Early morning Sketching

Chappals :)

Date : 29/09/03

Medium : Pencil

Life Drawing

                                                                         Life Drawing

This is a new type of drawing which I have recently started learning. Initially it was difficult to look at the models and draw them but now with no apprehensions within, I feel proud and lucky to be able to express my vision through my drawings.

Its challenging for an artist but its equally challenging for the models to pose.

Medium : Ink

Date : 09th October 2013

Time : 15 mins

Medium : Ink

Date : 09th October 2013

Time : 15 mins

Date : 09th Oct 2013

Medium : Ink

Time : 20 mins

----------------------------------------------------------------

Time : 20 mins

Medium : Charcoal

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quick Sketches 

Medium Used : Pencil

Time : 3 - 10 mins.

 

-------------------------------------------------

Time : 15 mins

Medium : Soft Pastels on brown paper

                                            

---------------------------

Charcoal on Paper

Quit Smoking!

Help your friends to quit smoking by this simple activity - Hang them!

By smoking a cigarette, a smoker takes one step closer to the closure of his life. And he needs to realize this!

          Steps to be performed :

• Take a small piece of paper or a post it and draw the head on it.
• For every smoke, draw one body part of the hangman.
• Continue this activity until the hangman is completely drawn and write the date on it.
• Paste the post it at the location which is most visible to the smoker. For example : Cubicle, Fridge, Bathroom, TV, Car etc.
• Don't remove them. Keep adding to the collection to increase the guilt.

The basic intention is to show the future of the smoker in the hangman and make them feel guilty. The hangman develops step by step and is finally hung to death.

Quit Smoking!

Still Life Drawings

Life cannot be still. And neither emotions can. We keep changing and so do our thoughts. Still life objects are still but have life in it.  This is what I have tried to capture in my drawings.

Still Life : Cloth

Rugged Shoes

Sharp Contrast

Shoes

Woh Wala Blog

The other day I was watching one of the most dramatic serial of our television industry - CID. The frantic lady in the serial wanted to kill all the investigators of CID – in her own words “Main in sab CID WALO ko mar dena chahati thi”. She meant that she wanted to kill all the investigators of CID. Lady, its your wish. You are allowed to kill anybody in this world. But, what is this CID Wala? What does "wala" have to do here?

I guess it’s neither the fault of the dialogue writer nor the lady who spoke it. Wala is powerful and frequently used word in India. Wala is a suffix, which we meet frequently in our daily life. It has its plural form as Wale or Walo and singular as Wala. Wali is used to refer female and Wala for Male.  Husband is referred as Ghar-Wala and Wife as Ghar-Wali. It is not just a word but its a phenomenon in itself.  Lets call it as Wala Pheonomenon (WP). 

With its varied usages in various situations, there can be a dictionary of FUW. (Frequently Used Wala’s). 

Few examples are given below in bulletwala style.

• It is used to refer to a seller or vendor of something. For eg: Doodhwala (Milkman) , Autowala (Rider of an auto) Sabziwale (Vendor of Vegetables) Paperwala, (Seller of Newspaper) or the Six sigma standard Dabbawala from Mumbai. With this trend, the Engineers can be called as Computerwale and Doctors can be called as Medicinewala or Patientwala.
• Probably, wala is similar to Apostorphes in English. It is used to indicate ownership – that something belongs to someone. Dad's shirt would be Papa wali shirt. 
• Wala can be combined with the name of a town or a city to indicate the ownership of that city. For Example: Indore wala poha (Poha from Indore) or Jalandhar wale Chachaji (Chachaji from Jalandhar). The usage is so common that the correct usage is rarely ever heard. Better, but the boring way to say this could have been : Indore ka Poha or Jalandhar ke Chachaji. 
• It can be used to denote a profession. Policewale (Police) and kaamwali bai (Maid) are often used words. I have heard people say that "Policewale toh suntay hi nahi hain". (Police doesn't listen to people). Policewale should ideally mean that the police have the possession of police. But, how can Police possess Police? If I use my poor jokes wala brain, this reference can be possible if the Police officer wears a Police brand wala watch. This way, we can have many cops in our society ranging from Titanwala to Fossilwala.
• Wala can also be used to describe attributes of something. Chhotawala purse (Small purse) or Laalwala pen (Red Pen). People are often described using WP. Paisewala saab(Rich boss),  Goriwali maam (Fair lady) or Zyada bolne wali BuaJi (Talkative aunt). 
• Directions are often explained using WP. Leftwala turn lena, (Take left turn) Lastwali car (Last Car) in the parking, are few examples.  
• Bollywood movies and songs often use this WP to highlight the drama. There are few Bollywood movies like HimmatWala, Police wala Gunda, Jiggarwala, Kismatwala and Bade Dil Wala. Songs like kajra mohabbat wala, Aane wala pal jaane wala hain, Dilliwali girlfriend and Ishq wala love are few to name. (I wish I could send a message to the composer of Ishq wala love to suggest to have a better-meaning wala song from the next time.) Also, if you are not able to recall the name of a song or a movie you can say the Wala or Wali of the movie or the song to explain. Ex : Tom Cruise wali movie  or Katrina wala song. 
• This and That are the english translations for Yeh and Woh in hindi. This and That alone does not work. (Ismein apnapan kaha!!). Thus, “Yeh” is changed to “Yeh-Wala” and “Woh” is changed to “Woh-Wala”.

This context based word fits everywhere. We Indians are quite adjusting and it seems, our words are evolved in a similar way. Now, the next time you go to market, you can show a smile-wala-face when you say to your Sabzi wala “Bhaiya! Woh wali sabzi dena”.

To sell WP to the world :

WP brings closeness and adds emotional quotient to your life. Use yeh Wala word and get happiness in your life. Ting Ting Tiding. :)

The FUW list goes on..

doodhwala, dukanwala, paperwala, rightwala, leftwala, blackwala Purse, sabziwala, cyclewala, courierwala, gaswala, paanwala,  kalwali dress, pehlewala ghar, saamnewala dost, uparwali aunty,  autowala, Phone pe baat karne wale, chaaiwala, aisa karne wale, gharwaale, pata lagaanewale logo ko inaam, doodh peenewala baccha, ghaas katne wala aadmi, drawing wali teacher, ………

Please feel free to add to the list and comment on usage of wala in your life.

Gifting

One of my close friend used to call me as giftingideas.com. So I thought to share my perception of gifting. I am not here to share any gifts or gifting ideas in particular but I am here to share my feelings about how a perfect gift can be bought or created to convey your feelings. 

God has given us only one life. Yes this is Shahrukh khan’s dialogue. And I am a person who believes in this dialogue.  I believe in making moments special for myself and my loved ones. Now how do you make someone feel special? Simple. By expressing that he or she is special and Gifting is nothing but a form of Expression.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you have to gift someone? Don’t answer that because I already know, the question that comes is money and the answer is always a bottle of deo or perfume. But do you really want to gift a perfume? This doesn’t mean that perfume is a bad gift but is that the correct gift? 

You might be wondering that I am provoking you people to spend more money in order to get the correct gift. No, I am not.

Well, the mystery behind a perfect gift is never money but it is a message.

A Message that You want to convey.  

Some gifts communicate understanding, others intimacy. Some say ” I want you to cook more and enjoy your hobby”, others “You should look after yourself”. What gifts communicate is seldom attached to their price tag. Some of the gifts can be practically free for the giver but can say so much that they become immensely valuable. For example, an empty bottle of wine which you finished together remembering the old times or print out of the heavy bill paid by your friend with personal notes. These gifts are precious and would be cherished through out your life.

A very common line of thinking is - What does my friend want? Its common but alas it is flawed.  Rather the question that you should be asking to yourself is what do I want to say to the person? The problem is that we think about giving gifts as the exchange of physical objects whereas it is nothing but a form of communication. When you gift someone, what you are actually doing is speaking to him or her.

This line of thinking could help you come up with some slightly off beat gifts and they will be meaningful. One gift that I had given recently to my friend is a box full of clips and rubber bands. She has a habit of losing them very frequently and so I gifted her to convey the message that its ok to break or lose your clips daily.

 Gifts can be naughty or can be an emotional one. Never stick to a category because everything  in this world has its own charm. Now if your friend likes to sleep and is a fan of Kareena Kapoor, you can buy a pillow cover with her picture printed. The message conveyed would be that you want your friend to enjoy his sleep, sleep with Kareena :)

Now that we have learnt the art to choose the gift, let me give you some tips to be considered.

• Wrap it. The wrapping does count. You can tie it up with a ribbon, use some stickers, glitters if you can. Let the mystery and the surprise factor be alive till the time gift is revealed.
• Include a note or a card. No anonymity please. You can write nice and short and sweet message on the card in your own handwriting. Or write a poem if your friend is that special. It will make his/her day.
• As I said before, price of the gift does not matter at all. So please do not forget to remove the price tag until and unless your intention is to show off the price.
• Try to make the gift as much personalized as you can. Gift is given by you not by the gift store or gift company. You can personalize by writing or drawing or using some photos.

Keep expressing and keep gifting. And next time when you buy a gift, think of the message which you want to convey. Stay Happy :)