Didn’t quite expect to spend an entire day at INDEX, but the exhibition was almost the size of 20 football fields, hence the sore feet! Anyway, this is hardly going to be a review of the show, but more of a mental-note of the more interesting exhibits, artists and pieces that i came across. And yes! Ladies and Gentlemen – i spluuurged and i am pretty thrilled about it (albeit fractionally guilty). Anyhow, the following pieces seemed to appeal to my simple aesthetic senses quite a bit.

1. Lunablocks – Designed and created by Thierry Nahon and Philippe Landecker. (www.lunaticconstruction.com) Based on an original concept, the transformation and enlargement of bricks used in building games for children. Easily stacked together, functional and totally versatile, these Lunablocks are designed for the world of decoration and for the home. And guess what ? they come in light and compact, opaque, transparent or luminous materials. Sadly, i couldnt afford the acrylic and/or gold plated blocks, so i had to settle for the polysterene version (a collection of 7 blocks for a total of 168Euros)

2. Fatboy by Marimekko – Designed by Maija Isola (www.fatboy.nl/marimekko). She apparently found inspiration for the pattern whilst fetching water from a well. Well… whatever her inspiration, it definitely served as much needed delight for me when i saw the ‘Desert River’ exhibit and ten glorious fatboys sitting plump on a green stage. I walked away at first, but i came back sooner than expected to get myself my own ‘kaivo red’ :)

3. Sculptural work by Gibbus (www.gibbus.cz). Some really elegant iron work from this very talented sculptor. His agent could not speak a word of english, but i guess what he was trying to explain was that his work is moderately inspired by Dali. That seemed just about right :)

4. The Timebeam (www.timebeam.com) This little piece of contraption is considered a classic design and ‘the antique of the future’. Its pretty neat actually. Think the price on this niftiness ranged from 600 to 1000 AED. The difference in pricing is because of the intensity of the light projected.

5. Thierry Bruet (www.thierrybruet.com). Now this painter-sculptor extraordinaire was something else. It was clear from his book that he had a passion for political sattire, but his style had such a unique touch to it that it would almost drift seamlessly between animated forms, lines and brushstrokes into realism. Very very nice indeed. Please check out his site – its totally worth it :)

6. SoWatt (www.pierremachinal.com) This contemporary chandelier of sorts honestly stole my heart. The artist Pierre had used porcelain light bulbs intertwined with a mesh of optic fibres to create this really wholesome piece of spatial and graphic art. Even the light bulbs were dimly illuminated by an optic fibre that passed into it. Immaculately Gorgeous! Priced at 14,406 USD, it seemed fit only for the lobby of a hotel or a restaurant that i would be initimidated to visit.

7. Emotional Doors (www.chiariluce.it) Some really cool emotional doors by chiariluce. Thanks to the awesomeness of LED technology, these doors are just perfect for spas me thinks. Less suited for residential thoug (but hey! this is Dubai)

b. Oscar Sierra (www.oscar-sierra.com) Interesting style of photo-collage memoir from Oscar Sierra. Think its quite a fun little thing to do at any place. So simple that you could almost do it yourself, ofcourse what you would be missing is Oscar’s stamp of approval, the slick finishing and the perfectly manicured plexiglass framing unit that comes with Oscar’s bill of 10,000USD !

She said, ‘i prefer to be ignorant. i’m happier that way’. To which, he asked ‘ if ignorance was such bliss, then what about the few dangers within it she had missed’. She remained quiet and indifferent as if she was almost ignorant to what he had just said. I guess she was happier that way.

Now that i’ve brushed away the cobwebs and blown off the dust on this blog, i’m ready to write again. You know how they say that ‘life inspires’.. well i think i’ve just woken up after all these years in a cold sweat to realize that my little box of life’s musings have just gone empty.

Here begins a new search, a new journey to explore every nook and corner of life to find a new muse. If you get to her before me, please be so kind to let her know i am looking for her.

An ancient Asian philosopher once said “Live life like a mudfish, it lives in the mud but remains unblemished and shines.” An inspired lifecoach Mark Garrod made this the foundation of his ‘corporate and life coaching’ company called ‘Mudfish’. And a fortunate designer (that is i) turned into an excited 6 year old when this fairly small (but satisfying) identity project fell onto my lap a few months ago by way of Maha (Mark’s wife). Good fun!

So guys next time you are feeling a little like a dead duck or just simply a little jaundiced by the over-whelming pace of Dubailife, surf down to www.mudfishcoaching.com and meet Mark Garrod (honestly an awesome dude) and let him make you feel better.

P.s; am off to Mark’s to collect my little ‘bite’ for what might come across souding like a kind-hearted ‘no-fee-attached’ endorsement for Mudfish :P – Drinks are on me folks!

Ok.. so watching the ‘mother goddess in the making’ was one thing. But i doubt i’ve ever seen anything like the festivities that hit the streets once the goddesses reached their festive destination – the pandals. Popularly referred to as ‘pandal hopping’, scores of people celebrate nights out on the street hopping from one pandal to the next to marvel at the uncountable spectacular avatars of the mother goddess. Whilst one pandal celebrates Durga as an embodiment of sunlight, another adorns her with sea shells. Amusingly, one pandal replicated the ‘Hogwarts Castle’ to cash in on the notorious Harry Potter fame! Holy Momma!!!

Almost just as religiously as the festival itself, a competition called ‘Mukut’ (Crown) is held annually’to commemorate the most creative pandal in the city of Kolkata. Faith put aside, the scale and sheer number of pandals, hours, labour put into every pandal from its creation to its presentation is unfathomable. I visited a total of 20 pandals and that is perhaps only a good 10% of the pandals spread over both – the urban and suburban texture of this joyous city. Truly Incredible!!

In true bong fashion, i too went out ‘pandal hopping’ with the family and friends on panchami night (the night preceeding the five day festival). Most of the pandals that you see here in this post covers pretty much all of Central, South and North Kolkata and were shot all on one night with the exception of those in Khidirpore.

Singhee Park

Ekdalia Evergreen

Madax Sqr

Badamtala
This was the one that won the ‘Mukut’ crown of glory this year.

66 Pally

this post runs the risk of becoming the longest post i have ever posted .. so please ’click on’ to see more :) 

(more…)

According to the narrative from the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana, the form of Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight a demon. The demon’s father Rambha, king of the demons, once fell in love with a water buffalo, and Mahish Asur (the demon Mahish) was born out of this union. He is therefore able to change between human and buffalo form at will (mahish means “buffalo”). Through intense prayers to Brahma, Mahishasur had the boon that he could not be defeated by any man or god. He unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds.

Eventually, since only a woman could kill him, the Holy Male Trinity bestowed a dazzling beam of energy upon their own consorts, transforming them into one generic goddess, Durga.

The Great Goddess is said to be exquisitely beautiful. Her form is blindingly bright, with three lotus-like eyes, ten powerful hands, lush hair with beautiful curls, a red-golden glow from her skin and a quarter moon on her forehead. She wears a shiny oceanic blue attire emitting fierce rays. Her ornaments were carved beautifully of gold, with ocean pearls and precious stones embedded in it. Her face was sculpted by Shiva, torso by Indra, breasts by Chandra (the moon), teeth by Brahma, bottom by the Earth, thighs and knees by Varuna (water), and her three eyes by Agni (fire). Each god also gave her their own most powerful weapons, Rudra’s trident, Vishnu’s discus, Indra’s thunderbolt, Brahma’s kamandal, Kuber’s gada, etc. Himalayas gifted her a fierce whitish golden lion. On the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th day of waxing moon, Chanda and Munda came to fight the goddess. She turned blue with anger and goddess Chamunda leaped out of her third eye. Her form was the most powerful one with 3 red eyes, blood-filled tongue and dark skin; who finally killed the twin demons with her sword. This form of the divine goddess is worshipped during the sandhikshan of Durga Puja festival, as sandhi/chandi puja. Finally on the tenth day of waxing moon, goddess Durga killed Mahishasura with her trident.

Goddess Durga is said to be the mother of Ganesha, Kartikeya as well of Saraswati and Lakshmi.

- sourced from wikipedia

Durga Puja is perhaps best described as the ‘Big Momma of Festivals’ for Hindus in West Bengal, East Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, UP and Bengali Hindus all over the world. For the uninitiated (which to some extent, includes myself), it is a five day festival celebrated from the sixth to tenth day of the waxing moon in the month of ‘Ashwin’, which is the sixth month in the Bengali calendar. (wikipedia rocks!!)

Having only heard about the magnificient ‘puja’ as i grew up in diasaporic Dubai, i’ve always wanted to find out for myself what the fuss was really all about – would i go hohum? or would i go holymomma!!?

Flew into Kolkata on Friday, irritably hungover from an unpleasent night of festivities and the first thing i did was take a ride down to ‘Kumortuli’. Now, this place is just fascinating !!! It is a traditionally potters’ quarter in northern Kolkata that supplies clay idols of Hindu gods and goddesses. Artisans bring soil from brothel house as a ritual and then begin the intricate job of crafting the mother goddess. (will try and find out exactly what the story behind this is in a later post) I know that yáll aren’t very fond of reading but it’s really too fascinating to stop :) The popular writer Sunil Gangopadhyay has narrated the traditional magic of this place from his child-hood days (the forties of the last century):

“In those days, instead of buying the idols from the market at Kumortuli, families invited the kumor or artisan home to stay as a house guest weeks before the Puja, during which time he sculpted the idol. The idol at our Puja was known for its magnificent size. It used to be over 10 feet tall. Every morning as the kumor started his work, we children gathered around him and gaped in awe as he gradually turned a fistful of straw and a huge mass of clay into a perfectly formed, larger-than-life figure. And then came the most intriguing part — the painting of the third eye of the goddess. The artisan would sit in meditation sometimes for hours and then suddenly in one swift stroke of his paint brush, it would be done.”

  

   
      

Every once now and then you come across a piece of writing, a quote, or an interview that just makes you smile, take a deep breath and go “Wow!”. Ladies and Gentelmen of the fraternity, i just read David Droga’s interview and its a ‘must read’ when you have just had that ‘another brilliantly potential award cannes winning idea’ thrown into the can.

Here are a few things that i thought was very aptly put by the man himself.

David Droga on the ‘Profession of Advertising’

“This is such an insane profession, we’re used to things dying around us, we’re used to falling in love with things that are not going to see the light of day and we have to build up this resilience. I always say, if we were in any other profession I would get out of the business.”

David Droga on ‘motivation’

“…a really surreal mix of ego and insecurity – you have this thing where you stare at a pad and go, “Well I’m f*cking great. I’m going to write something great.” And this other little voice says, “Well, what if you don’t?” And that’s what makes you work until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.”

David Droga on ‘leadership’

“..But if I’m going to tell someone to work a weekend, or expect them to work through the night, you can’t do that and then say, “See you I’m going for dinner.” They just don’t believe in it. They should see you working your *ss off. They should see you sweating things. They should see you taking things personally. I believe that. I just don’t think the higher you go, the cushier it should get.”

David Droga on ‘Creative Directors’ .. ( i love this one )

“…some Creative Directors they take all the best briefs for themselves. I think this is a waste of time, just go back to being a writer or an art director, or some Creative Directors get so upset that they have to put their name on it, so they might change a word or one little thing or make a suggestion and then want their name on it as writer or art director. That is so petty.”

David Droga on ‘success’

“I always constantly try to do something that’s better and improve. If there’s a personal mantra of mine, it’s “Live up to your own expectations.” That’s how I live my life. Live up to your own expectations and don’t be a d*ck.”

Click here to read the interview

Friday mornings have turned into a bit of tradition where i sit hungover in front of the computer aimlessly clicking away watching one silly video after another.. till i doze off again :P but this morning….. i chanced upon a damsel with a voice of an angel – Anna Rifali from Malaysia. She has a great set of modest ‘audition-like’ home shot videos of herself singing to the camera in her beautiful emo voice.

She is perhaps one of the best examples of recent times where talents rise to stardom from an online platform. Guess we would just have to wait and see where Little Miss Anna goes i suppose :) g’luck!

That has got to be the most appropriate tune of the day.

…i’m sitting here in the boring room
It’s just another rainy sunday afternoon
I’m wasting my time
I got nothing to do
I’m hanging around
I’m waiting for you
But nothing ever happens and i wonder…

Ahoy Fools Garden!! Three albums, Single hit.
Pity! Didn’t figure these guys to be ‘One Hit Wonder’ !