Lack of electricity

This one keeps trying to make a nest in the kitchen.

The electricity is a huge problem. I try to cook or run errands in between, but when the battery on my laptop gets low and the electricity goes so often it is really tough to get into a flow of working. I try my best to use battery powered lights to take photos for the next batch of shots, even if the lighting is completely inaccurate. That way I can get the staging, as in the position of all elements in the shot down. I will add images that represent the kind of lighting for each shot, as I can’t gain enough control over the lights I have to direct them enough for that. Besides, the electricity goes every other hour, so it is just fortunate when the battery powered lights are running so I can take photos and see the puppets.I tried to get some work done. I did add some more photos and edit the ones I had taken the day before in the story I am working on. I ended up cooking some karela (bitter gourd), which turned out well.I have to do something productive when the electricity goes every hour otherwise you completely lose that momentum to work. In the evening, the electricity went out before 6pm and I was in darkness until well past midnight. What kind of crap is that? Apparently, since there are regional elections going on, political parties do this nonsense to keep people from congregating too much. Seriously? If that is the case, the entire neighborhood should be at the ruling party’s doorstep instead of the kind of idiotic concerns the general public often expresses. Such as religious policing of each other and worrying about nonsense that does not in any way reflect the duties of elected officials.Well, since the electricity was gone for so long, I drank some tea with Umar when he got back and I will work the night shift along with him tonight. He is working on the throne room background for Raja Rai Diyach in Sur Sorath. It is the largest backdrop in the film, and features some challenging elements, but it is coming together beautifully. I finalized another design the other day, as well as some more designs for huts today. We are getting there with all the tasks needed for production. I used the time without electricity to make a bunch of phone calls. I checked in on my friend Ustad Amb Jogi (music director and composer on “Risalo”). After his multiple heart attack, he had his angioplasty yesterday and is recovering at his home.I checked in with puppeteers to organize my trip to audition the four to work with me on this project. Khursheid or Sadar sahib as he is called helped take me to different puppeteer families in the three locations they live in Multan months ago. This time, we will put a call out to puppeteers in all three cities that they live in, Multan, Bahawalpur and Khaniwal. I know what I need from them, now let’s see who can handle something new and bring the subtle performances I need. I will certainly help, but I need people with skill and the ability to listen and try something new, while, I hope, bringing something of their own to it. These communities have had it rough. I learned that many of the puppeteers were in Lahore, selling livestock in a market.These are performers, but at the moment, they have not changed with the times and no one has really helped them to do so either. I hope to go settle which puppeteers I’ll hire for “Risalo” next week.