My Thoughts Keyboarded

Its feels like years since I blogged, and words are failing me now. I guess the reason is not just "two semster so I am busy" saga but the fact that I found a new medium to express myself.  Every artist goes through this stage, where he feels shy to show his work, or rather worried about being criticised. Its like showing yourself out, a part of you, that might feel personal and sacred to you.  I was dozing off in this cucoon period and thats the reason I did not share any of my work until now.  But I guess the time has come and at the end of the day an artist has to go public.   So here it is my latest project, for all those who kept asking me whats cooking. I am hoping to share more of my work henceforth. Just go easy on me with your comments ;) Brief: Wall painting in "Gond" art style. Medium: Acrylic color with water. Part of my tree. You may click to enlarge. Snake and Badadev - tree , is very significant in Gond Art. Gon...

I didnt believe in ZEN Meditation , until recently.I was working on a illustration and the whole day went in a flash. I forgot where I was, what I did and whether I was breathing air. It was a lovely feeling, have u ever felt that ? Srivats

Have just realised the worst feeling of all is not fulfilling the commitment you made to friends.  I am yet to find sometime to finish the story I started, Gosh feel like stupid moron now! I am doing two semesters together in the college, so multiply assignments, excercises, classes and projects by 2 and you would get a idea of where I am right now ;P But I am enjoying it. I have learnt that there aexists a different kind of love, It has nothing to do with loving another human , its about what you love to do , its so powerful that it will consumes you till the last drop of your blood, thats your destiny, thats your passion and thats what you are here for. I have cut my hair short so I dont need to comb it everyday LOL, A tshirt and jeans and I am off to college. I also realised why artists dont look good.  For their beauty lies in thier designs and they give up theirs to make the work look best ;P  Ok I am all exhausted and going into phi...

While I was sitting in the train by the window, a goods train passed by. For few minutes I saw chopped images of the field on the other side. When I concentrated on the compartments I couldnt see the green field. And when I concentrated on the field I couldnt see the compartments that passed. I guess thats life, focussing on the things we want and ignoring the others. Srivats p.s: I am back and i promise to write regularly.  Before that lemme cath up with ur posts first ;)

Apologies for not catching up with you all. I have joined the college in Bangalore for Advertising and Graphic design, and have taken the fast track. This means I would be doing two semesters together. I am attending classes with second semester students and also doing first semester assignment works. Its exhausting but I am loving every bit of it. Let me re align my world and I promise to return to you all as soon as possible, until then take care :) Srivats

To read the curtain raiser click here “You are pregnant” said Marsha “Excuse me?” replied Malini “I said you are pregnant” She felt the energy of the new life emanating from Malini. Malini suddenly felt dizzy, she looked around for a chair to sit, but started falling before she could take the next step. Marsha caught her just in time. Malini opened her eyes when she felt the moist hands of Marsha on her face. Marsha spoke in whisper. “Are you feeling ok?” “Yes I guess. How do you know I am pregnant? I am not even sure yet” “I just know” she replied, and that’s how their friendship began. From then on they met frequently. Sometimes Malini would go to Marsha’s house for a chat over coffee, a healing session or even for a witch ritual. In the days that passed Ranbir saw a total shift in Malini’s behaviour, she was happier than ever and was very comfortable with pregnancy. Now and then Malini would talk about rituals, and meditations she does with Marsha, over breakfast or...

I lost a follower! Wait that’s not the worst part, I don’t know which one it is! I am a avid keeper of followers and fellow bloggers and I always try my best to keep up with them. Then comes series of “maybes”. Why did he/she stop being my follower? May be its something I wrote, May be its something I was expected to write but did not. May be I started snoring. May be I have to shave my ears! You get the drift. I am wrapping up in Chennai; Yes I am shifting to Bangalore for as many reasons as you can count with fingers in two hands. One more challenge to my list – coping up. Although it’s few hundred kilometers away from Chennai, Bangalore is very different from it. Its ever changing landscape and vibe is shaped up by thousands of IT expats from all around India and abroad. I am excited to the point that I feel like a villager migrating to a big city. On the love front, things have been amazingly normal, given my mood swings and our occasional confrontations. “You look so ...

“Why advertising?”, If I earn a dollar every time someone asks me that question, I’d be millionaire now. The answer is “I don’t know, it vibes with me, it just feels right”. Each one of us have a destiny to work to, a purpose to fulfill in this world. The more we deviate from it, the more we would feel the stress and pain of life. But if we let, the universe would effortlessly lead us to it. And when we take up that job, it would seem as if the whole world is giving us a standing ovation to welcome us into it. Suddenly we will be dawned with realization about everything in our life that shaped us for it. Brand/product campaigns do make a big impact on what we wear, eat and think about a product. Every advertisement we see literally shapes our lifestyle. A 5 year old pestering her mother to buy a particular washing powder (may be because the cover has a Dora or Power puff girl’s picture or something) is not a joke. A 20 seconds commercial goes through hours of research, planning and p...

Have you seen the promos of CSI Miami? They often show 360 degree, slow motion clips of action sequence (like travelling bullets) which are impossible to witness in real. It’s interesting to see how the virtual eye dissects every detail of the frame in question. I finally got to catch an episode of it, after the long and exhausting celebrations of my brother’s marriage. A bride groom gift - dolls dressed in traditional south Indian brahmin marriage dress Months of planning, endless shopping spree and unstoppable need to please everyone are finally over. My home is filled with bouquet, gift boxes and sweets of several kinds. The much welcomed order and quietness has prevailed again. Here are some “unusual/strange/weird/ one in million/ or call whatever you wish “moments of it. 1. I baby proofed my entire apartment for the marriage – No surprise. 2. I shaved my dad’s head (don’t get me started on the reasons. It’s my first time but it proved to be fun and kind of dad-son bonding...

I got this crazy idea that I had to pen err, keyboard it down immediately. So I am writing this post at 12:50 am, talk about peak of joblessness ;) Most of the Indians might know this story told by our grandma/mom when we were kids “Patti vadai sutta kadhai”(Granny, crow and the fox story) . What if some of our beloved bloggers had written their version of it? For those who don’t know the story, here is the short version. A granny was making delicious Indian fritters and a crow stole one of them. While the crow was on the tree about to eat the snack, a fox came along. Being clever self, the fox planned to steal that fritter from the crow. It said to the crow “you look beautiful and I really wonder how sweet your voice would be, could you sing for me please? “ The foolish crow did what’s been asked and lost the fritter. The story was said to promote the values of not stealing, being clever blah blah, you get the idea. Now to “I-have-gone-nuts-on-Saturday-night” versions of it. Disc...

I swing everyday, every hour, and every minute. Remember the craziness of Madagascar buddies when they are left free in the forest? Free (yet scared) and happy (yet confused), the only hope is being together with friends. With few days left in my notice period, I am going through exactly that. My mood swings from temporary euphoria to sudden depression and I feel like shuttling between North Pole to Sahara. I am just preparing myself for long days of my life Music keeps me going In movies, (defn not the Hollywood ones), when the hero goes through a career dip, they would show how he suffers at first. And then bang! A song sequence with many short clips of his hard work and perseverance is enough to make him millionaire. That hardly ever happens in real. But I firmly believe I am going to see some interesting developments in forthcoming days. Needless to say I would post every detail of this journey, and you guys would be the first ones to know. I love Pakistan I am sur...

It has been very serious here lately and I wanted to write a positive topic with a fun twist. One of the few things I ask myself when I wake up everyday is “How can I be more of myself today?” While many of us see preserving our identity as a challenging job. Being outrageously our self is the most natural thing to do. The more we are in tune with what we are and do what we really like; we would experience a state of bliss, happiness and perfect health in Mind and body. By listening more to our hearts, Intuition to be precise, we can understand more about our likeness and being. Most of the time, we do listen to our intuition but we find hard to trust it, drawing up many logical conclusions that might ask us to do otherwise. But remember when we were infants no one asked us to drink when being fed. We all evolved(and evolving) from a single celled organism. Plants grow to sunlight, animals know how to find food and raise babies, all just by instinct, the natural intuitive ...

My schedule for Republic days (after graduation) is waking up late followed by hogging heavy breakfast watching special programs on the TV. Then I would probably do a hair cut, clean house or visit a friend. So my mother had every reason to be surprised when I got all cleaned up to go at 7:00 am on 26th Jan. Her expression got better or rather close to shock when I told her that I am visiting a school. Going by the recent events she might have thought I am up to taking a teacher job, or worse one with no pay. A flag hoisted by a proud yet very questionable Indian After assuring my intensions very clearly (that means sitting next to her and talking for a long time) I set to visit the school I have been associated for the last five years ran by my friend cum ex-colleague Sangeetha. She is talented, well educated software professional with fine ideals towards humanity. Under the guidance of her retired father Mr.Rajappa, Sangeetha and 5 other (software professional) friends started the c...

That’s some title with a forbidden word isn’t? But I promise by the end of this post you would appreciate it better. Swaram and Anu both awarded and tagged me to write 10 honest things about myself. Considering I write every post straight from heart, Please excuse me for writing only 5 points. 1. I have a strange habit of proof reading after publishing my posts. I somehow feel the urge to publish as soon as I have written down my thoughts. I am also particular about extra spaces between paragraphs. Every new post would undergo at least two to three changes after they are published. 2. I am still in touch with my ex. We were friends for a long time and I don’t want to miss my friend especially during the rough tides. My love is totally cool with it. Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve such unconditional ever understanding love. 3. I firmly believe Julie never had a bath before. I want to give him one and not sure how he would react. I am just waiting to get more comfor...

Last night, I remembered the time I did the reverse bungee in Singapore. I was sitting in this open capsule, all strapped up to be shot to 700 meters up in the air. I looked at the crowed gathered around and many of them cheered me while the count down began. I asked myself why they would cheer me. It’s not like I am helping humanity or giving them a free beer. Then I realized for many it’s something they wish, but never do. They are applauding me for facing the fear, the one they too poses. They can empathise the fight within and cheering me for victory over it. At the last minute, I heard my heart beating faster and saw a blurred image (partly owing to the fancy smoke beneath the capsule). Then I told myself “I let go”, for there is nothing I can control about it. Within seconds I was in the air, fear reached its maximum threshold and adrenaline rush took over. While the excitement can be explained in many ways, I believe it was because of the internal shift. I crossed the boundary...

There is a time in life we would be faced with making a choice between doing what is suppose to be done or  what we always wanted to do. Today I chose the latter; I have packed up my 10 years of IT career to chase my dream in advertising. All my IT experience has been shredded out; even from resume to avoid “IT related job interview” calls. I had a light chest pain as I typed the resignation mail, then I realised it came from right so nothing can be serious about it. Heart is in the left, right? Anyway I dreaded how it would feel to be on the other side of the door. Now that I am out, it does not feel scary, in fact I feel free and I bet I can sleep peaceful tonight. I don’t have any leads in creative industry and don’t know how long it would take to make a decent earning. But I have two best things to get me through this period - FRIENDS and BELIEF. If I expect something extraordinary to happen in my life, I had to be extra – ordinary. Srivats

Trying to cut down on food while staying with mother is like the nose itch you get while you are washing  clothes. Sooner or later (actually soonest) the itch takes over and you won’t even regret for it. Even now I have eaten more and feel like pregnant women or python, actually more like a tom (from Tom and Jerry) that gobbled a melon and looks just like that. It’s been a month since I exercised, and I found the best way to stop worrying - I stopped checking my weight. Have you ever communicated with your pet without a word? (duh!) . The dog we pet was kept by workers while constructing our home. After we moved in, mom started feeding her and she became very loyal guardian of our gate. Its name is Julie and as strange as it sounds, everyone addresses her as he. My mom started it before she read its bar code and we stuck to it. We feed him rice twice a day and crackers/rusk whenever I or dad gets home. I feed him every time I come back home. It’s hard not to - when he gree...

The thing with being on bench (term used to describe officials not assigned to any project, hence not working) is what it does to one's self esteem. It’s like a leaky bucket, the more you are in it, the less self esteem you would be left with. You would even question yourself "why would I need to press my clothes, polish my shoes and be on time, when all I do is nothing". As much as I am hopeful and positive about my situation, living through bench is quite challenging. Its like the relationship phase that makes you wonder whether its going to break up or patch up. I am not sure what's expected out of me and to be honest I rather be jobless than paid for doing nothing. If you need a free mud face pack, all you need to do is drive without helmet in one of Chennai roads. Of all the transportation problems we face, the worst one is dust. Not only it creates eye irritation and dirty clothes, it also creates breathing issues and numerous allergy related diseases. The nex...

I happen to see this video of elephant giving birth and it blew me off. The mother elephant (after delivery) checked the calf which neither breathed nor moved. After several kicks and a quick blow the calf took its first breath to everyone’s relief. In next few minutes the calf stood up and looked perfectly fine. The mother seemed so happy and proud and I almost heard her say “see I have made my child and I know how to take care of it”. Nearly million elephants are killed in africa during last two decades, that left so many orphans, think before buying Ivory stuff , photo courtesy National Geographic This morning found me in an unusual place, a baby shower function (locally known as “Seemandham”) of my cousin’s wife. Unlike abroad it’s a family function here and I was obliged to attend. Needless to say I was surrounded by truck load of aunties and soon to be, worrying about my future love life and stuff. On occasions like this, men get busy taking part in the rituals/ doing t...

Have you ever seen two trains honking and waiting for the traffic to clear up in the level crossing? This is what I witnessed on my way to office today. I am pretty sure it’s weird enough to take a small space in tomorrow’s paper. Unfortunately I too was part of the stamped and had no choice but to go with the mob. Even the most safest and right thing like stopping at the red light, had me bumped last night. For some (most) yellow light means speed up, not slow down. This is what Indian traffic is and I am not proud of it. I think anyone if honked by the train and bumped at signal would feel so. We Indians are fast (crazy to the limit), furious and would even risk our lives to save couple of minutes during the drive. After such near death ride I am sitting at office on a comfortable chair .. err I am actually on bench. Two days in a row and all I do is check mails for every 10 minutes (that include both personal and official). Due coffee and lunch breaks and serious discussion with t...