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Sep, Fri 5, 2008 India
On Fri, Aug 15th -India's Independence Day- I ventured out on the train from Andheri to Town (Grant Road station, to be exact). I found out the night before that I would be finally able to do an interview (it was originally for Tue) but I had to go to Town to meet him. This is rather different from just about everyone else. Meaning that, most everyone else either lives in/nearer to the city (Andheri, Juhu, Lokhandwala, Bandra, etc.) and if they don't they come fairly regularly for work. Anyways, I was finally getting to interview Viju Shah (music composer and son of Kalyanji -of the music composer duo Kalyanji Anandji) and so I ventured out to Town. It took a while to decide between train or bus… still wasn't decided when I finally dozed off. I had to be there by 11am so I had to leave by about 9am. It was finally decided in the morning that I'd take an A/C bus. Luckily Kb came with me to the bus stand… cause, the bus didn't show. After waiting for a bit we decided to go to the train station. When we arrived there he made me get in line and get the ticket myself so that I could learn how to do it with a safety guard J After getting my ticket, we went onto the platform to see when the next train would come. Good timing cause it was coming in a couple minutes so, we went up the stairs, crossed the bridge thingy, went down the stairs and the train came! Luckily, being that it was a holiday and in the morning during a non-peak time, the train and station were pretty empty -very empty compared to most days. I stood at the door looking out the entire way there (about 20 minutes, give or take)… It was really nice. Once I got to Grant Road I took a taxi (there are no auto-rickshaws there) to where the interview/meeting place was then, afterwards did the same thing -taxi to train to rick to house. Luckily catching the train back went smoothly -it arrived just as I got onto the platform, though it was crowded and I barely got off at my stop! The interview went well as well. That evening, I went for another interview, this time in Juhu, with Raju Singh but ended up watching him work -he said we'd meet another day as he didn't have enough time to sit and really talk on everything I had to ask. We have yet to meet again… The weekend went fine. Didn't do much. Went to stay at a different house for the next week.
On Monday the 18th, I went to the guesthouse cause the phone the program gave me is efed up so I needed to get it functioning. The 2 F&M students that are there now were going for post-production so I ended up going along. I went to a few of the places I'd been in my post-production week and met a few people I'd met and some new people. Overall it was a pretty okay/good day -though I would have preferred to have been able to do an interview that day like I was originally told I would.
On Tuesday the 19th, I met with Bishwadeep Chatterjee. He is a sound mixer (he did Devdas, Parineeta, Eklavya, etc.) and has been in the industry for decades. It was cool speaking with him. He was nice. On my way there I realized that I didn't have anything smaller than a Rs. 500 bill and the meter was less than Rs. 50 and I knew that the rickshaw driver wouldn't have change -they rarely do… actually, I've realized that most all place say they don't have change, even for smaller notes like 100s and 50s. Very annoying. Anyways, so I got out of the rick and told the driver that I'd go to the store right across the way for change. It was a holiday so very few places were open and none of the ones I went to had any change! So, I went back to the rick and we drove up the street a bit till I saw a car dealership and went in there figuring that they would have to have change. They did. But then the meter had gone up and I wasn't about to have him turn around to bring me back to where I had to go so I walked… Then, I had to go to the 5th floor and, just my luck, the elevator wasn't working so I had to walk up! It was an extra hot day! From there I went for another interview -with Manik Batra. He is in the same basic line of work. That went well as well.
On Wed the 20th I didn't do much -I transcribed… I had lots and lots of that to do (well, a couple of hours worth). It takes ages!!!
After meeting with Shankar Mahadevan at the Purple Haze studio on Thu the 21st, I decided to go to Amritapuri for Janmashtami (Krishna's birthday), which was the coming weekend, plus a few days. I am so glad I went! I best explain how and why I went… and with such short notice!
I've been more or less juggling between staying at friends' places in Versova and Malad W. Towards the end of the week I found out that the people of both houses were going to be out of town for a few days that coming weekend so, I wouldn't be able to stay at either place. I was in somewhat of a predicament. I had met with a couple of the new students staying at the guesthouse and new that a few of them would be out of town for a few days so, I knew there was some space to stay at the guesthouse and either way, there is a couch… So, I figured I'd give the director here a call to ask if I could stay there for a few days. She said she'd have to check with the woman whose job it is to overlook the guesthouse to see if it would be possible. As expected, she said there was no space at all but that there is a YMCA in Andheri I could stay at for a few hundred rupees a night. I was in no mood to stay at a random YMCA. I could have stayed in Thane, which is just outside the city -about a 1-2 hour drive, but didn't really want to do the traveling for meetings/interviews… though, at the time I had none set up for the coming days. So, in my frustration and strong desire to go I decided Thu afternoon that I had to figure out a way to get to AP for Janmashtami plus a few days -ASAP. By that evening I had a flight booked to Cochin and a train booked from Kayamkulam back to Mumbai. I left the next morning as the sun rose.
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