Day 588: "South Indian Meal"!

29 June, 2011

I had a craving for the one and only "South India Meal". And no, I shall not call it a "South India Thaali" because that destroys the innate "south-indianness" of the whole thing. Back in India, there is nothing like ordering one of these to the waiter, who usually shouts it as "oru meals" all the way down to the kitchen, and then within a few minutes, finding one banana leaf or a huge steel plate with lotsa rice and several different varieties of curries and vegetables to go along. Yum, Yum, Yum. 

So yes, I had a craving. But I also had to do a lot of work, pack for Hong Kong (am going there tomorrow), try and hit the gym etc. before I could really get myself to Little India and satisfy my craving. 

But I managed to do all of it! I did all that work, I went to the gym, I packed my bag, ran some errands etc. etc. and after everything was done, I caught a bus to Little India, joined the hubby there and had the much awaited South Indian Meal. 

And then life felt just perfect! 

412 more to go. 

Day 587: Nine to Nine!

28 June, 2011

One of those long working days, that was so busy throughout and without much of a break in between. But for a change, I felt pretty good about the whole thing. 

In the beginning, at about 9am, things were all falling apart. So many things were going wrong! Everyone had a different opinion about everything. No decisions were being made. Time was running out. Etc. Etc. It was one bloody mess, to put it plainly. 

I began to despair and for the umpteenth time began to wonder whether all this is really worth it. Then I got tired of myself despairing and decided to take matters in in my hand.

The next few hours were a race to fix things. I worked and I talked and I e-mailed and I worked some more and nett, by the time it was 9pm, I think I made some progress in fixing up some of the mess. 

Which made me feel pretty good at the end of a 9 to 9 day. 

413 more to go. 

Day 586: Support, Again!

27 June, 2011

During the last few days before the Mausams screening, and just after it happened as well, I had felt an overwhelming sense of support from everyone around. It is a very, very good feeling... something I can't really describe well enough but something I already feel very thankful for!

Today I had the same sense all over again. This time, because of the film festival news which led to a flurry of messages and calls from a lot of wonderful people!

Once again it felt really, really good!

414 more to go.

Day 585: Robbery to Film Festival!

26 June, 2011

 

What an eventful day!

 

It all started with me getting an invite to a friends place for lunch. She is an awesome cook and had decided to cook up a wide variety of Kerala dishes and I was one of the lucky guests who get to eat all that up! I decided that I will first go to her place for all that yummy food and then make my way to yoga, thereby making it a productive Sunday. So, I picked up my yoga bag (a backpack) and made my way to her place.  

 

On my way, I stopped at a shop to buy her some mangoes. I walked just a bit after my successful purchase of mangoes, when I felt something was odd. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but I turned around and noticed that my backpack was open and the plastic bag (which I use to put my yoga clothes in), was pull out of it. It took me a few seconds to figure what was going on. I rummaged inside the bag and noticed that my wallet was gone!

 

I was robbed in broad daylight, in a residential area, in Singapore. Appalling!

 

After some fruitless searching around, I made my way to my friend’s place. The awesome food that she had cooked up made me feel really good and made up much for the loss of the wallet (even though I was still wishing that the thief would rot in hell).

 

When I did voice out this “thief should rot in hell” wish of mine, my cinematographer from Mausams, who was also present at this lunch, commented with his usual genius look about what I could possibly write in this blog for the day, under the given circumstances. He definitely had a point there because getting mugged is not exactly beautiful, but I gave him my customary snort and told him that maybe I will write about how amused I am by the new moustache he is sporting.

 

While such pointless conversation was proceeding, I decided to check my email on the phone and noticed an email from one of the film festivals I had entered Mausams in. “Probably a rejection or a cancellation”, I thought. You see, I have had terrible luck with film festivals so far. Firstly we can’t apply to most of the major ones, because Mausams do not have the production values (i.e. no 35mm, no HD etc.). That alone reduces the number of festivals we can apply to. Amongst the rest, I chose only those which allow submission of online screeners instead of DVDs because each festival entry costs a lot and I didn’t want to spend extra on couriers for screeners. Again, a chunk of them disappears from the list. Out of those that remain, I picked a few and applied to and one turned to be a scam, one got postponed indefinitely and we got rejected from one because the film was 120 minutes when they accept only 75 minutes (this critical piece of information was conveniently omitted in their application form).

 

So when I saw this email, I was pretty certain that the day is about to go from bad to worse. But I was completely wrong!

 

The emailed started with a huge CONGRATULATIONS and told me that Mausams is an official selection at the Silent River International Film Festival to be held in Los Angeles from September 9 – 16!

 

With that the day just jumped from a rut to a completely terrific, super duper lovable, happy-happy day!!!

 

415 more to go.

Day 584: Yet Another Script Done!

25 June, 2011

I had written here about how I totally cracked the storyline of a very complicated film concept I had in mind for a while.

And today I finished writing its first draft script! Yay yay yay!!! I feel SO productive!

416 more to go.

Day 583: GSS!

24 June, 2011

GSS stands for Great Singapore Sale. It is said to be the best time for shopping in Singapore every year. It is supposed to be ongoing through the month of June but it was only today that I realized that GSS is on. I am not too sure how I missed this piece of information for about a month but when I was finally made aware, I decided to make maximum use of it.

And by "maximum use" I meant that I planned to use all the vouchers that I had collected over the last couple of years and which had been happily sitting in my drawers till now. You see my company gives a few vouchers every year during Christmas as a small gift. And interestingly enough, I didn't get around to spending any of it for the past couple of years.

So I did just that. I made my way to Takashimaya and used up all my vouchers and bought bed spreads and a handbag. There is really something about this concept called "Retail Therapy". I did feel pretty good strutting around the mall and asking intelligent questions to the sales girls and picking and choosing the bags, bed spreads etc.

But the highlight was the dinner at the end of it. I was so tired from the shopping (yeah, I actually was!) that I decided to get a table in the first non-crowded restaurant I come across. This happened to be Coffee Club in Ngee Ann City and it turned out be a great choice! I absolutely loved their Herb Crumbed Fish Fillet! Yummmmm!

So yes, I feel like made good use of GSS, had some great food and overall had a nice evening!

417 more to go.

Day 582: Mynahs and the Lady!

23 June, 2011

It was one of those goddamn awful days at work, which resulted in a very frustrated me. To get over the frustration, I decided to take a walk. A long, long, long walk.

After a couple of kilometers of furious walking, I started to feel better. I could feel my brain cooling down and I slowed my pace, and started to observe what was going on around me.

That's when I noticed this old lady a bit ahead of me. She was flapping her hands and almost seemed to be dancing or hopping around. Initially, I thought she was crazy but then I noticed that she was kinda playing with a bunch of mynahs around her! The mynahs didn't fly away at her antics, so am guessing they are pretty used to her. When I got a bit closer to her, I realized that she even had a song on her lips. And most importably, a look of pure delight on her face!

Somehow that scene struck a chord.

There are so many mynahs in Singapore and I must admit that I haven't given a second's thought to these birds, other than when they try to pick my food at hawker centres. But watching this lady having such a nice time with them made me realize that surely, there are so many things around to be happy about, why on earth am I so frustrated!

After that the walk was nothing but pleasant. From being completely frustrated, I could hear myself say that things at work will sort out. They always do. Somehow.

418 more to go.