when was the last time you felt happy?

I asked this question to a friend. He thought for a while and replied that it was not big things, but while at that moment he felt more content. He told me two instances:
1) when he enjoyed a movie on the TV(alone, don't take it wrong, it was a U certified one), and
2) when he found he has put on weight around 1.7kgs (actually he's trying hard to put on weight). He added that, he badly wanted to do the fist pump but pushed aside that idea as it was a hotel where he checked the weight.

Now, coming down to my situation, I've felt happy on a day when I wrote 3 lines of css code that fixed an issue. It's unexplainable, over the three years of my experience I've never came across such a mood.

"Every body is wishing a Happy New year. And searching for happiness...." I came across such an article in a local newspaper, it was quite interesting. I did my part of searching the net for the happiness. Here is what I got.

• Happiness is like an epidemics, if we are into a group of such people. it can instil on us as well.
• Always keep a smile on the face, its also infectious. Moreover, we can never think of a negative thought with a smile on our face.... :)
so keep smiling :)...............

sps.

What is the greatest pleasure on earth?
any guesses?.....

It depends on the situation we are into, and the state of mind that we are in, right?
I've heard two funny stories about the "greatest pleasure on earth", I'm not sure whether it's from some of the great writers whom I've never read of(in fact I don't read that much :)and I heard this from my friends).

story 1
when asked to someone the question about "what is the greatest pleasure on earth", he replied: A man with itching sensation helping himself to scratch it with a new sturdy cotton cloth which he's wearing.

story 2
A king was asked the same question and he answered that the greatest pleasure is on having his favourite food till he's full. On hearing this he was given his favorite dishes till full and was locked up in a room, after some time he had an urge to "shit", yes you read that correctly, I meant the same word shit. since his door was locked up he was running inside his room as a rat trapped inside a rat cage. At last some how he managed to get out and used the toilet as never before.
This poor fellow has later corrected his greatest pleasure as "going to the bathroom at the right time".


and here comes my own version of greatest pleasure....
wake up early in the morning(obviously with the help of alarm) walk around for some time to get the feel of cool air and the morning freshness.... then comeback to bed, fix the quilt and pillows, again gliding into sleep till the clock says 10. :)

First endeavour in acrylics.

This was the latest portrait I worked on. I'm not sure how much time I took for this to see in this condition. Unfortunately I don't have the photograph of the completed version.

water color

Searched to try with a palette knife, but couldn't get it. So tried with a fork! yes this painting was done with a fork and minimal use of brush :). The patterns created by the fork were excellent, next time I'll do one with a palette knife.

Shreya ghoshal

This post is special, because I've tried to post the content two times from my mobile but it didn't happen.  I'm trying this for the third time from my friends machine. Yes I'm coming to the post and the heading, it's Shreya ghoshal, actually I've kept a deadline to post a portrait of the blessed singer(in water colour) day before yesterday, but unfortunately as the postponding bug stuck me(as always)  I'm still looking at that unfinished portrait and biting my nails thinking when I'll finish it...

sps

Vrishchikoltsawam

Vrishchikoltsawam It happens on Nov-Dec, this year I'm planning for it(for those who do not have any idea of what I'm saying, here is the link Vrishchikoltsawam. It's a great source of inspiration, filling up with positive energy for rest of the year. In fact its a going back/remembering my old days, when I was a kid, used to travel holding tight around the neck of my uncle standing on his bicycle. To experience the concerts, panchavadyam, chendamelam, the view of Caparisoned elephants the heat from the pandams(you may not get this pic in google :)) held next to front of elephants and of course the smell of dust and dung :)(even after returning from the temple, that smell remains on the cloth). This time if I'm lucky enough, I'll make a blog marathon on this for sure :).

Inspiration

I was just going through drawing/sketching in about.com, there I found an interesting basic thing about how to hold pencils while drawing(yes its very important and here is the link how to hold pencil). While scanning through, I thought of my uncle who told me about this once,"see when you hold a full length pencil to its mid, you can move your wrists freely and have a more easy sketch than when you hold it in the writing position, for more control and detailing go for the writing position" when he told this I was not that mature enough to grasp it, he was not an artist, (I've never seen him even doodling anything) but I think he had a better understanding of 'how to do it' about almost anything.

Captain Jack Sparrow.

This work 'Captain Jack Sparrow', in total, has taken up more than 15hrs. And I'm happy with the way it came out. This was done in my sketchbook with pencils ranging from 2h-8b grades.

I'm searching for my next subject, needs to start one so that I can finish it at-least by next month

cute girl

she's special.
This is a sketch with ball point pen in simple paper.

sps.

wants

1. A good friend, it doesn't mean that I don't have any friends now, of course I do have friends. But most of the times we adjust to keep going. But this friend I'm talking about is something special.


2. To go for ride/trips once in every month in a Royal Enfield Thunderbird(with my friends :)).


3. A vacation in some places filled with 'natural' atmosphere (4-6 days at least). By natural I meant the people and the surroundings.


4. A room nicely ventilated in midst of trees, with a good music system and with right ambience to
   
   
   • work on my art.
   
   
   • read books.
   
   


5. One more room (:) ) well ventilated, cool, quiet and a calm one, with mud tiled flooring, for meditation.

these are the wants that I've in my mind now. Obviously, there are many more.....

sps

8 fears

It's almost 2 weeks since last post. I know I broke the rule of 10 day challenge...no explanations this time, anyway nobody is going to hang me :) and after all "rules are meant to be broken".
I've thought a lot to come up with fears and I couldn't count it to 8(again, rules...), so here is the list...

• I feared about loosing someone dear and near, I've lost my uncle and grandma couple of years back, it was tough but somehow I overcame that.


• Snakes, they scare me. I don't know why. Might be because of the conditioning from my childhood.


• Stage fright, of course I've it. It doesn't matter how well I prepare, I'll stammer in front of the crowd. Hope I can wipe it off by attending some workshops.(Don't think I'm giving quick fixes to the problems, when ever I think of stage fright this workshop idea comes to my mind :)....).


• I fear dependency not financial or emotional, but physical. I fear being bed ridden or living a life where I've to depend on others for everything. It's better to burn out than fade away. I would prefer death rather than being a vegetable.


• I'm not afraid of death, yes you read that right, I'm not afraid of death. Everyone dies, today or fifty years from now. so what does it matter. Its not about how long you live, its about how you live.

sps.

Necessity is the mother of invention!!!

Necessity is the mother of invention, and its true guys!!!

First of all I would like to introduce you to the famous breakfast recipe of "gods own country". Yes, most of you have guessed it right, and of course some might have got their mouth watered at the mere thought of it. For those visitors who are not familiar with this delicious thing please go through this link
Priya's Kitchen: Puttu or simply skip this post :).


Hope you've got an idea...


This was the puttu maker in our home, as we lost the perforated plate (chillu-which is an essential part that separates the dough from falling down) this poor thing was lying somewhere unnoticed for sometime. But one day we had a great urge to have puttu.


Man here comes the most used utensil in our room :) the 10 liter pressure cooker. From now on I'll say it in steps

• Filled 1/4 of the cooker with water and heated.
• We took one half of the coconut shell with the hole, filled it with some grated coconut first and then with the dough, closed it with the other half of the shell. 
• Carefully fixed the dough filled coconut shell to the cooker where we place the weight. Bingo!
• Waited sometime for the steam to come out in full swing. done!

The chirattaputtu is ready....



This was the final result. Our master chef was ready with mutton stew parallely. Even though it was late, some 12:30 or something @ night, we had a nice time and had a heavy dinner(we can have puttu as dinner also :) there's no harm in it even though it gets listed first in the breakfast list)

ps:I don't know whether we can patent this technology :(.

9-loves

I can say hundreds of loves in my life, but as the count restricts me to nine, I've done a little bit of sorting...

1. Home:I dont feel that good when I'm in my home. I prefer to be in my maternal home with bro, mom, dad, grandma, (grandpa expired before I was born) uncle, aunt, cousins.....
   This was the condition before some 4 years. But I still cherish those memories.....


2. Food: I was almost done with the editing for this part. But the 6th day of 10 day challenge says about food, so thought of posting it on that day :).


3. Movies: Yes I like movies, and prefer any thing that makes me laugh.(Why to spend money to cry?).


4. My art: It will be a repetation if I say something about it here. But even then I can't stop it, I love to hold a pencil and scibble something on a white sheet. I just love to do it :)
   Pencil : its one of the most familiar 'thing' in this world, for me as I'm handling it from my Kindergarden- oops its almost more than 20 years now!!!
   pls dont think too much, I'll share a list of familiar things in a post later.


5. Books: Nothing can replace a good read. I love to read books which can be easily understood and enjoyed... and again I dont like to waste time on reading some tragic stories hah....


6. Friends: I find myself in a stable energy level/state. And want to keep company of people with excited energy level.


7. Travel/Riding: Love to travel, not the artificial theme parks or concrete jungles... just to mingle with nature.


8. Music: Oh most of my loves are there as a days post in the 10day challenge, anyway I love to listen to soothing music.


9. I love to go for fishing not to get a big catch, but just for the fun of it...

And that was a bit about my loves....

sps

here comes the 10 day challenge

Yes its true :) I didn't post anything yesterday as I've boasted. But I can explain, for the first day challenge, the topic was '10-secrets about you' as Preeti has mentioned. And I don't have any 'secrets that can be shared' and its better to take those with me to my grave. After all if we share the secrets, they are no more secrets.
Confused!!! To make it simple no secrets as of now that's it :)...


sps

Take that First step

following the old post... I think I'm moving to bit philosophy, I started this blog actually to publish my works in graphite. But as I'm not finishing enough works to upload, I'm planning to utilize this space to improve my writing skills :). (Most of the works are unfinished because, either I loose the reference picture which I usually get from newspapers/magazines or I loose interest in working on them, don't ask why. May be, sometimes I could not produce the beauty of the subject as I had in my mind, so simply I drop those).
I've read about many blogger turned author stories, Preeti Shenoy- Just a mother of two, that's a good read. I've gone through one of her post, telling about a 10 day challenge.... and simply gave a second thought. So from today onwards for the next 10 days, I'm gonna post something. Hopefully as this blog does not have any traffic (and since there is a possibility of heavy traffic in future) I'm going to write my own version of 10 day challenge...

sps.

people

The thought of some people gives a seotonin(happy hormone) rush, while the thought of others makes us feel depressed and gives a sting of hatred. All this happens because of the experiences we had with them. I'm not discussing about the fair people around me, whom I had known for a long time. This is about the "sthayi bhavam", after all first impression is the best impression(its not so- at least for me). I've met lot of people with a facial expression that reflects 'all the troubles in the world is with them'. And I've also met people (note: who are not fair) but have a pleasant smiling face, oozing with confidence. I admire them and wonder what thoughts are going inside them. I wish I could chase them and learn how they maintain that bhavam. Its not the makeup, color or build that makes them stand out, but the mere pleasant mood. But how did they manage to get in that mood? and, remain in that mood through out? I'm still searching for the answer...

oil pastel

This was my first endeavor in oil pastel. It was a fast work, have not spend more time on this and wanted to complete it as soon as possible, (because if there are no timeline I may not finish this work aswell, I've lots of unfinished works in my list and doesn't wanted to addup this also). This was made on a sketchbook with camlin oil pastels.

There Comes Papa

Publishing an unfinished artwork, for me, is like taking an unborn from the womb. But I couldn't help this. lot of effort has gone for this, but unfortunately I couldn't complete the painting. And I'm sure that the paper might have lost its grip as this was done long time back and the photograph was clicked on Jan-2-2008(luckily I could make out from the properties of the image :)). This was done on simple chart paper, with water color. Here is the link for the original creator, Raja Ravi Varma.

vidya_balan.

in workshop, to make a portrait of vidyabalan.

Cherishing memories of a lifetime.