Buddha found the light!!

Finally finished a painting for one of my close friends Piyush aka Pondi!!Pondi holds the title of making me cry more than once and sadly he's unabashed about his very ungentlemanly  like behaviour,nevertheless he's one of my craziest,super talented,most annoying yet adorably childlike[sometimes childish] friends.

 It was a piece I started a little less than a year ago and was supposed to be his wedding gift,but like many of the canvas pieces I've started,work came in the way and broke my momentum.As history would stand witness,when that happens the canvas invariably get shoved into the deep recesses of my mind and room, never to see the light of day again.

Luckily for him[or maybe not] this particular piece wasn't shoved into a corner in my room,in fact it floated around my room to the point that I just couldn't handle seeing it in it's half finished state.It was Piyush's birthday on Friday,I cracked up the music pulled out my paints and brushes and decided to go for it once and for all!!

Haaapppiieee birthday Pondi may this painting find its place on your wall and in your home for the years to come!!Many thanks for the patience and all the fun times we've have over the past 10 years!!

My love affair with dragonflies

I've always loved dragonflies!I've painted and sketched them a million times over and I even got one inked.I've never really been able to pin-point my love for dragonflies or been able to express articulately why i love them,it's just this light happy,floating feeling i get when i see dragonflies.I'm so happy its dragonfly season in Mumbai,every other day when i get the chance to take Astra[My little Lhasa bundle of fluff] for a run or rather a game of go fetch on our building terrace I'm met with a swarm of dragonflies dancing in the sky.

I remember reading about dragonflies a long time ago about how they are symbolic of change and transformation maybe at some subconscious level that's what i relate to or maybe its the ex-strategy planner trying to force fit logic to it.I'm no stranger to change in fact I sometimes think It thrive and feed of it.If things get too routine I know I've always found a way to shake things up.

Today i had an unannounced,unexpected but very welcome visitor drop in!!Happiness overload!!

Happy tired

It's been a heady crazy past couple of weeks,with bulk orders,customised orders and of course the very  very last minute orders.The project I've taken up isn't relenting either, with meetings,meetings and more meetings,launches and get togethers.On the social life front, things seem to be following toe with birthday celebrations,catching up with long lost friends who decided to show up in Mumbai after eons and other commitments I couldn't weasel my way out of!! It sits well though that all of this chaos and madness ended with a lovely road trip to Pune, one that I've been planning to do for a long long time to meet a very close friend of mine who just had a super adorable baby girl!!

I've love getting out of the city!I haven't landed up doing as much of it as I'd like, it makes so much a difference to just get out of this chaotic city, even if its just a short drive to Pune and back.Suddenly I feel all set to take on the blows and punches the next week might bring with it.

This trip had it fair share of drama,my friend who was supposed to drive us down drank too much the night before,[the mallu he is!!]other friends who were supposed to join us made some last minute change of plans.After  much banging on the door at 7:00am,huffing and puffing and spewing the most innovative of swear words, a sleep deprived person could come up with at that hour,we all made it to Pune in one piece,with loud music blasting in the car and everyone singing at the top of their lungs[pretty much making up the lyrics as we went along]After a lovely time spent playing with little Sia,it's the mid-night conversations I love the most.I'm not sure guys rock it as well as we girls do, but suddenly when the lights are turned off and everyone in their PJ's lounging around on the bed conversation invariably takes a turn for more heart-felt.It's these small moments in life I cherish the most and live for!!

What made the trip all the more magical was ,on the drive back we were greeted with a  delightful downpour.There's something about the rain that has this ethereal magical feeling of washing away all your worries.So with raindrops seeming to take on a life of their own on our windscreen and the music taking on a more contemplative and melancholic garb I returned to Mumbai a content happy trooper!!

quotes

Came across this beautiful quote by  Alphonse de Lamartine

Mamihlapinatapai

Guess thats how i feel right now.

Language: Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the coast of South America)

“The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.” This explains so much for my failures with women.

Floating not Frivolous

What has really changed in the digi savvy,click friendly Web 2.0 babies ...OK, we opine much more,ping too often,converse on multiple media platforms[sometimes all at once],we live voraciously online, net-worth gives way to networks...the list is endless...

Delving deeper that the superficial changes of this new age existence,there's something that's changed at a human psyche level,its almost like we are programmed very differently from our parents generation,with new codes,new hardware...

After much mulling over I think the basis of this generational chasm stems from the fact that we 'Float but are not frivolous'.As shallow as it may sound,its far from that.We are a new generation that has seen so much of change so quickly, we have no choice but to roll with it,to take life as it comes and learn to adapt or be left behind.We float through change almost effortlessly[well for most of the bit] but that doesn't mean our existence is not anchored by meaningful interactions.

We look at the web and all the cross-connections it spins as an opportunity to interact with like minded individuals,with people who have a picture,video or a point of view that makes for the meat in our understanding of change and  this ever changing life itself...


Like windows to parallel worlds, that don't compel you to take up residence but let you have a voice if you have something to say it allows you to floating in and out of discussion boards,blogs,tweets,updates,comments...Unlike the older generation we don't really seek out stability,don't have 5 year plans and 5 page long checklist of the things we need to do before we die.We create a subculture of connections that tap into the various facets that make us a whole,constantly updating,deleting,modifying the connections and the media platforms...

We don't look at the future with fear and worry but with a sense of wonderment...now what?what next?all these questions stemming from the innate need to feel good about the things/people we entertain at that given point in time.Our interests are an ever widening net that catches people at the same wave length,our career paths twist and turn grow organically as we explore ourselves and what lies ahead...

To the new age floaters!!a click away from a new exploration...

Mid-summer butterflies

There's a crick in my neck,
From all the time spent craning over to see you,
A mid-summers night fire burns violently between you and me,
Blind spots make their way into the stuffy air,
You're too close and I'm too far away for you to see,
There are feisty butterflies in my stomach,
Holding back the words i'd like to say

Exhausted three times over and how!!

I've always believed in going against the grain,trying out new things, plunging into projects headlong and taking each day as it comes.Sure enough there are challenges every step of the way.Somehow today i realllllllyyyy feel like i need a morale boost.After waking up at the crack of dawn yesterday to make sure i met my order commitments and slogged the whole day closing some fantastic deals,meeting some interesting characters ,only to have a totally demoralising conversation today at work which essentially makes me feel like a i've been barking up the wrong tree all this while.

Body,mind and soul are so not in sync right now.Its going to be a mammoth task to get my point across and come hell or high water i'm going to make sure i've said my bit and its not just heard but resonates.

Need to take a deep breath and make some sense of this nonsensical  predicament!

What is Creativity?-Jason Silva

Today was a super  exhilarating and exhausting day!Had two killer meetings,its always fun when you get the opportunity to work with creative people.If theres one thing i miss from my advertising days its the crazy brainstorming sessions.Off late I've been feeling that void,i ideate in isolation,if i bounce ideas off people its not always the right people,place or time to truly elicit unabashed wild ideas.



Have the privilege of working with some very interesting and creative people in my new project and after a long time felt the much missed buzz to being able to brainstorm!!



Happy tired i am :)



Jason Silva's Shots of Awe is a bloody good way to end the day,ta ta!!

Saturday nights never looked or felt better!!

This Saturday night is turning out to the best night ever!! For starters decided to stay in tonight,its not like me stay put on a Saturday night but after a super hectic week,better judgement finally kicked in and i decided to not step out.Pulled my sketch books and paints out and poured myself a ohhh so yummy glass of wine,only to hear that one one of closest friends in Pune just delivered a baby girl!Bring out the bubbly and lets celebrate!!!Much overdue Pune visit has to happen next weekend!!

The juggling act!!

Feels like eons since I've written anything or posted a blog post.Multi-tasking seems to be the new mantra,loving it like hell!!!So i've taken up a new project,lets just say it has a lot to do with wine and beer,that said it make the challenge a hundred times more appealing!

Came across something a friend of mine from my advertising days posted, in a way  it encapsulates multi-tasking beautifully.

Quote credit:Ram Subramanian