artnlight

"Entrepreneurial Overwhelm" is something I deal with on a daily basis. How fancy it sounds and how far from it it actually feels. So when I heard that Sampada Chaudhari was conducting a workshop on how to deal with it, I signed up in a heartbeat. Sampada is a business and Transition Coach, and having taken a session on Money Breakthrough with her, I know how much value and insight she brings to the table, with regards to where you need to change and how to pace it. And she takes you through it with so much ease.  That the venue was the much talked about Ministry of New made the decision even simpler. I have been meaning to visit this aesthetically designed co-working space ever since I chanced upon a few pictures of it online. You walk in there and you feel the silent and strong pulse of entrepreneurial India. If inspiration is what you are looking for, you will find more than what you asked for. The sight of clusters or single people purposefully at work, on the businesses they are growing in a generous, contemporary and global space (which could be anywhere in the world really) is something that will contextualise the very real spirit of rising entrepreneurship in this country.

Sampada could not have chosen a more fitting ambiance for her workshop. It was a full house, people kept pouring in even after the workshop started, and through the introductions and sessions, it became clear that people from all walks of life had come in, from film producers to people who coach entrepreneurs to people running their own design houses to working people who wished to start their own business to the youngest entrant who was 17 year old. It was a pleasure to watch Sampada take all of us through solutions and tricks and introduce us to insights about ourselves. In this entirely participative process, the people who came in to the workshop shared their own experiences about the importance of saying 'no'. It was a pleasure to watch how in a span of 2 hours, Sampada effectively guided people to taking back a sense of reassurance that their lists were were not as impossible to execute as they imagined. Many others went back knowing that they can start with what they have, instead of waiting to find the "perfect team/partner" to start their dream career.

In these days of instant communication with whatsapp, skype, google duo and many such similar technologies that make our lives so much easier, we've all but forgotten the charms of receiving a handwritten postcard, from another state, from a different country, from a pen-pal, from a cousin, a friend, a lover, a parent. How we waited for the postman and how much excitement an inland or a handwritten letter brought. I remember when I was studying here in Bombay, during my school and college days, I used to write to my family almost everyday, little anecdotes, what happened in class, what the teacher said, my latest sketch or skit, the idiosyncrasies of a close friend, everything described vividly, and at the end of the week, I would staple it all and mail it to my family. I imagined them laughing over it. I come from a generation when I was given a small amount of pocket money and an std call across states was not something to be indulged in daily. So after a week of posting my latest "mini book" the next call was about cracking up about the written letter and its contents. Always with one eye on the little meter in the booth that told you how much your call is costing you.

This design is dedicated to all those letters and postcards and slow mail which we lovingly wrote to our loved ones. It is dedicated to all those letters that will remain unwritten, it is dedicated to the act of handwriting and to the craft of writing, it is dedicated to the lovers of long hand and old school and fountain pens. It is dedicated to a time when communication merited the time and effort taken to write, then stamp and post, to the long lines in post offices, to the lost red postboxes.

Welcome to the Art&Light Post Card Crockery Series.

 Snack platters

 Dinner Plates

 Snack Platter

 Coffee Mugs, green tea mugs, whatever you choose to call it

For the longest time now there has been a silent love affair going on between me and ceramics. My work till date has been all about colour and design. I love chroma and maximalism and that has been my comfort zone in a way. While exploring executable possibilities of how i could extend Art&Light's range of products to include ceramics, it became clear early on, due to technicalities of the medium that I will need to think differently to work with ceramics. Simplicity in design and colour would be necessity. No layering, textures, all the things that I normally love would not work here. People who have been following my work might know of my love for typography. So got back to the drawing board and after many rounds of sampling between 2 states and improvisations,  here is the 1st  of the two designs. 

What I especially love about this series is that nothing is perfect. There are irregularities. Little specs scattered on the plates and crockery, not evenly.  The edge of the plate has an hand-drawn outline. It is irregular. Because the products are handmade - there are slight variations and imperfections piece to piece.

  "Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things." ~ Chaim Potok

 “It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep.”

― Malcolm X

 

 "There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."~ Henry James

 ""There is no sincerer love than the love of food."~ George Bernard Shaw

Bad news: currently he only sells in Bangalore where he is based. Good news: they are very reasonably priced and  those in Bangalore can actually bring these beauties home. If I were you and if had contacts in Bangalore, I would totally bribe hem to pick these for me & figure out a way to get them to me.

Out of my love for succulents, i bought quite a few of them last year here in Bombay in excitement. Those who follow me on Instagram, might remember meeting them. But here's the sad bit, because I didn't know how to care for them, they did not survive the high levels of moisture the monsoon in this city. I have not given up, I will bring them home again. Maybe if  I had bought mine from Prashant they might have survived, maybe I will figure out a way to lay my hands on some of these beauties by 22VofLove. 

Prashant's pointers on care for them:

1. Keep in well lit area (natural or artificial lighting) away from direct sunlight 

2. Add 1 tbsp of water once a week 

3. Talk to them :)

Factfile: 

There are 3 size available 

1 liter - 5.5" height & 4" dia ~priced at 1490

500 ml - 4.5" height & 3" dia ~  priced at 990

200 ml - 3.5" height & 2" diaT ~  priced at 490

The travel stars have been shining bright for a while. This time I was headed to Kerala, my home state. While travel to anywhere else felt like travel, travel to Kerala always felt like "going home" - literally, as against everything the word 'travel' generally entails. So after a lifetime of hearing how gorgeous Kerala is, how languid its backwaters are, and after a lifetime of not knowing what Kerala has to offer, here comes a trip that changed my lens, from the coastal art hub which is the very happening Kochi Biennale, which could be anyplace in the world really, to the backwaters close to Trivandrum, to the hill station Ponmudi to the treasures Kannur has to offer, this had been a trip that has redefined Kerala for me. I finally understand why 'Gods own Country' makes sense.

When you belong to a state, you are naturally exposed to the chinks, the eccentricities and in my case, Kerala was always a loaded word, it brought with it many subtextual inhibitions, restrictions, unspoken rules and always a consciousness of being a woman, and therefore a need to not attract undue attention, and when you add to this mix a family that has no love lost for travel and exploration, well, you get the drift.

But this time, keeping to my personal mantra for 2017, which is to be authentic  - however one chooses to interpret it, for me it means listening to myself a lot more, speaking with honesty and openness, in all my interactions, or here on the blog, to err on the side of truth more than diplomacy, for me authenticity is also so much about just acceptance. Of who I am, where I come from, the people who are mine. These are givens. And I realised on this trip, that when you go in with your walls down, and with gentleness, one step at a time, and as a true traveller would, with openness, a whole different experience awaits you. For the 1st time, I travelled Kerala and she showed me one beauteous aspect of herself after another to me. Every conceivable shade of green told me in its own way, its ok, its time to forgive, time to go easy, it is time for beauty.

 Ponmudi - is a hill station one goes to for a walk in the clouds and it is famed for the blue flower Neelakurinji that blooms across the hills once in 12 years and the hills turn into a carpet of blue till where your eyes can see. 

 Poovar Backwaters near Trivandrum

 Poovar Island

There are still more Kerala stories, the Kochi Biennale chapter and more. A lot more to look forward to here.

And for those interested in regular updates on my travels, I tend to upload on my instagram way more regularly than I do here on the blog.