Saturday, December 24, 2011

Things to do with Eggplant

Influenced by Home Cooking, and the chapter, "Alone in the kitchen with an eggplant", I have started interacting more and more with brinjals. And yes, it is one of the most versatile vegetables ever! (Beaten only by the potato,  perhaps).

So here, have a collage about aubergines.


Monday, December 19, 2011

Typography

So I have a bunch of comics, just haven't uploaded them yet. But since today morning, I have been kinda fascinated on typography. Of course, like most things I love, I suck it at it. But then, you can't always have the one(or many) you love, can you?
And I quote, if life gives you a love of words and graphic design, make typography.
I am so full of home truths today.
 


from here


go here  

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Daily workout


When you take public transport to work everyday, you can skip the gym, and still remain fit :)

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Guide to Small Talk


Hello hello, posting a comic after a really long time. This is another of my wedding-knowledge-documentation, here is a handy cheat-sheet for small talk. Knowing how to make small talk is a very essential skill to get through large  functions, and gatherings, where you don't know all that many people. Over the years, I have managed to acquire a decent amount of this skill.

Want more enlightment?

Thursday, October 20, 2011

two ladies

some doodles. one is a fisherwoman, and another a girl with blue hair.


Saturday, October 1, 2011

Sari-draping for dummies



 

I am trying to document all the knowledge I gained during the process of getting married. One of the crucial learnings was how to sucessfully drape and be comfortable in saris. Sari-draping is a complex process, and you can only improve with practice. I say this from personal experience. And here's a shout out to my ex-colleagues R. here who inspired me to wear saris to office :) and Nabs for all the styling tips.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Taking the bus in Bangalore

(image source: The Hindu)
Some cons:

1) all buses are full. if you think the next bus will be less full, you are wrong. they are ALL full.

2) traffic starts, and then stops. then it starts again but then (oh no) it stops.

3) it takes 2.5 hours to cover 10 kms. you do the math.

4) the conductor wants to push towards the front of the bus after every single stop.

5) If you don't have the exact money for the fare, you will rarely if ever get back change.


Some pros:

1) people hold conversations around you and you are free to eavesdrop. nobody cares.

2) there's a separate women's section and men's section in the bus. so no gropers/eve-teasers/pinchers will be entertained.

3) women who are sitting will offer to hold your heavy bags. which is super nice of them.

4) the weather is awesome, so you are not stinky and sweating by the end of your commute

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Women of Bollywood

Has anybody seen 'Dil To Pagal Hai'? 
Relax, thats a rhetorical question. OF COURSE, everyone has.
I saw the movie almost 14 years ago and yet, I clearly remember this dialogue:
Raj (played by Shahrukh Khan) is dreaming about his perfect muse,
"Uska naam hai...XYZ.." (Her name is..XYZ)
One of his dance troupe asks, "Lekin yeh XYZ karti kya hai?"(What does this girl do?)
"Sapne dekhti hai." (She dreams)

I remember being very annoyed. Is that it? She dreams?Thats, like, her job? And dances on verdant lawns wearing spotless chiffon dresses?

Bollywood has never been known for its deep characters; but its biggest crime is stereotyping women. It is very rare that any of the leading female characters actually has a job or a career, the maximum that they can do is...fashion designer. 

Lately there has been a spate of movies where the lead female character is; perky, bubbly, empty-headed, quite hot and yet, pure. Classic examples; Kira(played by Priyanka Chopra) in 'Anjaana Anjaani', 'Ayesha' (played by Sonam Kapoor) in Ayesha, Tanu in 'Tanu Weds Manu', Geet in 'Jab We Met'...

To review one movie: I actually started off liking Anjaana Anjaani, I gave full marks to the director to actually put in a character like Kira who was an alcoholic, suicidal, and co-dependent. But as the movie progressed, Kira became more and more annoying. All her problems in life were due to the oldest, most clichéd situation; being dumped by her fiance.  And Akaash(played by Ranbir Kapoor) only needed to meet a girl who was bubbly (yet depressed and needed his shoulder to cry on), did things on the spur of the moment(yaaay, lets go ice-skating in winter), and yet, YET had an air of mystery (the reason for her depression was not revealed for an excruciatingly LONG time). So it turns out that Kira, who was irresponsible, immature, untidy, disorganised and of dubious job-history, was still attractive to Akaash. Akaash on the other hand, is well-educated, has the balls to start his own business, has a bunch of friends who genuinely care for him. And yet...somehow, Kira and Akaash end up together. What's the message out here?

Bollywood shapes a lot of perceptions out there, and is this really the impression we want to make? Of women being decorative dolls? Most the women I know are educated, with good careers, and yet thoughtful, put-together, well-read, and interesting. If movies reflect life, why aren't there more movies which show women to actually have a personality of their own?

Hollywood actually has a term for shallow women whose sole purpose in life is to look pretty, act ridiculous and live on someone else's kindness: the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. As I read the article, I realized that this phenomenon is not restricted to Hollywood. Bollywood has its share of MPDGs too. And its gotta stop, seriously.

(Note: This article/rant has been inspired by this one.)

Monday, August 22, 2011

Roti-making for the dummies



I recently have managed to make rotis, so here are my handy hints for all you roti-making amateurs out there.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Another shoe-comic






My love for good shoes is well-known, though I am not exactly Carrie Bradshaw.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Monday, August 8, 2011

Comics I like

These are some of the comics I have been reading recently.

Meh Comics This is a journal comic of a Chinese origin Dutch girl living in Germany and working for Nintendo. I love her sense of humour, and her quirky observations, and most of all, her experiments with cooking! ;-)

Stop Paying Attention Superbly talented comic artist, even has a book out called "French Milk". She publishes like, once a month, but awesome and detailed drawings.

Invade Everything Two best friends, one a comedian, the other an illustrator create these comics. They are a treat to read; ironic, and funny and somewhat poignant.

Stuff No One Told you About I have just started reading this comic. I really like the drawing style and the "stuff" he tells you.

Pigs in Maputo An animal comic, its about a marriage between a pig and a bear. Witty and observant.

Kevin and Kell Written by a husband-wife team this is apparently one of the oldest webcomics. It has over 4000 strips online! Do check it out, its quite cool.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Portraits without faces

So here's the deal, I suck at drawing faces. Ergo, making potraits was never my forte. But I am good at something else, observing the quirks in a person.

I was working with some awesome people on a project, when one of them goes, "hey maybe you can make a drawing of us all together."

So this is the first concept sketch I made,


And everyone thought it was really nice. So I went ahead and made another drawing.


Its still unfinished but I am quite happy with the result. I have managed to create portraits without actually drawing any facial features.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Touristy stuff

I visited the National Gallery of Modern Art(on Palace Road, Bangalore), twice in the last two weeks. One time I went with my younger brother where we spent time staring at the paintings and not understanding them and generally being Philistines(and also regrettably making fun of some of the more vague ones).

the second time with my sis-in-law who is more artistic than us, I maintained a respectful silence and tried to look at "art" with fresh eyes. I also made some doodles during this time.



Click to enlarge, and read. Have you been to a National Gallery? How did you like it?

What I have heard about Bangalore



Some of this is true, some I am still finding out.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

happily married

married
(photo credits: Arindam)


though it is still difficult to comprehend for me, i am a married woman now! marriages are big and chaotic, and exhausting! there is so much to do; socialising, dressing up, eating, and feeling big pockets of strange feelings which are hard to define.
i have moved to banglore now, and trying to set up house and learn some basic cooking...

Saturday, June 11, 2011

the consequences of my cooking


since last year, i have discovered a new found love for cooking. though i don't get to do much of it at home (our kitchen is dominated by my mum and my grandma), i guess i will have some more time to experiment once i get married.
also this is a rather lame way of telling you, dear blog, that i am getting married. to a boy. who is based in Bangalore.But don't worry, bloggy dear, nothing's gonna change between us. I still feel the same way about you.
one more comic i made a long while ago. this is a little more girly than usual.



Wednesday, June 8, 2011

love at a tender age

I was idly channel-surfing, when i caught a snippet of the movie Rok Sako To Rok Lo. It involved a scene where the hero and the girl he is trying to 'woo' are french-kissing.
My first thought was "WTF? What school is this based on?"
Ok, I went to an ultra-conservative school in a super-conservative city. But seriously do schools in films exist in real-life? If not what are all these movies based on?
I really want to know!
And while we are at it, lets also talk about uniforms. Were the uniforms in your school THAT sexy?

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Beware the cook


in my childhood, me and my friends were great fans of 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S' , so much so that we would quote dialogues to each other. After a while it felt as if Ross, Rachel, Joey, Monica, Phoebe, and Chandler were actually our real-life friends.

Isn't there is an episode where Rachel tries to cook a shepherd's pie and ends up mixing up two recipes, so she makes half an english pudding and half a shepherd's pie? I guess this was similar.

Except here, i nearly cooked half a methi moong dal and half an achaari paneer.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

All About Laden

This blog post has come about because I am precisely the sort of person who has an opinion about everything (even things that concern me not :) )
I loved the DNA headline, and I cut it up to make this collage.


Now I am waiting for Kasab to hang.

Monday, April 25, 2011

beauty gunk

i don't really like going to beauty parlours, mainly because most beauticians have something or the other to say about 1) my skin 2) my hair. However, i did undergo a facial recently. and here is a sketch to commemorate that occasion.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

about a little girl



i met 3-yr-old Anou with her parents in singapore, and she reminded me of an old-fashioned childhood in a by-gone era. i hope she remains this sweet and unaffected even when she grows up.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

World Cup

So, it seems that we won the world cup. I am not excited about cricket, but I really like how the country comes together to 'celebrate' the game!

Holi

Holi was the official start to Summer.. Not that Pune ever gets that cold! People lit little fires on open grounds, and sides of the road to 'drive away the winter'. The moon was gorgeous, like a large beautiful pearl. I was moon-struck :)


Summer begins

Its been seriously getting warm in the city. Though realistically, since i spend most of my day in an AC environment, the outside weather does not affect me as badly. but its still an excuse to bring out my summer clothes.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Iskool

A few months ago, i made some illustrations for some friends' reports. Unfortunately they could not use it, but i was still quite happy with the results .
these were made for a report for an NGO.







Sunday, March 13, 2011

singapore sketches

in December i went on a small tour of Singapore-Malaysia. while i anticipated long hours where i could sketch to my heart's content, there was so much 'site-seeing' to do, that i could barely sketch.
here are a few pages i made.


i have been having busy weeks at work, so not been posting. but now that things are back to normal, i am going to try and post more.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Valentine's day

R. took this photo, after we had finished a photo-shoot of her. The arms and torso and the giant grey shirt belong to me, the red furry heart shaped pillow belongs to R.