Story of Kites

It was the evening of 16^th January, 2012 that our Sensei informed us about a Japanese Kite Making workshop to be held for 2 days in Kolkata, with kite making masters and experts being flown in from Japan. Having always watched my neighborhood skies filled with kites of various colors and fashion during the month of January with wide-eyed fascination, I was the first to jump up to inform that I’d love to attend the event. So what if I don’t actually know how to fly a kite (there….I said it!), that won’t stop me from being able to enjoy making one, now can it. Plus I also wanted to see how different a kite could be from another country, or were they all the same. The event, aptly named “Story of Kites”, was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, The Indian Museum, Crafts Council of West Bengal in collaboration with the Japan Foundation and the Consulate General of Japan in Kolkata. The venue was Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Sector 3, Salt Lake Kolkata.

I was not familiar with the venue, but that didn’t deter my excitement for the workshop and so based on a friend’s “concise” directions I set off. But as it turns out, the people from the place where I was supposed to get the final ride to the venue didn’t ever hear of the venue, Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre or EZCC. After bouncing around like a ping-pong ball from one point to another based on vague directions, which always seemed to be the opposite side of the directions given by the last person, I finally decided that I’ll try my luck with Sector 3 and find the thing myself. So, after barely holding my cool together, and walking past two traffic signals, I finally find a traffic police who has actually heard of the place and points me to the proper direction. Thus after a lot of self-control I reach the destination, half-an-hour late, to find the event already underway and all the people busy finishing up coloring their kites. Thankfully, after I explained my predicament, the kind hosts quickly found me a seat and a printed, pre-cut kite paper and two boxes of sketch pens. After some time they even helped me with the alignment of the spines of the kite and the accessories. Having almost arrived at the end of the workshop, I went for a sketching effect with my kite, along with the fact that I couldn’t think of anything else either. It is different from the more colorful approach of my three friends who also turned up there. Anyways, it was pretty fun making coloring the kite, as well as watching the various kites that the Japanese Kite masters and experts had on display, which were quite exquisite.

After the coloring, we had a group photo with all our kites, after which we were given packages of food consisting of a Cake, juice box, an orange and a lot of toffees and a break of one hour to spend before we would fly our kites. Having finished our food, me and my friends spent the remaining time speculating whether the kite would actually fly. As it turns out, Japanese kites are different from those that you would see here. For one, they have a single large hole at exactly the point of the spine’s intersection. Plus the thread given to us seemed a lot thicker, along with an unnaturally long tail. All these factors made us conclude that the kite won’t fly. Being practical we even gave one of our friends kite a spin, which didn’t fly (But that could be also have been due to the fact that his kite had a Sumo on it!). Anyways, after the break we were called out to the grounds where we were shown how to fly it. And it turns out these things really do fly. My friend also, finally managed to fly the kite. Since I didn’t know how to fly a kite, I decided to stay back and watch the sky filled with the soaring kites. One of the hosts noticed it, and asked me in English why I wasn’t flying. On telling him that I didn’t know how to, he took me to the kite master and explained the situation, who gladly took me and my kite and showed me how to fly it. Even though my kite managed to fly for about 5 seconds that was one of my happiest achievements.  The entire experience of learning from a master was quite humbling. The event came to a close after an hour of kite flying and a wide smile on everybody’s face.

We then decide to go somewhere so we could grab a bite after all the kite flying.  After the bite at McDonald’s in Mani Square, we slip into Starmark, where we spend a huge chunk of our time browsing, flipping and general chatting about books. We even managed to learn how to play Foosball! After all that we end the day, with me getting a wonderful ride on my senior friend’s bike while the others took a bus in the other direction. Overall a wonderful experience that I definitely won’t be forgetting for a long time.

Picture Courtesy Sharon.

Anime Vs. Cartoons

Sharon :  ♪ ♫ ♪ One thing I don't know why

♪ It doesn’t even matter how hard you try ♫

♫ Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme ♪

♪ To explain in due time ♪ ♫ ♪

- What the-! Morpheus, why the hell are you growing mushrooms in the corner of our study?

Morpheus: 72 ND "Woa! You still watch cartoons at this age!" cartoons??...of all things CARTOONS!!!!!

Sharon: ありえない!!! I just got over my 68th one! I think it's high time we enlightened this world, for our sake and for our comrades out there still suffering! *Curl fists*

Morpheus: Aaaannooo........

Sharon: …..

Morpheus:
AAAAAAAnnnnnnnoooooo......I......I...

Sharon: …..

Morpheus:. I GOT IT!!!!

Sharon: はい! *Snaps back to reality*
So, just like Manga don’t equal to Comics, Anime don’t equal to Cartoons either. How can people confuse them?

Morpheus: Exactly! If people just used their dictionaries more often, our workload would definitely decrease.
Anime (pronounced Ah-ni-may), as defined by the dictionary is "a Japanese style of motion-picture animation"! It is a style of animation that originated and is still heavily centered in Japan. Now, doesn't the vast difference in its history, say it all?

Sharon: !!! Absolutely! Cartoon comes from 'caricatures'. Cartoons basically originated from the political drawings of the west. The ones drawn during The Great Depression are the best example. The ones drawn at the time of the French Revolution are a classic too. They were intended to be light hearted
satires. Representative of the new genre, it is a quick, impressionistic drawing that exaggerates prominent physical characteristics to humorous effect.

Morpheus: Whereas for Anime it all began in the early 20th century when Japanese pioneers were experimenting with animation techniques from France, Germany, Russia and the US. The first anime thus produced was a 2-minute clip depicting a samurai testing his new sword in 1917. A talkie anime also followed in 1933 named Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, produced by Masaoka. Another animated film followed called Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors directed by Seo in 1945 with sponsorship by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Then Osamu Tenza.....

Sharon: Astro Boy!!!! *all smiles*

Morpheus: Yeah...The author of Astro Boy, to be precise a mangaka (manga artist in English), considered one of the legends of Japan’s anime and manga industry. He was inspired by Disney’s work and experimented & improved upon the techniques to create animation that was cost effective and needed the least number of frames to produce. Thus in this way not only could he cut down the costs, but also developed a technique in which he could easily recruit inexperienced people. By 1990 it began to be widely accepted in the West too. 

Sharon: IMO....I'd simply put that as 'Anime is to Japan what Hollywood is to the West', i.e., an art style that is used to tell stories or bring to light more realistic issues or simply give form to the creator’s wildest emotion. 

Morpheus: Yes, now that I think about it, I find that Hollywood is mostly, if not totally, similar to that notion. Heck, even some of the Hollywood movies were inspired by anime; a case in point would be the Matrix trilogy, which was inspired by the Ghost in the Shell series, which is an excellent series, by the
way.

Sharon: One of my fav in that case is "Blood: The Last Vampire", a manga turned Hollywood movie.....in which Koyuki Kato starred as the Vampire. :)

Morpheus: Umm, I feel it’s not that safe to start talking about Koyuki or Jun in front of you. Else I'll have to sit here for days listening to your fantasization.

Sharon: Hehehehe....Okies. Coming back to the main topic. Western cartoons generally caters to the comical aspect of a situation and mostly tries to bring that situation out in a comical light, Anime on the other hand also focuses on serious topics, though concerning Japanese society more, and doesn’t only cater to comical situations.

Morpheus: Welcome to the N.H.K!!!! It’s one of my favourite anime. It focuses on the multiple problems of present day society, like pyramid schemes and social recluses.

Sharon : Don’t start nagging me again, but here I would like to mention the manga Kimi Wa Petto (tramps like us).....which touches the sensitive issue of younger guy- older woman relationship. And which also (its live action) stars Koyuki and Jun. Awesome....just awesome.

Morpheus: Sharon, we get the idea. You can cut on those 'awesomes'.

Sharon: Okay, okay! Back to topics, not all anime are super-heroes shows, there are anime that focuses on the seemingly mundane topic of a student’s life, Paradise Kiss is one such anime where the protagonist is torn between following her heart of being a model and keep up with her mother’s dream of getting her into the topmost college of Japan.

Morpheus: Also, let’s not forget two of my top-most anime, Code Geass,(my Fav of the lot *Wide Grin*), an excellent anime that’s about a boy who would change a harsh world into a gentler place for his little sister, and Death Note….

Sharon: Eeeeeeeeeeppp!!!!!!! *Jumps up excitedly* Death Note!!!! It’s an excellent anime I don’t even have fitting words to describe the awesomeness of it.

Morpheus: Hey, wait a sec! It isn’t normal. I mean, for me, it is. But you saying you love "Death note"....its seinen not shoujo!!

Sharon: Hello Mr. Racist. Now, doesn’t a true anime lover watch almost all genre's of anime without discrimination? Or do you now-a- days, call those wannabe "naruto" freaks as "true anime lovers"???

Morpheus : *Laugh Out Loud* Nope.

Sharon : What’s there to LOL? It isn’t funny! These people get my blood boiling. They kind of made me so sick of Naruto, that I kind of started disliking the anime itself!

Morpheus: It was because; it reminded me of the time DB was airing. Every one became an anime otaku....but the only anime they ever talked about was Dragon Ball!!! People really fail to see that anime carry a lot of variety and generally cater to all age groups. Genre-wise anime can’t really be put under some definite few. Though it encompasses the general ones like comedy, rom-com, fantasy, mecha(their version of super-slick robots and my fav), thriller, slice of life, horror, action, anti-hero etc.

Sharon: Yup. For more age oriented classifications, starting from the kodomo ones (or anime for kids) like Shinchan, Doraemon.....

Morpheus: Hagemaru......to shonen, for boy’s ages 12-18

Sharon : Shoujo, for girls age 12-18. Josei is for adult ladies above the age of 20; mainly working women. Seinen is for young men between the ages of 18 and 30.

Morpheus : and Hentai is pornographic, adult anime.

Sharon : Ahhmm, aahhhmm!! Now that was fast.

Morpheus: I do not watch those!

Sharon: Yea, I never said you do.

Morpheus: I really don’t!!!

Sharon : Don’t worry, we believe in the theory of being "total anime lovers" now, don't we Morpheus?

Morphはいeus: Keep this up and I'm gonna start writing a really horrible review of Jun's new series!

Sharon: Okay, I’ll stop! :D Coming back, the thing that drives me mad about people the most is how can they not see the difference between cartoons from the art-style? I mean, the Big-eyes, the crazy hair-dos and the generally human looking proportions are a dead-giveaway. Though the stylizations differ from artist to artist, with some going for the wild, while some for realistic and while some go for a uniform style, but overall the depictions are based on proper human proportions, with the human body as base. Even the expressions used in cartoons are different from those in anime. How can people miss those?

Morpheus: People always seem to miss the most obvious. And speaking of eyes, Osamu Tenza was the who first pioneered the technique. Apparently, he was inspired by the works of Disney in Mickey Mouse & Bambi. So, as an experiment, he used big eyes, with a personal addition of a big Iris in his work, Ribbun no Kishi, which also happens to be the first ever Manga targeted towards young girls. He used the big eyes as a tool to convey emotions easily. And even after decades have passed, his method is still used and is considered as a template in Shoujo genre. That’s how effective it was.

Sharon: The part about emotions just reminded me of the language of anime. That’s one thing every anime lover knows isn’t it? Why don’t we revise THE ANIME LANGUAGE?

Morpheus: Yes, agreed. Let’s do it the anime way.

1. Growing mushrooms = extreme depression

2. A # on the forehead (top left side) = irritation

3. Glistering eyes = trying to flatter

4. Doki doki = heart beat faster (excitement)

5. Zzzzzz= dozed off

6. A flickering eye = angry to the power infinity

7. A big droplet on the forehead = Phew!! Lost it

8. X eyes = Dead/dumbfounded

9. Blushing cheeks = embarrassed

Sharon: I guess, we have successfully conveyed the difference between an anime and cartoon. So, I expect we won’t make it to our 73rd and 69th 'You guys still watch Cartoons'! But, we sure got a lot sentimental along the way, now didn't we Morpheus?

Morpheus: Yup. We did. But, then, we had our reasons. Our reasons, of loving anime.
 The first Anime that I saw, and which made me fall in love with anime, was CardCaptor Sakura (CCS), back when I was in school. It used to air on Cartoon Network. When I first saw the anime, the first thing that struck me was the eyes. I’m a sucker for big eyes. I just love big eyes. So, I was reeled in and hooked by the big eyes of the cast of Sakura, so much so that I went on to find out why this program had this unique art-style, which was quite different from all the others airing on CN. That’s how I stumbled onto the world of anime. Also, the various depictions of their life, which were very different than ours piqued my interest. For me it was an alien world, a world that I had to explore. Plus the stories of my uncle, who lives in Japan, fascinated me. I always asked myself how can a country that was anything but annihilated during WWII, progress so much and yet be so polite and kind after suffering so much. The notion amazed me and I just had to investigate it. The closest thing I could find then was Anime. That was how I got into the world of Anime.

Sharon: Woa!! Amazing yaar! It was my 1st anime too. Although I would suggest that people watch anime according to their age. Yet, no matter how old you are, CCS sure is a very sweet and nicely done anime, which you won’t regret watching.

Morpheus: Yeah, I think after reading through this, the readers will have a proper idea where they would want to start from. And even if they are stuck after that long a discussion, there's always sites like Anime-Planet.com that not only tracks your views, but also recommends you new ones based on your watching taste or genre-wise.

Sharon: and dramacrazy.net and animefreaks.com and myshojo.com , etc too. Ja minna, looking forward to an increase in the rate of growth of anime lovers across the globe. Sayonara!

Morpheus: Sayonara!

Sharon is a blogger, the one who came up with this article’s idea and a co-writer of this article, whose blog can be found at http://sharoncardsofheart.blogspot.com/, where you can also find this article.

Sister

As I saw off my sister today, who returned to her medical college in Pune, the feeling of separation weighed down heavily on me. When she had come from Pune to spend her 15 days winter vacation, all she would say for the first 3 days was how she missed her friends and then 3 days before the departure date, she kept saying that she didn't want to go back. Our mother being the strict one would always say that sacrifices such as these are necessary to succeed in life. I too echoed the same and even added in a little bit of “elder brother” admonishing to the lecture to show to her that I wouldn't miss her a bit and in fact would be happy, since I get the entire house to myself.

But now that she's off to Pune, I can feel how much I have grown used to her presence over the short 15 days that seemed to me no less than a month. The house seems a lot quieter today. Though I prefer peaceful environment, but still I miss her constant chatter. Even our pets seem to have noticed her absence and have gone awfully quiet. It's as if they want to show they are missing here too, like me. Yes I am glad that I finally will have the TV all to myself, yes I am glad that there'll be no-one to weasel off to my father for every single bit of my mistake, yes I am glad that now I don't have to put up with her teary-eyed ploy to get my father to get her something most of the time from my possession, but I'll miss those all the same. For she was after all the one person who would cheer me up when I was sad, advice me on how weird my drawings looked, comment on my articles and creations, order her around the house to do my part of the chore so that I can catch up on a little bit of extra sleep or just plain help me pick the color that looks best for a new application that I was coding. Even the part that I should be happy about seems dull because I won't have to fight over them with her. And at the end of the day, I'm going to miss those more than anything else. 

The only silver lining to all this is the fact that she will be coming back after a long period of 6 months, though I reckon this is going to be a very long 6 months. To make matters worse, my vacations are still half-way from being over, otherwise I would have something to bury my head in. Though now I also wish that my sister never stumbles on my blog, because if she reads this article and comes to me with that grin and “you missed me!”.........*shudders*

Free Sniper: Ghost Warrior Giveaway

So the New Year's rolled in. What better way to celebrate the coming of a new year than with free games? Apparently GreenManGaming are of the same opinion, for they've organized a giveaway of free copies of Sniper: Ghost Warrior over at GreenManGaming . The giveaway is a first-come-first-serve-basis for a total of 20,000 copies of the above mentioned game.

All you need to do is head over to   GreenManGaming website after 13:00 Hrs GMT and put Sniper: Ghost Warrior in your basket. At the checkout apply this:

GREEN-MANSS-NIPER

This should entitle you to a 100% discount on the title and you can have it for free. The coupon doesn’t have any deadline, but after 20,000 copies are served, it’ll become invalid. So hurry up and grab ‘em!

Happy New Year!

With a year gone from our lives and a New Year full of promises to look forward to, I wish all my readers a very Happy New Year! May all your dreams and wishes come true. Thanks for being there. This year's even more special as I can now say it in four different languages!

সুভ নববর্ষ! 

नया साल मुबारक हो!

あけましておめでとうございます!

Happy New Year!

Though I shouldn't complain, but with the cacophony of sounds and music playing around, I would've loved a noise cancellation device this year. Its good thing that my rooms at a corner of my house and the sound isn't as loud as it is in some other rooms, due to multiple “celebrations” with loud blaring music that aren't to my taste. But then again, not everyones equal and its perhaps just their way of welcoming the New Year, which happens to be quite different from mine, so I can't really blame them.