A Hand Sculpted House in Rishikesh

Came to know about Tiny Farm Lab today and the hand made house they built in Rishikesh.

“Inspired by the birds, bees, and termites,
we wanted to create something sacred with our hands..”

— Tiny Farm Lab

“No one involved in making the house was an architect or an artist, and yet what they created proves otherwise. They say form follows function, but in our case, the form follows the community,”

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?

Dubai Diary

Alo readers!

Last month, Wingify, where I work as a culture designer, took everyone (~170 people) on our annual 3 nights, 4 day vacation to Dubai. Since I was responsible for planning the entire trip and ensuring that everyone has an amazing time, it was less of a vacation for me and more of living a partial panic attack, but we made it back! yay! 

There were tons of people for whom this was the first international trip and seeing their smiles as they got their passports stamped for the first time was the warmest feeling ever! 

One of the moments firmly etched in my mind is of the first day when the music stopped playing on our Dhow and we were gently floating on the marina as the evening prayers rolled in from the nearby mosque. 

One could hear faint chatter but mostly the water rappling along and it was a sight to see. 

Floating on the Dubai marina on a dhow as the evening prayers roll in.

Although I haven't done travel sketching before, I was eager to try this time. So I took a cute notebook and some colours along. These are some of the dispatches from the trip and some pages of my diary that I managed to work on during the trip. 

We had our eyes set on Kinokuniya, a bookstore in Dubai mall and I specifically wanted a large roll of good black paper and was hoping to return back with a lot of colour sets and stationary. However, their stationary was sealed mostly and there were no pens and colours for trial. Even the sketchbooks were sealed and I couldn't touch and feel the paper. 

So I was more cautious than I would've been and hauled back these ones! 

There weren't a lot of pictures I clicked as I was busy sketching wherever we got some time to ourselves. But hey, no complaints! I was awake till 2-3 AM on most nights of the trip and that itself deserves a victory pat on the back :) 

Till next time!