The Magic Potion

…and then the evil witch handed the painter a bottle filled with the lurid green concoction. “Take this!” she commanded. “It’ll change your life!”

The painter took the bottle cautiously. She opened the lid, sniffed the contents inside and gasped in horror. “This?” she asked incredulously, staggering back and shielding her nose with her hands, “This smells insane! What is it?”

“Freshly caught green frogs and forty day old grasshoppers pureed together” cackled the witch, rubbing her hands in glee.

“Well I can’t eat it then, I’m vegetarian” said the painter, hastily handing back the bottle.

“Listen to me you Arty creature” hissed the witch defiantly, her breath smelling faintly of spring onions, “If it is green it’s vegetarian! One teaspoon of this and you will never go hungry again!” She defiantly thrust the bottle back into the painter’s hands once more.

The painter tentatively dipped her little finger into the green goo, lifted a teeny weeny smidgen of the stuff, licked it and screamed. She clutched her throat, coughed and writhed in agony, “Koff…koff…gaakkkk! This tastes terrible. I think I’m turning green!!!!”

“You are supposed to MIX it with your food!” screeched Evil Witch finally losing her patience. “Just listen to me and DO AS I SAY!”

Shaken and stirred by the screeching witch and the foul smelling chutney, the painter retreated into her kitchen with the bottle. There, she made herself some hot white rice and with trembling hands tentatively stirred a teaspoon of green stuff into the freshly cooked rice.

Then she ate a spoonful.

And it was at that precise moment that her entire life changed forever. For the better.

To learn more about The Magic Potion, click here>>

...from my Weekend

I usually go about my life around this city with an eternal feeling of faint claustrophobia. After my last visit to Lalbagh, I realized it was the lack of open space which brought this stifling feeling on and a once a week visit is a necessity. I went there again last Sunday and simply enjoyed ‘hanging around’ amidst many trees. Here are some pictures.

This is the Seed pod find of the week:

And these are my drawings of some strange, chunky Aussie Seed pods from my ever growing collection:

Here's a pic of these beauties:

I hope you all had as relaxing a weekend as I did :)

*

Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there's a field.

 I'll meet you there.

~Rumi

My Dream House

I know I express myself mostly in Black and White and my existing house is a nest of muted shades of burnt orange and dark brown, but I have to admit to you, my ardent blog readers, that this is a sham I have been living till now. Yes! A sham!

I am an Indian, an inhabitant of a vast and chaotic subcontinent. What this means is that  beneath the surface of every Indian, however diverse we are and however sophisticated we seem, there flows in us, red, hot, shiny, glittering Indian blood which carries with it its penchant for loud music, bright jewellery, extra sweet food, gaudy clothes, blaring automobiles and other forms of  exaggerated expressiveness. Suppress it all you want in the name of ‘Westernization’ or ‘being cultured’(whatever that means), but the true Indian form of self expression periodically bursts forth in any one of these varied ways. If you don’t agree, my dear Indian reader, you are in denial! (And you are probably a snob as well).

I was sick and tired I tell you, sick and tired of blog posts which feature yet another samey samey ‘Dream House’ with its cream coloured walls and earthy tiled roofs and shelves of carefully arranged cutey cutey knick knacks. Therefore during a ride outside Bangalore this evening, when I saw this house in its halo of neon hues, I screeched ‘Stop!’ scrambled out and started clicking away. 

This is it! This is my dream house! One day, in the not too distant future, I will build one of these for myself in the heart of the city, in a neighbourhood full of bland white houses and defiantly live within my glorious towering psychedelic concoction.

And finally, my dream house has some gasp worthy neighbours who deserve to be shared here too!

:)

ps (14/7) : While we are still on the subject of colour, if anyone of you wondered what the insides of these houses must be like, to aid your imagination I add here below a picture from the studio of a former college mate. Every single wall in his two storey studio is a different colour. I am not exaggerating one bit and I repeat - every single wall a different colour. Here is a picture of just two of those walls:

~