Gup

One day an acquaintance chided me for living so close to Albert Bakery and not yet trying out the Brain Puff. It is sold only on Saturdays and Sundays mind you, and one has to go early, by 3pm, before it gets over. Well, I did try it and it was really good.

And this below, this morning, the best ever Italian Mochachino somewhere along one of those crossroads at Indiranagar (9th Main). I am very particular about my coffee and I was told the Italians are too. They personally trained the coffee makers at this Gelataria and the strong coffee with real chocolate was pure heaven.

If I compare this to my days in Montreal, I paid exactly CAD2 for this here, yes you read that right, two Canadian dollars.

Now I love Italians and I want to go live there.

Coffee Matters

I have realized that Tea drinkers simply do not get the concept of coffee. Tea drinkers wake up bright and cheery at some unearthly hour like 5am and drink their tea meditatively while watching the sun gently rise up in the sky. In contrast, coffee drinkers, night owls that they usually are, groggily stagger to the kitchen at about 8 am, more or less incoherent until they’ve drunk their first coffee of the day. Then they tackle life with energy and gusto until the mid-afternoon crash whereupon they need to be revived drip by drip with a second coffee.

My hints to my Kerala host (would you like me to get you good coffee powder from Banglur?) simply did not ring a bell. The first morning I was given what I considered a cup of milk mildly flavoured with coffee. Not wanting to seem a demanding guest, I mumbled that it was just fine and we made our way to Fort Kochi.

Until mid-afternoon when we stumbled into Kashi Art Café, I must have been in a semi-awake stupor. When I read French Press coffee on the menu, I mentally gave it a thumbs up. It came with hot milk on the side. I poured the exact amount of each into the cup. The coffee was strong, robust and very good. When my host took a sip of my coffee she practically fell of her chair and glugged down an entire glass of water immediately afterwards to mitigate the effects. After that she kept looking at me drinking my coffee with a mixture of awe and terror and then managed to take this photograph where I am giving her the eye.

                                 Photograph by Sajana.J

The next morning at breakfast, my host pushed me down on the sofa and commanded, “Wait!” Then, like the waiter at Kashi Art café, she emerged from the kitchen with a tray which she placed before me. Placed on the tray was a mug of super strong black coffee, a small cup of hot milk and a dabba of sugar. I was ordered to drink what she had prepared. I think the expression of satisfaction on my face was enough for her. She simply said, “I used FIVE spoons of coffee powder in the filter this time!” and then she left me to drink in peace. I drained my coffee, my brain staggered towards clarity and then I looked down into my empty coffee mug and decided I was very, very touched by this thoughtful gesture.

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

*

I’ll read my books and I’ll drink coffee and I’ll listen to music, and I’ll bolt the door.

~ J.D. Salinger

About a week back, I was trying to complete yet another drawing when I found myself getting into knots over the picture, frantically erasing and redrawing over and over. Then I paused and looked at the work and realized how mentally exhausted I was. And why wouldn’t I be?  I realized I have more or less single-handedly dismantled my life in two different cities on one side of the world and assembled it again in a completely different world on another side. I will be taking a break, a much needed one, from everything.

My website has a new wardrobe. Take a look >

A Pretty Coffee Shop @ St.Laurent

Here are some pictures of a pretty coffee shop we stepped into while exploring Boulevard St.Laurent in Montreal ~

Coffee and Mushrooms

If I were asked about my happiest moments in Canada so far, I would say that it was outside of Montreal in a charming little village called Sutton. My visits there contained all of my favourite things – coffee, chocolate, mushrooms, forests, autumn leaves, cats, superb food...and my lovely angel-faced Quebecois hosts who always made sure my stay was memorable. The picture above is an illustration inspired by those wonderful moments and below are a glimpse of some of them.

an ENTIRE day of drawing

When I bought my new giant sketchbook, I called up Prabha to tell her. We decided to spend a day sketching at Lalbagh and we landed there at 7.30 am one day last week. It must have been one of the happiest days of my life ever. Here are the pictures:

Curious teachers with their school kids wanted to know why we were drawing, 'chumma jaaliya (jolly) pandringlaa?' they asked in Tamil (Are you doing this just for fun?)

Yup!

Here is Prabha's drawing

Naturally we also brunched at MTR and our meal also included delicious Honey Halwa 

and a large ice-cream with fruit. Sugar highs are absolutely necessary to get the drawing juices revved up.

At another table strange creatures from Bangalore's Art world peered and waved their tentacles at us. 

When I said we are going to Lalbagh for an entire day of drawing they looked mystified. Drawing? Huh? What's that?

Giant Silk cotton trees

I need an even bigger sketchbook I think!

Here are some pictures of couples under the trees. I love how tiny they look under the giant benevolent trees and I love how the trees almost seem to envelope and shelter them. Prabha mysteriously commented: It is unfortunate that one can't make out whether a relationship will last or not just by looking at these couples.

The moist, rich and fascinating floor under a Naagalingam tree

And the marvellous tree herself

Finds.....!

Prabha has the eyes of an eagle. She spotted a Barn owl far up on a tree in the distance and she pointed out these red bugs to me.

We were ravenous at tea-time. Back to MTR!

Here are some of Prabha's sketches

We drew till the sun set, chatted with curious old men and children and headed home before the mosquitoes came out.

Some day that! : )