Monday, March 4, 2019

The Kaladham Diaries - Day 9

Last day. I made it to the ground. Piyush came with me. I bowled a bit. piyush got some great snaps of my bowling action - all in alignment.
Happy with the action

Back to the Convertor with a fine breakfast. The Bangalore crowd - Shireen, George, Brandon - would leave by 11 and the Hyderabad crowd - Sathya, me, Piyush, Sharon, Vishakha, Hash and Elisabeth would leave for Hyd at 1.
Sathya, Elisabeth, Hash, me and Piyush (Pic. Vishakha)

George and I promised to meet at the Times Lit Fest tomorrow at Bangalore and head to watch Nimmi's show in the afternoon. Hugs and farewells and off they went.
Shubra, Vishakha and Sharon (Pic. Hash)

Brandon would be heading off to Colombo and Shireen to Cochin to do some work. Packing up, saying farewell, giving tips and off we were to the quaint Vidyanagar airport. At Hyderabad, Sharon and I split ways with the rest, who were heading off to Delhi and Bangalore. Hugs and farewells and off we were, heading home.

The Unfestival had ended. Thanks JSW Foundation. Thanks Sathya. Thanks Vidyanagar. Thanks all.

Writer Profiles 9 and 10 - Vishakha Jindal and Elisabeth

Vishakha Jindal, Designer, Artist and Photographer
Vishakha is a designer and artist. She finished a course at Srishti Insitute of Design and now co-manages a design studio in Mumbai. She has many talents - designer (she designed last years book at the Hampi House), is an artist and a photographer. She knows her craft well and goes about it calmly and efficiently - knows exactly what she wants.

Vishakha drew some wonderful paintings and showed them to us and I am sure they will show up in the book someplace. She is very sorted and gets things done, quietly and easily. She has this fine learning mindset and asks questions - the right ones. She'd go off on long walks or jogs most mornings, discovering new places by herself. I asked her to come along with me to get Antony's pic and Elakkiya's pic and she was gracious enough to do that and so well.

I somehow feel I will be seeing more of Vishakha soon.

Elisabeth, Documentary Film Maker
Elisabeth is a documentary filmmaker from Hamburg who is on her first visit to India. She is Chandrahas's friend and joined us directly. The first thing we noticed with her was that she hardly missed a beat - not a moment you'd feel that she was in a strange country with a bunch of strangers. She just walked right in and made herself comfortable. And in doing that she made us all comfortable too. Food, water, going around, sun, nothing bothered her. She was always in good humour and was a fantastic addition to the group.

On her second day at the Unfestival she decided to come with me to the IIS. She sat quietly for most of the time there and in the end she asked such a simple yet profound question that unlocked a beautiful thought from Elakkiya. What is your relationship with that 100 meter track she asked. And Elakkiya said it was his friend. How beautiful is that! She showed her documentary films on the radicalization of youth in Germany - it was such a beautifully made animated movie. Very political and very deeply involved.

Great work Elisabeth and hope to see you soon.

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