List, sketchbook

Looking back to Januaries past

This is the year, some of us old timers are counting their blog ages. inktales was started by me in May 2006, and in 2007 I moved over from Blogger to WordPress. I often think, that at 17 years of blogging on inktales, it’s one of my longest relationships – second only to the brown boy.

Today I was looking back over Januaries past, and while some Januaries have been super prolific (hello, 2009!) most years I don’t blog in January! Here are some of my favorites when I have roused my fingers out of Delhi’s icy winter to draw and type:

Design for foreign cultures

Here I am being inspired by Dr BV Doshi, who passed away yesterday. My Masters class was doing a project with immigrant children in Malmö at the time, I was finding it so difficult to empathize or get the nuances of their experiences. Language was a factor, since most of the children knew Swedish and their mother tongue, and not English, and my folkshögskola Swedish was nowhere near conversational. And then I read this interview in Blueprint Magazine.

Other favorites from 2009:

Revenge of the hairdresser

La Bella

From a series on food in NID, La Bella, our favorite eatery from NID days

First attempts

My first attempt at storytelling of our life, such innocence and still so true…

And these two lovely ones from 2019, another prolific January

A weekend with Lekha

A new year

Filled with food and love

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List

14 years ago on inktales: October 2006

It was the first year of this blog and I was already documenting memories!

Before I forget – about my first real boyfriend. I bullied him into the relationship, broke up with him without warning and years later made these terrible drawings about him.

This post called Meeting in which I see the genesis of those early whimsical stories

and finally the tiger that graced our cricket matches once, was designed and animated by the brown boy.

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Life, List, sketchbook

A decade ago in inktales

Some of you may know that I’ve had this blog for nearly 15 years. The earliest post was May 2006. Here’s a post from those hot summer days when Delhi was baking and I was sitting in our top floor walk-up in East of Kailash, using our old Windows desktop to write those posts. This is the first one with the anteater –

who was going to be one of the characters in an alphabet book I was illustrating at the time. At the time I really didn’t want to be a designer and only wanted to illustrate children’s books, and didn’t even know how important this anteater is going to become in my life!

Here’s another book I illustrated at the time, which someone has even made into a read aloud story on Youtube!

Anyway I was trying to remember what I was doing ten years ago in September 2010 – it’s only been a decade but feels like a generation in the age of the world. I had just returned from Sweden and had probably started working in TIL by then. By September I had found my groove with drawing again, and was as usual worrying about inspiration, drawing and happiness in Creative block and Being happy.

Finally when I read Plato and Platypus walk into a bar in 2016 it all made sense for me…

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List

The best of inktales

inktales now has 327 fans on Facebook and 393 followers on Twitter, and I’m humbled everyday to know that so many of you appreciate my sketchbook drawings. A lot of you have begun visiting the blog recently so here’s a list of the best posts for your entertainment. Happy weekend!

101

A guide to inktales

NID and other friends

The Big Joshi

The one and only Parsa

Rahul Das and his words of love

Mess FoodJamalpur – LaBella

Actual NID sketchbook (when I thought I couldn’t draw)

Superbitch 2002

The brown boy

The story of us

Living in Mumbai 1: First attempts & Living in Mumbai 2: The designer’s solution to all problems

44

Ode to married men

The hero complains

False Representation & Epilogue

Something (when I was away in Sweden)

Why Skype isn’t enough!

My friend the anteater

In which I try

Creative Block 2

Anteater wisdom

Gandhian

Studying in Sweden

Things I miss about home

Åste’s shoes

Revenge of the hairdresser

10 days of creation

Blueberry Garden

Leaving

My family

A fish tale

The Mumbai chronicles

Food & Travel

Ladakh

Rajasthan

Travel tale

O Goa (2008)

Fed by the chef

Walk in the woods

Mahabalipuram

A divine collision

Soapbox wisdom

Husbands & Wives

Motivation

Metaphysical

Paris, not me

Being happy

Alternative careers

Some more

God bless mother nature

Worrier

Bored at work

Ode to my phone

The box

The body rebels

Always answer the phone

Space Travel

Dog on Friday

Unwelcome visitor

Not drawing

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sketchbook

Old posts from Octobers

I see that Octobers have been a little low for inktales.

In 2009, a journal of tristesse – filled with Conversations with the Anteater:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 7
Part 8

In 2008, I happily drew The Big Joshi, ate a lot of yummy Swedish godis and introduced the culture of the Bengalis (Ray Babu’r Ekdin) to my classmates.

In 2006, a month of journeys and meetings.
An old flame from an old sketchbook.
Dia and I went to Amritsar.
Viv and I bumped into friends everywhere.

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List

Years ago on inktales

In May 2006

I moved to Delhi, and began this blog to share my sketchbooks with my friends back in Bombay.

The anteater had made his first appearance.

In May 2007

I was appreciating married men

In May 2008
Documenting how we ended up together

In May 2009
I was Struggling with schoolwork
and Not answering the phone

In May 2010
Enjoying the Spring in Sweden
Motivating myself, and Completing my masters.

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