4 Leaves

This is the third 4 leaf Clover I've found in my lifetime. In the first two finds the fourth leaf was either shrivelled or bitten off. This third attempt I have hit a bullseye with every one of the four leaves large, robust and perfect. I am happy :-) 

And the pot itself below, the pot full of butterflies.

Bologna

I have now learnt that in any trip to Italy, a visit to Bologna is imperative and it should come last. If you put Bologna somewhere in the beginning of your itinerary, the rest of the food you eat in all other places will simply never ever compare and it can kind of dampen your trip because whatever you eat anywhere else, however good it is claimed to be, you will keep thinking, "Ah but this tasted so much better in Bologna!".

While the names of a lot of Italian food is familiar to me, I would not have had a very good idea what it really was or how it should be eaten, so I booked a rather expensive food tour with a 5 star rating and rave reviews and caught an early train from Rome to be in Bologna on time. When I landed at Bologna at 8am, I went to a café and ordered a Mortadella sandwich and a coffee, and that was my first taste of Bologna mortadella and it was so exquisite and so good that had I not enlisted for a food tour I would have eaten another.

Bologna has all the things that I love - deep, warm hues of red, pink and orange, arches and of course I needlessly say it again, the best food ever.  (I would rate the food we get in India as very good, as good as any you will get anywhere in Italy, except for Bologna which is a class apart, a small glimpse of what food in heaven must taste like if we do our good deeds to get there).

The food tour was an excellent one where I got a taste of everything I needed to taste including perfect al dente Spaghetti, different cheeses with balsamic vinegar, a slice of horse meat, wines and the best of all, Gelato at a place called Santo Stefano where I died and went to heaven and would have happily stayed there. No other Gelato will equal what I ate at that place.

After the food tour I wandered through the arched alleys, basking in the warm hues and then stopping for more coffee and desserts, each one a small masterpiece. How lucky are people who are born and live in Bologna and who have their lives revolving around the food there. It was with some reluctance that I caught my train back to Rome all the while fervently promising myself that I would return to Bologna once more.

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#bologna #italy

The Roman Neighbourhood

These are some of the stately buildings in the neighbourhood where I stayed in Rome. It gave me my happiest memories to wander around here alone staring at these homes and then stopping to have an Americano at the corner café and anonymously watching the rest of the world go by through the window. It was relaxing and lovely.

In the fullness of time I will go to Rome again, I will stay at Trastevere and make better memories than the last.
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Postscript November 2023: Redoing Rome
#rome, #trastevere

Studio Porn from my Beanbag

No philosophy, no Anti Virus instructions, no Other Instructions During 

Lock Down suggestions.

Just sheer beauty. And the contrast of my life with another horrifying reality among the have nots.

So while I sit here and soaking in the silence and admiring the green stuff from my window, there is another reality to living through a pandemic. You read about huge swathes of people at bus stations trying to get home, migrant laborers literally walking long, long miles to their homes with nothing to eat, airport workers evicted by their landlords, dogs and cats abandoned on the streets, starving zoo animals....

I cannot even empathize sitting here in my cocoon.

I implore my readers to donate to the many charities circulating on social media. Here are some charities I have donated to where you can just click on a link to pay and give someone a feeding kit -

@feedingindia

@ourdemocracy.in

@travellersrescueanimals

The Statue

A Thought During a Lockdown

So that statue of Sardar Patel, that so many corporates donated to, (I mean my mind cannot even fathom 2989 crore), let us all observe a moment of silence (now that we have finished banging plates for the medics) and imagine what could have been done with such money at such a time in our obviously very, very wealthy land. If our dear Prime Minister can garner that much money for a statue, I fervently hope he will do it again and that he will direct the riches that exists in this country towards people in the lower income bracket during this crisis, who have to work EVERY SINGLE DAY if they have to have even one daily meal in their stomachs let alone that of their families and children.
Let us pause for a moment to think of how many subsidized testing labs and hospital set ups and all necessities required in this battle against a virus, could be organized at 2989 crore instead of for a statue. Maybe along with anti CAA protests we should rally for this too?

The Blissful Break - Some Pictures

I don't even have to tell you what became of the gooseberries.

Tishani Doshi on Seclusion and life along the coast.

Words to Live By - A Reminder to Myself

I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I've become arrogant but simply because I've reached that point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, bad manners, excessive criticism, sexism and demands of any nature. I have lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me. I no longer want to spend a single minute on those who lie to me or want to manipulate me. I will not work for those who show a lack of professionalism or do not value my expertise enough to pay my work its worth. I will not tolerate passive aggression and sarcasm. I will not be dehumanized by those who lack phone etiquette. I have decided not to coexist anymore with pretence, hypocrisy, dishonest and cheap praise. I do not tolerate selective erudition nor academic arrogance. I do not adjust either to malice or to popular gossiping. I hate conflict and comparisons. I believe in a world of opposites and that is why I avoid people with rigid, inflexible personalities. I will not accept any form of proselytizing or prejudice regarding race or colour. In friendship, I dislike the lack of courtesy, of sensitivity, of loyalty and betrayal. I do not get along with those who do not know how to give a compliment or a word of encouragement. Games of one-upmanship and scoring cheap points bore me, as do easy generalizations. I have difficulty accepting those who do not like animals. I have a problem with those who enter my home and do not treat me or my property respectfully. And in addition to everything, I have no patience towards those who do not deserve my patience.

~ attributed to Meryl Streep and adapted by me.

Agree to disagree is reserved for things like, "I don't like coffee". Not racism, homophobia and sexism. Not human rights, not basic common decency. If I unfriend you during this, it IS personal. We do not have a difference in opinion, we have a difference in morality.
~ Liz on Twitter

Thank You

In the midst of bitching on my blog, I paused and hauled my arse to my studio window to clap my THANK YOU at 5 pm to all brave people, airport workers, medical personnel, delivery boys, grocery store personnel and so many others who are there on the front lines assisting us and battling this pandemic to make the world liveable once more. Thank you.

Conversations

 First, I have to put up this charming picture on my blog of this enthusiastic buyer. She saw the exhibition and came downstairs to the Champaca Books Pop Up to buy it for herself and her equally enthusiastic daughters.

Many people met me and later connected with me on social media to tell me how much they loved the show. Here is another one -

This is the very nice email that Nitesh (@nimo_obscura) wrote to me:

Hi! Priya... I wanted to reach out and thank you for sharing your artistic expression through this endearingly beautiful book... My students Loved your art and how you've evoked the story through the use of dry pastels... I keep trying to introduce new artist to my students so they can understand the style, technique and approach from them and it was a delight to see how much they adored "Is it the same for you?"

I had several interesting conversations, one of them with the Champaca Books person, very attuned to what a potential reader wants. We had this brief excellent exchange of opinions about Hilary Mantel and Rebecca Solnit whereupon he handed me Tishani Doshi's latest - Small Days and Nights and a bit later into the conversation read me a passage from Trick Mirror which resulted in me buying that too, a book I would have never considered otherwise.

The other bunch I spoke to were the City of Women podcast people (yass, one of them is a reader of my blog). I was asked about a pleasant memorable experience in Bangalore and naturally I said that my happiest moments have been sketching my surroundings with like-minded friends: You don't really have to talk (though we do), you sit in companionable silence and you draw the scene in front of you while engaging with the environment around you.

We also spoke about other things, which were not recorded for the podcast, and one of them was about my post about my Arty Party which initiated a discussion about private fantasies and making them come true. I don't remember very much what was said anymore except that we were laughing very hard.

And then there was M from a Children's Book Pop Up upstairs with whom this bizarre conversation took place:

Me: Hi, I'm Priya. I've illustrated a book called Is It The Same ForYou?, the illustrations are being exhibited in the second floor. I came here to say hello to your partner who I've wanted to meet.

M: Oh you've illustrated a book? Who was the author?

Me: Neha Singh

M: Oh! You illustrated I Need to Pee! You must be Meenal Singh then! She illustrated I Need to Pee!

Me: No, I am Priya Sebastian. I illustrated Is It The Same For You? 

M: You are not Meenal Singh then? I Need to Pee? But...you said you illustrated a book written by Neha...so you must be Meenal Singh!

If my attempt at conversation was a road, then this woman's reactions seemed like a boulder in the middle of the road.

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Then some time later I encounter the woman again:

M: Oooooh Priya, I saw your work upstairs, it is soooo exquisite and so emotional, I cannot help crying, I am so so sorry I mistook you for Meenal Singh, her work is very different... (stop right there !!!)...so can I please, please give you a hug? Etc

The Show

The inevitable pictures from the show, all neat clean lines with small blocks of colour.

Below, a close up of the framed pictures. 

One of the central difficulties for art historians and indeed for anyone interested in art is what might be called the matter of taste. Can taste ever be a reliable yardstick?

No we should never have an intellectual arguement based on the stomach's response to things, though I do think you can trust your stomach, since it is often a very reliable guide as to whether something is good. I know that sounds absured but it is the same kind of visceral clench that you get when wonderful music is being played. It should do the same when you are looking at something. 

~ Brian Sewell