ye hai mumbai meri jaan...

what is this thing abt mumbai......

Simplicity...

The moment you put this word in google search images...you get the most compicated designs...why is that we are striving towards making life simple and only making life more complicated... I had received a very cute story from a friend of mine which talks about this girl contemplating what would hav lead to his boyfriend ignoring her and she gets into a complicated thought process and thinks of ending her life and other such drastic steps...only to realise after 2 days that her boyfriend was low since india lost the cricket match...boys would remain boys.....

I wish I could put it across to you in a better way.. while i re-read it ,the story sounds far lousy than it actually was....!!..but i hope the meaning is conveyed....why do we try to read between the lines and why we use a zillion words to say simple sentenses why we cant remain child like in our approach..simple and straight...I wish growing up had a pause button..the world would have been a far beautifull place to live in if left the things simple...

Children at times can teach us so much...why say yes when we want to say no...and why agree when we want to disagree...Why complicate when we can kep it simple...!!

kumarakom lake resort

its a ...BEAUTY!!!!!!!!!!!!! awesome place....guys you all have to visit it and soak your self in the beauty of the place...its clean,green,peacefull and a real delight!!staff is gracious and sweet!!

We went from mumbai to cochin .....the flight was uneventfull except for me and Tia (my lill one) who was most facinated with fellow passengers and jst about every thing she could lay her hands on..!! and i was busy trying ot keep her away from throwing the object on other passengers who were enviously sleeping....

I felt as if this flight is never going to end and we'll be stuck here till eternity and probably when we come out of the air craft Tia would be a grown and more well behaved women...but to my surprise it did come to an end and Tia remained how she is naughty and restless... the driver waited for us out side the airport and drove us to kumarakom ..its was a 2 hours drive through the narrow lanes of the city and i kept gasping out of fear every time he dodged a bigger motor comming his way..and we SAFELY reached kumarakom at 11:00 PM....and right at the entrace we saw the cottages with underwears and other set of clothes hanging out side these timber chalets and there was no end to dissappointment ...i already started cursing our trip planner for the place...but the drived in his most amusing english nformed me that those are not cottages and the resort is yet to come....i waited eagerly even more unsure this time....and when we did reach our resort it was the most beautifull site that i must have seen in last 1 financial quater....

..the pics say it all .....the stay was extremely comfortable and relaxing...recommeded for all bored souls reading this post....

Im SOOOOO Sleepy...

Phhew i am tiered of feeling bored!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Feeling Sleepy.....the only expression i am seeing on my face are looking like this.. .........but i just want to know is it in the air or its jst people around me that are oking hopelessely lethargic...where has all the energy gone?????!!!! those carefree days when even while returning from an event full day at school we use to be so full of energy .....and as we grow i guess the novelty value of life goes down...things become routine and the new found boredom takes over....

I guess when you look around you always find these set of hyperactive people whoes presence only send across a wave of infectious energy which we are conveniently dodging these days....i soo want to know where they get this never ending zeal from....!!

Loose ends...

I stumbled upon some really interesting stuff.....

You can check their site and store http://www.looseendsindia.com/ some of the things are so creative and interesting that you would want to do up your entire room around these pieces..

Imagine and creme suede sofa with these technicolour cousions.... and the other stuff that I am dying to pick up are those antique locks from colaba causeway....wasnt carring my digi so cant post the pic but take my words it was the best catch of the day....we bargained it down to 500/- and I jst missed it...another thing that caught my attention was a brass autorickshaw at Shilpi in cloaba...

Ans the other few that I saw on the net....

this is a delight....

Traditional Forms of Paintings..

Kalamkari
The art of Kalamkari once was called Vrathapani. The new name must have come from the use of the 'kalam', to ink-in the paintings. This style embraces the world of gods and a crowd of divinities for they were used from ancient times for decorating temple cars during processions or stretched behind temple images as well as being used for giving religious instructions in temples or in outdoor gatherings, the piece being stretched between two palm trees.The cloth is dipped in harde/karaka fruit/myrobollom solution, for then only will black dye become black.The brushes used are made from bamboo slivers. A fine pointed one is used with a black dye, made from iron filing, to outline the whole painting which often takes weeks to do. Second flat-tipped brush is covered with an old piece of wool blanket used to brush in the natural vegetable dyes, one at a time.
After each colour application, the cloth has to be washed, often in running water, making the whole process laborious and complicatedThe design usually has a main central panel and is surrounded by smaller blocks arranged in rows, beneath which, written in black ink, are verses from original texts to transcribe the legend. This was a family vocation, so all members from childhood had to be well versed in the scriptures and legends before they were able to create the Kalamkari .

Warlis
The Warlis live in the Thane district of Maharashtra. They are inborn tribal artists and their painting tradition is more than 1200 years old. It was the women of the tribe who created these wall paintings and they were greatly influenced by their surroundings and their day-to-day life. The walls of the huts were coated firstly with cow-dung, then mud and finally “geru” (terracotta). In a metal cup powdered rice was made into a paste and then thin reed like sticks from the baharu tree were used as pens to make geometric shapes like circles, triangles, squares, etc. Today it is the men who practice this art form. These paintings currently drawn in white on paper thinly smeared with cow-dung paste, have semi abstract line figures spread over the surface in an easy narrative flow. They have evolved from restricted ritual drawings on mud-walled huts into a pictorial repository of folk tales, humour and myth. The paintings startle visually without the prop of colour and with a remarkable economy of detail. Realizing that there is a growing demand for the lyrical art, the Warlis have moved from painting the walls of their homes to painting on cloth, paper, table lamps and even saris & dupattas.

Pattachitra

The folk paintings of Orissa have flourished around the great religious centres of Puri, Konark and BhubaneshwarTraditionally the painters are known as chitrakars. Their painting the 'pattachitra' resemble the old murals of that region, dating back to the 5th century BC. The best work is found in and around Puri, especially in the village of Raghurajpur. Pattachitra is a traditional craft, delicately painted on primed cloth or patta in the finest detail. The themes usually depict the Jagannath temple with its three deities - Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra and the famous Rath Yatra festival. These paintings were originally substitutes for worship on days when the temple doors were shut for the 'ritual bath' of the deity. Many Pattachitra paintings are from the ancient Indian texts of Vishnu and KrishnaThe paintings are of various shapes and sizes. A recent modification in Pattachitra paintings is the division of the Patta into a row full of squares with the high-point of the story in the larger centre square and various events portrayed in the other squares, not unlike the Kalamkari paintings. The chitrakars prepare, what looks like a hard card paper using layers of old Dhoti cloth and sticking them together with tamarind seed gum, which gives the surface a smooth leathery finish especially after it is rubbed with a conch shell. The theme is sketched with a pencil, then outlined with a fine brush using vivid earth and stone colours obtained from natural sources, like the white pigment prepared from conch shells, yellow from natural mineral indegenously called haratal , red from cinnator and black from lamp soot.
After completion, the painting is held over red hot charcoals, and lac mixed with resin powder is sprinkled over the surface, when this melts, it is rubbed over the entire surface to give a coating of lac.

Mithila Arts often wrongly is called "Madhubani" because the Art was found flourishing in the Madhubani district of Bihar. The real name is Mithila Arts of Madhubani district.

During festivals and celebrations, women decorate their homes by drawing distinct patterns on the walls, ceilings and floors of their homes. This region has been exposed to many religious influences, thus buddhist and tantric imprints on local motifs are visible. It was in the sixties, due to natural calamities, that the idea occurred to transpose the art onto paper, so that the paintings could be taken to other states and sold to gather Relief funds. There are different designs for each occasion and festival - birth, marriage, holi, suryashashti, kali puja, durga puja, etc. Apart from their decorative purpose, they also constitute a form of visual education from which one learns of one's heritage.
The beauty of Mithila Arts lies in their painstaking detail. The painting done on handmade paper which has been rubbed with cloth dipped in a mixture of water and the residue obtained from sieving cow-dung. The paper is then left to dry which makes it firm as well as free from insects. The brush used is a cotton-tipped-broomstick dipped in colour pastes obtained from natural sources like the leaves of beans, leaves of mango tree, grass, parijat flowers soaked in water, mehndi mixed with water of cowdung, skin of pomegranates and oranges. The resin which is collected from the mango, neem or babul tree is mixed with water and added to the natural extract to make the colours thick. The resin also makes the colours fast and gives them a shine.

http://www.madhubani.com/display.asp?prodid=120&catcode=25&subcatcode=10&level=catcode

travelling with baby....

I am planning a small vacation in jan..and have been tring to put togther the checklist for my lil one....I thought once done I would put it up on my blog so that other can make use of that....more than any thing else, i am worried about what to feed her while on vacation...i cannot make purees and custards in a resort and she would just not have cerelac....I am already my hair apart to come up with ides and internet is of no use here...any one any ideas please help...any ways the check list goes on...:

Fever medicine
Cold & cough medicine
upset stomach medicine
Gas relief medicine
bandages
thermometer
Doctor's contact Numbers
caladil lotion
Nappy rash creame
Liquid soap
Diapers
Wet tissues
Plastic sheet
clothes
Socks
Disposable bibs
towels
blankets and sheets
plastic bags
hand sterelizer
feeder clensers
feeding sets
formula
cerelac
buiscuits
cheese
soap
shampoo
creame
goodnight-liquidator
powder
extra baby food

....and its still going on....