Summer snacks

The idleness of lazy summer afternoons always resulted in some or the other form of expression - either creative outlets in crayons and watercolours, or playing with light and air, sometimes the usual sibling fights, and many a time, some innovative snacks.

Our old refrigerator, which is amazingly still functional, used to get a big layer of ice frosting all around the inner walls of the freezer. Every few weeks or so, the fridge would have to be switched off and cleaned after all the ice melted. But my brother and I found a way to have some fun; as a side effect of which our mother's job of defrosting the fridge became much easier and less frequent.

We would scrape the ice with the sharp edge of steel bowls (katori) and add a splash of a summer drink concentrate to it, Roohafza and Rasna being our favourites. And there you go, a refreshing icy snack perfect for summer afternoons. This was probably our first taste of the ice-gola that we weren't allowed to eat outside because of questionable hygiene. The stale old freezer frosting is much better!

We also made a couple of other inventions, like Bikaneri bhujiya with ketchup - a spicy attack on the taste buds, but equally enjoyable and unhealthy! Occasionally, when we had some more patience, we would make a "biscuit cake", by layering the ubiquitous Parle-G biscuits with a mixture of cocoa powder or drinking chocolate, sugar and milk. We would have to wait for a few hours to chill and solidify it in the fridge, but this yummy treat was totally worth it!

Power through!

I hit a mid day slump almost everyday, and I needed a reminder, or a sort of a pick-me-up motivator to get through it without ending up taking a long nap. So I made one. You can download and print it if you like, it can be a good motivator at your work desk. Let's power through the slumps!

Some days

Not all days are the same, go with the flow.

Newspaper elevation

If you ever feel like killing yourself out of frustration, try talking to my brother while he's reading the Sunday paper. For an hour or so, you cannot get his attention no matter what. He would recline on the bed, Vishnu style, and disappear into the newspaper, and if you are lucky, you might get a rare monosyllabic response from him.

But did I ever tell you that he is the most patient person I have ever known? I mean, he taught me Maths and Physics, so that really is the biggest test of patience anyone can give.

Anyway, when we were growing up, we used to get newspapers rolled up and tied with a black rubber band, thrown up four storeys by the superhuman expertise of the newspaper men. Once in a while, they would miss and the paper would land up in the downstairs neighbour's house. No big deal, if the neighbour is actually there. But our neighbours were out of town for almost the entire year, so we had to get creative.

We would tie a hanger at the end of a long rope and lower it into the downstairs balcony and then try to hook the rubber band with it. It would require some Zen-like concentration, and my brother has no shortage of that. Also, he really had to read the Sunday paper, so he was always up for the challenge.

Long, quiet minutes in the sun would pass as we would try to grasp the rubber band; and once done, slowly and carefully try to pull it up without dropping it. Once the newspaper was within arm's reach, the feeling of triumph was just so rewarding!

But the real challenge was when my brother "accidentally" threw my hairband downstairs and had to bring it back up. He created a weird contraption with a hanger, a clothespin and some rubber bands to act as a spring system. The Zen master of perseverance used some physics this time and caught the hairband in the clothespin contraption, once again proving himself to be the king of patience!

Wide awake

When you're an overthinker, your mind starts going full speed as soon as your body is at rest. And it's not worry or anxiety usually, but most of the time it is ideas and plans and lists of things I want to do - that makes me wide awake as soon as my head hits the pillow.

This is me - every night.

New books!

There is something about the smell of new books and stationery that takes me right back to school days. I can boldly say that not many other smells compare to it. Our school used to reopen for the new session during the first or second week of April, the days leading to it were quite exciting. New books and notebooks, so neat and pristine, waiting to be dog eared over the course of the year. I would also get some of my brother's old books and I was quite lucky because he was so neat that his books looked like they had hardly been used.

We had to cover our books and notebooks with brown paper sheets, topped with another layer of clear plastic sheets. We would gather scissors and tapes, clear the space on the dining table and get started with an assembly line of sorts. When we were younger, our parents helped us with putting covers on the notebooks. I could never match up to how neat my dad's method was. I still am quite a lousy gift wrapper, a skill I still haven't inherited from him.

Sometimes we put sticker labels on the notebooks. There were all sorts of stickers available, colourful ones, decorated with cartoon characters or flowers, but I preferred plain ones, or even writing my name directly on the brown paper.

Of course, I loved this entire process, for the excitement of new books, the thrill of writing my name along with the name of a new class and yes, savouring the smells of fresh paper and stationery! 

Holi hai!

Living on the third floor of a building, with access to the terrace has many advantages, especially so on Holi. It was the only day where I would wake up early willingly, without any excuses or tantrums. Only because I had an evil plan in my mind.

I would be up by the chilly dawn (it used to be pretty cold during Holi before global warming hit us all) and get set to prepare my ammunition. I would start filling water balloons, forgetting in my excitement that I hadn't yet learnt how to tie them up. So I would wait, quite impatiently for my brother to wake up and help me tie up the water balloons.

Once a couple of buckets were filled with water balloons, we would go up to the terrace or sometimes the balcony to target unsuspecting passers by. Quite a stupid thing to do, in retrospect. Thankfully I had, and still have, very bad aim and would have a success rate of about one in a hundred. My brother was an easier target being at close proximity, so at the end of it, we would end up hitting each other with water balloons and make a mess of the terrace.

Well, making a big happy mess is what Holi is all about, isn't it?

The gift

Note to self:

Moody blues

Moderation is the key.

The mind is a vessel

Sleepy sleeperson

Being Goldilocks.

Puddles and paper boats

Anyone who is old enough to have experienced climate change would know that it doesn't rain like it used to. At least two or three times every monsoon, it would rain so heavily that water would fill the streets and we would have to wade through almost knee high water while coming back from school. Sometimes the water would come all the way inside the apartment buildings, getting into the scooter garages and even going up a couple of steps.

The water would be muddy with all sorts of debris floating in it. I distinctly remember getting tiny Gulmohar leaves stuck to my legs as I would make my way back from the bus stop to my house.

But the dirty water never stopped us from playing in it. The building entrance with the garages would give us shelter from the rain, while also giving us easy access to water to play in. We would tear off pages from old notebooks - the rectangular shape of those pages was perfect for making paper boats - and float the boats in water.

Paper boats are probably the first thing I learnt to make by folding paper, maybe even before I learnt how to make paper planes. I'm sure anyone who has experienced heavy monsoon rains would definitely know how to make a quick paper boat. 

Mystery of the missing chappal

Pia and I were inseparable. We lived in the same building and would spend our entire time together, right from coming back from school, till dinner time. We would refuse to go back to our houses and sometimes we had to actually be shoved out of each others' homes at night. When I would go to Pia's house and stay for too long, my mom would send my brother to fetch me. And being silly kids that we were, Pia and I would devise different games so that I could stay a bit longer.

(I can't stop laughing as I write this and I laughed throughout drawing too)

Sometimes, we would hide my slippers and pretend to look for them, just so we could spend those precious few minutes having fun together. Eventually, my brother would lose his patience and find my slippers, and then I would have no more strategies to stay back. Until the next day, when I would be back at her place or she would come over to mine, for another day of fun.

Brush off

Just another doodle.

Street Ramayan

When I was growing up, there were not many programmes on the TV and there was only one channel - Doordarshan. DD2 came a few years later and we finally got cable the day I gave my last exam of 12th standard. Anyway, the one show that was really popular was Ramayan. The whole family would watch it together on Sunday mornings and us kids would re-enact it later in the day.

During Durga Puja festival, there would be stalls which sold toys at the pandals - plastic maces (gada), cardboard swords, cane bows and arrows, all covered in shiny paper. Add the Ramayan fever and you get some really spirited re-enactments of the fight scenes from the serial. Our neighbour kids, along with my brother would re-create scenes from the battle between Sugreev and Bali, complete with dialogues from the serial. I being the only girl had to play Sita, so I had pretty much nothing to do but get bored, waiting for my turn to play with the "weapons".

Embarrassing and endearing at the same time, childhood memories always make me smile.

Things I'm not using right now

Being bald might not be the most pleasant experience for some, especially when it is not by choice. Every time I go out, I get stared at a lot, and I can see the questions in people's unblinking eyes.. "why is she bald?"... After a point it is difficult to ignore the rude stares, but since I'm not going out much these days, it is somewhat bearable.On the plus side, my showers are super quick, and having no hair is sort of liberating. I miss looking at myself in the mirror with a head full of hair, but strangely, I don't miss the paraphernalia that comes with it. Here's a little drawing of things I am not using right now.

This is how I feel right now.

Sometimes I can trip on technology too

I was at a party last night and suddenly I had an idea for a dress. Desperate to sketch before I forget it, I downloaded an app for drawing. Oh how I love technology (sometimes)!! And then the tripping started :)

An attempt to draw a dress

Tripping on more silhouettes

and random faces...

whale splash

a landscap-y thing

and the Cheshire Cat, of course!

When Paint was the Photoshop

Part 3/3

of the "decade old stuff'

So since I had a lot of time and no awareness of the existence of "softwares made for drawing", I used to sometimes make stuff on MS Paint... ya with all the colours and transparency type effects done manually. Phew! Was good fun though...

(click to view original size)

It was the time when I thought "Banarasi" is a kind of embroidery and the only Indian motif is the Paisley.. etc etc... hehe... These are the "not so bad ones" and that ends my 3-Part reminiscing about old stuff.

Should focus on learning watercolours now :)

PowerPoint Misuse

In the series of "decade-old" stuff.....
So back in 2000-2001 I used to totally trip on PowerPoint... Since we had a new computer and I had too much time.. And what better way to give an outlet to your imagination than clean lines and fun patterns that are totally easy... PowerPoint, you are great, but I am officially a designer now, so I'm trying to make friends with Illustrator :P But nothing beats your awesomeness!