Pretty Rooms

I did a series of illustrations of rooms recently and I'm sure there will be more because this is so much fun. Getting to design a little space, do it up all by yourself - multiple times, is really therapeutic :) Deciding which lamp goes where, what plants to include etc is a fun process !

I've used watercolor and a bit of acrylics and also my trusty Pigma black multi-liner :)

Time flies

It's been a long hiatus from blogging and I'm back. It has been a crazy few months and 2015 has begun with a lot of promise and happy feelings. I hope it stays this way :)

I recently got selected for a fellowship, a first for me, and I'm really thrilled to be a part of this. I am off to a village in Karnataka to study and help preserve their culture and heritage. 

More about that soon ! 

2015 also began with a lot of travelling all around Bengal and a little bit of Sikkim. 

Here are some illustrations from our travels:

These illustrations were also part of the #6framestorychallenge by Pratham books. 

Here is what Pratham had to say about my story.

September - the month that was

September came and whooshed by before I could blink. It even seemed like we skipped it this year. Like it was just August, and now October. I guess mostly because I've be racing to meet deadlines.

Books:
Umm.. well.. reading took a back seat this month, sadly. To make up, I attended the Bangalore Literature Fest and was enlightened by the many discussions I sat through.

Movies:
Strangely I saw very few movies this month. Seems unbelievable to me too.
Finding Fanny - A sweet movie, unlike a typical Bollywood film. Since I am a DP fan, I was happy to look at her for 2 hours. The story was o-k-a-y, performances were nice. Wouldn't say I loved the movie though.
Mary Kom - Saw this in the bus while going home to Pune. Thank goodness I did not waste moolah to watch this on the big screen. What a terrible thing they have done to such a remarkable story of MC Mary Kom.
Good Morning Vietnam - Heard so much about this one and finally got to watch it. A lovely movie, Robin Williams at his best. Great story and acting.

TV Shows:
I started watching Gotham (amazing), which is a take on Gotham before Bruce Wayne became 'Batman'. I love it.

Travel:
This month we were too caught up in work to travel anywhere. Except for a weekend when my college friends were in town and we had an awesome mini-reunion, the month just went by drowning in work.

Restaurants:
So I went to The Beire Club for the very first time. Yes, ironically I did not have beer (i'm not that big a fan) but instead ordered a Sangria, and must I say, it was one of the best I've had till date. Really well made. Also their Nachos were delicious. I had a really fun time there.

Also visited the hip and happening 'Church Street Social' and really liked the place. It's just the right amount of loud that I like in a place. They serve their drinks in really cool and innovative ways - candy floss cosmos, shots in syringes etc. It was a rather fun evening !

Also, tried out Dyu Art Cafe in Kormangala. The place is really pretty, and has a charm of its own. Can't say the same about the menu though. A really limited number of dishes, though the tea is nice. I ordered a Chamomile Tea and they served us an entire potful - 3 cups ! A nice place to just sit, read and doodle maybe.

 

October already looks like a fun month. Let's see how it rolls.

Coldplay love - contd.

And here are some more Coldplay illustrations I made recently. My new fav song, from their album Ghost Stories, is Always in my Head. Simply love it.

August - the month that was

August was a busy, busy month as expected. Lots of work came in and I was a happy puppy. Along with work, I also did a lot of personal art and craft projects. Altogether it was one fun month :)

Books: 
Neglected Poems by Gulzar - This is a book we picked up in a tiny bookshop in Jammu. It has these lovely poems penned down by Gulzar in Hindi and English. A very quick read, we took turns reading them aloud to each other, trying at times to decipher the slightly complex Hindi words.

Movies:
People like us - A sweet movie about a guy, who gets to know that he has a step sister, after his father dies. He has to deliver her inheritance and the story goes on.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - The last of Wes Anderson's movies, I think I've seen them all now, this one was about a movie maker, who goes out to seek revenge on a sea creature that killed his friend. A funny, strange one as usual.
Birdcage - I wanted to see all the Robin Williams' movies that I had missed and I started with this one. God, I could not stop laughing. In some parts, I was actually laughing out loud. A really hilarious movie.
The Fault in our Stars - I heard so much about this one that I had to watch it. The love story of two terminally ill people. I liked it, but not that much, but it had its moments. Some dialogs were really touching. And I thought the guy character was really cute.
Chef - This was a fun movie about a chef, whose reputation gets ruined on social media, quits his job to start his own food truck. Oh, and the food, I was drooling the entire time.
Water for Elephants - A movie about a circus and love. I quite enjoyed this one.
Mardaani - A good Hindi movie come along very rarely and I was waiting to watch this one coz the trailer looked rather good. Disappointed. Expected too much maybe, but the movie seemed half baked, with a loose plot and terrible supporting cast. Also, I thought that the way they handled the social evil of child abduction and trafficking was immature. Maybe it was made entirely for the masses and they had to make it a certain way. Bummer.
City Lights - We heard somewhere that this was a good movie, but oh were we disappointed once again. So much Bollywood masala in this. Damn, we were having a really bad movie run.
Unknown - We wanted to watch a good movie and I thought this one, starring Liam Neeson, would be it. Sadly, this was a rather stupid movie.
The Expendables 3 - I couldn't believe I was actually walking into a theatre for this one. It's not my kind of movie at all, but since the fella was having a tough work week, I thought I would humor him. Well, I kinda liked it, though I was told this was the least fun of the entire series.
Begin Again - Anything that has Keira Knightly and Mark Ruffalo has to be watched and this turned out to be a sweet, warm movie. I loved the soundtrack as well.

We also watched two plays last month. I hope we get to see a few this month too.
Hamlet - A very talked about and famous play, I liked it in parts but overall, it fell a little short of what I had expected. Good acting by most, but the adaptation was a little strange and not as funny as made out to be.
Jin Lahore Ni Vekheya - The title of this play by  Habib Tanvir, literally means - One who has not seen Lahore, has not lived. A brilliant experience, and a wonderful story about how the partition affected families on both sides of the border.

Travel: We got to witness the delightfully lush-green beauty of Coorg last month. I've never seen green like this before. It was breathtakingly beautiful. A separate post on Coorg coming soon, but I'll leave you with a sneak peek :)

September has already begun with a lot of work. Busy seems to be the flavor of this month and I'm happy to be occupied with things I love doing. 

10 books

This thing has been going around the inter-webs for the last week or two. I thought I'd do a little post here. It required you to list down 10 books that have impacted you, left you spellbound or had some kind of profound effect on you. Here is my list:

1. The God of Small Things - I think this is the first book that comes to mind when someone asks for my favorite book. I love the way this book is written and the tiny details it lists down. Here are a few of my fav excerpts from the book:
"It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined."
"Somethings come with their own punishments. Like bedrooms with built-in cupboards."
"She drifted into marriage like a passenger drifts towards an unoccupied chair in an airport lounge."

2. Outliers - This was my first non-fiction read. I never could believe that I would like it so much. Everything Gladwell writes about makes so much sense. It was an eye-opener for me and also made me want to read more non-fiction

3. The Kite Runner - This was the first book that made me cry. Enough said.

4. The Alchemy of Desire - I almost forgot about this one. This book was really wonderful and after reading this I wanted to run away to a little mountain village and live in a cottage in the hills.

5. Unaccustomed Earth - I love Lahiri's writing style. So simple and yet beautiful. The truth be told, I am very fond of Indian fiction. Mostly because I can relate to it on some level or the other. This book is a collection of short stories, about love and life. It was a gift from the fella, the best kind of gift.

6. Middlesex - My boss gave me this book and  I have to say, she has impeccable choice. This is certainly an impressive book. It is about the life of a hermaphrodite, and it is least of what you expect it to be. There was a Greek/Latin phrase in the book, that I was planning to get inked, before I changed me mind - "Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus" - "We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes."

7. Daddy Long Legs - This was one of my favorite books growing up. Maybe I will re-read it soon !

Well this is supposed to be a list of 10, but I can't think of any other books. It only makes me realize how many good books I have lying around that I need to finish. Do you have a list? Would you like to recommend a book that you love? 

Commissioned Illustration

A long lost friend got in touch with me on FB a few weeks ago. She had seen my illustrations somewhere and was wondering if I could make her a blog header. The blog is about her tryst with baking and I was quite excited to work on this, after all it involved my favorite city - Paris.

I got started right away, doodling and sketching out different options for the illustration. She liked one direction and we spoke about details to include etc. It turned out really well :)

These were the first few rough sketches:

We decided to go with option 2 and then I reworked the illustration once more.

Once she gave me the go ahead on this, I digitized it and here is what the final illustration looks like.

You can have a look at the illustration on her blog - My Tryst with Baking ! 

This was one of the most fun assignments I've done in a long time. I look forward to doing more :)