One post cant do justice for my last 4 days, so will be making a series of posts covering them.

Watch this space

The thing I love about mornings is that everything seems reborn. The birds are chirping, the air is cool, the sun is waking up and everything is filled with hope. And the increased possibility of finding something nice to photograph

Picked up this leaf during my morning jog today.

I walked the plains in search of what I wanted.
I knew where to find it,
And followed the directions on the compass.
Only when I reached my destination,
I realized that it wasn’t my goal,
I had followed the wrong compass.

Everybody is in search of the right direction, some use experience, some use intuition, some use faith and some use that compass deep inside their heart.

Took these photos as I waited for my carpool yesterday. Remembered to post about it after reading Swetha’s post! What were the odds of that happening?

That day as we checked and double checked, panicked and told others not to panic, I was standing on the stage looking at the empty chairs we were hoping would be filled the next day and a finite piece of my past rushed back to me. This was the same place I had performed for the first time, almost 2 years ago.

Ironically it seemed apt that I was performing at this place. Almost a week before the preform ace I had decided to take a long break from theater. The last month or so had been hard and I was slowly beginning to realize how much I had ignored other parts of my life, I was really looking forward for this break… In ways this added to the magic of it all, there is an amazing bond between the actor and the stage which is hard to explain. Sometimes you just ‘need’ the stage in your performance and it becomes a part of the performance.

As the time drew closer, the nostalgia was building. It felt as though things were falling into place… There was so much happening everywhere that it was hard to keep track of things. The number of people who had volunteered was shockingly large and their dedication was inspirational. That had to be the biggest takeaway from this experience. I truly understood the meaning of the term “selflessness” in those few days.

Once the play started things were happening in fast forward, actors entering and exiting the stage. Laughter and claps echoed at regular intervals… Soon it was time for me to get on stage… Once you are on stage, time just seems to fly… Before you know it the play is over and the curtain call is happening.

When you look back at how much blood and sweat was put into that play, it makes you wonder if you could again be a part of something so amazing. I don’t know if the play was really good or if we could have done better (the audience did like it ) but one thing that was definitely true was that it was probably impossible to have put in a better combined effort than what we managed for those special evenings.

ps: I just love macro photography

They initially had the car under wraps and made us wait for like an hour before unveiling the work of art.

The first thing that hits you is “Its huge!!!” It was longer than an luxury car and incredibly low!

Got a chance to stand near the front wing and frankly that is one of the most impressive parts of a formula one car (if you ask me). I just went on clicking

Every part of the car was really beautiful… It was an amazing experience just standing next to it

- Deism (Wikipedia)

So what makes me talk about an odd philosophical concept like Deism all of a sudden… Well I was introduced to the word and its meaning in Sophie’s World a couple of days ago. I say introduced to the word (and not concept) coz… you wont believe this… I wrote a short story a couple of years ago based on the the very same concept!!!

The story: The Truth
Abstract: A convicted scientist tells the story of his discovery about the universe and the earth and how it destroyed his life…

Cant believe I wrote it when I was 19

Ps: All this makes me miss writing short stories… I should seriously get back to my passion.

Now that I look back at it, considering I was the closest to the damage it seems more like an ordinary event rather than something that should have scared the life out of me.

The accident involved a truck that was making a ‘U’ turn. We were traveling at a good speed at the time and even honked a few times, he had clearly shown the turn indicator but for some reason stopped for a moment. This made us think that he would wait for us to pass, then he started moving slowly forward… couple of seconds later we were breaking hard but not enough and crashed right into his left wheel.

I was sitting at the front left seat at the time and now that I think back to the incident, this accident could have been far more serious if it wasn’t for some quick thinking from my friend Suhas, who was driving at the time. If we had missed the wheel and hit the ‘belly’ of the truck, most certainly the people in the front row would have been crushed!

The positive of the whole thing was that it got me to test my sense of humor under extremely stressful conditions. I was making jokes about “seeing the light” about 5 min after the accident

Well so much for the damaging part of the trip, will upload pics form the trip a bit later(got some good ones this time ).

(She had this confused expression on her face)

Me: Its not as blunt as it sounds… I don’t go around thinking ‘I did not get compliments so I am great’. The way I look at it is that I did not get anything now means that I will get something bigger later… Yeah I am and will be an eternal optimist.
Her: Well its an interesting ideology, beats the heck out of people cribbing about not getting their due (laughs)

Me: Oddly this belief system is based on balance, life balances out everything eventually. If you don’t get something now it just means you will get something in kind later…
Her: So when people actually compliment you…
Me: I feel a little bad. Yeah… its like someone paying you for your work immediately, I would rather wait till the end of the month and get the big cheque.
(She kept staring at me)
Me: What this philosophy did to me is that, the work I truly like to do is the kind that goes unnoticed. I spend time around a lot of people who are very grateful and its like a challenge doing something nice without someone knowing it. But honestly the best days of my life have been the ones when someone else picked up the credit for my work. Most often then not its a mistake and the person it was bestowed upon mostly did a part of the work… but it gives and interesting opportunity to see life at work. You wonder if the system is going to fail and out of the blue you are vindicated for your beliefs and efforts.
Her: The best feeling in the world!
Me: The best feeling in the world!

(If you can’t see anything above, click here to view it at the official website)

See you there

I am not too worried about the mapping facility of the navigator(India does not seemed to be well mapped either way).

I am currently looking at the following models:
Garmin eTrex Legend Portable Navigator
Garmin eTrex H Portable Navigator
Garmin eTrex Portable NavigatorLCD

So what do you recommend?

When we started the day all of us were crossing our fingers for the rain to stay away. There was nothing left to chance, every prop, costume, furniture was checked and double checked. It was an evening that was a month and a half in the making, not to mention a stressful last couple of weeks. The guest list was long and the actors were very nervous(Well dah!)

It was around 5 pm that the first signs hit us. The past week or so had seen short heavy showers in the evening everyday. Since we were performing on an open air stage we were hopeful that the rain would either keep away or make a splash and dash

By 5:30 pm the rain was heavy and consistent. Many among us cheered the early rain, as the show was scheduled for 7:30 pm and we were hopeful for the rain to be done by 6:30 pm. That was going to be the second disappointment of the day.

By 7:30 there was a decent sized audience(large if you consider it was raining!) and we were busy trying to make sure that they were dry. But we had a call to make, considering that the rain wasn’t going to stop!

The decision was as unanimous as it was surprising… We decided to perform in the rain! All of a sudden there was this amazing feeling of positive energy in the group and we rushed to our stations to get ready with the essentials before we started.

The show started under rain and on wet slushy mud. The stage was slippery and the furniture drenched. I remember the last thing I told my actor when we were inspecting the stage before starting and the question of how we would manage it came around. I just smiled at him and said “Impossible is nothing” (Was not a brand endorsement ).

The next hour and half was the craziest we have ever experienced. There were actors sitting and falling on the ground. There were others sprinting on it. And others lucky like me who had a cane for support

As the echoes of applause greeted us after the finale, we realized we had achieved something special. Maybe there weren’t many ppl there to see us do it and maybe our makeup came off half way but we all never gave up.

It seemed like a fitting end to the play. There have been more occasions in this play than any other, for us to quit and leave. Many of the reasons were very valid and frankly nobody would have called us quitters along the way… But the point was we did not quit. We literally survived the storm and made the show happen.