All In a Day!

Edit, Check. Sound sync, check. Color correction, check. Mastering, check. I'm happy, check.
Whoa, what a day today was! All that took to make me make a short film within 12 hours time was a mere deadline. From stratch, I shot today morning on Bhanu's Nikon (sans a tripod) as I was awake. Trust me guys, its real fun when your home happens to your shooting set/ location. You have a lot of props, extras, added lighting which means that you can even shoot sunrise scenes from inside a room in the dead of the night. (Hell yea, that is absolutely possible. Try standing with a couple of CFL lights on the other side of the window pane and point it towards the room where you want sunlight. :] )
You know what the best part is? All of this you get for free.
So where was I? Yes. After the morning, I had a nice small lunch and straight rushed off to the edit with the footage I had shot. The edit began with the usual conversions, aligments, cuts, et al. Finally, a music piece that me and Samit had mutually selected was introduced to the timeline and the real pain began here. Syncing music with picture can be a prick in the ass I tell you. It is all upon your intuition to determine the right beat for the right picture/scene. That apart, the syncing was managed and the color correction was also done in a nick of time.
Why I'm writing all this? because I still use a Pentium Four processor. Because, my CPU does not have an extra cooling fan. Because, both of these factors sum up to the fact that the final cut is rendering real slow and I'm waiting for it to finish so that I can see it. But hey, do I sound like I'm complaining?
Come on, it is not everyday that you get to make a movie in 12 hours flat.

Phone a Friend

So, Miss Kapoor.. this is a certainly a moment that would define your life. Are you nervous?, the host orated with a impeccable, impressive baritone that sounded like that a angry young man's.
"Okay, Miss Naina Kapoor, there goes the 13th question. For Five crore rupees on your screen now.->

Which among these is known as the city of joy?


a. Calicut
b. Tuticorin
c. Calcut.... "

And she woke up all of a sudden, from a almost deep sleep. She had her head buried in her arms on the hot seat for the last twenty minutes or so. She could see production assistants running around the sound stage with continuity sheets and cola-cans. The PIC was shouting on the top of his voice on a mere gaffer boy to tighten the bolts of the boom rod. The game show host stood a few feet far away from the hot-seats discussing lines with the copy-writer. Her eyes at a sudden fell on the table below the host's 'Computerji' where lay a check of a 8-digit figure complete with initials of a signature which most of us bolly fanatics would kill for.
It was Mehboob Studios, Bombay. And Naina still pinched herself for she couldn't believe that she had made it into the 13th question, in actual.
The audience was gradually filling in the seats after the 5-min commercial break on National TV which in reality was a 30 minutes lunch break for the studio guys.

Two glasses of water and three minutes later, Naina was back to her normal self.
It had been a minute since the camera had started rolling and the audience had been clapping.

A while later.

"Okay, Miss Naina Kapoor, there goes the 13th question. For Five crore rupees on your screen now.->

With the binomial theorem in relation, what is it that appears on three vertices of an infinite Pascal triangle?


a. 22/7
b. Digit 0
c. Digit 1
d. a random recurring variable "


The game show host gave a deep, calculating expression after completing the question in a even more deeper baritone complemented with a usual panache.

She acted indifferent.
Now its time,she thought.
This is what she was waiting for.
And not giving him a chance to speak at all, she quipped, "Sir, i would like to use a lifeline."

The host- " Miss Kapoor. If i am not wrong, you happen to be a painter by profession. right?"

Naina- "Yes. I'm a student of vernacular arts, to be more specific."
That was in the most formal and trim manner she could make up of.

The Host- " So, at such a crucial point in the game and with four of the lifelines at your disposal, what would you choose? And for the record, this has happened for first time in the six year long history of this show."


Naina- "I wish to phone a friend."


To be Continued.

Ab, Bus - Public Transport Gets a Whole New Face For Bhubaneswar

Gone are the days when one used to wait for like decades for an auto or have a tough time bargaining with the auto-wallah (read: cabbie) over the fare. If you are still not getting of what i'm talking about, then for your information organized public transport had its inception at the city of Bhubaneswar, India in form of a City-wide Bus service.
This is a small yet a audacious step for Bhubaneswar and means quite a lot for its denizens. :)
This is surely something we denizens could take pride of in a while. Agree?
So, here's a small but packed info on all about the Bus Service that was rolled out today on a Public-Private Partnership basis.
It is a organized city-wide transport service comprising of twenty buses that would ply on Two distinct routes. The first route would be from NandanKanan Zoological Park to Biju Patnaik Airport with the buses numbered 207 and the second route is supposed to stretch from VSS Nagar to Dumduma with the buses numbered 40.
The tariff for the tickets is as low as Rs.2 and depends and is proportionate upon the distance one travels.
Holy Smokes!, thats surely economical, eh?
Here is the route plan for both the routes.

Bus no.207:
Nandankanan-Raghunathpur-Nandan Vihar-KiiT Square-Patia-Damana Square-Chandrasekharpur-Kalinga Hospital-Fortune Towers-Jayadav Vihar Square-AG Colony-Kalinga Stadium-Shastri Nagar-Kalinga Enclave-Rabindra Mandap-Master Canteen-Rajmahal Square-Forest Park-Airport.

Bus no.405:
VSS Nagar-FCI Godown-Satsang Vihar-Vani Vihar-Ram Mandir-Master Canteen-Rajmahal Square-Forest Park-Palashpalli-Bhimtangi-Lingaraj Road PH-Pokhariput-Jagmohan Nagar-Jagamara-Khandagiri Square-Kolathia-Dumduma Colony 


Have a Nice ride! :)

PS- The author of this blog that is me is having a very bad writer's block. Feeling guilty about the fact that my blog has been dead for a while, this is all i could come up with.
To all my readers, i know you would want my ass kicked for not posting pieces and poems anymore, but please bear with me for a while's time and take a vacation. Cheers :)
I should be up with something very soon.



Disclaimer- The information issued in this post is solely for informational and educational purposes and is solely for the benefit of the general public of Bhubaneswar.
This is not an Official Statement or a Notification and this post is by no means published or sponsored by the concerned authorities. Hence, Agent Literateur shall be held responsible for any kind of loss connected to this post.


©Text and Photos- Agent Literateur, 2008-2010

Them Bastards

Once upon a time in the suburbs of a beautiful city called Bhubaneswar, lived a bunch of kids who called themselves the 'Mafia on Cycles'. Their targets included 'petty Ice-cream Wallahs', the uncles who sold Balloons - The heart shaped ones. Or the 'Bhaina' at the game parlor where they had a time of their lives playing the likes of Mortal Kombat and Re-coil. Those petty fights after the school they used to get in, for Pokemon tazos or those wrestling trump cards now seemed so childish and immature to them, but each one of them very well knew that this was the seed to something great and lovable, the undying friendship that would follow. They used to return their homes with bruised arms and knees and broken cycles, but on the contrary, the bond they developed between themselves had been deemed un-breakable. Together, they used to shout together those dirty slangs they had picked up at school in the summer evenings after a game of Cricket not caring about those colony uncles who would hear them. As time passed by, the cycles gave way to the Peps, the Dios and co. By this time, apart from the slangs, thick fog of smoke came out from their mouths that smelled tobacco. The tiny rascals had become big boys indeed. Period.
Words like Love, crush meant a whole new meaning for them now. Despite the fact that each of them wore different brands of underwear ranging from the stupid sounding 'Rupa' to the chic 'Puma undies', they had one thing, one fucking thing in common- At some point or the other they had felt for a girl. One of them was a born player, in formal words, they'd call him Casanova. He never fell in love with every girl around, it was the other way round. Sick fucktard, made me jealous at times. Gradually with the passage of time, some of em had break-ups, the Casanova did what he was best at, some just let go for they were bored, two of them were still stuck and were having a tough time on moving on and a last single bastard, the glorious and the most creative of the lot was simply confused of what he wanted. He assessed the girls in his life like stock options, where to invest, where to not. Errr sorry, 'whom to invest upon....' :P
Career wise and academically, most of them had a tough time in finishing school, the 12th grade. A few managed it and passed coolly, one of them failed badly. But the other bastards still stood by him, kept his spirits high and a year later, this tiger fought back and cleared his thing perfectly. The fact that they were now in different colleges and instis` was not a problem. They still kicked ass in town, together.
Cutting to the present, they made new friends and relationships and carefully chose the ones that they knew would last forever, probably. These bastards are indeed proud of what they are now and what they stand for. A poet, a semi-poet, a writer (probably), two photographers, a date doctor, two awe-frig-gin-some Joe Satriani-esque guitarists, a gifted foot-baller, one responsible guy ( he's the Man Friday most of the times when we end up screwing ourselves) and the perfect angry young man. Now that's what quite a many people would call a talented bunch o' individuals.
Love them, hate them, envy them. They won't give a give shit to it.
For they Love all and Rock all. Them Bastards.
Care for more, eh?

Moon.me

I light up the darkness. I tranquilize all the pain when the world is asleep. Its me- The moon, the beautiful moon. The lovers adore me, the Satan also stands by me. I stand witness to all his vicious acts.
Like the moon,i too shower light on the people around me and keep them ever smiling and happy.
I shine through my life. 
Unlike the sun, the moon is cool, gentle, soothing and healing. Its pretty much the same with me.Cool, calm, composed and gentle are many a few words that describe me.
Still like they say, there is darkness behind every illumination. Yes, I've a dark side too. But the best part is that it's way behind me.
The moon does have spots on it, but it doesn't make it look bad and ugly. Despite the imperfection, people don't stop loving me.
This is something that i can relate to myself. I have people in my life who love me,appreciate the right things i do and at the same time, accept the imperfection in me too.
Afterall, nobody is perfect and this support that i get from people inspires me,motivates me and encourages me to move further in in life with a positive attitude,
without the fear of failure. Each time, i feel more confident and the path to my goals changes from a topsy turvy sine wave curve to a straight line.
Like the moon has stars around it, I too have a similar lot of stars for company - My loved ones. And the brightest among them are my parents. In the case of the moon, the bright stars around it look it even more beautiful.


PS- I would sincerely like to thank a friend who infused a sorta charm to this whole article. Love yooo Aayush, you rock \m/.

RAJNI-CAN"T???

came across this article recently on a magazine. wanted to share this with u people...funny na?? :P
PS- do take the pain to click on the image to get a better view of the article...its worth it.