GUCCI-2011

For a class assignment, we have to recreate a fashion magazine. While I was looking out for fashion trends and latest collections, I came across Gucci Spring Summer and Fall Winter 2011 collections. My eyes were glued on to the pictures! The colours are lovely- the most beautiful green with deep purple, bright orange and rich blue- along with Gold! I don't think it can get any better!

I loved the nudes too! 

A NARROW ESCAPE and THE MISSING GIRLS

Last night my twin cousin sisters told me about a disturbing incident, from their recent holiday to Bangkok. The two of them were shopping in a crowded mall, while the rest of their family was in another mall. Suddenly a decently dressed, middle-aged lady, wearing black trousers, white shirt, a gold chain and sporting shoulder length straight black hair approached them. Her appearance was such that she could have passed on for an Indian or a Middle-eastern woman or maybe even some other Asian. She started a conversation with them in Hindi, beginning with queries about bargaining and places to shop at. She seemed pretty friendly. She mentioned how she was alone on a holiday in Bangkok and felt completely lost. Then she asked my cousins with whom had they come to Bangkok. They told her that they were there with their family. Shortly after that, the lady ended the conversation and went. 

Later, when my cousins mentioned this incident to their family, they realized how they had just had a narrow escape. That stranger could have been a pimp, involved in human trafficking! My cousins were almost on the verge of inviting her to shop with them. But, thank God, they didn't!

Another story that reached me through a long communication chain was about a man, who happens to be a neighbour of one of my acquintances' acquaintance's son-in-law. This man took his two daughters, aged 12 and 13, who were bereft of their mother's demise, on a holiday to Hongkong. While shopping in one of the malls, the girls excused themselves to go to the rest room, while the father decided to wait for them at a nearby shop. A while passed, but the girls didn't show up! The father went to have the rest rooms checked. But he could not find them. He searched the entire mall and all nearby areas for a week, but he couldn't find them. When he saw no hope of finding them, he returned to India. Slowly, this tragic story of the missing girls, reached one of my relatives, who meditates and sees some psychic visions. She meditated about this incident and she saw visions of those two girls, in a house in Bangkok, and she also saw the address of the house. So, she tried to contact her acquaintances for the contact number of the father, but she had no luck with it. Till date, no one knows who that father is!

There are loopholes in this story, but the story and the incident, have really had a disturbing impact on me. There are huge human trafficking racquets happening around the world, wherein girls are smuggled from one country to another. The knowledge of these facts, disgusts me to the core! It leaves me helpless and worried about my own safety and the safety of my peers and all other girls around the world. I don't know what I can do at this level, to stop these sick practices.

Plagiarism and all that

We wasted an entire day in college today. Did absolutely nothing. We had an evaluation today at 1pm so we all had to stay in college until the faculty showed up. And they showed up at around 4pm! Its quite annoying. Our department is really unorganized. We literally slog for 24 hours a day and still do not manage to produce work of good quality or of great depth. There are times when the work that gets appreciated, is just fancy and in large quantities- it has no depth in terms of concept and research. I feel that just defeats the entire purpose of design- unless of course, it is genius design (which in 99.9% cases, it is not!)

Sometimes I wonder, whether we are designers or decorators?

Besides, there is never any time for recreation or to refresh our minds and look for inspiration. If only we didnt have such long and tedious college hours, at least my output would have been double!

Plagiarism is a major issue in our class. Some students tend to plagiarise work from the net and submit it. Everybody finds out , except the faculty. There have been issues amongst my batch mates because of plagiarism. A couple of times, my friends were also bothered by it. They didn't see how it is fair for students to get away with plagiarism. But, it never bothered me. I always told my friends that dishonesty always backfires in the end. And so it happened...

Recently, some of my batch mates went for their internship interviews. One of them had plagiarized a document off the net, and happened to put it in his portfolio. And the interviewee found out! I dont know whether he eventually got the internship or not but surely he was really embarrassed ! 

Photoshop Experiment

A photoshop experiment, inspired by Kyoorius Designyatra postcards. Its not even close to what the postcards look like, but I like it so I'm putting it up.

Still human?

There's this quote by someone anonymous which has been in front of me since months, but i always overlooked it. Today this quote suddenly registered in my mind because after more than six months, I am not that occupied, mentally.
It goes like :

"A heart overflowing with love brings light and life into a dreary weary world"

I now realize, how all of my actions have become so mechanical, how there's no nice emotion that I feel within myself, how I have become so indifferent towards people and towards other things in life. The good part is that circumstances do not bother me that much-problems seem small. But, i think it is really harmful for a designer to have become emotionally dead!

I do not feel any happiness or excitement when I do or present my work to anyone. I know these feelings are in no way, directly connected to this quote, but I feel, if I adopt this in my life, maybe I can get rid of that feeling of indifference.

Recently, I  had this conversation with my friend, where she asked me to vent out all negative emotions within me, and channelize them in my work. She told me how her canvases were inspired by one of the most emotionally challenging phases of her life. So, I followed her advise ( partly). My emotions were vented out on this classmate, who had been getting on my nerves since a few months. :P

AHMEDABAD-JAMA MASJID-MARCH 2011

I had gone to Ahmedabad to attend RGB 2011(National Institute of Design's annual inter-college design fest), where I participated in the photography competition. I formed a team with one of my friend's from my college, Akanksha. We went to this place called Teen Darwaza near Moolchand market to click photographs and ended up visiting the Jama Masjid.

It was the first time in my life that I witnessed namaaz in a mosque and I have to say it was extremely peaceful! We sat there for around three hours and neither of us wanted to go back! It was such a change from the stressful life in Delhi, where we are always on-the-go and there's no time at all for such experiences or to even sit down and talk about things that are not related to college work!

Here are some of the photographs that I clicked there..

This photograph is of the shadow of a man who's trying to fix his swing. I clicked it for the photography competition's theme: UNINTENTIONAL. We felt that shadows always follow us and there are no intentions behind their formation..

This photograph was clicked at one of the entrances of Jama Masjid.

A man drinking holy-water and saying his prayers.

While we were sitting and watching the namaaz, this boy happened to cross us, and in just a few seconds, I pulled out my camera and clicked this. 

The boy tried his level best not to be captured, but thanks to my Canon 500D, I caught the boy and this amazing expression on his face in my frame. B-)

While I was clicking pictures of the namaaz and the mosque, a man crossed the frame, and I managed to capture this interesting motion blur.