15 August, 2011
Yet another birthday - turning 29! Wah. It almost seems like yesterday that I wrote about the 28th. Phew!
But it was an awesome, awesome day with several highlights!
a) The day started by getting thoroughly drenched in the rain - like literally soaked to my bones! It all happened because I walked out of my house to the ATM to get some cash before making my way to the Philippines embassy. All of sudden, out of nowhere - like there was no warning drizzle or anything of the sort, the clouds just decided to come down in full force. I attempted a pretty decent sprint back to the house, but could not avoid getting drenched! Even though the whole experience seemed rather annoying for a Monday morning, in hindsight, I think it was pretty cool! It is after all not a regular start to a birthday, and rains are always nice! Oh, and I must also add that the cabbie of the on-call taxi, refused to pick me up (probably due to my drenched condition)! It was appalling but somehow I didn't blow my top. I guess I was calmed enough by the rain..so was simply just fascinated and move on to calling another cab!
b) The very efficient service at the Philippines embassy - I must say I was not expecting it to be so trouble-free and was very pleasantly surprised!
c) A good day at work as well... great progress in some of the crucial deliverables!
d) The HUNDREDs of birthday wishes that came in during the day on Facebook, emails, chats, SMS and calls!! This was very, very special! Last year I had written about the overwhelming number of wishes mainly thanks to Facebook, but this year it was a whole lot more, which indeed made me feel like the centre of the world! I also got some very special birthday messages - a friend custom made not one but two cards for me, several people wished me all the best with films, called me a director etc - all of which made me feel super good! Ah, so many wonderful wonderful people around! Even at 29, birthdays are so much fun, thanks to them!! I felt like I was back in school, feeling oh-so-good in my "colour dress" (basically meant anything other than the uniform), which is a privilege one got only during the birthday, and which really made one feel super special! So yeah, it was as good as my school birthdays!!!
e) Dinner and drinks with friends which was simply awesome fun! Great conversation, great food, great gifts, lovely messages and overall a really really great time!
Another birthday gone. A very beautiful one at that!
And now, just one leap year more to go for the blog!
366 more to go.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Day 633: Midnight Surprise!
14 August, 2011
It was the birthday-eve. Finally yours truly was pretty close to turning 29. Given that the birthday eve falls on a Sunday and the birthday itself on a Monday, I felt an urge to do something nice on the eve and feel like the day was somewhat special. After all, how much can one expect from a Monday birthday?
However this thought of wanting to do something nice came rather late in the day, so all we (the hubby and I) did was to go to Clarke Quay and have a good dinner. For those who aren't aware, we both share the same birthday!
The dinner was nice and we both got back home pretty happily - satisfied with the simple celebration and with a reasonable understanding that this is probably the maximum celebration possible this year.
However, that was not to be the case!
At midnight, there was a knock on our door and we found the hubby's brother and sis-in-law all set to celebrate, complete with a birthday cake! It was a very nice gesture and we had a small but awesome celebration - blowing out candles, cutting cake etc.!
It was indeed a great a surprise and very good one at that!
An excellent birthday eve!
367 more to go.
It was the birthday-eve. Finally yours truly was pretty close to turning 29. Given that the birthday eve falls on a Sunday and the birthday itself on a Monday, I felt an urge to do something nice on the eve and feel like the day was somewhat special. After all, how much can one expect from a Monday birthday?
However this thought of wanting to do something nice came rather late in the day, so all we (the hubby and I) did was to go to Clarke Quay and have a good dinner. For those who aren't aware, we both share the same birthday!
The dinner was nice and we both got back home pretty happily - satisfied with the simple celebration and with a reasonable understanding that this is probably the maximum celebration possible this year.
However, that was not to be the case!
At midnight, there was a knock on our door and we found the hubby's brother and sis-in-law all set to celebrate, complete with a birthday cake! It was a very nice gesture and we had a small but awesome celebration - blowing out candles, cutting cake etc.!
It was indeed a great a surprise and very good one at that!
An excellent birthday eve!
367 more to go.
Day 632: Drama, Film, People, Fun!
13 August, 2011
It was one super hectic but super fun Saturday. Here are the highlights!
a) Early in the morning I went to one of the Indian International schools here in Singapore to meet up with a couple of teachers who had invited me over. They wanted to talk the possibility of me giving a drama workshop to the students, before they kickstart the preparations for their annual theatre performance. Needless to say I felt pretty good at being given the opportunity for something like this! I had a very interesting conversation with them, we bounced off several exciting ideas and at the end, decided to further pursue this after checking whether the schedules work for both parties. I must also mention that I got to eat some awesome idlis and vada over a cup of masala tea at their canteen! Wouldn't mind doing a workshop just for that!
b) Then there was a mad rush to run a few errands but in a nutshell, everything I wanted to do for the day was successfully done, including getting a videomic for our new short film (which we will be shooting in live sound!)
c) There was another round of rehearsal for IOK - louder, crazier, and more fun than before. The team, whether it is progressing with the film or not, is definitely having a ball hanging out together under the pretext!
d) After all that excitement, I settled down to watch yet another Malayalam movie - Arjunan Sakshi. It was an extremely well made film with a very different plotline and pretty good performances. I was pleased!
So yes, a day of drama, film, people and a lot of fun!
368 more to go.
It was one super hectic but super fun Saturday. Here are the highlights!
a) Early in the morning I went to one of the Indian International schools here in Singapore to meet up with a couple of teachers who had invited me over. They wanted to talk the possibility of me giving a drama workshop to the students, before they kickstart the preparations for their annual theatre performance. Needless to say I felt pretty good at being given the opportunity for something like this! I had a very interesting conversation with them, we bounced off several exciting ideas and at the end, decided to further pursue this after checking whether the schedules work for both parties. I must also mention that I got to eat some awesome idlis and vada over a cup of masala tea at their canteen! Wouldn't mind doing a workshop just for that!
b) Then there was a mad rush to run a few errands but in a nutshell, everything I wanted to do for the day was successfully done, including getting a videomic for our new short film (which we will be shooting in live sound!)
c) There was another round of rehearsal for IOK - louder, crazier, and more fun than before. The team, whether it is progressing with the film or not, is definitely having a ball hanging out together under the pretext!
d) After all that excitement, I settled down to watch yet another Malayalam movie - Arjunan Sakshi. It was an extremely well made film with a very different plotline and pretty good performances. I was pleased!
So yes, a day of drama, film, people and a lot of fun!
368 more to go.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Day 631: Films & Names!
12 August, 2011
I had written here about how a fellow filmie fanatic had read about Mausams and came down to meet me when he was in Singapore for a holiday. Later I also wrote here on how he was finally about to start on his first short film, a dream which he had parked on the sides for a really long time but was now ready to pick up after having seen the Mausams team do it.
Today he told me that he has completed the shoot after overcoming a million hurdles including facing the rain Gods but finally, it is done! This was of course terrific news and I was super happy for him! And then he said "By the way, my protagonist's name is 'Shilpa' too, after you". That was seriously "Awww" stuff and really very sweet! I also got to see the picture of his protagonist from the behind-the-scenes stills - she is a 10 year old naughty (according to him) but sweet little girl! It was delightful to see all of them together and also to hear this wonderful story of a mission accomplished!
369 more to go.
I had written here about how a fellow filmie fanatic had read about Mausams and came down to meet me when he was in Singapore for a holiday. Later I also wrote here on how he was finally about to start on his first short film, a dream which he had parked on the sides for a really long time but was now ready to pick up after having seen the Mausams team do it.
Today he told me that he has completed the shoot after overcoming a million hurdles including facing the rain Gods but finally, it is done! This was of course terrific news and I was super happy for him! And then he said "By the way, my protagonist's name is 'Shilpa' too, after you". That was seriously "Awww" stuff and really very sweet! I also got to see the picture of his protagonist from the behind-the-scenes stills - she is a 10 year old naughty (according to him) but sweet little girl! It was delightful to see all of them together and also to hear this wonderful story of a mission accomplished!
369 more to go.
Day 630: Finally, A Good Class!
11 August, 2011
For a very long time, a good yoga class had been evading me. I have been going about 2-3 times a week consistently but for some reason, I was struggling in pretty much every class! Needless to say it was beginning to get very disappointing!
But today, finally, I got that much needed Awesome class!
I could do the whole series without having to take a break, I wasn't dizzy or nauseous or anything of the sort, and most happily, I was also pretty focused and flexible and was able to hold my poses for far longer than in recent times.
The result? After several weeks, I finally got a "Beautiful control" for my Camel pose and a "Excellent Rabbit" for well, the Rabbit pose!
Yay!
There's nothing like an awesome yoga class to perk up a day! And this one was all the more special because it had been evading me for so long! So happy!
370 more to go.
For a very long time, a good yoga class had been evading me. I have been going about 2-3 times a week consistently but for some reason, I was struggling in pretty much every class! Needless to say it was beginning to get very disappointing!
But today, finally, I got that much needed Awesome class!
I could do the whole series without having to take a break, I wasn't dizzy or nauseous or anything of the sort, and most happily, I was also pretty focused and flexible and was able to hold my poses for far longer than in recent times.
The result? After several weeks, I finally got a "Beautiful control" for my Camel pose and a "Excellent Rabbit" for well, the Rabbit pose!
Yay!
There's nothing like an awesome yoga class to perk up a day! And this one was all the more special because it had been evading me for so long! So happy!
370 more to go.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Day 629: Picture Time!
10 August, 2011
I had written here about the IOK photoshoot. Today I took the time to flip through all of those pictures (there were easily 1000s of them!) and finally zeroed in on a few nice ones that I though would be good material for my poster work.
The whole process of going through the pictures was a lot of fun because
a) Everyone looked like they were pretty nice, sweet, good boys and girls in their white dress code.
b) Everyone also looked pretty ridiculous in a lot of the pictures as they posed in a variety of postures and expressions.
c) The "behind-the-scenes" pictures were quite something and much more entertaining given their candidness. But also, they made me live through the photoshoot experience once more which I obviously enjoyed!
d) I was, for the first time, involved in this photoshoot as a cast member... so there were a lot of ridiculous (as well as sweet & nice) pictures of me also, which was definitely interesting to go through. One key point I must mention is I was quite surprised how good my hair can look when I brush it! Surely, a good make up tip for the future.
So yes, going through the pictures was super fun but what was more interesting was that I had like 4-5 pretty decent poster ideas at the end of it. It made me confused because all you need is 1 poster for a short film of this scale but I would have like 5! Ah well! Next step would be to really narrow my options down and focus on a few.
While I was excited about all the poster ideas, I was also eager to share at least something visual from IOK with the world. While a poster would take some work (designing, fine tuning, adding title/credits etc.) and hence more time, I thought I will just share one of the nicer pictures from the lot as a simple "cast picture" vs. a poster.
So here you go... presenting to you, the cast of Inganeyum Oru Katha, my little Malayalam film.
371 more to go.
I had written here about the IOK photoshoot. Today I took the time to flip through all of those pictures (there were easily 1000s of them!) and finally zeroed in on a few nice ones that I though would be good material for my poster work.
The whole process of going through the pictures was a lot of fun because
a) Everyone looked like they were pretty nice, sweet, good boys and girls in their white dress code.
b) Everyone also looked pretty ridiculous in a lot of the pictures as they posed in a variety of postures and expressions.
c) The "behind-the-scenes" pictures were quite something and much more entertaining given their candidness. But also, they made me live through the photoshoot experience once more which I obviously enjoyed!
d) I was, for the first time, involved in this photoshoot as a cast member... so there were a lot of ridiculous (as well as sweet & nice) pictures of me also, which was definitely interesting to go through. One key point I must mention is I was quite surprised how good my hair can look when I brush it! Surely, a good make up tip for the future.
So yes, going through the pictures was super fun but what was more interesting was that I had like 4-5 pretty decent poster ideas at the end of it. It made me confused because all you need is 1 poster for a short film of this scale but I would have like 5! Ah well! Next step would be to really narrow my options down and focus on a few.
While I was excited about all the poster ideas, I was also eager to share at least something visual from IOK with the world. While a poster would take some work (designing, fine tuning, adding title/credits etc.) and hence more time, I thought I will just share one of the nicer pictures from the lot as a simple "cast picture" vs. a poster.
So here you go... presenting to you, the cast of Inganeyum Oru Katha, my little Malayalam film.
371 more to go.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Day 628: Singer in Me!
8 August, 2011
Of all the things I can do well, singing isn't one of them for sure. Am like, almost tone deaf.
Having watched the Malayalam movie Urumi over the weekend, I was completely smitten by the very folk, traditional songs in it, particularly one called "Appa Nammade" in it. It's a beautiful short piece and I wanted nothing more than sing it again and again and again.
So I did. I sang it like a million times. The hubby was not at home to burst my singing bubble, so I sang as much as I wanted to, as loudly as I wanted to.
And then it struck me that I could actually easily record my singing and listen to it objectively from a third party point of view. So I did that too. And here is the thing... probably due to the type of song this is (full-throat, simple, and in my pitch), the recorded version didn't sound as bad as I thought I did in my head!
Wah! How awesome!
So here's to many more my own renditions of Appa Nammade, for my own ears!
372 more to go.
Of all the things I can do well, singing isn't one of them for sure. Am like, almost tone deaf.
Having watched the Malayalam movie Urumi over the weekend, I was completely smitten by the very folk, traditional songs in it, particularly one called "Appa Nammade" in it. It's a beautiful short piece and I wanted nothing more than sing it again and again and again.
So I did. I sang it like a million times. The hubby was not at home to burst my singing bubble, so I sang as much as I wanted to, as loudly as I wanted to.
And then it struck me that I could actually easily record my singing and listen to it objectively from a third party point of view. So I did that too. And here is the thing... probably due to the type of song this is (full-throat, simple, and in my pitch), the recorded version didn't sound as bad as I thought I did in my head!
Wah! How awesome!
So here's to many more my own renditions of Appa Nammade, for my own ears!
372 more to go.
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