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.