Bombay!

October 1st, 2012
I wake up being rocked from side to side, the heavy wind doing its best to help me up, the sweet smell of monsoon pushing me to sleep just a little longer. Startled by the horn of the speeding bus, I look out the window as fields of corn run backwards, but a flock of sheep on a distant hill slope graze fearlessly. A river touches the horizon and flows beyond. I see all this. But my lazy lens is still too sleepy.

After having traveled all night, my mind is hazy out of exhaustion. My body yearns for freshness and food. My destination is still hours away.

Finally, the travel has brought me from city to city, warm to hot, small to big, limited to the limitless, familiar to the unfamiliar, Bangalore to Bombay!


October 2nd, 2012

The morning sun gives me a constant buzz in the head. Its not a pleasant feeling, but it reminds me of  the previous night. Its the feeling when the oldest monk in the valley has blessed you with a mind of eternal sunshine. And that kicks ass.

Vada pavs also kick some morning hunger ass. Evening at the rocky beach side of Bandra kicks some restless agitation ass. Some Hard Rock in the Cafe, some funny stories at the Comedy Store, and random admiration of Worli brings exhaustion, satisfaction and sleep.


October 3rd, 2012

The city of O, exactly as described by Jeet Thayil in his Narcopolis, where legality of anything is merely  for the sake of filling up the rule books. Walking down one such street is only slightly relaxing. Anxiety envelopes your focus, nerves start to show their presence. It is time to take a taxi to the train station. 

Hail Leopold cafe and its mouth watering burgers and beverage! Satisfaction and pleasure have now been defined. Bullet holes on pillars and walls give the feeling of historic authenticity and a feeling of awareness. An experience to be remembered.

A little of searching high and low, a Wink of excitement at the Taj, euphoria and peace.

October 4th, 2012
Meeting old relatives is part of a journey. The morning and the night seems like de ja vu because Gary Lawyer feels like a long lost relative whom I have never known. 'The man with a golden voice'. Those words were put in that order only to define this genius. Catching up with Mustang Sally, wanting to Break Free and driving to the Roadhouse to have a real good time. Ecstasy!

A Frog croaked and turned Blue. Ten minutes inside its toxic belly turns the night upside down. The rain falls upwards, and the moon is on the ground. The fan starts spinning, and that is the only sound.


October 5th, 2012

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet! Sleeping in for more than half the day wasn't quite expected. Yet, packing up to say goodbye needs some will.

In Powai, aspects of classical architecture imbibed into modern sky scrapers make the residents feel rich, and the visitors, not so much. But beauty has no price tag. It reminds me of burgers somehow. So burgers.

Flightless bird, American mouth. The song lifts me higher and softer than the aircraft that I'm in. Clouds may cause a turbulent flight, but not when the song clears the mind.

And at last, walking out into the familiar sweet smell of the cool air, the low amount of humidity can only mean one thing. I'm back home. 

Bangalore!

The most amazing word ever!

I have never been so engrossed by the awesomeness of a word. A simple four letter word. I mean, its so simple and common that we don't really think about it. Its just too brilliant and underestimated.

Poop!

Its a palindrome. I love palindromes. poop poop. I wrote the first word straight, and the next one reverse! Could you have guessed that if I hadn't told you? I don't think so.

Do you remember, when your teacher at school asked you to give an example of a palindrome, what was your answer? I doubt that it would have been "poop". You would have thought long and hard to come up with something big and complicated, to impress everybody in the room, but poop, you didn't think about "poop".

Did you notice the use of the word? I used "poop" instead of "shit" or "crap", and it sounds so freaking brilliant, doesn't it? It just brings out the funny things in life. Here's an example. If you were to get into a verbal fight with a random guy on the street, and he's cursing away at every inch of you, what would you say?
What if you simply told him that you'll poop on him? He'd freak out. He'd be so offended and frustrated about all his extensive diatribe going to waste, that there's a high chance of him accepting defeat. And that, my friend, is freaking hilarious! You should try it sometime.

The whole world believes that food, clothing and shelter are the basic necessities of man. Why aren't toilets in the list? Even for a labour class worker, who's struggling to feed his family, a comfortable poop hole is very much essential. Imagine your state, if you hired a driver for your brand new Mercedes, and he didn't exactly have a happy-poopy morning. Or better yet, imagine that the men building you your dream house, didn't exactly use cement to lay bricks. Okay, that might be slightly out of practical sense, 'cause they obviously can not poop out half a house; but I'm just trying to give examples of how important poop is.

I want to walk into a jungle one day, and find a tribe who worship a lump of poop. Wouldn't that be insane? I would leave everything to join this tribe!
Well, we should have a 'world poop day' or an 'annual international poop festival'.

There are endless examples of the amazing qualities of this word. But I'm thinking the post already turned lame half a minute ago. So here's me, wishing you a happy-poopy day.

Poops away!

Legend of Kuekuatsheu

Do you know why the moon is so lonely? 

Because she had a lover once. His name was Kuekuatsheu. All the spirits lived in the world together. Every night, they would walk in the sky together panning over the great north; the northern lights.

But one spirit, the trickster, was jealous of the love that the moon and Kuekuatsheu held for one another. He wanted the moon only for himself. So he told Kuekuatsheu, that the Moon had asked for flowers. He told him to come to our world and pick some wild roses to illustrate his love. Kuekuatsheu saw this as a wonderful oppourtunity but there was one thing he did not know; once one leaves the spirit world, he can never return back.

This is why every night, he looks at the sky and sees the moon, he howl's her name but they can never touch again.

To this day the beasts of the earth still cry to the moon; baying out their sorrows to their love of whom is now intangible forever.

Three of my favourite sketches.

I made this using a charcoal based pencil that I found in reliance time out.
I just loved working on the hair!

The moon.

I just wanted to sketch something in negative. i.e., comprising more dark than light (more pencil than paper). I came up with this.

Mahathma Gandhi.
The Father of our Nation.
I sketched this when I was in Christ college for
October 2, 2006. It was put up on the notice board, but I never got it back.
This picture is the only remaining copy of it.

I couldn't scan them. These are the photographs that I took as soon as I finished them.

I've changed the brightness n contrast curve of these pictures for better clarity.

looking forward to see some comments!

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