Category Archives: Food

drawing, Food, Life, sketchbook

A study in skins

I was 8 when I copied my first Cezanne, in the drawing class we used to attend, held every Sunday in the parish hall at the local church. There was no looking back after that. I was mesmerized by the color palettes and the compositions, though I didn’t know all these terms then. I went on to copy the old masters for a decade, running through all of the teacher’s copies of Cezanne, Renoir and Van Gogh prints, and later from my uncle’s fabulous Great Masters’ collection at home. I’m not sure what I learnt, back then, but I became familiar with the artists, their colors and lines and brush strokes.

These onion studies are a far cry from those days. It’s been decades since I attempted any color studies but oh what joy!

Inspired by the this lovely poem by Harryette Mullen:

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Food, sketchbook

Bring on the cake, we really want to live

Said Maira Kalman in her wonderful book Cake, and I take those words very seriously. If you’ve been reading my blog for some time you will know that’s all I ever think about and sometimes do things…

Here’s a drawing of morotskaka that the brown boy has loved ever since Malmö and we are made to eat it often.

This wishful drawing is from my birthday two years ago – when I was more concerned about growing older than I am now.

“The wonderful thing about cake is it really is connected to so many moments, not just celebratory moments, but moments of heartache.”

Maira Kalman

and last year I discovered this wonderful concoction.

So what’s your favorite? Or can you even have favorites?

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Food, Life

That welcomer of new-born days…

[Transcript: Breakfast for busy parents like us is usually hurried. A cup of coffee while prepping the son for school, a bowl of oats while packing my lunchbox. Today we sat down to eat figs and oranges and it was so relaxing. And it seemed like time stopped for a while peeling the fruit. The zest sparkling in the morning light. The smell of oranges in the air.] Title: Mary Lamb.

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Food

A new year

What better way to welcome the new year if not with food and drink. I’m sure the Anteater would agree. From the last 2 years I found that food has been such a recurring theme – If I’ve not Instagrammed it, I’ve probably drawn it.

Here’s a “rare” family Friday dinner. My in laws were visiting and we went to Amalfi in GK2.

Here’s the food I ate on a quick weekend trip to visit my family in Kolkata. I always think that love in Indian families is all about food. Most of us didn’t grow up with verbal articulations of love, and we demonstrate our love, especially in families, by cooking for and feeding our loved ones.

Most of the food below was made by my Ma and Chhotoma.

“Whoever eats fish curry with roti?”

Said my mother

I gained 2 kilos with all that love!

This is a drawing I made while eating by myself and reading a poem one day. I forgot what I was eating and I can’t even remember the poem, but I enjoyed it enough to draw about it!

What if I could gather all the people who taught me to love around my dinner table? We would drink coffee and eat pizza.

Antara would be chopping onions because she’s always doing something, and whenever I chop onions I think of her. Snehasis would be listening to his wife and observing the world to make fun of them later. Ananya would be under the table reading because she doesn’t always like to socialise. Lekha would be sitting quietly and smiling in happiness. Atul and Reshmy would be having some long and complicated conversation where they would both not be listening to the other. Viv would be drawing happily. I forgot to draw Orin but he is the one person who forced his way into my life and made me love him.

Dinner of love stories

Let’s hope 2019 is all this, and more.

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