The year of (apparent) changes

Although every day is the beginning of a set of 365 more days, this time of the calendar year, unwittingly makes me, like many of us, take a look at the past 12 months. And 2014 has been an eventful one for me.

I got married, had my first "international" travel, moved house and became a designer again.

And for a person who prefers her clothes in the closet instead of a rucksack, well, let me just make a list:Bombay, Maldives, Delhi, Bombay, Delhi, Pondicherry, Chitradurga, Kudremukh, Chitradurga, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Tirupur, Coorg.

Phew!This year saw some of the worst days at work and some of the best ones with friends and family. Helps you get your priorities straight, doesn't it?

And about the smaller things, it was also a time of acceptance. From scorning Instagram for being a Hipster magnet to becoming a fan, from thinking of fashion bloggers as narcissistic posers to taking inspiration from them for practicing my fashion sketches and from outright hate to the "let there be peace" attitude, I've moved (very) slightly towards the accepting, "to each their own" attitude.

Swiftly passing days also remind me of things like life is too short to save that special red lipstick or the fancy stationery. Or to make "a successful career" the aim of life. The aim of life is to be happy, isn't it?

Oh, and I finally managed to not kill my plants for the longest time! I have my second batch of coriander and tomatoes growing right now :)

With a tiny little nudge towards positivity, here's to another good 7, 20, 100, or 365 days, starting now!

Notes to self

On crappy days like this, once you're done with the rant of how it is all unfair, do this: distance yourself, take a deep breath and look around. See the unfairness around you, the daily injustices that you pass.

Unfair is - a family of five living in a four by six room, and a family of two sleeping upstairs with a bedroom to spare.
Unfair is - a dog getting a tumor and maggots, and no-one helping for three years.
Unfair is - when flood washes away whatever the terrorists left.
Unfair is - those chickens crammed together in a tiny cage, knowing their lives are wasted and death is around the corner, and you just walk past them on my daily commute.
Unfair is - that sweet lady who smiles and cleans toilets, but no-one knows her name.
Unfair is - the labourer you pass on the way to work, wears his one torn shirt, and you're late because you couldn't decide what to wear.
Unfair is - the middle aged store worker has to call you 'sir' or 'ma'am' even though you're half his age.

And you know what else is unfair?
Vegetating in front of the TV every night as your drawing skills fade away.
Forgetting how to sing when you are lucky enough to be born with the gift.
Straining your eyes on a bright screen when you know how precious your delicate eyes are.
Giving this body an accelerated decay, because you are too tired to use it for anything else, after sitting on it the whole day.
Unfair is - giving up a little bit everyday just so you don't have to face yourself.
Does all this make you want to count your blessings? Would you ever want to switch your life with someone else now?

Crayoning in Auroville (again!)

Whenever I go on a holiday, or a weekend trip, or sometimes even somewhere for a day, I carry my bulky sketchbook and big box of oil pastels, which more often than not, don't even get out of my bag. But this time when I went on a weekend trip to Auroville, between all the eating, meditating on a hammock, looking around and doing touristy things, and between doing office work on world's slowest internet dongle, I managed to sneak in a bit of crayon scribble time.

Now it has been ages since I have done any drawing, so obviously the results were crappy, but I did not let that stop me!

Anyway, it is good to be back on the blog, back in all the colourful action, and here's hoping it continues. :)

View from the porch
Colours of the beach.

And of course, there were a few mandatory Instagram shots. I'm new to Instagram, a late and reluctant joiner, but I must say, I quite like it. (Except for the hashtag overload).
Check it out here: http://instagram.com/shivanigakhar

A life of passivity

Of Facebook and Twitter
Webcomics and memes
Reading other people's blogs
Pinning others' pins

Imagining myself sketching
Wrists going weak as I imagine
Picturing myself making crafts
Mini panic attack in the picture

Waiting for that "right" time
that is right now...

But No.

Glitter Shoes

Can you believe I've worn these shoes only twice? It was chipping off and was kept in my shoe rack for 3 years before I decided to take some risks and have fun with it.
Off goes the top layer along with the bow.
Meanwhile...
I took a detour from the stationery shop when I went to buy colour, and bought these too :)
Time for painting, with an overdose of an obnoxious amount of glitter!
Black + pink for the canvas shoes... 
... and bright blue for the peep toes.
All done!
I still have to find an occasion to wear the blue peep toes, but these are already worn out!

Trends

Are we as a generation so scared / unhappy with the present that we want to regress to our childhoods? What's with the current obsession with 80's blast from the past (fashion, music) and fantasy (game of thrones, superheroes, gaming etc)..?
Just a thought.