22 Crossroads

I present here my bestest digital art creation ever. Its a poster made for Robotix 2009. Inspired by a lot of grunge artwork, the background alone took more than 4 hours in the making. The background was made from scratch using just 4 stock images (that can be seen on the 4 corners). Once the background was done, the 09 (yellow/orange) part took the maximum time -- close to 1.5 hours. It is my most detailed work ever with a lot of time spent in getting proper text shadow for maximum legibility. And finally it is among the very few artwork that looks better in print than on screen (usually it is the other way round). Grunge by ~ ritwik-mango on deviant ART The background alone looks something like this Grunge Poster background by ~ ritwik-mango on deviant ART

Won my first individual event ever in college. Since no one else was blowing my horn, decided to do that myself. So here is my gold winning speech :) Since you might get bored half way through the speech, let me thank the people who need to be thanked right now itself: Apurva, Myth, Zoo, Xar, Kamra, Harsha and even Bishnoi :) Motion: Increasing national security and surveillance is a cosmetic response to any extremist activity in a democratic and tolerant society . :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Let me start with a very clichéd “Picture this”. I am a 7 year old boy and I behave like any 7 year old does. I hate milk and I throw a tantrum when I see a glass full of that filthy white thing. As a seven year old I probably don’t know the words tantrum and filthy, but this ignorance does not save me from the wrath of my father. He takes less than 45 seconds to get that milk down my throat. I certainly don’t like it. Thankfully, sometime later my mother explains to me why I need that milk if ...

I first came across this writing by Tagore when I was in class 6. Since then I have somehow managed to remember most of the lines. The first three lines have especially haunted me for long. For a long time I had been thinking of turning this thought into a wallpaper but lacked concrete ideas. Then I saw this sketch of Tagore by Satyajit Ray. So here is my dedication to Tagore. Nothing special ... but I hope it looks good on your wallpaper. Where the mind is without fear by ~ ritwik-mango on deviant ART Here is the link to the download page.

How can a QUANTIZED Universe allow for IRRATIONAL numbers??? Think about it!! (and post your thoughts in comments)

Disclaimer: I am not a sportsman. I am slightly obese and overweight and I couldn't probably walk 5 kms on a stretch. Still my dream is having a 70inch (not cms) LCD TV in my home and watching India win the Cricket World Cup some day, again! There is a certain charm in getting up at 1300 Hrs on a Monday. Primarily that means not being bugged by the so called Monday-morning-blues. So I wake up one such Monday "morning" and misty eyed as I am, I log on for my daily dose of news online. Usually that means something like – "9 Blasts 14 Injures", "Dhoni pulls out of test series", "Shilpa ready to rock Big Boss" and "Nothing can stop me from becoming PM : Maya". It is not everyday that an ordinary Indian like me [here] , wakes to the headline "IT'S A GOLD: BINDRA BAGS INDIA'S FIRST". I cannot even begin to imagine what an Olympic gold would mean to a sportsman, and there are not many Indians alive to tell you that eithe...

What is it guys and their idea of expression? No wonder cell phone and greeting card companies have to turn to women when they want to say, “Express yourself.” The older a boy gets the more he becomes aware of the fact that other humans of the same gender are not to be spoken of in an affectionate way. There were times when we too had best friends . These were the boys like us with whom we shared our lunch at school. These were the boys who helped us with our homework, and these were the very same boys who picked up fights for you in the playground when you were not strong enough to stand for yourself. As we got to our early teens, these boys were the confidantes who were the first to learn of our secret crushes. And at times these boys were the pigeons carrying mush-infested paper balls to and from these secret crushes. They were our best friends. Then through some freak of nature these boys became men. And then somehow there were no best friends . Girls still have their best fr...

You watch a movie like Love Actually and it makes you wonder. We, here in our country, need a celebration like Christmas – we really do. After all, what other occasion do we get to profess our love for our best friend’s wives (not girlfriends – wives). And then that very wife ends up kissing you. We really need a Christmas of our own. And not something like the Valentine’s Day – something more local, closer to our heart. Just imagine how wonderful it would be to be able to cheat on your wife of 20 years and say, “Hey It’s Diwali!!!” This movie also puts a few things in perspective. If you grow up in a conservative environment watching classic Indian romantic movies (like I did), there are a few notions you have about the phrase true love . Now I never say it has to be platonic and/or metaphysical. But I had a few notions corrected anyway. Like: to fall in love with your exotic foreigner girl (read Portuguese) you need to see her in her bare minimums. Surely, beauty lies in the eye o...