Dance Its Christmas!

Let us dance and sing

And pass on the joy that Christmas brings!

Hope youve had a very merry Christmas and spread some joy! In half an hour Christmas is over and Im glad that despite the madness ( were shifting homes again, woe is me!) I got to see beautiful trees, and meet some lovely people to cheer the spirits today! Much love and many hugs to all of you and your families!

Madly Moonly

love is most mad and moonly

and less it shall unbe

than all the sea which only

is deeper than the sea

And that would be the last you hear of the andamans from me, I promise. 

Under the Sea

 

To see the world in technicolour, to not have to imagine because in front of you is the unimaginable. 

I never dreamt it was really possible and I feel so fortunate to have seen. I spent an incredible week at the andaman islands and each day was a feast for the senses. seas that lasted forever, turquoise blue beyond belief. fish in a million colours, shapes and sizes- glowing. graceful. ( I was the clumsy creature underwater). I loved loved loved this beautiful, magical, mysterious place where ancient tribes still live a life untouched by civilization, elephants swim and dolphins- I saw a dolphin! you have to see to believe. 

so heres a glimpse - and a few more next week !!

Bits And Pieces

Im turning food critic for this post :) Must indulge my madness!

I have been obsessing over cheesecake for many many months now, I think its been more than a year since I first tried this incredible cheesecake at the Well Studio Cafe in Auroville. so all was well as long as that incredible cheesecake was close at hand. But once we moved to Chennai - I had to start hunting for cheesecake again - and realised it really is a hunt! Ive had the most awful chewy(!) buttery (!) strange cheesecakes at insane prices. lets tear down a few places. 

Chennai - sandys laboratory. great food, nice place, nice everything - but their super expensive cheesecake is inedible - AND its highly recommended by the people there, so dont fall for that.

amethyst cafe - horrible. the french loaf - i think they use cheddar instead of cream cheese ! sigh.

and then we moved to bangalore ! so the hunt is going nationwide suddenly.. hard rock cafe - terrible!

The one at the food hall at 1mg looked deceptively enticing - but it was pretty gross. gloria jeans coffee - eek! Ice and Spice (ordered with great enthusiasm) - blech! We tried the cheesecake at Toscano - it was passable but still not very good. Bliss chocolate lounge at UB city - again a big no. It makes me wonder - is it so hard to make good cheesecake outside of auroville?

A small respite in the middle, when we went to auroville again and had a tiny cheesecake in a steel bowl (completely homemade) and that was pure heaven, light and lovely!

And then finally, at under the mango tree in bangalore - cheesecake that was half decent! 

So thats where Im at. I cant stop ordering cheesecakes. If you know of a delicious one - tell me about it!! must - eat - good - cheesecake.

While driving from Bangalore to Chennai, the sun rose making the whole world glow. It was beautiful. 

Im terribly excited. Were flying to the andamans tomorrow! one week of lying on blissful beach no.7 (repeatedly proclaimed to be nothing short of paradise) by everyone who has been there. Sketchbook in one hand and camera in the other, Im off! maybe Ill find my dream cheesecake in the andamans, you never know :)

Diwali Love

Rama & Sita 

One version of the Diwali story is that to welcome Rama, Sita and Lakshman back from their exile, lamps were lit all over Ayodhya  in celebration and crackers were burst amidst much joy!

It really is my favourite Indian festival, everybodys home glitters and such an abundance of happiness.

Were not bursting any crackers this year, I think all around, things are better this year with people being a lot more concious of the environment! But diyas shall be lit and we shall all glow. 

Have a beautiful and safe Diwali ! much love. 

A Universe of Adventure

A universe of memories and a few favourite things! This illustration was commissioned for someone who wanted to tell his special someone that hes loved their journey together and that the adventure is far from over! Inspired by the lovely tale that is The Little Prince, and pictures from their own life ( like the sleeping cats :) it came together piece by piece to form a beautiful story.


I fell in love with the whole sweet idea the moment I heard it ! The final print is pretty big and so beautiful with the colours as vivid or even more than the original and printed on the most gorgeous paper, called somerset photo - its apparently a hundred percent cotton and just brings it to life most wonderfully.
paper love.

The weather in bangalore is so beautiful right now, all I want to do is sit ouside with a cup of coffee :)

Have a looovely weekend ! much love x

The Sea in Me

dive for dreams
or a slogan may topple you
(trees are their roots
and wind is wind) 
trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)

-cummings

i wear dragonflies around my neck and fish in my heart. for I am of the sea , or the sea is in me. I was born in the month of february, the stars claim me as part of the water signs which maybe why I reach for the sea so often, to connect with my source and soul and find my dreams once again. We went back to auroville for two days. It was so healing to just see nothing but vastness and hear nothing but sounds of the jungle. I think living in a city makes you forget why you are living, and the danger lies in forgetting what is really beautiful and true and succumbing to a life without real living. dive for dreams , trust your heart and live by love.he speaks true.

Love is in the Air!

When they say ''love is in the air'' it sounds cheesy, but Ive reason to believe it may be true. 

October started off wonderfully, and Ive been soo excited that septembers over ( not a great month :)

My best friend Bani, from way back in school is getting married. and this came in the mail for me last week 

a gorgeous little bottle with a cork- do you see the silver heart with ''love'' on it? and this lovely message asking me to be her bridesmaid. I was so overjoyed, i wouldve agreed to anything at that point :) 

Isnt it beautiful ? I had to share it, I love it so much!

My very first bridesmaidly duty was to quickly create a ''save the date'' for her ! 

So we used this gorgeous picture of both their hands in the sky, and created a quirky card that Bani felt really reflected their love ! 

I of course, had had to do an illustrated version as well ! :) 

They loved them both, and went with the one above, with blue skies ! 

I was also asked to do another project which I cannot reveal right now, but its along the same lines. everyones proclaiming their love for each other suddenly. Happy to sniff the air and bask in the joy!

Be Loved and Let Love Be 

Castles in the Air

My restlessness was finally soothed the other day, when I heard the first strums of a guitar. The weather was beautiful and this was just what I needed. Im a big sucker for live music, and I ended up sitting at the cafe for hours listening to this guy with a beautiful voice sing some lovely tunes. Alongwith some nice coffee and a borrowed pen + little napkin to sketch on, I was the happiest Ive been in a long while! UB city is beautiful, as twilight set, lanterns came on, everything glowed, the music continued to flow- it was magical and Ive been floating on the calm that set in since then!

I got around to having a quick chat with the magician, found out he has a facebook page - facebook.com/Chandran Acoustic. So you can look him up and find out when and where hes playing next!
Have a good week and weekend :) Much love.

Beautiful Green

This would be a random doodle I did while sitting on the balcony - which has a huge chickoo tree falling into it with squirrels running all over with their beautiful eyes fixed on me watching to see if I would move. 

Its beautiful weather these days in Bangalore. And where i live now, right outside the balcony the mood seems so different below this huge tree, like something special happens there. And a weaver birds nest hangs from it too. quite magical. Im in the mood to be surrounded by some wild greenery. 

Maybe its time to plan a holiday. 

gosh, I really miss living in Pondi. 

I finally managed to print my business cards! This is something I probably should have done ages ago, but now I have them ! And so excited to start giving them away ! The front is a mango yellow and the back, you may recognize the self portrait and fish Id done a while ago :) It looks quite mad, but i love my cards! Stop and say hello and Ill be sure to give you one!

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.

Folk Valley

Today I did something thats been on my list for a while! I finally got to sit with some folk artists and work with their lovely vegetable dyes. A friend and I went to the valley school in Bangalore - a gorgeous space, very much like auroville, and in their artists village, amidst music and much energy, we painted and watched and listened to the artists as they related stories and sang songs about their art :) lovely!

 Banyan trees have special powers. They heal souls and exude peace. 

 the initial form that Rabia's art took

painting a pattachitra bird

my folk art dreams finally coming true :)

The colours arent spot on, I clicked this picture half in the dark! But heres my first foray into folk art! 

The tale of how the magical urn of life that poured endless amounts of nectar filled the soul, so everything - the trees, birds, sea, fish and lotus, the entire universe exists within you.