CHERISH with HARISH

A film which I came up with during the Lockdown. I had worked for 6 years on coming with the long-standing doubt which had always stayed with me. Here is a throwback to 'Project Me: In 2020':

 Till very recently, I did not know that the Harappa culture, did not have 'temple' buildings during their time. They did believe in the concept, but it was very personal. They believed in the sun God, the trees, the nature, the skies and similar things. It was quite later, that the temple buildings were built. More about this, I spoke in my latest episode on my youtube channel, Travelling with Harish. The episode is called, 'LESSONS FROM HARAPPAN SIMPLICITY. Do watch and if you like it, please share. Also, if you want to listen about any topic, write it in the comments. I will do my research and present an episode for you guys. :)

National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, 2009. It was 1:30 at night and after a tiring KHEL session, I was sitting with Sambit at the Faculty lounge talking about a play which my friends in my graduation college (MBICEM) had performed. I had written and titled it 'YANTRA', but I was sad that I could not see it. Nishtha Paliwal had directed it with some friends and I was sure that it would have been nice, but I always wanted to see my upcoming 'PRODUCT' live. That silent spring night, Sambit, like a good listener asked me what was the play about. So, I narrated the whole idea of the play and he liked it and the first reaction he gave was that as it was a rural story, and it should be called 'YANTAR', and not yantra, which was a pure form of the Sanskrit word. I liked it and with those thoughts we entered the NID NIGHT-MESS and had chai. With time, I came up with more plays and films and other assignments and as I moved ahead, the play was shelved but I kne...

So, my schedule here is quite different was in Delhi or Mumbao or Hyderabad or in any other town I was living in. It is so little that you have just time and nothing else to think and rethink to think about schedules and nothing. I know it gets boring at times. The problem here is that there is no power when you want to work, with frequent power cuts and I have to get down to ways of writing on my diaries and note pads, which is nice and warm for me, and I always thought that is how I always was, right from the ground and not the other way round :) So one thing which I have learnt here is to make chai for myself, which is like a huge accomplishment for me, as now i don't depend on any one for chai, but I won't mind one anyone doing it for me. So I make one for myself and that also gives me a motive to get up early listening to the zaan, make chai and in the process begin writing or may be just thinking. If that ways I look at life, I feel it is so much more fun than the way ...

Active Participation Was a film I made in the first year of graduation, in MBICEM. We were all so young and stupid back then, but not a bad film :)

So the story behind this video is slightly funny. This is how it goes... We were taking part in the '48 hour music video competition' at Kala Ghoda arts festival. They gave us a song and asked us to go and shoot n edit a video in 48 hours. So, Sangram, Sukriti were all set and we shot, animated and edited this video. But our house (in Jogeshwari ) was quite far from the venue (Colaba). So in the process of fighting traffic jams and other related issue we were 2 hours late. And our video was never accepted! So, here it is- the music video we came up with. We thank all our actors...and all of us too! (Sukriti, Sangram and me- we were the JOINT effort!)

This is the trailer of my diploma film (final film) at NID. The film is called 'The Uljhu Journal'. I havn't uploaded the film yet. Will share it soon. Have a look at the trailer for now. Cheers :)

http://flic.kr/ps/qcL2V

Very few people call it "auto' here and more people call it the 'Rickshaw'. I have been in Mumbai for the last one month and everyday, for my journey to office, I take a rickshaw. This journey is from Jogeshwari to Andheri, exposing a lot of visuals to me. I thought of capturing some and sharing a few of them. (Shot on my Canon IXUS 105) The gentleman on the road The pilot The wait! That's the Andheri subway I am Mumbai :) Rear view! The office!

A recent visit to Haji Ali, Mumbai  Though the surrounding were untidy and dirty, but the 15th century Dargah was serene inside. More images clicked by me on my Flick photostream... My Flickr Photoctream

This is a quick journey through many journeys I made in 2011. I tried exploring the split screen format. Enjoy :)

In NID, after every big festival there is a community dinner organised, where the dishes of that particular region are served to the whole community. It was the Onam Community dinner in 2010. I happened to sit next to one of my seniors, Sanaa. The conversation started with pleasantries and moved on to specifics, "So what is your next project?" asked Sanaa. I replied, "I am looking for subjects for my documentary. I am confused." Sanaa thought about for a moment and asked "Have you heard about this 'criminal' theatre group which is based here in Gujarat?" That sounded very new: ' a criminal theatre group'. The subject sounded very interesting because I knew very little about it. This conversation at the community dinner started the process... I looked it up on the internet...I came in contact with people working on this issue. Then I visited the community in Chharanagar. The tribe is called 'Chhara' and the group is called ...

I thought I should share my photographs...my flikr photostream... http://www.flickr.com/photos/27389026@N03/

Some of the images from my photostream on Flickr.com You can watch more on http://www.flickr.com/photos/2 7389026 @N03/

(at Bhuj, Feb'10) That gate was open, we closed it so that people from outside could not come in. But are they actually outside? Are WE inside? Can't we be outside? I stretched my hand and opened the gate again, and suddenly... all of us were INSIDE...