Tiffinbox

Pinaki Chakravarthy

by Leave a Comment

Via Prashant Mullick

Pinaki001

“Knives that will draw blood hours later string into picture.

In bunches at the end of chains, they will be used to lash backs and remind Muslims of the massacre of the prophet Muhammed's grandson, Imam Hussain.

Other dagger-like knives will be held in the hand to cut vertically into the forehead.

Here, they're put on display, for sale. Imamwada Road, deep in the heart of Bombay's traditional Muslim stronghold, is lined with thousands of knives, and buyers, every year.”

I know I am in good company when I see quotes from Pablo Neruda, Matsuo Basho and Wynton Marsalis sprinkled across a photographer's web site. Pinaki Chakravarthy has been at it for a long time. His images from the flower market are my favorite as he has let the ambient light dictate the colors in the frame.

But the one above arrested my attention for the most obvious reason of all – curiosity. What were they and how were they to be used? In my opinion, an image devoid of people in its frame can still make it a portrait. This one speaks of a community. This image of knives slung across a wire in pregnant anticipation of skins, blood and passion is terrific. I would love to see more of these kinds of images in this young photographer's portfolio.

Funny Bones

by 2 Comments

I have extolled the virtues of having a designer design your web site. If you are interested in other ways of branding, perhaps a logo, there are artists (not
necessarily starving) would be happy to come up with something that is all you! For example, the logo on the upper left corner of this page is by Arindam Mukherjee. I was curious to know who had inspired him.

“Of late, I miss R.K. Laxman's cartoons on the Times of India's web site. Laxman retired from TOI recently after tickling India's funny bone with his sharp cartoons for decades. The baton now seems to have been passed to Ajit Ninan; my pick for India's best and funniest. Ninan, whom I admire and got the chance to work with at India Today, uses form, color and lines to his maximum advantage. My early days as a cartoonist has gone emulating Ninan's style. Here, I tried to do a Ninan with Kerry and Flip-flops.”

© Arindam Mukherjee

In the spirit of journalistic fairness Arindam promises me that he is working on an illustration depicting W. If you enjoy Arindam's work, please consider hiring him on. I think he is fantastic!

Profiling Journalists

by Leave a Comment

“Here's the deal: It's not their damn business,” he said.

The U.S. Secret Service is at it again asking journalists about their race. This is getting kind of annoying.

A telling sentence in Eun-Kyung Kim's article suggests a shift in the way credentials for journalists are being handled now: “Credentials for the 2000 presidential debates were handled by the Senate Press Gallery. Applications did not ask for race information.”

My question is – why is race so important? Well, the article also states rather glibly that the infomation is necessary for the FBI database to cross-check “identifiers.” Are you satisfied with the official response?

KARYSHMA

by Leave a Comment

The American India Foundation (AIF) presents KARYSHMA in concert @ The Middle East on September 19 at 7.30 p.m.

A band that takes chances, Karyshma brings together the intensity of rock, the improvisation of jazz and the intricacies of India's musical traditions. Karyshma has the “rare ability to stop audiences silent in their tracks” according to Global Rhythm magazine, with music that “has no real home or category – it is original and fresh,” according to India Post.

Tickets are limited, so shop early. E-mail with names and number of tickets requested to reserve spots today for $10/person.

All proceeds will benefit the American India Foundation, dedicated to accelerating social and economic change in India.

For more information, click here, e-mail AIF or call Vikram Desai at 617-304-6019.

Be The Change

by Leave a Comment

South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow, or SAALT is sponsoring the Fourth Annual National Gandhi Day Of Serivce. If you live in the Bay area, contact Subha Varadarajan to register for the October 2 event.

From the SAALT website, here are some reasons why you should get involved:

Asterisk The National Gandhi Day of Service perpetuates the legacy of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who spent much of his life the least fortunate members of his community through tireless service.

Asterisk The collective efforts of local Gandhi Day projects provides a vehicle for unity in the South Asian community while sending a message that we are contributing members of American society.

Asterisk Gandhi Day provides an opportunity to give back for the many successes and opportunities that we have been afforded as immigrants.

Asterisk It is a fun activity for members of your organization to come together, do something positive for your neighborhood, and become a part of a rewarding national movement.

Presence Of Mind

by Leave a Comment

If you are a photographer, writer, designer, illustrator or an artist of any kind you have gotta have a web presence. But not just any old web site. Please pay attention to colors, fonts, layout and of course content.

Bernice Yeung is a freelance writer who gets it. Hers is a clean, simple, pleasant web site that has just about all the things that one would want to see at a writer's website. “I'm mostly using it for when I'm pitching stories for freelance work,” she offered in a recent email. Indeed, a web site can be your calling card that could either make or break you in a world where the first impression lasts a lifetime. See how each page has a different background color. That sort of feedback to the web site visitor is golden. I was also impressed in the way the pages loaded quickly. Missing are unnecessary animations and other eye candy that distract rather than attract you to the content on the site.

Yeung's site is designed by Rick Elizaga. And I mention his name because a lot of us feel we have to go at this alone or mistakenly believe we can design our own sites. Here is a bit of unsolicited advice – get a designer to help you out. Going back to the topic of making your first impression, would you want your site to look unprofessional or professional? Do what you do best, leave the rest to those who do those things best. While it may mean saving a few bucks now, the price you pay trying to be a jack of all trades is much too great for your future.

Raghubir Singh

by 2 Comments

Via Ram Rahman

There is a big retrospective exhibition of the late Raghubir Singh opening September 30th at Sepia Gallery at 148 W 24th St New York, NY 10011. Check the web site or call (212) 645- 9444 for more details.

Raghubir

Singh as you may know revitalized the use of color in Indian photography. Given he spent so much time in India, one may mistakenly think that would be an easy task. Quite the contrary, because the country is so colorful, Singh had to be a superb craftsman at delineating color from subject yet make some statement about both at the same time in the same frame. Therein lies his genius. If you have seen his book on the ubiquitous Ambassador car you'll know what I am talking about.

Privacy Policy