Pensha

A man who wears many hats – engineer, poet, writer, actor, model, photographer, and documentary-maker – Milind Gunaji's down-to-earth charm and candid confessions at a recent event succeeded in adding to his admirers. Milind, who was in the city on Friday at the book reading session of Meghna Pant's debut novel, “One & A Half Wife”, frankly admitted to the audience that he hadn't had time to read the book beforehand. To correct the folly, Milind settled down for an informal chat with Meghna to understand the story before reading out from the novel. While discussing the various themes of the book – fortune-tellers, recession, East vs West – Milind revealed that he could read and prepare horoscopes very well, but didn't believe in road-side fortune tellers. “ I was told by one such fortune-teller that I would make a good politician. I don't want to test the accuracy of his statement by plunging into politics. I am drawn to mysticism and spirituality than ...

Exquisite Pattachitra art. Pic courtesy: Tilak Shetty, Graphiti All of us have, sometime or the other, seen wall paintings in Madhubani art, with their rich and eye-catching geometric designs. Now visualise this traditional folk art form in an animated film for children. Mind-boggling isn’t it? The man behind this imagery, Tilak Shetty, director of Krish,Trish and Batliboy II, has picked popular folk-tales and brought them alive on the big screen using this medium of art. Tilak, who was at the inauguration of the two-day Children’s Film Fest held in the city recently, confesses that he cannot draw or paint “to save his life” and hence, chose this medium because “someone has to archive and document our folk history for posterity. And, films assure you of that,” he says. A Commerce graduate, Tilak also dabbled in computer programming before setting up his animation company, Graphiti. He reveals that it is the art that decides the stories. “We first decide on the folk art and...

A night stroll on the almost deserted 18 th June Road was quite a revelation. What we had missed out during the hustle-bustle filled mornings, popped up in our consciousness, beckoning a closer inspection on the dimly-lit road. No, it wasn't an apparition, nor was it a road block, but a house. A typical Goan house with red roofs, large windows and since the curtains were parted, we could also spot the altar. It quite fitted the description of what we had seen earlier in the day – a museum dedicated to houses of Goa. House Watch Having decided to skip beaches, temples and other touristy sights of Goa on this trip, we headed to Tordo, Salvador -do- Mundo in Bardez taluka. A red structure shaped like a ship was our destination. The Houses of Goa Museum isn't your typical museum; in fact it's warm, welcoming and cozy like your own home. The polite and warm receptionist, on learning that we were not architects, offered us discounts on the entry tickets (Rs 50 for o...