The White House

So while driving around a circle in South Bangalore, I came face to face with this gorgeous old white house. I kept remembering its beauty. Then one day I returned here, sat in my car and drew it in my sketchbook. 

Then another day while buying some fruit in front of this place, I saw a young woman come out of the gate. Since she had a friendly approachable face, I called out to her and showed her my drawing in my phone. She took me inside and introduced me to her mother.

Once you enter the compound it is a different world. You leave behind urban Bangalore and enter into a time capsule which is a remnant of British Colonial times. There is a distinct change of energy and you feel you are moving back several centuries.

Unlike many old colonial bungalows which have been converted into hotels and boutiques, this home remains unchanged. It was almost reminiscent of entering into the Bronte House I visited somewhere in England a long time ago. The couple who owned the home, Ranoo and Umraz where gracious enough to show me the rooms. The floors were slate, there was a narrow spiral staircase, the dining room was like a setting from an old English story. I hardly wanted to remove my phone and brazenly photograph the surroundings of this gracious couple, so I waited until I was taken to the open space beyond the kitchen.

This house once housed Home School, which is pretty much where most girls in South Bangalore studied.

Ranoo and I chatted for sometime in her cool verandah. Connections were made of course. If you've lived in Bangalore since the 70s then everyone knows everybody else: Ranoo's teacher was my neighbour.
Ranoo told me that those who are familiar with Home School would remember the Cherry Tree in the courtyard. While the old one did not survive, a new one was planted in its place which you can see here in the picture below. 

I was told how Ranoo would hear people walking past this house wonder aloud why the owners had not "developed this space", i.e. built a towering apartment block.That might be an inevitability to old structures such as these. They are staggeringly difficult and expensive to maintain. 

What more can I say but conclude that I consider it a blessing to have been allowed to look inside this garden and this beautiful house and to have enjoyed this moment for what it was. 

Pink Snowflakes

 Tabubia trees in my part of town have a wild party every summer. All the roads are pretty much covered with pink snowflakes during this time. 
The picture of the spectacular tree above was taken from the car while on my way home and the giant pink candy floss in the picture below is mine, right inside my garden, greeting me with gentle confetti whenever I stand outside.

This is what I see when I look up.

And this, when I look down.

This is the huge pile of pink snowflakes ready to be cleaned up again and again, pretty much like how they shovel snow in that other city where I used to live.

Paper

The picture above shows beautiful sheets of drawing paper including some extra large sheets of excellent imported paper at half the price I pay for a sheet of Canson. I also got 100 sheets of regular tracing paper to cover my work. 

For the 20 years I've been going to Marudhar Papers, I struggled with them in my Hindi and they struggled with me with their English. There was a certain amount of brusqueness from them. Discounts were grudging. Then this time suddenly a barrier broke when I tried Kannada and they, Marwadis, replied in perfect Kannada. I praised them: How well you speak Kannada! They blushed and became extra accommodating. "We know you have been coming to us for a long time!" Just before I left they said, "Wait madam, gift, gift!" and gifted me this nice spiral bound notebook. I am totally floored.

A Bangalore Montreal Dialogue

Every Sunday, Julie and I upload all the drawings that we do that week on a tumblog called Hello Every Sunday. You've seen the icon on the left and yes, Facebook readers already know, but since I love my blog I must put it here as well.
Over here in the about section you can read why we do what we do. 

Otherwise do follow us and cheer us on as we drive this little monster forward every week throughout this year.

The top and bottom pictures of the first four photographs are mine, and the pictures in the middle are Julie's. See the difference in lighting of the two countries - the golden winter light from South India and the blue winter light from snowy Quebec.

Here are pictures of the sketchbooks that we are using and that we arrived at by trial and error -
This is the sleek sophisticated fancy Stillman and Birn which Julie decided would meet her needs.

And the bright and chubby Lekka Pustaka (account book) which dazzled me with its red shirt and swore to fulfill all my desires.

When I look at how different the sketchbooks are from each other, I cannot help but think of all the opposites in this project: The cultural differences in the two countries, the different colors of the light, the opposites in temperatures, the fact that we drink tea and coffee respectively, Julie's systematic way of working and my last minute jams... Still, art communicates through all kinds of differences and boundaries. I am sure that towards the end of this project we both will carry away with us a lot more than we ever expected when we started this.

One Glorious Spring Summer Morning

Since a meeting with new Banglurean blog friend and avid instagrammer Priyanka Sacheti Mehta was long overdue, I invited her for a walk at Lalbagh which she happily accepted. I remembered how gracious my Kochi and Kolkata hosts had been to me and tried to emulate them. I remembered that the first great Bangalore experience usually always consists of the walk in Lalbagh and the meal at MTR afterwards. If you haven't done this, you haven't seen namdu Bengluru.

Here is what we saw during a glorious Springsummer morning today. Isn't it utterly gorgeous? Every visit to Lalbagh always has new surprises in store.

This new creepsome element below right next to the rose garden gorden - Snow White's cottage no less! And with the requisite dwarves and Bambi flitting around as well! So much imagination I tell you!

 Then MTR. When people I meet with say things like, "Oooh, I've eaten and come off, I'm not hungry". And, "Let's share just one plate of Idli", I usually delete them from my list. I was satisfied to note that Priyanka enjoyed food with enthusiasm. We ate a 15 course meal at MTR. They kept bringing course after course and dessert after dessert. They kept saying things like, "Just try a leeetle bit to taste, now go on, try some more..." and then, "Wait, it's not over yet! Other things are coming!" How much more bozz, we've eaten so much already? "Arrey madam, still several more are lined up!"

So here are the pictures that I managed from that orgy. I've managed to photograph the start of the meal with the pooris and the colorful end - the famous candy colored MTR ice cream with the saccharine sweet cherry on top. The entire meal was pretty much the food equivalent of the glorious Silk Cotton tree that I've posted as the first picture.

This was one very satisfying day :)

Sigh...

Burp

Trees in February

 In Bangalore on a summer evening.

In Montreal, during a winter afternoon.

House at the Park

A Sunday Expedition

During the beginning of this year I plodded through the snow in a forest in Quebec, now somewhere at the end of the same year I plodded through a tropical jungle. Last year I helped hunt mushrooms on the ground, this year I focused a pair of binoculars towards birds up on the trees. All these adventures are due to the many strange, unusual and interesting people who come my way. The latest adventure is thanks to my new neighbours who are not just bird watchers but avid sketchers as well.What's more, they are coffee drinkers too. One of them is an illustrator and the other is an animator. 

 We went over to Banerghatta National Park on Sunday, very early in the morning, to do some bird watching. Since it was so early in the day, the many names of the birds did not register in my head but from what I remember in the jumble, it went something like bee eater, flycatcher,drongo, paradise bird, red bulbul, bee catcher, honey sucker... But some of the birds I saw were supposed to be rare and all of them were very colourful and pretty.We heard lions roaring in the distance, then a park keeper came and shooed us away because there were wild elephants roaming freely somewhere there. We saw elephant dung on the way back.

I am a ground watcher, at least that is what I can photograph

Then the inevitable Chai break since Chai is better than Coffee in these small stalls that serve them. I did not try the cake.

Then we went to the zoo which was rather sad. The animals and birds were moth eaten and forlorn but we sketched them anyway and much to my relief I found out that I could still sketch even though I have not being doing it as regularly. The bright and clashing colours of clothes that people wore contrasted greatly against the captive animals and made me want to photograph them up close, but I settled for distance.

 A signboard asking you to keep your distance lest the caged, chained, listless, colourless animals viciously attack you.

The sketches
These are the animator's sketches - 

 These are the illustrator's sketches

And these are some of my sketches below which are done with a water soluble graphite pencil  -

I have to add here, a picture of my foldable, made in China sketching stool -

We finished the morning with a fabulous feast at the Bengali Bhojohri Manna.You have to pause a good day with filter coffee so we did. There were other adventures too, but I will stop talking about them here.

And add just one more picture of a lovely gift I received here

The illustrator

The animator