Whats with the number anyway! :)

I just realised there have been 49 posts this year, the maximum for any year since the time I started the blog. One of the reasons for the higher number of posts be that I did a blog marathon- one post a day- mid this year and also tried to post some interesting stuff from the travels.
I now feel I want to hit the half century post mark for this year! (Whats with the number right? Well, why not please myself with the numbers as well!)
Yaaaay to the 50th post of the year! :D

So wishing everyone on the blogosphere a very happy new year!  :)

Wish list for the coming year...

• Lots of love
• Good health, for all my near and dear ones as well.
• Peace of mind! 
• Travel for pleasure
• Some good books read
• Creative satisfaction - will I finally write that book? :)
• Memorable conversations with friends
• A new skill acquired. 
• Maintain a healthy weight, some kilos lost would not be missed.. :P
• Loads of positivity
• Some fun, some celebrations.
• Some good job done..
• Watch some great, good and some not so good movies! :)
• Learn a new language - may be an Indian language. 
• Blog more!

Happy 2013! :)

Oh my god!

Watched the hindi movie - "Oh my god!". It was quite entertaining, a novel idea - a middle class businessman in Mumbai trying to get his insurance amount cleared after his shop collapses after an earthquake, but the insurance company denies the claim as they do not cover losses caused by "act of god"! How this man wages a legal battle to get his claim is the story. Although it is not completely convincingly translated on the screen. There seem to be some logical loopholes.
Paresh Rawal does a good job as an atheist businessman. Akshay Kumar looks good, but is more a bollywood hero, than the lord Krishna he plays in the movie. "Govinda ala re" song is peppy and Prabhu Deva with the unconventional choreography has done a good job, but you keep wondering why it is in the movie in the first place!
Overall something refreshingly "hatke" for a bollywood movie! One time watch. Recommend it. 

Newspapers? No, thanks!

Reading newspapers used to be a fun thing to do early in the morning over the weekends. But these days, I avoid the newspaper as long as possible during the mornings and read them only around noon, that too because I feel a day at home is incomplete without reading the damn newspaper. It is no fun reading reams of pages reporting crime! Such a sad state of affairs! Even the supplements cant lure me to picking the newspapers up and reading.

 I hope the coming year, brings in a new hope for a better and safer society, where people behave. And those who don’t, are punished on time. I hope more children get educated and more people get employed or create employment opportunities for themselves and others, women get more involved and have an equal say in building the family, community and the country.  

And hope all the positivity will get reported and make me want to pick up the newspaper in the morning and want to know what is up with the world again!

Poochampalli sarees...

As a kid I was fond of one of my mothers silk sarees because of its patterns. As an adolescent I got to know that it was called the Poochampalli design.
Usually silk sarees have the patterns done in gold color threads but the silk sarees with the Poochampalli seem more vibrant and patterns are in several colors. Poochampalli designs are also available in cotton and other kinds of sarees.
I like the angular patterns and it is my favorite among all the other kinds of sarees.

My pencil sketch of a Poochampalli pattern:

One of my mother's Poochampalli sarees:

Some chairs now!

Tried my hand at sketching some furniture...

Pencil sketches!

I have been interested in pencil sketches for some time now. I used to do sketches during lectures in college. They wouldn't be elaborate, just enough to help me not sleep in the classes after lunch! I used to also sketch at (very long) office meetings for the same reasons!

I made a few sketches of some of my ear rings. Am fond of junk jewelry. I just started off sketching them and realized it is actually fun – I still need to work on the relative proportions, the shades. I could only find an HB pencil and a sharpener at home. I need to buy some lighter and darker grades of pencils and of course an eraser(yeah really, dont have one right now, LOL!)!!! Am planning to get myself a pencil sketching tool kit - and I just hope I remember to keep using it! I move from one interesting stuff to another and then much later wonder why I dint pursue an interest when it is so much fun!