Project Edza for Ladakh

just taking you along my visual journey...
digging for the common thread..this will be a series..

I'm writing, and it feels like I'm onto nitro mode already :):)
thank you everybody who's jumped onto the same ship with me,it's only going to happen if these energies are fused.
looking out for more people in the water who'd like to jump on
feel free to share a thread you pick.

Below,The Namgyal Tsemo Gompa above the town of Leh, Ladakh.

Below, a lama puts on a mask before performing at the
Hemis Festival at Hemis Monastery, also called the 'Roof of the world'.


Below,A cow grazes along the shore at Pangong Lake,near Spangmik,
Ladakh.

Posted via email from Milann's posterous

how to stitch a boat

in Kerala..

sometimes your mother's point-and-shoot can make you miss the view finder.

any.all.a.

:):)

Posted via email from Milann's posterous

LADAKH

We're going to Ladakh. :)
Preparations are underway..

Here's what a bunch of us animators, sculptors, textile designers, analysts and film makers plan to do about exploring Ladakh, a part of the Tibetan plateau at the northern tip of India, 3500 metres above sea level. We're talking about a place opened to the general public by the Indian Govt only as recently as 1974,and since then has been documented only by explorers as an object of fascination,an ancient future. In the process the Ladakhi people have started making strong efforts to save their craft,save their tradition from ideas of modernization, save it from well, matchbox living spaces.

So we're going in with an animator who's worked on the content and art direction of Virgin Comics dealing with Indian mythology to come in and interact with the thangka artists of Ladakh, to explore with them and understand where they come from.You can see some of his work here: Abhishek.
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We're going in with a textile designer to figure the original methods adopted by the Ladakhi people in weaving,and the unique design methods of this culture which was on one of the oldest trade routes connecting Central Asia to China centuries ago.
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We're also going to try and capture the completely oral narrative forms and music in Ladakh with a group of film makers and a sound engineer.
And we're going in with analysts to study the sustainable means the Ladakhi people adopt to survive in such climes considering their only natural source of water is glacial meltings!
More on this one in a bit!
People who've been reading this blog,might remember me talking about this part of our country earlier. Well we're going there now :)
If you're interested on staying posted on this project mail me or leave a thought in the comment box.we need all the support we can get!!!

Just back from a visit to my design school,I'm quite done with the artists griping about that want for the outlet for expression,
you can draw? go out into the street and start that sketching for Chrissake!
you can shoot with that camera? don't think.don't waste tape. shoot exactly when inspiration strikes.nobody is watching. do something.
you can inspire people? find a platform. we need all the inspiration we can get. choose a cause. check its credibility.Be responsible about what you dispense.
Choose your medium,can everybody please start making themselves heard,please?!!

























































































































This is What I saw Today ,with Richard, he sketches in from the tube,from the street,from dinner,from all over the place..just sketching every day in..
Thank you Richard,for letting me put up your superb sketches up on my blog.

aliens in my pudding

national anathema


yesterday i went to a multiplex.to see the fast and the furious.
the national anthem was played.
i was on a phone call outside.
i came in to find 6 indians on top of my friend from the abroad.
he speaks very little english.
so he spoke.
and they screamed.
they were screaming because he sat down 5 seconds before the anthem finished.
they yelled, " We have let you into this country!"
what lovely nationalism.
their almost 60 year old father yelled with them.screamed of people disrespecting his age.
in the intermission a young lawyer from the group came forward and with a sickly sweet smile asked only for an apology.
apologise to whom, for what country?

i stand for national anthems.I wait for a film's credits to roll completely.i don't correct american spelling.
god made ten commandments.
we still kill.
we still steal.
we still sleep with our neighbor's wives.

which law?
which canon?
which country?
which colour of skin is everyone yelling about?

the guy with me by the end was so sure they would never get the point,he was ready to maybe apologise for the arising of such a situation.
he told me to stand behind him because he thought these indians would jump me next for defending him.those indians.

must we apologise for created situations now?to ensure peace?
will we still nurture extremists amongst us?
the mob loves to rant.i stand. i know my brother stands.
but that's all i'm sure of anymore.
i know we both stand.
well,that's a number,I guess.
two.

credit roll

for jitin for towering over me,ready to rap me on the knuckles if my cloud wandered too far out of sight
for jitin who made the cloud break out into rain
for isacco who reminded me what it felt like to take my socks off and feel the grass
for ankur who threw shoes at my cloud and made me laugh with him
for swaati for making me run into the sea
for divya who has always dug into the earth to make space for me to breathe
for priyanka who breaks out of her path every time unquestioningly to wander with me
for tanushri for clutching her life energies in her fist and holding it out to me on call
for tanushri for keeping dinner for me in case I did come in late
for unnati for making my worries hers
for arpit's wooden toy
for karthik for pushing me where it hurts and kicking my very best out
for akash who jumped onto the wagon and laughed with delight at the canvases i spread out.we were no strangers after all.
for amitabh for everything and for nothing
for sibi for leading an intrusion into an embrace
for harsha for keeping check on the good vibrations
for anupam for volunteering services from a hospital bed
for angshuman,because we're young and wild and free and still enjoying the search.

and then,with a quick hoist,I shot out into the sky after 72 hours of a shoot
:)

the green,the striped and those in between

Log 2:


I hate that India's map still looks like this every other corner I turn .
I wonder about the absolute idiots huffing about making these lines.
I wonder how people living there feel about their non existence or existence from map to map.
First we get someone from across oceans to draw b*#@y lines for us.Then we argue about how he was an idiot and huff about what we think of the people beyond that line.
What a tamasha.

Observe the map we,Indians believe to be India.
how many people live in the green and the striped?
Do they have pets?
Should I shrug and continue vegetating?

Refraction on a door.To and fro-III

Another friend chews on To and fro-II

TO:
'
'over time, we close more doors and focus on those which are most important to us, until the inevitable narrowing at the end'... 'the point is not to attach too much meaning to the form of the door'.... quite an intriguing revelation... and i was thinking the other way round...

if it can become "narrowing" there should be an alternate way of broadening also...towards..something..where u no more feel the existence of any doors..closed or open.... does the sky have any opening to enter?...it is all open...and contains the emptyness... within..or without..
'

and

FRO:
'
I have the perfect reply in a CD somewhere,it's something about a fish.
till the evening though,this will have to do :)

'

reflecting on a door.To and fro-II

TO:
'I was just thinking that our lives are a set of doors ..When you're young, all doors are potentially open. We try to identify our talents and interests, make educational and professional choices, find our ways into our emotional and sexual maturity — in this process we open some doors and close off others.
At some point, if we a bit lucky and a bit successful, we reach a place in our life where those choices are largely in place and we are doing what we wanted to do, with whomever we want to do it with. Over time, we close more doors and focus on those which are most important to us, until the inevitable narrowing at the end of...
Is there another way of looking @ this ?'



FRO:
'I believe your door analogy could work.
but for me,i think what one starts with is very few doors.doors one
isnt really aware of.we realise their form as we grow when we've
blundered through life enough to realise that some have closed.
their not being open is what gives them a form.
the lack of the opening gives it a shape.
but you go on then and if you're lucky and start trusting your
instinct,sort of surrender to it,then you have the guts to knock on
doors you're not even sure exist.they take form because you believe
they do!
after a little more of walking you forget about doors,about opening or
shutting them,you're free...you take what you will,there is nothing
that can be lost.the analogy of the doors is no longer
required.everything is permeable.
the point is not to attach too much meaning to the form of the door.'

I am reworking the structure of this blog.
give me a month.
or lesser!


em,and if anyone is wondering,that's belmondo on the ground.godard in the coat and glasses,facing us.last scene of 'A bout de souffle'.
notice:no crowd control.just Coutard and a camera.
I'd like to meet the guy who took this picture.How did he know I'd have liked to see this picture!?!lol..
ffffff.