Nandi

 

Sometime after I'd finished illustrating my first picture book, I felt rather lost as one does after completing an intense project. I mentioned this to a young friend and she encouraged me to Google adventure groups to see what they had to offer. One such group, Unventured, offered a bike ride around the base of Nandi Hills. If you grew up in Bangalore, you'd have invariably taken a trip or more to Nandi Hills, reached the top, lolled around a bit and then driven back, but the base of Nandi Hills is not exactly a tourist attraction so I was intrigued. I enlisted.

This is probably one of the most memorable adventures I've ever had. Apart from the guide and I, the others who enlisted were two women in their twenties, both software engineers visiting Bangalore, one from the US and the other from Singapore, who were looking for some adventure over the weekend. We were taken in an Innova to the a farmhouse at Nandi Village, fed a sumptuous breakfast and then given our cycles. It had been at least 15 years since I'd ridden one but I did my stuff. It was a glorious Sunday morning when we rode the empty streets of Nandi Village. We were shown a silk-making unit, tried our hands on a potters wheel, taken to one of the most beautiful temples I had ever seen, the Bhoganandeeshwara Temple, and most memorable of all, shown this beautiful old colonial railway station pictured above.

These villagers below at the railway station posed solemnly in attention, as villagers always tend to do for a photograph.

I decided to walk back to the farmhouse through the village. Below are my cycling companions passing me by and a glimpse of Nandi Hills in the background.

Village house

The village barber

Silk worms!

The Temple selfie

The colour of my sneakers

I was determined to revisit Nandi and sketch the colonial railway station, so a few years later, I took a train from Cantonment Railway station to Nandi.

Here is the colour of some of the trains in this country. Embellished to the hilt. Every inch of space a chance to fill up with lots and lots of colour and pattern.

I got off at the Colonial Railway station and crossed the tracks to get a better view to sketch. The Army was conducting an exercise close to where I sat. Seeing me sitting on the ground and drawing, they brought me a table and chairs and fresh lime juice. It was so kind of them!

It turned out that the train departed from the colonial station back to Bangalore only at 7pm so I walked through Nandi village and saw scenes like the one below - a cauliflower patch!

I revisited and explored the temple, took an auto into a small town nearby and thanks to the fact that I spoke Kannada, found and paid for a taxi ride back home. Coming to Nandi cost me something like ₹50 if I remember right, but returning by taxi cost me over a 1000 bucks. However, there are some adventures that are worth it. Perhaps I'll go there again.

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Priya Sebastian
#priyasebastian
Nandi, #nandivillage, Nandi Village, #bhoganandeeshwaratemple, #cycling, #unventured

Hairs

 

One morning, as I crossed the road and headed towards the coffee van in front of Lalbagh West Gate, the Coffee Man had already spotted me and had my order ready: "Darku, lessu", he declared and handed me my glass. Dark coffee, less sugar.
There was this woman who was his assistant who looked at me and said, "Nice hairs" at my new haircut. That is when I noticed her long black plait and complimented her for it. She told me that she regularly gave her hair for c@ncer patients who needed wigs. Here is a photo of her gorgeous plait. That is the coffee man beside her who had my order ready.

I might not have a plait, but I can draw one. This image below is some mucking around I did at my desk with the bits and pieces for one of the Mommies from my book, the hairy one.

It is so nice to get back to blogging. It is like keeping a diary and I didn't realize how much I missed this ritual.

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Priya Sebastian
#priyasebastian

Mahalakshmi Tiffin Room

 

Whoever thought up the interiors and colour schemes of Mahalakshmi Tiffin Room on DV Gundappa Road, should be given a prize. They really knew what they were doing.

I thank serendipity for sending this lovely poser in his bright blue shirt to sit down in front of me. It was the plum on top of the pudding. So perfect for this picture below.

Sketching in Gandhi Bazar

 

This drawing was done outside of the famous Bull Temple. It is a fairly short drive from my home in Central Bangalore. Back in the day, it used to be a big event for my parents to venture out of their Cantonment (Christian) enclave into this side of town, usually to show this area to foreigners. They would enlist the help of one Mr.Raju, one of their few Hindu friends and he would come with a taxi into which the bulky white people would be bundled in to go see a temple and be fed with idlis. Back then, I never thought there would come a time when I would know this area like the back of my hand. I love this side of Bangalore. It has the best sketchable spots, strongest filter coffee, softest idlis and freshest vegetables. And always, speaking fluent Kannada gets me extra best service and instant friends.

During this sketching visit, I espied a boy wearing a colourful shirt sitting on a wall and I took his photograph. 

Later on a subsequent sketching visit, I spotted the same boy wearing the same shirt, but he was holding a baby on his lap, an unusual sight for a young lad in this country. I asked him to pose for me and he did so. (His parents were selling vegetables in their cart nearby). I love the smile on his face in the photo. He stayed like this all through my drawing.

And this is the drawing of him, done live, on the spot.

However, I still wanted to draw his colourful shirt, so I went home and drew him from the photograph. Here it is below -

I think the tender expression on the live sketch captures the essence of the scene better, but I got what I wanted in both the drawings.

I also sat by the traffic lights and sketched this flower seller below. 

As I was drawing this woman, a frail white-haired lady, who must have been at least in her seventies, came up to me and said, "You are keeping yourself busy at your age, that is very good! It is so nice to see you taking such an interest in your hobby!" I smiled. Then I looked up to see her go up to a sleeping cow and touch the cow's tail to her forehead and carry on.

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Priya Sebastian
#priyasebastian

Snippets from my Dreams

 

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Priya Sebastian
#priyasebastian

Lalbagh at Dusk

 

That's Lalbagh (the botanical garden) at dusk when it turns into this mysterious haunting dreamscape.

I dare anyone to tell me which camera I am using. There is a world of difference between even the best iPhones and a decent powerful camera.

Kashmiri Women

 

This was a rush job for a newspaper. I would have like to fine-tune it further, but the deadline was very tight so that I had to get up early, photograph it and email it immediately.

After I did my first picture-book about a Kashmiri girl, I got several jobs associated with Kashmir or involving women wearing headscarves. Because of this, I sometimes get a neighbourhood woman to model for me by wrapping a bedsheet over her head and shoulders. In this picture, the group of women are startled at something, I forget what, so I made my model pose for every one of them. In the figures of the two women in the foreground, one is applying henna on the hands of the other.

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priya sebastian, the hindu

Purple Cabbage

 

I had long wanted to draw a purple cabbage in black and white. Here it is. 

One day soon, I must attempt this in colour too.

Here below is a drawing of a silk-cotton flower bud, the one at the entrance of the West Gate at Lalbagh. The blossoms are deep red, but the chunky flower buds are pink and they are interesting to draw.