight of my parents.

How do actors feel when they do nude scenes? Just ask me. I did one yesterday!

Whenever I have a 5000 word essay to write, the sun shines and friends call me out to the pub. Whenever I have nothing else to do but the washing, it pours like mad. And when it pours like mad, I wait for the number 8 and I get the 54; I wait for the 54 and I get the 8.