*

Red Leaf .  Pastel on paper.  14.5x10.5cms. 

                                            

"what are you going to do with your life? In one way or another it seemed that people had been asking her this forever; teachers, her parents, friends at 3 in the mornin', but the question had never seemed this pressing & still she was no nearer an answer......... 'live each day as if it's your last', that was the conventional advice, but really, who had the energy for that? What if it rained or you felt a bit glandy? It just was'nt practical. Better by far to be good & courageous & bold & to make difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately & fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance." 

~ D Nicholls.

via Arth and Nitya

To this, I'd like to add 'eat well and spend less time on the internet'. And in the spirit of doing that, I'm off now to prepare lunch, draw more and take a big break from the net. See you later.

:-)

a weekend in august

One Day

Priya at 42. Chubby, curly and very very happy.

Tree

At National Gallery of Modern Art

Sculpture! Book!

Oh My God! What a striking resemblance to my Mom! 

'What is this?' you ask excitedly. Let me tell you dear readers, let me tell you:

This is a fantastically complex Pop-Up book illustrated my Maurice Sendak and made by... let me see...

A 'Paper Engineer' called Matthew Rienhart!

Photographs don't do justice to this intriguing and complex book. I was so lucky to get my hands on it. 

 ;-)  

Some Stuff

I haven't been drawing as much as I usually do what with mysterious aches attacking me and the ever present  French conjugations staring at me. I decided to go ahead and do what one has to do anyway. The first two sketches went phut and I thought, 'finished! I've lost it! I'll never be able to draw again!'. Then I drew a little more and things slowly fell into place. Somewhat. But the point is I could breathe more easily after drawing something. 

Window

This evening, there was beautiful light at my window. This is the loveliest place inside my home where I spend many tranquil hours. As you can see, someone else agrees with me too. We both spend time here together. Below are most of the other pictures I've taken of my window over the years.

Being a Friend

What a moving sight. 200 000 Norwegians at Oslo City Hall raising Red Roses.

Both 9/11 and 22/7 are days when unique acts of evil were carried out, but what a difference in the reactions between the two countries. America reeled in paranoia and distrust while Norway stood together in steely determination refusing to succumb to revenge.

Here is George Bush’s reaction to 9/11: “Let’s hunt them down”.
In retrospect that didn’t really help matters did it?

This is Jens Stoltenberg’s principle for dealing with 22/7: "Violence must be met with greater transparency. Terror should be met with more democracy. Now we have to take care of each other." 

The thoughts in his speech were refreshingly simple and straightforward >>

I am tired of dramatic rhetoric.  I am tired of this desperation by priests and leaders to force attention on themselves through their verbal pyrotechnics.  I am sickened by audiences who are carried away by extravagant sermons trumpeted out by our grand religious and political pundits from their gilded pulpits. I am tired of loud, barbaric and insensitive journalism. And most of all, I am tired of people turning a blind eye to the rather obvious fact that religion, any religion if taken too seriously results in a massive shrinking of the brain.

Finally, heroism is the action of kindness you extend when no one is looking. That's what really matters.

Images from Google Search.

Click here for  Rose procession at Oslo

Hold Hands

*

If one man can show this much hate think how much love we can show together.

                                                            - survivor of Utøya massacre.

Picture from The Guardian

Utoya blog

Weekend

*

Long ago I decided I wasn't a person who liked poetry too much because I couldn’t understand the strange jumble of words that was supposed to constitute poetry. But recently a couple of journalist friends of mine confessed that they too had the same problem. Poetry (at least most of what I come across) is rather like Contemporary Art, both have a bizarre mishmash of elements. I am glad I am an illustrator.
In case you are wondering what the *  this strange book with its cut up images is about, it is an illustration of what Poetry means to me.

Just sit there and stare and wonder what the heck is going on. Then go browse something else.


There are some poems I do like very much though :)

Workshop at Shishu Mandir -1

 Shishu Mandir is a children’s project consisting of a home and a school for children of under- privileged backgrounds. When they wanted to come out with a book about the institution, I took a series of workshops out of which the children’s drawings could be used as illustrations for the book. Since this project involves ‘illustration’, I made an exception to my rule of ‘never teach children’. I needn’t have worried as they were far easier to deal with than the stuffy overbearing aunties who I once made the mistake of teaching long ago. 

One visit to Shishu Mandir and I was bowled over by the place. The buildings were clean, airy and beautiful. All the rooms were full of light and filled with a friendly ambience. The teachers smiled readily and seemed a very dedicated lot. Everything here was so different from the excessively eulogized, stodgy, colonial, pressure filled, rule driven atmosphere of a school in which I once studied centuries ago.  

The children here smiled easily at me and some of them came up to me confidently and asked me my name. Later at the workshop they were fun, and were eager to experiment and try out things. All the children were neat, clean, well dressed and well mannered. They all spoke perfect English. They seemed relaxed and happy. 

It is very very hard to imagine that these children with sparkling eyes and bright faces have known and endured hardships that you or I cannot even fathom.

Apparently this is the first time they got to be ‘creative’ and 'original' and draw subjects other than English winter scenes, Walt Disney cartoons, copied greeting cards and that kind of stuff.

One of the biggest surprises was at the end of the workshop. Every child made it his or her responsibility to clear up her place, scrub her table clean and help the others tidy up the room before leaving.

Some of these pictures here are the results of the first workshop. 

I can't wait to see what the results of the next workshop will bring about!

:-)