The education of Arjuna

   After nearly a year,  I decided to try sketching something a little more elaborate than faces , cartoons and sleeping doggies. During a recent trip to Murudeshwar, I had clicked a picture of a scene from Mahabharata made in the form of a statue. The sketch here is an attempt to capture the spirit of the original picture and not replicate it in complete detail, which would be fun but also very time consuming to accomplish!
Anyway, a picture speaks a lot more than words, so let me know what you think ...

I also played around with it using picasa, but not too much :)

~ msk

The Black Swan - a haunting experience

'The Black Swan' made me feel strangely uncomfortable from the beginning to the end. The haunting of the main protoganist Nina by her innermost fears while struggling to break free from the chains of an ambitious yet fatalistic mother made me squirm at moments. Empathizing with her, I understand how it feels to be bound by unreal expectations, invisible handcuffs which are only put on by oneself. What made it all the more creepy was the merging of the fictional world of the 'swan lake' and the real world with its share of politics, betrayals, sexuality and fear. 

Nina's obession with the 'swan lake' manifests itself in her relationships with those in close contact with her, her mother, teacher, competitor and herself. 

- Nina's struggle to escape her mother : Nina's mother failed at some point in her career and believes that her daughter will achieve what she missed out on. Her own insecurities make her project that her daughter would also fail eventually and needs to be protected against her will. 

- Nina's unfulfilled attraction for her teacher - The dance teacher and owner of the dance company seduces Nina to bring out the daring part of her which she didn't acknowledge. Nina's fear of letting go of herself at any given time makes her like a virgin who wants to lose 'it' but is unable to take the step

- Nina and the competitor - By personifying the girl who wants to take her place as her own evil alter ego, Nina is finally able to give form to the darkness in her. 

- Nina and herself - Obsession with her role of the Swan which takes on two forms in order to win back her love makes her eventually become both those characters. Split personalities within her are torn apart by extremes of emotion. The white swan or the timid part of her lets everyone trample all over her, while the crazy who-gives-a-damn part or the black swan hits back at those who threaten her.

In the end, like a mythical swan song, her last performance on stage is 'perfect' , and she finally finds release in death. The conclusion contrasts life, which is a constant struggle with people and herself with death, which lets her retain her perfection 'forever'. Death becomes her. The swan sings her last.