Sleep, hot n' long showers and cycles

Score a boundary!

2011-09-16T03:29:00.000-07:00

The minute I read that boundary was this week's Illustration Friday topic, like any Indian, an image of the green cricket pitch came to my head. Oh the joy when the team/player I am supporting smashes the ball across the field to score a boundary!

Illustration Friday- Boundary

Pappad Pacman

2011-04-09T04:38:00.000-07:00

Chor Baazari

2011-04-09T03:41:00.000-07:00

I recently visited Chor Baazar, one of the largest flee markets in India. Being a Mumbai-ite, it was shameful that I hadn't visited it after living here for so many years. I finally managed to go there a week ago, with some friends and was very glad that I finally did!

A few years ago, a friend of mine had given me this Beatles record as a gift as I love the Beatles. Since then I have been treasuring it in my cupboard and I'm hoping to frame it and put it up in my house sometime!

Many of my friends had already visited Chor Baazar and told me about the record covers that are available there. After a lot of walking, bargaining and rummaging through piles of covers, I found these. I think they are precious! I absolutely love some of this artwork and it almost makes me sad that analogue sound storage is dead :(

I paid about Rs. 40 for each of these covers and came back home and showed them to my mom all excited about them. She of course laughed and said, "40! You are paying to collect more rubbish at home!." She told me about all the gramaphone plates that used to lie around in my grannie's house and how they gave it away to the 'paper-kaaran' (raddiwalah or the person who collects materials to recycle). I sighed and asked her why they had given away the player and ALL the records! She smiled and said, why didn't you insist on keeping all the cassettes and our old tape played when we left our previous house?! The same way. In another few years, you'll probably pay this much, or even more to buy our own old cassette back from chor baazar!"

This is when I found out the fun fact that the goods in Chor baazar, as the name suggests is assumed to be stolen goods!

'There's a saying about this area, if you lose anything in Mumbai you can buy it back from the "Chor Bazaar"'- Wikipedia

Anyway, I still bought the pretty looking record covers and have added them to my 'hopefully will be framed soon and hung on my wall' pile.

Illustration Friday- Toy

2011-03-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

One could argue that one is never too old for toys, but when I saw this weeks topic I felt so, well at some level. I still have all my kinder surprise miniature toys hidden behind my clothes in my cupboard but I don't end up building my castle and spending fifteen minutes trying to figure out whether the red mushroom and the little dwarf should be placed to the right or the left side of the castle. Being a designer these are the toys I come across sometimes. When I have to make 2D toys for other people! I can't decide if it is a happy or a sad thing!

Great Advertising!

2011-03-02T10:11:00.001-08:00

I visited delhi recently and while walking to Jama Masjid, passed a huge market where the kitsch-iest stuff was sold. Some of it was awesome. Those jazzy belts with the big peace signs or silver doves, the rainbow shorts that had nike written all over or the ghastly women's 'nighties' which would probably scare away the general public at night were some of the delights. In the middle of all this though, I saw some great advertising. I was highly impressed when a watch wallah was promoting his waterproof watches this way. Isn't it awesome? Why haven't any of the fancy retail stores thought of this! I can't think of a better way to advertise for waterproof watches!

Finally Submitted

2011-03-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

So, I am finally back, after graduating and travelling to Kumaun and Delhi for a fellowship and conference which I will soon be writing about! To sort out the backlog in life, I shall start with one of the eventful things I haven't written about. My sketchbook submission. As you all would have seen in the previous post, I was taking part in the Sketchbook Project 2011 and many other artists and illustrators around the world were too! The sketchbook was due in January 2011 and of course I started to panic about 2 weeks before the submission date. I had paid so much for this book, now, I HAD to finish it! Uditi and me, sat down for two full days and nights, drawing away, scrounging for idea after idea to fill in our sketchbook pages, each of which had a theme. Mine was 'Down your street' and Uditi's was 'Make mine a Double'. You can check her work out here, on her blog. So we scribbled away, non-stop, sitting at the same spot on the cushions in Disha's house. Some pages were funny, some childish and some down-right bad but in the end, we were so happy and proud and this was the first sketchbook either of us had ever finished entirely! I have so many of them lying around at home with the first half or the last few pages entirely empty. We posted our sketchbooks on time only to find out that the deadline had been extended by a week! I guess it was all worth it though. I would have never finished if I didn't have that tight deadline! Below are some of the images from the mad-mad nights!

Happily done and the one last photo before posting it away! This is followed by the cover, the back and some other random pages from the sketchbook.

2010-09-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

Alannah, my friend made me a shrimp last week. It looks like this, is dressed in pink, hides comfortable inside my red log book and only sticks its head out to warn me when I am not working.

Acrobat- Illustration friday

2010-09-18T04:34:00.000-07:00

Acrobatic Germs

Got my sketchbook!

2010-08-30T22:37:00.001-07:00

Receiving a package is so exciting, always :) I got my sketchbook yesterday through mail and am very excited to get started on this project! Hope to start filling up the pages soon. I will be uploading my pages on the blog as I finish them.

http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/rules

Bunny Suicide

2010-08-14T08:07:00.001-07:00

My friend Vishnu decided he wanted to get us sweet looking Lindt Easter bunnies as gifts. The bunny looked so cute I didn't have the heart to eat him and kept it him my cupboard for 3 weeks. Sadly he was going to expire soon.

So, with great difficulty, I opened him up after deciding that he would rather die in my stomach after being well appreciated. Munch munch munch...

R.I.P bunny. You were yummy.

You can see the post that Vishnu has written about the various sizes of bunnies he got on his blog!

Illustration Friday- Star Gazing

2010-08-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

There's a starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds

- David Bowie, Starman

I had a really cool pair of binoculars in school. I used to run to the terrace of my hostel after dinner and zoom in to spot stars and constellations. That is the best sky I have ever seen (even though its all the same sky!). So pristine. Unpolluted and clear. Even now, when I visit school with my friends, we lie down in the open football field and stare at the stars. I keep a watch out for the starman.

Village life come-back

2010-08-02T04:54:00.000-07:00

I always think I should not make up lame excuses for not-updating my blog, but sadly, looks like excuses are an integral part of life. First came the summer, which is time to laze around and now we are working on our diploma projects till December, which obviously takes most, actually ALL my time. Hence the sloppy- no updates phase, even though I seriously don't want this to die. So, I finally did something that I can put up here. Ok, so I am working in a village in Pavagada Taluk (Andhra-Karnataka border). I keep visiting the school there and coming back to bangalore to assimilate my data. More on my diploma project blog. http://www.whosebehaviour.blogspot.com/

Please do visit it and let me know what you think!

I realised that village life is so blissful. Calm, quiet and serene. It was almost surreal for me as I used to drink my morning coffee with cool breeze in my air, facing the mountains, in the field with cows and goats roaming around me, or on the terrace of the house I was staying in. The terrace was my retreat. It faced a bunch of houses and an old temple. The rest of it was just green. I used to go there to ideate and would end up sketching, staring at the cows eating banana leaves at the bottom of the house, watching the dog that had climbed up another small roof in front of me or just enjoying the cool breeze and starring at the greenery. Also, this was the only place in the village I got full signal on my phone, sadly an essential. Overall, I kind of used to live here after work.

This was the first time my visit was long enough for me to walk around in the evening and document the water bodies in the village (something I wanted to do for my work). Here is where I met my new friends who showed me around the village. I went to photograph the open well where all of C.K.Pura gets its drinking water from.

Here I met Mounica, Asha and Siri, three curious little girls who had come to take drinking water back to their homes after school was over. I went upto them and asked them if I could take a photo, in my broken Kannada. They obliged and asked me what I was doing there. After I told them, they decided to take me around the village, since it was play time anyway! Mounica graciously lent me her cycle (one that the government had provided her with to go to school) so that I could go for a spin as well!

I asked them about their school and home and what their parents did. Asha insisted that I go to her house and her mother gave me ground nuts that she had harvested. It was all very overwhelming! We walked on the bund and they showed me the 'kere' which practically had no water in it. It was a beautiful view though. They told me that we wouldn't be standing where we were if it were raining. The water would overflow till it reached the fields. This water was mostly used for agriculture. They even showed me the marked stone which showed them how much water there was left.

On the way, the showed me many plants and explained to me, what they do with it. They were not aware of the names of the plants, but they knew the uses.

"These are the thorns that they use to pierce their ears and noses in the village" said Asha, pointing to her nose.

"These flowers are squeezed. There is some liquid that comes out. The make soap out of that!" said an excited Akhila

Asha uses these long stemmed plants as her skipping rope, something she plays with everyday.

After this, we visited the Kalyani, a tank they have a bath in before they visit the temples and on festivals. They also swim in it occasionally. Akhila poured a few pots of water on the new cement slab they had built for a god's statue. The water from the Kalyani was pure and clean, she said.

I sat one evening to draw the kalyani, while I dipped my feet in the icy cold water. The same water that these kids swam in and had a bath in before going to the temple.

Asha loved what she saw in my log book and insisted that it was 'very beautiful'. I thanked her for it. She wanted a picture with what I had drawn. She told me she loved to draw, but they did not have art classes or paints in school. I promised to get a set the next time I went.

I don't like blank walls

2010-03-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

One week, Deboo, a friend, came into my room and when we were talking about some work, told me about his word for the day, more like week or month :)

Ephemera, items designed to be useful or important for only a short time.

He then looked at my wall and said, "Aaju, that could be your ephemera!". This happened a year ago. Since then my ephemera has had additions, some deaths, some destruction, some losses due to peeling walls etc. This is something I am really proud and fond of, so I thought I should document it since its my last month of college. I am probably never going to look this the same way again, after this month. I will miss it. I am so used to staring at it aimlessly that I have almost gotten used to its existence and know parts of texts by-heart and know immediately when a part of it is missing or has fallen off. The first thing I do when I get back from college is it stick it back or fix it.

The collection ranges from maps, brochures, circus and movie tickets, chocolate wrappers and boxes, menu cards and table mats from many places, coasters, instruction manuals, postcards and drawings, (from all over the world) to name a few. Yes, please do not freak when you see a Coffee Day Menu card stuck on the wall. I live with some kleptomaniacs who like to flick menu cards and things like that :) Just for fun and just menu cards and signage!

This ends at my desk, a cosy little place with a window to my right. A perfect spot to sit and work. When bored or bugged I just stare out the window at the pretty purple tree right outside my house or spy on people walking around the colony!

My desk is full of stuff, but I try and keep it organised. There few essentials like my pen and brush stand, stationary box, lap top, vaseline and my half-a-speaker and all the little collectables like my box of tazos, Glucon-D for when I feel sleepy, my retainer box and the little idol that my grand-dad gave me before my boards. The latest addition to my hall of fame is the CSK yellow horn and the flag which hangs right near my curtain. I love the new yellow! My table used to host the whole of the shrek family, all of which I collected by travelling to many Mc.Donalds all over Bombay. Sadly I had to shift their home due to space constraints.

Lastly, this is my map wall. Which is not fully covered yet. As of now it has maps of Melkote, Belur, the Andaman islands, Boston, Harvard Square and Italy. One day I want to travel all over the world and cover up a wall of my room with maps.

I think that's all the pointless stuff I have put up all over my walls over these 4 years of college. I don't even want to think of the day I'll have to take it all down. Sadly it is coming soon.

The Pratham Books Event

2010-03-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

20th march was the world story telling day, so Pratham books had an opening event for their new book on the river Cauvery in the Govt. Urdu Primary School. There was a story reading session by the really enterprising editor of pratham books. She was so amazing even I couldn't resist acting like a 7 year old all over again and listening to her read the book out, in awe.

In the same event, because I have been working on the Tippy tap for Mr. Vishwanath's course on climate change, he suggested we demonstrate it there for the little kids and talk to them a little bit about hand-washing and saving water since it was the 'World water day' two days after that. Thanks to Pratham Books and to Mr.Vishwanath for giving me this opportunity to do it. It was truly a memorable experience. (Mr.Vishwanath, is someone you must talk to, if you ever get a chance. He is so full of positive energy and truly belongs to the 'saving the world' gang and the best part is, he makes you want to do it too! Practising what we preach is another little thing we need to learn from him and his wife, maybe I'll explain how in a later post)

So, first we chilled and talked and got to know a little bit about each other.

Then the storytelling session commenced. This was followed by me setting up the tap. Sadly, as anyone who knows me would know, my hindi is terrible! I almost felt like a fool while explaining to kids in an Urdu school about how to use it, but I think I managed fine with help with Mr.Vishwanath. So we set it up and explained to them how to use it and why it is important to wash your hands before and after eating and after using the wash-room.

But unexpectedly, what excited the kids most was the soap strips! So, maybe we should use just that! As long as it encourages them to use soap each time they wash their hands. So, to get their turn they all ran! The tap almost got massacred, but it was fun watching them get excited about it!

After it nearly died and all the soap strips were exhausted, there was a clear line formed and they tried it out one by one :)

It was truly a fun experience and I hope at least some of the kids took something back with them that day. Thanks to everyone who made this possible! Also lastly, there was a mention in the papers as well!

http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_many-a-design-solution-for-a-greener-planet_1363120 (About the tap and course itself in DNA)

http://news.indiainfo.com/article/100322130805_c-86-144382/970204.html (and about this particular event online )

Thanks to Sara who helped me put the tap together in the last minute even though she couldn't accompany me to the event.

Bringing in a coffee house

2010-03-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

This is a very inside college, design education type joke about the advent of CCD into our college, in one of our classrooms, one very normal morning(but of course this made it abnormal). Yes, I still and always will disagree with the coffee day being bunged into one of our classrooms on one random morning!

You may click to enlarge and see and read clearer, but if you don't want to, it reads :

Design Problem

Aah..I'm feeling too lazy to go have chai at the kadai downstairs.

Design Solution

That's why we have got it up for you.

Eh? Direct solution? Whatever happened to the design process dude?

Moral of the story. Practice what you preach.

Tippy Tap

2010-03-13T07:33:00.000-08:00

A short clip I made for a course on climate change. It tells one how to make a Tippy Tap, a cost effective water dispenser which uses 1/10th the amount of water one would usually use while washing their hands. Try it and promote it! It would be ideal for areas with water shortage and disaster areas for hand washing with soap (which many of us do not do in regular intervals!). Am refining it and will put up the final version soon.

Tippy Tap from Aajwanthi on Vimeo.

Please Check my blog!

2010-03-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

Mura, a friend of mine sent me this link and boy, is this guy insane! I couldn't stop watching the videos on loop and humming the songs. This is a MUST watch for all bloggers and do watch his other video's if you like him! He is truly awesome :) (Click the image to go to the video)

Attempt One

2010-03-09T04:40:00.000-08:00

Yes. I am one of those! Cooking, instead of being a stress buster, gives me stress. When my m0m cooks she just lets me be, I quietly move around the kitchen like a leach and tag along behind her and cut vegetables and clean the counter and just put in spoons of masala when she tells me how much. So yes, the kitchen is a place for odd jobs. I love being the side kick though! Cleaning, cutting and arranging, but that's it. Of course there is always a time to change I guess. I have decided to do something about it, finally. I know, French toast is basics, and mine doesn't even look so good, but it didn't taste bad :) You can check with my house-mates if you want! Here is the toast and banana milkshake I made for my evening snack. I think I made too much and ate too much though! Initial excitement I think, I hope.

Pretty looking cola lollipop

2010-03-04T23:13:00.000-08:00

Recently I read somewhere that Starbucks is going to convert its hot beverage cups to 10% recycled material, a move that sees this coffee giant further integrate environmental practices into their selling. They use 1.5 million cups a year and now, they have recycled paper for their sleeves, napkins, cardboard carriers and small packets.This was its first move to try and use recycled paper for its packaging. 10% is still very minuscule, but this is also maybe partly because this material costs more. This is probably the reason why many companies have not switched to recycled packaging and cups. There we go! Design problem. There are so many ways of recycling material, so maybe we should look at how to reduce the cost of this so that these multinational giants can actually use them, which then will make a big difference to our material usage.

I looked this up because I got a gift a few weeks ago. Vishnu had very sweetly got me a cola lollipop from Starbucks, all the way from Dubai, with its packaging, which was not crushed. Quite a commendable job :) Thank you vish! I loved the packaging. It is very sweet and feels personal, and the amount this adds to the brand and its nature is amazing. I do hope they take up this deal and switch to using more recycled material.

P.S The Cola lollipop, as one would except was not brown in colour like the cute dancing cola glasses on the cover, it was white, but it did taste good!

Metal Lathe, the saviour!

2010-03-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

For the past 5 weeks, I have been doing a product design course with the 3rd year students and working in the workshop to learn how to use the heavy duty machines is a compulsory part of it. It was also something I was looking forward to, but alas, little did I know what I was getting into. The first 3 weeks, I spent manually filing a rectangular piece of metal to make an 'M' out of it! Every little filing that fell onto the ground, I felt like crying for! It looked so easy when the model was shown but filing each mm to get the correct dimensions was a nightmare. After three weeks I arrived at a shape that looked moderately like an 'M' only to measure the top angle to find out it was wrong and I had exceeded 90 degrees a week ago or something! So, there went my job, feeling sad about the 3 days I spent on it, I headed to my next machine.

The router! I spent an hour searching the workshop to find out that all the MDF boards had already been exhausted. (That is the best material to use for this task, the edges in a ply sheet are more ragged) So, I picked up a piece of ply and drew a car and come clouds, ready to experiment with the router, ready to get it right. That machine insisted on running away from me! But I managed to finish it in the end, only it looked like a kinder-garden kid's drawing. Apparently finishing it with a file makes it look better. I will try and do that soon.

Finally, I decided its high time I got SOMETHING RIGHT! Today, I entered the workshop, fully determined to get the metal lathe job right. I was at it the whole day, even though I felt dizzy in the middle due to the vibration of the machine, I guess it helped! I am so proud of getting the finish right I had to put it up. Finally I have some faith, I can do something at the workshop.

Perspective- IF

2010-03-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

Your perspective of anything changes when you look at it using a curved surface!

Adrift on a giant lolipop with cotton candy clouds Illustration Friday

2010-02-17T06:40:00.000-08:00

Slushy Muddy- Illustration Friday

2010-02-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

Before After

I hate it when I step into muddy puddles by mistake. My clean chappals and jeans become really dirty and muddy, but the worst part is, I need to sit and wash them after that! Untill the mud dries, it leaves splotchy trails all over too!

Biosand Magic

2010-02-02T23:39:00.000-08:00

Today we made our own Biosand filters in class. We recycled plastic bottles that were thrown away to make them. We spent only Rs.10 (for the M-seal and straws), and are trying to see how this could be reduced too.

This is such a great solution for areas with no clean water and/or minimum resources. People can actually get clean drinking water from this, something that is a luxury for many people all over the world. Yet, many don’t know about it. Even we design students didn’t, till Mr and Mrs.Vishwanath came along and educated us about them. It is so simple to make and use, yet it is not being marketed or promoted well enough, why? These are the questions we are trying to address in our class while making them ourselves to see how easy it is, what difficulties we undergo etc. So, make your own! It is simple and you need just 5 things. Tell people about it. We can see how much better this is when compared to our fancy water filters at home that use so much electricity and waste so much water in the process of purifying.

It’s almost like magic because you pour in dirty water and you get crystal clear water and all that’s in between is sand! Humm...

Step 1:

Collect your materials.

A plastic water bottle, 2 small straws than can bend, some gravel and fine sand and a little bit of M-seal, and of course some dirty water you want to filter.

Step 2:

Cut the top of the bottle off and make two holes as shown: one on the lid and the other, a few centimetres from the bottom of the bottle.

Step 3:

Cut the straw to the correct lengths, fit them into each other in the shape shown and seal it to the bottle using a little bit of M-seal to prevent leakage.

Step 4:

Use a sieve to get fine sand if your sand is too coarse and then wash this sand a few times.

Step 5:

Once the M-seal is dry, will the bottle with gravel and fine sand. Make sure the top level of the sand reaches the top of the straw. The sand needs to remain moist all the time; hence the straw needs to be higher than the sand level.

Step 6:

Upturn the top of the bottle and pour your muddy/dirty water from the top and test your filter. You get clean water at the other end! It almost tastes like matka paani (Clay pot water).

Other possibilities

It could be hung from the ceiling and the water could be collected at a height. One could even grow small plants in their filters, the water would probably be more pure!

Drinkable quality

The water obtained from this is not really fit for drinking, it is more pure than dirty water but not a 100%. So, it make it fit for drinking, there is just one more step.

This water needs to be put in a SODIS(Solar disinfectant). A plastic bottle needs to painted black on its bottom half and filled with the water that needs to be purified. It needs to be kept in the sun for 2 days and voila! Drinkable water! All this without really wasting many resources and using natural processes to aid our filtering.

Alternative Materials

Instead of the plastic bottle, we could use anything from tins to pots to any other kind of bottle, as long as you can make a hole in it, but plastic is probably the best since one can see what is happening during the filtering process.

Plastic water pipes and clay/play-dough should work instead of the straw and M-seal.

Here is what our filters looked like

Bringing out the paint box

2010-01-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

There are people in my house who are drawing frantically. They go with their sketchbooks to dinner and make people pose for them :) It almost distracts them from eating! 100 sketches in a day is what they are expected to do! I feel guilty sitting and staring at my computer screen, reading articles about how the world is dying while trying to make layouts at the same time, while they are all drawing away to glory. So, I decided to take my paint box out today. I had almost forgotten what a fun thing it is. Damn... this is what I say to myself all the time..Sigh..I need to be regular with this stuff. Maybe the only possible way is to take a course which demands 100 paintings a day..boy, would anyone go mad.

Clumsy! Illustration Friday

2010-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

I have a friend who invariably ends up dropping whatever she eats on her dress, especially when its new! I don't know if it is a jinx or.. maybe she is just clumsy.

Coffee and Toffee

2010-01-16T02:43:00.000-08:00

This is an A2 poster that we had to make for any fictitious event for our experimental type course. The only thing we could use for type were parts of an (any) object that we choose to dismantle. I took apart a flash light and used its parts to make the type for this poster, an invite to a slumber party!

Entangled Jalebis- Illustration Friday

2009-12-03T09:00:00.001-08:00

Jelabis. These juicy, fun filled sweets are always a delight to eat.

Gobi Manchurian at IISC

2009-11-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

Here is the divine dish which is best like this. Leaking of oil and bright orange/red in colour. I actually wanted to take a picture of it as soon as I got it, but as you all can see, my drooling mouth seem to have taken precedence and by the time I realised, almost all of it was over. Yes. Quite sad. It would have been perfect if it was limitless, but as I seem to have inferred (by visiting so many science institutes), that these places have so many canteens and cafeterias inside campus which serve such real yummey cheap food that I have made a plan to go to IISC (Indian institute of Sciences- for their 12 buck gobi manchurian- very filling) and to NCBS and ISRO (National Centre for Biological Sciences and Indian Space Research Organisation- for their 10 buck meals). Go Science institutes! Go eat in these places if you ever get a chance!

Looks like there's an Unbalanced situation here

2009-11-14T09:54:00.000-08:00

Hindi labeling of our various organs. Absolutely hilarious. I think the fefadas beat them all!

2009-11-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

Helvetica gets a Character

2009-11-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

The task was to take Helvetica and do something to it to change it in any way possible. My idea was to give the plain looking letters some character. So, I made stencils of all the Helvetica bold letters and gave it to different people with different illustration styles to draw over the letters. I then removed the stencil to find the letters covered by various patterns. Thanks to everyone who took time to help me with this project!

IF- Flare, Boot-cut, straight and SKINNY!

2009-11-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

Fun Budday

2009-10-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Some really sweet cards I got for my 21st birthday made

by some of my friends. Thank you so much you guys!

A click on the card will lead you to their respective blogs.

Do check them out!

A conversation as a little gesture

2009-09-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

When you fall ill,

you get the best medical treatment.

When ‘they’ got swine flu, you got your vaccine.

When the newspaper said 154 of your kin died,

you panicked.

When 10 million trees die each day,

you don’t even care.

The effect the environment has on us is always highlighted, like new strains of viruses, natural disasters etc. but the effect we have on the environment, though much bigger, is given lesser importance. So, we decided to do an art intervention to highlight this in some way to make our general public more aware.

Five of us (Aajwanthi,Sumit,Uditi,Urmila and Varun) worked on this intervention and set it up in Lal Bagh, a big botanical garden in Bangalore where we roped in people who were passing by or taking a stroll to participate in the project, explaining to them our intention. We used conversation as a tool to bring awareness, we placed speech bubbles on the trees as if the they were voicing their issues. We allowed the audience to look at the speech bubbles and respond to these by asking them to write messages to the trees, and followed it up with a dialogue with them.

We found that many people are aware and concerned about such issues, but don’t believe they, or small projects like these can make any difference. They feel that only large institutions
can make a difference. People constantly blamed the government for all the problems we are facing.

Welcome-IF

2009-09-14T04:36:00.000-07:00

I love receiving letters.

I welcome them with all my heart,

just like the the box welcomes them into its mouth.

Wrapped- Illustration Friday

2009-08-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

Being wrapped is like living in dreamland.

Wrapped up in a cosy, irresistable blanket, not having to get up in the near future is euphoric.

Impatience- Illustration Friday

2009-08-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

One can figure how impatient me or my mom have been by looking at our fingers. My nails would just-about be existant while my mothers non-existant! We worked on our biting though. We had competitons to see whose nails grew longer.

When Birds sing Kanye West.. Yes, disaster!

2009-07-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday- Shaky

2009-07-07T21:46:00.003-07:00

Eggs are shaky! Weather cracked or not. When you shake them, you can feel the yolk jump around. If the shake becomes vigorous, it cracks, making only the yellow mass wobble as it floats amidst the colourless gooey liquid.

Yeah... Maybe the cow’s bottoms shake too, But probably only to good music.

Traveling Old Buildings

2009-07-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

Heritage Conservation. Yes. That's what I did in my internship over the summer. Thought I would feel cool by doing something to save the world, but nah.. there is lots more to do!

Some mundane things

2009-04-18T03:13:00.000-07:00

A random set of postcards I am working on.

Yes, please do..and properly! Otherwise you will end up having braces like me for half your life! Though I think I had other issues as well! :P

And I have lots and lots of Chai and I love it in the small glasses. They are awesome. With a biscuit or some muruku(chakli); even better.Only in bakeries and road side stalls mind you, no point otherwise!

Talisman- Illustration Friday

2009-04-06T11:12:00.000-07:00

Doors are magical.
They let you switch worlds.
This is my room door.
When I am alone, listening to music and day dreaming, is when it's most magical for me.

Subtract - Illustration Friday

2009-03-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

People and their Shadows.
A take on people and their alter egos or people and their unseen other parts.
How they subtract or add to become a whole.

Re working old photographs

2009-03-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hustle Bustle
And so much muscle
Our cells about to separate
Now I find it hard to concentrate
-Hard to concentrate
Red Hot Chili Peppers

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus' garden in the shade
-Octopus' Garden
Beatles

"Maximum satisfaction in Rs.1"

2009-02-10T06:18:00.000-08:00

Title quote- Alannah.

It is one of those things. Everyone’s had it when they were in 4^th grade. “Yeah! It used to be 50 p then! It used to come in 3 flavours! Grape, mango and strawberry!” everyone exclaimed! We all got really excited when we saw the one rupee ice lollies in Halebeedu. The ones that we could suck on endlessly- since we never got bored, they were cheap and sweet and brought back old memories! No one would wait till it melted, instead would bite the plastic end of the package to crush the already crushed ice and let the synthetic juice enter the mouth. These old things always bring out more old things like the toffee cigarettes we used to buy after school and feel cool about or lipstick candy that we used to pretend to use. Not to forget the tit bits, gold coin chocolates, rola-cola and caramilk. Its soo tough to find them these days. it was always these 2-3 rupee things that made happy days then.

Colour colour which colour do you choose?

2009-02-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

A mantapam in the Chennakeshava Temple

2009-02-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

Snapshots of emotions

2009-02-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

Chocos and Milk

2009-01-23T00:38:00.000-08:00

The-ever-ready-easy-to-make-always-tasting-good-any-time-of-the-day-meal.
My favorite breakfast

Urgh- Illustration Friday- Caution

2009-01-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

My Belly is so FAT
It's telling me THAT
I should STOP.

2 in the afternoon

2009-01-18T07:04:00.000-08:00

When the eyelids droop like canon balls are tugging at them,
When no toothpicks or will power like Tom's can help.
When its toughest to pay attention,
All you need is a chair and table (preferably in the library).
You know its 2'o clock.
Just after a heavy lunch and some chit chat-
the perfect time for a nap.

Crabs...they are really cute!

2009-01-13T10:40:00.000-08:00

These are few of the crabs we saw..And there were many more! Its really fascinating to see them trotting sideways, almost looking like a dance and running quickly to do something.

The fiddler males are amazing looking! They have one Big hand/claw to woo the females and fight, and the females look similar but do not have this extra feature. Then there were the hermit crabs that live in shells of other creatures and fight for a shell when their old one is broken or they have grown. These are amazing creatures and they walk the way they do because if they walked straight, they would trip over their own feel and keep falling: P

Wandoor- A&N

2008-12-12T07:17:00.000-08:00

Underwater Wonders

2008-12-12T05:38:00.000-08:00

Had been for a study trip to the Andaman Islands (which is, BTW one of the most gorgeous places on this earth!) and one thing one can’t help noticing is the diversity and loveliness of flora and fauna in that region. When you get underwater, it is another world altogether! All the nemo's that swim by you and the unimaginable coloured fish that are so curious that they actually follow you around. One begins to think that the word 'UNNATURAL' should just be removed from our vocabulary because all that needs to exist is already there! Let it be the bright neon blue bordered fish or the octopuses that camouflage by changing their texture into whatever they are put on or the complex systems that these fish have underwater. Some of them are more civilised than humans! They stand in lines and wait for their turn to be cleaned by the cleaner fish while the corals have their own trip going! Nature is just AMAZING and we have a lot to learn from it.

The Blue in you

2008-10-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

Pretty Junk. Maybe.

2008-09-22T11:57:00.001-07:00

Innocence

2008-08-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

I want to be a child again.

Envious, though I shouldn’t be

When I see them laugh and play.

I still do it.

Run around, laugh, beat up friends and jump into drains to retrieve lost cricket balls,

But of course, it’s not the same.

Happy when I stare into those innocent and smiling eyes.

The innocence I have long lost.

I long for it.

Seems like the most important thing now.

I want to be a child again,

Happy, innocent and free,

I want to be a child again.

Look up and wonder

2008-04-11T02:44:00.001-07:00

Both for Clarity

2008-04-09T04:57:00.000-07:00

I attended the writing club that some students had started last week in college. It is a forum for people just interested in listening to interesting pieces of writing and things other members have written. We also have an exercise every week that we do in that one hour we have. The topic for this week was ‘Chai and Chashma’ and time limit was 15 minutes and here is mine.

Both for clarity
Gosh I’m so drained; let’s go for a chai ya.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Down the stairs.
Where are my glasses? My head is throbbing. Why don’t I ever find it when I need it desperately? It is probably in here somewhere.
‘Akka…one chai please’
The most perfect blend of elaichi, tea leaves and milk. Almost like elixir at that moment in time, relieves me of tension as it flows down my throat.
Ah! Much better! Now for a dip of the biscuit in the chai. Ultimate combination I tell you. Suddenly I feel like the burden is off my head, but I cant seem to see so clear. Oh yeah! My chashma.
One thing that has total control over many of my actions, most actually. An object that is very essential and one that never manages to stay in its right place. It is almost like a rebel. Wanting to break free and disobey all the time. It needs to be taken care of and enclosed safely, in its case.
Rummage. Rummage. Rummage.
Oh! There it is.
Now... Perfect clarity.

Moon and Us

2008-03-26T05:17:00.000-07:00

Five of us, worked with a visiting artist Joanna Griffin and conducted a workshop for 15 children from the fifth grade in the Aditi school- Bangalore, for one of the projects we are working on , based on the moon and space missions. Our aim was just to find out how children of that age relate to the moon and how much they actually knew about space and that celestial body. We had projected a big image of the moon on the floor and put some white paper on it and told the kids to draw whatever they wanted to on their moon. Whatever associations they had, like songs, stories, facts and pictures they wanted to put onto it.

Before they started on their big moon, we had given them their small individual moon to put down any thoughts, just to get them started.

The end product was mind blowing and the children were a delight to work with. Their voices screaming and screeching, shouting out the most interesting things, ones we would have never even thought of and also their kiddy politics of which boy or girl to listen to and who was the smarter one and who owned more dogs! Their conversations never failed to make me laugh! The things they came up with were quite interesting. They had pictures of celebrities on the moon, all sabotaged, cut up or destroyed with blood oozing out from all directions. They had green and pink ‘celebrity eating aliens’ who were probably the cause of their disfigured bodies on the moon. They had a zebra crossing, a flat screen TV, a swimming pool and lots of other things!

Once they had transformed the moon into what they wanted, we had a small discussion about invasion/inhabiting the moon and how in a few years we humans are probably going to get there. We showed them some slides with pictures created by various people of the future moon with some plants and small buildings and rockets. We then asked them how much they knew about what already existed in the moon and they seemed to be pretty well informed! Craters, flags, Armstrong’s footprint gasses, no gravity were some of the things they told us. They also had many questions to throw back at us!

Once the discussion was done, we asked them if they liked the actual moon or their painted moon. Some said this and some said that. One little girl was a bit doubtful though. She said “humm…even though the actual moon is all grey and not colourful and all.. I guess that is the natural thing...so I think that looks better!” When we suggested a mix, most seemed to agree! So, we covered half of their moon with white paper so they could see the projection of the actual moon on half while their painted moon rested on the other half. One girl immediately said, “No! Not that half! Please cover the other half, because we want the flat screen TV and the swimming pool!”

It was good to see how children related to the moon though. One major drawback was definitely the fact that they didn’t seem to use the canvas as the moon. Though initially hesitant about ‘Spoiling’ the moon, they went crazy after 15 of them crowded around to paint all they wanted! They did know a lot though. If we had given them the right triggers in the presentation about the physical attributes of the moon and what all exists and doesn’t exist, maybe they would have considered the craters and used one of those as their swimming pools instead of drawing a big blue pool in a random area on the moon!

One comment I can’t fail to mention! When I asked one of the boys to write about his thoughts on the moon, he immediately said ‘THE MOON IS MEANT FOR BAD GUYS!” I was a bit puzzled initially. I asked him why he said that. He replied saying, “Haven’t you seen it in the movies? The good guy always punches or kicks the bad guy and he flies out from the earth and lands on the moon! So I’m sure it is full of bad guys!” :) I though that was a pretty amazing observation!

Goat Yoga

2008-03-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

In Melkote, a small temple town that we had visited for our study trip. Melkote was filled with goats, sheep, temples and lovely ancient architecture. I could not help noticing this Mr. Goat on a small high patch in strange and funny positions, almost like posing for me to take his picture. He would change his position periodically. It reminded me of yoga for some reason!

Secure

2008-03-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

Before I loose touch,
And the connection is broken.
Before the thread that holds me
Slips inch by inch
Stretching and sinking due to the burden
Snaps above me,
I need to hold on.

Solitary Light

2008-03-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not the only one starin' at the sun

afraid of what you'd find if you took a look inside

not just deaf and dumb I'm staring at the sun

not the only one who's happy to go blind

-U2
Starring at the sun

Ride away!

2008-03-15T03:41:00.001-07:00

Bicycles have somehow played a real important part in my life. It began with my childhood days. The 4th to 6th standard rides to school with my brother, across the busy main roads, the 9th to 11th standard sunday afternoon rides past the school gate or to the mango groove. Desperately trying to keep up with the boys who were twice as fast as me. They would cycle 50 meters ahead and wait for me to catch up!
College did not see the end of it either. To and fro, everyday in my 'Hero Atlas' men’s bike I ride, ignoring all those eyes that stare as I swish by. My feet barely touch the ground, but this is the best I’ve ever had! A hand me down. I take care of it like my baby. Spring clean on Sundays.

The most memorable, long cycle trip I’ve ever been on.
Six of us, before the break of dawn with our breakfast and lunch packed, set off on a Sunday morning.
No planned route in our agenda. Eight hours of non- stop cycling.
Darkness, hot chai, cold morning, conversations, waiting, silence, speed, races, papayas, flat tyres, pushing. You name it, we had it!

One other time was, when I cycled with a friend of mine in south Bombay, all the way from Walkeshwar to Nariman point. I never knew Bombay was such a gorgeous city till then! Cycling down those wide roads along the sea shore with a camera around my neck was just the perfect thing to do on a sunday morning. Not to forget that we died while cycling up those steep hills on the way back, in the afternoon when the sun was at its peak. The 'nariyal wala' on the way was a perfect delight. Possibly the best thing that could have happened to us at that moment, but the uphill was definitely worth it for the downhill experience. Its the best slope I've been on so far!

Here are some of the pictures I took on the way...

Birds at Chowpati

Walkeshwar Slope!

Nariman Point

Cycling in the rain is plain joy. It is one of those simple pleasures in life. Singing loudly in the process, even better.

The best part of a riding experience is undoubtedly going down a steep slope, without any traffic, at an insane speed, forgetting that breaks ever existed. This is ‘an absolutely liberating experience’, as Dore would say! Closest to flying one can get, while still on the ground. The cold wind against my face as I pedal swiftly gives me goose pimples. I never want those slopes to end! Sometimes I take the longer route from college back to the colony just for the downhill experience.

Cycle in Melkote :)

Carpet

2008-03-15T03:31:00.000-07:00

I walk out every morning, to step onto the bright flowers strewn at my doorway.
Inviting, they take me into wonderland.
I stride out with my chin held up high.
They embrace me,
Make me feel like a queen.

Blackbird

2008-03-15T02:24:00.000-07:00

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free
Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

-Blackbird
The Beatles

Sudden love for blackbirds,
I guess it was meant to be.
A few weeks ago, this song was all over Facebook.
‘Which Beatles song describes your life at the moment?’
It was sad I didn’t get this one, instead I got ‘Let it be!”
Then the trip to Melkote.
Crows or ravens? How could one tell the difference?
That is of no concern now though.
I saw the same scene there.
This song played in my head for days like a stuck tape.
A blackbird perched high on the wires attached to the long pole, is such a picturesque scene.
It 's something about that stark blackness on the thin and fragile wire against the bright blue sky.