Life is a Great big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can. (Danny kaye)
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Thursday, January 18, 2018
One Mile Stand
Once again they met today. Few hundred meters from
the crossroads. The area was abuzz with morning activities as usual. He was ahead of
her but when they looked at each other the earth seemingly stopped rotating for
a moment.
He took his Cartier shades off and she removed her Gucci.
The eyes did all the talking as the RJ played a romantic song on the local
station.
Silently she said, “I
will follow you wherever you go“
He pleaded “Please do
not let anyone come in between us “
Selena Gomez went on …
I've been set free
I am hypnotized by your destiny
You are magical, lyrical, beautiful
You are...
And I want you to know, baby
They went up to the traffic lights and stopped again both eyes
fixated. Then the signal went green.
But he was a bit too fast and she could hardly keep up with
the speed. Distance grew between them and some other car came to fill the growing
space between their cars.
He went straight ahead while she took a right turn. At the
next signal he felt lonely as her eyes were no longer present in his rear view
mirror. Eyes became moist and he put back the shades ….
The one mile stand has sadly come to an end.....
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Stand up comedy
Ron was happy to be back in his city during the
season of festivities. As he navigated through the now infamous Traffic Jam,
old memories started to show up at every turns.
It was not too long ago that he was that angry
young man who at times felt like a rebel without a cause. He was going through
a difficult time trying to keep up with the whims and fancies of the rebel
within him and that upset him even more.
Usually fellow students avoid such characters,
more due to stern instructions from doting parents than by choice of their own.
But Ron had a different shade too, he had the capability to bring comic relief
to serious situations. In addition to being annoying, he could recite, sing and
pull out a fast one on almost anyone. The folks knew he would flip a sad moment
into a celebration even before the tallest hand could make a trip around
the face of the clock.
Path leading to a career of choice was not one
adorned with rose. On the contrary it was a challenge. Once at the
dinner table, he mentioned matter-of-factly that he would like to be a stand-up
comedian. Dad’s reaction was quick with the signature sarcasm,
“Splendid idea! I shall definitely cherish
being called the joker’s father”. No one came to his rescue nor was in a mood
to listen to his argument.
Next morning he took it up with Ann hoping to
find support or sympathy. “Complete your engineering and then pursue stand-up
comedy.” His girlfriend promised “Baby! No matter where I would be, I shall
pack my suitcase and come running to attend your first show. I am aware
that Jerry Seinfeld had made it big but it takes many a failures to get one
Jerry.”
The car stopped at the signal and he
contemplated how difficult it was to motivate a person who was as disillusioned
as him. He remembered the words of his favorite teacher. “Ronbir”, she
had once said “get good enough with anything and someone will pay you to do
it”.
He looked up that the billboard right in
front of him and said… “How true she was!”
‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’
Monday, November 20, 2017
Handwriting Fun Project
We form a cusp generation, as we
started treading the cyber path after we graduated from a teenager. Not too
late, but it was not too early either.
Long distance calls were
exorbitantly expensive and the known way of communication was through letters. Phones
were meant to be used in case of emergency or to deliver short messages like …
“I reached hostel safely.”
Message was not the only interesting
aspect of letters, it was the entire Jing bang. The pen pals, the paper, ink color,
handwriting and not to forget the precious little things on the cover… the coveted
postage stamps. I enjoyed every aspect of this process and it’s not only stamps
I collected, I also treasured many a letter.
An artist friend managed to remain untouched
by computers creating an opportunity to communicate through lengthy personal
letters. Not frequent, but immensely satisfactory feeling, nevertheless. An
email announcing the receipt of my letter last year brought down the last
bastion of letter writing.
On a train to London in December,
we witnessed travelers writing festive cards like our olden times. Like London
city, many traditions remained preserved, I explained to my daughter.
We decided to send our personalized
cards around the world. A first time experience for our daughter to buy stamps,
affix those before dropping them off.
No one chose to send back a card. But
undeterred, I shall trying again to revive this old tradition.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
A Rothko – what makes the art market tick
A painting sold for a stupendous price of $72.84 million at
an auction at the Sotheby, New York on May 16, 2007. I was introduced to this
bit of information while watching an old Documentary. We generally accept that art can be very
expensive but this work by Rothko baffled me completely.
All images has been downloaded from Wikipedia. In case your are interested to glance at the list of Most Expensive Paintings please click the link.
Name of the Artwork: White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender
on Rose)
Dimensions: 6’- 9” X 4’ – 8”
Painted in: 1950
Style: Color field – Abstract Expressionism
Name of Artist: Mark Rothko (Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz)
An American painter of Russian Jewish descent. 25 September 1903 to 25 February
1970.
I gathered these information but miserably failed to equate the
product with its price tag and decided to dig deeper.
Expressionism was an artistic movement of the mid-twentieth
century where the artists were at the liberty to convey attitudes and emotions
through nontraditional and usually non representation means (Merriam Webster).
Tate org further elaborates that this new forms of abstract art was developed
by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning
during the 1940s & 1950s. It is often characterized by gestural
brush-strokes or mark-making and the impression of spontaneity. They were
inspired by the surrealist idea that art should come from the unconscious mind
and by the automatism of artist.
They were broadly classified into two groups:
Action painter – they attacked their canvases with
expressive brush strokes. (Jackson Pollock & Willem Kooning.)
Color field painters – filled their canvases with large
areas of a single color. (Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman & Clyfford Still)
Now I have a description for our painting. A "color field abstract
expressionism" with “superposed color bands of
uneven size with blurry edges”.
But I still had my puzzle unresolved. After more deliberation, I found an answer that was somewhat
acceptable.
“Value is not the only link to quality” and there are other factors
that influences the value.
In this market where high value art are traded, name of its
former owner is as important as the artist and his/her piece of work. The provenance is important.
This particular work of art has been glamorized by its provenance.
It was part of the collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller. Part of one of the most powerful family if not the most powerful family in the history of
the United States.
The bottom line therefore is "billionaires love to own property of fellow
billionaires".
Since then, there were two more similar works by Rothko sold in auctions. Both could be attributed to the "color field - Abstract Expressionism" school.
Orange, Red, Yellow
Sold at Christie on 8 May 2012 for $ 86.88 million
Painting No 1 (Royal Red and Blue)
Sold at Sotheby on November 2012 for $ 75.1 million
Sunday, August 6, 2017
Somenath, Friends, Hostel 16, Campus life, Et al.
It was 11th May 2015 and I was sitting on an airplane
traveling to Kolkata to meet Somenath’s family. Memories of the past 20 years
came rushing to my mind like a giant waterfall the realization that life is a
one way traffic got me thinking. Somenath was one of my closest friends and has
now left us forever on the 9th. Kolkata, I knew will never be the same place
again. I argued with myself “wouldn’t it be a great way to remember a friend by
sharing some of those golden moments with rest of the world.” The opportunity to re-live those moments once
again got me tempted to this narration. I knew the word processor would help me
bring back incidents from deep inside my memory lanes.
Our college experience would have been half as interesting
had it not for Somenath. With him around there were hardly a dull moment and
fortunately for us, he was always around. No matter how grave the situation
was, it was never serious enough to be serious. For those who do not know, he
was perhaps one of the most enterprising entrepreneur that our alma mater has
ever seen. But he has paid a stiff price for this phenomenal success.
We joined hostel 16 of B. E. College, Shibpur, young,
vulnerable and most of us coming out of our home for the very first time. We
needed hands to hold. We also wanted to break out of the stereotype of
departmental friendship and formed a group with enough diversity to set an
example. Ten close friends settled in adjacent rooms in one of the wing.
What we did made little sense and at times those were so
blatantly stupid that we could have given the three stooges a run for their
money. As time passed, likeminded students from new batches got indoctrinated
and the tribe increased and our legacy continued even after we left. To put it
in an expression of Majrooh sultanpuri ….
“Hum akela hi chala tha jaanib-e-manzil; magar log sath aate
gae aur karwan banta gaya... “
Colleges and hostels, all around the world, have been
fertile grounds for lifelong friendship. So many friends tied in a single
string like us probably is not as common. They say university builds our wings
so that someday we can fly away and live independently. We were became the
birds of same feather who continued to flock together even since. Staring out
at the clouds outside the window, I promised that even death would not do us
apart.
Our time together
Political parties during those days played a significant
role in the campus and often ended in dangerous confrontation. We did not shy
away from openly expressing our political affiliation or participating in
political activities. But politics never came between our friendships. Three
amongst our ten close friends fiercely fought the college elections
representing the two most dominating political parties of our time, CP
(Congress) and SFI (Left Front). This
could easily have qualified as one of the seven wonders of BE College.
Creativity may come in many forms and shades but Nicknames
has its own place in the history. I have not seen another maestro like
Somenath, with such versatility when it came to assigning creative names that
instantly caught up with the general public.
Madness in boy’s
hostel is not a myth and I got the first taste of it quite early in my first
year. A senior student was nicknamed khyapa for his eccentricity and he carefully
cultured it as if to live up to his reputation. One night after dinner, we got
called up to participate in a daring mission impossible…. so to say. We were
excited and proud to be considered worthy of being part of that yet to be
disclosed mission. Later that night he led us to a crazy mission to fox with
mosquito nets. To the amusement of anyone who was still awake at that late
hours, we ended up roaming the campus holding the four corners of mosquito nets
desperately looking for a fox to trap. We were constantly encouraged by
repeatedly swearing and description successful past missions. But over the
years, we realized that those jackals whom we heard growling from our rooms
never came anywhere near the students, leave alone getting wrapped in a mosquito
net.
A year later, another such late night mission to steal
sugarcane ended up in switching off the main power of other hostels and getting
into unnecessary troubles.
Our campus was engulfed with thick smoke one night and we
panicked remembering Bhopal gas leak. One of the professors advised us to run
to the botanical gardens as it was an open area with plenty of trees. While
that decision was questionable during that night, we proceeded in that
direction. We ran out of the campus in our pajamas and bathroom slippers eager
to save our precious lives.
Soon we were joined by a couple of batch mates wearing
trousers with shirts tucked, shoes and the whole nine yards. They cleared our
astonishment stating that it was not about being stylish. There was a fair
chance that the girls from the ladies hostels were also going to join us too
and a few more minutes to dress up properly was a risk worth taking.
Golden Heart:
We all were compassionate to others but he was special. Not
because he was one of my roommate and the closest friend but because he was a
person with a golden heart. He was always there to help others and everyone
used to love him for that. During the time when we used to count our pennies to
manage our finances, he used to pick up the canteen bills of hostel mates
coming from difficult background spending money he used to earn providing
private tuitions to school students.
RIP Somenath, we shall always miss you!
08 August 2017 |
Sunday, May 21, 2017
E-commerce for Dummies
“Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe....We shall overcome, someday”
Generations of Indians sang this song every
morning in their school assemblies or while cheering teams later in the life. We are able to derive greater inner strength from this anthem.
We successfully overcome numerous obstacles “day
in and day out” as we navigate through the challenges of life. Unfortunately, we do not consider this mantra while chasing dreams close to the
heart.
Leaving the few entrepreneurs, we conveniently shy off from grabbing
the bull by its horns when it comes to setting up our own businesses or self-employment.
This is particularly true for trained professionals like engineers in-spite being better equipped for it. They
remain within the comfort zone of remunerations, oblivious
of the fact that the same effort could generate more satisfaction, appreciation
and higher revenue.
A myth we heard during our younger days was that money flew in
Kolkata streets. It could be mistaken for a black humor today, but this could well be
true then. A place where money flies today is unarguable the internet and
one need to find a way to harvest it.
Every time we browse the net or use an application on the smart phone, we realize someone somewhere is reaping the benefits
of the internet. I have spent countless hours finding answers to “how-what-when”
of starting a revenue stream using internet technology. Unfortunately no clear
path has evolved from the labyrinth of my unorganized thoughts mixed with dreams
and fantasies.
I strongly believe that it’s only a matter of time till we lesser
mortals catch up and we shall overcome this mental block one day very soon. Going forward, I have shortlisted a few viable
e-commerce options worth exploring. Let’s call it e-commerce for dummies:
- Promote and sell your artwork of Paintings Online. There are many websites that will host the artworks for a sales commission.
- Identify your core strength on any subject and you can start offering online tuition or training. Another good way to earn money online is by offering to help students with their projects, research or thesis.
- Generate revenue by offering photos for sale on portals like Getty images, shutterstock, istockphoto, etc.
- One can earn money online through content sharing about your interest and passion through blogs, guest blogs, feature writer etc.
- Create interesting videos and upload those on sites like YouTube, Dailymotion etc. The more views it receives the more money it generates.
- A more business minded individual could procure products in bulk directly from manufacturers sell those through their own website or offer those to e-commerce sites like Flipkart, ebay, amazon etc.
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