Kruti ... A dream for you and me

Contacting CFSI

2010-06-30T16:31:00.001+05:30

Contacted CFSI ( Children Film Society of India ) to see if they could help me distribute the movie. Nothing finalized yet.

Meanwhile, I got in touch with Ajay , who is a distributor of CFSI in UP region. Ajay has been a great help and gave me a few contacts with whom I am in touch with to see if I could get some help for distribution

Interesting School

2010-06-01T13:04:00.002+05:30

Neelam , one of our actors in the movie , told me about an very interesting school

http://www.cfl.in

Need to read it up in more detail and must visit.

A visit to Marlwadi

2010-06-01T12:56:00.003+05:30

For the past few days I had been thinking of going to Marlwadi to give a copy of the movie to both the people in Marwadi village as well as the SSY gurukulam. After a lot of debate, we set out on sunday afternoon for our drive to Marlwadi.

I was also excited about the drive, coz I knew that I could spend an hour discussing with hubby about the new projects we could take on in Kruti. So on sunday, after completing our morning tasks, we set out for our drive at around 12 pm. Discussed a few projects in Kruti and by the time we reached the ashram it was one thirty . As we entered the ashram we were told by the person assisting at the gate that there was a sadhana camp on in the ashram . Also because of the camp, Rishi Prabhakar was there in the ashram. Wow ! Thoroughly tired and hungry, we had a good darshan and first went into the dining hall to have some good ashram food. Had some good curd rice, pulav, and some healthy salads and then proceeded towards the main hall to look at the function that was happening in the ashram.

It was the final day of the '100% memory' program and the education minister had been invited. The students demonstrated their 100% memory and told the audience how much they loved the stay in the ashram . Education minister was impressed and said that he would look into how he could spread this education in the schools in the state.

After the function was over, we went up on the stage to meet Ravi Guruji to give him a copy of the CD we had made. As soon as I introduced myself , he said - you know what ! I heard that this movie has been showin in IIMB ! hehe :) Apparantly one of my seniors had recognised his children in the bus that we had shown in the movie.

Ravi guruji was very happy to meet us and then he took us to Rishi Prabhakar and introduced us as 'very creative' people who had a lot of ideas in their mind.. :) Can you believe that ! Rishi Prabhakar smiled and blessed us .

On our return back, we gave a copy of the CD to the provision shop owner and his wife and returned back to Bangalore feeling happy :)

Screening at Gurappanpalya

2010-04-04T21:09:00.001+05:30

Today , we screened the movie at Mohan and Kavi's home .. And it was a real pleasure to see the pride and contentment in both the children and the parents :)

Was very fulfilling experience after all the hard work done. !

Screening and Dinner

2010-04-02T16:25:00.004+05:30

Yesterday, for the first time, all the members who were involved in the movie project , sat together and watched the movie at my house. Everyone loved the end product :) Three people who were missed were - Sunil and Badri ( who had to go to chennai suddenly for their new project ) and Sundarshree.

And after the screening was a home cooked dinner ! :)

Thank you all for making this movie happen !:)

Screening at IIMB

2010-04-02T16:15:00.002+05:30

Last friday ( 25th March ) , we had a screening of the movie at IIMB. Thanks to prof. Suresh , who agreed for this screening.. Was a very good experience - though there were hitches - since the sound quality of the conf room was not so good. :)

A letter from Cannes ..

2010-03-31T09:09:00.001+05:30

from	fbeauville@festival-cannes.fr
reply-to		fbeauville@festival-cannes.fr
to		veena.mithare@gmail.com
date		Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 12:17 AM
subject		Festival de Cannes

hide details Mar 20 (11 days ago)

Monsieur / Madame Sunil Kumar SINGH

Nous vous remercions de présenter au comité de sélection du Festival de Cannes le film THE STRANGER que nous venons de recevoir.

Nous vous informons que la conférence de presse annonçant les films sélectionnés aura lieu le 15 avril 2010.

Si votre film est sélectionné pour le Festival de Cannes, vous serez prévenu avant cette date.

Cordialement,

Christian Jeune

Festival de Cannes

Adjoint au Délégué général

Directeur du Département Films

______________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Sunil Kumar SINGH

Thank you for presenting your film THE STRANGER », which we have received, to the selection committee of the Festival de Cannes.

The press conference during which we will announce the films selected will be held on April 15^th 2010.

If your film is selected for the festival you will be notified before this date.

Yours sincerely,

Christian Jeune

Festival de Cannes

Deputy general Delegate

Director Film Department

For the want of a Cannes Submission !!

2010-03-16T20:27:00.003+05:30

Ok.. the Last date for the DVD to be received at Cannes is 19th March. Thats why all that last minute jugglery at the dubbing and editing studio.

Somehow I had been confident that a DVD will take 4 days to reach by post to any international country - and in that over confidence , managed to keep this open till the last moment. But can you believe my surprise when I realised that all the courier shops were closed today because of Ugadi !

Now , we really have to take a chance about submitting to Cannes. Fedex promised to deliver in three days - which means that if I dispatch tomorrow - if all goes well - the DVD will reach the destination just before 19th close of day .

Crossing my fingers now !

Final Editing

2010-03-16T20:24:00.003+05:30

On 15th, after completing the dubbing we landed up at the editing studio, to do the final editing - we cut one scene - mixed the music - balanced the dubbed voices and the music . Then we added the credits at the front and back of the movie.

Badri and the editor, worked from 3 pm to late in the night to 11 pm - but as promised by Badri - the movie was delivered yesterday night 11 pm at my home. :)

I couldnt have slept without watching the final product - and must say - I am very satisfied with the end result. Its come out well.

Now waiting to send it to the film festivals.

Dubbing...

2010-03-16T20:18:00.002+05:30

Finally we dubbed for our movie on 14th and 15th of March. After the initial glitches, all the dubbing artists ( who were family and friends ) got an idea of how the dubbing works. And we all dubbed like pros ! :)

On 14th, we dubbed from 7 pm upto 11.30 pm - can you beat that ! And yet, we could not manage to complete the dubbing for Satish - since the children( Saurabh and Suhas - Chitkala's sons) that we had brought for dubbing , had a little older voice and did not suit Satish's character.

On 15th , we managed to get Aryan Saraswat ( Roli's son ), who completed the dubbing for us.

@ Dubbing studio

2010-03-13T21:33:00.000+05:30

Oh! it is not easy...all dialogues ringing in my ears :-)
But it is fun.. few more steps..next 2 days we will be mastering the move. It has been long journey!

Music Recording done ! :)

2010-03-10T11:44:00.002+05:30

We recorded the music for the movie yesterday ( 9th March ).

Was amazed to see how BV Srinivas was creating music on the fly - and such beautiful pieces at that. The flutist, Prithwin and the tabla player, Vijesh were young boys whose contact I had got thru other friends.

Both of them did a great job. Wherever Prithwin was not able to catch the tune, was amazing to see how beautifully BV Srinivas was handling him - with so much of encouragement and restpect.

His parting lines to Prithwin in fact were - Practice well ok ! :)

Now waiting for the final editing to be done.

List of Film Fests and Distributors made

2010-02-26T22:26:00.003+05:30

Made a list of international Film Fests and Distributors to distribute our movie . Started dialogues with them. Lets see how this goes.

Music recording on 7,8 March

2010-02-26T22:25:00.001+05:30

If all goes well, we should be recording our music on 7, 8 March with BV Srinivas. We have two friends of ours Vijesh ( Tabla Player ) and Prithwin ( a flute player ) who will be helping us out with the music.

Meeting BV Srinivas

2010-01-27T19:09:00.003+05:30

Last month, thru my music sir's contact, I met the noted music director Mr. B V Srinivas. He is a noted name in the Kannada serial and movie industry. ( Do a google search on him ).

I was touched by his simplicity.

I got some idea on how much it will cost on doing the music for the movie through him.

The question now is do we want to spend so much ?

Avanade ( a subsidary of Accenture ) willing to sponsor Kruti

2010-01-27T19:07:00.002+05:30

Thanks to the efforts of Rekha, Avanade ( a subsidary of Accenture ) , have agreed to sponsor Kruti for an event and also agreed to screen our movie in all the locations of their office in Bangalore.

So , yesterday , Rekha, Veena, Raghav and SJS met to discuss the details of the event that could be organised at a short notice ( They want it before 7 th Feb ).

Will keep you all updated.

Legal copy of copyright got

2010-01-19T16:06:00.002+05:30

We got the legal letter signed by Ruskin Bond giving us copyright permissions to use the Ruskin Bond story - A woman on platform no 8 ' .

Thank you once again Mr. Ruskin Bond:)

Editing done

2009-12-28T13:36:00.003+05:30

So we now have an edited version of the movie - and must say - it has come out well.

Now the critical part of completing the movie is to add the music. Ananth now has a copy of edited version , to work on . Also contacted CD and my music sir - hoping that they agree too.

P.S. - Just for smiles - Watched the movie with mozart running at the background - and enjoyed the movie :)

Yipee!!!!

2009-12-10T14:12:00.002+05:30

Wo ! After a lot of difficulty, we could manage to get Ruskin Bond's no.

And today, me and Chitkala spoke to him regarding granting us the copyright permissions.

As soon as I mentioned Kruti from Bangalore, and that I had sent him two letters, he remembered the project and said that he was ok about giving us the copyright permissions !!!!!

The only thing pending now is to send him the legal letter format , so that I can formally have Ruskin Bond's permission.

Thank you so much Mr. Ruskin Bond !

Shooting - Day 3

2009-12-07T00:43:00.002+05:30

Ok - so we completed the shooting yesterday.

Since we had already "been there - done that ", this time, we were not as excited as we were in the first part of the shooting. However, we had our share of excitements for the day :)

The day started with me and Raghav leaving at 5.30 to pick up Mohan from his house. Five mins before reaching his house , I call up Mohan to check if they are waiting for us on the main road. Mohan's dad picks up the phone as says - Mohan is not waking up. I have been trying for the past 1/2 hr!

What!!

We rush to his house , and thankfully, Mohan wakes up seeing us . He gets ready and we leave to pick Rahul, Arun and Chitkala up from the gate of our apartment and at 6.15 we start our journey to Marlwadi. We reach Marlwadi at around 7.15. Sunil and Sateesh come in his car at around 7.30 . And what do we see in Sunil's car !- We had a welcome guest in the car - Sunil's 6 year old , super cute son had come along :)

The crew comes at 8 am in the morning - and we start the shoot. We shoot first at the timberyard. Then we go to the tea stall . Complete the shoot there - and then we have our lunch between 2 to 3. Then we go to a new place where we wanted to shoot the scene with 'little kaveri'. God! This girl is too cute !! She had the beauty of a lady and innocence of a child - big round eyes and curiosity written all over her face :) Patidev also got to be a part of this scene .

Then we come back to the busstop and complete the rest of the shoot at around 5.45. Thankfully, Vilas could manage to come to the location at around 5.15 with Deepa and little Kevin.

We packed up by six, thanked the 'provision store' owner and his wife at Marlwadi for all the kind support they gave us during the shoot.

The star of the day had to be Supreet - Sunil's son - who kept entertaining us with his antics.
And the shoot of the day had to be the one with Kaveri in it :)

On the way back Chitkala and me couldnt help remembering the different spaces that this project went through. We remembered the time, when the main actors dropped out - remembered the time when we were searching for the director - and then how we found Sunil and how suddenly everything started falling in place.

Chitkala also mentioned something like - this project has to come out well. When such beautiful people with beautiful minds come together, it has to give good result.

Hmm - now for what next
1. Get copyright from Ruskin Bond
2. Get the music done for the movie
3. Get the editing done
4. Once the above 3 steps are taken care, prepare for screening of the movie .
5. Send it to the international film festivals.

Need to keep the focus on for now !

Night before the shoot - II

2009-12-04T19:10:00.003+05:30

Ok - So tomorrow is the final day of the shoot. Not much work to be done for tomorrow. Things that needed to be taken care were

1. Ensure that all the artists are ready ( hale and hearty :) )
2. Ensure that all the items for the scenes are there- this includes those stuff that is there on the artists - like hairclip, earrings, bindi, chappal for chitkala and watch, shoes, bag for Mohan.

I ensured this for both the artists.
On the call Sunil mentioned that there are 70 shots - and he had planned all of them carefully. Or was it 17 ?

Lets see how tomorrow goes - will keep you all updated.

Shooting - Day 2

2009-11-19T20:44:00.004+05:30

Roll Camera !
Rolling !
ACTION !!

Heard it so many times that today on I can myself call the shots ! :)

Today was a super packed day in the terms of the amount of work we needed to do. We had to do some 8-9 scenes today and even though we had planned our day properly, this was a difficult task to achieve.

We started the day early - Raghav and me went and picked up the children( Mohan and Kaviraj) at five forty five in the morning. Along with the children, their fathers also came. Since yesterday, I had been thinking of all the things that we needed to take care of for today - Thought of all the props( called as property ) required for each scene, cordination of the artists and the crew and I was pretty confident that I had covered everything. Once we left in the morning,I also called Rahul ( a friend who has been a part of this project ) , to find out if their cab ( which also contained the camera man) had started . I got an affirmation for that and I called Sunil who also assured me that he had started too. Chitkala, Neelam were coming an hour later in another cab. Well ! I was pretty much satisfied that we had a good start today .

When, at around six thirty, Sunil calls me and asks - did you get Chitkala's bag ? At first I did not understand what he was asking . Then I struck me !! Mohan ( Arun) was using Chitkala's bag in his scene ! And the bag was coming with Chitkala. Which meant that we could start only when the bag came. Just as I was recovering from my shock, Sunil laughs and reassures me - I am at Chitkala's place and I will get the bag. Uff !

Meanwhile, our car and sumo containing the camera man and the crew went ahead to do the setup for the shoot. We had just completed setup when Sunil came and we were good to go ! What pace Sunil and Satish ( the camera man ) had today . They were literally running between the shots.

After shooting a little at the banyan tree, we ran into the fields behind . Took a few shots of Mohan ( Arun ) walking along the fields. Guess what ! I got to call the shots. I used my sense of beauty and camera to suggest a few scenes. And boy did they come well ! :) Couple of scenes at the field , when we realised that we needed to have a few children to play at the banyan tree. Raghav and me ran to the nearby village. The children were waiting for their school to open - we talked to an elderly man at the village, and got 3 boys and 3 girls for playing at the banyan tree.

Again got a good creative scene by Sunil ! And we were done for that location ! We were on time so far -- it was 9 am in the morning . I had already asked Chitkala and Neelam to be ready for their shots . Next, we had our breakfast and went to Sunil's favorite spot - the timber yard.

Covered the various activities at the timberyard with Arun watching it with wonder . We had almost completed 80% of the scene, when it started raining :( We lost about half an hour between 11 45 to 12 15. We resumed shooting and completed the timber yard at around one pm. By the time, the bus from the ashram with the kids of the ashram had come. Sunil decided to complete the bus scene, so that the bus can be sent as soon as possible. In spite of hurrying a lot, we could complete the scene only at around 2 45 . We then took a break and fed all the children. Gosh ! even I was really hungry by then and the food was a welcome ! The best part of today was that Ravi guruji and his wife Gayatri guruji( from the SSY ashram and gurukulam) had come to watch the shooting. And what a child like enthusiasm they had:) I got to know Gayatri guruji closely - among other things that we discussed I got to hear the interesting story on how she and Ravi guruji met each other and got married to each other :)

Anyways, the shooting resumed at around three thirty - we got a quick last scene inside the bus and sent the bus and the children back. :) And then we started all the scenes where we have all the four characters ( Arun, satish, stranger and satish's mom ) . These scenes were getting done at break neck speed - and for the first time, I wasnt enjoying the shoot - but somewhere we needed to compromise - we did not have too much of time and lot of work was to be done. I just sat in one corner - honestly speaking, I was a little tired too.

And then it rained again at 4 30 or so - and continued to rain till five fifteen. :( Now we knew we couldnt complete the shooting today - so we concentrated on completing Neelam and Kaviraj's scenes so that they neednt come again for another day .

Well we packed up at five thirty , with around 3 scenes pending. Right now, we dont know when is the third day of the shoot - its definitely not tomorrow.

Readers of this blog - I will keep you all informed ! :)

Meanwhile - checkout Rahul's twitter updates for the past two dates at http://twitter.com/rahuljha

Shooting - Day 1

2009-11-18T20:12:00.002+05:30

Cannot tell you all how much I enjoyed the shooting today. Dont know if I have mentioned in this space that we changed the railway station to a village bus stop. Let me describe how the day went.

We started my place at 7 am in the morning and reached the location at around 8.30 - that itself was an hour later than when we wanted to start. Then the breakfast came late and by the time, we could start the shoot it was 10.30. We wanted to start at around 9 or 9 30. But then the actual shooting more than compensated for all the disappointments of the day.

We started with the first scene where the boy walks along the nature's trail. Gosh ! I was so amazed by Sunil's creativity, his team and the way he was in complete control of the shooting. He took the shots of this scene exactly or much better than what I had imagined in my mind. We shot Mohan ( Arun ) walking on the stone boulders and along the lake. And what shots the director took :) - I dont want to divulge more - coz it will spoil the fun for those of you who will be watching the movie.

After a gruelling 3 hours besides the lake , we decided to return back to have food and resume after that. We went back to have food at around 1.30 - but the food wasnt ready and by the time we came back after food it was around 2.30-3 pm. Then Chitkala had to get ready - she is doing the role of the stranger .

By the time she got ready it was around 4 pm. She comes out all ready with make up , false hair and all - and Sunil gives one look at her and blasts the makeup guy ! He wanted the artists with very little or no makeup . He makes the makeup guy to rub off the makeup he put - I am so glad he did that - Coz Chitkala started looking her playful , cute self again - with makeup the innocence on her face was gone. The false hair was also gone :) - so much for the hard work we did yesterday night !

Then we started the canteen scene. The scene was really very very picturesque ! But sadly, we couldnt complete the scene - coz it became dark by 5 30 . Sunil was growing impatient after 5 pm and was keeping all his assistants on their toes. Anyways, we couldnt complete the work planned for today . But the quality of the shots that we took more than compensated for the quantity of the shooting that actually happened.

I am more than satisfied actually and my heart is full :) !
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS : It rained heavily in Bangalore today after 4 pm , but thankfully , there was no rain in Marlwadi !

The night before the shoot

2009-11-17T23:09:00.002+05:30

Most of the things are taken care of - but I did not want to lose this opportunity to write about the night before the shoot.

The day started lazy as usual - and then I went to the ATM to withdraw money for paying the production house - I was so concerned about the money that - I lost my mobile ! So that made a bad start for the day !

And then since I was so put off - I went to sleep . Got up to go to the tailor to collect the blouses at around 6.30 pm - when I realized this tailor closes by 6 pm. In my mind I thought that I had completely ruined the day and tomorrow's shoot !

I go and check and see that the tailor is actually gone- Disappointed I go to the slum to prepare the children for tomorrow. Thankfully no hassles there .

Then I decide to go back to the tailor -to ask his neighbouring shop for the tailor's no. I get into the neighbouring shop - and start asking for the no. - when the shopkeeper's wife comes in from inside and says - 'Are you asking for the blouses ?' .

Bless the tailor's soul - He knew we needed the blouses for tomorrow - so he left it ready with the neighbours ! Gosh ! what a turn around that was !

Then we needed 'false hair' with some colour on it for Chitkala's look - Roamed around in Jayanagar till late in the night - did not find what we wanted. And finally we struck with a brilliant idea - we decided to 'water paint' the black coloured 'artificial hair' we had, to brown !! :)

Talked to Badri once I came home to check about the food, transport and to get a general idea of things. Things seem to be in control and good to go ! :)

Visit to the location with the camera man and asst. director

2009-11-16T15:22:00.002+05:30

Yesterday Sunil, Badri, Satish( cameraman ) , Naveen ( asst. director ) and Aayee ( my mil ) went to the location again. We took permissions from the localites there about using the place for shoot.

Also the movie, requires a bus in the last scene. So, we went to the nearby Marwadi ashram and requested for the school bus of the gurukulam.( This ashram and the gurukulam belongs to SSY( www.ssy.org ) and is run by Rishi Prabhakar and Ravi Guruji ). We met Ravi Guruji and his wife Gayatri guruji at the Ashram. I was initially skeptical if the guruji would be ready to give us the bus. But then I was pleasantly surprised. He asked us if we needed children along with the bus :)

Also he mentioned that the ashram has seen a spate of movie makers wanting to make movies in the ashram or nearby localities.

Ok , now we are all set for the shoot. My only concern is the weather - Bangalore is cloudy these days.

Meeting Sunil Kumar Singh and Badri and freezing the dates for shoot :)

2009-11-11T21:55:00.003+05:30

We met Sunil Kumar Singh( a well known theatre and movie director ) and Badri( Sunil's friend who is a dancer, theatre and movie personality himself ) yesterday. Had a long stimulating discussion on various aspects of this movie.

Today Sunil, Chitkala and me went to the location again. Sunil quite liked the location chosen - only he was concerned about the distance to reach the place - the place is atleast 40 km from my place.

Saw some locations on the way to Uttarahalli - liked them too - need to see though.

Spoke to the children and Neelam today about having the shoot next week. All of them seemed ready :)

A mock Shoot

2009-11-11T21:54:00.001+05:30

We had a mock shoot last week and we did not quite like the results . So we decided to postpone the shooting for sometime.

A picnic to the location :)

2009-11-01T14:26:00.004+05:30

Today Vasu, Chitkala,Vasu's friend , and the children Mohan and Kaviraj went to the shooting location . We had fun looking at the location again . The children went berserk :) . The played in the lake, swung on the banyan trees, jumped on the timber logs and generally ran around .

We marked the places we wanted to shoot. And spoke to a people around regarding getting their alignment for the shoot. And yes, we are ready for the d-day! :)

Meeting H D Gangaraj

2009-10-30T20:28:00.004+05:30

Today Chitkala and me met HD Gangaraj in person ( I am saying "in person" because, we have talked to him often on phone ). HD Gangaraj is the ex president of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. We spoke to him about the various aspects of filmmaking that we needed help in - and he promised us to get us in touch with some noted Kannada Film directors.

Looking forward to meeting the directors. Will keep this space updated :)

PS - This is totally out of context - but I noticed something today , that I couldn't help comment. People who are in places of authority or those who are well known in their respective fields, are there not because they have charisma or special skills or Knowledge - but because they are so accessible, helpful, disciplined, and committed to what they do. And yes, Gangaraj is all of what I mentioned above.

Musical Update

2009-10-26T08:45:00.002+05:30

Brewin has got in touch with Chakradari Rowe who is a professional musician.

Chakradari Rowe is excited about the project and has promised to work with us in whatever way possible.

A visit to the location along with Vasu

2009-10-26T08:38:00.003+05:30

On sunday, Raghav, Vasu ( A professional videographer ) , and me went to the location of the shoot, which is a village named Marlawadi, that is near the Kanakpura Road, Bangalore. We got some excellent footages of the location. We have marked the locations that we are going to use for the shooting and also have spoken to the local villagers to take their consent.

Having Vasu was a great help to get some really good clips of the place and some guidance on how we should proceed. Thank you Vasu !

Plan to visit there next weekend again.

A visit to the Editing Room

2009-10-26T08:34:00.003+05:30

On Saturday Raghav and me got a chance to visit a editing room- Thanks to Sundarshree!.

This is a TV serial editing room - and our first impressions of editing is that it is quite similar to the Movie Maker editing software that we have on Windows. Only thing is that , this might be a little more sophisticated. The editor has shown complete support and has promised to coach us on the various aspects of editing in the coming weeks.

We plan to see a Movie editing room too, soon.

Contacting FTII

2009-10-26T08:32:00.003+05:30

Got in touch with Dr. Kedarnath Awati, Dean, FTII, Pune, to take his support to get a professional director , who could be an ex or a current FTII student.

Dr. Awati has promised to help us in whatever way he can.

Location search ...

2009-10-25T19:50:00.003+05:30

Lots fo things are happening ... trying to get all the permissions ...finding good locations etc...

Avenues for distribution of short films.

2009-10-12T15:33:00.003+05:30

Right now , we can see the following avenues for distribution -

1. Getting distributed by Short Film Central - http://www.shortfilmcentral.com
2. Getting distributed by Short Film International - http://www.shortsinternational.com/
3. Screening the movie ourselves and having a show.
4. Raising the Funds through sponsorships.

Need to talk to people in short film central and short film international.

Visit to the shooting site and meeting Sundarshree

2009-10-12T15:30:00.001+05:30

Update from visit to the shooting site on 29 Sept.

I and Rekha went to Vijayanagar to watch the shooting of Kannada Serial – Gupt Gamini(which is running from 7 years !!!!) . For those of you who are interested, this serial runs on E Tv from 6 to 6.30 pm. We got this opportunity because of kindness of one of the prime actors of this serial Sundar Shree.

We went to Vijayanagar near RPC layout looking for the nearest landmark the ‘Chitra Kuta’. Once we reached Chitrakuta, locating the house was not difficult. We reached the place around 2.40pm.

Since the crew was on a meal break, we asked for our contact person Sundarshree - the people around called her “Aajji” (meaning Granny !) , A lady in her fifties came and welcomed us( I wondered why she was called Aajji ). Since it was time for shooting, she started preparing for her shoot, put on her make-up and then she looked like real “Aajji” !

Few observations -

1. Each scene is shoot frame by frame , i.e. if there is a conversation between A and B , We can shoot A’s scene. B’s scene can be shot separately

2. Diffused lights ( we need somebody to hold the thermocol sheets , black screens etc)

3. There was a trolly for the camera

4. The director decided the camera angle etc.

5. Cameraman takes care of the lighting /metering etc

6. To avoid dubbing sound also is recorded during the shoot using collar mic

7. Acting

a. Good actors took very less time to understand the complete scene

b. They expressed their emotions very well

c. The dialogue delivery was clear

8. Directors

a. Should have very clear idea about the sequence of shoots

b. Should have good screenplay (print-outs )

c. May draw the sketch of the each scene and plan the sequence of the shots

After watching the shooting for few hours we said good bye to the crew and “Aajji”.

If you have not watched any shooting I suggest you please go. I’m all excited about this new project.

Bye for now – RAGHAVENDRA

Meeting Unit1 productions

2009-10-12T15:28:00.000+05:30

We met some people at the 'UNITI production and media' house.

Please find the profiles of the people we met( Rohit and Sunil ) yesterday - http://unit1productions.com/aboutus.html

Both of them were very encouraging and promised to work with us in whatever way possible. Excited about the project now !

A letter to Ruskin Bond

2009-10-12T15:26:00.001+05:30

Oct 9, 2009

Sent a letter to Ruskin Bond to get his permissions for making the movie. Hope he responds and supports us in this project.

Eagerly awaiting his response ! :)

A good Short Film

2009-10-12T15:24:00.000+05:30

Oct 4, 2009

Check out this short film - Its only 6 mins - But look at the impact it creates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGNmvNIgqlY&feature=player_embedded#

Ministry of Culture

2009-10-12T15:20:00.000+05:30

Sept 24, 2009

Check out the website for 'Ministry for Culture' . There are a lot of schemes offered by the ministry that we could use for our forth coming projects. You could check this under the heading 'Schemes'

http://indiaculture.nic.in/indiaculture/index.asp

Also check the budget allocated and the actual expenditure under the 'Budget' link .

Kruti gets its PAN CARD !

2009-08-24T15:07:00.002+05:30

Its an important milestone for Kruti today. Kruti got its Pan card today !! :)Which also means , now we can apply for exemptions to the donations made to the trust !

Congratulations to each one of us !!

Rehearsal using a Handycam

2009-08-21T11:45:00.003+05:30

--Yesterday we had a rehearsal using a Handy cam. So now , we know how each of the characters look in the camera - which angles look good, which dont.

Right now, it looks like each one of us individually seem to have the right expressions, but as a scene, there is something missing.

Need to work more on this.

--- Also need to work on the exact positions we need to be while shooting. With a DV Cam we will not have the flexibility we have in rehearsals.

--- Need to do some editing and have a rough version of the movie , shot in our Handy CAM.

Distribution in India

2009-08-21T11:35:00.005+05:30

1. This time I spoke to a person called Rajan who guided me about the avenues for distribution in India. He mentioned that there is a film society called 'Konangal Film Society" which is a society to encourage Film making as an art. He said his friend is a president here.

This film society regularly screens movies of interest and gives its critical review on the same. They are also connected to the Film Festivals Worldwide.

Check out their blog at
http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com/

2. He also mentioned the Chennai Film Chambers . He said this is another organization that screens films indian and foreign both. The are also connected to the Film Festivals worldwide.

3. As I was doing the research on the above two organisations, I found out about the Bangalore Film Society . Check their blog at

http://blogbfs.blogspot.com/
http://www.deepfocus.in/bfs/index.htm

Need to do some work on talking to these film societies and get clear on how they operate. And how we need to link up with them to distribute our movie.

More later ,

And oh yes ! All these places screen short films !!:)

Distribution !

2009-08-08T20:20:00.006+05:30

As I doing this film right now, I am stuck at two places -

1. Budgeting for the railway station - this costs a whooping Rs. 75000 / day rent - either Central govt. or other wise ! Hmm.

Since we are not earning any income right now, need to look at sponsorships and / or earning the money thru distribution.

Need to touch base with Sunil and meet the central govt officials and see how they can help us with this.

2. Need to get a good distributer who can help us with distribution. I can see two options here :

a. One is get in touch with the distribution companies listed on internet.
A few of the distribution companies I liked
http://www.shortsinternational.com/
http://www.jaman.com/

b. Get in touch with the local distributers.

While I was looking for distributers, came across these group

http://www.filmcamp.tv/ - a group of independent film makers .
http://www.ufomoviez.com/profile.htm - a digital distribution channel.
http://www.iefilmi.com - A Indo European film initiative.

They sound interesting.. Should meet them.

Bye for now.

Renting a Railway Station

2009-08-05T16:18:00.003+05:30

Ok. Now we are in the process of renting a railway station. And here are the updates for the same.

The rent for hiring a railway station in the central govt. is a whooping 5 lac deposit and Rs. 75000/- rent per day . Can you imagine about the amount of money the govt. makes from the films that are shot on the railway stations ! I cant imagine a single hindi film that doesnt have a railway platform or a train in it. ! No wonder the Bollywood film making budgets run in crores !

So somebody suggested , to look at the Ramoji Film City for doing the shooting there - http://www.ramojifilmcity.com/

I have sent a mail to the Ramoji Film City Marketing manager to find out the cost for shooting on the railway station there. Hope he gives us a good rate . Keeping my fingers crossed ... ! and waiting for his reply ..

Meeting William and some action items.

2009-07-24T12:10:00.001+05:30

Rahul and me met William , who is a cameraman and a "DOP" ( Figure that out yourself ) for a few films, in the film industry. He has done a few kannada films and some advertisements. We met at the Mac Donalds, Total Mall at Airport road and the meeting was mind blowing.

We got most of the information that we needed. In summary we got the following information

1. The budget that will be required for producing of this movie and the equipment and assistants that we need.
2. He had some contacts that we could use to get the permission to shoot on the malleshwaram station
3. He had some contacts that we could use to get the post production done
4. He had some contacts that we could use to get clarity on the distribution.

So in short , once we have the necessary permissions for using the railway station, we are on ! Got butterflies in my stomach as I am even writing this. ( The hitch here is that he was also saying, that sometimes, permission to use the railway station takes upto 3 months ).

Further actions :

Roli to talk to Manish and see if he knows the procedure to get the permission to use the railway station.

Veena, Vilas will get the contact from William and get the procedure to use the railway station clarified.

Veena will get the contact from William for the distribution and see how to proceed on this.

Brewin and Rahul to meet Ananth for the music direction next week.

Rahul will look and see if he can get some contacts for sponsoring this project.

RAghav will talk to a professor on the copyright permissions for using this story.

A meeting for the movie

2009-07-10T10:17:00.002+05:30

Attendees : Raghav, Vilas, Rekha, Roli, Rahul, Brewin, Veena( Neelam was missed )

Minutes :
After a round of introductions for the benefit of Roli and Rahul , the tasks were assigned as follows :

Production schedule and budget - Rahul - BY saturday
Location permissions and freezing of the location - Vilas - Thursday
Distribution finalization Roli and Veena - Thursday
Copyright permissions - Raghav - Thursday
Music - Brewin and his team - Thursday

Status on the Movie- Preproduction almost done - Waiting for Production to start

2009-07-08T13:05:00.004+05:30

Long time since I have posted on this blog.

Ok, here is the status on the Movie. Any movie goes thru five main stages :
Development.
- Screen play is written and the story board made ready .
Pre-production. -
- Cast ( actors, directors, music direction etc ) is chosen
- Location is chosen
- Places to distribute are chosen

Production. The raw elements for the finished film are recorded.

Post-Production. The film is edited; production sound (dialogue) is concurrently (but separately) edited, music tracks (and songs) are composed, performed and recorded; sound effects are designed and recorded; and any other computer-graphic 'visual' effects are digitally added, all sound elements are mixed into "stems" then the stems are mixed then married to picture and the film is fully completed ("locked").

Sales and distribution. The film is screened for potential buyers (distributors), is picked up by a distributor and reaches its cinema and/or home media audience.
For the complete article you can check - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filmmaking

The status is as follows.

1. We are ready with the screen play - Thanks to Roli and me ;)
2. The four primary actors are chosen and these include ( Neelam, me, Vinod and Kaviraj )
3. Rehearsals are going on pretty well.
4. Music direction team is getting formed consisting of Brewin , Rahul's friend, Prakash's friends.
5. We have Rahul who will be taking care of Production
6. Location for shooting is not quite finalized ( but we have liked the Malleshwaram station ).
7. Sent a mail to Penguin India for copyright permissions for using the Ruskin Bond story.

Now excitedly waiting for the Production budget and Schedule from Rahul , so that the actual production can start.

There are many more links I would like to post here regarding the knowledge I have gained in the process of learning the film making. Will do that in another post.

Bye for now.. :)

Another rehearsal

2009-05-21T00:22:00.004+05:30

Today Rekha and me went to meet Vinod and we had another of our rehearsals.. The joke is .. Rekha is now my lead actress ( rolling my eyes round and round ) :).. she is playing the role of the stranger .. until i find another lead actress.. The challenge is how to make a lady of this child woman.. :) .. And that too a dignified , mature one at that:)

But hell ! she and Vinod jell really well together.. that boy picks up our instructions well.. If only , I had the other lead actress, .. to play the Satish's mother .. the movie will go on with a new velocity .. So for today, I played the role of Satish's mother ( she is a really bugging character in this story - and when I told RAghav that I played that part .. he said .. wow ! I knew you would fit the part ! : .. I am still seething with anger on that comment ) ..

Jokes apart, we had a good rehearsal today.. and I am excited again..

Post script :

We also have an option for the other lead actress .. Need to check her out, since she is too young to play this role.. lets see..

I had a conversation with Vinod on what he wanted to be when he grew up . This boy is extremely brilliant. He is a first ranker in his class and is good at painting and dramatics too. At first he had no clue what he wanted to be .. Then he realized that being a teacher ( a maths teacher ) inspired him.. He has promised me that he will do well in his life and at that time, no matter where he is , he will let me know .

Nrityagram - A dance village !

2009-05-05T01:22:00.041+05:30

Last sunday Raghav , me , D and J ( my cousins ) went for a visit to Nrityagram . The concept of Nrityagram has always inspired me . And I had been wanting to visit it for a long time..

Nrityagram is a "dance village" started by Protima Bedi with a dream as mentioned below -

"I dream of building a community of dancers in a forsaken place amidst nature. A place where nothing exists, except dance. A place where you breathe, eat, sleep, dream, talk, imagine - dance.
A place where all the five senses can be refined to perfection. A place where dancers drop negative qualities such as jealousy, small-mindedness, greed and malice to embrace their colleagues as sisters and support each other in their journey towards becoming dancers of merit."

"A place called Nrityagram."

– Protima Gauri (October 12,1948 - August 18, 1998)

A visit to this dance village revealed how well the dream had been translated in to reality.. For the rest part of this post , I am just going to show the pictures we captured - coz a picture is worth a thousand words..

So, we reached Nrityagram at around 10 am in the morning - only to be invited by a closed gate that said the school is closed for the vacations from march to may 19. Oops ! we came so far for nothing ! But not the ones to give up so easily, we hung around the gate, when a car with a lady with a big round dark red bindi came out ( Later we found out that her name is June ) and she was the caretaker of the place .

After getting reprimanded by her for coming on a non working day, she asked us to hang around till the manager of the place would come - she asked us to request him to let us in . Yes !

After hanging around for about 1 1/2 hrs ( we spent time at the TAj kuteeram , a hotel by the Taj group , which is right opposite to the nrityagram gate) , we finally entered the Nrityagram ..

One of the first things you notice as you enter the earth colours with which the structures at Nrityagram are made and the presence of trees and nature.

And the first place you come to, as you enter is the office, where you pay a minimal Rs 20 charge for the tour visit..

( Thats the entrance for the office )

The next place that you come to is the dance hall . Below are few pictures of the dancing hall and the structures around it

Further down is the pathway that leads to the student and teachers quarters .. Extremely beautiful huts admist of gulmohars and other flowering plants .

And the amphiteater itself.. beautiful !

As we were returning back, we noticed the open air dance floor and the shade areas and the mangoes that make up the Nrityagram..

These were just a few glimpses of the place.. The actual place is much more beautiful than what I have described here.. So if you are in bangalore for a vacation, a visit to Nrityagram will really rejuvenate you .. !

Check out their website ( http://www.nrityagram.org/ )- it gives us a complete picture of the vision , activities, public programs of Nrityagram .

( If you are planning for a visit, call up their office and check out the timings before you land up here ).

Another rehersal

2009-04-25T20:45:00.002+05:30

WE had another rehearsal today. Vinod is picking up really fast. Kaviraj has gone to his native place :( :) . Today Saraswati got involved too which is good.

One important thing, we had a new guy , Rahul who came to watch the rehearsal. He is interested in the technical part of movie making and said he will start working on the same. We need to now watch a few shootings to understand the technicalities involved in movie making.

We need to get the two ladies desperately for us to proceed with the other scenes now. I have asked a friend to see if she can play the role of the lead female character - somehow she has not yet read the script to confirm on the same.

I am also thinking on other ideas where we can do more projects with the nearby slums too .

In search of the right place !

2009-04-23T12:35:00.001+05:30

After casting our votes we went to Malleswaram Railway station . It is cute and just the right size.
On the flip side
1. No canteen
2. No book stall
3. Exit door as per script
Overall it is good and worth considering.

Practice ! Practice ! Practice !

2009-04-21T20:26:00.001+05:30

Practice makes Kruti a great team! Inspite of rains the kids came and we had good session. Next task is finding the lead lady and production planning !!

Rehearsal starts

2009-04-20T01:09:00.002+05:30

Yesterday, we chose on Vinod playing the role of Arun and Kaviraj the role of Satish. Had a rehearsal done too.

Right now, the main constraint we are facing is for the role of the two women. I am constrained in getting these women from the slum, coz these women need to be around 30 years of age and their families will not be really ready to allow them to act in movies.

Noticed a very important thing yesterday. That, this script has a lot of scenes with Satish's mother on it. Something that hadnt registered in my mind earlier. Which means I need to have good candidates for both Satish's mother and the 'Stranger' woman.

Yet to freeze on the location ( railway platform i.e. ) .

Screen Test

2009-04-19T20:47:00.003+05:30

Kruti team all set for the new project ... Screen Test for role of Satish !

Movie - Screen test

2009-04-13T19:06:00.002+05:30

Yesterday we( RAghav and me ) went for location selection ( we were trying to find some good railway stations ) for shooting the movie. We went to some small and cute railway station near the K.R.Puram bridge. ( This is not the KR Puram railway station ). Only one train stops here we were told( This is the train that goes to Dhodaballapur ) . The station was really cute, but will not serve our purpose, since it does not have the usual station crowd. The station master( a mallu who spoke kannada with a mallu accent ;) ) showed us the various signalling instruments in his cabin and informed us that there are 150 stations ( big and small ) in Bangalore. We need to look at the train timetable to get the complete list and choose a medium sized station that will serve the purpose of the location for our movie.

Then we went to the slum . We have almost selected two bright and sharp 11 year old kids to play the role of Arun and Satish( Vinod and Kaviraj respectively ). One good thing about these boys are that , they are pretty sharp and they had actually read the complete script, could fluently read it out , and quite understood the story. This was a new experience for me since during the making of our play, children and youth much older could barely read a sentence properly. Which shows how sharp these two kids must be.

Wow ! We are waiting to start the rehearsals now.

Side note : In an conversation with SAraswati, she revealed that she hardly had time these days.. I asked her why - to which she replies that she was into some social work - wow ! I asked her what kind of social work - and she said that she was helping a blind girl to commute to college and back and was willing to take her to madhurai to some hospital where the girl could be treated appropriately for lesser cost.

God bless her ! :) There is so much we can learn from these kids.

Movie and chess - an update.

2009-03-29T20:44:00.002+05:30

Started the process of selecting the actors. One thing that we noticed today was that the children seemed pretty much excited and interested about the project. They were participating completely with us. Some of the actors we had in mind , have grown up . So they wouldnt fit into the role that we need. Looking for new kids to play the roles we need.

Last time I went I also was told that the kids are now playing chess on their own. And they are doing very well too. Saraswati told me how playing chess was helping her in her concentration for studies too.

Need to get to start the chess classes again.

Movie - Getting the children involved

2009-03-23T15:16:00.003+05:30

The initial work with the script has been ready for some time now. And today, I went to Gurappanpalya to hand over a draft version of the script to Saraswati.

Want her and the children to read up the script and come up with a few suggestions on how to go about the movie or who could be potential actors.

On a side note -

Met Vinay - He is one of the boys who had played the theif in 'Alibaba and the forty thieves'. He is extremely sharp and fun to be with.

He seems to have some disease because of which he has white patches all over the body. Is it vitiligo( I am not sure ) .. I just googled to get a probable disease.

Hope he gets well soon.

Chess class on Oct 26

2008-10-27T14:35:00.003+05:30

It was after a long time I was in the Gurappanapalya for chess workshop. I was little scared, since out there I had been to restore the integrity with sweet kids. Especially with Nishanth…..

I entered the venue…and I saw Mohan carrying a small girl kid and she was so cute and smiling….
I asked him to gather all others for another 15 minutes…..
I was a clearing for very less people to be there
Then saw Akash with PC inside the computer center…… Mohan told Akash to invite Vinod, Nishanth and Saraswati…
Akash went to call them
Now I had an opportunity to check the status of Mohan….. Looked like these guys have made their environment to start playing chess….. He said his dad plays very well…and this small guy plays with his day whenever they have time . I got to know they play whenver they have time in their family

After some 10 min…. Akash was back with telling Vinod is out of station…..Nishanth does not want to come….. Saraswati also…. It looked strange for me.. I got that they are dealing with something…then again told him to call Saraswati for 5 min….He went out again.…..
Mean time strange thing is Nishanth was in…. looked like he is ill..he was coughing looked like having fever…
This small guy remembers 2 things very strongly…… 2 openings that recognises the opponents blunder….. and mate the opponent.
Well looked like all his games are still around those games...This gave me 3 insights …
One… I have not given coaching on playing small games which might interest him and allowing them to learn tactics….
Second I got that the boy has good interest and he wants it in his way…….. He will remember everything that interests him…Might be that is same with every child there…
Third is even for me it is the same I remember things that interests meJ
And I spent a half an hour talking with him telling how he can improve playing and keep up the tempo…
Now even at this time Saraswati was not in….
I thought it is good to come back…So said bye to every one in the hall…..
And was on the way back at Saraswati’s house stood for a while…
She came out.. There were lot many guests… So she was taking care of them..
Created the same thing with her like Nishanth..And also completed with her… And also told her when we have the new model (prepared with materials to teach and coach coming to them regularly)… we will again the start the classes…..She was happy to know about my engagement and marriage…What made me surprised is she was interested to come to my marriage…It shows that each one of us go there matters to them at gurappanapalya ……
Well I was happy I went this Sunday…
Now I see there are lot many things possible for me to create for them……
One more thing I noticed is Might be I dint made everything I said possible there in last couple of month …
But the love and passion for chess is spread out there..
Out of this time I spent with kids…. I got one thing powerful is
I need to make a list of chess matches which will interest them…..Which includes opening theories…Which is like a chess syllabus for students who are beginners want to reach the category to intermediate players this is the first action item for me....

Announcing 'Woman on Platform no. 8'- A kruti 3 project

2008-09-28T10:51:00.001+05:30

Its been sometime , Kruti has done something creative. And this time we took on doing a movie.

Doing a movie has been on our minds for quite somewhile. Why a movie ? Well, we have done a play - we know what to do , and how to do it . So try something new :)

The script for the movie has been chosen as 'Woman on Platform 8' - we shall be looking out for the main actors soon.

Unlike the previous times, this time, this movie will be thoughtfully planned and we will ensure that it satisfies each one of us creatively.
So happy shooting everyone :)

Chess Class on May 4th

2008-05-04T16:56:00.003+05:30

Today in the class I saw that the children need support for

concentrating,
visualizing,and
being with the game

more than knowing new things when they are learning chess.
I saw they are much more than what I think they are.
Nishant made faces for loosing couple of games with me and he said he does not like loosing .
I enrolled him for what makes people win in long run.
Saraswati saw a new possibility for learning beyond the limitation,She saw what is available for her in next 2 months
Vinod felt shy initially and then involved in playing.
Prabhu started speaking in Tamil as usual.
I learnt the level I need to be in,while teaching them.
I could not deliver on how important it is to play games separately.
Created with them what is responsibility and creating responsibility by keeping their things properly.
Veena won with Saraswati.
I played and won 6 matches with all the kids.I played with all the kids for the first time today,and understood what is their strength and weakness.

Specific measurable results to be produced at the end of July In chess class are as below.

Me and Saraswati qualify in state level to play nationals and win in nationals.
Kids completing chess course book by 17th May and I complete "Imagination in chess" book.
Veena,Me,Saraswati,Vinod,Renuka,Vignesh,Prabhu,Nishant playing on next CV Raman.
Kids winning at least 3 prizes in next CV Raman.
I getting laptop ,Clock,abcde book for myself and chess boards for all by the end of this month.
I playing at least 3 hours a day.
Keeping in communication with the saraswati,once in a day.

We are now eager to see whats possible by the next Sunday in the chess workshop.Veena says "we need to be with them till they get the rhythm of practicing on their own and being passionate about chess".

C V Raman Chess Competition

2008-04-28T14:50:00.005+05:30

Finally the day came when Rekha and me took 6 kids from Gurappanpalya to a all Bangalore Chess Competition( on 12th April ). We asked the kids to be ready and come out to the main road by 8.30, so that we could pick them up and take them to the competition.

8.30 - 8.45 - 8.50 - 8.55 .. no signs of the children.. calls to their home reveal that they are coming to the main road via a short cut.. God DAmn ! which shortcut.. we know this area for 2-3 years now.. I dont know the short cut that the mother is speaking about.. we take two full rounds on the bannergatta road, checking and rechecking where could we have missed the children..

9.00 am , we see a bunch of neatly dressed children.. with black shoes.. polished and shining et all.. the excitement on their faces was infectious .. and we soon forgot our anger about them meeting us on time..

The following children in the order of their age were there for the competition ..
Nishant ( 8 year old )-- Played under 10 category Vignesh ( 12 year old )-- Played under 14 category Renuka ( 12 year old )-- Played under 14 category Vinod ( 13 year old )-- Played under 14 category Prabhu ( 14 year old ) -- Played in the open category ( above 18 )Saraswati ( 18 year old ) -- Played in the open category ( above 18 )

Each of the children played 5 matches each..
None of them won any, but I was proud to see that Saraswati and Vinod came close to winning 2-3 matches..
Stupid Nishant , needs to mature a little more.. he would lose his games in 3-4 moves.. lol... it was real funny and frustrating to see that.. the funny part is, this guy is so sharp, that he remembered the matches where he lost - and the next week, when we were playing in the slum, he used the same moves to defeat the other kids in the slum.. !.. but its really difficult to get him to concentrate.. !.. he will want to go the temple, and to play with other kids in the middle of the game..

The best part of the competition was that the kids got an exposure to how the chess competitions are .. and the seriousness they need to get into their practice.. And the defeat didnt put the children or us down..

In fact, we are sure, that in the next monthly competition, we will be one of the top playing teams here.. !

Special thanks to Rekha's Coach ( Rekha - sorry I dont know his name ) , who organises this competition , and his wife Jayanti , who sponsored the children for the competition.

Registration

2008-04-09T16:29:00.002+05:30

K r u t i

Kruti A dream for you and me has come through yet another milestone. Yesterday, on the 8th of April 2008, Kruti got registered as a trust with the Govt. of India with 10 trustees .

It was a memorable day for each and every one of us and something that heralds a new beginning for all of us !

- Kruti Team

RoeRich Estates and Shankar Foundation

2008-03-24T01:32:00.005+05:30

Today at around 2.30 pm.. Raghav and me decided to go for a drive.. The weather in Bangalore is getting more and more pleasant by the day and we decided to use this opportunity to check out sites for the Kruti School..

Kanakpura road has always been an all time favorite with both of us.. One primary reason also being that it is the road that leads to the Marlwadi Ashram where our guruji Rishi Prabhakar stays ( check http://www.ssy.org/ )Also, as you drive deeper, on kanakpura road you will get to see the western ghats .. and there are lakes and mini estates galore along this road.. An ideal place for the Kruti School .. !

As you drive about an KM on the kanakpura road.. you get to see a board that says 'Shankara Foundation ' A school for arts.. The boundary for this foundation has been done very well.. in fact in earth colours et all. The Shankara foundation seem to invite and implore us to get in.. The gates were closed and there was no gaurd there.. We knew that we might have been tresspassing.. but who cared..!

We went inside the gates and were in total awe at the beauty of the place.. Trees and parks .. just like the place we envision for Kruti.. about 50 mts from the gate on the left is a open hall that is at a lower level.. took us a min or two.. to figure out that this has to be the dance floor where dancing is taught.. !.. I took a picture of the same.. when I heard a lound voice asking us what we were doing here.. It was the gaurd, asking us to get out since it was a holiday today.. 11 am to 5 pm on any weekday - the offices are open.. we were informed.. Need to study this foundation.. How does their business work.. who are in their staff.. how does this school run.. everything.. ! Wow! we ARE getting in touch with similar projects as ours.. !

The highlight of the drive was however the RoeRich Estates( This estate has been created by the very famous Russian painter 'RoeRich'- Check http://www.roerich.kar.nic.in/)..This estate should be within 1/2 a km of the shankara foundation on the left side as you go towards Kanakpura.. Emboldened by our experience at Shankara Foundation, Raghav parked our car on the gate of this foundation .. and again we trespassed into the RoeRich Estate..

If Shankara was beauty with artificially created parks.. The beauty of RoeRich in stark contrast was very very Natural.. Muddy path ways with trees bending on both sides to provide the shelter from a harsh sun.. Cautious and curious we tredded softly to the end of the muddy road when we reached a house that said 'RoeRich's Residence'.. Wow ! We were actually seeing where the painter must have stayed .. There seemed to be 2 more pathways from this residence and we were debating whether to take the 'Roads less travelled :) '.. when we heard the familiar question again behind us.. 'Who are you ?' What are you doing here?'

Raghav goes - 'We are here to watch the paintings of RoeRich.. Does he have a gallery here' ? ;) .. The gaurd softens.. tells us he is the police in charge here.. ( Since the land is under litigation , ever since the painters death...now the state govt owns the land.. Read somewhere that the govt plans to make this a heritage site ).. he shares a little about the estate .. and asks us if we had already been on the path that we were about to take a few moments ago.. He informs us that there is a lake at the end of the road.. Lake .. ! We are intrigued now.. ! We would like to see it - if the gaurd did not mind .. we asked. For which he says- with a very straight face.. I dont mind.. only that there is a cheetah there !..

Ya Sure!.. We definately would go after hearing that!.. ! but we were curious anyways .. and we asked him to accompany us.. He agreed and we walked down that new path.. And lo and behold.. there actually was a huge lake at the end of that road.. Gosh ! Was it beautiful there ! on the other side of the lake is a forest that connects to the bannergatta national park.. Besides the lake are some 'perfume generating trees'.. The gaurd cut a small twig and the perfume out of the twig was too good . The lake was very inviting and there was a pathway that went around the lake .. I requested the gaurd to take us around the lake .. he agreed.. We had taken about 20 steps.. when we all heard a growl.. LOUD AND CLEAR..!.. we heard it again for two , three more times.. The dogs that were with us, ran back.. We knew the cheetah( My cousin says it cant be a cheetah , it has to be a leopard .. Cheetah doesnt growl.. Leopard growls . .).. was somewhere close by.. We made a hasty retreat back to the house.. and thanked God for saving us from such a close encounter... ;)..

Cheetah incident apart, the RoeRich Estate comes very close to what we envision our Kruti School to be .. Natural beauty and free flow of energy.. very conducive to creative pursuits.. Could we try and get a part of this estate.. Is the govt. listening.. ?

Readers of this blog, do you know of a place in Bangalore.. that is as beautiful as the place I described above.. ?.. Do let us know..

SYMBOL of "kruti"

2008-03-20T19:10:00.006+05:30

2008-03-20T19:08:00.001+05:30

KRUTI SCHOOL Schematic Plan Drawing

2008-03-20T18:28:00.006+05:30

Hi All,

I have attempted to design a plan drawing for the kruti school site. I started my design from the SOURCE. What "Kruti' means and how it interprets itself symbolically. I came across several symbols of "creation" from which the "Merkabah" inspired me the most and it meaning created the source script for our project.

I am posting the meaning of this symbol with its photos:

Merkaba, also spelled Merkabah, is the divine light vehicle allegedly used by ascended masters to connect with and reach those in tune with the higher realms. "Mer" means Light. "Ka" means Spirit. "Ba" means Body. Mer-Ka-Ba means the spirit/body surrounded by counter-rotating fields of light, (wheels within wheels), spirals of energy as in DNA, which transports spirit/body from one dimension to another.

In modern esoteric teachings, it is taught that the MerKaBa is an interdimensional vehicle consisting of two equally sized, interlocked tetrahedra of light with a common center, where one tetrahedron points up and the other down. This point symmetric form is called a stella octangula or stellated octahedron which can also be obtained by extending the faces of a regular octahedron until they intersect again.
In his books, researcher and physicist Drunvalo Melchizedek describes this figure as a "Star Tetrahedron", since it can be viewed as a three dimensional Star of David. By imagining two superimposed "Star Tetrahedrons" as counterrotating, along with specific "prana" breathing techniques, certain eye movements and mudras, it is taught that one can activate a non-visible 'saucer' shaped energy field around the human body that is anchored at the base of the spine.

I designed the site symmetrically in the form of an octagon around the symbol in the centre. Since we had discussed in our previous meetings that we want to keep maximum open spaces for unhindered folw or energy, I designed the radiant wings symmetrically to each corner and accomodated physical spaces in these wings. However the boundaries of the radiant wings are only schematic and need not have any physical boundary on actual space.

I invite all your comments and specially Hema, you develop the landscape design..I will tallk to u soon regarding that...

cheers!!

Samir

Kruti Registration over Pizza and coke

2008-03-18T18:13:00.003+05:30

Time : 16th March
Venue : Veena's place
Participants : Medatithi, Sameer, Nilotpala, Raghav, Veena
- S V Bhatt ( silent participant )
Yesterday we all met to take the kruti registration forward. We discussed the by laws that we( Medatithi, Raghav and me ) had discussed on Sunday morning . Had fun reading the 'legal language' of the deed - it took everything that Medatithi had to explain what those sentences would mean.
Lot of learning happening in the process !
Action Item on everyone : Review the deed and get back with their comments.
Action Item on Veena, Medatithi : Get the actual registration done this week.
Cheers !
Veena.

Right now we are creating ... dream for you and me

2008-03-18T15:19:00.004+05:30

Check De !

2008-03-10T15:58:00.007+05:30

Yes! These kids are all set to check mate you. I think we had one of the best sessions yesterday. I and Nagaraj were there in the chess class. Initially it took some time to gather all the kids and we got started (as you know once we start it is difficult to STOP!), as usual some kids were fully engrossed in this game of brain.
Some of them are really showing up they have the talent. In one game Sarswati could check mate the coach, Nishant as usual playing as per his mood, difficult make this kid focus on the game!( http://krutiindia.blogspot.com/2008/02/8-yr-old-nishant-champion-in-making.html), but he plays well. Star of yesterday’s session was Vinod, he could solve many puzzles brilliantly. We concluded the class with solving many puzzles.

On our way back we both felt the effort we put in few months back is paying back.

ps:These are not yesterday's pictures , these are taken few weeks back !! Yest I took few but did not save them :-)

Kruti School : Business plan and Stucture

2008-03-04T17:39:00.005+05:30

Kruti School : Business plan and Stucture
Update on the meeting held on Saturday 01-March-2008
Raghav, Bijesh and Vilas
We had a good discussion on the Business Plan for the Kruti School.
I had my own concerns about the feasibility of the meeting and called Bijesh in the afternoon he readily agreed to join the meeting at my house. Vilas had already confirmed. Both came on time and we had good discussion for more than hour. We wanted to capture Vilas’s experience in managing a start-up and Bijesh’s fresh ideas from his “fresh” IIM experience. At the same time we did our best to go beyond “What we know “and “What we don’t know” , In fact Tata’s “Nano” was inspiration to go beyond !

Before I forget let me capture the Key points from Notes (from my new PDA!! )
Some the things which we need to define clarity
1. Parameter (in terms of size, scale and function)
2. Target Segment
3. Who’s who
4. Key Questions
5. Vision and Mission
6. Legal aspects
7. Personal Vision (Why?/context)

1. Parameter (in terms of size, scale and function)
One of the important factors to define the Business model and operational process is to looking at
- What is the size of the operation (like number of students, classes, duration of the classes)
- Definition and clarity of the Organization Structure
- Look into to pro’s and con’s of different structures like Trust, Charitable Trust, Society, Pvt. Ltd. And/or combination
- Action Item:
1. Study structures of various organizations like Manipal foundation, Ramayaa Institute, Natya Shankar , Nrutygram, Shantiniketan etc.
2. Identify list of relevant people and meet them and get further insights

2. Target Segment
We had interesting discussion about the target segment. Whether the school will cater to the Middle class / upper middle class / upper class and/or all classes together.
Bijesh and Vilas mentioned that Parents will have concern if we have students from different Socio-economic background and are taught together.
I’m sure Veena has different view on this concern. I was looking at it more from a financial model point of view. This we will take up in larger meeting. The outcome will be an input for the Business Plan.

3. Who’s who

What we discussed was we should be clear the Roles and responsibilities of each role and also the required qualification/abilities to handle the role.

4. Key Questions
We decided that to maintain list of questions that we are not clear about. We start taking actions to address these questions based on priorities.

5. Vision and Mission
Drafting a clear vision and mission statement is vital to base our activities. That needs to be taken up.
6. Legal aspects
This point also covers our structure to register Kruti as a legal entity. One of the ideas is to talk to some CA’s about this and get more details.
7. Personal Vision (Why?/context)
I was of the opinion that we all should look at answering the question “Why I’m doing what I’m doing right now?” especially in the context of setting up Kruti School. Few things which inspire me finding my passion in this process, may be like developing “Nano” , it is also like ‘omens’ in Alchemist .. I’m in search of the treasure and more interested in the journey.

Bijesh was requesting me “please don’t tell me do introspection”, I will just do it :-)

In the beginning we had discussion about leadership , whether we should have a one leader and he/she should have answers for all etc. Then we could see that Kruti School can be created with the collective leadership of the core team members.

Bijesh shared few interesting facts that normally organizations registered as Trust will not last longer than one generation. He was inspired by the Rabidranath Tagore and his Shantiniketan.

This is a brief update of the discussion and I will update the team during weekly meeting and start taking action on the action items.

Ooops – We did Discussion on Business plan without any numbers J
Last but not the least ….
Did we accomplish what we wanted to accomplish from the meeting?
I don’t know but we had lot of FUN!!!! :-)

8 yr old Nishant - A champion in the making

2008-02-25T20:20:00.002+05:30

Thanks to all the efforts put by Nagaraj and Rekha !

Cheers

Meeting for Kruti School Plan

2008-02-25T09:37:00.004+05:30

Attendees: Hema, Mahesh, Samir, Nilotpala, Veena, Raghav

Hi Folks,
Yet another exhilarating and enriching discussion on Sunday @Hema 'n' Mahesh's home !!!
Apart from the fun , frolic and breakfast with tea, the discussion produced some real insight into a feasible plan for the Kruti School Project. We discussed the "Core Courses" and the important
"Physical Spaces" for the Kruti Campus.
Following is the structual outcome:

PHYSICAL SPACES
1) Auditorium
2) Production house + Classroom for
movie making and animation
3) Coffee bar + lounge + library
4) Open Air Amphitheatre
5) Workshop
6) Conference Hall + Parking Space + Admin. Office
7) Dormitory
8) Storage Space

CORE COURSE SPACES
1) Music
2) Painting(semi-structure)
3) Dance + Dramatics
4) Crafts Work

OTHER COURSES(may not need physical structure)
Creative Writing
Photography(classroom with production house)

NEXT ACTION PLAN :
-Develop a scaled plan drawing of the campus with physical structures.
-Develop 2D/3D scaled drawing of each physical structure.

Cheers !!!
Kruti Team

Model-sized Kruti school

2008-02-22T10:53:00.001+05:30

Hi Folks,
In the pursuit to transform my Kruti School design into "something" in distance, time and form I talked to hema and mahesh. Got some really creative and ingenious ideas. I was looking for professional support from architects and interior decorators regarding materials, frames, trusses etc. but then I realised the very meaning of "KRUTI" -- creation, and I just came out of the frame of mind of doing thins the "right" or " professional" way. It just stops the very process of the genesis of new ways! I would use some kind of plastecene and hardboard to make the model, and create a tangible image of my "rotten alma-matter" design outputs. This saturday I will get the materials and start on the work!

cheers! to kruti team and I hope everyone is taking on the cause of this creative pusuit with commitment and integrity!!

2008-02-17T23:22:00.001+05:30

Date : 17 Feb 2008, 7 am

Venue : Cubbon Park

Attendees : Sameer, Brewin, Bijesh ( finally :) ) , Rekha, Raghav, Me ;)

Points Discussed :

1. Get Kruti Registered - Action Item on Veena to figure out ways of registering by wednesday ( Done already ;) )

2. Revamping the Kruti Site - Action Item on Brewin and Raghav - in another 4 Weeks. ( Please check the mail from Sridhar on what can be done ).

3. Looking for the physical space

4. Modeling the school - Sameer to take this up - 3 weeks.

5. Kruti Theme Music - Brewin to take this up - 3 weeks

6. Visit United Arts Organisation , Chitrakala Parishad, Nrityagram - Action item on all of us for next week.

Areas to be addressed :

1. How does one create a livelihood out of art

2. What are the kind of arts that we will promote

3. Will the Faculty be full time or part time

4. Once we choose the art we want to promote , the full track of how we will run the course for the art

5. Revenue generation for the school.

6. Meeting up with Artists who can give us ideas on how to go about the school

Kruti Registration

2008-02-17T23:22:00.000+05:30

Hey all, I found some good information on how we can register Kruti.

The following country note, adapted from Noshir H. Dadrawala's "IRNL Country Report on the Framework Governing Not-for-Profit Organizations in India," provides a brief overview of India's categories of not-for-profit organizations and the laws governing them.
1. Trusts
The public charitable trust is a possible form of not-for-profit entity in India. Typically, public charitable trusts can be established for a number of purposes, including the relief of poverty, education, medical relief, provision of facilities for recreation, and any other object of general public utility. Indian public trusts are generally irrevocable. No national law (except the broad principles of the India Trusts Act 1882, which governs private trusts) governs public charitable trusts in India, although many states (particularly Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh) have Public Trusts Acts.
2. Societies
Societies are membership organizations that may be registered for charitable purposes. Societies are usually managed by a governing council or a managing committee. Societies are governed by the Societies Registration Act 1860, which has been adapted by various states. Unlike trusts, societies may be dissolved.
3. Section 25 Companies
A section 25 company is a company with limited liability that may be formed for "promoting commerce, art, science, religion, charity or any other useful object," provided that no profits, if any, or other income derived through promoting the company's objects may be distributed in any form to its members.
Here is the complete article

http://www.usig.org/countryinfo/india.asp

Team, Do let me know your thoughts on this.

Kruti - A dream for you and Me

2008-01-20T20:18:00.000+05:30

Readers you might be wondering , why I have put the name of our blog on the post . But this name is not the name of our blog. This the name of the school that want to create .

Time : Sunday morning

Venue : Cubbon Park

Participants : Kruti Core Team - Vilas, Sameer, Nilotpala, Brewin, Rekha, Raghav, Veena.

Absentees - Hema, Mahesh, Bijesh, My dad ?

:)

The alarm rings at 5.45 at my bedside and I as usual , sub conciously put it off, and go back to sleep . 6.15 - the bedside phone rings again. I try to put the alarm off- This time it just wouldnt be put off . Uff, I reach out to the mobile phone to see whats wrong. And to my surprise somebody was calling ! I take the phone and I hear Rekha's voice on the line - Shall I come down - Are you guys leaving now ? .

Gosh ! Then I remember I had to leave by 6.15 - to start the meeting by 7 - so that people could leave at 9 and attend to their other appointments at 9.30 ! :)

Raghav and me got ready at jet speed , and we were out of the house by another 10 mins. We picked up all the other members of the team and reached Cubbon park around 7.15 .

First of all we created the context of the meeting today - Which is creating long term members with Kruti ( This had been missing for some time in the earlier projects of Kruti ) .
There were parts of the group that did not know each other , yet within minutes we were talking to each other as if we were the best of buddies .

Comfort level set in, we got down to business. We discussed about the school project and decided on the following action areas on which to work on :

1. Find the physical space for the school - The venue should be full of trees and natural beauty - Action on everybody

2. Add the wiki to our mykruti.com - Action on Brewin, Raghav

3. Register Kruti - Action on Vilas, Veena.

4. Create the design for the Kruti School - Action on Sameer.

5. Solar Energy plan for the School - Action on Nilotpala

6. Visit similar projects ( Auroville, Shantiniketan , Nrityagram etc ).

The discussion on all the above points happened so naturally and with so much ease , that it looks like that doing the project itself is going to be full of ease and grace and will happen so very easily ! :)

Looking forward for the next meet !

Chess Classes and Chaos at Gurapanpalya ! :)

2007-12-08T10:41:00.000+05:30

After a long time on last sunday I visited the chess classes at Gurapanpalya. Was I pleasantly surprised! Almost all the kids there now play chess. And those who were not playing very pleasantly enjoying themselves.

And so there was a sharp contrast. On two tables were the fully focussed chess players. Rekha( an internationally ranked chess player ) and the children concentrating hard on their game. Rekha has promised that she will chalk out a plan for the future of these young budding chess players.! And all around were children happily enjoying themselves. Here are few of the snaps that we took at the class. Check out this video that I managed to capture -

What I liked about this video is the careless abandon with which the children were playing and thoroughly enjoying themselves. !

Rendezvous@Hema 'n' Mahesh's Home

2007-12-05T10:17:00.000+05:30

25th Nov., 2007

The effects of the arduous journey we undertook to reach hema 'n' mahesh's beautiful home seemingly vanished into thin air, the very moment we met them!
What wonderful people...! I was meeting them for the first time...though I never felt so..not even remotely. Raghav, Veena, myself and Brewin, all engrossed in insightful discussions over tea,were bursting out with stomach-crunching jokes every now and then. We discussed about everything ...from KRUTI's new project to "why Men are from Mars and Women from Venus?"
At one point of time it seemed as though the table was getting flooded with 'alma-matter' oozing out of every brain!
Hema and Mahesh gave some really insightful ideas and perspectives to our new dream project of making a thought-provoking film for KRUTI. I sincerely wish they stay by our side...with every little step we take towards realising our project.

WARNING : 'Smile, is an extremely contageous virus, which I carry.
Beware! else you will get infected.

----[ Samir ]----

The Woman on Platform 8

2007-11-01T13:07:00.000+05:30

Hi all,

Time now to get a little more active with kruti :) At least for me.. I know Raghav and Nagraj have been pretty busy with the chess workshop.. Need to see how to get that tournament organised.. Last week when I had been there at the slum, the girls challenged me to play a game with them :)

At the same time- I started looking into the movie idea that we had started with sometime back. Guys, ( Shweta specially ) I read an abstract of one of the Ruskin Bond stories - and did I like it ! I am waiting to get my hand on the other Ruskin bond stories -- I am putting up the abstract that I found for this story on wikipedia " The woman on platform 8 "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intoduction
The women on platform 8 by Ruskin Bond is a story about love and affection that transcends all barriers if kindship. It is narrated in the first person by a school going boy Arun. All the events are seen from his point of veiw.

The story resolves around Arun's encounter with a stranger - a mysterious women. The womes in white sari treats him like a son. She offers him tea and snacks. She helps him feel comfortable. Her dignity and humanity come in sharp contrast with the vanity and arrogance of Satish's mother. Arun's calling her 'mother' at the time of parting is a sweet gesture of recognisation of a loving relationship.

Summary
Arun is a 12 year old boy. He studies in a boarding school. His parents are confident that he can travel alone. After meeting his parents, he travels by bus and arrives Ambala at about twelve. He sits on the platform no.8 at Ambala station. His train is to leave hours later at midnight. So he continues to watch the changing scene around. Soon he loses intrest in his surroundings. He feels loanly and bored.
Suddenly, Arun hears a soft voice from behind. It is a women in white sari. She looks pale and has dark kind eyes. She wears no jewels. After a brief introduction, she invites Arun for some refreshment at the station dining room. She takes his hand and lead him away. Arun, though shy and suspicious, does not refuse the invitationas he feels it would be too impolite to reject it. The womes orders tea, samosas and jalebies for the boy. The boy eats as much as he can in a polite manner. The woman seems to take a pleasure in watching him eat.

Along with the lady, Arun comes back to platform No.8. Now he opens up and tells her about his school, his friends, his likes and dislikes. He forgets that he is talking to a stranger. The women speaks very little and listens to him intently. Arun's schoolfellow Satish, along with his mother, appears on the platform.

Satish's mother asks Arun if the lady is his mother. Before Arun utters a word by way of explaination, the women comes to his rescue and says that she is his mother. Satish's mother, being very rich, is proud and haughty in behaviour. She says that there are many suspicious characters hanging around. She behaves that one should be very careful of strangers. The women doen not feel embarrassed. She only remarks that Arun can travel alone. Satish's mother looks sternly at Arunand advises him to be careful in absence of his mother, and never talk to strangers. Arun irritates her by contradicting her,I like strangers.

Satish seems to agree with Arun as he grins at him. After some time, the train steams in. Satish and Arun board it. Satish 's mother and the stranger stand on the platform talking to the boys. Of course, it is Satish's mother who does most of the talking. When train starts, Satish says, Good-bye, mother. They wave to each other. Not to be left behind, Arun also utters the farewell words, Good-bye, mother. He continues to gaze at the women until she disappears in the crowd.

Arun calls the stranger 'mother' as he does not want to embarrass her. He does not want to reveal that she is a stranger. He does not like Satish's mother who is suspicious and critical of everything
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guys, see if you too can read Ruskin bond stories.. It should be fun. Lets get back into action ! Lets Rock !!

PS : Do leave your comments on the abstract .

Kruti - A source of joy !

2007-10-11T00:26:00.001+05:30

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Had a great day today. Got up early in the morning to discuss the next kruti project. Small B ( ;) ) had some ideas. Will not disclose it yet. Ok, ok, we are making a movie this time - a short film. In this regard , and also for entertainment, watched "The little terrorist " - Its a very well done 15 mins film - I believe it was an oscar nomination. What I liked about the movie is how the movie portrays that human beings are all the same , whether they are on this side of the border or that. How the Indian family connects to the 10-11 year old pakistani boy. This one is a must watch.Some other movies that are going to inspire us(me for sure ) is 'To kill a mocking bird', 'Sound of music', 'Dor' , 'Iqbal' for the beauty of its story, direction, acting, cinematography. - "Jhankar Beats" for its humour.Some more things we need to do on kruti is start updating the kruti blog regularly and make it more active.

After Effects of Arabian Nights

2007-10-11T00:20:00.000+05:30

Putting up a post about the Arabian Nights play we did on May 9 at Ranga Shankara. I had put up this post on 10 June on my blog. This rightly belongs to this blog :) :
Last time when we had taken the children out after the play( last to last sunday ? ), the children had mentioned that kids who hardly had any interest in english have started enjoying the language. Even if they did not know the language, they have started taking pains to learn it and read up books they wouldnt have read before. Made us feel glad and proud of our achievements. I got fulfilled that the aim of me doing the play had got fulfilled.Then one fine day I get a call from someone ( ? ! ) and the conversation goes as below.. uhum.. uhum. :)
I say - hello. The guy says- Hi , I am from Infosys. I heard about Arabian Nights - A few of my friends and I at Infosys wanted to do a team outing, and were wondering when you are having your next show :) I am shocked.And I say.. sorry, but we are not having any repeat performance for Arabian nights. To which he says, but that cant be true. I heard the play was very good and was looking forward to seeing it. Ok, so when is your next play. :) I am more shocked , feel like laughing too. Actually i am giggling by now. I tell him, " Look we did this play because the slum children with whom I work, wanted to learn english and what a better way than to do a english play :) " Now , its his turn to be shocked.And he says- are you serious? You mean the performers were slum children ! And you guys were doing the play for the first time ! And I am laughing at his shock. Tongue in Cheek I add- " I knew we were good.But I did not know we were so good " Hero has also recovered by now . And he said " Yaa.. yaa..actually I heard the play was very good.. "
On a serious note I asked him , that if his team was interested in watching the play and if Infosys could sponsor it, we wouldnt mind coming to Infosys and performing :) To which he said it would be a good idea and he would check with his HR. But he hasnt come back yet. Where are you "Mr. Gagan Singh"? The Children and Kruti are itching to give a outstanding performance again.
One of the major divisions within our company ( HP ) , have recognised Kruti as one of the outstanding 'Social contribution' projects and have awarded Kruti too.
Today When I went to the slum, I had one more pleasant surprise. 4 - 5 children after getting inspired by the Arabian nights have , requested their parents to shift them into English medium and are now going to go to English medium schools.
This Wouldnt have been possible without the contribution of each and every member of the kruti team. I am sure each one of us feel the same sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that I am feeling today.

What’s New ?

2007-08-20T14:48:00.000+05:30

Kruti team Congratulates Alex and Shammem, they got married on Aug14th. They have been the source of strength and support for the Kruti activities. Once again congratulation and wish all the best for their life.

Some updates on what’s happening …
Movie
Movie projects is still inspiring, the team is still brainstorming on various ideas and scripts, Lets keep working on this and make the Best Movie.
Action required: Good plot/Script

Chess Workshop
We have started chess workshop in the Gurappanpalya and the plan is to have a tournament sometime in October.

Every Sunday 4:00pm to 6:00 pm … Come and have fun.

Action require:
1. Need Chess boards: request your friends in the office to lend the boards if they have for 8-10 weeks , once the workshop is over we will returns them.
2. Plan for the tournament:
Share your ideas on whom we should involve (like participants ) , One ideas is the Gurappanpalya Kids and Kids of the employees or we can have some school kids participating etc.
3. Budgets/Sponsors and logistics

Lets’s be in ACTION

Thanks and have great day
RAGHAV

What’s New ?

2007-08-20T14:34:00.000+05:30

2007-04-19T17:45:00.000+05:30

Arabian Nights

2007-04-10T11:52:00.000+05:30

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting..." ~ Paulo Coelho (Alchemist)

Dear All,
Kruti team is performing 'Arabian Nights' at Rangashankara with the kids and youth of Gurappanpalya slum.
We invite you to be part of this wonderful evening on Tuesday April 24, 2007 at 7:00 pm.
For tickets please write to

Kruti.india@gmail.com

Regards
Kruti Team
www.mykruti.com

Kruti ...

2006-08-06T13:06:00.000+05:30

What is it?

It’s a project to implement a Hobby class for the children in a slum at Bannergatta Road. It’s a project to promote ‘Joy, Enthusiasm and Dreams’ for the facilitators as well as the kids.

About the Slum Dwellers

The slum dwellers are primarily into professions like coolie work, building work, house work, co-operation sweeping, painting, furniture work etc. The average monthly income per a house in the slum is 4-5 k . A family typically consists of 6-7 members ( parents and around 3-4 children ). The children assist in the family income when they are not studying.
Inspite of their busy schedules, the children are quite good in studies. The profile of some of the students of the slum are as follows:Maheshwari – She is currently Studying in ITI. She got 73 % in 10th.Kashi - He is a B Com final year student. Got 69 % in 10thKasturi – She studies commerce in Vijaya College (commerce). She got 62 % in 10thK Lakshmi – She is doing Diploma in SJP. She got 75 % in 10thM Lakshmi - She studies commerce in Vijaya College (commerce). She got 65 % in 10th
The hobby class enables the children to explore their artistic side and expose them to hobbies like painting, photography, dance, music, which they otherwise would not be exposed to. Through Kruti Fest (mentioned in the plan below) we want to give them a platform to showcase their talents.

How did it start?

Veena conceptualized it as a part of a project that needs to be done in the ‘Self Expression and Leadership Program’ of Landmark Education.

What’s the Plan

1. Run a Hobby Class for around 30-40 children/youth from the age group ranging from 6 yrs to 20 yrs.
a. We have the following Hobby classes
a. Painting
b. Music
c. Dance
d. Photography
Hobby Classes will run on Saturdays and Sundays starting from 12th May and will continue till 2nd July

2. Will have a festival with around 200 guests on 9th July celebrating all that we have created in the 7-8 weeks

Write to us at : kruti.india@gamil.com