The last few weeks – the period that i was not blogging – have been extremely stressful. There has been sleepless nights, round the clock councils of war, there has been battle, and there has been tremendous pressure exerted on us. And the three of us stood firm. It is such a relief to run a business with people you trust and respect, and who back up each other.
I didn’t blog about it because I don’t want to remember people involved with bitterness. Or anger. Or even frustration. I really want this memory to fade. Not disappear, because we don’t want to be caught in this kind of a situation. Rather, it should fade gently into memory – so that one day we sit around- all concerned – and laugh about it.
On the good news front, there is a pilot that is being shot for a kid’s channel. Cogito is partnering wtih AS and SR for the show. It is nice to see grown ups leave aside their pre concieved notions and bond together as a team. It is one of the nicest aspects of management. Seeing the team evolve. And pitches are happening. We are getting geared for the next schedule of DoaJ.
Term has begun again and i am teaching three great subjects. Broadcast Journalism, Global Media Issues, and Media Management. (aside: Any of you in Mumbai – want to give guest lectures on any of these topics – mail me). There are 15 extremely good students, and A lot of my theoretical fundaes that had been covered by cobweb are getting brushed out and refreshed. And this serves as a trigger for thought.
It is tiring, but fun. I think that i need to juggle many things at the same time to function effectively. Otherwise Inertia takes over, as though it is going out of fashion. The only thing i need to figure out is time to blog.
And best of all, I am actively contemplating a holiday in December. Chennai, and then rent a car and drive down to Madurai, Kanchi and Rameshwaram. It has been in the offing for quite some time. So hopefully, this time the holiday will happen.
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“men are supposed to be brown and rugged, not fair and pansy” said my politically incorrect mom after viewing the Fair and Handsome ad on TV tonight.
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If you thought it was just in Hindi films that the hero sang out to the heroine when he was trying to woo her, think again.
Male mice sing to female mice when they come across atractive female mice 
within seconds of encountering the scent of female mouse urine, the males broke into ultrasonic song. Dr Holy and his team processed the sound recordings on a computer and made them audible to the human ear, first by slowing down the entire audio track, and then by keeping the tempo but significantly lowering the pitch.
Tho tho thweeth – wonder if Douglas Adams was right about mice
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Natwar Singh being made a minister without a portfolio is akin to a pimp without a prostitute.
Really sad. Have the spine to sack the man, or to back him. This sort of vascillating is really stupid.
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…was essentially a continuation of yesterday – and i don’t mean it in any philo level sense.
It was a continuation of footsie and ring-a-ring-a-roses. The problem is that when you play footsie while you go around in circles, you are more likely to end up playing humpty dumpty. And we all know what happened to humpty dumpty.
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… we – that is the client and us – played Ring-a-ring-roses, for around 10 hours. I prefer the hangover
One day we are all going to look back and laugh. I hope that day comes soon and all involved are still on talking terms !
Today is another day. And as they say – another day another client, and a different sort of footsie.
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am recovering from the mother of all hangovers tomorrow
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This Diwali has been extra work for all of us.
There is Dial One aur Jeeto there is the new post produced show with all its taam jaam. and there is the fiction pilot that we are shooting in a week.
Also proposals to go in to prospective clients to whom we have made a pitch.
I think that i need a new life:)
So the only way that we all feel the ‘spirit of diwali’ is sitting outside Film City and watching neighbouring colonies send up rockets and other fire crackers.
For some reason the combination of extra work and the general state of my universe has left me feeling very agitated. I have been missing meditation and prayers for the last 10 days or so – and the peace and balance that i get out of both has been absent. This morning I am attempting a quick fix. M.S.Subhalakshmi followed by Bhimsen Joshi. A good dose of Hanuman Chalisa by the former, followed by Raga Purya Dhanashree by the latter should do the trick, and restore the balance.
(aside: there is something wonderous about MS singing the Hanuman Chalisa – a poem attributed to Tulsidas written in Brij Basa that is sung in a completely carnatic style
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For me, childhood memories of Diwali include getting up at the crack of dawn – literally – and having an oil bath – ganga snanam - before phodofying fatakas and taking sweets to the neighbours. One of the joys of liberalisation and modernisation is not waking up a the crack of dawn and downing decent amounts of caffeine before ganga snanam.
Today was our third diwali as Cogito TV. The first was at Vanrai Colony the second at Bimbisaar Nagar, and currently at Adarsh Nagar. So we landed up there at 9.30 in the morning for pooja. Nothing complex. Just all of us gathered to light lamps, distribute sweets and move on to the shoot. Dial One Aur Jeeto is a live show, and there is no Diwali, no Id, no Independence Day or Republic day for the industry as a whole, let alone a live show:)
On the way back from the office i got stuck at traffic near Andher Station. Hundreds of last minute diwali shoppers thronged the streets. And looking around from the rickshaw that I was in, i could see crackers, clothes, sweets et al everywhere. And people everywhere. And vehicles stuck – everywhere. I thought to my self, what if a bomb went off now. It is bizzare how the mind works at traffic signals. The next thought was – where are the entry and exit points on the road if it did – how do emergency services get in. People are parked everywhere. Cars are double parked, and there is a lot of human traffic on the road that is going to be severely hurt if this happens. On this particular part of the road – with waist level concrete dividers – and narrow alleys on the side, its going to be a bitch for entry and exit. Then the signal cleared, there was no bomb and i went home.
Lenin – or was it Mao – said that the purpose of terrorism is to terrorise. And once again those who cause terror have struck ordinary people going about their daily lives. Thereby increasing their sense of insecurity. There is no reason for me to think about bombs in market places, apart from the fact that bombs went off in Delhi killing ordinary people shopping for Diwali and Id.
The sense of loss and grief are for those who are directly bereaved. For the rest of us it is a heightened sense of paranoia for some time to come.
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