Yesterday was a strange day. a Good day but a strange day.

Morning was lectures at Sophia’s…interactions this term is on “Features & Opinions” and yesterday’s scheduled activity was film viewing. I had a list of serious documentaries to show them, but post the blasts on Wednesday, decided that the class needs to watch something lighter – something that will tell them about how to write or produce a light yet informative feature /documentary.

The film that was screened was the delightful short documentary called “Welcome to Nollywood” – the story of how Nigerian film makers use the art of Jugaad to make extremely low cost and entertaining films for the local market. The film takes us through the making of one such film- Checkpoint –  and talks to the cast and crew.

Films are made on digital video format – they started by shooting VHS – and are exceedingly popular amongst the audience. There is a lovely line towards the end of the film where one of the director says

“i cannot tell the White man’s story. He tells me his story in his own movies. It is still the same themes, love, action …but we are telling it our own way”

The Nigerian film industry, btw is the 3rd largest in the world – after Bollywood & Hollywood.

The young ladies at Sophia loved the film. We had an interesting conversation, after the screening on their emotions vis-a-vis this film and the emotions of a film like “Raam Ke Naam”

Ultimately there is no point making distinctions like heavy content and light content – there is only content – and the job of the writer/film maker is to get the audience absorbed in an unfamiliar subject.

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On the way back to the office I got stopped by a traffic cop. I had jumped a signal. The smiling policeman very kindly confiscated my licesne and gave me a parchi. Told me to drive carefully and told me that i could drive using that parchi, without the license for a fortnight.

I have been stopped about half a dozen times since i began driving. I can tell from body language, when they expect a bribe. I haven’t paid while i have been driving. I paid for my driver once – and felt terrible about it… This man didn’t ask. i don’t even think he wanted one. He just smiled. a smile from the heart. I was talking to my father later on, and he shared a similar example. A cop stopped him and confiscated his license. dad tried to offer him money. The cop said “saheb mujhe pagaar milta hai’

I smiled all the way back to the office ….

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Yesterday was death by traffic. Between the drive in the morning and the drive in the evening -it was 6 hours behind the wheel of a car… bloody madness.

While some of the roads – especially the intersections with interlocked tiles are damaged and cause delays – the bulk of it was by poor driving. Cars jamming into a one way from the other side. Refusing to give way to ambulances. High beaming. general wtf behavior …

i finally dumped the car at home and went to ML’s house for a nice evening with some interesting people. Another thing that i had stopped doing -socialising …it is fun to catch up without agenda, just for company …