Drawing Challenge - Day 4 - Favourite Place

The one thing that this drawing challenge has started teaching me is that the lack of drawing skills can help me reach narrower, truer and crisp answers to questions.

So today's challenge was my favourite place. After a quick gush of Goa, Connoor, Sikkim... within the first few seconds of reading the challenge, I was most certain which is my favourite place in the whole wide world--My Home!!!

But well, how is one to draw one's home?!

I remember back as a kid I had taken up a few drawing classes and the teacher had taught me how rooms are drawn... narrower at the distance and broader at the closer end! But well, I was unable to draw even one, even once!

So then I got thinking, what is the place in the home that I love the most (and which I might be able to draw some how, in some shape and form!)... And well, it had to be our bed! :)

After sleeping on the floor in Mumbai for months, and on landlords' bed for another few months, and coming back to the floor for a few more weeks in Bangalore... Punit & I bought this bed. It was HUGE money for us back then and we settled for the most kifaayati option we could get (without compromising on my wish of a fluffy eight-inch mattress!).

The most masti time is spent on this piece of furniture, and the most relaxed time too. Every morning, we sit for hours cuddled up in the bed, reading newspapers, checking our emails, reading books, working, sipping on tea, etc! The most precious moments of my days!

I could be sleeping in a five star hotel in the most luxurious bed... but there's no place like our own old-wood-look bed!

Straight from the heart of a maha lazy soul.... I LOWE you my bed, you're my favourite place in the world! Mwah! :)

Drawing Challenge - Day 3 - Favourite Food

Well, if you saw me, you'd believe I'm a foodie. But the fact is that there's been a guilt attached to food for decades, which makes food one of my less favourite things!
However, the taste buds do crave for certain things, and the most I crave for is the yummy dry pasta called Aglio Olio.

So shameful has my craving for Aglio Olio been that I've been ordering it everywhere at every dinner and every meal I've eaten out in months, or maybe a couple of years!

The yummy olive oil, the parmesan, the spaghetti, the chicken, the seasoning... Just so perfect! Yummy!

All pasta lovers MUST TRY this one on my recommendation. It's just so much better than the white sauce or the tomato base that kind of kills the natural flavour of the spaghetti and make the pasta either too heavy or too pungent!

Drawing challenge - Day 2 - Favourite animal

Today's challenge, though drawing-wise easier, is hard because I am supposed to drive my favourite animal! The challenge is that I don't have any favourite animals... I am scared, petrified and put off by all animals!

I have never really understood why people drool over dogs and go 'awww, baby, cutie' over pets. In fact, I have often argued with friends that dogs should be called 'it' and not 'he'!!! Nothing against anyone, I like the fact that people love pets so much, but well I don't!

May be I should blame it to the fact that we never had pets at home while growing up. In fact, pets were considered a TABOO! Even talking about getting one was considered a taboo, because our grandparents didn't want any barking or meowing around their peaceful daily routines.

That is perhaps the reason why despite wanting to have a pet during my lonely days in Bombay, I could never bring myself to get one!

However, after thinking all day long, I concluded that there is one sort of animal that I have sometimes gone all .... Ooohhh... about.

Sorry if this does not qualify as an 'animal' to some, but well, I always wish I have one of these. It's stylish and so personal. So my favourite animal is... a Poodle! :)

Poodles and lapdogs are such fancy little beings, who look unlike anything that can bite me! Hence, my lowe for poodly-poos! :)

Drawing challenge - Day 1 - Yourself

When I started reading out to the husband what I will have to draw under this challenge, he made an 'OMG' sound at the first day challenge itself! Of course, it is quite a task when someone asks a non-artist to 'draw yourself'!

This is like double-insult happening here... (a) I cannot draw, (b) I have to draw myself with my poor drawing abilities.

But whatever... here is what I drew myself as...

How can one describe one's own appearance? There are so many things I perpetually complain about in the  way I look; BUT I don't hate myself! So here is an honest drawing of me, by myself.

I have a big round face, something that I have had a problem with always! It's something I can never stop thinking about, so the first thing I started out with was an O in the middle of the page, a BIG ROUND!

Hair was the hardest thing to draw! I mean, I have no particular hair-style that I can pen down! It's just one big pile of wild grass, growing in all directions and thinning by the hour. But I love how I drew my 'step cut' to appear so beautifully... Since childhood I had my mother go to a salon and ask the dresser to do me a 'step cut'... This is how it looks! hehehe

I have not missed out of capturing my sparkling and new nose-piercing... I waited three decades before doing it finally, and well, it shines bright each time I see myself in the mirror! *blush blush*.

If you look closely, there is also the mole on my left cheek that I have drawn there... that's something that I get from my maternal family. My mom, naani, massis, mama's daughter... we all have it! (Our kumbh ke mele mein bicharne ka backup plan!)

While there's not much to describe about my obese body, I chose to draw what I mean from within... A BIG HEART! I love to love people, share warmth, receive love and warmth, and hold no bars when I need to show my affection! There's SO MUCH love I have that I want to give to one and all! Sharing love and warmth is what I consider my motive in life is! Try me sometime, if you doubt!

The keyboard (which my office-friend thought was a remote control) depicts what I do for most part of my day... Being a journalist involves insane amount of typing... insane!

The two bubbles -- what I say most often is "Puniiiii.. I love you noooo" and what I am thinking all the time are vacation plans and hills and the ocean and sunsets and sunrises!

'The thing on the right bottom", as the husband described it, is my bag... forever overflowing! It's a pretty burgundy colour Allen Solly that lives with me day and night, and despite its HUGE size, the earphones and phone charger and my diary just keep flowing out all the bleddy time!

A lot in this picture depicts what is the most important part of me, what makes me who I am and what I wear with pride and honour--My love for the man in my life. The vermilion (which is black here, since it is a pencil sketch), the mangalsutra that I never part with and my shiny solitaire ring & eternity band (I tried making it, but, ugh!). I love being married, and I think it's the best thing to have happened to me ever... I love knowing and remembering it each day, and I love showing it off!

So that's all with the fancy-elaborate discussion about my shabby sketch! hehehe

Until tomorrow's drawing...

(Note: I shall only used waste paper, one side used, etc, for this challenge. I hate wasting paper!)

3... 2... 1... My 30 Day Drawing Challenge :)

It has been several months since I started planning a Do It Yourself challenge, but alas, I have had no success with its execution. It is quite difficult to commit to anything between my uncertain schedule (and laziness)!

So I decided that while that plan is still on hold, I shall take up a blogging-challenge, and add some fun to my days and to this blog. After browsing through several webpages and many-many ideas, I have chosen the '30 Day Drawing Challenge'!!!

*Drum Rolls*

So under the challenge, I have to draw 30 things--one for each day, as per the chart in the pic below (which was taken from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/30540103694984720/). (I shall also try putting it on the header of the blog for 30 days, to remind me of what it is that I have to draw when.)

My drawing is nothing to talk much about, and well, I am REALLY apprehensive about how I will draw things... But well, I really don't care! I just want to have some fun!

Here are the series in which my obnoxious drawings will follow:

Ode to the wallet-thief

If I was asked to prove my identity or nationality or even existence today... I would fail to do so! Ask me why?

Well, last week, I managed to lose my wallet, which along with Rs 900 of freshly withdrawn currency notes, had my drivers' license, my PAN card, my voter's ID, my office ID and my press card! I knowwww... miserable!

The strange bit is that unlike the several times earlier when I have managed to lose my wallets (and mobile phones), this is the first time when I clearly remember bringing it home... from where it seems to have vanished! I have hunted through the house, turned every cushion and emptied every drawer, but alas!

While I have sort of recovered from the loss and started re-applying for the IDs (which will take me a while now, thanks to Indian administrative systems), I have been wrestling with the thoughts of my trusted home-staff having done this act! The staff at home includes my very loyal cook (who is also the security guard of my building) and a maid (who is always silent, fairly new, but a relative of the cook-cum-security guy, and who looks pretty honest).

I have re-constructed the events of that bloody evening over and over, and then wondered how? where? when? did I manage to throw my precious belonging, and I am almost certain that I never dropped it anywhere! It did come in to the house. And then it disappeared!

During the past few days, there are phases when I get SO furious, I want to sack both the workers at home and get in new people. But then, may be, I am piling the burden of my mistake on them!

While I continue to deal with this situation, I really wish well for the one who has stolen/picked it up. I hope my wish reaches that person who is causing me so much pain and trouble, and some sanity gets drilled into his/her head to never repeat such a crime (or at least put my cards in one envelop and send them to my address, at the least). I wish social networks were strong enough to reach each and every individual in the world, so that this person could read this post and may be consider sending me back my IDs!

Just as angry I am at this person, I hope it never happens to him/her... And of course, I hope he/she has a fair answer to offer to the Powers when he/she is faced with his/her deeds after death.

The 'nothing emotion'

While human being is considered to be one of the most illustrious creation of God (or whoever made the world, etc), to me, there is one thing in particular that appears to be a wonder in its true form. Of course, it's beautiful how humans have skin to save them from physical pain and it's intriguing how the tongue is in place to speak and hands are in place to type, etc etc... it's in fact the emotions or feelings, whatever one may chose to call it, that intrigues me beyond imagination.

It's like the most complex thing ever, because you can have infinite emotions at the same time and at others, you may not have even one. Also, sometimes you (or some people)  can portray or share a gazzilion emotions with just about strangers, and at others you hold back the most obvious emotions from your closest person.

I wonder how that wiring between the head and heart would have worked, because... well... it's just so complex!

Remember that one night, long ago, when a boyfriend had first admitted he loved you? It felt like the best time in your whole life and a 'happily ever after' just in the making... But didn't you at that point also feel the emotion of 'oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?' and the obvious 'what if dad gets to know what I am thinking about?'... of course these were all thoughts, but each one enthused a new emotions... of love, of happiness, of fear and uncertainty and so many other things.

It's strange actually how we use and abuse our emotions without so much as caring to understand--what is the emotion I am feeling right now?

Most of the people my age (includes me very much) spend a huge chunk of the day feeling 'nothing', which we assume means feeling 'bored'. Over the past few days, I have come to realise how much I can cherish these moments of the 'nothing emotion', because well, it's such a relief to my senses. (Although, mostly this nothing-emotion happens when I am trying to procrastinate what I should be feeling at that time.)

We live such mad lives where we don't even have visibility of what we would be doing a couple of hours later. When we wake up in the morning, we have no idea how the day is going to end. Every few hours, work keeps evolving, along with which, feelings keep changing. And between all of this mentally, physically and emotionally tiring madness... Imagine that bit of the day when you are 'bored' (which actually is the period of the 'nothing emotion' to me) you let the senses relax and wander, however they want to.. without any pressure of performance to meet the social expectations of which emotions should show when and in what amount.