Lord Ganesha in Mandana Art

Hi… A long time after that I made something Lord Ganesha in local Mandana Art Form. 

Reference to context: 
Rangoli in Rajasthan is called Mandana. Mandana art has always been symbolic of festive occasions in Rajasthan. Sacred moments are sanctified by these line drawings. Mandana drawings were done on mud layered walls of homes, on public walls and chowks. Mandana is dervied form of the Sanskrit word mandan which means to discover, and mandana means to draw with lines and create a work of art.The conventional art form is created using white chalk and brushes made of khajur or bamboo sticks. Mandana was also drawn to safeguard that sacred space from the asuras (demons), so that Gods and Goddesses would grace the occasion without fear. http://anomasmiles.wetpaint.com

 

Colours In The Midnight

Some of my colour works in the past few months…

I love painting on fabric… I did paint a couple of them for myself and soon I started getting requests from my friends and family to paint tees for them…. so here are just a few that I have painted for them…. They usually choose the designs for me, which they pick from the internet and I paint them for them…

Skull on Fire

The Man With The Mooch

Skull Gardenia

Gurudev

I Am BATMAN

Demure

Tattooed

Rani Saheeba

Shiivaa

Rooaaarrr

These Tees can be hand-washed or machine washed and that will still not wear out the print…

Playing The Part

“Oh Wow… you are a mother of two children?… Man, you don’t look it?!”
“OMG… you don’t look married… that’s awesome!”
“What…. your children are in Engineering?! I thought your kids were in KG!”

“What?! You have a few months old child?! I thought you would have elder kids”…….. Okay, now that is usually what I get… while the ones above are what my peers and people around me get…
And that has got me to write this post…

Increasingly there is added pressure on Not looking the part… you are not meant to look what you actually are or rather what your actual status is…

So if you are in college, you should look like a school going girl; if you are married or working young you should look like you are still in college, if you have kids you should look like someone who is not married at all and so on and so forth.
And not surprisingly the men do not have any such social issues or problems or concerns for looking their part…I mean they can look and be all that they are and not are and its okay… but Woman… you have to NOT look your part…
So the market is flooded with anti-ageing creams and wrinkle fading creams, ads show younger looking moms with each passing day with grown up kids, Kellogs would have you believe that Lara can owe all her svelte sexy figure to them and them only and I am now left completely confused about not what is my role in life now but surely how the world expects to see me….

mirror_reflection - Image Courtesy - thesgl.com

It is a quiet dissension in my head and it is growing with each passing day. So I am walking a few good miles, running the treadmill, am on all fours working my *** off at home and trying to lose all the pregnancy fat… and while some may say, isn’t that good for you and your health?! and while I do agree that it is good… what is not good is the pressure under which I am doing it.
I may choose not to give into that pressure, but trust me, men if you are reading this and the women who are reading it will agree, the pressure is daunting!

I have friends of my age and older who are looking younger by the day, married ones are sexily carrying off haulter necks with sindurs almost as a fashion accessory, the ones with kids are tiptoeing on stilettos and are slipping into stretch jeans and are throwing abundantly the statements of vanity and may I also paradoxically add determination of getting back their youthful halo.

I am caught hence, wondering everyday on what should I look like today… a young mother?! or just a mother?! a homemaker?! a content homemaker?! a young mother aspiring to get back to work?! And while I am still struggling everyday with these questions, the wardrobe throws back the same quandary of what should I wear to look the part that I don’t look and then finally and obviously what should I look like?

The television is increasingly defining what women are supposed to look like in my country…

I have never found myself being hit so badly by the advertising world or by the society we live in… I have very quietly always been able to manage an offbeat fashion, a style, and always carried the look and lived the part of a self aware woman who was more keen to set standards rather than be following the ones around her…

But sadly I have become a victim today…. find myself in a quagmire of self effacing questions and social concerns…

I know the part I am playing now… but I am so sure I don’t know what to show…So Are you not supposed to look the part? Will my child be made fun of if her mother looks a mother and not someone out of the Dettol and Santoor ads?

Jholas by Kaarukriti

Trouser Turns into Eco-Friendly Bag
Posted on July 1, 2011 by Madhavi

So the husband keeps getting trouser and shirt pieces like most Indian gifting habits loads of them now sit pretty in my closet with the Hubby refusing to get trousers stitched from them.

So what does ‘Me’ do? I just take one of them and convert it into a bag… I still don’t have a sewing machine so the bag has been hand stitched… and also painted on it to give it ‘A LOOK’ Lemme know if you like it

Bag I - Jholas by Kaarukriti

These bags are called Jholas in India…

And am planning to put up more such hand made Jholas….

Beginning the series ‘Jholas by Kaarukriti’

Await your feedback

Best Out of Waste: Cartons ‘Turn’ Tables :)

Another Kaarukriti classic

The Husband moved stuff from his ancestral home to ours and yes, Along Came Cartons Loads of them….

So post a lot of rearrangement and preservation tactics for heir loom sarees, woollens, albums, records et al, I got back to doing what I did best… turning them into decorative pieces for my corners so they wouldn’t sit idle in my house looking all ‘Carton-like’

Voila

Caryons Turn Tables

Caryons Turn Tables

Decisions Maketh Us?!

So what makes Us? What defines Us? Our Lives? Our fates? Our Successes and so called Failures? After much limited pondering in my head, I am beginning to feel – Decisions Maketh Us… I Decide… Therefore I am … huh!

Deciding to be Me

So while I did not decide a lot of things that had me meandering into this world in the first place… like who do I look like, which is the family I belong to, mera gaon and mera desh that I was born into and all that… but once the sensibilities were in place… the so-called sensibilities were in place… almost every thing there onwards was a result of decisions taken by me…

Which college I went to to complete my Masters…

My first job that I decided to take up… the second and the third….

When did I give in to the relentless pursuits of my family to settle down…

When and where I settled myself on a geography by buying a house….

When will I decide to take up the next new job…. et al

………….And no, it’s not just that… its also about….

What clothes I decide to wear…
What music I decide to listen to….
What food I decide to cook or then eventually eat…
What programmes I watch…
What books I read…
What or who are the people I give company to…

…. It all boils down to the five Ws and one H to make one decision… that finally defines who or what we are… or rather who or what we ‘decide’ to be…

It is we who ask all the questions and also answer them ourselves to arrive at a decision… so why not always try and give a positive response, a kick-ass reply to life’s or rather all our questions and be proud of each of our decisions and stand up to own up to them and be the real person…

Isn’t life a Rhetoric? The answer is right here, with us, within us… and yet we find ourselves asking questions and questioning ourselves in the pursuit of getting all our life’s questions answered and then we probably would decide if our life has been a success or not…

Don’t ask… Seek!
Don’t Decide… LIVE!!!

Of Boob Tubes and Baby Gurgles :)

It gets better by the day… What? you say… Boob Tube I say

The Zardozi sarees get heavier, the bahus more designer, the mother in laws more bitchy and the plots more murky… oh and not to miss the Titles … Chand Chupa Badal Mein, Yesh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, Yahaan Mein Ghar GHar Kheli, Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka…. and many more…. and no, the plots are not as melodious as the titles seem… so while the Western world has shorter titles with albeit varied plots and themes too… Huge, Castle, Family Guy, No Ordinary Family etc… we have a long way to go…

And No I am not watching all of these… this is all I see on the ‘Guides’ page when I am trying to make the biggest decision of the day…. What should I watch on TV???

star-parivaar-awards-2010-10

I am really enjoying the Anti Corruption Parade and the activities around it… and I really mean it… and though some time back I did write a post on how we are in dearth of icons and leaders to look up to… Its been a joy to see some icons or rather mass leaders coming to the surface… and without raising too many eyebrows on who and why I support and rasing too many drawing room political questions… I am somehow overwhelmed with the victory of Mamata Banerjee and the way people have gone all out to support her and overthrow a rusting regime… a Sadhu who not just churns his guts but also has the guts to stand up against the government of the largest democracy and oh, with what support… and likewise a Marathi manoos who with all his humble countenance and Gandhian values also notched up the bar of revolution and caused quite a stir in the country…Clap Clap Clap… I am happy that there are now the visibility of social leaders beyond Bollywoood icons and sons and daughters of ruling polity…

mamata-banerjee

And yet, I am aggrieved at the labelling of these small revolutions as white collared and blue collared!!! A mass revolution is supposed to be just that… Mass ! and not define the status and stature of a society… and who should join which revolution and which is a HS and LS revolution to be a part of… the issue is a common plaguing issue and it needs to be supported and not defined and labelled and made niche reducing the importance of either audiences.

And while at this point in time varied brands of diapers and bottles, and playing fraggle rock holds priority, I am already gettin nervous hearing the five figure fees of playgroups and so called day-cares…. oh the joys and expenses of parenthood these days But what the heck… thats hardly a dampener… the toothless smiles and drooling lips and uncoordinated actions make it all worth it

Image Courtesy: everydaychristianity.com

And just when I get comfortable penning down lines coming to me by the nano-second… my munchkin gurgles and cries out to me… gotta go people

Coming to you soon again as soon as the lil’un eases into a nap

LIFE… A Song… A Melody

Life …A Song…A Melody

Yeah well….Life is a song
Beautiful a melody
I am singing it
This very moment
From deep within the confines of my soul

In silence I hear
The lilting voice of creation
The sea hums, the birds chirp, the rivers gurgle and the clouds thunder
The sun hollers, the wind whispers
Humans around me all join me in the chorus

Yeah …well, Life is a song
And I am singing it.

Music Notes ... Somewhere from the internet

The song of life
Celebrating the existence
In joyous anticipation
Of what awaits next
There is a lyricist somewhere
Who is reading the lines to us
And while we try to make the most
By reading in between the lines
We continue to Sing
The Song of Life

Well….Life is a song
Beautiful a melody
A melancholic tune
And yes I am singing it
Will sing as long as I am alive
And as alive this moment is
My songs I sing for this moment
My Life I live for this Moment.

The Journey Half Way :)

When I was half way through the pregnancy the changes were daunting and yet extremely beautiful ….

Yeah again… Pregnancies are different and unique to everyone and weird things happen… really And trust me you can actually blame it all on Pregnancy and a huge deluge of hormonal uproar

So what I did carry forward from all the previous months of the pregnancy was the perennial leg aches and to which were added a continuous back ache, bum ache and hip ache…. trust me I had forgotten how it was to live without pains… pains of all kinds… pricking pain, tingling pain, throbbing pain, sudden bursts of pain and a pain that just stays with you…no matter what and no, you are not supposed to take pain killers… the aunts and moms and in laws would have been kind to tell you that “My dear, Its all a Preparation for the final PAINFULL Delivery” … and … you go, Gasp!!!!!

The bump had started to show and trust me that was a great great advantage… coz when you do haul yourself a rickshaw, he was more likely to believe you when you say Dude I am pregnant, take it slow… else the first three months, were quite a task when I said I was pregnant and they looked at me and stopped short of asking “Where from Madam”

So the walking grace did go for a toss and one slowly started to bend backwards and unknowingly held on to one’s own tummy, back and whatever else one could get in an arm’s reach… but obviously, coz you are so perennially scared of a fall…

I would fall asleep right in the middle of nowhere… I used to push my laptop away in sheer desperation and sleep on my desk… I cared no less for the looks or the quizzical stares… coz momma and babeee needed some good old sleep and when they needed it and wanted it… they GOT IT

And the best part … Babeeeee Movements Oh its so amazing… It fluttered, it turned, the weight shifted and I used to suddenly feel light or heavy…. it was a feeling I can’t express… Its a butterfly, its a bird… No, stupppiidddd… It was a baby and it was having a great time

Image Courtesy Baby Clipart.net

So the hogging spree continued, the aches increased, the sleep spells became less deep and thin… but yes, feeling the baby move inside was the first feeling that was disbelieving and convincing at the same time… disbelief coz of what all it could do inside amidst all the space constraints and convincing because thats almost the first signs of life growing inside you

And no, the innumerable scans did not matter… coz what you feel inside when the baby moves is just magical. You feel humbled at what you have been chosen to do, you feel an all encompassing surge of emotions making you vulnerable, you learn to be patient with yourself and for what you can expect to hold in a few months… coz there is no short cuts to this… the wait is stipulated and everything is SO WORTH IT… and for all of us who thought that we are not ready to have babies …. Oh we all are just so prepared to have a baby… the baby prepares you … Prepares you to become more capable of nurturing and nourishing it all the while that it grows… trust me, what will be born after nine months is not a baby… but the Mother and I waited for that moment