Introduction
At the beginning of 2004, I came home one night and found a mysterious FedEx package sitting on my desk. I opened it up and discovered that I had been nominated for something called the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. It is a programme that allows a young artist to work closely with an established mentor for one year. This was the first time that they had offered a film category (besides painting, music, dance, literature, and theatre) and I had been nominated to work with the director Mira Nair who is world famous for her films including Salaam Bombay! and Monsoon Wedding. In March I flew to New York to meet with Mira at her home and she cooked me fish curry and we drank wine and talked about movies until 2AM. A week later, when I had returned to Bangkok, I got a call from Rolex that Mira had chosen me to become her protégé for the year 2005.
Fast forward one year later, and it’s March 2005. I board a plane in Bangkok to spend a month with Mira on the set of her new film The Namesake. It will be shot in New York City and Calcutta, India from March-June. Throughout the trip I keep a diary.