Have another Pangea Day

Posted by CK in films, Pangea Day, short movies

Ok, so here I was sitting and racking my brain... hahaha... one sec, sorry to digress but I just did a quick google search on whether it's "racking" or "wracking" and this is what it threw up. :) Thought it was funny. Can't believe someone did a language/etymology check on it.

Anywho, so, supported by randomhouse.com, I was "racking" my brains to remember this event I'd seen on TV purely by chance on May 10th, 2008. It started out with a few short movies being played, a few world music artists doing their thing and it was so totally engrossing that I watched it and went online for it for the next 4 hours.

The event i'm talking about is Pangea Day. Let me pull up a quote on what it is about:

"In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that — to help people see themselves in others — through the power of film."

And truly, it was incredible. There were films of all sorts, shot by Phone Cams, amateur cinematographers, cartoonists, animators, from India, the West Bank, China, Cuba, the US of A, Darfur and so so many more. I thought that of all the film festivals, of all the "Days" declared and celebrated, this one was the most powerful, moving and it connected the most with me.

As I was watching through the night, I realized that literally millions of people around the world were watching, blogging and commenting on the powerful, beautiful films that were being shown on the screens in real time. Now, other than the Oscars, very few events can claim live viewership but as I was leaving comments on the website, simultaneously, hundreds of comments kept getting posted moments after mine with practically the same message: "I understand the message you're trying to convey."

There was this one film about a girl lying on her bed finger-dancing to a tune and it seemed so simple an activity until the last few seconds when the camera pans out and the girl leans back in her wheelchair. A simple act that suddenly carries so much weight just because the girl can't dance the way her fingers can. It was called "Dancing Queen".There was another film about refugees in Sierra Leone who, in the midst of such heart-wrenching devastation, formed a music group to play for the rest of their camp-mates and called themselves "Refugee All Stars". A boy who comes back to his native Cuba after going to the States to work, the movie is called "The Americana Project". A walk down memory lane to look at the beauty of the country that was Lebanon, before the conflicts and before the bombs fell. You can see all these on the website. And please do. These are just some of them that I remember. There were funny movies, sad movies, thoughtful movies and then, just movies for the heck of it.

It was the dream of a young Lebanese filmmaker, Jehane Noujaim. It was her vision that the world be united if for just one day through the magic of film. And man, did she ever make that happen. There were screenings happening simultaneously in New York, Cairo, Bombay, London, Kigali, Rio and there were speakers from all around the world who said in one voice that it was time to forget borders and politics and just move past all that.

One of the most touching moments of the night was when this lady and this man walked on to stage, hand in hand, and told us their story. The man was a Palestinian who's brother had been killed in one of the incessant conflicts that broke out on the West Bank. He had nothing but hatred in his heart for the Israelis who had taken away his family. The woman was the mother of an Israeli soldier who had been killed by one of the rocket attacks into the West Bank by the Hezbollah. They stood there, together and asked that if they, mortal enemies who from before birth were taught to hate the other, could forgive and see the sorrow of the other side, why couldn't everyone else?

I loved every moment of it and I've been waiting for another Pangea Day to happen since. But it hasn't. So, it is my genuine request to Jehane to not stop what she started because she did a wonderful thing and there are very few lights that shine that bright before going out. Keep it alive.

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You have GOT to read this :)

Posted by CK

I was blog-jumping and I saw this article on a dude's blog:

http://www.isamansworld.com/2009/05/cruise-coast-of-somalia.html

I'm not going to give it away but I can think of a few people who'd sign up for this. Vini being first on my list. :)

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Work, Life & the Craziness in between

Posted by CK in Life, Work, Workaholic

I keep wondering to myself sometimes if I'm a workaholic. And the truth of the matter is, I don't know. A "workaholic" is defined as: A person who feels compelled to work excessively. Do I feel compelled? I don't know. I'm not compelled but at the same time, I'm definitely not a slacker.

I have this habit where, every birthday, I find a few moments to myself and I talk to myself. Some might call me "crazy" or "schizophrenic" to whom I say, we are not. But in this conversation with myself, I try to look back and talk to me a year ago and again with me a year in the future. To my past self, I give him a brief of what the past year was like, the highs, the lows and the in-betweens. To my future self, I ask the same questions I've just answered. How will my next year be? Will I achieve what I wanted or will everything turn completely on its head and have me heading in a completely new direction (as has happened a million times before). And I try to see if I'm happy with the direction I'm heading in. And it's a tough call.

I'm definitely not where I thought I'd be when I was 28. Due to some tomfoolery in my teens, I changed course several times in the past decade, each one more bewildering than the last. I'm not a person who has everything laid out and planned years in advance. I have found that such planning is nothing but a monumental waste of time because nothing and I do mean nothing, ever happens the way you intend it to. So, I smile and try and take it a day at a time and hope that wherever I end up, I'm content.

But that brings me back to my initial question about being a workaholic. The reason I ask is because nowadays, I find myself working insane hours. 14 hour days are commonplace and working weekends is not unusual. I do enjoy working hard because I need to make up for lost time. Due to said foolishness, I've lost a bit of time goofing around instead of being productive. And I don't regret too many things because regret, like planning, is a waste of time. I, however, do intend to reach my goals in the same time-frame that I'd set for myself. So, I work hard, cut myself very little slack and put my head down and just go for it. And I'm not doing too badly. In December 2006, I started working (really working) as an entry-level editor, got promoted within 6 months and have gotten myself a considerably higher position (Project Manager &Business Development Manager) with good pay, today. And I don't plan on stopping now, either. I'm ambitious and not ashamed of it. I do plan to drive hard and fast to reach the stars, literally. (One of my dreams was to be an astronaut. Being bespectacled, the only way I can achieve that now is if I buy my way into space)

But in the process, I've got a very dull, boring life. And I'm not a dull, boring person. I was super-adventurous and spontaneous and a million other things that I've forgotten now. And I don't want to. I want to grab life by the horns again and do the stuff that truly made me happy. Traveling, Outdoorsy-stuff, going places just for the heck of it, that kinds of stuff.

I want to be able to enjoy life while making the headway that I want to, professionally. That's a difficult balance to strike but I need to learn how to do it. The problem is, I don't want to compromise on either so I guess I'll need to figure it out.

Something I found on another blog, that I thought was super apt. :)

Top 10 Signs you're a workaholic

Ten: You don’t understand what people are saying on the phone, because you’re zoned into a screen where you have 10 windows open that you have to either, revise, proof read, or reformat into a 16 column table and email to someone in the next 3 minutes.

Nine: Lunch time gets exciting when you order a pathetic sandwich and get to eat it on the center meeting table.

Eight : You tell your husband/wife, you’ll be home in 10 minutes, for lunch but hours later, you’re still knee-deep in work and you’re no where near packing up…to go have dinner.

Seven: The guy who empties the trash cans at the end of each day, has to wheel you and your chair aside to get to it, because after seven ‘excuse me’s’ you still had no idea how he snuck up on you. He then asks you to lock up on your way out.

Six: You email your colleagues little to-do notes, reminders and annoying task-like assignments, at midnight, instead of going to sleep and telling them tomorrow--in person.

Five: You feel guilty when you’re sick, on vacation, or dying.

Four: You dream that you’re being chased by members of senior management holding papers in their hands, and questioning your loyalty to your job. You hide in a milk box.

Three: Your boss shoo’s you out of the office on his/her way out.

Two: When you go home you talk about work, your colleagues, how you have so much to do tomorrow while your spouse silently slips into a coma. You don’t notice.

And the number One reason is…

One: You don’t have time to blog, but when you do, you’re so tired that all you can come up with is this lame top-ten crap. You find the typing keyboard sounds soothing.

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Just a post

Posted by CK in Facebook, Homer, Iliad, Troy

My recent spate of blogging comes after months (I think my last post previous to this set was February) of doing absolutely nothing constructive in the writing/blogging space. Now, is this because I've suddenly rediscovered the love of the written (or typed) word? No. Sadly, it's because my stupid office internet blocks all the fun pages or the pages where I waste the most time, namely Facebook, Gmail or... ok, fine, they blocked Facebook and Gmail and I didn't know where else to go.

It's kind of sad and now is the first time I'm thinking about what an absolutele waste of time Facebook really is. Would I stop using it after realizing that? Probably not. I feel the need to exercise, on a daily basis, the strength of my Mafia, my prowess as a farmer or my skill as a mariner in the multitude of games that FB offers as a means to kill whatever remaining braincells that TV didn't.

But in simpler days, before I had my laptop, internet or even... my cellphone.... yes, there were days before the cellphone (I think my generation are the only people who'd be able to say that. ) when I didn't have all these distractions and I would just do something silly and mundane like reading or writing or going for a walk. I think that's how the great epics were written. I think the Iliad was written thus:

TRANSLATION:

Ajax : Hey, Homer. Why the long face, foo?

Homer : It's that stupid Trojan kid... Hector. Keeps making fun of me. What sort of a name is Hector anyways? Keeps saying D'oh and stupid shit like that. God, I hate that kid.

Ajax : Chill, Holmes. Let's go play naked javelin again. I promise I won't aim for your backside.

Ajax walks away laughing

Homer : *I'm going to write a story about that idiot Hector and how he gets his ass whooped by Greeks. "Troy is impregnable" he says, "We'd kick your ass in a war." I'll show him. Him and that stupid country which sounds like it should be a sperm receptacle*

Hence, was written one of the most memorable epics of all time (along with it came another great invention, the condom.) Historical sources site that similar bullying/hazing incidents were responsible for the Ramayana, the Epic of Beowulf and also, hitherto unknown books such as the Icelandic saga, The Wrath of Arinbjörk and the Ivan the Terrible biography, Ivan the Momma's Boy (written by his brother, Yuri).

I wonder how much creativity was lost to the world because of the advent of the idiot box.

There are some absolutely brilliant writers, artists and such still out there though. As a relatively newbie blogger, I'm discovering that there are some great sites out there which are absolutely hilarious, like Krish Ashok's, some with some amazing art, like Abhishek Singh's. I am, of course, neither a brilliant comedian nor am I a great artist, but I'll keep posting my two cents worth every once in a while and see where it takes me.

Now, back to work.

3 comments »

A New Project

Posted by CK

So, it’s a Monday afternoon and I have a half hour in between one important work thing and the next. I need a breather anyways.

I just spent a semi-nice weekend. The “semi” part cause I had to work on Saturday giving presentations and what not. But working one day a weekend is a step-up from the previous weekend where I spent all weekend preparing said presentation. The nice part was where I went to my SW’s place, relaxed, ate good food, played Scrabble (got my ass kicked), went for long walks and spent time with my cutie-pie, darling, sweetheart, crunchy puppu…. Ok ok wait. I’ll show you a picture. Here she is and tell me she’s not the most adorable thing on God’s earth.

So, yes, I’m relaxed and feeling pretty good about the week ahead. I have a lot of things I need to do but I’m not going to do them just yet.

About 9 years ago, a friend of mine and I started a very ambitious project. TIME Magazine had just published its 100 Greatest Books of the 20^th Century. The list I’m linking you to is the updated list as of 2005 because I can’t find the old list. But no matter, the list is mostly unchanged but for a few entries. There are a lot of lists out there but we took TIME as a reliable, reputable source and even if it weren’t the greatest books ever, it’d still be a start.

So, my friend and I, let’s call her Pillary for anonymity’s sake. ;) Pill and I decided that, as enlightened individuals, it was our duty to go through this list and read each book. Initially, we got off to a great start and we did read quite a few of them. Well, actually, I think it seemed like quite a few but now that I’m looking at the list, I’ve read only 5… which is kind of sad. Anywho, work and life and everything else got in the way and I’m afraid, for my part, have fallen back on my good reading.

So, I’ve decided that I have to reinitiate this project with just a few adjustments. I’ve now decided that I’m going to go through the list, in no particular order, and am going to publish book reviews of each of the books I read. I shall place them under the title of:

Greatest Books Review – [Book Name] - #

which will essentially give you an idea of which of the 100 I’m on. (Until I can think of a better name. Suggestions are welcome.)

I’ll get on this right away and at the rate of one book a week, should be done in 2 years. I've already read a few of the books, as mentioned earlier, but I'll have to re-read them in order to give you a good review. Although, my post on the Chronicles of Narnia (at least the latter half of the post) will serve as a review for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I've also read 1984, Catch-22, Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange, Lolita, Midnight's Children and of course, my favourite comic/graphic novel, Watchmen. I'll go through them all again.

I’m going to take this chance to plug one of my favorite book stores in the city, Blossom’s. It’s been around for a few years I think and you can get a load of great books there at very, very cheap. And if you’re the kind who doesn’t like to keep old books, they buy back at 50%. So, its win-win and they have an awesome collection of books. It’s on Church Street right down the road from Java City and I love that place.

So, wish me luck and happy reading.

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