Learning Dispatch - October 24th, 2019 - Toronto Trip, Films to Watch, Reading

Hi,

Why the dispatch? - I want to understand how I can make my learning more social. I love having interesting conversations with friends and colleagues about new things I learned. So these dispatches are part of an effort to get those conversations started. I am also very curious to know more about what you have been learning in return for sharing some of the learning highlights of my week/month/year.

Course Update - The B.Ed course has kept me busy. But it has been an interesting week for me personally. I have really enjoyed reading for the coursework this week and faculty lectures have kept me quite engaged. 

Reflection Notes from Trip to Toronto - I got to visit Toronto from 14th October to 18th October. I fell in love with the city and hope to visit it again soon. I also got to catch up with some old school friends. I visited the Royal Ontario Museum, Kensington Market, Queens Street, Ed Mirvish Theatre, CN Tower, Distillery District, Art Gallery of Ontario, Film Reference Library at TIFF Lightbox,  Union Station. I loved Toronto because it is such a great city to walk around. 

Film Recommendation - I saw some great films in the last two weeks. The list includes Ben is Back, Capernaum, The Incredible 25th Year of Mitsy Bearclaw, Salam. I highly recommend all four films and really enjoyed watching each one of them. 

What I'm currently reading - 'Coming Back to Me' by Marcus Trescothick and 'Being Adolescent' by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Abhishek 24th October 2019

Learning Dispatch - September 23rd, 2019 - Autumn Learning

Hi,
Why the dispatch? - I want to understand how I can make my learning more social. I love having interesting conversations with friends and colleagues about new things I learned. So these dispatches are part of an effort to get those conversations started. I am also very curious to know more about what you have been learning in return for sharing some of the learning highlights of my week/month/year.
Films

Wildlife by Paul Dano (Trailer Link) - The story of a family that moves to Montana in the 1960's in an area affected by fires. The father loses his job and this starts putting a lot of strain on the family. The young son watches his young parents deal with the pressures of managing in a family in these difficult times. He is unable to understand his parent's behaviour in most cases. The fire outside is similar to the fire in their house that is hard to put off. The cinematography is brilliant to bring 1960 Montana to life on screen. Carey Mulligan gives the performance of her life as the mother, Jeanette Brinson. But the highlight of the film is the young Ed Oxenbould who plays the son, Joe Brinson.

What They Had by Elizabeth Chomko (Trailer Link) - Easily one of my favorite films this year. It is the story of a family that comes to terms with a mother who is in the last stage of dementia. They grapple with the question of admitting the mother to a nursing home. The father and married daughter are against this idea. While the son pushes for it constantly insisting it is what his mother needs. Each character is so defined and layered. I relate to Bridget Ertz, the daughter and the loneliness she feels in a marriage she doesn't feel committed to. I relate to Nicky, the son and his quest to constantly get the acceptance of his father as he is not in good professional standing. I relate to Bert, who is now trying his best to support his wife who has dementia and constantly fights his children's suggestion to put her in a nursing house. I relate to Ruth, who tries so hard to remember things but is just unable too and then smiles or makes a joke when she knows she has forgotten something very important. In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Elizebeth Chomko said this was the story of her grandparents that she wanted to tell on screen. She wrote it over a three year period. And man it was well written. It is such a joy to consume something so beautiful in such a small period of time that takes so much time and effort to create and bring to life.

Learning Dispatch - August 30th, 2019 - Mid Year Learning Update

Hi,

Why the dispatch? - I want to understand how I can make my learning more social. I love having interesting conversations with friends and colleagues about new things I learned. So these dispatches are part of an effort to get those conversations started. I am also very curious to know more about what you have been learning in return for sharing some of the learning highlights of my week/month/year.

Personal Update

There have been a considerable number of changes in my life. I have started a Bachelor of Education Intermediate/Senior Program for the subjects of English and Social Studies at Western University. I moved to Canada on 19th August 2019 to begin this course. I am now based in London, Ontario. The course will begin on 3rd September 2019. There is some information about this course at this link.

Learning Dispatch - January 12th, 2019 - New Year Learning

To write is to share an intimate slide/slice/moment with the world around you. I feel it is a way to capture a life experience and to hold the nuances of it in time. Memory is not a worthy companion in the long run. It become weaker as time passes. To write for me is to present this moment, this experience, this person and this day in the way you perceive it now. I also write because I feel this burning desire to learn about the world around me and then to share what I've learned with a few people that really matter. As a reader, subscribing to these posts, you are really important to me and matter a lot to me.

It has been a while since I published my last post. It has been a rough year personally. I hope I am able to write more often this year. It is both therapeutic and fun for me personally.

I started reading the following three books this year namely,

1. Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee about Casey Han, the daughter of two Korean immigrants and her travails, relationships and experiences after getting out of Princeton on a scholarship into the real world where she doesnt have a similar support structure
2. The Art of Captaincy by Mike Brearley about the role of a captain in a cricket team
3. Into the Silence by Wade Davis about the journey of one of the earliest expeditions to the highest point on planet earth

I am quite excited about reading each of these books. More recently I have also developed an interest in geo politics and bought two large maps of India and the World. I try to pick out a country each day and then learn as much as I can about it through the day. It is quite insightful. Each country has its own set of economic, political, historical and cultural beliefs. It is almost like traveling to another country by reading about it over the internet. Also you push yourself out of your comfort zone and expose yourself to these new belief systems. 

Map Image 1

Learning Dispatch - August 31st, 2018 - Watching The Glass Menagerie at Prithvi Theatre

To write is to share an intimate slide/slice/moment with the world around you. I feel it is a way to capture a life experience and to hold the nuances of it in time. Memory is not a worthy companion in the long run. It become weaker as time passes. To write for me is to present this moment, this experience, this person and this day in the way you perceive it now. I also write because I feel this burning desire to learn about the world around me and then to share what I've learned with a few people that really matter. As a reader, subscribing to these posts, you are really important to me and matter a lot to me.

Learning Dispatch - November 25th, 2017 - Books, Films and Medical Memoirs

Notes on Sessions at the Tata Literature Live 2017

The Tata Literature Live 2017 festival was organized in Mumbai from 16th November 2017 to 19th November 2017. On Day 1, I attended a panel discussion titled Reading like a Writer and a debate on whether we were living in a nanny state. On Day 3, I attended four talks titled, 'The mystery of JD Saligner', 'Berlin, London and Mumbai: How Cities inspire new narratives', 'Poets translating Poets' and 'Judging the Judges'. You can read the description of each of these sessions in some of the links provided above or on the Tata Lit Live website. We ended the day with a two hour play on an Irish Freedom Fighter in the Tata Theatre at NCPA.

Learning Dispatch - October 27th 2017 - Notes from MAMI

The 19th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival was held in Mumbai from 12th to 18th October 2017. There were over 200 films being screened at over 18 screens around the city. 

Image Credit - https://www.mumbaifilmfestival.com/Programme/ecatalogue

These are some notes from the few films I got to watch at the festival this year. I have attached a link to the trailer for your reference and further exploration. 

1. Thelma is a science fiction film about how a girl's super-natural powers to make people disappear affects her life. 
2. Loveless is the story of a broken marriage in Russia and its repercussions on the neglected child of this failed relationship. 
3. Redoubtable is a fictional depiction of the French Filmmaker Jean Luc Godard's relationship with his second wife who was much younger than him. 
4. mother! is a psychological horror film about how a couple's relationship is disrupted when uninvited guests start arriving at their home. 
5. Up, Down and Sideways is a film about a group of rice farmers in Nagaland who worked as a cooperative but had a tradition of singing love songs while farming in the field. 
6. A Suitable Girl was my highlight of the festival. It is the story of three Indian women in their mid 20's. They are well educated but yet face a lot of pressure from their families to get married and settle down. The three women come from different geographic (Rajasthan and Mumbai) and professional backgrounds (Finance, Education, Marketing). But the struggle to choose between their family's expectation of them as daughters of the house and their own dreams and desires is a common theme that unites these three stories. 

I am glad Mumbai has its own film festival. I really enjoyed my time at the festival this year. I wish I could have seen a few more films. But I am glad I got to watch whatever I eventually got to watch. 

Abhishek 

October 27th, 2017