Idea Repository: From Long Ago

II Semester SRFTI

1.  My grandmother used to say that the folded edges in a book is a sign that the student is lazy. [The girl is unfolding the folded edges]. Am I lazy? [The girl tries to reach for the switch from a distance with her foot.] or a long pole]. These days i feel my life is a long session in which i am intently trying to unfold the pages of a lazy girl’s notebook. My grandmother is dead now. These days when i think of her what first comes to my mind is that time when i drew a design with mehendi on her palm. Our house was being painted then. When she went to the loo she forgot she had mehendi on her and brushed past the freshly painted wall. The mark stayed there till i painted the house four years after her death. Her palm looked beautiful in mehendi. She liked it. But the only thing she said to me was ‘How will I attend the mass with this on?’ [Go to the picture of jesus christ on the wall.] Zoom in on the bright red mehendi on her palm. Her smiling, expression changing abruptly and then she says the dialogue. Then we go to christ.

2.  Remember when the principal asked you how your father died and you said he choked and she couldn’t understand what it meant. Look at the irony of the situation. All of them insist on talking in english. Then you, with all the language learning you did say he choked. She keeps on asking ‘what?’ And finally you say he was having food and it got stuck in his throat.

3.  Remember the dream you had tonight. There was a scene in which the mother character who had the face of Irs goes to the security and gives him a hand job.

4.  A kid watching/playing one of those video games in which everybody kills everybody. His parents are fighting. Some activity like that always going on. In the night the kid is sleeping alone and is still listening to the fight. He opens his eyes. Suddenly the mother rushes in hugs him tight from behind and starts crying or something. Noise from the video game flood his ears.

November 2013

1.  സേതുവമ്മയ്ക്ക് ഇന്നിട്ട sweater ഇട്ട് photo അയച്ച് കൊടുക്കണം. മമ്മിക്ക് സന്തോഷാവും. എന്ത് മാത്രം ഉടുപ്പുകളാണ് സേതുവമ്മ എനിക്ക് വാങ്ങിത്തന്നിട്ടുള്ളത്. ഓരോ പുതിയതിടുമ്പഴും അങ്ങനെ ഫോട്ടോ അയച്ച് കൊടുക്കണം. ചെടികള്‍ക്കിന്ന് വെള്ളമൊഴിച്ചില്ല. വാടാതിരുന്നാ മതിയായിരുന്നു. കറിവേപ്പില പ്രത്യേകിച്ചും. എഴുതണം എഴുതണം എന്ന് വിചാരിച്ചിരുന്നിട്ടൊരു കാര്യവുമില്ല. അത് എത്രയും പെട്ടെന്ന് ചെയ്യാന്‍ തൊടങ്ങണം. ആ Hyderabad write-up തീര്‍ക്കണം. ബാക്കി തീര്‍ക്കാന്‍ നിക്കണ്ട. എന്തൊരു വെഷമാണ്. Next work on Calcutta Chromosome. Places.

[Should send Sethuvamma a photo wearing the sweater i wore today. How many clothes has she bought me! Every time i wear a new one should send a picture to her. Didn’t water the plants today. Hope they don’t wilt. Especially the curry leaf plant. No use thinking ‘should write’. Have to start doing it as soon as possible.. Don’t wait to finish up the rest. How sad. Next work on Calcutta Chromosome. Places.

2.  That thing which happened during the production workshop. You were watching a movie on the screen. In the movie someone opened the door. At the same time Sengupta opened the classroom door. If you were to shoot how’d you have done it? Screen-open door-sound+real door open+ its sound and then the person who came in through the real door. His bewildered expression? [There was also S. Kar laughing seeing this. Is that your character? Right now i feel it’s not important. But there will be one person who noticed it. [in this case sad that it wasn’t you]. Is that person who noticed it your character?

3.  Will you walk into my shoes.

4.  In theatre (main for Sum Majumadar’s screening, diploma). Modhu and Mule talking on the phone. They are some rows away from each other and Mule calls to ask Modhu why she is sitting behind. They make comments on people coming in, out etc. You could use the curtain parting over this.

5.  Vi is standing and reading what S is sending on his phone. Completely unaware that i’m seeing him seeing him.

6.  22^nd December
That thing which happened in metro. The door closing just in time. Conversation happening. Extended hand. Two people outside. One left inside. What could they have said? Stay? Get off?

7.  Use: The scene from demo film I in Indian Coffee House. The girls clicking themselves. The photo should പതിയല്‍ [get captured]. There should be flash. Your protagonist could walk past these two girls in the next shot. We could follow him/her.

8.  Use: The guy forgot to take his sweater from the girl while getting off. He remembered just before getting off, came back and took it from her. (expressions).

9.  That thing which happened while coming back from Birla Academy of Art and Culture. Two girls were playing badminton. Their shuttlecock was tattered already. When once it fell a car passed by and the cock went with it. (Must have got stuck under the tyre). The two girls ran behind the car. Calling out ‘Uncle! Uncle! Uncle! Then she saw that it’s a woman and she started calling ‘Aunty! Aunty! Aunty! (They got it back and resumed play?) But let’s leave them there and go.

10.              What happened when you cycled. Two people opening the car doors at the same time and passing a box of cake. One man said sorry to you. You laughed.

11.              In the metro station-anywhere, everywhere, a woman-why should it always be young girls-teenagers? A woman, say is smiling the smile and walking texting or reading a text-reading a text She is drifting-unaware of surroundings. Just the message and that moment for her now. Your character is the one watching her. She is the kind who smiles seeing this smile. And does she get a call soon after and get into a complex conversation of her life while taking a last look at this texting woman. Do her responses get affected by the emotion that is created by seeing this woman?

12.              A fly on the nipple. Doesn’t budge even after ‘phoo’ing
മുലക്കണ്ണില്‍ ഒരു ഈച്ച
ഊതിയിട്ടും പറക്കുന്നില്ല

13.              When you light something with a matchstick it’s not the stick’s sound that you hear. It is something else’s. Next we can show the source of that sound. In Nandigram what AjMa heard and S did not.

14.              Abdhi: She talks like a song (a lullaby) the girl who talks like a song. Drinking session-an episode. She and her lover. Does she write poems? Probably not. But why does she pretend to write one all of a sudden. On a cigarette packet. Whisper it in his ear. His reaction. She throws it (Me-who am i) gives it to him. He puts it in his pocket. Her sudden reaction ‘see darling, how much even i am in love with you don’t fuck with me when i am drunk’ (how muchever i am in love with you)

15.              In the car- me trying to find a date to quit smoking. Now the month is January. So you basically want a far away date. Asl S. He first says somewhere in April. You are mildly happy. But he reads your face. He understands what you are trying to do. So he changes it to February 27^th-you catch him. As AjMa. January 7^th-it’s already over. Karmakar August 19^th. You are very happy. Now you can ask the reason for each of their reasons for having said these dates.

June 2014, Kozhikode

[Short film time, Break-up with Jay]

1.  Germ: A robber on train. His loot. A chained iron case. He steals it. But when he sees the contents of the box he wants to meet the girl. Starts stalking or something.

2.  An old couple on train. Ever so beautiful in the morning light. This was after III A.C had become the Sleeper class of the middle class.

3.     വെള്ളത്തില്‍ നിന്നു പറിച്ചുമാറ്റപ്പെട്ട മീന്‍ പോലെ ഞാന്‍ പിടയുന്നത് നീ കാണുന്നുണ്ടെന്ന് എനിക്കറിയാം. ആര്‍ത്തവസമയത്ത് പുറത്തുപോകുന്ന രക്തം ഒരു കഷ്ണം മാംസം അടര്‍ന്നുപോകുന്നതുപോലെയാണെന്ന് നമുക്കറിയാവുന്നതുപോലെ.

I know that you can see me writhe like a fish out of water. Like how we know that menstrual blood feels like a chunk of flesh falling apart from the body.

December 2014

1.  The woman next to me. Her oranges and apples falling, ripped bag, തട്ടം. [veil] yellow saree. Maroon sequins. The woman in the next seat passing a bag and fallen oranges via me.

2.  Like two lovers against the whole world. One person with a cat against the whole world. Explore. One idea/ideology against the whole world.

3.  A man in 60s booking ticket to Chennai from Trivandrum. He asks for side lower berth. Not available. Asks to look for middle berth. Looks at me and smiles. എനിക്ക് പിന്നേം കൊഴപ്പല്യ. [I am still okay with it] But she cannot manage. Smiles. Asks to check if it is available in ‘senior’ quota. The counter person says ‘yes’.

4.  A couple talking in metro. By the 2 glass manes windows/door. Smiles when in love. This is the POV of our girl.