Smile for a Story

Im finally introducing you to the kids at Santhosha Nanban!(In tamil, this means''happy friend'').  They are incredibly smart, happy and sweet and I loooove my time with them, its great fun and hugely inspiring. I took tons of pictures from todays session, where Kanchana ( their full time teacher) and I told them the story of "The Thirsty Crow" and they excitedly started to illustrate the story! Ive just picked 10 pictures to share with you but if you want to see more let me know :)

the cutest crow

 Collage work from last weeks session, they absolutely floored me with their creativity!

We have about 20 kids in open school where Kanchana preps them for admission into a goverment school.

These are kids that have been found recently, in the middle of school year so theyre getting a good basic learning here! Almost all of them stay in the orphanage, and just a few go back to their homes in the evenings.

I mentioned before about what a lovely place Santhosha Nanban is, its an orphanage and they also educate street children and these kids are really well looked after, its been really heartwarming working with them. You can read more about them at www.sathoshananban.org.

Turn on your Heartlight

A friend of mine is doing something incredibly exciting. She is taking part in The Mongol Rally. They are going to be driving a car all the way from Italy to Mongolia!! 10,000 miles , mountain ranges, rivers, deserts and proceeds go to charity! They are also going to be putting up a website. And she asked me to create a map for their site that would reflect a feeling of adventure! So I created this map, inspired from the Gond style of painting from Madhya Pradesh, with a rather contemporary twist to it :) The sun, moon, stars, forests, rivers, mountains, whirling dervishes. I wish I was doing something as beautiful as this !

Neil Diamond once said, 
Turn on your heartlight

let it shine wherever you go

let it make a happy glow

for all the world to see.

So thats what we have to do :) Travel the world and spread the joy ! I could do that. Sometimes I think all i want to do is travel, just keep going. that might be the ideal life. Have a good week !

This work by amrita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

A Little Bit of Hope!

In retrospect, things with my plan to do a chiildren's book are actually going well. I lost hope last week, but I am in conversation with a lot of good publishing houses and they all seem very interested! So hopefully I will have good news to jump around about soon. Meanwhile, I continue to make samples ! :) The illustration for this story is about an old Kashmiri man and his cricket bat workshop set in Kashmir.


The other little bit of excitement right now is that today is my first day working with a sort of Orphanage here in Pondicherry. They are called Santhoshananban and they take in street children and educate them, and also provide a home for orphans! Wonderful people and a beautiful idea. I am planning to work with the kids on art and stories! Lets see how it goes :) They seem like a very bright and happy bunch! I just hope I do them justice. Wish me luck!!


This work by amrita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

A World With a Story

The sky, the sea, carved stones that don't realise they are old, but know that they are special.
The shore temple has been eroded by the waves from the sea, and the heavy sea winds. But that's what makes it so beautiful, almost soulful. While walking through it, I could sense the many secrets held within its walls. The carvings are almost not there. a figment of your imagination. Surrounded by the sea as it once was, how mystical it would have been. I haven't looked enough, but have to leave.      Mahaballipuram '11

Little Bits of Spooky Paper

I know I'm very late with Halloween pictures, but the Halloween party at my home happened over the weekend, so its really just been a few days since then! I spent a lot of time last week making up little decorations so people would get into the spirit, and Id like to show you around a bit :) with some not-so-great pictures! Somehow everything glittered and looked a lot better to me in person and its not translating as well in the pictures! So the trick or treat sign is something im proud of ! Made using red handmade paper, a cutting knife, and some paint for the eyeball in ''OR''. and the spider hanging from the web is made out of newspaper by Ishita - our paper guru. and I also stuck little red eyes on it! 

oh and tons of glitter all around, that you can barely see here!

 My spooky tree had lots of thread hanging around it like spider webs, and one giant paper spider !

 This is something that is going to remain as permanent decoration me thinks. I love my starry chandelier!

The string of skull lights in the Kitchen which was our Buffet area.

       Look carefully to see more threads hanging- more spider webs :D

 And on all the surfaces, the absolute halloween must-haves. Tons of pretty candles and lots of sequins! It was great fun and all our costumed friends were the last bit of decoration. it really did look lovely :) 

Magical Children's Worlds

The beginning of another week - Time seems to be flying away from me these days, and its going off faster now that the year is coming to an end. With so much planned, it feels like a prank being played. sigh.


I had mentioned to you about my desire to illustrate for childrens books, I got a few calls since then and though so far only one has worked out, Its been so so much fun making samples for these lovely stories.


I cant tell you too much about the story, (that would be wrong since its not mine) but its about a puppy whose parents are trying to put to bed, so in this illustration shes being given a bath in the hope that she will feel sleepy! :) I loved doing it, its my first foray into the children's book world and fingers crossed, I'm going to get my chance at doing a book soon!


Had a great weekend, and a halloween party - lots of decorations and crafts for that one - so youll be seeing some pictures soon !! Have a lovely week ! Much love !!



This work by amrita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.