The Fish at the End of the Rainbow

I dream of flying into a space that is empty of thoughts, the only emotion i would feel is 

complete pure happiness at the freedom of it all. 

I miss those days when I lived in my little room (whilst still studying) when I would climb to the terrace and watch the skies and the tops of houses and life go by below.

Bubbles of Promise

There is much that one can learn from watching the sea.

Good things come and go, and life has to go on.

Sometimes, the dream you have been working on and dreaming of for so long, that tickles the tips

of your toes with its tantalising bubbles of promise, may just come in with the next wave. 

It brings you peace, it exudes calm, it teaches you patience.

I miss the sea. My mind feels so clogged with dreams and hopes and thoughts and other people that I can barely see whats ahead of me. thinking of the sea helps. a trip home is due. 

The Yellow Wood

Another workshop at the Valley School, I decided to go this time round because Ive always been curious about chinese painting (more so japanese painting, but I figure theyre similar). It wasnt the most incredible experience, but I really enjoyed trying something new and playing with the lovely inks and papers! 

Here are some pictures from the day!

charcoal sketch of a little bamboo plant

hold your chinese brush upright and make beautiful effortless strokes!

my random and unfortunately rather impatient attempts

tada! I was actually proud to see some tonal variations, sitting up straight with that brush was SO

hard for me! but I think id love to explore this medium. Its very poetic, and each stroke is so beautiful.

and I love love rice paper. I just wanted to swish ink around and watch it sink into the paper.

On a different note, Im reading this fantastic book, its called rich dad, poor dad- and I find that its come into my hands just when I really felt I needed something like it. Theres so much that nobody ever tells you when it comes to financial education, this book talks about making money without selling your soul. Its always been so important to me that I never work for money, but for the love of what I do. In the book, he quotes a Robert Frost poem - one that I havent read in a long time, and as things sometimes do, it suddenly makes such sense to me. Taking the untrodden path is incredibly hard - but I think you will find yourself wealthy at the end of the journey. even if not in riches, in living some incredible experiences.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Stronger Pull

Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love  Rumi

The new Hidesign diary holds illustrations that speak of passion, spirit and sensuousness. of an emotional high, and I use the forces of nature to bring it to life. In each illustration (there are going to be 10) is the moon in a different part of its cycle for each month and all energy is drawn from this one, glowing source. I love the energy in this series and I think this diary is going to be quite beautiful when it all finally comes together! I hope you get to keep one with you when the new year begins!

Happiness!

The mother of the same little girl for whose nursery I created the illustrations some weeks ago, wanted to say ''thank you'' to all the lovely people who sent presents and love their way. We created a bookmark that showed an overjoyed annika flying amidst presents and stars with a huge smile on her little face! The back was a starry thank you with the trademark tree of stars and some space for her to write in a little message! 

I even created an envelope with a little stamp that I illustrated :) 

 when placed inside a book, annikas happiness pops up :)

and im happy to be creating bookmarks and stamps and envelopes and managing to bring joy to someone at the same time! Its a good life :) 

The Flow of Life

Cover illustration for a book filled with fun party ideas for Scholastic-

Will be out in stores soon!

I cant believe there was a time when I used to worry about whether I would have enough work to keep me busy for the next month, these days Im frantically trying to hone my time management skills so I can continue doing the kind of work I love to do and work on some incredibly interesting projects. It makes my heart sing- all these lovely things that pop up out of nowhere! 

Weve moved to bangalore for a few months temporarily, and my newest obsession is with sitting in coffee shops and day dreaming with a sketchbook in hand and generally enjoying the fabulous weather that the city is blessed with! Im completely torn between the city and weather and everything else it has to offer and my gorgeous house in chennai, so decided to just sit back and enjoy things as they happen. The only way to make the most of life I suppose :)

Birthday Cloud

For Sid's birthday this year, we went to my dads farm. Its one of my favourite places in the world. Apparently, its sid's too :) One of the things I gave him this year was this card! I like the way it turned out so I thought id post about it :D also, these lovely pictures are taken by my little sister.

 

The monsoons- soon we were sitting in a cloud.

The chickens, the cow, our two crazy dogs and the rest of the family wishing you a happy birthday! 

 Happy with his card! I think I should start making custom cards like this one. Had such fun with it !Interested? :)

Butterfly Park

 one winged pretty

flowers merged with wings

wings turned to dust

flitted over the eyes

and cast its spell

 colours and patterns came together

We went to the butterfly park in Bannerghatta. The first thing that caught my fancy about the place was that at the entrance was a little sign that said that all letters posted here bore a butterfly stamp! how lovely! 

And when the doors opened to the little park it was nothing short of joyful, jump around till you pass out amazement that I felt. Heavenly little place with little waterbodies and lots and lots of flowers and a million butterflies all flying around spreading the joy and wonder! I had to be bodily dragged away from that place.