Sunday, April 19, 2009

CHRONOS [1985]

The documentary is shot in time lapse mode. A camera sits on a stationary frame or a very slow constant moving frame and the camera clicks in a definite interval of time. The final frames are rolled at 25frames/sec and you can see the clouds running, sun/moon revolving, and earth rotating. The platform is already set to take you on a fantasy ride.
It starts with the clips of ancient natural and manmade sculptures. The soundtrack fits in the groves and gets you in the flow. Strange rocks and flying clouds over The Death Valley, USA & Masada, Israel. The sun and the shadows traveling so naturally without anything actually moving, that you are amazed in the very 1st 5mins of the documentary.
No dialogues no human characters. Like a dream vacation we thought of our entire life in just 45 minutes.
A monolith of rock somewhere like a kilometer high and a kilometer in circumference, The Indian's Chair in Monument Valley, and later, Ship Rock, New Mexico. The army of clouds running on top of the landscape and to your surprise there are caves in this place.
At such an unknown place which humanity never would have touched, u see houses built in the crack within the mountains at an immaculate height. You wonder if that is a human house and it is. People live at this amazing place. They choose to live there. "White House Ruin" - Canyon De Chelly National Monument, Arizona.
A New York Street clip showing the traffic like blood in the veins of the city. It was a contrast.
Back into the civilization of Egypt. Well about Egypt, I wonder why was such an immaculate amount of energy spent on building a brick monument in the middle of the desert. It was a social suicide of the entire civilization. The king died and the ministers decided to wrap up what all they had. They planned to go back to a very small population again. May be they thought it out or maybe it was just sheer insanity. Egyptians are no more with us so definitely it was a social suicide. A huge amount of population exploited by the kings army to build a pyramid of stones (note: several tons a single piece) in the middle of nowhere and many died. The left over where the best left. “Survival of the fittest”. 'Walk like an Egyptian' is a parody on a civilization which initiated the art of hard copying the reality on sculptures. 'How art made the world' might give you some hint how.
This far into the movie, if u really are watching and are mesmerized, you can clearly see a motive for making this documentary.
Entertainment business runs like a rabbit but it dies off in not more than hundred years. All that remains are the history books, monuments, sculptures and manmade real wonders. And very recently documentaries I suppose.
Out of the natural wonders the documentary straight enters into Christianity and monuments, sculptures still shinning at the world’s most prestigious cathedrals in the world. Pompeii to start.
I would like to bring an example here, Taj Mahal. There is controversy in the west of it being a Shiva Temple. Anyhow Taj Mahal as we know stands out to be a lover’s dream, a king built a monument for his dead beloved wife, a monument of stone marble. And we are so proud of it, right?
Well if you are then dig this, a king once said that he'll build a castle on water. Mont Saint-Michel, France. The castle was built during the low tides when the water used to drain away and the place became a fresh piece of land. The final outcome now? Just type the name on Google image search and get mesmerized 1st hand. Monuments and even more of it. I kind of felt sad for I have never been to any of them, and probably I would never be able to visit all of them. None of them lies in our land.
It’s sad that we are not the best, worse is that we think that we are, worst is realizing that we are not. They want us to know it and it’s really sad if you get this message straight.
I live in Bangalore. I would have bangalored an American for sure and I feel a sadistic pleasure for it at this point of time atleast. I work in a confined cubical for 9 to 12 hours a day. I come out of it to see a big beautiful campus of human hypocrisy. This makes u feel that u r in a desired place and then u walk 100 meters away from it and u know that u live in a shit place and a shit life. Luckily I'd been to Leh, Kashmir. I'd seen an extra ordinary life of humanity surviving and happier then the techno world I and my mates brag to live in.
A place beautiful and untouched, not in this life u can find anymore. Every such place discovered is soon a tourist spot and a hovering place for lot of stupid people who spent their life in insanity and could never get time to find solitude and the appreciation to the solitary beauty. Now we r supposed to accompany such a majority to a solitary place were u should have been alone. Ironic and sad again.
Out of the ancient world the story comes into the steel age. Eiffel Tower, Paris. The European era of the human civilization. The opera halls and the suited crowd. Elegance is the theme it seems like.
Turning point... The scene switches to a scene in some Middle Eastern market. Here the time lapse capture brings up an amazing fact. A dingy market and people running all over the place. You see a guy standing on his shop waiting for a customer to step in. The camera must have rolled for hours to capture that time lapse video and u could see the shop keeper standing at the same spot all the way through the clip. More strange was an old guy with red sweater standing in the gallery and doing nothing. Even he stood there all through the clip. He must be the dad of the shop keeper, retired but not over the habit of standing for hours in the market.
The camera now accelerates and the scenes of Western urban and metros push in at an increased time lapse speed and now the scenes are played in the reverse order. From new era to the old to the ancient through Egypt and back to nature.
Through the nature and then straight into a castle. Time lapse this time slow. A gigantic lamp hanging over head, changing its position by moving clock-wise and back over the course of the day. Then a War gun and then a space shuttle launch pad. The frames must have been thought of and kept there in this order for a reason. Subliminally they are transferring there message. If u can see it closely you can understand the motives better.
Now we are in the streets of New York and looking at the tall buildings in the night. The lights on the building are showing off a 2D array of lights sending some binary message, like a torrent download status. They keep on mesmerizing you with the beauty of the city in the night and very well done. Everything shown is so organized that if you don’t belong to it you'd feel the complex.
And these Americans never forget to show the works theirs Europeans uncles.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Track-4: Cage

As free as she can be
she soars in the sky
They see her wing shadows
and try to feel her pride
She closes her eyes to the wind
and a river drop fell to the ground.

Vicarious! her loved ones
are waiting for the time
When from the wind soar she'll
turn back to their side
The day when she'll come home to them
the day she'll show them her scares.

They sing for her
they play her the songs
They look into her eyes
and a sparkle to they smile
She smiles back to them and hides
when quickly she wipes her eyes

No one ever knew
no one ever tried
Like a warrior they think
never did she ever cry
In the smell of the flowers
she is trapped inside

Track-3: Bebas

Num rait par mein khada
dekh raha uss kashti ko
Bheege si duniya barasti hai
us naav ke charo oor
Chappu ko thame jakad kar baitha
dost woh mera, dekh raha hai meri oor.

Shant hai abhi, thama sa lagta sagar hai
lehroon ki chadar ne li phir angdayi hai
Thaka hai dil, zakhmi hain haath
Aaj dost ne mere jung hai ladi aur ek

Wada kiya tha ki dunga main saath tera
Par khada dekh raha, dost lad raha akela
Kabhi woh hawi aur kabhi kamzoor woh dikh raha
Aag se door, aanch dekh mein jal raha

Track-2: My Jane

On a paper, a scratch he makes
Ignoring the world they embrace
His eyes see more, even more than the race
His cocky thoughts, keep him away

...too high!

The perception through his thoughts
Raise up another stake
The world in layers flows out from the deck
Burrying a man to his decided fate

...too high!

Under her shade, once he felt alive
Now he kills himself, but never will he die
Someday he wont, but alone he cant hide
The past he saved, keeps the killer alive

...too high!

He tries to walk but he flies
To the oceans through the deepest sea he dived
He tries to reach out the bird ...too high!

Track-1: The Bird

The bird fly the sky
along the lake she sat n she cry
For the air smell bad now
and the people she left by

The new place knows her happy
they know her when she flies
A gift, her bless,
the beauty she deny

The wind blows west now
and the shadows appear blue
For she knows, he knows
she looks to the sky and she smiles

Time she thought has went by
left an empty space in her mind
He might come so she sleeps
lost in a dream, she lives her life

Thursday, February 12, 2009

I refuse to get hurt anymore. I quit.


I am finally trying to quit smoke.


Its been 40 days now since i've felt the killer on my lips. Some of you would think that I've already quit. Others will say, "Once a smoker, always a smoker". I would prefer to let this question flow away in apathetic silence.


I read this scribble at some random anti-smoke campaign's webpage telling how you can quit smoke better. I can recall few important points.


1- Try not planning for quitting for too long. I mean regular->milds->ultra milds. Nope. It just keeps you in the cycle. You got to understand that you are addicted to cigarettes at two seperate levels. Nicotine drive and smoke inhalation. No matter how less you smoke, you still entertain both of your addictions. It just doesnt helps. For self appraisal you may feel a little satisfied that you are doing something towards leaving smoke but you gotta see things inside out.


Suggestion is that wake up one clean sunday morning and just dont touch the cigarettes there on. Its tough. I know. But its the best way to fight it out on a long run. Its better to fight when you definitely know that you are on the other side of the line.


2- Take medical help if you can. A doctor might prescribe you nocotine gums or nicotine patches. Talking about the two levels of addiction with cigarettes, here the psychology is that you can take your time fighting one addiction till the other one silently waits till your next move. If you switch to an alternative source of nicotine then you can stay away from the smoke inhalation process and tune your body away from it (Those smoke strokes you get in those initial days of quitting can be fought better). It may take a period of two weeks to five weeks depending upon the category of smoker(mild/regular/chain) you had been.


Once you are over the urge of inhaling the smoke anymore then you can cut the nicotine supply to your blood and fight the final frontier.


3- Avoid intake of any other forms of psycho-active substance (coffee,alcohol,etc) till you feel that you are in the safe zone.


4- Spread the word. Tell every close one about your quit. It always comes as a help. Make your quitting as big as possible. Celebrate it, throw a smoke farewell party, buy a memento, tell your parents, do anything and just make it as big an occasion of your life as you can. I got myself a parting Zippo and also made Zippo funnel tattoo on my hand myself. (If you think its weird, then think about smooth killer you smoke, its equally weird. Choose a weird for your self). Cause if you succeed this quit, then someday you'll definitely look back to this quit day and smile with pride.


5- Concentration/Medidation. One of the most awesome facts of smoking is that you get those intense 10minute frames when you talk to yourself or some other friend. You spend this time stressing your thinking, infact lately you start associating Thinking with Smoke. Thoughts come to you easy when you have a cigarette in your hand. It looks very stylish too. Accepted, but realize the dependency. You watch the series 'House'? Ignoring House's dependencies for a while, there is something very amazing about the way he thinks. He would toss a ball to the wall, play with some cube, look at the running television or something else which would just keep up his concentration. You can borrow ideas from him. Find your own space where you can talk to yourself.


6- Pass time: Smoke is an awesome timepass. Smoke 10minutes now, and reduce 10minutes from future life too. One smoke, 20minutes passed. Thumbs Up!. This will sound lame to you but try it. Today you are bored so you want to pass the time, but mind it, in future even if you seem intersted you wont have an option. Your time would have already been debited by then.


7- Talk! talk a lot. Smokers are proven introverts. May be thats the basic reason why they turned to smoke in the first place. Here your friends come for your rescue. Talk the hell out of your guts.


You may be feeling inspired or may be feeling offended. It served the cause both ways. I can talk in favour and against smoke any time I want. And I'll end up convincing you with whatever the point I am making. But here I am not making any points. Its just an advice for people who are willing to quit and proposal for people who may quit in future.


'Addiction' is a term popped by the social notions. Defnitely some institution promoting tobacco usage must have proposed this idea of addiction. It makes you feel more weak and depended. It becomes an excuse for you. It becomes a reason for you to stick on. Think for yourself, question authority. Dont be a slave to a commodity. Someone's making insane money out of your insane lifestyle and is making sure that you never quit this insanity.

Introspectacular


‘I’ is a fragment of the chaotic synchronization pursuing a recursive quest to know itself, on the way, developing several dimensions of thoughts but leaving existence as a question unanswered. Manipulating the new ideas while failing at differentiating a belief and a theory, 'I' keeps up the stability of the existing ideas. Disguised with the lifestyle framed by the consciousness arrived here ages ago, his thoughts wander across the ideas of modern science and religion. The idea of happiness is a selfish chemical feeling and a basic need of the conscious mind, felt only after bringing it for the external world and making selfishness a basic property of a living, turn out to be a primary goal of the conscious ‘I’.
Framed into a bodily form somewhere at the lower edge of the time cone and obliged to dream through this waking life, I’ll wake up the day I sleep forever.