Tuesday, July 25, 2006

See you at Vasind

Iru, Ram, Manu, Ajay, Asif...see you on the 5th at Vasind. Can't wait!
Just a thought...since the first batch is leaving on the 5th evening, I was wondering is we could overlap by a few hours and meet everyone. Would mean us landing up a few hours earlier, but it would be so worth it, dontcha think?
Have already mailed Shernaz about this...let's see if it works out.

Friday, July 21, 2006

back to free speech

so, we are back. my ISP has allowed me to access blogspot and the rest of the WWW that was being choked.

Harriet, to get to know more about it, you can go to Sepia Mutiny. I got your mail and thank you so much for your good words. i am not presenting an argument nor is there a moral. i am examining a social paradox, which will come across clearer as soon as i finish reworking on the first draft.

as far as the blog ban is concerned, i will go with the prudent consensus that it was a knee-jerk reaction of a clueless department in the indian government. however, selective censorship is active on particular sites and that needles me. the argument for it is that these sites will incense and escalate communalism. to any layperson who knows how the internet works, it is laughable. anything BANNED or BLOCKED on WWW can be bypassed. if our Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is of the opinion that the internet is a tangible property against which an injunction can be obtained, it is an ominous sign. a sign of limited knowledge and parochial governance.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Grrrrr ...

Monday, July 17, 2006

Paintball Rulz!

Guys guys guys !!! !!! !!!
I just played paintball yesterday... It was UNREAL! Awesome stuff.
Anyone in Bangalore or visiting, HAS to try it... it's 10 mins from the IIM Campus on Bannerghatta Road.
You take a 'marker' which is a CO2 air gun, wear protective gear, make teams and shoot each other with paint pellets! It's toooo cool.
I went with a bunch of friends and we had a blast. It's like playing counter strike in real life! We played 2 rounds of Capture the Flag, which is to capture and retrieve your opponents flag while defending your own. Somthn called Hostage Rescue where you defend a hostage from an attacking team intent on fragging you - with a medic on both teams who can revive dead players. And the most sadistic one - Civil War - stand, shoot and advance until everyone is fragged!
The various bruises and cuts say it all and the fkn pellets hurt! Esp if you get shot point blank in the face-guard, neck or back. And there's teaming, strategy, moderate fitness and accuracy involved.
Highlights include:
Direct face shot in Civil War that blinded someone with paint.(lucky for that face guard)
Me being bunkered twice and shot in the back point blank! (Typical that...)
Various exhausted ppl hiding and sniping till the other runs out of ammo.
Hostage tripping over a stone and forcing the defending team out into the open.
Classic Roman stlye 'Tortoise' strategy that successfully defended the hostage and medic hiding in the middle healing everyone.
Two unpleasant crotch hits - one of which bounced luckily.

OMG! I'm too thrilled to say more... Anyhooo ... It's fun. Try it.

Friday, July 14, 2006

flag

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Hmmm...

Just received this article in me inbox.

Interesting.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1817769,00.html

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Check in Plz...

Guys in Bombay. Chk in plz. Hope everyone is ok.

Monday, July 10, 2006

DREAMS - The Tunnel

Swar wants to go to a theka for a bottle of Teachers, after threatening the Blue Dart guys with her pencil. she has to pass a concrete tunnel on the way. suddenly, 42 angry and scarlet dead babies fly out of the tunnel, each wrapped in a page off her script. rattled, she marches through the tunnel and comes out the other side. eigya follows her on his cycle, his face blue with death. an entire battalion of blue-faced eigyas marches out of the tunnel on cycles. just when she thinks she's seen the worst, the scarlet dead babies screech out of their tyres and it snows - tiny pieces of her first draft gliding slowly to the music of the river flowing by.

Deadline!

July 10th 2006 - a spaced odyssey

A playwright drifts through outer space without a space suit.
He looks at the curvature of the earth far below.
A full orchestra is in orbit nearby.

Orchestra:
Duuunnn DUNNN dun DONNNNNNNE!
Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb

Playwright:
Well! This is the deadline. And the draft is_

Orchestra:
Duuunnn DUNNN dun DONNNNNNNE!

Playwright:
But right now it's kinda_

Orchestra:
Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb

Playwright:
Quality writing time is tough to find... I've not been sitting on my_

Orchestra:
Buuummm BUMMM bum BUMMMMMMMM!

Playwright:
IDEA! I've developed it, but the fact is I'm_

Orchestra:
Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb

Playwright:
_TRYING to get some clarity on the whole thing. I'm stuck in my head right now. I just want to_

Orchestra:
Ruuunnn RUNNN run RUNNNNNNNN!

The orchestra hurriedly swim towards a space station and hide inside.

Playwright:
_NO. Not at all. I'm waiting for that flash of inspiration. Because I'm not sure if you know_ What the!

The sun rises and the radiation fries the playwright to a crisp.

Playwright: Aiyeeeee!

Orchestra (muffled, from inside the space station):
Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb

End of scene.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

done da na done done

i have mailed shernaz my first draft friday night. m i happy? i dunno.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Three... two... one...

Last weekend available for furious scribbles.
Whtz the latest guys?

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Sniff sniff

My structure broke.
But in a kinda OK way... The play is now sliding all over the place. You could say the shell split open and I've got a mass of stinky innards spewing out.

And in times like this I run furiously to my greats. Anyone got anything useful on Howard Barker by any freak chance? Or Clive Barker for that matter?

weekend writing is like this...

SATURDAY
SUNDAY