Monkey See Monkey Do

Postcards

I had seen a website where this person was sending out artwork in the form of postcards to his/her friends. I thought it would be great to send stuff out and see how long it takes to get to places around India and the world. ( if it gets there!) Would you like to get one?  Please message me your address on FB. I'll let you know when I post it. You let me know when you receive it.

Ill pick them at random.  The ones below have been spoken for.  But that's what they would look like.

Piaggio Ape': Popular goods carrier.

Urban passenger taxi.  3 Wheeler. Ugly and polluting.

"Its been a long time..."

Bremen Hauptbahnoff.

"It's been a long time, now I'm coming back home.

I've been away now, oh, how I've been alone.

Wait till I come back to your side,

we'll forget the tears we cried."

Wait. Rubber Soul.  The Beatles.

Laziness and preoccupation with assorted stuff had resulted in the long five month gap.  I had been drawing however.  So have enough material to post!

"Where the mind is without fear..." R. Tagore.

The Alamo. San Antonio Tx. USA.

The drawing has nothing to do with the text below. I think I am flouting all rules of good blogging. I just cant abide by meaningful titles and related content.  I am a maverick. Populist anarchy rules.*

The Republic day of India is a grand spectacle. The largest democracy in the world celebrates the anniversary of its formation on the 26^th of January in the capital New Delhi.   India became a republic in 1950, three years after independence from Great Britain.

There is a parade along the beautiful Rajpath, lined with some of the most beautiful Government office buildings in the world.  The British architect, Edwin Lutyens had designed “New Delhi” in 1911 as the capital of British Imperial India.

The parade includes columns of the armed forces, floats with new weapon technologies, all followed by a colorful display of the diversity of people in India.  Civilian and military heroes are celebrated.   The range extends from a schoolgirl who rescued friends to soldiers dying in shootouts with Pakistani insurgents in Kashmir.

While everyone seems to enjoy this spectacle in the beginning of the year, some folks do have objections.  I for one, think that the colonial style horses and finery could be done without.   Same for the missiles and tanks.  Way too Socialist Eastern Bloc kind of muscle flexing.   The floats celebrating the culture of the Subcontinent are great. And the TV commentary could be a bit less flowery.   Much less flowery. “Let us now turn our adoring eyes upwards to the blue skies …”

* The President of India has asked citizenry not to indulge in "Populist Anarchy" this election year.

I have blocked my calendar!

Temple on Baner hill. Baner road, Pune.

I have been drawing but not posting.  Really. There was a lot of travel in the last four months and interspersed with holidays and lethargy I have not posted for a while.

Recently I have been focusing on watercolors and coloring in general.  I found myself describing my blog as drawings with watercolor coloring.  The medium of watercolors for painting is quite challenging.    One cannot correct mistakes and the rule of “Know what you have to do “just cannot be broken because once you have laid the paint down it’s almost impossible to change it.  So while it’s probably the cheapest and most accessible medium for beginners to painting it’s also the most unforgiving.

I plan on painting the Sahyadri mountain ranges, where I go trekking, as my skill level builds up.  They are incredibly beautiful and it would be great to capture that and reflect it in a simple but elegant watercolor.

You gets what you pays for, my dear.

Woman walking in Pashan, Pune.

Street side vendor

Push starting a three wheeled pickup. Pashan, Pune.

Woman climbing Sinhagad.  Sinhagad, Pune. Man on curb. Pune.

I finally got around  to purchasing a real sable brush.  They are expensive. Made from the hair of the Siberian Kolinsky Sable, ( a type of a weasel), this brush cost me 27 Euros( about 37 USD).  Size 8. A mid sized brush.  Good watercolor brushes are characterized by three things.  Firstly, their "Snap", ie the ability of the loaded brush to regain its pointed shape after applying paint to paper.  So if you dabbed paint on a spot , it should immediately go back to its pointed shape ready to apply paint precisely at another place.
Second, its "Belly".  The ability to hold water or paint so you can paint continuously without recharging it.    The fatter the belly while still holding a point is desirable.  Thirdly, "Point",the ability of the bristles to come to a needle point when you load up the brush with paint. You should be able to paint a hairline and with just some added pressure increase the width to about an inch ( on a Number 8 brush) and  on releasing the pressure spring back to the hairline.   A varied thickness of a brush stroke is very useful while painting.
My new brush does  this all exceptionally well.  I hope I don't screw  it up by being sloppy in its care.

All drawings above from memory.

Lucky Pig?

Pune Airport lounge.

Refuel stop. Bucharestu, Romania.

I recently remembered a person from a workshop on campus at Georgia Tech.  He was very good at fabricating metal components useful in our projects.  Big guy.  He used to have a pencil-thick scar across the width of his neck. He told me he got it in a knife fight in a bar.  I always half believed him.  He had a hobby. He used to collect statues and things shaped like hogs and pigs.  It was quite a fantastic collection.  Piggy banks. Mugs shaped like a hog.  Metal statues. Wild Georgia hogs.  Bristly, large with huge canines.   

The reason I remembered him was I recently bought a little “Lucky three legged Pig”.  Made from terracotta ( “Mud”).  Cute as hell.  From Chile. "Chanchito".

As large and old as India is, I have never come across anything that depicts pigs as lucky or cute and lovable.  One avatar of Vishnu is the “Varaha”. A wild boar.  Ferocious and terrible.   In general pigs are viewed as unclean animals, much like the middle east views them.  Both Judaism and Islam prohibit followers from eating pork.   I wonder what the Chinese think of them.  They are an important part of their cuisine.  Food for thought aye? 

Homer Simpson on pigs:

Lisa: “I’m going to become a vegetarian”

Homer: “Does that mean you’re not going to eat any pork?”

L:“Yes”

H: “Bacon?”

L: “Yes Dad”

H: “ Ham?”

L: “Dad all those meats come from the same animal”

H: “Right Lisa, some wonderful, magical animal!”

Half and half

Ganesh display off Sus road. Pashan, Pune.

This is a very large display that has been set up during the ongoing Ganesh Festival. It is a stage with a ten foot high Ganesh in front of a half football field sized ground. The orange stairs lead devotees onto the stage where they pay homage.

I had parked to draw it and this small machine shop made of corrugated tin was an interesting foredrop. The guy was building a cabinet with L angled mild steel beams. 

A summit experience

Panel Discussion

Featured speakers

Doom and gloom. Call from HQ?

Security guard and doorman

Not all panelists showed up.  

Concierge and waitress in the lobby

I was in Mumbai for a “Summit”.  I had been there last year as well. Here is the post from back then. Perhaps the best way to kick off a conference is not with a depressing story. The Emcee started off with:  ”One of our delegates told me today that he may not have his job when he gets back to work on Monday”.

 

Well, it was doom and gloom in the Learning and Development sector of Indian IT /IT ES.  I provided my support by drawing in my little notebook as serious discussions about “Investments in Imagination”, “Human Capital”, “Bharat and India: It’s not the same India for all!” etc . raged. OK, not quite “raged”.  More like diffident non-committal declarations upon persistent prodding by the panel leaders:

PL: “Come on <> you surely have an opinon”,

Panelist: “Yes, yes.”

PL: “You must say it!”

Panelist: “Yeah, I suppose…*mumble*”

PL: “There you go folks, <> will now tell us his experience from the helm of<< Name of a super multinational>>”  Hands the microphone firmly to the panelist.

Cornered Panelist: “It’s a demand and supply situation. When in doubt go to the basics. It’s not “One size” fits all.  The situation on the ground is always different and we must assess it before we make strategic commitments in this recession prone economy.”

Thrusts the hot potato microphone back at PL and gulps water. 

I did learn a new term.   Apparently, Indian youth suffer from a severe ‘Intent Deficit”.  Turns out, it means that they don’t know why the hell they are working.

It appears that corporations in India regularly ask their youthful employees if they know why they are working.  And their employees aren’t giving answers the corporations want to hear.

I couldn’t take it after that.  I had to duck out and laugh into the delicious orange & poppy cupcakes served with black coffee outside in the lobby. God bless our youth!

Dont speak...

Ambazari Lake Nagpur.

Cafe Coffe Day, Rajeev Chowk Metro Station, New Delhi.

...I know just what you're saying

So please stop explaining 

Don't tell me cause it hurts 

Don't speak 

I know what you're thinking 

I don't need your reasons 

Don't tell me cause it hurts."  No Doubt.

That song does not really describe my feelings about having to type stuff on this post. It's late and I have to go to Mumbai early ( wake up at 3:30 am).  This song came to me and I have posted it. Oh well.

Gwen. Only you know what I'm thinking. 

All my Gods have clay feet

Terminal 3 , Delhi International Airport

Lohegaon Airport, Pune.

Back from New Delhi/Guragon this morning.  All the talk in business is about the weakening Indian Rupee. Distressing but boring after the twentieth time.

This week has been stressful.  Lots of stuff happening.  This travel also added to it.

Paper Planes:  MIA

" I fly like paper get high like planes."

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

Shatabdi Express, Pune Secunderabad. August 25, 2013

Looking north, on a west- east bound train.

I went to Hyderabad (Secunderabad is a sister city) last weekend by train.  Left early Saturday, ran the full, 42.2 km Airtel 2013 Hyderabad marathon on Sunday morning and returned the same day.  Quite exhausting.  I did not do as well as I wanted.  I went too fast initially and had severe cramps in the 29th Km and had to walk/limp the rest of the 13 km to finish in 5 hours 39 minutes. But finished all the same.  The depressing split stats and ranking can be found here. Bib Number is 1289. Male. Category :Overall.

The lines and coloring on the drawing is shaky because of the rocking of the train.  The watercolor landscapes are glimpses of the freshly monsooned countryside sliding past.  Beautiful.

Fisher of souls

Ambazari Lake, Nagpur, India. August 18 2013.

I have  been fishing a few times. Caught a fish once.  I enjoyed the trip but not so much the flopping around  of the fish.  But then I did eat it later.  Oh well.
The one thing that stuck in my head from the instructions from my friend and boss who had taken us fishing was that don't fidget with the line once its cast.  Let the line sit and watch the float.  Patiently.  I am not very patient. I  moved the hook around if nothing happened after five minutes. Later I saw a kid amongst these fishermen catch a fish.  He did follow those rules. He cast the hook and then set the rod down by his side. Hugged his knees and squatted as he watched the float for any signs of bobbing. All of a sudden he grabbed the rod and reeled in a fish.  

Beginning our final descent

Lohogaon Airport, Pune.  Dighi Hills in the back.

I am a big fan of aviation.  It's an amazing engineering accomplishment and unfortunately it is now taken for granted.  Like metallurgy even.  I attended a wedding in Nagpur last weekend. An hour long flight in an Airbus 320.   I drew this charter taxing out with the Dighi Hills of Pune in the background.
'Check-list Manifesto" is a great book by Dr Atul Gawande.  He is a surgeon at Mass Gen (?).  He writes  about the importance of check-lists and learnt of their effective use especially in the aerospace industry. (Amongst other things.  For instance, he writes how the rock band Van Halen used them to manage the enormous logistics of their '80s concerts so their fans had a safe and satisfying experience. They used to include a line item like "Jelly bean bowl backstage with no purple beans".  If the bowl wasn't there they knew that perhaps the check-list wasn't being carefully followed.).
I mention this because of the high volume of flights being handled by airports in India all of sudden in the last five years. I often worry about safety standards.  I saw a ground crew member filling in a check-list mechanically in the gangway when I boarded my flight.  He was filling in a logbook and initialling every line item. En masse. One benefit of a check-list  is when we perform routine sequential actions. Its important to check off the action as soon as it is performed.   This reduces the possibility of  human error in remembering the action and the sequence. Obviously here he had done what he had to, and was now logging the actions afterwards.

Maybe I just worry too much.  He probably was checking off a list of beverages that were loaded.

Right there in black and white

Funeral procession.  Pashan. Pune.

Sugarcane juice stall. Baner, Pune.

Couple in rain, Baner-Sus Road. Pune 

I had planned to do this.  Draw scenes of life in the neighbourhood where I live, from memory, like a visual diary.  I drive a very short distance through Pashan village to my work place on Baner Road. I get to see a lot of village life everyday to and from work. The village is quite "villagey'.  Pashan sits amid all the boom in construction as urban Pune threatens to swallow it.  Kids run around barefoot.  Goats, chicken, and dogs roam freely. At the appointed bathing hour, a herd of water buffalo block my road to work as they lazily wander from the river to their dairy.  I take photographs sometimes but I really had hoped I would be able to draw from life that will very soon be gone. I have been teaching myself figurative drawing and other technical aspects.  Drawing from memory is a lot of fun but frustrating when you cant really construct the scene as you see it in your minds eye.  Hope you like them.

Short story: My father on his way to bed recalled a story from his childhood. He and some others in their childhood used to tease his mother ( "JiJi") that her father used to peddle hooch.  It so happened, the land her father had given on her marriage to my grandfather ( Dowry you think? Of course!) had a number of 'Mahua' trees.(Madhuca Longifolia) These trees bear a sweet and fragrant flower ( and a fruit) that is fermented to brew 'Country liquor'. Jiji's father used to auction off the flowers and fruits of the Mahua trees to manufacturers of country liquor. Hence the young scamps, my father included, would tease their matronly mother.  Well, I had to write it down.  So I did that here.

Pointing fingers at everyone

Off Laxmi Road, Pune

The Indian Parliaments House of Commons ( Loksabha) will come up for elections soon.    India is the worlds largest democracy. It also has a very diverse population. 16 odd official languages. 44 odd dialects.  At least five major religions. ( Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and Judaism.).  In the last fifteen years at least 5 additional states have been created from the original 24 (!?).

Multiple poliical parties exist.  The top two currently are the BJP and the Congress.  The current Govt Of India is ruled by a majority of the Congress party.  The Congress parties last five years have been marked primarily by huge corruption scandals.  The BJP, that used to be in power before, is ideologically linked to Hindu fundamentalists.  India will go to the polls soon.

So....I had an interesting visit by two middle aged ladies this Sunday afternoon.   They told me they were taking a public poll.  They mentioned a electoral roll.   Asked if I was a registered voter ( I am) and then asked me to answer questions about using the internet to cast my vote.   Turns out they work for  a marketing agency.  They then asked me some perfunctory questions about my internet use and inclination to use the internet for elections.  Rather cunningly, the questions then turned course towards asking me for my facebook ID, my email, inclination to get political information via email etc.  Of course I did not give them any details.  The next set of questions asked me to list "Political issues" based on my concerns.  eg. "Corruption", "Access to education" , "Infrastructure" etc. Then a variety of questions about religious preferences etc.  I bluntly told them I was done answering any more questions about my political views or religious.  They were quite nice  about it. They said they come to our neighbourhood often. Wished me and left.   Looks like Indian politics is learning fast from the west. And with resources to spare, as India gets more affluent, such relatively sophisticated means of getting information and selling it to political parties seem to be on  the rise.   

Born under a bad sign

Shop across from Tambdi Jogeshwari Ganesh Temple, AB Chowk ,Pune

This is in the old city of Pune. The stone pillar is a "Deep Stambh" or a Light Pillar.  Lamps would be lit in the curved arms along its height.  Made from native basalt rock probably 50-100 years ago, several remain around the city. I have drawn one in the past as well.   This is across from a famous Ganesh Temple in Appa Balwant Chowk. ABC.

It's a busy street corner as well. The old curved shop caught my eye as well.  So I squeezed into a cranny by the entrance to the temple and drew.  Several people stopped by on their way. Almost as usual, one person said something  that was strange and creepy.
The sketchbook I use is oblong. It opens lengthwise and its spine is on the short side.. I am right handed so I prefer to rest the right half on a flat surface and draw.  The long left half is propped up on my left and doesn't get in the way.  Basically, I always draw on the right half. And stingy that I am, I use every damn page including ones facing each other.  That means I rotate the book so that  I always draw on the right half of the book. Makes sense? Probably not. In any case, it turns out that if you open the sketchbook the  drawing on the left is upside down and on the right half is right way up.
Long story short, according to this concerned nutcase citizen of Pune this is not a good thing.  NEVER WRITE OR DRAW ON FACING PAGES UPSIDE DOWN! This was explained to me in a creepy way that was half pitying me in tone and half coaxing like you would coax the  devil to leave the possessed.  The man asked me to reconsider the way I drew.  Sleep on it. He said.  Ponder what I was doing in a quiet moment of meditation. All this in Marathi, the local language. Low tones. Six inches from my face. He left saying that all he could do was suggest the right path.  My life was mine. But bad luck was everyones (!).  He was only working in his "Circle of influence" ( RIP Steven Covey!).  Lot of head wagging.
After he left, I thought up many many smart and witty retorts. My fantasy ended with me changing his life with the debunking of many superstitions that cloud the minds of his kind in this post medieval part of Pune.  But in real life I was squirming and getting really pissed off. Jackass. 

Fire ants in my sandals

Bottle of water and a bag for the pilgrimage

All the women seem to carry their bags on top of their head

He is playing brass cymbals, chanting as he walks barefoot

Flag bearer of his group( possibly all from one village)

Today, while clearing out some undergrowth in a garden, I stepped on a nest of red fire ants.  They really sting. I had forgotten how it felt.  They really put their heart into it when they bite with their pincers.  Their heads separated from their bodies when I tried to get them off.

I have drawn these from reference photographs I took of a pilgrimage that passes through my city of Pune. About 200,000 people walking in a procession.  It usually occurs around end of June/ mid July. Its a particular day of the Hindu Lunar Calendar.
These people belong to a sect called the "Varkaris".  They have a simple belief removed from the orthodoxy of Hinduism and follow the teachings of two main saints of the Bhakti movement( Bhakti = Devotion/faith Vs. rituals and formalized religion), Tukaram and Dhyaneshwar ( pronounced Nya- neshwar :)).

Wikipedia has some more on this movement.

They are predominantly rural people.  I was thinking of drawing people and these are unique and interesting visually.  I have referenced my own photos.  I'll possibly do some groups as well since this pilgrimage is known by its large numbers of people walking hundreds of miles together.
Here are two photographs to show you the scale of the people moving.  This is at an intersection where I took some pictures as they passed.  This procession took about 6 hours to go by.

The Varkaris going past spectators

One group that paused to ease congestion downstream

Its a pale resemblance

From Baner Hill, Looking west.

Biodiversity park. Reforestation planting on Baner hillside. Looking south.

Looking north on Baner Hill

Two things drawing and painting from nature will do for you.

Firstly, instil a sense of humility about nature and hopefully admiration. All the High Dynamic Range processed digital images, graphics, 3D movies, computer games, all pale in comparison.  I cant bring myself to write about it as it seems so silly and obvious and slightly embarrassing. But I am sure there are people who need this reminder. Go stare at a sunset and accompanying skies.  Or an insect in your garden. It's always amazing.

Secondly, it creates an appreciation of the difficulty of drawing and painting from nature.( All representations for that matter, including photography).
As it is, it is hard to do watercolors.  The golden rule, that all great watercolorists follow and excel at, is knowing what to do. With that one brush stroke, lay down a color or shape a form or cast that shadow or perhaps do them all at once! And then to be done with it. No pecking around and fidgeting.  No "do overs".
And its even harder and impossible to capture things you see in nature.  But its always worth the effort however terrible your results may seem. You will LOOK, for once, and see stuff you otherwise miss.

You must attempt it in your life.

Waiting

Kera, a very tiny restaurant that specializes in food from the state of Kerala in India.  Fish Thali.

Linger On, a multi cuisine restaurant.  Lemon grass cooler and pasta lunch.

Tsai Shen Yen, Hong Kong Chinese restaurant. Rice and noodles. Veg Wontons. Coriander soup.

I spend time waiting in restaurants.  Waiting for food to be served, friends, take away...  Then, if no one is watching I draw.

Cardamom tea in tiny glasses

Amrutalya tea shop. Dandekar Bridge , Pune

Amrutalya tea shops are an old institution in Pune.  They are small shops that serve tea in tiny glasses like the one next to my pen and notebook.  The tea is milky, sweet and cardamom flavored. The tea is brewed every hour or so depending on the customers. For a quick sip, they also offer a "cutting chai".  It's half of that tiny glass. It was a slow afternoon.  The owner was sitting and staring out into the street.  Laid back fellow.  Cheerful. He saw me drawing. After a bit he sang a Hindi song from an old movie, " Yeh kaun chitrakar hai?..."("Who is this artist?")  The lyrics describe the musing of a farmer as he surveys the glories of nature and rhetorically wonders about the artist( presumably the Good Lord) that rendered them.  This guy just loved singing that lyric over and over.  And then he would grin at me and go back to staring at the road smiling to himself pleased about remembering the song with a reference to an artist.  I grinned back and kept drawing.

I drank three glasses. He crushed the cardamom for his brew in the brass pestle and mortar on the upper shelf.  The brass teapot and the stainless steel milk urn are typical.  When the place is full of customers he sits crosslegged on the brown seat on the platform. The drawer is where he stashes his money and makes change.  He asked me to come back.