Recently, I've been in a mood to paint t-shirts. And I've been having sooo much fun with them.

It all started with my niece asking me to paint her and her brother shirts similar to something I picked up in Barcelona - inspired by the mosaic work on the ceiling of Park Güell. It took me about 9 hours a shirt, but they looked sooo awesome in the end! Here they go...

Here are a few more I did.

Here's one of my fav from a long time ago.

Why I sometimes like guided tours

I've travelled a little bit. A good bit according to some, but just not enough if you ask me. I'd like to travel more. Much more. And differently - be less touristy and more like them snooty "travellers". But that's not exactly my style.

I'd love to randomly go some place (various restrictive factors aside), and then what? I'm usually at a loss about what to do, where to start. No matter how much I research - and THAT I do, trust me! - all that goes out of the window and I'm left lost, not knowing what to do next.

I'm a creature that loves the familiar. I'd rather be told how a new software/program works instead of playing and discovering for myself. I preferred being taught the lessons in class instead of reading the books. And I'd rather someone shows me around a new place, tell me what to see. Basically, just get me going. Also, I do tend to get lost a little - but that's a whole different story.

I like taking tours cause I like stories. I like to know what I'm looking at. While I know that I can get this information by reading about it, I really like to leave everything behind when I travel. I like to carry a free mind - have as little to think about as necessary. Art, I can get engrossed in. People, culture - I'd love to be a part of. Shopping - you can't stop me! But with architecture, I can appreciate only so much. I get dreadfully bored when I don't know the whos and whys.

It is true that I have slept on every bus tour I have gone on (yes, I've gone on a few). But I would put that down to having unskilled guides - or in this case, a really boring droneful recorded voice. What I love are small group tours, tours which are personalised and intimate. Tours on which you get to know your guides and become friends with them.

Like Inez in Cairo. She was a young woman. A student of archaeology. She told us her stories and history from her point of view.  Since it was just two of us and her, it was a nice and at our pace. We booked the tour locally, with the hostel we stayed (they had a deal we made use of) and Inez and a car with a driver were ours for the next couple of days. She was also our guide on a day trip to Alexandria we booked with them. This was just perfect since we had already built an amazing rapport with her. 

Tanya and Inez

Another of my favourite tours is Brightside in Barcelona. It was a tour on a bike with a sidecar. The tour was tailored based not just on what we'd already seen, but also on what the guide perceived to be our interests from our interaction. Joao, our guide, was charming and knowledgeable and made you feel thoroughly comfortable. The ride itself was soooo much fun that when we went back to Barcelona, we took another tour with them. I have to thank TripAdvisor for finding these guys.

Joao, Vidya and Me

For someone like me who is so not a social person and has no clue how to make friends or even start conversations, leave alone find fellow travellers to hang out with in a new place, personalized tours totally rock :-)

Larger-than-life Art

I have always loved art that is loud, bold, big and bursting. Everyone knows that. I'm all about loud colours, kitsch, quirky. That is so me.

Recently, I realised that I was also fascinated by artists took things/stories that are larger than life and made them human. Stories, fables and legends we grew up with, Gods and demons, villains and heroes - and made them relatable. Made the stories believable. Like they really could have happened.

I have always had a fascination for renaissance artists, but this time, when I visited the Louvre, these particular works caught my attention. They got me thinking, turned the light bulb in my head that did not question the stories on and made me smile.

My favorite was Bartolomeo Vivarini's The Virgin nursing the Child. I was very excited about this.

La Vierge allaitant l'Enfant
Bartolomeo VIVARINI

It made me think of my mother (a pediatrician) and breast feeding awareness and how powerful this image would be in such a campaign. What was particularly striking was that both Mother Mary and the Infant Christ have halos, indicating their divinity. Jesus may be God, but this portrayal reminds us He was human. And if despite being God, if He needed mother's milk, you can imagine how important it is for mortal children.

Then there was Daniele Ricciarelli's Battle of David and Goliath.

Le Combat de David et Goliath
Daniele RICCIARELLI, dit Daniele da VOLTERRA

For the very first time, it occurred to me that Golaith is not this inhuman or mythical giant. Just a large man. Maybe like my baby brother - 6', broad shouldered... Very human.

Another painting that made me stop was Luis de Morales' La Pieta.

La Pietà
Luis de MORALES

It was the eyes. The circles under the eyes. The dark circles under His eyes, the gaunt face - all natural for a man with His injuries (from the crucifixion). And Mother Mary's - the face of a mother filled with pain. This stood out, in my mind, more than Michelangelo (one of my all-time favourite artist AND ninja turtle)'s Pieta at St. Peter's, for it's humanity.

In complete contrast, I found the Christ in Paolo Caliari's The Marriage at Cana completely unrelatable.

Les Noces de Cana
Paolo CALIARI, dit VÉRONÈSE

The painting itself is festive and full of life, with the characters interacting with each other, like guests at any feast, interested in the wedded couple, the musicians, the food and drink. All except Christ.

Les Noces de Cana - detail

Christ in this, to me, looks stoned (with no disrespect) distant, not part of the scene - almost as if He were painted in by a different artist. His face reveals no expression and stands out from the rest of the celebration.  And it's not just the expression, even the colours seem to stand out. It's not as if He is looking at you - He looks through, without touching you. Despite the rest of the painting, this one detail puts a sea of distance between you and the work.

E-book Readers

There are two kinds of people, in my opinion, who read - those who love books and those who love to read.
The first like the romance of books. They like to hold and caress them. They usually tend to read the same books over. Or the same writer. The same style.
The latter just like to read. They will read a cereal box if it is around.  They devour words. In any form. It could be paper. It could be electronic. As long as it is available to read.
When I tell people I read on my phone, they ask me "how" or "why". And why they think they never will - how they are not really books. I try to convince them - "It's easy to carry".  "So many books at your fingertips". "Always available". "No need to get up to turn off the lights". And they are still skeptical.
You just need to give it a shot. My mum did. And she is hooked :-)

Ringing in the Dirty Thirties

This was initially a Facebook status message - when I re-read it, I realised, there was so sooo much more to say, so I decided to expand on it.

Watta year 29 has been - I got to do sooo many things.

I visited places I never thought I would, took my first steps on the American continent and earlier than I ever thought I would. I do not regret it one bit. May be just ever so slightly - I got screwed over at work. But they sent me there, so it kinda balances off. And it led to so many firsts.

I met old friends for the first time. We weren't just co-workers - we were friends. And i am grateful I got to meet them. I made new friends - people I never thought i would know. Learnt more about people I already did.

I caught snow on my tongue. Made a snow angel. Heard the first (and only reasonable) explanation about why dogs need clothes/shoes. Tried my hand at ice skating (almost dislocated my leg and had to be carried out of the rink. Then I went back in).

Got a tattoo (shoulder-to-shoulder) on the spur of the moment. It took about 5-6 hours to complete, so I was done by about 3 am-ish and had a million hour flight that evening - all the way from Montreal to Bangalore. In economy. And what a beauty she is!

I went to Italy. I've been wanting to go there for sooo long. I fell in love with Barcelona on the way - the colors!!! It's like a fairytale. And I rode in a sidecar :-).

I stood in the Sistine Chapel. Spent the shortest amount of time to do justice in Venice. Liked Florence better than Rome. Sigh! Plus I have some awesome friends there. :-)

I am so going back!

I got my most expensive phone yet, bought my most expensive shoes ever (and got two more pairs for my birthday).

I caught Metallica in concert IN Bangalore. I also caught Bon Jovi. In Barcelona. In the Olympic stadium. And saw the sun set at 9pm.

I did a bunch of random things this year. Bought random books. Got a 10 year US visa. Took a month off. Got red shoes (2 pairs). And yellow ones.

I can see why it can only go downhill from here.

If I'm cursed to live long (and God knows my family is blessed with that curse), I hope I see more years like this :D

Am I hooked?

So two days before I leave Montreal, I hear about this girl that does tattoos. I gave it little thought and went for it on a whim. It was completely different from the last one I got - it hurt more, took longer and this time I really liked the artist. The last may have been the reason I went for it at all. I totally <3 my new tat!


I remember when I got the first one. I drew it. It made me smile sooo much, I couldn't wait for the next. It took me a couple of years though to find the right art.

This time I'm not dying for the next already. Let's see when it happens. I've always dreamed of being covered in art someday.

I've been told tattoos are addictive. Am I hooked yet? Hmmm....

Today my hands were really itching to paint on jeans.
Finally i managed to bully my cousin into giving me his jeans to jazz up :-)

Here's how it looks :-)