Its raining dots today!

Illustrated Crocs

Indeed a pair of crocs is such a pleasure in the monsoon. How about having an illustrated one? 

Rainy Saturday

We have a waterfall when it rains :)
One of the pleasures of living besides the few hills of Mumbai. A restful view away from the restless world, a calm chair in the balcony, hot steaming tea and casual conversations! That's a perfect rainy Saturday!

Dear Meghalaya, from Gujarat

Dear Meghalaya,

It's not many days that Aarti has been away from your country of clouds, and she is already missing them! May be she badly needs them! Within fifteen days she has come from extremes of 14 degree to 43 degree Celsius of atmospheric temperature. Clouds have arrived on the Mumbai horizon and all of Aarti's friends are happy and she is waiting for her part of happiness.
Kindly arrange loads and loads of clouds for her in Ahmedabad, as you have them in abundance.
Thanking you...

With Regards,
Gujarat

PS: Issued in interest and concern of all the Amdavadi public.

A panorama of clouds on the way to Nongriat in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.

It's Shrawan

Shrawanmasi harsh manasi hirval date chohikade,

Kshanat yete sarsar shirve kshanat firuni un pade...!
(Lines from a famous marathi poem by famous poet Baalkavi)

Happy Shrawan everyone!! :)

Real Farmville

As the grass gets greener, one can see only coconut trees and rice farms hidden between hills and rivers in Konkan. Believe me, the saying ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ stands true here. As you travel from Kolhapur towards Konkan, the grass changes it color from dark green to a much fresh and stark green!

It’s monsoon, time to sow rice. In the very interiors of Konkan, everyone wakes up to start the day’s work in their rice farms. Me and Vaishali did the same and tried our farming skills (yet to gain mastery over it) on her granny’s farm. Farming in the morning, then nice Konkani lunch then again farming and then dinner!! No need to work out specially!! No fish food, as being a veggie I cooked dal with awesome malwani masala.

Never have done farming earlier, I loved the feeling of being bare foot in farms and working with each seed in hand. It is always said that you need to love your work to make the best of it. For many of us it takes years to know what is that we love doing. When you work in farms or just grow some plants in your balcony, very naturally you have a liking for it. It is the love for mother earth, love for Mother Nature. It is the love for creation. Then you realize that you don’t need to put special efforts in liking what you are doing… and this is a beautiful realization. But yes, there are no shortcuts to good work! It takes 12 hours to harvest rice in Farmville but here it takes 6 months. Today in the world of fast results, farming is indeed a slow and tedious work. I don’t know what I am saying… but one thing I know is I’m going to plant some plants in my new house for sure :)

I love basketry!

Irla! It’s a Marathi term for what you see in the picture below. Made from palm leaves and woven in the hexagonal weave, it is used to protect oneself from the rains. It is so ergonomically convenient and awesomely finished that not a drop makes you wet! Loved it! But unfortunately, now-a-days it is being replaced by plastic which more unfortunately is not as feasible and efficient as the traditional irla. We tried to find the community who makes these but sadly couldn’t reach due to heavy rains and flooded rivers.

Me with the irla :)

On the way...

to Sawantwadi.

Smallest Snail

AB is back, all refreshed and rejuvenated from a monsoon trip to Konakan with lot of inspirations and explorations with nature!!

After a lot of rice-farming fun in the fields, I was getting a little cleaned up and what I discover is a real tiny baby snail wandering on my palm. Yeaa!! Indeed it is the season of snails, but not all snails are as beautiful and as enjoyable as this one was! All soft and transparent, slow and steady, sticky yet fun!!
After a lot of photographing and playing around with it on my hand I dropped it on a leaf for more of its adventurous explorations with nature...

One of my snail pattern is here..

Coffee and Rains

Its raining outside...
I'm with a hot cup of coffee and some cookies sitting on the table.
The flowers are fresh but the smell of rain is much fresher..
Wanting to go to the window I want to stretch my hand and get myself touched... and get rejuvenated once again!

Very soon... Monsoon

Its been long I've painted a landscape...

Looking forward this monsoon to handle some green paint and canvas. Now-a-days the place of paints and canvas has taken by photoshop and the computer screen. I so wanna do some hands on painting stuff and get crazy over it! I really think that if I paint a landscape this season...its gonna have a lot of change in it!! Well... waiting for a chance to paint, to explore and experience...

Tessellated Imagery

The rains have begun. In Mumbai, not in Ahmedabad yet. Everyone in NID is craving for rains, I know, many posts on FB read such lines! so here are some snails...

... for a pre-rain experience

... some swans sailing on a silent lake

...with paperboats on roadsides of the oldcity

and the birds... post monsoon on the Thodd Lake.

Missing aapnu Amdavad!

Monsoon does not have deadlines

Everyone is eagerly waiting for the monsoon to mark its presence. But when? It has no deadlines! It can come whenever it feels like. It does not have to answer any questions for its late arrival and irregular performance. The complaints made to the Lord by his other creations do not make any difference. Predictions fail. Or are they never properly calculated? How does it matter? Some more craving and some more longing for that matter? Does the rain like getting so much of importance? I don’t know. I just know that it does not have deadlines and I do have.

In an interesting conversation today…

Boss: Aarti, 30^th June, sharp at 9.30 am, I want everything to be ready.

Me: Yes sir.

Boss: Have you seen the MRF ad in the news papers?

(Here I think that the boss is giving some design directions. But from ads, it’s kind of weird! Never has he done this before. May be its different this time!!?!)

Me: No sir.

Boss: You don’t read newspapers. How will you know what is going on in the world.

Me: (Now I am almost sure that it’s definitely about some design shots! :) )

Boss: MRF has these ads in the newspapers recently about the arrival of monsoon. The countdown begins, it says: days left 4, 3, 2, 1. And then the next day the ad shows that its been EXTENDED.

Me: ??!! (smiles): Yes sir. It will be done. (ho jayega!).

Boss (with a sarcastic smile): I do not want E-X-T-E-N-T-I-O-N-S.

Image credits: Abodh. From his blog http://strayingaround.blogspot.com

… and thus I google for these MRF ads. Internet again! I have to start reading newspapers, its good for health! Abodh says something about the MRF ads and monsoon on his blog here.

Good series of ads I guess. I'm not an advertising person though. I can just say that this ad made some relevance to me in some way. In a book (The Secret of Wizard of Ads) I had read: Not all good advertising results success and not all bad advertising means failure.

The Advent of Monsoon

Monsoon was fun and is fun in different ways..

Flipping through some of my erstwhile photography, I found this image and the memories of the four years of Marine drive were revitalized especially moments during the monsoon. Friends and fellows having had this experience will rightly understand what exactly I am trying to say in the unsaid words.

The above photograph explains the play of light a few minutes before the sunset along the Mumbai skyline.

A few years ago, monsoon for me was about landscape paintings with lots of difficult greens, then designing fun T-shirt prints for the monsoon trip with another set of colours and strokes on the canvas. This inclination towards brushes and colours was the influence of having artist friends all around. Now, the artist friends remain but the context has changed, the influences are still the same but the consequence is different. Though I miss painting a landscape in the fields, I do enjoy making textures and patterns with a pencil, paper, scanner and a computer.

Images: Left: Landscape painted at Badlapur (2005), Right: T-shirt print design (2005)

Images: Print/Pattern designs inspired from water (2008).

The process is a playground with play of brush strokes in the Van Gogh style, oil pastel renderings, doodling like the kids, some market visits and some art galleries, sometimes joining the dots and sometimes making the lines straight but all in a particular context and the context makes the design significant.

Awaiting this monsoon for some fresh inspirations and innovations...