Month: March 2004

The journey of a 1000 steps

Published by Anita

In my six years and a half years in Mumbai, I have never been to Kihim beach. So when the opportunity cropped up, I decided to grab it. We reached our destination – Danny’s bungalow on Kihim beach – on Saturday evening at about 6.00 p.m. The bungalow, also goes by the more glamorous name of Sea Castle. The accomodation is pretty basic but clean. Dhiraj creates an interesting, albeit unintended effect while taking this picture, as we sit around gup-shupping! After dinner, we went for a midnight walk and admired other people’s beautiful beachside bungalows. Dhiraj nearly went off to sleep on the beach until we reminded him of painful crab bites. Came back to Sea Castle and had some totally strange conversations, but at that time of the night, anything goes. Then chatted with Lynn till the wee hours of the morning about womanly things (all the stuff you can’t talk to men about!). Any other Sunday morning, I’d be dead to the world at 7.00 am. But this Sunday, I was up …

SMS for a smile

Published by Anita

I was flipping through the papers yesterday, and stopped by the movies section to find out what was running. Must watch Mona Lisa Smile and Mystic River I noted to myself. Later in the day, I got an SMS from a friend asking if I wanted to go for Mona Lisa Smile. It hasn’t gotten very good reviews (and that’s putting it mildly), but I rather enjoyed the movie starring Julia Roberts, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Kirsten Dunst. It had its moments. Though I don’t think the Americans quite liked being made fun of what they were like in the 1950s. The Italian professor (Dominic West) is rather dishy. Quite sadly, he turns out to be a lying dish. Why do all these dishes have to turn out either to be adulterous, lying or dead? Sigh. Like in Cold Mountain, where Jude Law crosses the cold mountains only to die in the hands of his beloved at the very end. Just the moment when he should have been alive! Arrghh. Some moments later, we …

Who’s the cutest of ’em all?

Published by Anita

This is one of my favourite pictures of Kit Kit. I was arranging these toys on the table when she jumped up and sat right in the middle as if to say, “Look, I’m much cuter than all of them!” I know I’m biased, but isn’t she?! Knowing my weakness for feline creatures, my sister sent me this card recently. I know Kit Kit’s going to be really jealous, but I wish they were all mine!

Now for some art…

Published by Anita

I love working in acrylics, since it’s a pretty flexible medium. And plus there’s lots of room for error. You can cover up your boo-boos quickly and rework portions you’re unhappy with. But transparent watercolours, which I’ve been trying to get a hang of lately, is a totally different ballgame. One error and your whole effort goes down the drain. This particular characteristic hasn’t warmed me to this medium! I’ve been really frustrated the last few months. Besides the fact that I’ve hardly practised. But, never the less, I can’t be blamed for not trying! This one was done from an actual arrangement (which was also my handiwork 🙂 The yellow gladioli didn’t turn out very well, but I was relatively happy with the red flower and pink flower and the vase. (Flowers, by the way, look deceptively simple, but are tough to paint in watercolours.) This one was basically an experiment in light and shadow. If you look closely, the shadow of the foliage falls both on the wall and the door creating an …

From the other side

Published by Anita

We had Yardboy, who ditched us and went back to his home country. We have Nancy Gandhi who writes evocatively about life in Chennai as an outsider. Here are two more to add to the list. India from another perspective. Daniel Brett, ‘the sahib of behala’ and Sonia Toor, a ‘British Indian in Bombay’ (Sonia, you should get a blog!) (And thanks to Nancy, I know what I’m having for lunch today!)