Lost in a Mist

             There is comfort in clarity. We constantly strive to bring things into focus, sometimes so much that the blur that constitutes the background, in all it's forgotten beauty, is left unexplored. Nature for instance. The very weather that surrounds us. Can the weather become an entity? A personified, tangible entity that despite being ethereal, leaves an indelible impression ? A kaleidoscope of light and shadow, profundity and enigma, ecstasy and deep sorrow overlaid on one another? Maybe......who knows? Perhaps yes....perhaps no......

And then there is that solitude that is a fitting companion to this setting. A walk in the mist, with a book that tags along........

A truely memorable experience..........

Alienation and loneliness: thoughts on "Silent City"

      Japan. 

A true paradox. A simmering vista of subways, railway lines, over-crowded trains, somber faced salarymen trudging towards work. Kimonos and Sakura blooms, Kabuki masks and Sumo wrestlers, sushi and sake.A fetishistic society with a unique mix of stringent tradition and obsession with perfection, as well as an uber-modern fixation with Manga and technology. A Janus-faced culture that has the Zen Buddha on one side, and the seedy, tantalizing, neon lit alleys full of bizarre possibilities on the other.

       And precisely for these reasons, an object of desire for those who seek the unconventional, the different, the alien. Believe me, there are those who just wanna live on the fringes of their own societies, and hence look for solace in the sense of utter alienation and awe that other cultures evoke in them. In the very essence of that alienation is the lurking security of acceptance and association. 

And that's what we see in Threes Anna's strikingly visual tale of a young Dutch woman, Rosa, who comes to the ever jostling metropolis that is Tokyo, teeming with people and trains and lives, to learn the exquisite art of filleting fish, only to be overwhelmed by the sheer force of alienation and loneliness that threatens to engulf her, in this "Silent City".  

Her mentor, her "Sensei", is Master Kon, a world famous fish chef who, apart from being a wizard with his knife in filleting a variety of fish, also possesses the magical art of attracting fish to his open hands. Rosa is simply awed by his talents, yet there is something, an intangible wall between her and Master Kon, and the very essence of understanding fish, that bothers her throughout.

At first, she slowly lets the Tokyo rush sink into her.She gets a place of her own, and very tenderly cares for a bonsai plant with just one leaf. She attends classes, where everyone speaks only Japanese, but she is content to just observe and fillet small fish, wishing to get promoted soon to bigger fish and later to really cook fish. In order to sustain herself, she takes up a job as a call girl to entertain the salarymen in a nightclub. Although not very keen on this idea, she at least has a source of income now.

Gradually though, things begin to get fuzzy. She came to Tokyo, leaving behind her comfort zone, to accept and embrace this culture. To understand perfection; to learn it from this demi God of fish. But something seems amiss. Master Kon's standards are high, and his reticent attitude begins to gnaw at her psyche. So much so that she begins to have disturbing visions of herself with fish. She constantly feels under water, at one with the fish, trying to feel under their skin, communicate with them, but failing each time. 

One particular scene that in a way brings together all the elements of  Rosa's utter desperation in this alien city is on a night that she escapes from a customer's house after a rape attempt. Desperate to bury her sorrow in the company of one kindred spirit, she comes across a makeshift cardboard box house that she has seen many times before on the streetside. She opens a flap, enters inside the box, to see a man heating soup on a small stove inside. No words are exchanged, but he offers her a bowl of soup, and for some reason, all the months of despair, the harsh loneliness, the complete absence of human compassion, rather even human companionship....culminate, and she finally emerges happy and content.

In a metaphoric sense, she is now part of the immense sea that is Tokyo, She, who was about to drown in this immense deluge, learns how to swim with the fish.

She goes back to her school, and is able to finally communicate with the fish. She now understands her art. She is finally......the fish under water.

A great movie. Silent City.

P.S. In the same trend, I also simply loved " Ramen Girl"with the late Britanny Murphy ( may she rest in peace) portraying the role of the American who decides to master the art of Ramen noodle making, and after a series of mishaps, finally triumphs.

More stuff on Japan that I intend to write about is on " Lost in Translation", "The Japanese Wife" and Pico Iyer's travelogue cum memoir, "The Lady and the Monk".

A long cherished dream come true: my Cineclub

      It was during my Master's in Hyderbad Central University that I truly discovered a passion for good cinema. The Mass Com department used to organize Film Fests, where they used to screen World Cinema that brought to light human strories from across the globe, and featured movies directed by absolute stalwarts like Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Jean- Luc Godard, Roman Polanski, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Francis Ford Coppola, Alfred Hitchcock and so on and so forth....

      Many a weekend was spent watching back to back screenings of movies from all genres and walks of life. Watching a movie with a select clique of people, assimilating the finer nuances of cinematic techniques, brooding on some great shots.....I was hooked. But alas, the opportunities lasted only for two years, after which I got a little lost in the throes of life.

       A couple of years back, I happened to come across a blog by the very talented and perceptive Jai Arjun Singh, called "JABBERWOCK". I was hooked once again. His many writings on cinema, as well as books and other general topics took me back once more to those long ago spent moments with a group dedicated to the pursuit and appreciation of good cinema. His detailed descriptions and critiques of movies are informative, very well researched, highly dynamic and pertinent to the issue at hand. 

      And just a couple of months back, here in Singapore, my Italian flatmate invited me to a film club run by a clique of expats, from places like Mexico, Britain, Italy and Spain. The movie we saw was an Italian movie called "Il Sorpasso".  I was really glad that finally, I would have some company in a hobby that all this while had been a pretty solo affair. The movie was good, and the discussion we had after the movie was even better. I was happy. But it didn't last long. The next week, the movie had to be cancelled because everyone was so busy, and after that they discontinued altogether due to some issues.

     That's when the thought struck me! Why not get my own projector, and start my own Cineclub with a few select people I know who appreciate good cinema? And just like that, I bought my own Epson EB-W03 projector at the recent SITEX IT fair , and started what I had been wanting for a very long time....our Cineclub.

We screened Rituporno Ghosh and Deepti Naval's " Memories in March" last week, and it was liked by everyone. We will be screening the very distinctly different "3Iron", Kim Ki Duk's Korean drama this week. I'm glad I did this......so glad!

National Geographic Live: Coral, Fire and Ice with photographer David Doubilet

               It has been my practice since a long time to download photos from the Nat Geo website to adorn my desktop or screen saver. And even though I make it a point to read about the whereabouts of the picture taken, seldom have I taken the time or effort to actually read about the photographer. And hence, I was wonderfully surprised that some photos that I already had seen earlier, like these-

                                       - had been shot by this very renowned Nat Geo photographer, David Doubilet.

          And the surprise turned into awe because National Geogeographic Live came to Singapore with a series called "Coral, Fire and Ice" with photographer David Doubilet and the event was held in my university, NTU. 

           Simply put, it was an honor to just be sharing space with this legendary figure who, according to me, is much more that a mere photographer. An adventurer, philosopher, ecologist, eco-preservationist, raconteur of tales, a man deeply in love with nature and it's beauty and a torch bearer of his generation that is slowly witnessing the deterioration of nature's bountiful beauty and purity- he's all that and more.

           Here are some of his other pictures that he spoke about in yesterday's talk, and that stand as testimony to his undaunted passion to reach the farthest corners and deepest trenches of the earth in his quest for beauty and sublimity.

 Hawkbill sea turtle

  Rain forested volcanoes

Clown fish in anemone

                                   Baby harp seal

Harp seal on ice, Madeleine Islands

River bushmen, Botswana

                              Yongala shipwreck

           And, to end it, the mother of all pictures. His ultimate quest for the perfect coral reef culminated in this sheltered coral garden in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. What more can a man ask after he's seen such tranquil and sublime beauty on Earth?

His speech too was like him- humble, humane and brilliant! I recorded the last section of his talk, which sort of summarized the essence of his life's work.

Thank you David, for being what you are and the legacy that you've left behind.

Solo in Stockholm

                          I clearly remember those dreamy days of my childhood when I first discovered wanderlust. Not the actual experience, I must state, but the mere yearning to be a traveler. Book in hand, a strong notion of the places that I wanted to visit, I was literally transported to those far off places I read about. My family never encouraged me to travel, so I was all the more determined that one day....one day when I'm old enough, rich enough, I would travel. Travel like crazy...

Once in Singapore, I traveled to a lot of S E Asian countries. They were vibrant, exotic and great places of culture. But for some reason, whereas the rest of the world was on my list of travel, chiefly Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Canada, it was Europe that was my dream destination. Somehow, the allure of Europe only grew with age, so much so that when I was finally chosen by the Nobel Forum, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden,  to attend the  Nobel Conference on Biofilm formation (Aug 2013) for a poster presentation,there was no end to my jubilation.

As the trip was fully funded by my University, I did not really have to worry about not getting a visa. But had it been a normal touristy visit, the regulations were too stringent for the average Indian traveler. I remember the quiet happiness that pervaded me when I finally got back my passport with the Shengen Visa sticker stamped on it. I wanted to celebrate this moment, and I had lunch alone in Thai Express in the mall that housed the Danish Embassy that processed my visa.

The only off side of the trip  was that I was travelling alone all the way. It was a 17h journey, with a stopover at Bangkok for a couple of hours. And I would be staying alone as well, as I was the only one in my lab who was chosen for this conference. In a way, underlying the joy of finally getting to travel to Europe was the nagging feeling that for the very first time in my life, I would be on my own. I was thrilled, terrified and excited, all at the same time!

During the long flight, I watched all the Harry Potter movies, but at the same time, I kept a track of my flight trajectory....and it was a surreal time as my flight flew over India, then Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Russia and finally landed at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport in the wee hours of the morning.

I was overcome by severe exhaustion and jet lag, but since I had only the first day free, I decided to make the best of it. I had already bought tickets for a city tour by bus and by boat, and so I checked into my hotel at Solna Central, and immediately took off for my trip.

Here's a view of the city of Stockholm:

Next, the tour group was shifted to a boat through which we took a ride along  Lake Maralem that eventually meets the Baltic Sea.

It was a fun trip, but as soon as I reached the hotel, I dozed off like a log. The next 3 days were conference days held in the Nobel Forum,Karolinska Institutet.

The last day of the conference ended with a reception at the City Hall (Stadshuset) of Stockholm which is the same place where the Nobel Prize banquet is held. There was good food, good wine and plenty of good company.

On the final day, I decided to take a trip to the old quarter of Stockholm, called "Gamla Stan" or the " Town between the bridges" as it was called until 1980. It's a beautiful corner of the city, complete with cobbled stones and alleyways, and I had the opportunity to click a few very good images.