Bliss!

It’s exactly an year after we embarked on a wonderful little trip to Ladakh! The memories are still very fresh in my mind!


Lazy me … have been planning to write about the trip for an year. Only god and time know when I’ll really sit down and write about this trip!


For now, thought of uploading a few pics from the trip!

See here for a few more pics!
My Flickr set on Ladakh!

At the high altitude pang gong tso lake, which is partly in India and partly in China.

Pong gong tso lake

Zozila pass, near Srinagar

What will you do if there is a broken bridge ahead which blocks all the traffic for hours?

Will sleep anywhere!

We were down, but not out! The low oxygen levels at the high altitude passes took a big toll on us.

Yes, the next filling station was 365KM away. What would be your reaction if this guy tells you that his pump isn’t working!

Interesting section of road!

The spot where we were stuck as we couldn’t cross a heavy stream. We were stuck for several hours starting a cold evening till late night. Turned out to be the toughest night of the trip.

At the summit! Highest motorable road in the world

Blocked!

I have been wanting to try my hands on a photo documentary and saw a nice opportunity when Mercy akka decided to start her dream ‘Kundhavai’ tanjore painting project. Documenting the various steps involved in the making of a tanjore painting seemed to be an interesting project, and interesting it was!


Thanks to Mercy akka for all the co-operation and patience during the month long project. At times, she even waited for a few days before moving on to the next stage, so that I could capture the art work during all its intermediate stages. And thanks for this nice write up too. I’m going to use it here along side the photos!


Artist: Mercy GP
Text: Mercy GP

Tanjore paintings are a traditional Tamil art works that dates back to 1600 C.E. Nayaks of Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu of the bygone era were the chief patrons of this art. Tanjore paintings have a rich gold work with semiprecious / precious stones, vibrant colors, and a devotional composition. The themes of these paintings are usually limited to Hindu gods and goddesses, and saints. Bigger composition of these art works habitually includes a central figure for the core theme and episodes from Hindu mythology sprawling around that central deity. They are also referred as “palagai padam” (palagai – wood, padam – picture) as they are made in solid wooden planks. They involve various stages – Sketching, Relief Work, Gold Foil and Coloring.

Sketching

Plywood is used as the base which is covered with a fine cotton cloth by a water soluble adhesive. This will be followed by a thick coating of chalk powder or zinc oxide and Arabic gum. Base is allowed to dry well and mild abrasives are used to make a smooth base. After this, preliminary sketch is traced on to the base. Images need not be traced in detail to the board. The outline of the figure and layouts like the pillars and mandapams are enough to proceed. Details such as the ornaments and jewel are added in the next stage.

Relief Work

This stage is called as “muck work’ or “gesso work”, where the artist accentuates the details of the painting. Mix of chalk powder or zinc oxide and Arabic gum is used again for this stage. This mix could be liquid, semi liquid, or thick as dough for rotis. Based on the designs, artist would choose the type of the mix to be used. Inlay of stones and pearls can be decided now. Semiprecious Jaipur stones are stuck to the board at this stage. Precious stones and pearls are marked clearly and left for the final stage. Abrasives could be used to soften out the surfaces of the embossed reliefs. Threads or laces could be used to augment the effect of jewellery and the others.

Gold Foil

24 carat or 22 carat gold foil is used to ensure that the painting is a collector item and that it lasts for generations to become family heirlooms. Press the gold foil to take the impression of the relief works and are cut into that shape. These leaves will be glued to the reliefs with Arabic gum. Remove the gold foil pasted over the semi precious stones with a pin. After that black engineering pens are used to highlight the relief works over the gold.













Coloring

Set of poster colors are used for the painting. The depiction is motionless often. First the base colors are done followed by light and shades of it. The key figure gets painted first in skin tones as visualized by the artist. The colors of the background are vivid with a striking blue, red, or green. Sometimes dark brown is also used. Once coloring is dried, precious stones and pearls are stuck at the required places.

Some finished paintings:
















Some links:
Mercy’s blog
Mercy’s blog post on the Kundhavai project

My Christmas is all about being with the family and indulging myself in some good food! I have always been with the family for Christmas except one year when I was away in Gwalior doing my MTech.


Surprisingly, this year there were no fire crackers! The kids didn’t even bother to ask for it and on top of it fire crackers are not widely available in Chennai during Christmas! Hence, no one took the pain to search and buy it. So, without even realising it, as a family we have gone green this year!


Here are some photos from this Christmas (2009)!


The Kudil (Christmas Crib) that Amma made that fetched us the first prize in our Church!



Up close …



A scene depicting the Annunciation …



Up Close …



Sprouts – signifies new birth and hope



The greeting card designed by my niece Steffy






The crib at my Aunt’s home:

And a missing photo of the christmas tree presented by Poppy. I’m yet to click a photo of that. Will upload once it’s clicked!

Update
Here’s the photo:

Here is the list of clicks I did in 2009. This pretty much tells what I did in 2009 for I carried my camera everywhere I went except during my pilgrimage to Sabarimala.


1. Jan 1 – Bannerghatta zoo with the Moulis
2. Jan 3 – Clicked the finished Tanjore paintings done my Mercy akka
3. Jan 4 – Paintings again plus Vidya’s son’s 5th birthday party. I was the official photographer!
4. Jan 7 – Book release (The Cosmic Detective by Mani Bhowmick)
5. Jan 8 – Book release (Trina)
6. Jan 14 – Early morning trip to Hesaraghatta lake in search of spiders and dew drops. We found neither.
7. Jan 25 – Early morning shoot for Prem at the Besant Nagar beach, Chennai.
8. Jan 30,31 and Feb 1 – Trip to Alleppy and Kottayam, houseboat stay and Babu’s sister’s wedding
9. Feb 3 – Book release (True Dummy)
10. Feb 7 – Early morning BWS shoot at the Hebbal Lake
11. Feb 8 – Intach Parichay at Avenue Road
12. Feb 14 – Book release (Family Values by Abha Dawesar)
13. Feb 15 – Karthi and I clicked a few photos of ourselves at home
14. Feb 18 – Clicked how Karthi eats
15. Feb 19 – At office. The mastermind event where I won a laptop for winning the programing contest!
16. Feb 22 – Visited Babu’s sister at their Chennai home and clicked a few photos for them
17. Mar 7,8,9 – Bike trip to Belur, Halebeedu, Chikmagalur and Kemmanagundi
18. Mar 13 – Clicked the unpacking of Ubu – my laptop!
19. Mar 14 – Did a tabletop try with my abacus
20. Mar 21 – BWS shoot at city market. One of the photos from this shoot made it to the cover of TimeOut magazine
21. Mar 29 – Clicked the IT Corridor at night in Chennai
22. Mar 30 – Tried a small photo documentary on child labour using Steffy and Jeffrey as models
23. Apr 4 – Tried a few long exposures at home with Karthi as the model
24. Apr 8 – Last minute trip to Calicut with Babu
25. Apr 18 – Intach event at the Bangalore Fort
26. Apr 19 – Sankar’s house warming ceremony. Official photographer.
Ahh.. man this is becoming a long list!
27. Apr 21 – Babu’s wedding. Official photographer!
28. Apr 26 – Nagercoil. Johny’s first communion function.
29. May 5 – Clicked the little pretty chocolate wrapper doll done by Poppy
30. May 16 – Met the Muthiahs
31. May 28 – Kids day in office. Official photographer.
32. Jun 6 – Steffy, Jeffrey birthday in Chennai
33. Jun 24 to Jul 10 – the great Ladakh Bike Trip
34. Jul 25 – photoshoot for the Babus
35. Aug 2 – BWS Photo Chase and shot the olive and popeye done by Poppy
36. Aug 8 – Lalbagh Flower show
37. Aug 9 – Profile shoot of Snowy, my first Bonzai
38. Aug 13 – Book Release (If it is sweet by MIrdula Koshy)
39. Aug 16 – Revisited the Lalbagh Flower show
40. Aug 20 – Beer Bash (Oops .. IDC Bash) at office. Official Photographer.
41. Aug 21 – Team photo at office
42. Aug 23 – Dosai’s marriage in Chennai
43. Sep 6 – Clicked my mini garden
44. Sep 8 – Mini shoot for karthi
45. Sep 12 – Oracle Volunteers outing to Banneghatta Zoo with under privileged kids
46. Sep 16 – Book Release (No Money Marketing by Jessy Paul. NRN was there)
47. Sep 18 – Clicked a road block at BTM which appeared in DNA. Went to Bangalore Arts Festival.
48. Sep 20 – Intach Parichay at Devanahalli. Cycled to the destination along with Peevee.
49. Sep 27 – Bike trip to Le Pakshi temple
50. Oct 1 – Few clicks at home with Steffy
51. Oct 2 – Trip to Vandaloor Zoo in Chennai with family
52. Oct 3 – Met Srilatha in Chennai
53. Oct 4 – Trip to Hassan. Visited Ediyoor Temple on the way.
54. Oct 6 – Book Release (The Professional by Subroto Baggchi)
55. Oct 7 – BWS shoot at City Market
56. Oct 19 – Bike trip to Makedatu, Sivasamudram and Talakadu
57. Oct 24 – Tanjore Painting shoot
58. Oct 29 – Team photo for the AN team in office
59. Oct 31 – Intach Parichay at Cubbon Park
60. Nov 8 – Clicked the flooded streets of Thoraipakkam in Chennai
61. Nov 13 – Clicked Snowy who was in full bloom!
62. Nov 15 – Tanjore Painting shoot
63. Nov 17 – Tanjore Painting shoot. Started the Kondhavai project.
64. Nov 24 – Tanjore Painting shoot
65. Nov 28 – Tanjore Painting shoot. Poppy starts learning photography!
66. Nov 29 – Intach Parichay at Begur.
67. Dec 1 – Tanjore Painting shoot
68. Dec 7 – Tanjore Painting shoot
69. Dec 12, 13 – Mangalore trip for Kambala
70. Dec 22 – Tanjore Painting shoot
71. Dec 24 – X-mas shoot at home in Chennai
72. Dec 25 – Shoot for the kids, akka and athaan
73. Dec 27, 28 – Jeni’s Wedding
74. Dec 31 – Tanjore Painting shoot

Kambala is the traditional buffalo race held in Coastal Karnataka region. Have been wanting to go and see this sport for a long time. Will not miss it out this year.


Wikipedia has done a good job explaining this spot. So I won’t do it again! Here’s is what wikipedia says:

Kambala is traditionally a simple sport. The ‘track’ used for Kambala is a paddy field filled with slush. The contest generally takes place between two pairs of buffaloes, controlled by a whip-lashing farmer. In olden days, the winning pair of buffaloes were rewarded with coconuts and a bunch of plantains. But, Kambala today has become an organised,professional sports. People place massive amounts of bets on the winning buffaloes and one can witness more than 20,000 spectators in a well organised Kambala, egging and cheering the buffaloes to complete the race. As of now, more than 45 races are held annually in Coastal Karnataka. Nearly 18 kambalas are held under the banner of Kambala Samithi and the rest are held under the auspices of temples and political patronage. Kambala still remains a hugely popular sport in Coastal Karnataka.

Here is the calendar of events for the 2009-10 season. Thanks to Sowmya for getting this.


5-Dec-09 – Shirva – Udupi
12-Dec-09 – Baraadi – Karkala
19-Dec-09 – Katpadi – Udupi
26-Dec-09 – Mulki – Mangalore
2- Jan-10 – Ikala Bava – Mangalore
9-Jan-10 – Miyaru – Karkala
15-Jan-10 – Nandhikuru – Udupi
23-Jan-10 – Moodbidre
30-Jan-10 – Barkuru – Udupi , near Kundapura
7-Feb-10 – Venuru – Beltangdi, near Dharmastala
13-Feb-10 – Pilikula – Mangalore
20-feb-10- Pajeer – Bantvala
26-Feb-10 – Eedhu – Karkala
3-Mar-10 – Puttur
10-Mar-10 – Uppinangadi


Moodbidre, Karkala & Puttur Kambala’s are very famous and are supposed to be good.

The Bangalore edition of DNA carried one of my photos on Tues, 22-Sep-2009 in their iPic section:

The actual photo:

Was at the launch of the book “No Money Marketing” authored by Ms Jessie Paul, CMO of Wipro’s IT business. The special thing that pulled in the extra attendance for the launch was the presence of Mr. N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys. Girish Paranjpe, Jt CEO IT Wipro was also present for the launch.


The lighthearted attempts by NRN to claim that Jessie is an Infoscion and by Girish that she’s a Wiproite was enjoyable!



Here are some snaps from the launch:

Here’s the books website:
http://www.nomoneymarketing.org/

Author’s blog:
http://www.jessiepaul.com/