This short video, obtained from Youtube, is an animated compilation of potraits of women from the West over a period of 500 years and as captured during the different Art movements, starting from Renaissance and ending with Cubism and Surrealism.
Showing posts with label Painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Painting. Show all posts
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Random Thoughts and a Painting
Last year I picked up painting after a hiatus of six years. I painted very regularly during the entire spring and summer season. I was planning to start oil painting this spring. I can spend hours painting and totally lose myself to that imaginary world. I paint my feelings, anger, frustration and passion. Sometimes I paint my innermost feelings that I cannot articulate in words but it is well articulated in colors and forms. Now those of you who know me are going to start laughing because I talk non-stop, sometimes sense but most of the times nonsense. Anyway I am glad my livelihood doesn’t depend on this because I would have been starving right now. The last painting I did was way back in November of last year.
As I had mentioned earlier I have started a new job and one of the administrative staff member is an accomplished artist. She holds exhibitions and even takes commissions. She has a day job because that offers her a steady income, health and other benefits like 401K. I could go on about health care issues and retirement issues faced by the aging population but then that defeats the purpose of my blog, which is to be irreverent and write inane nonsense. Of course her style of painting is totally different than mine and so are her subjects. I however love her passion for it and the ability to do that ceremoniously every weekend.
Last evening before leaving work she came up to me and asked me if I had done something lately. I told her that I just don’t get into the mood these days and also I don’t have the time. She asked me with an incredulous look that how could I go on without painting? She said that I am wasting my talent by not doing it. I thought about it and realized that out of all my hobbies I have consistently painted. As a child I would paint everyday after I got home from school. My mother had with great affection collected all my work. When I got married, she had given it to my husband who in turn had kept it very carefully in his parent’s home. The infamous 2005 floods in Bombay destroyed all that. I was a little sad then but really didn’t think much about it because I still can paint and the floods did not wipe my ability. Last evening after speaking to the lady at my workplace, I realized that I have taken a lot of things in my life for granted including my art. I always took my parents and my sisters for granted and I realized their value after moving thousands of miles away from them. I have to find time now to paint. I did it last year so why should it change this year. I think it is all about efficient time management. Besides I don’t want to have any regrets later in my life.
I am sharing the above abstract painting that I painted in India several years ago. It was a hot summer day and I was particularly frustrated about a certain situation. I took my colors and randomly painted this piece. At the end of the exercise I was exhausted but my mind was at complete peace.
As I had mentioned earlier I have started a new job and one of the administrative staff member is an accomplished artist. She holds exhibitions and even takes commissions. She has a day job because that offers her a steady income, health and other benefits like 401K. I could go on about health care issues and retirement issues faced by the aging population but then that defeats the purpose of my blog, which is to be irreverent and write inane nonsense. Of course her style of painting is totally different than mine and so are her subjects. I however love her passion for it and the ability to do that ceremoniously every weekend.
Last evening before leaving work she came up to me and asked me if I had done something lately. I told her that I just don’t get into the mood these days and also I don’t have the time. She asked me with an incredulous look that how could I go on without painting? She said that I am wasting my talent by not doing it. I thought about it and realized that out of all my hobbies I have consistently painted. As a child I would paint everyday after I got home from school. My mother had with great affection collected all my work. When I got married, she had given it to my husband who in turn had kept it very carefully in his parent’s home. The infamous 2005 floods in Bombay destroyed all that. I was a little sad then but really didn’t think much about it because I still can paint and the floods did not wipe my ability. Last evening after speaking to the lady at my workplace, I realized that I have taken a lot of things in my life for granted including my art. I always took my parents and my sisters for granted and I realized their value after moving thousands of miles away from them. I have to find time now to paint. I did it last year so why should it change this year. I think it is all about efficient time management. Besides I don’t want to have any regrets later in my life.
I am sharing the above abstract painting that I painted in India several years ago. It was a hot summer day and I was particularly frustrated about a certain situation. I took my colors and randomly painted this piece. At the end of the exercise I was exhausted but my mind was at complete peace.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Monsoon in Panchgani
(To maintain anonymity on this blog, I have cropped off my name. This painting belongs to Sai Speak)
I had mentioned in my previous post that I have been cleaning up and organizing my stuff. I found this landscape that I had painted way back in August 1999 in Panchgani, which is a small hill station near Mumbai. This town is a plateau in the Sahyadri mountains that run across the State of Maharashtra. This town runs along the river Krishna. I had painted this early in the morning, using gouache and watercolors. I remember we were staying in a hotel overlooking the river. This was painted on a day when it was raining a lot and the river was very turbulent.
Panchgani is very close to Mahabaleshwar, which is another hill station. Both these small towns were developed by the British and have quaint colonial style architecture. It also has substantial Zorastrian (Parsee) population. This town is famous for their elite boarding schools as well. Speaking of which, one of my father-in-law's friends had their son studying in one of the schools. On this particular visit of ours, the friend was visiting her son as well. We bumped into her by chance and she insisted that we go and see her son and check out his school. K and I made up excuses but she didn't get the hint and literally dragged us to her son's school. The entire time K was grumbling to me about having to meet people and be forced to make small talk and hang out with them. I told him to grin and bear it. But as soon as we reached the school we were totally taken by the beauty of the surroundings. The school is nestled at the end of one mountain range and has the magnificent panoramic view of the mountains. The school had an ampitheatre which took advantage of the natural contours and dropped down to the stage that overlooked into a valley.
Monsoon in Panchgani is relentless. It doesn't rain heavily but there is a constant drizzle and the temperatures go as low as 50F (which is cold given the tropical location!). Anyway so we were at the top of the amphitheater and K wanted to check the view. I told him to not go further because I feared that there might be moss on the steps due to the moisture.
Typical K ignored me and ventured down the steps when he slipped on the moss, went for a toss and went tumbling down the steps. In full view of the principal of the school, our friend, her son and a few of his classmates, K screamed involuntarily "Mother F****!!!!! Oh F***!" The velocity with which he slid down the steps scared the hell out of me and I feared that he might just go over the railing and into the valley. Helplessly I along with the others watched him slide down the steps all the way to the bottom of the amphitheater. Miraculously he pulled himself up with minor bruises and screamed from the bottom of the steps, "Don't worry I am OK." He was fine the only thing bruised was his ego and few scratches on his arm! He was embarassed not only because of his fall but also the fact that he cussed! K rarely cusses and most certainly would watch his language in front of people he doesn't know at all! After ascertaining that he was indeed well I started laughing. I told K that he was concerned about making small talk with his father's friend, but after hearing him cuss and that too in front of her eight year old son, his few classmates and her son's school principal, his father's friend would most certainly not want to socialize with him for a pretty long time!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Spring cleaning....a painting and an anecdote
This year has been quite crazy season wise. It was rather warm in January and we had storm on last friday. Anyway this weekend I decided to clean up and organize my stuff. As I was rummaging through all my nonsense, I found this painting that I had painted about ten years ago.
K's father owns a weekend home by the sea in a small town near Bombay called Alibag. We used to spend go there every other weekends with our friends. His father's house was situated right on the beach but was seperated by sand dunes; therefore you couldn't see the sea from the home but could always hear it. Their house was designed in such a way that there were no proper doors or windows in the living and dining area so anyone could walk in and out! I always used to be nervous about the fact that the house could be easily be broken into but it was close to the village and those who are from that area will know that it is very safe place.
On one of our visits I set out early in the morning with my easel, paper and colors to paint the above landscape. While I was walking back home I saw a cobra slither past me into my father-in-law's property! I stood in my tracks frozen with fear, which was a good thing because I surely would have had a lethal dose of the venomous poison had I reacted. At that very moment I was trying to recollect the first aid tips that we were taught in school in an event of a snake bite. It is one thing recollecting first aid tips for your school test and another thing recollecting while watching a poisonous reptile slither in front of you, whose bite incidentally is very fatal! That night I slept with my one eye open.
K's father owns a weekend home by the sea in a small town near Bombay called Alibag. We used to spend go there every other weekends with our friends. His father's house was situated right on the beach but was seperated by sand dunes; therefore you couldn't see the sea from the home but could always hear it. Their house was designed in such a way that there were no proper doors or windows in the living and dining area so anyone could walk in and out! I always used to be nervous about the fact that the house could be easily be broken into but it was close to the village and those who are from that area will know that it is very safe place.
On one of our visits I set out early in the morning with my easel, paper and colors to paint the above landscape. While I was walking back home I saw a cobra slither past me into my father-in-law's property! I stood in my tracks frozen with fear, which was a good thing because I surely would have had a lethal dose of the venomous poison had I reacted. At that very moment I was trying to recollect the first aid tips that we were taught in school in an event of a snake bite. It is one thing recollecting first aid tips for your school test and another thing recollecting while watching a poisonous reptile slither in front of you, whose bite incidentally is very fatal! That night I slept with my one eye open.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Friday word: COLOR
I got the friday word from Mona's blog. I used to spell the word as C-O-L-O-U-R but since moving to the United States, spell it as above. “Manoeuvre” is now spelt as “maneuver,” “centre” as “center,” “kerb” as “curb” etc. Of course there are many more words but I am so brain-dead right now. Yes, people I do have a brain and you all thought that I was some vacuous blogger who wrote stories about her extremely boring and uneventful life. Well I do lead an extremely boring and uneventful life that it puts me to sleep as well. In fact the sure way for me to get sound sleep is to recollect the day’s events before going to bed and I am dead to the world! In fact I am yawning while typing this post.
Moving back to the friday word, I love colors but paradoxically my wardrobe is full of pieces in black and shades of grey. Therefore in conclusion, not only is my life boring but so is my wardrobe! The only thing colorful right now is my language. I had a post ready but the quirky and hungry blogger ate it up and it didn’t get published. I am too tired to write the post all over again. Normally I draft in Microsoft Word and cut and paste into blogger but I was lazy this evening; therefore serves me right!
I don't have any anecdotes or stories to share with the word "color." Since I will not cuss in a public forum hence there will be no colorful language in this post. I suck at poetry therefore will not have a lame-ass poem. The only other colorful things are my paintings, one of which I am sharing with you in this post. I painted this abstract representation of monsoon around ten years ago.
Those familiar with the Deccan area of India do know that summers are very hot and the overall landscape looks barren. With the advent of monsoon, however, it springs to life. There is nothing more pleasing to your senses than the fragrance of earth after the first shower. I absolutely love the monsoon season and this painting depicts my interpretation of the colors and moods of the season.
Moving back to the friday word, I love colors but paradoxically my wardrobe is full of pieces in black and shades of grey. Therefore in conclusion, not only is my life boring but so is my wardrobe! The only thing colorful right now is my language. I had a post ready but the quirky and hungry blogger ate it up and it didn’t get published. I am too tired to write the post all over again. Normally I draft in Microsoft Word and cut and paste into blogger but I was lazy this evening; therefore serves me right!
I don't have any anecdotes or stories to share with the word "color." Since I will not cuss in a public forum hence there will be no colorful language in this post. I suck at poetry therefore will not have a lame-ass poem. The only other colorful things are my paintings, one of which I am sharing with you in this post. I painted this abstract representation of monsoon around ten years ago.
Those familiar with the Deccan area of India do know that summers are very hot and the overall landscape looks barren. With the advent of monsoon, however, it springs to life. There is nothing more pleasing to your senses than the fragrance of earth after the first shower. I absolutely love the monsoon season and this painting depicts my interpretation of the colors and moods of the season.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Five things you did not know about me
I read Sanjay’s cool post about the five things about him that we did not know and thought perhaps I should do something similar. I know…I know this sounds self absorbed but anyway here are the five things about me that you did not know.
1. I am ambidextrous. I write with my left hand so it might seem that I am left-handed but in actuality I can write with both my hands. I however prefer writing with my left hand but use my right hand to chop vegetables etc.
2. I wear contact lenses and wear glasses at home and if I don’t have them on, everything around me is a blur. By my bedside table I have a pair of glasses at all times as I tend to remove my glasses and tend to forget where I put them last and of course since everything around me is a blur, I cannot find where the errant glasses might be!
3. I have a terrific memory for birthdays and phone numbers. I never need to write it in a diary, I can recollect every date. With the advent of cell phones, my memory for phone numbers is not as good as it used to be.
4. I am a Virgo and have typical traits like being a perfectionist, organized, emotional etc. There is one thing that most people don’t know and would never guess about me, is that my closet is very messy. I don’t organize my clothes as well as my books, documents etc. Yet in that chaos I always find things….cannot explain how that happens!
5. Although I am an extrovert and talk a lot, yet I am extremely shy and reticent in the matters of heart. When K and I became a couple, he came to see my parents with me. My mother had previously met K and knew who he was but my father was meeting him for the first time! My mother had been hospitalized and was convalescing. I remember K was nervous and had got her a bouquet of her favorite flowers. As soon as we walked in my parent’s home, I found my father’s older brother sitting there with his wife and son. I didn’t expect my uncle and his family to be there, who of course had come to see my mother. I got totally flustered and embarrassed and introduced K as "just someone I know from work." It shocked and offended K, because the prior week he had introduced me to every member of his family and friends as his fiancée! My parents were very surprised at me as well.
1. I am ambidextrous. I write with my left hand so it might seem that I am left-handed but in actuality I can write with both my hands. I however prefer writing with my left hand but use my right hand to chop vegetables etc.
2. I wear contact lenses and wear glasses at home and if I don’t have them on, everything around me is a blur. By my bedside table I have a pair of glasses at all times as I tend to remove my glasses and tend to forget where I put them last and of course since everything around me is a blur, I cannot find where the errant glasses might be!
3. I have a terrific memory for birthdays and phone numbers. I never need to write it in a diary, I can recollect every date. With the advent of cell phones, my memory for phone numbers is not as good as it used to be.
4. I am a Virgo and have typical traits like being a perfectionist, organized, emotional etc. There is one thing that most people don’t know and would never guess about me, is that my closet is very messy. I don’t organize my clothes as well as my books, documents etc. Yet in that chaos I always find things….cannot explain how that happens!
5. Although I am an extrovert and talk a lot, yet I am extremely shy and reticent in the matters of heart. When K and I became a couple, he came to see my parents with me. My mother had previously met K and knew who he was but my father was meeting him for the first time! My mother had been hospitalized and was convalescing. I remember K was nervous and had got her a bouquet of her favorite flowers. As soon as we walked in my parent’s home, I found my father’s older brother sitting there with his wife and son. I didn’t expect my uncle and his family to be there, who of course had come to see my mother. I got totally flustered and embarrassed and introduced K as "just someone I know from work." It shocked and offended K, because the prior week he had introduced me to every member of his family and friends as his fiancée! My parents were very surprised at me as well.
Among other things:
Here is a watercolor painting that I had painted sometime back.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Friday Word: Gold
Sanjay mentioned "Gold" as the Friday word. Here is my lame attempt at poetry (I know I suck but it's my blog so I shall do what I please). Unlike the previous one, this one is not poking fun at my spouse.
Golden rays of the dawn
Shining on your skin
The hope of new day
Past the darkness and despair
Move on to where you are set
Divinity showing you the path
Armed with experiences of yore
Making you wiser than before
Gold which is called “Kanaka,” “Survarna” in Sanskrit has a lot of significance in Hinduism. Also Ayurveda extols the virtue of gold. Wearing gold on your person is supposed to have a healthy and positive effect on the individual. Shree Suktam of Vedas is a hymn to Goddess Lakshmi; in that her brilliance is compared to the sun and one of the stanzas say that she shines like gold. This hymn is supposed to give peace, plenty and all around prosperity.
When I was studying Sanskrit in school, I used to be influenced a lot by the “Subhasheet mala,” which translates as “String of Good speech/thoughts.” There was one about gold which was rather poignant. I am writing the gist in English as I cannot write in Devanagari on this blog for two reasons; one that I do not have the font and the other is that I cannot remember it verbatim (Damn it I have been bugging my mother to put together and send me some basic Sanskrit books but she has been slacking off). Anyway it says that gold glitters so does brass, but then what is the difference between the two. When put to test under the fire, gold shines and comes out even brighter.
Among other things:
I love sunrise; the golden rays of light accompanied by the sweet scent of dew and the sound of birds chirping. It is such a treat to your senses. In India, I especially loved listening to the melodious cuckoo during the summer months. This along with the golden colored, succulent Alphonso mangoes made it worthwhile to endure the hot and humid summers!
I painted the above landscape a few months ago on a Sunday morning. K and I went biking on the trails. I had taken my easel and paints much to his amusement. Just so that he doesn't make fun of me later, I painted for an hour, early in the morning before biking. I also took a picture in the morning light and finished the rest from the picture in the afternoon.
If you have endured this blog and read so far then I am sorry for posting touchy blogs for the past few days. I promise you that I will soon be back to my irreverent self.
Golden rays of the dawn
Shining on your skin
The hope of new day
Past the darkness and despair
Move on to where you are set
Divinity showing you the path
Armed with experiences of yore
Making you wiser than before
Gold which is called “Kanaka,” “Survarna” in Sanskrit has a lot of significance in Hinduism. Also Ayurveda extols the virtue of gold. Wearing gold on your person is supposed to have a healthy and positive effect on the individual. Shree Suktam of Vedas is a hymn to Goddess Lakshmi; in that her brilliance is compared to the sun and one of the stanzas say that she shines like gold. This hymn is supposed to give peace, plenty and all around prosperity.
When I was studying Sanskrit in school, I used to be influenced a lot by the “Subhasheet mala,” which translates as “String of Good speech/thoughts.” There was one about gold which was rather poignant. I am writing the gist in English as I cannot write in Devanagari on this blog for two reasons; one that I do not have the font and the other is that I cannot remember it verbatim (Damn it I have been bugging my mother to put together and send me some basic Sanskrit books but she has been slacking off). Anyway it says that gold glitters so does brass, but then what is the difference between the two. When put to test under the fire, gold shines and comes out even brighter.
Among other things:
I love sunrise; the golden rays of light accompanied by the sweet scent of dew and the sound of birds chirping. It is such a treat to your senses. In India, I especially loved listening to the melodious cuckoo during the summer months. This along with the golden colored, succulent Alphonso mangoes made it worthwhile to endure the hot and humid summers!
I painted the above landscape a few months ago on a Sunday morning. K and I went biking on the trails. I had taken my easel and paints much to his amusement. Just so that he doesn't make fun of me later, I painted for an hour, early in the morning before biking. I also took a picture in the morning light and finished the rest from the picture in the afternoon.
If you have endured this blog and read so far then I am sorry for posting touchy blogs for the past few days. I promise you that I will soon be back to my irreverent self.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
My First Thanksgiving in the United States
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!Six years ago I was a first year graduate student. It was my first thanksgiving in the United States. The prior night my classmates and I had gone for a few drinks at this happening student joint in Ann Arbor and the next morning the entire campus was like a ghost town, barring a few international students like myself. I used to share an apartment; my roommate was staying behind as she didn’t have any family in the vicinity.
My mother had told me that one of my sister-in-law’s relatives (whom I knew very well) had an eligible brother who lived four hours away and was single. My sister-in-law suggested him to my mother and she wanted to know if he was a good prospective husband for my younger sister (I was married at that time with my husband living in India). If so, then my parents would broach the subject with my sister-in-law. As I mentioned above, I knew this guy’s sister very well, who is a very smart and intelligent career woman living in Bombay. She gave my mother this guy’s phone number who in turn gave it to me. I am an extrovert so I like calling people up and chatting with them. So I called him up and introduced myself and he said that his sister had mentioned that I would call etc. He was two years younger and we knew a lot of people in common so we established a rapport and we used to talk to each other pretty often. We were in touch since September so we were talking to each other over the phone for at least two months prior to the Thanksgiving break. He asked me to come and visit him during the break. I wasn’t comfortable to do that as I didn’t know the guy at all so instead invited him to stay with me for two days. I enjoyed talking to him over the phone and felt safe to invite him home especially since my roommate was going to be around and I wouldn’t be home alone.
Anyway I had told my roommate and my two other Indian friends why I was inviting this guy over. So he arrived on a Thursday morning and we had a pleasant lunch and I showed him around the campus etc. I don’t go by my married name so he wasn’t sure if I was the married sister or the single one! So I clarified and told him that I was the married one who was his sister's friend. Anyway we came back to the apartment and he asked me if I had any family photographs. I showed him everybody’s photo except my kid sister’s! My sister is very pretty and I want someone to like her for who she is and not how she looks. Anyway so he asked me, “Don’t you have a younger sister?” I replied that I did but I didn’t have her photograph on me (which was a lie).
I wanted to see how he reacts in social situations and with people whom his family does not know. Later in the evening we decided to have a small dinner get together and my roommate and I cooked and we invited two other Indian students, a guy and a girl. The girl is a typical Delhi girl. So let us call her “D.” D is a bindaas type person with a wacky sense of humor. This guy started hitting on her. He did that every time I wasn’t present in the room. It annoyed her to no end. He also made a ridiculous comment that was totally ungentlemanly. Fortunately at that time I entered the living room and heard it. I told him that this is totally uncalled for! D was ready to kill him by that time and told me that she would if he came anywhere close to her.
I shared a two-bed apartment. I had a room and my roommate had a separate room. We had put this guy up in the living room. Anyway my roommate came to me Friday evening and said, “I don’t know if you have noticed but this guy is really annoying.” I said yes I did notice and then asked her what happened. She said that he entered her room without knocking as the door was ajar. She was very uncomfortable in his presence and told me she thought that this guy was a creep and probably didn’t see so many women, who weren’t his sisters, in his life! I told her that she needs to calm down and I will get rid of him as soon as possible. Meanwhile I noticed that he was getting constant phone calls on his cell phone. He would excuse himself and leave the room. My roommate said to me, “what the hell is this all about.” He would return and tell us that someone from work called. We would all reply with a disinterested “u-huh.”
Anyway on Friday evening I told the guy that he should leave as early as he can on Saturday morning as I had to go to the library and do my research and that my roommate had to visit some relatives. He said that he would leave after we had lunch. I don’t think I could have endured him till lunch. So I lied, “Oh I am so sorry but I fast on Saturdays so you might have to get breakfast on your way.” Before leaving he tells me, “Oh by the way those constant calls weren’t from my office but from my girl friend living in Bangalore. She wanted to know if any of you girls were flirting with me.” I looked at him straight in the eye and told him point blank, “Well you need to assuage your girlfriend’s fears. I am married so I am out of the picture but I know for a fact that my two single girl friends wouldn’t look at you even if you were the last man alive on earth. I am most certain that they would die virgins than look at you.” Then he replies, “Oh come on Sai, can’t you take a joke?” I said that I understand jokes and have a sense of humor but he needs to first understand what sense of humor means before attempting to be humorous. I was so relieved when he left. As soon as his car left our apartment complex, my roommate and my friend D told me, please call your mom as soon as possible and tell her this guy is a total creep and that she shouldn’t even entertain him socially, forget about forging a relation!
Can you imagine how these people go to India, get engaged in fifteen days and get their brides to the US of A? In such situations they are on their best behavior so one cannot really guage how they actually are. Last I heard this guy did just that. He didn’t marry the girl from Bangalore but some girl from a small town in India and they are living happily ever after in the United States.
I am thankful for getting an opportunity to hang out with this guy and see how inappropriate he was as a prospective groom for my lovely sister and most importantly to be my brother-in-law!
Among other things:
I thought I might share this painting that I did a few months ago. It is from a photograph that my husband took when we visited Nrityagram, Bangalore a few years ago.
My mother had told me that one of my sister-in-law’s relatives (whom I knew very well) had an eligible brother who lived four hours away and was single. My sister-in-law suggested him to my mother and she wanted to know if he was a good prospective husband for my younger sister (I was married at that time with my husband living in India). If so, then my parents would broach the subject with my sister-in-law. As I mentioned above, I knew this guy’s sister very well, who is a very smart and intelligent career woman living in Bombay. She gave my mother this guy’s phone number who in turn gave it to me. I am an extrovert so I like calling people up and chatting with them. So I called him up and introduced myself and he said that his sister had mentioned that I would call etc. He was two years younger and we knew a lot of people in common so we established a rapport and we used to talk to each other pretty often. We were in touch since September so we were talking to each other over the phone for at least two months prior to the Thanksgiving break. He asked me to come and visit him during the break. I wasn’t comfortable to do that as I didn’t know the guy at all so instead invited him to stay with me for two days. I enjoyed talking to him over the phone and felt safe to invite him home especially since my roommate was going to be around and I wouldn’t be home alone.
Anyway I had told my roommate and my two other Indian friends why I was inviting this guy over. So he arrived on a Thursday morning and we had a pleasant lunch and I showed him around the campus etc. I don’t go by my married name so he wasn’t sure if I was the married sister or the single one! So I clarified and told him that I was the married one who was his sister's friend. Anyway we came back to the apartment and he asked me if I had any family photographs. I showed him everybody’s photo except my kid sister’s! My sister is very pretty and I want someone to like her for who she is and not how she looks. Anyway so he asked me, “Don’t you have a younger sister?” I replied that I did but I didn’t have her photograph on me (which was a lie).
I wanted to see how he reacts in social situations and with people whom his family does not know. Later in the evening we decided to have a small dinner get together and my roommate and I cooked and we invited two other Indian students, a guy and a girl. The girl is a typical Delhi girl. So let us call her “D.” D is a bindaas type person with a wacky sense of humor. This guy started hitting on her. He did that every time I wasn’t present in the room. It annoyed her to no end. He also made a ridiculous comment that was totally ungentlemanly. Fortunately at that time I entered the living room and heard it. I told him that this is totally uncalled for! D was ready to kill him by that time and told me that she would if he came anywhere close to her.
I shared a two-bed apartment. I had a room and my roommate had a separate room. We had put this guy up in the living room. Anyway my roommate came to me Friday evening and said, “I don’t know if you have noticed but this guy is really annoying.” I said yes I did notice and then asked her what happened. She said that he entered her room without knocking as the door was ajar. She was very uncomfortable in his presence and told me she thought that this guy was a creep and probably didn’t see so many women, who weren’t his sisters, in his life! I told her that she needs to calm down and I will get rid of him as soon as possible. Meanwhile I noticed that he was getting constant phone calls on his cell phone. He would excuse himself and leave the room. My roommate said to me, “what the hell is this all about.” He would return and tell us that someone from work called. We would all reply with a disinterested “u-huh.”
Anyway on Friday evening I told the guy that he should leave as early as he can on Saturday morning as I had to go to the library and do my research and that my roommate had to visit some relatives. He said that he would leave after we had lunch. I don’t think I could have endured him till lunch. So I lied, “Oh I am so sorry but I fast on Saturdays so you might have to get breakfast on your way.” Before leaving he tells me, “Oh by the way those constant calls weren’t from my office but from my girl friend living in Bangalore. She wanted to know if any of you girls were flirting with me.” I looked at him straight in the eye and told him point blank, “Well you need to assuage your girlfriend’s fears. I am married so I am out of the picture but I know for a fact that my two single girl friends wouldn’t look at you even if you were the last man alive on earth. I am most certain that they would die virgins than look at you.” Then he replies, “Oh come on Sai, can’t you take a joke?” I said that I understand jokes and have a sense of humor but he needs to first understand what sense of humor means before attempting to be humorous. I was so relieved when he left. As soon as his car left our apartment complex, my roommate and my friend D told me, please call your mom as soon as possible and tell her this guy is a total creep and that she shouldn’t even entertain him socially, forget about forging a relation!
Can you imagine how these people go to India, get engaged in fifteen days and get their brides to the US of A? In such situations they are on their best behavior so one cannot really guage how they actually are. Last I heard this guy did just that. He didn’t marry the girl from Bangalore but some girl from a small town in India and they are living happily ever after in the United States.
I am thankful for getting an opportunity to hang out with this guy and see how inappropriate he was as a prospective groom for my lovely sister and most importantly to be my brother-in-law!
Among other things:
I thought I might share this painting that I did a few months ago. It is from a photograph that my husband took when we visited Nrityagram, Bangalore a few years ago.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Abstract Art
I love painting….I love sketching and I LOVE colors. Anyway here is the abstract water color that I made for my cousin, who is an amazing person and whose wife is the sweetest, as a housewarming gift. I made two paintings for him; one a Ganesha and the other is this painting. His wife loves abstracts and requested one from me. Anyway I mailed the Ganesha a few months ago but had not completed this one then.
(This photo was taken right after completion. Since I took it, as opposed to the husband, there is no composition. Don't have patience for all that!)
My mother of course has to warn me with consequences, like she used to when I was a child, if I were to do kanjoosgiri (miserly behavior in Hindi) and embarrass her by sending it as is without framing! Of course in response, I get annoyed with her for even thinking that I would do something like that but the actual reason for my annoyance is that she knows me so well! By the way it's not kanjoosi but procrastination that is the culprit.
Anyway so I got it framed and have even packed it (keeping my fingers crossed) for mailing. The only challenge is that I have to overcome my inertia and go to the damn post office on a Saturday to mail it! I actually did overcome it last Saturday only to find that the post office was closed due to Veteran's Day. Anyway I must mail this before this year ends OR maybe I should have a new year resolution "I won't procrastinate in 2007." What do you think?
PS: If anyone cares or wants to know, this was done on a 300 lbs Arches hot press paper and the size is 11" by 14."
(This photo was taken right after completion. Since I took it, as opposed to the husband, there is no composition. Don't have patience for all that!)
My mother of course has to warn me with consequences, like she used to when I was a child, if I were to do kanjoosgiri (miserly behavior in Hindi) and embarrass her by sending it as is without framing! Of course in response, I get annoyed with her for even thinking that I would do something like that but the actual reason for my annoyance is that she knows me so well! By the way it's not kanjoosi but procrastination that is the culprit.
Anyway so I got it framed and have even packed it (keeping my fingers crossed) for mailing. The only challenge is that I have to overcome my inertia and go to the damn post office on a Saturday to mail it! I actually did overcome it last Saturday only to find that the post office was closed due to Veteran's Day. Anyway I must mail this before this year ends OR maybe I should have a new year resolution "I won't procrastinate in 2007." What do you think?
PS: If anyone cares or wants to know, this was done on a 300 lbs Arches hot press paper and the size is 11" by 14."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)