Credo

Film used to be a precious resource in India, to be used with care. This bred discipline among cinematographers. The start, end point and trajectory of each shot had to be considered carefully before a commitment was made to shoot. Once video became widely available, discipline often went out of the window. Documentary makers shot hour upon hour of material, but frequently failed to capture any compelling frames.
Quantity can never replace quality. At least, as the case of the replacement of film by video demonstrates, it takes absurd amounts of quantity (zillions of ones and zeros packed into one digital frame) to adequately replicate quality (the depth and intensity of analog impressions on photosensitive material).
I have this example before me as I inaugurate a blog -- which is free to publish and in which I can stuff endless random thoughts -- after four and a half years of writing a fortnightly 500 word column about Bombay. The column's restricted subject matter and word limit sometimes felt like a straitjacket, but it forced me to choose each word with care. I aim to bring some of that discipline into the inevitably looser, less formal structure of the blog.
Girish Shahane