Of People and Places

  A sketch of an artist friend...Silent companionship is so rare isn't it?  That's the nicest thing about being with like-minded people, no? The bliss of not having to spell out things. The joy of being understood without words. And having a shared vision of beauty, seen differently but felt in unison.

A sketch of Mark Cubbon's statue in Cubbon Park, Bangalore On 1 November, we went to Cubbon Park to find it devoid of people! Unimaginable, right? But slowly they started to come, and I felt happier than I have in months.  It was a little weird to be sitting in our favorite place - the stone bench near the government museum canteen, which is generally so full of families out on a picnic, but now I have come to see that it was actually a fantastic chance to be alone there. Not a soul - just the trees, us, the squirrels, birds and the sculptures from some obscure period in history, surrounding us.  I love sketching random people in parks, bus stations and cafes - it is super relaxing and a passive way to get better at making art. So, in the absence of people, what could I sketch? Statues and sculptures.  A sketch of one of the sculptures outside Government museum, Bangalore Actually, they are fantastic subjects. Firstly, they don't have the annoying habit of moving ;D . Sec...

 My aunt in Illinois showed me her lovely backyard on a video call. It was a sunny morning with her neighborhood gearing up for Halloween with all sorts of curious  (and frightening) knickknacks, A yard full of skeletons, dead bodies, inflatable creatures from the dark, axes and spiderwebs hanging like festoons on the porches and windows. To defy this macabre world, nature has donned a beautiful mantle - the ground is colored bright orange, red and yellow from the carpet of leaves that the trees are shedding. It is autumn, or fall as they call it - and my aunt's morning walk crosses all kinds of beautiful trees-Maple trees, Oak trees, Cherry trees, A beautiful bright red bush called the 'Burning Bush'. It was such a delight to see different shades of green, yellows and reds that I couldn't resist taking out my watercolors. Thank you pachchi (aunt in Konkani) for sharing your beautiful world with me. ( I am sending you moral support for the tiring clean up in your yard a...

At Kavayyi lake in Payannur .  The boatman silhouetted against the river and the inky blackness of the island trees.Would you like to see what I saw, that evening ? The sunset mellowed down... The colors faded into each other....became nothing The pale glimmering moon turned brighter... The colors washed away -the stains in the sky fading...  fading .... turning inky... while the boatman sat motionless... while darkness crept in.... and night descended. 

The quaint town of Galle is right at the southwest tip of Sri Lanka, overlooking the harbour. The fort at Galle was built by the Portugese and fortified by the Dutch. Galle's strategic location made it much coveted among colonizers and is one of the oldest seaports in the world. The Galle clock tower is something you can't miss. Built in memory of a doctor, it was a later addition inside the fort ramparts. It was fantastic to see the sea from inside the fort. Don't miss Galle - it is worth visiting. We didn't have enough time to explore, but I think it's a great place for backpackers . 

In Gokarna, many women from the Halakki Vokkaliga tribe are seen selling flowers near the temple. Gaunt, tanned and barefoot, they are distinct because of their clothes, style of draping and the beads they wear around their neck. This 'gowdathi' was selling some lotus flowers and looked bright and pretty among a crowd of French tourists backpacking across Karnataka. I see a lot of old women...where are the youngsters of this tribe? Gokarna is a curious mix of a temple town and a hippie haven. It's a beautiful place. Don't miss it if you travel to Karnataka.  

On Day 2 of our tour in Sri Lanka, we took a road trip to the Pinnawala elephant orphanage . On the way, I was delighted to be on the canal road - where colorful boats lined up on the waterway on the right while tuk-tuks , cars and buses plied on the road that we were on. This is the Dutch canal/ Hamilton canal   connecting Puttalam to Colombo. It runs across many towns and landscapes and my only regret is that we did not go on a boat ride on the canal. It was constructed by the Dutch to be a supply route for agricultural produce and goods to be transported to the sea port at Negombo. It connects to the Muthrajawela wetlands in the Negombo lagoon, a marsh with incredible biodiversity, from what I've read. Next time I visit Sri Lanka, the canal  and Negombo lagoon are definitely on my bucket list.

We were given an assignment to build an impression of Mandu through illustrations. We spent a week there, explored all the places and monuments to our heart's content and built a relationship with the place. This doesn't often happen when you travel as a tourist. So, I was glad. This assignment made me focus on the place, on what made it different from other places I had visited and the kind of mood and ambience it had. As soon as we enter Dhar, the landscape changes slightly. There is a fantastic view of the valley and a very prominent gorge enroute - called suicide point. Cliched really. I wish it was called something else. The current name is not befitting something as magical as Mandu.  We enter the fortified town through a large, ancient gateway.It is quite dry and arid outside. The Vindhya ranges that Mandu is located in show their characteristic flat- topped, plateau-like peaks. The Gray Langur, more human than animal, watches us from the tree near the ruins. The...

A pen & watercolor sketch of the gopuram ( gateway), Thanjavur Brihadeeshwara temple Not so long  ago, my parents had visited Thanjavur and were in raptures about the place. Ever since, I have been told by them on countless occasions that 'You MUST visit Thanjavur... there are many interesting places to sketch there. The big temple is unexpectedly beautiful' When my uncle and grandmother came to Bangalore with the aim of going to Kumbakonam, it was a good pretext for me to go and see what it was all about. My four year old cousin would also be with them, and she is an immensely fun, mischievous girl to be around - so I said yes, I would accompany them. What awaited was a splendid specimen of Dravida architecture. A hot sultry day lay in store and the temple was lit brilliantly. A lot of tourists from Tamil Nadu and Kerala were trooping in. Some wore colored garments representing their groups, in bright colors of red and yellow with vibhuti on their foreheads. The te...

Ever since I've started learning the language, I have been fascinated by all things Japanese. But, I suppose that's natural. Learning a foreign language is like a portal into a different universe, and it's exciting to discover what that universe holds. In an event two years ago, I had a chance to eat authentic Japanese food, and I quite liked it. It was a vegetarian menu ( I was with a large group with mostly vegetarian preferences). I can imagine the chef scratching his head, wondering how in the world he could make an all- vegetarian Japanese menu! Many around me were excited to begin with, but slowly their enthusiasm petered out. First came Miso soup, and one of the ladies went a bit pallid after three mouthfuls. She barely touched the food that came after that! I for one, love Miso soup. It's very comforting and to me it tastes a bit like our Vaali Ambat ( a konkani curry) with a foreign twist. Then we had Yaki udon and it was fantastic. It's nice, once ...

The air is filled with loud croaks, guttural cries and  I run out to the balcony to see who it is. The drains near grandma's house are overflowing because of the rains and the small plot of land in front of the house has turned into a marshland. The small puddles have broken their banks and turned into a stream. In this, I spy two sleek birds in tuxedos, their white face and underbelly shining in the gray-black rounded form of their heads. Their tails jerking up and down they plant their large feet firmly and poke through the water for insects. I go downstairs to take a closer look, but alas! I frighten them away. They run pretty fast and always keep a safe distance from me. One of them runs to the far end of the road and disappears around the corner. The other one flies to a nearby bush and keeps mum. I wait patiently for a while, give up and turn to go back into the house, when a loud racket ensues from the bush. I stand on my toes to take a peek. Apparently, the bird has th...

Belgaum always meant cozy holidays in mamama's (grandma's) house, Cable TV ( We didn't have it at home then, it was always a treat we looked forward to), stuffing ourselves beyond capacity with an equally enthusiastic grandmother who liked trying out new things she saw on TV and magazines and tried them on us. The days whirred by in a contented blur in front of the TV - pure bliss. Belgaum is a sleepy town, I think the air is filled with something that makes everyone indolent, or probably that was just me stuffed to the brim with mamama's delicious food wanting to laze about all the time. Belgaum to me meant buffaloes, continuous rains, hailstorms and beautiful colonial houses, wadas and Kunda. Every visit to Belgaum necessarily meant a half kilo of Kunda ( A brown colored sweet made with milk & khowa)   had to be taken back to school/office and shared with peers and colleagues. An illustration of Red Whiskered Bulbul My grandparents moved houses several t...

We stayed at the Kulgi Nature camp in Dandeli for a little holiday. It's a lovely place to relax and catch up with some sketching. It's really quiet and the calm embraces your flighty soul and tethers it down for a while. We missed a black panther, the staff and tourists tell us. A pity. I would have loved to see that sleek, gorgeous animal.  I find black panthers so mesmerizing. The tourist consoles me with a picture. This is hornbill territory and I was lucky enough to see one right near our hut. But this was a Malabar Pied Hornbill, not the great Pied Hornbill for which Dandeli is famous. The next day, we joined ranks of tourists in the wee hours of the morning, patiently awaiting our turn for the safari. We spotted some barking deer,  A family of Bisons ( Gaur)  that looked angry and ready to charge, the heftiest one's muscles rippling. I am imagining what it must be like to meet him head on and it's not a pleasant thought! There was a lovely little pon...

Goa diary : 16 August 2016 South Goa is for the traveller. Let the tourist be content with North Goa and all the touristy things it has to offer. We went to the fine white beach of Colva in South Goa in the monsoons. The sky was overcast, men stood in a haphazard line, in shorts and raincoats, funny because some of them were going to wade into the sea anyway to draw the fishing net! The boats drew closer and the men came alive. They brought in the fishing net tangled with seaweed, bits of shells and of course fish. Fishes gasped for air, swishing their tails, and all at once it seemed like the entire beach was filled with them, shining like pieces of tinsel here and there, jumping out of the nets. The stray dogs eyed them, nosing around them in the sand. The crows overhead also waited for a chance to swoop down. A slight drizzle had begun. Undaunted, the men hauled the net in. Women hung around in the background with raincoats and umbrellas, waiting to load the fish into ...

For most people Goa is a holiday destination, a place of endless booze and partying, fresh seafood, expensive restaurants and weekend getaways. Not for Konkanis, though. As a child, I hated the fact that visits to Goa were mostly restricted to visiting the Mangeshi Mutt (temple), with an occasional trip to the beach and I longed for all those touristy things that other people did :) As I grew older, I began to see that a lot exists beyond both these things. A vast part of Goa is unexplored, untouched by the madness that tourists bring with them. Take Chandor, for instance,  a charming village in South Goa. It is a small village that can be explored on foot. In the monsoons, this place is too beautiful for words. Luckily, we had a friend who lives there to show us around. On the way to Chandor, amid stretches of forests, you will see typical Goan houses. The houses have covered porches that face the street, and invariably you will see someone sitting there, reading a newspap...

"For her the coming of tunnels meant she was home. They followed one after the other, three tunnels, black as existence, red streaks from the tunnel lights giving everyone and everything a tinge of unreality. The little boy in the berth looked particularly unearthly as he squirmed about,excited by this sudden darkness that descended on the compartment. A never ending darkness, while the train went about its determined way, and then sudden daylight, as if the tunnel was a dream." Every time I see a rail neer bottle, nostalgia engulfs me.  I spent 2017 in a daze, one train journey after another, going from Bangalore to Hoshangabad and back for a course in Children's book illustration. Months, as short as they are, really did run like rabbits, with one week spent in Hoshangabad and the rest of the time spent catching up with work and classes back in Bangalore. So, I could say I spent at least four - five  days a month in trains. A kind of home. Not to mention t...