Weekly Notes: 2/52

This entire week went in a blur. Infact, on Wednesday/Thursday, I did catch myself confused about the status of these weekly notes because I knew a lot wouldn’t have been achieved worth writing about.

But a life was lived and it deserves a mark.

  1. On Sunday, during the time when Orbit was getting her wash done, I went to catch the exhibition of the books of Kohei Sugiura. I was utterly disappointed because nothing could be touched! Imagine hundreds of books laid out in front of you designed by one of the most prolific designers and you can’t flip a page. It was crowded but surreal because people were craning their necks to look around the books to catch a glimpse of inspiration but I could see that everyone was disappointed.
    Luckily, I was present there on Friday when the exhibit opened and was able to flip a few magazines over before taking the wrong decision to come back later for a more peaceful preview.

2. At Anomalie Tattoo Co, I’ve decided to use this year to be intentionally present at events so a couple of days were spent in talking to some upcoming events and adding our new designs to the website. Everyday, I discover atleast 2-3 new things we can be doing with Anomalie Tattoo Co and discovering about it just lifts my spirits. I think this is what happens when your soul is aligned with the work you do and I consider myself lucked out that I am getting to build this little brand.

3. Paras’s parents arrived in the middle of the week and we took them to Toast and Tonic, a place that I’ve grown to enjoy not only for their drinks but also for their food. His mom doesn’t like cocktails a lot but she thoroughly relished the Herbalist - one of their signature drinks.

4. On Friday, we left for Coorg for a two-night stay with them and I am typing this weekly note from Coorg. This entire week, I had troubled sleep paired with pains and aches sprouting from random places and somehow I have managed to catch up on my sleep. I do need to go for a full body test once I am back in Bangalore because I feel bloated and not super energetic.

5. While in Coorg, I unfolded the inner immature flower-spotter in me and whipped out my favourite app to identify flowers. Here are a few of the species I saw.

This was this week and hope that the pace picks up a little next week.

Weekly Notes: 1/52

The first week of the year flew by quicker than one could blink. This year, it is one of my deep wishes for myself to take focus away from the instant updates on social platforms and direct that energy into filling the pages of my blog. Just like the old days :)

I spent the last week of 2024 in Goa with friends and it seemed like a lesson in Murphy’s laws - tilting towards the bad side. Everyone got the flu and I had a panic/anxiety/heartburn because of all the lack of sleep and black coffee consumption. So I have stepped into the new year a little wiser for limiting my coffee intake specially when I am sleep deprived.

  1. I have been reading The Other Side - a documentation and revealing of artists that leaned into their spirituality to create art. I have been making meditation drawings for over five years now. Something that I started making at a low point in life and have always assumed them to be non publishable pieces. The drawings are tiny to begin with and with no text around them, hard to understand by anyone other than me. This book gives me courage to continue my practice.

2. On the 1st January, while we were taking our flight back to Bangalore with problematic throats and cold, Nishita hosted her friends at home for an art party and they played around with an Anomalie tattoo she designed. It always feels nice to see people wearing these tattoos. Watching people look at a design and feel that it is a part of their identity gives me goosebumps!

Nishita’s friends sporting the tattoo she designed. You can get the tattoo here —> https://www.anomalietattoo.com/products/brown-kudi-temporary-tattoo

3. I came home to a pending list of dispatches I had to do for our upcoming collab with the Kairo Store - a brand whose tees I have really liked and we made a cute little postcard to send along our tattoos.

4. Visited an exhibit by Prof Kohei Sugiura where almost 100 of his designed books were on display with Noopur and Rasagy. The exhibit was so full that all of us decided to revisit it to actually enjoy seeing the books properly.

Noopur, Rasagy, Kenneth and Garima came home and we chatted and ate idlis and chikkis. Noopur gifted me the cutest hand made sweater, this graphic novel and a postcard and Garima and Rasagy gave a little working camera that fits in my palm. I have been blessed with friends who take so much time and effort to think of the most beautiful gifts and I do feel I need to make a zine of all the little gifts I keep receiving.

5. Started working on a book illustration project that I need to complete by this month and when I printed the existing illustrations, I figured that the readability was an issue so I need to redo everything I’ve done so far!

6. In the evening, Niramayee came over to hand deliver my belated most thoughtful birthday gifts (which featured this graphic novel) and by that point, I was just reflecting on all the good energy of this tribe around me. There’s something about sitting with classmates that lights a warm glowy bulb inside one’s head. The laughter comes so naturally and easily :) Oh, Rashmi brought flowers to the mix!

Ending the weekly notes with these are two sunsets. One is 31 December, 2024 and the second is 4 January, 2025

This Week In The Studio 26/2024

I slipped in my reporting for last two weeks but a great side effect of writing these weekly notes was that I had that nagging feeling at the back of my head reminding me of my slippage.

There was a tiny lesson that my piano instructor told me about that fits here.

He said, when we usually get stuck on a part of a melody, we try to start from the beginning of the tune to resume practice again and again. Instead of that, consider the sheet music like a map. When you get stuck in on a junction, just practice going around that junction and move forward. Don’t go back to the beginning of the map and restart from the beginning.

It didn’t feel like much of an advice when I heard it, but when I put it to use, it was gold! So here I am, starting from where I left my weekly notes.

This week in the studio

  1. On Saturday, I logged in to Instagram in the morning to see Harshita’s pictures of the Anomalie Tattoos she had ordered. I already love her current permanent floral tattoos on her arms and the pansies were fitting in so beautifully. When friends find the time to click aesthetic images for your baby brand, I file it under ‘love language’.

2. On Saturday, my godchild returned from her drawing class with a gorgeous surrealistic drawing where she imaged her family as animals and sketched the composition over 12 days. Both - the drawing and her creativity inspired me to pick up my sketch pencils after a week to draw out a composition. Spent a large part of Saturday with Pooja and Deepika and loved hanging out with them after months.

3. I devoured Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors on Saturday all through Sunday. It was one of those books for which I woke up at 4 AM just to relish the last 50 pages in absolute silence of the breaking dawn.

4. After a hiatus of perhaps a decade, on Sunday, I booked a movie ticket just for myself to watch Inside Out -2. I am deeply interested in movies and it is one of the pleasures for me that I delight in partaking solo. I used to constantly go for movies alone while in college and somehow, that practice kept slipping away from me. Felt real good because the movie was also great and I was able to connect to a past version of myself that I believed I had lost.

5. In the last update, I was able to play a rhyme on the piano after reading to sheet music. It is the old, trusty Old MacDonald and I was giddy enough to record it and spam friends and family with it.

Rest of the week has been work mostly and I might have some interesting updates in the coming week regarding that.

This week in the studio 22/2024

This entire week was a miracle of a kind. The last week as Friday started approaching on the calendar, I started feeling that despair one gets at the beginning of a flu. When upon waking up, you know in your tired muscles that something isn’t right and that an ailment is imminent - that dread was all over me in the beginning of last week.

Keeping up with it, I did succumb to some flu or a bug that rendered me completely useless for the most part of the last week. On Friday, there was travel planned to Bhutan and even till Thursday evening, I was quite unsure on whether I’ll be able to get up from my bed at all in Bhutan - let alone do hikes and visit monasteries.

I told all the friends who asked to pray for me (one of the firsts) so I could enjoy my holiday and Namrata, who had given me tips on Bhutan promptly replied saying the landscape will heal me.

This week in the studio:

  1. On Friday, Anomalie Tattoos opened up our first physical booth in collaboration with Stab Therapy tattoos at the AYCS, Mumbai. Sending our stock to Mumbai, preparing for the tattoos for display and finally making it to the booth was an experience in itself. When I started receiving pictures of people putting up our tattoos, I couldn’t help but watch the little videos on repeat.

  2. It was on Friday also that I took the flight to Paro, Bhutan from Kolkata with Paras for a 5 night, 6 day stay in Bhutan. I had done some preparation by reading this book written by the Queen Mother, Treasures Of The Thunder Dragon the previous week. Reading about a culture before I had the opportunity to experience it proved to be an eye opener for me. I was able to follow the stories and the gravity of rituals as our guide was explaining and as a practice, if I can continue to do the same pre-work prior to all my travels, I’ll be enriching my experience manyfold.

  3. First day in Bhutan was eventful as we managed to see a 15th century monastery connected with a 600 year old bridge, confluence of two rivers, ate my first Ema datshi with fried rice (Bhutan’s National Dish), witnessed the surreal Buddha Dordenma statue, went to a Takin reserve (Bhutan’s National Animal) and wrapped up the day by going to a local pub where a fantastic band was playing! I admit even writing this down is unbelievable because I have become a one-outdoor activity per day kind of person, but given that we weren’t making decisions on the next stop and had an excellent guide plus that sweet sweet mountain air, we did get carried away.

  4. On Saturday, it was time to move to Punakha and the founder of the travel agency had invited a bunch of people travelling through their agency for a local lunch at his home. I met three women travellers during the lunch, one of whom had come from Nepal having finished the trek to Everest Base Camp and the ATC trail. It was quite inspiring to hear her stories. I also had my first butter tea and fresh cheese momos in the country.

  5. On Saturday, after reaching Punakha, I had requested a session with a monk and we met up with Monk Kinley Wangchuk. For about an hour and a half, I heard Buddhist philosophy and teachings by him on the subjectivity of our gaze and Buddhist thoughts on eating meat, how to live a Buddhist life without becoming a monk.

  6. The highlight of Sunday was waking up in the mountains of Punakha and getting to finish a small drawing before starting the day. I had taken my entire set of 72 coloured pencils and getting in a drawing while having a great coffee with a view made it worthwhile.

  7. While sightseeing happened over the course of the next few days and I was lucky to visit some key places in Punakha such as the Punakha dzong, the suspension bridge and a gorgeous nunnery before leaving drenched in rains.

  8. On the last day in Bhutan, the trek to Tiger’s Nest was a highlight that trumped over the entire stay. Done over 7 hours and to an elevation of 10,000 ft above sea level. It was physically the most exhausting thing I had undertaken ever and during the descent, there came a time when my fingers were completely cold and my right foot was shaking uncontrollably. I have seen movies where a transformative journey takes place through a taxing trek and I did come close to understanding the feeling. I have more written in my journal about the trek. Till three days after the trek, I was limping with sore legs and now that the soreness has subsided, I can look back at the journey and understand how in its beauty, it had the potential for healing.

  9. Reading Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami has been an experience that I can only describe as floating over an endless shallow river. How are Japanese writers able to movie so swiftly through dreams and reality? Is it the closeness to nature? Or is the DNA of the literature?


21 days of meditation drawings

I have a selfish relationship with meditation. A little too selfish. Whenever I am in a deep rut, I run to it like a fish without water. I would meditate for an hour, sleep with meditation music on, take frequent breaks to tune into 5 minutes of guided meditations. You get the drift.

It works too. I feel connected to myself, my deepest sense of existence and I am able to tap into some unknown source of stability that is usually able to drag me out of dark places.

However, I also know that in order to nourish a mindspace where its easier to respond to emotions, this streak of selfish meditations must give way to a continuous practise.

Sometime in late 2020 though, I started drawing immediately after a meditation session. With no expectation of form and shape, I was able to return to a pure play of colour. Sometimes I would draw the shapes I saw when my eyes were closed during meditation and sometimes I would draw along as a guided meditation played along.

Today, as I was listening to my favourite Buddhist teacher on YouTube: Nick Keomahavong, he suggested to use chanting as a way of meditation. He also suggested to try chanting for 21 days to reap the benefits.

I immediately reflected back to my days of drawing my meditations and how I loved the process of a quiet reflection looking internally and then putting to paper forms and colours that I experienced during the process.

I want to go back to the same feeling and hence, this project. 21 days of meditation drawings.

A drawing from the book Tantra Song - one of the only books to survey the elusive tradition of abstract Tantric painting from Rajasthan, India—sold out in a swift six weeks. Rendered by hand on found pieces of paper and used primarily for meditation, the works depict deities as geometric, vividly hued shapes and mark a clear departure from Tantric art’s better-known figurative styles. They also resonate uncannily with lineages of twentieth-century art—from the Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism to Minimalism—as well as with much painting today. Rarely have the ancient and the modern come together so fluidly. Read more about these meditation paintings here

Week 24: The year is half empty or half full?

A numbered list of stuff I was upto this week

  1. Watched three and a half movies

    1. The Personal History of David Copperfield (couldn’t finish, found it a little too obnoxious for my taste.)

    2. Amal: Liked the story and the situations the characters find themselves in. Couldn't find the diction of the leading character matching the language of the city the film is based in. Found it uncanny. Enjoyed the film nonetheless.

    3. A Woman in Berlin: Got to know about this aspect of the second world war. Based on a book by the same name, the movie speaks about the time when the Soviet army occupied Berlin during the tail end of WW|| and raping women in Berlin as victory hauls. A moving film that did justice to both sides of the story.

      More can be read here -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Germany

    4. Shiva Baby: Gorgeous movie set in a single day. A bi-sexual girl fighting her emotions about her sugar daddy. Loved all performances!

  2. Tried some experiments in the kitchen, thanks to a gift I got: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

    1. Made peach syrup for the first time. 5 peaches boiled with loads of jaggery to be mixed with soda for spritzers/lemonades

    2. Did the prep for Cherry infused gin and it should take 20 more days to be ready.

  3. Lost a wisdom tooth :(

  4. Worked a lot. Which explains why this list is so short.

  5. Have set aside a budget for trauma therapy for girls between the ages of 15-25 who lost a parent to Covid19. Really hoping it helps someone.

From the studio: The week of intention

I started 2020 with a big resolve and ambition. To not overthink and just create indiscriminately. At the beginning of the year, I was able to blog for 15 odd days when the reality of Covid hit all of us — indiscriminately.

For the longest part of the initial months of lockdown, I was turbocharged into the black hole of domestic work and just trying to survive with my cooking. I saw with my eyes, dust settling in crevices that I turned a blind eye to, some cob webs getting larger and small hillocks of dishes and unironed clothes got bigger.

Now, it is almost the end of this year and I wanted to pick up the pieces again and hobble along.

This is what happened in the studio this week:

  • My endometriosis flared up along with a continuation of the flu. I got tested for Covid-19 and while the test came negative, the healthcare worker conducting the test drove the swab so deep that it hit a nerve behind my eye and there was an additional eye to nurse along with my broken body. It was difficult sitting down for more than 20 minutes at a stretch, it was difficult walking, back and knee were sore and my spirits were really rock bottom.

    Its when I am completely down and about, there wakes up a part of me that wants to rebel against my own body. I usually crash early and wake up early and head straight to the studio table. This collage is a product of that rebellion.

  • Watched HillBilly Elegy - a movie based on a book I wanted to read but just didn’t get the time. The performances shook me and I did move back and forth from my childhood to the present moment.

  • Also binged on Dash and Lily. Am I ashamed of binging on teenage romance? Never!

  • I have been reading Lust for Life, a biographical novel written in 1934 by Irving Stone on the life of Vincent Van Gogh. I have a very battered copy of it and some of the pages keep jumping out of the binding no matter how delicately I handle the book. I find the writing lucid and find it hard to not daydream about the time when Vincent wasn’t the most famous Van Gogh.

  • This week, I worked on an original drawing of an attention map made with my own words. After drawing a lot with other (wiser) people’s words, writing my own was fun.

  • To end, I am attaching a few pictures of another sketchbook where I spent most of 21st November with.

About the ‘From the Studio’

This is a letter that I intend to publish every Sunday. My wish is not only to look backwards in reflection but to use the reflection as a guiding principle for the next week. I am impacted by influences every moment of the day — literature, spoken word, cinema, fellow humans and my work. I am hoping to use this space as the vessel to share all the beauty I found in the world that week.

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