From Kerala

I'm in Kerala now & its rainy, cool breezy and very green here :)  I've been out on the road and spending time with nature, thought I'd share some quick eyecandy.

 Will be making posts as soon as I get some steady computer time. Keep well & be happy. I am :) Its amazing how relaxed getting out can make me. I find myself filled with hope and thinking of solutions more than problems. I find that I am inspired by all the amazing people that I meet and everything feels possible once again.

Bangalore Bangalore

The Bangalore chapter of my journey has been so many mixed things - jampacked, meetings people back to back, logistics, packing-unpacking, my products, stocks, friends, family but above all exhilarating and short. I have to go back! Being at the Sunday Soul Sante was fun - sold a lot and met a lot of new people who had never seen my work and the best of all is I met sooo many artnlight readers!!! So many of you came up to me and said I've read your blog and smiled at me so warmly, spoke to me - this was the 1st time I met so many blog readers in one day. Some of you travelled distances to come & meet me and some of you were just so surprised to see the 'artnlight' banner. The 1st one I ever got printed. Wow. When I sit here typing out these posts, its just as well that I have no clue so many people out there are reading and knowing me - I'd probably get stage fright & vanish or something :) Yes, I do see my google stats, but its also so easy to believe that the handful of you who comment here are the only ones reading it. I have been wanting to thank you so much for the amazing response to the 61c giveaway as well. There will be one more coming up soon!

  Capturing a few colourful sights in Bangalore

Working on quite a few exciting posts for the blog :) Stay tuned. You wont be disappointed :)

Quick Peek before the Soul Santhe tomorrow

Arrived in Bangalore this morning & so have my products. Shot these this morning in my brother's garden.

They will be available at the Sunday Soul Santhe, June 17th 2012.

See you there Bangaloreans! :)

Pasta making in Bangalore

Before I begin this post, let me reassure you that, yes this is artnlight, no this blog has not become a food blog, no, I am not undergoing any personality transplant. That out of the way, I can get on with this post. Like I said, Bangalore is on my mind what with the Sunday Soul Santhe Round coming up this Sunday,June 17th. Bangalore means family time for me because my brother lives there. He along with being a languages expert (he teaches french and german) is also a gourmet cook, so going to his place means getting spoilt silly with amazing, lovingly cooked food. He and his friend cook up a storm whenever we land up. As to why I'm making a post about food, there is only one reason. I just couldn't get over the fact that he made home-made pasta for us. As in, made the pasta with freshly made dough right there in front of my eyes. The whole process was so beautiful. It never fails to touch me when I see someone so passionate about something that they will go to any extent to do it & it doesn't even seem like an effort to them. I almost missed the 1st batch of the strips of pasta that he hung out to air before I realised what was happening, I grabbed my camera just in time to document the whole process.

 All the stuff we hog at his place :)

AND 

Drum rolls please!! Here begins the pasta making.....!!
(I can see my brother's eyes rolling at this kind of drama)

 

 

 At this point all my friends all but drove me away - we were famished and I was in everyone's way clicking.

 

I thought I should leave you with a visual of sugar dusted muffins :) Yes, he made this.

The good news is after a lot of debate and discussion, my brother and his friend have agreed to try this out as a business model and can take orders on breads, muffins, cakes & pastries.

All of you in Bangalore can write to them at praathaap(at)gmail(dot)com or nishil(dot)nair(at)gmail(dot)com for enquiries.

Going to the Soul Santhe, June 17th in Bangalore.

Getting geared up for The Sunday Soul Santhe at Bangalore. I will be there with Artnlight trays, boxes & coasters. Just got my 1st ever banner printed. The products are already on their way to Bangalore & I will leave soon too. Taking my products to another city is always a bit of butterflies-in-the-stomach. Everything should reach on time, in good condition. All should go well. So on & so forth... Fingers crossed for a good show, do send your best wishes & wish me luck. And all artnlight readers in Bangalore, do drop by, it will be a pleasure to meet you :)

This is their Events Page on FB: All details are here.

It will start at 12 noon, June 17th @ Eden Gardens, Palace Grounds, Bangalore.

Meeting Priya Sebastian at the Ant a lovely store & coffee shop

Bangalore will always be special to me because of its people. And as I once again prepare to come to the beautiful garden city, my mind is filled with happy memories from there. And shining among them is my meeting with the uber talented Priya Sebastian. I blogged about meeting with Archana of Rangdecor and Aarohi of Art by Aarohi. This was the 2nd time I was meeting Priya but it certainly didn't feel like it because we do speak every once in a while on the phone. We just get along alike a house on fire and our conversations always leave us enriched, happy and wishing we lived in the same city. Priya knows of my weakness for interesting places, so the last time she took me to Cinnamon the gorgeous store & this time we met at The Ant, an initiative of a voluntary organisation in rural Assam. What I didn't know was that Ant has a beautiful store filled with goodies from the North East. And the restaurant was quaint, filled with bamboo furniture and the aroma of freshly cooked food. 

 

 

 

 Varnam Products

 

 It is always that with some people the connect is so strong that one never needs to think of what to say next and the conversation and laughter flow free and fast. There is no political correctness & it becomes fun to speak bad English :) :) Priya for me is one such friend. And she is in Bangalore & I am going - ye!!!! :)

61c & a Free Give Away!!

I met Supriya Kejriwal last year at the IMC Diwali Exhibition, she had the stall right opposite mine & because we were both busy selling, we hardly had time to catch up with each other. On day 2, it was way past lunch time & I had not had the time to step out and grab a bite. So she came over with her lunch of apples & roti rolls and we shared it. I was seeing that she had these really cool paper products & stationery, had displayed them beautifully and these were the kind of products that I had not seen in the Indian context or even seen made here ever before. This was seriously international. great quality, great design. At the end of the exhibition I bought these Gilt Edged Notepads that I fell in live with from her stall which was called 61c.

Then we went our separate ways, I knew I wanted to blog about 61c & last week she contacted me with these stunning visuals of their new *PANCHATANTRA* Collection. Presenting 61c & a little interview with Supriya Kejriwal.

And at this post has a FREE GIVEAWAY!! Details at the end of the post!

Artnlight: Where did the 61c dream start?

61c: 61c was the number of a bus in college which took you to 'squirrel hill', a quaint neighbourhood full of coffee shops and book shops. here is where i enjoyed some of the best times and dreamt of having a shop, full of beautiful and irresistable stationery. hence! the name 61c and the squirrel in the logo

Artnlight: What led you & the founders of the company to decide that you will be a stationery brand and will make paper products?

61c: There were two things that led us into stationery. We felt there was a gap in the market, the quality and design of stationery available locally was not at par with international stationery. Moreover, the few places that sold imported stationery were prohibitively expensive. 

Being a printing press with a creative mind, there are always new ideas, experiments and developments happening. We would create a lot of exciting samples as trial runs or prototypes. We'd end up sharing them with friends and family and enjoyed seeing them use it. All of this led to what is us today.

 I bought this as a giftsfor close friends. They love it! Nice thick great quality paper to write on. Conversation starters in meetings for sure!

Artnlight: Your products have a seriously international feel to it. Do you think India is a very active market for great stationery/paper products. Do you think it is getting better with people's taste evolving?

 61c:Thanks for noticing! One of our pet peeves was that when one travels abroad you get such lovely stationery, however options back home were so limited to ethnic or kitsch. We have ensured that in terms of paper stock, quality and finishing details and design aesthetic, we match the highest international standards. We think Indians are more concious consumers of lifestyle products today than say 10 years ago.

Artnlight: Do you export? Is that part of the plan?

61c: There are stationery lovers all over the world and we would love to reach out to them. Currently international buyers can shop online at our website: www.61c.in. We are also in talks with several retailers internationally.

And here's the FREE giveaway ~ This beautiful assortment of money envelopes. It is worth Rs.250/- and the 1st 61 comments on this blog will be receive this set of envelopes.
*the offer is valid only for Indian addresses.
This is what you need to do to get the FREE giveaway:
1. Comment on this post.
2. Click here to Like 61c on FB. 
People this is very important. Only if you do this can the team @ 61c send you free giveaway.
3. 61c will send you a message with all details & procedure.
4. Your Free Giveaway will be shipped to you!!