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We had a motorcycle-related mishap while on the road a couple of weeks ago. A good samaritan hooked us up with this village guy who could fix Enfields. I like this shot because it reminds me of Jeff Beck‘s “You Had It Coming” album cover :)
Author Archive
Aug
04
2009
Working On The Enfield
Aug
04
2009
Three Painters
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The man in white, a master sign-wallah named Chinnappa, has been painting oversize movie theatre signs and cutouts for a lifetime. The movie industry’s need for these objects is being gradually replaced by cheaper, easily printed vinyl signage, and so his business is slowly going away. Our friend Alex has decided to help him stay afloat by starting a business with him: Bespoke Bollywood.
At Bespoke Bollywood, you can have your likeness inserted into any Hollywood or Bollywood movie poster, and rendered in oilpaint on canvas. Or you can have him render any source material onto canvas in his unique, Bollywood style. We have just taken delivery of our first order, an 8×4 canvas based on the Slumdog Millionaire movie poster. We’ll post photos soon. These are huge, impressive, and very affordable, so if you want to do the same, contact Alex. !
Aug
04
2009
Pam Gets Tired
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Somewhere in the Lalbagh Park area shopping for motorcycle stuff, Pam gets tired.
Jul
31
2009
Design Fridays
Design Fridays is a design-centric event held every two months, at a moveable location somewhere in Bangalore. Created and propelled by the people at Ray+Keshavan | The Brand Union, the event is a welcome opportunity for creative professionals in Bangalore to meet, mingle, and at least in my case, to feel a lot less isolated :)
Each Design Friday features a presentation by a prominent design professional from a given area: branding, typography, painting, industrial design, and so on. The presentation is followed by Q&A, then dinner and mingle time.
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This particular evening, the location was the beautiful Park Hotel downtown, and the presenting guest was Gautam Rajadhyaksha, probably India’s best known celebrity photographer. He was a delight to listen to, generously sharing behind the scenes stories and technical insights. He was also really delightful in personal conversation afterward; he still shoots film mostly, and was quite curious about my 5D Mark II, and about Lightroom. We promised to deliver a copy to him in Mumbai with a personal demo sometime soon :)
The other, equally luminous, stars of the show were the attendees: every conversation we had afterwards was engaging and fun. The guests included architects, business people, entrepreneurs, designers, musicians and more. In fact, I think we may have made a few future friends.
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For me, one of the most memorable meetings of the evening was with this gentleman, Mr. Nandan Nilekani. Among his many achievements, he has been the Chairman and CEO of Infosys, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2009, the author of a very successful forward-thinking book, Imagining India, and a guest on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show; and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The buzz around Nandan Nilekani now is about his recent Cabinet appointment: India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, hand-picked Mr. Nilekani for a very interesting Cabinet post, only a couple of weeks ago.
I am sure Mr. Nilekani thought me a bit of a dope, as I was fairly starstruck. It’s never fame that impresses me, it’s competence, and I am rendered even more stupid than usual in the presence of someone with such accomplishment and ability. I do hope if Mr. Nilekani ever reads this, he will accept my apologies for any goofy behavior. I am now kicking myself for squandering the opportunity to ask him a couple of more meaningful questions… ah well :)
Thanks indeed to my friend Jaydeep Dutta for encouraging us to attend and making us feel so welcome.
Jul
29
2009
Shantaram
Shantaram, the first novel by Gregory David Roberts, has been thrust at us by every expat or traveling gora we’ve met since arriving here. They love it or they hate it, but they all insist we read the story.
Shantaram is almost a thousand pages long and I’ve just finished reading it. Despite the implied mysticism of its title, it is no incense-and-enlightenment hippie tome: it’s a rollicking good ride, a sweeping, quasi-autobiographical slice of contemporary India as seen through the eyes of an escaped Australian prison convict hiding out in the slums of Mumbai. And that’s just how the story begins.
It’s a thoroughly enjoyable journey, but even setting the action and character-driven plot aside, it’s easy to see why this is such a popular piece among travelers here. Every page is written with the authority of someone who has been here for a very long time and has every detail just right. Roberts’ prose validates our moments of insanity and insight, illuminates everyday opaque phenomena, and prepares us for eventualities we could not otherwise foresee. The urgency of the story burns these details into our brains far more effectively than any non-fiction travel guide could ever hope to do.
After finishing it, I find I miss the characters and the universe they inhabit. Still, I can relive some of it, every time I take out the Enfield; Roberts’ protagonist rides an Enfield Bullet through the Mumbai nights throughout. I can also look forward to more: though stalled at the moment, Johnny Depp has the rights to the film version and is keen to play the lead; rumor has it the film is to be complete sometime in 2011.
So I will say to you exactly what everyone has said to us: if you are traveling in India, or if you are planning to do so; if you wish you could but can’t; or if you just like a great, fast paced novel to get lost in; go grab Shantaram and fall in love with India.
Jul
16
2009
Morning Raga For Woodwind And Cow
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Every so often we hear this crazy whining jazzy music in the mornings, moving from one end of the neighborhood to the next and then vanishing. One or both of us will mutter, “What the hell IS that?” and either go back to sleep or run to chase it, inevitably being too late.
Well, today we finally caught the guy and cow you see above, playing a crazy tune for our neighbor across the street. The neighbor gave the gent a bit of money for himself and some food for the highly decorated cow. We called the guy, horn and cow over for some of the same treatment, and did as the neighbor did.
It’s always something here…