my bug

Isn't he sweet?
He was given to me by my cousin, Chetna. (thank you Chetna, you're awesome! :*)
I havn't come up with a name for him yet. Suggestions anyone?

(Watch him hit a block and turn in the video. It's adorable)

3. this is not a kite

Last week was the kite festival, Uttarayan, here in Gujarat. It is a beautiful festival full of fun and colour and, of course, lots of kites. 

And if you, like me, are hopeless at getting a kite airborne, (despite copious running and jumping) Gujarati's generously offer you the option of buying balloons instead! 

Even better, if you don't look the four-year-old-kite-flying-pro's in the eye you might not even feel silly.

2. tweet

1. cheers

And so, it begins.

sixty

Tomorrow, i embark on Project Sixty.
Over the last year, i've been blowing hot and cold with my blog updates. Sometimes, the posts are overflowing other times my blog is in hibernation. :(
Well no more! For the next (count the fingers below) days, i am going to put up one post everyday on my blog. No excuses.
So don't forget to look out for the posts! (unless of course, i fail to put them up)

100!

My hundredth post!

wooooooooo!

*firecrackers and celebration

And to think it took me just two years! (yes, I'm being sarcastic)

There are a 100 faces down there and i'm in there somewhere amongst them. Bet you can't find me!

The colour i'm using is Madras Marine, gifted to me courtesy Kalapi! :)

Check it out: http://www.ownacolour.com/

And, incidentally, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

testing testing..

Whenever i start painting an illustration i keep a strip of paper beside me to test and prepare colours before i paint it in. The last illustration i made was so colourful that even the strip looked pretty by the time i finished! 
I added a little me on top to finish it off!

letters are fun!

I took a break from drawing on postcards and drew on an envelope instead.
I love writing letters and drawing on brightly coloured envelopes. 
Letters make separation fun! :)

birthday yay!

Tomorrow's my birthday! 
Yay!
I'm going to be celebrating in Diu, a little beach town.
It's going to be a day of sun, sand, fried fish and beer!
Woooooooooooo! :D

Beaten Black and Blue

This is one of the illustrations i made for a short story from a collection of stories by children, for children. The book is called 'By Us, For Us' and is being published by Katha. (check them out!) 
It is another story form the same book in my previous post.
This particular story is called 'Beaten Black and Blue' and is about one politician's suitcase that saves India from the clutches of his corruption.
It's a lovely story. Do buy the book if you see it!
(click on the image to see more detail)

Rover the dog

This is one of four illustrations i made for a short story. 
It is part of a collection of stories written by children, for children, and illustrated by various people. The book is called 'By Us, For Us' and is being published by Katha.(Look them up!)
The book is being launched on the 29th and i'm extremely excited!
The story I illustrated is called Rover the dog, and it is a sweet story about Lila, who can't find her dog, Rover anywhere. She searches high and low and then finds him in the most unexpected place!

Do buy the book if you see it!

one of those days

It's one of those days.  
Everything seems wrong, just, wrong. 
When nothing you do makes you feel better. 
All you want to do is sit in the corner and cry.

twitterer

My friend, Kalapi, had asked me to create an avatar of him for his public profile on Twitter. After making a few drawings, I sent him the final one along-with a scan of all the doodles around it. To my surprise he ended up using most of them! 
I dislike twitter but i feel like visiting his profile just to see my drawing! :)

Shilpa

Another book-converted-into-monster book, and oddly, my first female monster. (I've been neglecting gender equality!) 

She's on her way to party. 

Female monsters have busy social lives you know.

Also check out my friend Karno's monsters! 

I think Ramola and Shilpa would have been very good friends.

sabhabathi

I converted another book into a monster. This one is called Sabhabathi. 
You can call him Sabby for short!

I quite enjoy converting my books into monsters. 
I think i should make it a ritual.
You can see my first monster-book here.

dinesbhai

I'm on a monster roll!

It occurred to me recently that i have been in Baroda for over 6 months and i've become quite fond of both the place and Gujarati people! High time then that i make a gujju monster, isn't it?

Meet Dineshbhai.

He's a sweet and rather shy guy. 
He's the silent type.

He's gujju (obviously).

His favourite 'snakes' are kites, preferably sweet ones! :P

The photograph, unfortunately, is not mine, only Dinesh is. I drew him on a postcard i picked up in Ahmedabad.

halloween horns

This halloween my friend wore an awesome pink wig with horns. 
I want one too!

flipkart

I am absolutely, totally, head-over-heels in love with flipkart! I love how books i can otherwise never hope to find arrive so deliciously packaged at my doorstep! My wishful wishlist is (as expected) just about endless and my obsession with it is bordering on unhealthy. I check it every single day and it takes me all my willpower to move my cursor away from that tantalising Buy Now button.

me h.

petite éclairs

Nowadays, I seem to swinging from drawing to cooking an awful lot. 

My most recent adventure with the oven was petite éclairs. They weren't actually supposed to be petite, i couldnt find the right nozzle size so they ended up mini, but they're tasty anyway! (and they sound fancier when i say petite éclairs! :P)

Turns out eclairs are quite easy and fast to make. Unfortunately, they're even easier and faster to eat! This lot lasted for about 10 minutes before they were gulped down. 

As you can see, my brother enjoyed them quite a bit! :)