The Process goes on

When the planet is in question, life takes a rather poignant turn. What seemed important forever now seems to be irrelevant. What called for a discussion is best considered an obstacle. And when the soul takes charge, clarity emerges on the process ahead. 

This festival, the upcoming one is as much everyone's as it is RS's. For as everyone seem to have started working in a synchronous flow, it reminds me of last years' madness when AD held the rope, the year RS became supremely responsible. And each year, as CS does the same - silently ensuring that things get delivered at the right time and with the best of quality.

Planetary Boundaries of Life is unlike any of the festivals we did before. For one., it has a much higher scientific temperament and coupled with the fact that we need to reanalyze intern stories from the past episodes of the Festivals of Life, it has been a constantly evolving exercise for us. 

Planetary boundaries for one. It is a complicated concept and requires several layers of planning. And the first few weeks have seen us slowly settle down into what is perhaps now, a sort of a momentum.

1. CS, Y, AN, AK and AA came together and spent the first few days reading and learning about these planetary boundaries. It was a joy to see all the faculty of the school take classes for the design team and clear doubts.

2. Initial confusion about drawing the AMOC stretched for many days, almost 3 plus weeks of August till R visited Orissa and met up with RS. Here, thanks to the unique bond they both share - work started moving and the first draft of the Monsoon poster started coming up.

3. CS worked enthusiastically on the Ganga panel but it was not getting finalised and the struggle was real. But things have moved into the second gear now and he is expected to complete Ganga and Brahmaputra, Himalayas, Sunderbans, Uttarakhand, Travel sketches and Travels photos in two weeks. He will then take up the intern stories. 

4. AN started collecting tons of data and together, collected material for Ganga, Brahmaputra, Western Ghats, Cauvery and a few more panels. He downloaded high resolution photos on climate perspectives, collected 100 plus high resolution images, list of protected areas and the keystone species present in them, gathered 100 quotes, filled the data for specified river basins with texts and images, checked the 40 ecosystems and worked on the travel stories panels of both the sketch and the photo journey. He is now constantly working with CS and should continue to do so till December. 

5. AK had a few tough weeks as the outputs were not being easily created. But RS took it upon himself and helped AK settle down into a routine. Initially, he tried making the Gangotri glacier timelapse and 3D model. He worked on the timelapse by overlaying the GEE data over the DEM, but nothing was working out. Then, RS guided him and helped create certain world maps of volcano-affected areas and completed the first map for Samalas Volcano, highlighting its affected region and the selected countries. He soon submitted the 7 Maps. He also downloaded the Instagram posts and flash flood videos for Nepal and other disaster sites and completed the PPTs with both images and videos. He then moved on to download data for the India DEM, LULC with district names, river names, a world bathymetry map, HydroSHEDS, Hydrology Asia, Aquifer Systems of India, Aquifer Systems of India and Carbon Monoxide, scraped the schools and colleges data for outreach for the NEHU Festival.

6. Y has been working when she gets a break from her regular work but is expected to join the team in full earnest. Using her skills, we hope to see 40 critical aspects for the very first time in human history at the same place and same time. This too was a guidance given by RS. 

And lastly, R and RS have been at it, guiding others in the team, planning beautiful panels and going out of their way to support this movement. RS has grown up.