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Ruben Malayan

2020

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Armenia

Twin poplar trees across the yard.

 

Here you could smell Sevan, but the hot dry air of the nearby hills

would not let you have it.

 

It reminds me of Jerusalem, the yard of the Armenian library,

however so different and remote, shared the same quality of air.

 

Here when you descent on people without warning, they call you in with a warm smile,- a familiar hospitality all poor places share. I look at their faces and see nothing but acceptance, realizing I probably have the same expression.

Hanging on to the passing smiles, I leave.

 

Here life flows as if its nothing but a spring searching its way down

to the big water, breaking upon the rock and mud, overcoming obstructions.

Here it is as if there is nothing else but this stretch of time.

 

Summer 2014

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Hyderabad, India

Making films.

 

Nothing can prepare you for India. Same goes for Telugu film industry,

sort of Bollywood of central India, which produces a big chunk of incredibly large amount of annual movie entertainment. That large volume can be explain quite simply - there is practically nothing else except large shopping malls. Movies are the ticket to the world where trouble exists only on the screen and the good guy always gets his revenge. Three full hours of cheering and dancing, all for a 1$ or so.

 

Nevertheless, multiply that by approximately 70% of adult population (about a billion people) and you get a lot of cheering and a lot of money. And thats just for one film. Now multiply that by a thousand - a rough annual output of Bollywood alone.

 

All that said, the real problem is having the not just skilled technically, but also an imaginative manpower, and thats where it does not really compute. Generations oriented mostly toward mechanical work of replication, somewhat lost on the ability to be genuinely creative and inventive. Of course everything is relative and always evolving.

 

All and all 3 month spent in Hyderabad were a good experience, provided opportunities for a lots of motorcycle riding and making good friends. Working in India is not for everyone and takes giving up on plenty.

 

But its worth it.

 

 2011

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