Day 385 - 23rd January 2012

Played tennis in the morning with Anuja for about an hour. This term so far has felt like a holiday, have a strange feeling that its all going to be come back and bite me soon. Came back to Kachnar and did the weekly washing of clothes - its always a game of chance with one washing machine at the disposal of 32 people. You've got to pray that nobody has left their clothes in. Have been lucky the past two times. The second round of MCL games began today, umpired the second innings. Was a relatively one sided match. Had Indian Cinema class post lunch. The session was a case study on Bombay Talkies - how it gave rise to the film industry. Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani, the founders of Bombay Talkies were true pioneers in the film industry with the kind of steps they took. They were the ones who started the concept of summer internships. Ashok Kumar, Kamal Amrohi and Dev Anand were some of the products of Bombay Talkies. We were also shown a documentary on Wagah which took a dig at nationalism.

Today was also the deadline for the CIM group assignment submission. This was one group assignment in which people just could not free ride. Was sitting with my group in the library for most of the evening working on the assignment. Got done with it by midnight, just in time for Apu's birthday celebrations in Chinar. She had bought pizzas from Domino's (I had prior intimation and had skipped dinner in the mess for it :P). Was in Chinar till about 245, came back to the room continued the daily tradition

Day 378 - 16th January 2011

Played tennis in the morning for a change. Also managed to wake up in time to have breakfast in the mess. Strted transcribing the interview I had taken for the CIM group assignment. Transcribing interviews is one of the most painful things I have come across in quite some time. Listening, pausing, typing, listening again and so on. Post lunch took a one and a half hour long siesta. Had Indian Cinema class in the evening. It started with a screening of a few scenes from India's first motion picture - Raja Harishchandra. The lecture that followed was about the growth of Indian cinema and how businessmen got involved to make it as professional as possible. The evolution of the use of sound in movies was also discussed. The moment sound came in, the actors who previously acted in silent movies became redundant because language was a huge barrier (with India having 1652 languages!). Hindi was predominantly used but Marathi and Bengali also picked up in those days. The complete adoption of sound took place with the usage of music in movies. The first song recording was done in a studio near railway tracks in Bombay and it took four long months to record those songs since the noise from the passing trains created a lot of disturbance. Also got to know that there were movies with as many as 70 songs in them!

After class came back to the room and continued the transcribing. Dinner was at Dominos with Sania. The Cheese burst pizza was really good! Got back to campus by 1030. Coxic Smash - the intra MICA badminton tournament started today. Although I cant play badminton, watching experts play is a visual treat. There was one such match today which was amazing fun to watch. Came back to the room and continued the daily tradition of watching interesting videos shared on facebook. Will read for a bit before calling it a day.