“You should never be scared to know better,” Mimi slipped into our conversation in Ahmedabad, with a scarily casual tone. Sounds like a simple sentence, that – but it actually is terrifyingly profound: it summed up the reason for my mental struggle back home. Mimi has a powerful command over language and expression – the epitome of crisp words conveying deeply philosophical thoughts. That girl is amazing; I love how everything she says hits me straight in the face – makes me think! I remember many, many such phrases from our conversations – each burned into my brain, forcing me to reconsider existing opinions, re-evaluate situations, and be open-minded. She is easily one of the smartest people I know, and has been an important part of my precious exposure at the RCA.

IDE is driving me crazy: it is making me more and more immune to psychotic behavior – it is stretching out my boundaries of ‘sane’! Every time someone walks through those double doors, I am less and less surprised to see their paraphernalia: cycle tyres, copper-sulphate solutions, pig bones, robot arms, clay butts, spittoons, brain-mapping-devices, metal foam, breast-pumps, popcorn-popping gizmos, etc! “What is that??” is a timeless question, and it remains relevant at all times in the studio :) One random day when I walked to my desk, I saw a 4’ tall plant in a pot, and I’ve enjoyed its company since. Nobody knows where it came from, and why it was at my desk; but I’m perfectly happy with that! Long Live the IDE Studio!

Africa!

Does passion need a trigger to show itself? In terms of an environment, a problem, or opportunity? If Gandhi was born in 1995 into an independent India, how different would his life be? Would the British rule have created a Gandhi earlier? Do circumstances create men of passion or do ‘great’ men perform irrespective of the situation? 23 year old men walked to their deaths for the country 60 years ago – would that happen now, or do we need horrific circumstances to be courageous? I’m amused.