Monday, December 30, 2013

A New Year Gift from Me to You all..

Click to view the enlarged version



A calendar for the new year from me...

Hope you all would like it...


Happy 2014 everyone...!!!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Dressing up Dolls using Crochet











Crochet Doilies




A thread doily of a Humming Birds on  flowers

Doilies are ornamental mats. Making a Doily is a time consuming work especially when you are using threads to crochet.
 I got the above one framed and now it has a place on my living room wall.

All the other doilies I use as place mats.

A Pansy Doily made with woolen thread

A Pineapple Doily made with white thread

A Square doily with wool

A Pineapple Doily with Nylon pink thread

A square doily with woolen thread

A woolen doily

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Stages in an oil Painting


My model landscape...
It has been divided into four grids so that placing the different elements on canvas would be easy
First stage

After drawing the outlines with pencil, I gave the outlines a burnt sienna lining to bring out the picture clearly.
The first coat of the sky has been done.


After first coat
In the first coat all the basic colours have been put down.




Further detailing
The details were done with finer tipped brushes. Mostly zero and also fan brushes in some areas.

Further detailing

Almost done
Finished Landscape

That is the journey of this Oil painting..:)

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The Unsuspecting Bride...


“When will I enjoy myself out here?!! “  I murmured to myself walking out of the grand ballroom of the star hotel I worked.
 Being in the house keeping section I got to see all the lavish settings of the hotel and all the grand arrangements for the parties that happened here every day. But we could never enjoy a party as we were the ones in-charge.


“Rhea… We have someone waiting at the reception for you,” said Mr. David who is the floor manager.


I head to the reception. A stylish girl dressed impeccably and with silky hair like a dream, comes to me and pulls me into a tight hug. I am confused as I can’t place her.


“Rhea..You idiot..You forgot me?!! How dare you?!!,” asks the girl and then punches me hard on my shoulders.


“Hey… Khushi..Oh my god!!..You have changed so much.  Where did all your chubbiness and that lice-infected-bushy-hair vanish?!!” I ask realization finally dawning on me.


Khushi was my best friend at the hotel management Institute. We were nicknamed 'Siamese twins' as we were together 24/7. After the course we had lost contact as I had moved back to Cochin and Khushi had gone to the US to pursue higher studies.


“Hahaha..Haven’t I become a babe?!!It is all thanks to Sunsilk. Can we talk?,” asks Khushi and we head to the visitors area to sit and talk leisurely; my afternoon break having begun.


“I am getting engaged next month right here, and you have to be with me throughout.I can’t handle my nerves alone. When I called your home, I found you work here. Lucky Me!! ,” says Khushi taking my hands into hers.


“Hey…Hey..Go slow..Tell me in detail. Who is the unlucky guy?” I tease Khushi.


“The very same…Tushar Khanna,” says Khushi with a wink and I remember how big a crush Khushi had on Tushar ,our senior by a year, while in college.


“Woww…I am so happy for you Khushi. Now out with the whole story,” I demand and she tells me how while studying in the US they had ended up being in love and how they are inseparable now.


After Khushi leaves, I sit rooted in the same place thinking fondly over the days past. The truth hits me hard then that I would look like a vagabond among Khushi’s and Tushar’s relatives, who belonged to the elite class of Delhi. I usually didn't care much about grooming other than what my duty demanded; which was a passable neat look.


I approach my friend who works at the reception to get some beauty tips and it is she who tells me the importance hair plays in completing one's look.


“Most people are mentally lazy when they size other people up. Hair grabs attentions the most after a pretty face. You have a very pretty face and also very good skin. A little effort on your hair can go a long way,” says Diana who can pass off as a Diva herself.


That is how I decide to go in for a hair spa with Sunsilk at the trendy saloon next door.



After a single session I can see the change in my hair and after two more sessions and a brilliant haircut by the Sunsilk hair experts, I cannot help but notice the admiring looks of passersby.

Two days before engagement Khushi drops in with her mother and takes me out shopping to a trendy boutique. She makes me model out many Ghagra cholis and then finalize on a silky orange Ghagra with green and gold embroidery.


“This is my gift for you Rhea..For all those days of happiness, to celebrate our friendship,” says Khushi and when I try to refuse she threatens me with murder.


On the day of the engagement, Khushi  and Tushar makes the loveliest couple I have ever seen.

 Little do I suspect then, observing the happy couple,that I had myself become an object of interest in someone else's eyes. Not until I catch Rohit Mehra, Tushar’s best friend, staring at me as if he was afflicted by tunnel vision and could see no one else.


I cannot help blushing as I  had always cherished a secret crush on him right from college. He had never even looked twice at me then.


 Rohit comes near me almost immediately and we spend the whole evening chatting with each other.  He comes to drop me at my room and before leaving makes me promise to meet him the next day.


That was how it all had begun two months before.


Today I am blissfully happy. After two months of dating, Rohit proposed marriage to me today. Quietly after a cozy dinner at our favorite restaurant he had surprised me with a proposal. And he had gone all out by going down on his knees for the entire restaurant to see. I had tears in my eyes when he had at last slipped the ring on to my fingers.

My parents have always supported all my decisions and Rohit tells me fondly that his mother is equally keen to see us get married soon.


How just recharging my hair had recharged my entire life!!!


 Gone was that inconspicuous existence and here I was happily preparing to enter one of the richest families in Delhi as their daughter- in- law. I am loved beyond compare by Rohit and my secret crush had come back into my life as a forever love.

We are to be married on the 15th of next month at the Grand Ballroom of the hotel where I worked!!!



This post has been written as part of a contest in association with Indiblogger and Sunsilk.





Monday, December 16, 2013

A Christmas Surprise..

When I logged onto Facebook this morning, there was this notification of a tag that caught my attention. My wife had tagged me in this photo.


Source


I know she has done this to taunt me. She uses Facebook as a weapon sometimes.


 I realize according to this, I am nowhere an ideal good husband.


We are in our fifth year of marriage and I feel I am suffocating Ria with all the family responsibilities. She had quit her job and now managed our 3 year old Ashwin and my old mother.


In the last few months I have been too busy with the business that I was setting up. Hunting the perfect location, searching out patrons…


 She took out Ashwin everyday to the park, my mother for her regular checkups and even puts up with all the childish demands that my mother makes these days without a single word of protest.


Every day I find my office clothes laundered and Ironed, perfectly matched lying on my bed, by the time I finished my bath and breakfast.




It is Christmas Eve today. She loved the Christmas season and her face light ups with pleasure whenever we passed a shop with Christmas decoration or when a carol group came at our door step.


I head to the saloon to clean up. I hated the unclean stubble that has grown on my face. I decide to look my best for her today. 


She laughs in delight and hugs me seeing the change and screams in delight when I give her the Christmas Gift.

Tickets for the  Sonu Nigam Concert, tomorrow for which her friends were going. She was a big fan of Sonu Nigam.


I assure her, I will be the single parent tomorrow. She can enjoy a girls' night out.


This post is a part of the Protest Against Smelly Stubble Activity in association with BlogAdda.

I was tagged by Tarun Singh. Thank you Tarun for the tag.

I wish to tag the following persons for this post.



Saturday, December 14, 2013

Everlasting Love..

Source

“Do you remember the first time we came here?” asked Brad looking fondly at his wife of thirty years.


“Yes…You were so shy and would stammer every time you addressed me. We were in our final year of graduation. Right?” said Anna with a smile that lit up her face.


“I remember rehearsing for hours what to talk to you when I finally got you alone. But when we reached here I found myself strongly tongue tied,” said Brad with a chuckle.


“Yeah..It was the same with me. But those moments were amazing. Though we had a tough time putting words together, it was the most memorable date I ever had,” agreed Anna dreamily.


“Can you believe we have been married for thirty whole years?? It seems just like yesterday that I had gone with you to meet your parents with the intention of asking permission to marry you. Your father was a terror with his in depth questioning. Wanted only the best for his little girl,” said Brad.


“You know what? My mom hated that unclean stubble you sported that day. It was later when she saw you on our engagement party that she eventually became your fan,” said Anna.


“Really, I thought your mom was my fan from day one. And this you tell me after these many years?” asked Brad with a smirk.


“Ho..She liked you alright. But she always hated men who fail to groom themselves properly. According to her men looked proper without that smelly stubble,” said Anna patting Brad’s hands.


“Whatever...This lake and this bench hold so many loving memories. I kissed you for the first time here. Even if I come here alone, I remember you and our love,” said Brad silently thanking god for the best gift god had ever given him.

This post is a part of the Protest Against Smelly Stubble Activity in association with BlogAdda.

I tag the following bloggers for the post.




I was tagged by Heena Shah Dhedhi. Thank you Heena for the Tag.










Friday, December 13, 2013

A New Beginning



Watching the rain, I feel it is my life that is being drained out. My hopes, my ambition; everything was literally going down the drain.


It had been a similar rainy day two weeks back, when driven by my youthful spirit, I had rode my bike with a speed that had thrilled. With the rain pelting on my face and body, driving through the almost deserted country lanes had been rejuvenating.


The euphoria had ended in a disaster. I remember the ominous screeching of tires and the blinding light before everything had gone blank.


Doctors tell me I am paralyzed waist down.  The accident had wrecked havoc on my entire system. I don’t understand why god has been so cruel to me. To be a paraplegic for life, was unthinkable.
I don’t notice the tears that flow down my face until warm fingers wipe them away.


“Abhay, Don’t … You have to be strong. Remember what the doctor said? You should not lose hope. With regular physiotherapy you can get back whatever you have lost. But you have to believe in that. You are not going to allow yourself to be confined to a wheel chair your entire life,” says Tarun, my best friend.


Tarun has a razor in his hand and has come as he says “to return me back to humanity”. I hate that unclean stubble that has grown all over my face anyway.


He hands me a small mirror after he is done. When I see the reflection that stares back, I feel a new energy course through me. A new hope!


May be everything was not lost.


Life has given me a second chance. And this time I wasn’t going to waste it.


I smile at my father while my mother hugs me close.





This post is a part of the Protest Against Smelly Stubble Activity in association with BlogAdda.

I was tagged by Sarav.

I tag these bloggers for this post.






Wednesday, December 11, 2013

A Sparkling Christmas!!

Source

There is nothing in the world like home and one starts to appreciate it better when he has been away for a long time. 

The last six months has been a torture. I am a photographer with a leading newspaper and had been posted in the Middle East to cover the civil war which had been raging there.
Looking at myself in the airport washroom mirror, I realize that the war has taken its toll on me too. My beard is almost two inches long and my mustache could easily find a place in the Guinness book of world records, if they had a category for the thickest one. 
It is Christmas today,my favorite festival. It always has been. I remember the delicious aroma of my mom’s cooking, the sound of the chiming bells, the happy sight of the presents stacked under the heavily decorated Christmas tree…Everything about Christmas was special!!

It was during Christmas that I had met and fallen in love with Jane.
This Christmas was doubly special; it is the first birthday of my son, our first among the brood I wished to create with Jane.
Walking out of the airport, I head for the nearest saloon to go in for a makeover. The staff there marvels at the change when after a clean shave I get into my best Sunday suit.

When Jane opens the door, she hugs me tight and shed many happy tears.

“Welcome back sweetheart… You look divine. I hated that smelly stubble you loved to sport,” she says after the tears subside.
I kiss my sleeping son and then head to enjoy the delicious dinner spread on the dining table. Jane is all smiles watching me.

I look out the window and it is sparkling lights and Joy all around.





This is my second post for P.A.S.S Contest from Blogadda.

I wish to tag the following bloggers for the contest.




This post is a part of the Protest Against Smelly Stubble Activity in association with BlogAdda.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

P.A.S.S: His clean shaven look bowled me over


It was just another day that day but Arjun was giving me more attention than usual. Throughout the lecture, he was turning back and eyeing me.


 “I love you more than anything else in the world Khushi and I want you to be mine, forever,” confess Arjun standing next to me in the corridor later, his eyes glittering with love.


 My wildest dream had come true. He was my soul mate in every way. We shared many interests and were friends right from kindergarten. I loved him, but had never felt bold enough to tell him that.


 We had no class after that hour, as the inter-collegiate badminton matches were starting in our college that day.

 We hold hands the entire time, watching the matches.


“The beauty and the beast,” commented someone from a group of boys passing by, making the whole group burst out laughing, looking at us.

Arjun began to get up to give them an apt answer but I pull him back.

“No Arjun..That is quite crazy. Someone calling you a beast doesn’t make you one. But reacting to their comments like a beast, will sure make you one,” I say.


His beard and mustache made him look like a beast. No wonder the boys were tempted to comment. I was forever telling him to get rid of them. But he never listened.

Next day was Valentine’s Day and I had bought a red T-shirt as a gift for Arjun.
I hear everyone gasp and I turn to look.

It is my Arjun!!. His clean shaven look bowled me over. I fall in love with him all over again.

He comes near me and whisper, “Aren't we now 'The Beauty and the Handsome prince'?”

I laugh.





This post is a part of the Protest Against Smelly Stubble Activity in association with BlogAdda.

This is my first post for P.A.S.S. I was tagged by Anita. You can find her post HERE.

I would like to tag the following bloggers to invite them to to participate in the P.A.S.S Contest. Do mention me as the tagger.







So blog on Ladies..















Saturday, December 7, 2013

Digital Art with Photoshop

Some of my Digital Art with Photoshop.

A lotus fairy


Lady in moonlight


Waiting ...

Somewhere over a Rainbow..


The Dance of the Queen Swan

Lady Una and the Lion ( Inspired by the poem Fairee Queen by Edmund Spenser where a Lion guards Lady Una while she sleeps)