Note to self:
Happy Diwali
Our roles and responsibilities were very well defined at Diwali. I would be in charge of making Rangoli and my brother and I would put up the lights and decorations. Puja was dad's department and food was mom's. I would intend to wake up early to start off the Rangoli, but it being a holiday, I would always end up oversleeping. Then I would start planning an ambitious, elaborate design, the rough sketch of which would take up half the day. The fun part began after that - painting in the design with bright, thick poster colours. By this time, it would be late afternoon and slight panic would creep in.
In the meantime, we would remember that we should put up the decorations before making the rangoli, not after. But since I wouldn't have really made much progress with my rangoli, the day would be saved and decorations put up. Our favourite ones were those colourful paper-accordians with colours that never seemed to go very well with each other.
By early evening, everyone would pitch in to compete the rangoli, just in time to get ready and start the celebrations. Somehow we managed to repeat the same sequence of events every single year. What fun it was!
A little to the left
We got a television when I was about three years old, and as I grew up, I saw it change from one channel - Doordarshan, for a few hours in the day, to countless channels playing non-stop on cable TV. Of course, I had to wait till the last day of my 12th Board exams to get cable, but till then, we had DD 1 and DD 2, and an antenna.
Now, this antenna would wobble and turn in the wind, losing signal at the most crucial moments. And then the task of adjusting the antenna would begin. It would take some brilliant co-ordination from the entire family - one person checking the TV, one in the balcony, one at the terrace and one adjusting the antenna - relaying messages and instructions. Some back and forth and a bit of precision, and the signal would be back. Sometimes as soon as we would get back to sit and watch TV, the signal would go again and off we'd go to our respective places to fix it again. What patience we had!
Fast forward a couple of decades and I can't even sit through a twenty minute show without my phone next to me; you know, just in case there is a ten second boring scene. But I feel lucky to have been born at a time that I could see things changing, to have had a childhood without the distraction of smartphones and a world of information at my fingertips when I'm old enough to handle it. We might just be a most unique generation.
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.
Sunny days and rainbows
Prism_sunlight
There are dolls and cars and blocks, and there are lenses, mirrors and prisms. We played with both.
Summer afternoons were sometimes spent burning carbon paper with lenses, making rainbows with prisms, or simply spinning the colour wheel to see a muddy grey mix of colours (instead of the theoretical white). We would be fascinated by how things appeared upside down when seen through lenses, and how they would distort in convex and concave mirrors. Sometimes we would just lie back and look inside a kaleidoscope, and sometimes we would try to look at the moon with binoculars.
While my interest in science took a deep dive in high school once it became all about formulas and calculations, optics remained the only subject I managed to enjoy in Physics.Even now, I occasionally gaze into this dusty old kaleidoscope I bought a few years ago.
Even now I run outside every time I see a rainbow, staring at it till it fades into the sky.
I try to zoom into the moon more and more with every new camera phone.
And I still get lost in the colours of light scattered by glass.
Up and away
Kites in this country are associated with Uttarayan or Sankranti, on 14th January. But growing up in Delhi, we used to fly kites around 15th August, cool monsoon winds making them soar high. My role was mostly limited to holding the kite and throwing it up and then running to the other side to hold the 'maanja'. Sometimes my brother would let me hold the kite string for a minute or two, before he would have to swoop in and save the kite from taking a complete nose dive.I've been planning to work on a series of illustrations and having an iPad makes it so much easier. (I never thought I would get so much use out of it!). So here it is, me and my big brother on our apartment terrace with its faded red walls and that beloved neem tree at the back. And while the watercolour version is definitely more relatable to me, I discovered the crayon tool on the software and decided to make another one. I can't decide which one I like better, so I guess there will have to be more illustrations in my nostalgia series for that. :)
Which one do you prefer?
Me and my fashion girls
When I was going through my treatment, I stayed home for over six months, spending all of my time in the most comfortable sweatshirts and pyjamas. In between office work and naps, I thought of the time I would go back to office, which would be a swanky new building, and getting dressed up everyday. I work in fashion and what I love about working where I do, is that you can wear anything you want - shiny heels or knee high boots, torn jeans or mini skirts, spaghetti straps, biker jackets, short shorts or layered kurtas.. anything! In the two years of corporate life before I got sick, a basic safe t-shirt or top with clean jeans and sneakers was my uniform, punctuated with a dress or a skirt and heels on a rare Friday. It is the six months of continuous pyjama wearing and the amount of time I had to think, that I figured out a few things.For a long time I had been (and sometimes now too) conflicted with my interests that clash so much with each other. I want to work on environmental issues, grow trees, reduce plastic, recycle.... and I work in the fashion industry where I make more and more clothes to sell. For the longest time I felt guilty about being interested in fashion, while hating fashion at the same time. It is only recently that I started to acknowledge that for me, dressing up isn't always dependent on buying and hoarding more and more. And besides, what's wrong with wanting to look nice, or wanting to look a certain way?"Life is too short to wear boring clothes" (and youth is even shorter!)So I drew things I would like to wear when I go back to work, with my hair in a short crop and of course a good amount of artistic license. :)I just recently got around to scanning those illustrations, so here they are:
I am always partial to crayons as a medium, for their sheer convenience (and also their smell and creamy texture), but looking at some not-so-bad attempts at watercolour, I am encouraged to take out my paint brushes and watercolours more often. Miles to go, but it seems like a fun path.
Will definitely do more illustrations now that I am back to work, dressed up in my kitten heels and red lipsticks. :)p.s. Click on images to enlarge
Peachy pink fashion girls
Finished an old illustration recently. I'm always intimidated by watercolours, but once in a (rare) while I still try to work with them. Maybe a little more frequent practice will help. :)
Selfiyaan hi selfiyaan
Aren't we?
I think the selfie trend, the ease of taking our own pictures and publishing them for hundreds and thousands of people to view, is partly responsible for our obsession with the way we look, our obsession with fashion and the things we buy and wear. We can't look perfect all the time, but at least our pictures can, at least to others.
Before I lose them in recycling
...last year's drawings
Giffing aruond with scarves
Baldie
Just figured out how to make gifs.
How Fashion Bloggers Dress
Sometimes trying too hard to stand out ends up becoming a cliche! :P
That is why you should sketch!
After not sketching for months together, I tried getting back to it on a brand new notebook. It took me almost an hour between Nigella's Kitchen and Project Runway and major overuse of the eraser to make a sad little "fashion drawing". More motivation to sketch!!
More Monsters :-)
So the monsters blew out of proportion and landed on my wall with some charcoal and crayons.
Illustrations by grishma & me
Illustrations by grishma & me
Published!
Aaah.. the wonder that is Photoshop :)
Watercolours again
