First Bluebells in my Garden

Black Sunday

Hair Myth

I was told my grandmother had hair so long it reached her knees. I was told her hair was so thick and curly that after it was washed it took two women to detangle it and spread it out to dry. I was told that when it was tied up my grandmother’s head would tilt backwards due to the weight of her hair which is why I envisioned my grandmother spending most of her long haired youth staring at the ceiling. Each time I was told the story of my grandmother’s hair, the hair grew longer and longer within the story until it touched the ground and the last time I heard the story I remember I was told that it trailed behind her on the floor.

*

Walk around feeling like a leaf. Know you could tumble any second. Then decide what to do with your time.
- Naomi Shihab Nye

The Deliberately Mismatched Tea Cup

I would like to take a few minutes to show off my happiest find from my weekend in Hyderabad - my giant deliberately mismatched tea cup and saucer. Isn't it pretty?
:)

*

Where there was something and suddenly isn't

An absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.

I begin again with the smallest numbers.

- Naomi Shihab Nye

  

Pulchritude

Mrs. Sheshadri marches into class. Pulchritude! she screams, Pulchritude!

The students sit straight. Their hands are folded on their laps. 
On the blank grey slates of each of their faces, Ms. Sheshadri has scrawled ‘Pulchritude’ in bold letters. 

Mrs Seshadri’s face sounds like the word pulchritude – terrifying; made by the barriers imposed on it - distorted, twisted, mostly crude. Stone Grey.

Pulchritude means ‘beautiful’! declares Mrs. Sheshadri. 

This was one of the words asked of her ex students at the SAT exams. 

“My students knew the meaning of that word! she eulogizes,

 Now all of them are successful in America!”

Ah America! Success! It can never be otherwise.

The students write America on their faces. They write it themselves. Some of them write SAT after that.

- extract from an essay about a visit to the school where I once studied.

Portrait of a Man after his Birthday

Q: So what does one do after being interviewed by a website for women?
A: Draw a man of course!

I Have Been Interviewed!

I have been interviewed by JustFemme, a spunky and unbashedly female website, for their series on artists.
Please do read my interview here >>
:-)

The Heat and Dust part of an Air Conditioned break

Lest I spend most of my weekend break in Hyderabad flitting from one air-conditioned cocoon to another, my dear friend S took me into what is probably the pulse of Hyderabad - Charminar, where I reluctantly ejected myself from her plush and cool car into chaos, heat and colour.

This isn't a place to be verbalized but an atmosphere to be experienced. Here are some pictures through which I have tried to capture what surrounded me. And there is a small slideshow here>

From Charminar

From Charminar

From Charminar

From Charminar

From Charminar

From Charminar

From Charminar

From Charminar

Black White and Orange

Archana, the personality behind Rang Decor, has just bought one of my portraits. I am very happy to see my work hanging on one of the walls of her spectacular home.
Thank you Arch :)

ps: yes, the beautiful photograph has been taken by Arch.

A House I Once Knew

From the plum tree

When I unwrapped layers of time and peered in, I found what was once so large and almost tangible seemed smaller, diminished. However, what pervaded the air around me was the colour of the memory, the scent of its emotion, as real as the time I was standing in now as I lost myself in the past.