Picked up the ever so pink and delightful Sugar Power from the airport a few days ago.  She and her gypsy bags were on their way for yet another adventure to meet the queen again. She carried three black bags, a pink feather in her hair and precious Melburnian memories. ‘I brought a gift for you, but i’m sorry… i drank it!‘, she said.

As we lazed around from one bar to another and talked, and talked, and talked more (wait! can a guy actually do that? ) i realized that i hadn’t missed her at all. It was almost like the past five years had turned into days and we were picking up from where we left off ‘just like that’.. unbelievable!

The wine flowed incessantly and as our tangents began to defy the fundamental notions of conversational geometry, i remembered how familiarly awesome her quirkiness was. Now it isn’t everyday that you see an emarati guy in a dish dash (also the owner of the hotel) laugh as he gets punched on the shoulder again and again by a crazy hippy!

Ardessa Nica Jessau! you remind me of Mr. Gump’s fantastic stories! YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!

Click here to see some of her awesomeness!

Sachin and Paresh of Curry Smugglers got in touch with me last week to see if i’d be interested in designing a little identity unit for their podcast and sure-as-bob i was. Already on their 3rd episode, the two still seem to have enough new insights to share and good energy to spread around with their seemingly laid back presence. It’s going to be interesting to see how far these two will go to keep things fresh as we go along. Personally, i have a pretty good feeling about it but the pressure is ON boys!!!

Tune in here

So around “arvo” yesterday, Jex raises his head above the little black partition that separates our desks and says enthusiastically in his stoner subdued voice – ‘Duude! have you seen the new Melbourne rebranding?’ I always find it quite funny how he gets so charged when he finds something about Melbourne. I suppose its natural! Anyway, this time Jexy’s big aussie find was of special interest to me as well.

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So i recently thought it’d be a good idea to pop the twitter cherry and really look into what the hoo-haa about twittering was all about. Despite my over zealous colleague – Kedar’s unconditional endorsement, i found myself strolling quite lazily into this twitterworld of colorful chirping sparrows. I am now twittering @ artraj

Am still trying to figure out exactly how it turns me on. But until then, this shindy called the Twestival totally caught my attention (courtesy Kedar who tweets @ floatr) Up for grabs was a T-Shirt design gig for charity:water and so here we go.

Didn’t quite expect to spend an entire day at INDEX, but the exhibition was almost the size of 20 football fields, hence the sore feet! Anyway, this is hardly going to be a review of the show, but more of a mental-note of the more interesting exhibits, artists and pieces that i came across. And yes! Ladies and Gentlemen – i spluuurged and i am pretty thrilled about it (albeit fractionally guilty). Anyhow, the following pieces seemed to appeal to my simple aesthetic senses quite a bit.

1. Lunablocks – Designed and created by Thierry Nahon and Philippe Landecker. (www.lunaticconstruction.com) Based on an original concept, the transformation and enlargement of bricks used in building games for children. Easily stacked together, functional and totally versatile, these Lunablocks are designed for the world of decoration and for the home. And guess what ? they come in light and compact, opaque, transparent or luminous materials. Sadly, i couldnt afford the acrylic and/or gold plated blocks, so i had to settle for the polysterene version (a collection of 7 blocks for a total of 168Euros)

2. Fatboy by Marimekko – Designed by Maija Isola (www.fatboy.nl/marimekko). She apparently found inspiration for the pattern whilst fetching water from a well. Well… whatever her inspiration, it definitely served as much needed delight for me when i saw the ‘Desert River’ exhibit and ten glorious fatboys sitting plump on a green stage. I walked away at first, but i came back sooner than expected to get myself my own ‘kaivo red’

3. Sculptural work by Gibbus (www.gibbus.cz). Some really elegant iron work from this very talented sculptor. His agent could not speak a word of english, but i guess what he was trying to explain was that his work is moderately inspired by Dali. That seemed just about right

4. The Timebeam (www.timebeam.com) This little piece of contraption is considered a classic design and ‘the antique of the future’. Its pretty neat actually. Think the price on this niftiness ranged from 600 to 1000 AED. The difference in pricing is because of the intensity of the light projected.

5. Thierry Bruet (www.thierrybruet.com). Now this painter-sculptor extraordinaire was something else. It was clear from his book that he had a passion for political sattire, but his style had such a unique touch to it that it would almost drift seamlessly between animated forms, lines and brushstrokes into realism. Very very nice indeed. Please check out his site – its totally worth it

6. SoWatt (www.pierremachinal.com) This contemporary chandelier of sorts honestly stole my heart. The artist Pierre had used porcelain light bulbs intertwined with a mesh of optic fibres to create this really wholesome piece of spatial and graphic art. Even the light bulbs were dimly illuminated by an optic fibre that passed into it. Immaculately Gorgeous! Priced at 14,406 USD, it seemed fit only for the lobby of a hotel or a restaurant that i would be initimidated to visit.

7. Emotional Doors (www.chiariluce.it) Some really cool emotional doors by chiariluce. Thanks to the awesomeness of LED technology, these doors are just perfect for spas me thinks. Less suited for residential thoug (but hey! this is Dubai)

b. Oscar Sierra (www.oscar-sierra.com) Interesting style of photo-collage memoir from Oscar Sierra. Think its quite a fun little thing to do at any place. So simple that you could almost do it yourself, ofcourse what you would be missing is Oscar’s stamp of approval, the slick finishing and the perfectly manicured plexiglass framing unit that comes with Oscar’s bill of 10,000USD !

She said, ‘i prefer to be ignorant. i’m happier that way’. To which, he asked ‘ if ignorance was such bliss, then what about the few dangers within it she had missed’. She remained quiet and indifferent as if she was almost ignorant to what he had just said. I guess she was happier that way.

Now that i’ve brushed away the cobwebs and blown off the dust on this blog, i’m ready to write again. You know how they say that ‘life inspires’.. well i think i’ve just woken up after all these years in a cold sweat to realize that my little box of life’s musings have just gone empty.

Here begins a new search, a new journey to explore every nook and corner of life to find a new muse. If you get to her before me, please be so kind to let her know i am looking for her.

An ancient Asian philosopher once said “Live life like a mudfish, it lives in the mud but remains unblemished and shines.” An inspired lifecoach Mark Garrod made this the foundation of his ‘corporate and life coaching’ company called ‘Mudfish’. And a fortunate designer (that is i) turned into an excited 6 year old when this fairly small (but satisfying) identity project fell onto my lap a few months ago by way of Maha (Mark’s wife). Good fun!

So guys next time you are feeling a little like a dead duck or just simply a little jaundiced by the over-whelming pace of Dubailife, surf down to www.mudfishcoaching.com and meet Mark Garrod (honestly an awesome dude) and let him make you feel better.

P.s; am off to Mark’s to collect my little ‘bite’ for what might come across souding like a kind-hearted ‘no-fee-attached’ endorsement for Mudfish – Drinks are on me folks!

Ok.. so watching the ‘mother goddess in the making’ was one thing. But i doubt i’ve ever seen anything like the festivities that hit the streets once the goddesses reached their festive destination – the pandals. Popularly referred to as ‘pandal hopping’, scores of people celebrate nights out on the street hopping from one pandal to the next to marvel at the uncountable spectacular avatars of the mother goddess. Whilst one pandal celebrates Durga as an embodiment of sunlight, another adorns her with sea shells. Amusingly, one pandal replicated the ‘Hogwarts Castle’ to cash in on the notorious Harry Potter fame! Holy Momma!!!

Almost just as religiously as the festival itself, a competition called ‘Mukut’ (Crown) is held annually’to commemorate the most creative pandal in the city of Kolkata. Faith put aside, the scale and sheer number of pandals, hours, labour put into every pandal from its creation to its presentation is unfathomable. I visited a total of 20 pandals and that is perhaps only a good 10% of the pandals spread over both – the urban and suburban texture of this joyous city. Truly Incredible!!

In true bong fashion, i too went out ‘pandal hopping’ with the family and friends on panchami night (the night preceeding the five day festival). Most of the pandals that you see here in this post covers pretty much all of Central, South and North Kolkata and were shot all on one night with the exception of those in Khidirpore.

Singhee Park

Ekdalia Evergreen

Madax Sqr

Badamtala
This was the one that won the ‘Mukut’ crown of glory this year.

66 Pally

this post runs the risk of becoming the longest post i have ever posted .. so please ’click on’ to see more  

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