June: the month that was

Books: Damn, wasn't able to finish my book in time. July will surely see more books here.

Movies:
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - a really sweet movie that someone had recommended way back and I finally watched it. Pleased.
Breathe In - A strange movie about a girl who arrives as an exchange student, to live with a family in New York and how the family and their interpersonal relationships change because of her.
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Simple adorable movie. I love how it has been made and how the story is narrated. So much fun.
The Spectacular Now - A slightly predictable story of a popular high school boy, an invisible high school girl, love etc. Sweet.

Travel: Huge post on Leh coming soon. I keep postponing it because I just don't know where to start. This was surely one of the most memorable trips of my life. Here are some photos while you wait.

From cities to the mountains (the view from above)

A shikara on the Dal lake

May: the month that was

The entire month of May was spent waiting for our big Leh trip in June. Counting days, planning, dreaming and waiting.

Books: zero :(

Movies:
Strangely I hardly saw many movies in May. Here are the ones I did watch.
Million Dollar Arm - Fun movie, really good acting by some of the Indian actors. Feel good movie. (3.5/5)
Shaadi ke Side Effects - My god. This movie was a complete torture. I wonder what the director and script writer were thinking. Such stereotypes and lame jokes. Time completely wasted !

Travel: 
Being summer, we did not travel much. We went to Bombay for a friend's wedding and from there I took off for two weeks to Jaipur, to visit the sister. In Jaipur too, I mostly stayed indoors. There were a lot of dust storms and thunder storms during my stay. Here is a typical summer sunset:

Bangalore also had some beautiful sunsets that I got to witness from the Hosur Road flyover. Brilliant sights.

Highlights:
The kittens are growing fast and healthy :) It's wonderful to watch them scampering around the place.

I got to do a really interesting freelance project, which involved illustrating for a book of poems. It was great fun, even though the deadline was really tight. Here are some samples that weren't used. Hopefully the book will be out soon and then I can showcase the final images.

Thankfully the summer is officially over and we are back to great weather in Bangalore. Yippie. 

April: the month that was

April is over and so is the insufferable summer in Bangalore. Thank goodness for that. The summer this year was one of the most terrible compared to the past years I've been here. Also, that could be because we now live on the top floor and the roof is directly under the sun. I'm just glad it is over.

Books:
I finally finished a book, after 2 months. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil, which was gifted to me on my birthday. Pretty interesting book about the drug scene in Mumbai a few decades back. It really enlightened me about the different kinds of narcotics available *chuckles*

I picked up this book almost two years back, from this really tiny bookshop called Goobeys on Church Street, but never got down to reading it. It's a lovely collection of poetry and illustrations. 

Movies:
This was a really dry spell in terms of movies. I think I didn't watch a single movie I can write home about.
Out of the Furnace - The only reason I saw this was: Christian Bale. Sadly, the plot was so slow that I fell asleep and almost missed a lot of the movie. Blah.
Main Tera Hero - Thanks to our innumerable bus journeys, we get to see the most rubbish Bollywood movies and this was one of them. God. A sheer torture, except for the one catchy song.
Ragini MMS 2 - Another "bus journey" epic. Supposedly a horror movie, but I think it could be classified under soft-porn. Disgust is all I feel for Ekta Kapoor.
Total Siyappa - We saw this on TataSky Showcase, thinking that it would be a fun movie since the trailer seemed quite funny. We then realized that the funny jokes were just in the trailer. *facepalm*
2 States - I think this was the most decent of the lot and even this wasn't too great. Alia's clothes and a few scenes here and there, were the only things that kept me going.

Travel:
April did not see much travel, except for the monthly visit home. It was too hot for road trips and we spent most weekends hiding from the sun, indoors.

Highlights:
Our semi-domesticated cat - Flashy, had four babies and it was really blissful to watch them and her in this new role of a mother. It was the cutest sight. They lived under our cupboard for almost 10 days, before the mother decided to move her litter.

I attended a fun mocktail workshop near my place. It was organized by Nature's Basket and I found myself with not so much work on a weekday afternoon and decided to go and have some fun. It was quite interesting and I hope to make some of the drinks soon.

May is now here and with it came lovely thunderstorms and rain-showers. Bliss. 

Lots more to write about this month for sure.

Polyvore

So I recently recollected my fun times on Polyvore and decided to revisit the site and make some collections. It is really so much fun. I always wanted to do one of those style pages for a magazine.

Haha..maybe someday !

summer by chicabeingme featuring embroidery tops

I'm in love with Aztec prints and would love a jacket with some Aztec accents !
Bright, loose tops for summer - a must !
These flats are so cool and coveting this shape of sunglasses !

Summer

It's getting way too hot in Bangalore. I know it won't last too long but while it does, it is unbearable. 

The only way to beat this is to wear loose, flowy cotton dresses, skirts and tops. 

Drink a whole lot of juices, liquids and fresh fruit !

Look up interesting summer recipes to cook up, like this interesting salad !

And just dream about escaping to the mountains !

 The Dhauladhars

(pictures from our trip to Mcleodganj last year)

Any tips to share?

(This post is part of the art adventure at A Sunny Yellow Window)