Moon Lovers : Scarlet Heart Ryeo - A gripping first half, but falters later on.

My main problem with the show was this - Why exactly is Hae Soo/Go Ha Jin, travelling back in time?

We understand from the first scene that she is in huge debt, and at a shock after being cheated by her boyfriend and her best friend. So, a travel to the past, is a nice way of saying, here, I am going to dump you in an era, where brothers kill each other for the throne, but hey, at least you are debt free!

It works to an extent. Within an episode, Hae Jin (a.k.a Hae Soo in Goryeo) gets used to the huge gap in technological advancements, language, importance of family statues etc etc. And for some part it doesn't matter. The show progresses tightly, showing us the blooming romance between Wang Wook and Hae Soo, and parallely the tragic story of Wang So, the abandoned prince. But it goes downhill once Wang Wook turns his back on Hae Soo, and then we are getting the half hearted turns of the brothers to ascend the throne. Everything and anything that happens is pinned on the heroine, and she suffers the consequences. Honestly, it stops surprising you after some time.

The second half loses the consistency of the former half. Characters become mere sketches, to fulfil a stereotype in the story. Wang Wook changes into a stoic man, whose only aim becomes acquiring the throne, Yeon Hwa oscillates between wanting to marry So, make her brother the king, or make herself become the queen. (It gives a headache at times.) Wang Yo becomes the guilt ridden (cues towards Macbeth) king and remove or keep Prince Eun, and Wo Hee, it doesn't matter for the story.

Instead,I would have loved to see more of Wang So's past, to why he became so brutal, to why his own mother resents him so much, and his relationship with his other two brothers going beyond their goals of becoming kings.

The problem also was that I kept expecting some tie between the past and the present to show up, as an evidence to why Hae Soo is actually here to change the past. But we are never shown that. If we had seen Wang So as a bloody tyrant, it would have been exciting to watch Hae Soo, try change and events in the past, to prevent him from becoming a king, or a tyrant.

I also never bought Wang So's and Hae Soo's love story, as I did with Wang Wook. The confused feelings of hatred, fear and love between them, was never sorted out, but rather just shown and then solved by a mere hug, or few gentle words, till the next problem popped up.

All this doesn't hinder the fact that the drama was beautifully shot. The locations, the costumes, everything was gorgeous. And as this is my first historical drama, it was a breath of fresh air - away from the towering glasses in Seoul to the calm, large courtyards of palaces.

Waiting for the storm

Here, read this.
And listen to this and this.

The Golden Hours of Srirangapatna.

There is this term in photography known as the 'Golden Hour', which alludes to the time around sunrise and sunset, when the sunlight is not too bright, and a mystic golden light is casted over everything. Many photographers are encouraged to take opportunity of this lighting, and my visit to Srirangapatna a few weeks back gave me just that. Here's a preview,

Beautiful, no?

The purpose of the visit was to video document the fort of Srirangapatna for the subject of Architectural Appreciation. This required us to drive all over town, taking photos and videos of all historic sites, and in between we grabbed our chance to have our own excursion.

We left one hot, bright afternoon, all six of us, comfortably packed in Durrani's car. We drove from a highway filled with dhabas, towards scenic views of lush green fields on both sides of the road. We entered the town, and first headed towards the banks of the river Kaveri.

Rain has betrayed Mysore for longer than a year, so the river wasn't as swell as it used to be, and dry rocks covered most part of it. Still, the bank was alive, with prayers chanted in one corner, banter between women as they noisily washed their clothes, the laughter and giggles of a large family, as they conversed with great interest, and in the distant, one man covered in soap foam, washing himself unhurriedly.

As the water level was low, you could also spot birds fishing more clearly.
One swoop down, and a fish in the beak.
Or like this one, swimming in the water to find one.

After finishing a walk along the river banks, we drove to the Dungeon, which had unfortunately closed. We then crossed the railway station and climbed upwards onto the remains of the once great fort, and watched the sky turn from blue, to orange, to pink and then eventually black.

Early next morning, six of us, on three scooters, again made our way through a (still) sleepy Mysore towards Srirangapatna. This time the air was cold, and a light fog persisted over the roads.

We parked near the Elephant Gate and climbed on top and patiently waited for the sun to rise. 

The market nearby was already buzzing, and vehicles drove in and out of the ancient gate.

After some satisfactory clicks, we visited the Jumma Masjid, where the Madrasa was already open and classes were in session. From the gate itself, you could see boys, seated in two rows, with their heads bent, reading aloud verses from the Quran. Between them two elderly bearded men sat, supervising the ongoing lesson.

The mosque was previously a Hindu Temple, which is evident from Hindu motifs on the stone columns, the ambulatory around the shrine, and the lower stone walls of the structure. After Tipu Sultan shifted his capital to Srirangapatna, the upper levels of the mosque were built, along with the minarets.

It is pleasing to hear that a structure that posses qualities of two separate cultures, is still (peaceful) intact, maintained and useful.

Vegetable Shopping outside the mosque

From there, we climbed to the point where once Tipu Sultan's army's flag would be fluttering over the town. Yellow, when he was ruling, and once the Britishers took over, it was black. 

Nida pointing towards her namesake

Anisha posing; if only that hand was a bit more down

Then, we visited the Shri Ranganathaswamy temple, my favourite. My family and I have visited this temple on a regular basis, mostly at night, first washing my feet at the river Kaveri, then a visit through the crowded lines of the temple, and then having some bajji's and a cup of chai, on the walk back to the crowd. It has become of a ritual of a sort now.

This time, I visited in the afternoon, when all the steel stanchions had been opened, and the usual long, maze like route to reach the altar was replaced by a straight walk towards it. The temple was hardly crowded, and very quiet except with the occasional rings of bells, and chants of prayer heard in between. It was dark and cool,and felt like standing in a bubble, away from the heat and crowd outside. The only source of natural light was through the opening above the courtyard with the dhwaja stambha soaring through it. 

It was a beautiful sight. The light came down in various streaks, and you could see dust particles dancing around them. The lathe turned pillars and the dhwaja stambha, were glowing, and everything around them faded away from the bright centre. Some people sat at the step of the courtyard, and the whole scene looked like a painting.

The last visit of the day was the Lord Bailey Dungeon, which we had missed the previous day. The dungeon is quite small, and was composed of a series of groin vaults. Prisoners used to be chained to the wall, and made to stand in neck deep waters of most hours of the day. Here are the two Nidas, demonstrating it for you,

By eleven in the morning, our whole tour of the major sited in the town were done. And I am glad that because of this assignment I finally got to go around the town, when the routine visits have only included the river bank and the temple.

Of course, there is work ahead of us now; putting together of all the photos and videos, but still, I am content with this sudden excursion of ours! 

Experimental Sundays.

Group works are a common occurrence in the course of architecture, and each one of them has its own special memory attached to it. It could be the midnight gossips, or the last minute tensions, but each one is a different routine all together.

This sunday, as we all sat together to work on our video documentation, the two Nidas decided to cook lunch for us.
Two hours, a shopping trip, and a messy kitchen counter later, we had this!

A delicious vegetable pulao, with onion raita, cucumbers and a spiced boiled egg curry!

And wait! There is more!
In the evening, there was gol gappas! Fresh & home made!

Pretty cool, eh?
A delightful experimental sunday (for my tummy ;) ), I must say!

Bullet Point Review: Descendents of The Sun & Goblin

As Baradwaj Rangan has stated in the first two points in his review of the Malayalam movie Premam, it does sometimes become tiresome to write a detailed review of a show or a movie; especially when you are an architecture student and finding time for your blog can be troublesome. Hence, I thought of putting forward my thoughts and opinions in this format.

I recently concluded watching Goblin, the highest rated drama of 2016, beating out Descendants of the Sun, which had aired just months ago. And though I didn't enjoy either of the shows, I wanted to share how similar both the shows were, and how they could be paving a new way for the upcoming dramas.

• Did I enjoy them both?
  Not really, but at least I sat through the Goblin and finished the whole season.
• Both shows have a great start. They both have lead actors returning to the small screens after a long hiatus, and both establish a solid storyline within the first few episodes, which could have led the drama in a more tighter version of what we saw.
• Both the leads are together by the second episode; and why I emphasis this is, is because in dramaland, it usually takes half a season for the pair to get together, but is then followed by a long strenuous process of breaking up and patching up. Here, no time is wasted in getting the characters to meet, and express their feelings towards one another, so that we can concentrate more on the main plot.
• The lead's love story in both shows are influenced by external factors, things beyond their control. In Descendants of the Sun, it was the war that brought them back together, and also kept them apart from each other, while in Goblin, it was fate, destiny (unmyeong), grim reapers, and Lee El (in her bright red suit and lips) that control the proceedings of the story. 
• The contradictions of the lead characters was interesting to see it play out. Song Joon Ki's character is a soldier, and as he says so himself, his job is to kill, while Song Hye Kyo plays a doctor, a job entitled to save lives. Throughout the story, both characters come across various situations that gives them moments of indecision in choosing the right thing to do, because clearly it is different for both of them.
  In Goblin, Ji Eun Tak has to fulfil her destiny of taking Kim Shin's life, or has to end her own. A contradiction, which should have evoked all the tension and suspense in the drama, but this issue only rose periodically, with a lot going on in between. So when the moment of choice does come, it is too fast to register that it has already happened, and to feel anything about it.
• Not much family background is given to many characters in both the dramas. In Goblin, we do get Ji Eun Tak's mother, aunt and cousins, and Kim Shin's sister, and in Descendants of the Sun, Yoon Myeong-Joo's father, but eventually in the story, it is all about what is happening amongst the set group of characters. 
• Bromance. Enough said.
• No school bullies and gossiping ahjummas.
• A rehash of the stories set in the same genre. Descendants of the Sun could have been set in Korea as well, but by sending them off to a foreign land, the Korean characters are alienated, but brings them (and us) closer to one and another. Goblin is similar to 'My love from the Stars', in terms of both leads being thousand year old, and meeting the same faced lover both in the past and present. In Goblin, the rules are already set in the first episode. There is no mystery to why this prophecy came out, and shows rolls out on how this was achieved.

Day Two, Jaipur: Frescos & Magical Nights

After a highly satisfying first day, the following day rolled out on a much calmer and lower enthusiasm level. Our zest to go out explore was in a impulsive yet controlled  manner. We had gotten used to the city, its roads, its buildings, its people. They now painted a familiar picture in us, and that awful gut wrenching feeling of stepping into the unknown was gone.

For breakfast we opted for corn flakes, and some bread and butter, to the large, hot kachoris we had from the roadside stall yesterday. I polished off three bowls of cornflakes to compensate for its absence in the last few months of idlis, upmas and baths. There was absolutely no regrets after the third bowl. Just a full tummy, and a large smile on my face.

A little before lunch, we decided to head to Nahargarh Fort for two reasons. One - we had viewed it from the terrace the day before, and two - because it had caught our eye, on those easy-to-read tourist maps.
It took us an hour's drive through the city, and then up the winding roads of the dry hill to reach the fort. It was a sunday wintry afternoon, which meant more people, more cars, more vendors.

The fort stood out bright and yellow-y in its brown, dry surroundings. The entire palace was covered in beautiful floral paintings, as though to make up for the lack of flora and fauna on the way up to the fort.

Where Amber Fort was magnificent and embodying, the compact Nahargarh fort made up delightfully colourful rooms, some even in greens, blues and greys.

All these rooms provided a breathtaking view of the city below. You could view the small rectangular roofs of the houses, crammed together, and in between a few, sprung out wispy green tree covers. 

The best part was the terrace,

After winding in and out of uncountable rooms, a small, narrow staircase took us up here!

The palace finally made sense, and also the wandering as well! It is combined of a set of courtyards, each connecting to four adjoining rooms, and they in turn lead to another courtyard. Multiply this a number of times, and you get a symmetrical plan of the palace.

Kites still fluttered in the sky, and music still blared out, creating the impression of a concert.

After a scrumptious punjabi thaali for lunch, it was work time for a while, and we all huddled together on our laptops in the pink walled common room. Soon night fell, and our host encouraged us to take a break, and come set afloat a lantern. 
Well we were on a break, so what the heck? 
So, Sitara, Swathi and I ran up to the terrace. 
Walking through the door itself, our eyes fell upon million tiny little orange dots glimmering against the dark blue sky. In between them, there were periodic bursts of firecrackers. Boom and then crackle! In colours of red, green and golden, they broke the stillness of the night.

We lit lanterns as well. For the first one, we had help, but we were so tense to make sure that our one floats, we forgot to make a wish. So, we decided to light another. We had no help this time, except for the nervous quick glances we gave to the people next to us, to make sure that we were doing it right. 
rrriiippp. A long blunt cut in the centre of the lantern. 

We took out another one briskly, and with more tenderness, opened and lit it up. We slowly pulled out our hands, like a parent taking off their hands off the bicycle, when the child is learning to ride. 
It swooped down, and we swooped down faster and kept throwing it up.
It fell down again, and we threw it up again. This continued for a few seconds, until the lantern was out of our reach, and was slowly dropping down towards the street in front of us. We watched anxiously, and along with us, our neighbours from our terrace, with whom we had danced yesterday morning.
A sudden gust of wind, and the lantern floated higher and higher, and our eyes plastered to all its little movements. We had forgotten to make a wish yet again.

Standing on the terrace that night, necks cranked up, and eyes momentarily following the lantern's flow up the sky can termed as nothing less than magical. 

A perfect end to the day.

**BONUS
We vacated the college premises early in the morning, after a long, fun, tiring five days of the convention. My train was late in the evening, so I granted myself another half a day of touring.

I joined two of my juniors, and I had another visit to Amber Fort. The same bus, the same route, but this time with more ease and confidence. It was in between morning and noon, so it was bright, but there was still a nip in the air. There were lesser crowds, and no tour guide feeding us information at strategic points.

Then we headed to the famous Literature fest. It was packed, and pricey, but I was so glad to be here! 

I got a mere three hours to spend in the fest, but I was just happy with the thought that I atleast got to spend that much. Being surrounded by books, and discussions of literary works was a new and wonderful experience for me. To be amidst like minded people, sharing the common love is in itself a beautiful affair.