By the airport

View from airport - our apartment complex is behind airplane's tail

We live by the airport.
Not such a big deal,
lots of people live by airports
and put up with extra traffic ...

Airplane landing by our apartment - taken from across the street

and flights that arrive and depart
in the wee hours of the morning and disturb your sleep.

Plane landing with Mahim creek in foreground

Near the airport is a creek
and a number of slums / suburbs
The new terminal
Just opened at the airport.
We haven't seen it yet,
but hear good things about it.
What we have seen is the life
In the neighborhoods around the airport.

Life under the landing planes

I like living by the airport,
hearing the planes landing or taking off.
They're louder when they take off of course,
But the wind is usually from the other direction
so we get the sights and sounds of the landing planes.

enjoying the evening air - watching the planes land

I think about where the planes are coming from
who is on them, and what lives they are about to begin.
I also think about who else is watching them
and the lives they lead.

 

 

 

The planes land right over their heads

The contrast between those of us who have come to this place
on the wings of dreams
and those of us who can only leave by dreaming of wings
is so strong.

Crossing the Street

I've been meaning to write about the traffic and crossing the street here in Mumbai for quite awhile. During a recent professional development event (ASB Unplugged conference) , I was lucky enough to be sitting next to a good friend and colleague, Megan in a cinematic narrative workshop by Jim Sill. Great speaker and good session and I really like the approach and the opportunities for use in education. We were tasked with telling a story in a short movie using 4 shots: an establishing shot, a long shot, a medium shot, and a close up.  Great speaker and good session and I really like the approach and the opportunities for use in education.

I chose to show how to cross the street in Mumbai. A couple of notes about this:

1) The corner we're using is the one nearest our school and apartment
2) It was shot mid-morning - a very quiet time of day in the neighborhood. 
    The good news about that is that it made it a little easier to shoot without getting run over.
    The bad news is that it really doesn't show how tough it can be.
3) I had a little difficulty with the sound - the crossing clip sound was messed up so I copied some audio and replayed it ;-)
4) Thanks to Megan for her patience and great acting !

So this is my first attempt to include a little movie clip in the blog. Hopefully it will work OK.