Vada Paav

The traditional breakfast in Maharashtra- India. It is definitely more of street food then your at the home variety. translated it is basically type of bread and potato sandwich but that is no description for this snack.
It is an Indian version of the hamburger sans the veggies. But it also has a fried potato patty, some spice and the bun. It also is a poor man's meal. Two of these can definitely fill the tummy up.
Ofcourse there exist many versions of this snack, which team it up with cheese and many other things.
The popularity of this snack has not diminished with the availability of other items. People are still faithful to the good ol' vada pav. Young and old both delight in this snack.
Below is a picture of a vada paav which has yet to be assembled.

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Some patience and some Ink

As I foray into the space of Ink painting, I am forever encouraged by my sweetheart with all the patience he has to try out more of the stuff. His encouraging comments, patient wait for me to finish my painting before we have our dinner. Helping me with the cooking so that I have time for painting are the few things that I am really grateful for.

So the following imitations, would be dedicated to his patience.

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The Charm of Short Stories

I think that as other forms of writing surface, the charm of a well written short story is slowly fading away. The main magic in a short story to me seemed the short span in which that author was able to craft the whole piece. This is no longer the case. These days the writer many times, takes longer spaces to actually describe and build up the tempo.
Even when these were filmed the short, one episodic stories telecast ed on the national television are still imprinted on the memory. The remake of the story of an old man, painting a leaf green to save one of the girls (artists) who were close to him and died of pneumonia himself; is very clear in my memory even though I have seen it nearly 15-20 years ago. These were the stories that warmed to the heart of the audience.
Impactful, moving, potent short stories are a rarity these days. But incase I am mistaken and anyone has a suggestion, please do no hesitate to correct me.

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Another fort

Yesterday we visited/trekked up another fort -Lohghad.
I was really curious/amazed/excited to see the indigenous raincoats fashioned out of cane and plastics.
They have this cane/wooden enclosure(used to make like baskets might have even used vines) which is covered with some plastics. I am sure it serves their purpose of planting rice/paddy more than the conventional rains. They have to go on working even if it is raining cats and dogs. They have to keep the planting going on.(That is something that I could verify only if I were caught in a rain in that raincoat.) But just so that you can also get a look at what I am talking about i post a picture.

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I can learn

I post one imitation and one original ink/watercolor and Ink turning to watercolor painting.

I think having a hobby can help in many ways. One of them is helping one to keep mind off unpleasant and unavoidable things. That is what it helped me to do yesterday!!!!
This turned to

the following one is an original and is still in process of more transformation

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Models?

A lot of things get adapted these days. The old designs are given a new twist and recycled. This one down here takes inspiration from the famous - DNA structure.
I had read the actual book by Watson. In reading that book I realized the painstaking thought process that had gone into this discovery. I mean it is one thing reading about the fact that this model was proposed by Watson and Crick. But another, actually stating the kind of effort, hypothesis generation and failures of other models proposed before this one that actually amazed me. It was a real eye opener though I have myself been a student in the line of science have indulged in this activity for some time. The importance of what actually went into the whole structure determination for this wonderful molecule, actually alludes the many students of science. Its importance and challenges are not clearly presented to the student and hence he cannot comprehend the kind of challenge this molecule actually posed to the scientist. We in todays world take it for granted. A child in 8th grade probably can easily imitate this structure and draw it without realizing any of the actual thought process that had gone into proposing this structure.
This Molecule inspired design in this shoe actually bought that to my notice.

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Ink

I wanted to try ink sketching since I can do it more regularly than the watercolor counterpart where I require a lot more time in the weekdays.
So I broke one of the nibs from a set of calligraphy nibs I bought. To replace that I tried I new nib which for some god forsaken reason does not work as good so then i went and bought a new pen. This also would not spout out ink for some great reason. I believe I was destined not to paint yesterday. So today i am going to go traditional and do a painting with the dip in the ink method. Will try to post it on here for whatever it is worth.


Yippy the dip pen actually worked for me. Finally something did. I will post it here as soon as i can capture it and upload it here.

This is something I have imitated from someone else's art to learn the whole technique.

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All about happy accidents

On sunday, we were all on our way to visit this fort in Pune (Sinhghad). What I know of it, it is reachable by vehicle and if one wishes,then by trek too. It has lots of eat goodies on the top. The top usually in this rainy season is in the clouds/fog. So much so that the last time we had gone up on top of the fort it was way too cloudy and I could not even see the fort. It was that misty.
So this time, planning for all the goodies to eat on top, we had kind of gone without lunch. Then we reached at a place in between where they were selling corn on cob. Since we were salivating at the thought of having roasted corn on cob at the top in that utterly divine cloudy place, we chose to ignored and proceeded ahead. We then got around to the road which actually starts to climb the hill and it was barricaded. When we inquired we found to our dismay that due to a major traffic issue the road was closed.
Now our plans to eat were out. So we made our way to another dam. On our way we found a way to another fort- Torna. Since none of us knew about it, had hardly heard about it, we decided it would be lot more fun than the boring ol' dam.
So we embarked on our mission to search Torna fort.
It was very deserted and no signs as such apart from a couple of random map boards.
We finally gave up any hope for finding any place to eat. But eventually we did find this small teeny weeny place and hogged on.
Then we trekked upto a waterfall and then started on our way back to avoid nightfall in that kind of an area.
Attached are the images of that place. It is difficult to believe that this place is so near to Pune.

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Nimbu Mirchi(lemon chilli)

I don't know the significance of the "evil eye" in other cultures but whatever scant insights that I do possess about cultures leads me to believe that in the eastern world more importance in ascribed to this particular aspect of life.
Evil eye basically I think stems from the emotion of jealousy. It is this particular feeling that actually is not welcomed openly in these cultures but still there are so called ritualistic ways around it or to prohibit it. In india, many people find, nimbu mirchi, it is a lemon and about 7 chilis strung on a wire with a small piece of coal that is hung at shops, on vehicles and all places to avoid the evil eye .

At times people hang different things, like coconuts, some other vegetable entities, some sacred threads, beads, articles. Most commonly also the door hangings. These will be very decorative pieces, also present as a welcoming gesture and partly believed to distract the evil eye.
I am sure anyone from a different culture would find it pretty amusing.
Most common across the length and the breadth though is lemon and chilli. I am sure in India one can find hundred and one uses of lemon!!!

I wonder if I could use any of these things while I gorge down sundaes and shakes and deliciously rich, moist decadent cakes!!!

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piggy bank

I just read about the history of piggy banks yesterday. Always used to wonder why they would be called piggy and be shaped like other animals (btw i love the ones shaped like elephants and ofcourse these cute rounded piggoos). I love to see them full and that is why wonder why they are opaque at times!!!
Anyhow so as the history goes;
in the 15th centur metal was expensive and housewives in england used dishes and pots made of economical clay called pygg(thats the root of the name) to save extra coins. They called this their pygg bank or piggy bank.


See just dig into the history and it would reveal the answers. for these kindof stuff, i like the "did you know" snippets. Wish I could find them on a site !!!

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What's in a name

Ever wonder where the people who name nail polishes get their inspirations from???
I for one am very curious. We all have come across some of these weird names. Some really offbeat like green wich village,20 candles on my cake,belize it or not... are the ones i am refering to. When i googled this search, I came across an excerpt which stated that car colors and nail polish names are taken from the current events and trends. Interesting to know the kind of work/research that goes on to name a color which at times has hardly to do with the colors.
Some colors are inspired with the food color they resemble. Like the choco, coffee, raspberry, cherry etc. Just like we have orange the fruit and orange the color!!!
Anyhow i wonder why, the people do not have a "Rain green". The greenery around is so intoxicating that it should have a term already to itself. Maybe I am misinformed and it actually exists!!
Anyone who has tried a hand on depicting greens/foliage in watercolor can realize how tough it is to really depict it. Of-course I am not mentioning the pro's here.

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