Our obsession with Angry Birds just got better

Yes. Its true, we are obsessed with Angry Birds. Me and my fiance Gautam both. We had Angry Birds slippers, Angry Birds keychains, and yes as a part of my wedding ka saamaan I have bought an Angry Birds bathroom kit, which has Angry Birds soap dispenser, loofah, soap case, toothbrush stand and what not. In fact there was a point when we decided to order Angry Birds cake for our engagement too. But common sense prevailed then and the cake was conceptualized differently.

So coming back to Angry Birds' new obsession, this time I decided to take it to next level. We bought plain white canvas shoes on which I decided to make the most of fabric paints which Gautam gifted me on my birthday. Falling short of creative ideas on what to do with the shoe, both of us unanimously decided to get it 'Angry Birded'. And yes, as you see in the given below pictures, you'll understand how serious we were about our obsession.

It took out a couple of nights from my life, but it was worth when Gautam was floored seeing it. 

P.S.: We are taking orders. Don't feel shy if you are obsessed with some other characters. And by the way, you may soon see another shoe design for our cutest client. Keep watching this space.

This is how it started, sketching it with black marker

Then chosing the exact colour

Sometimes, I had to combine two colours to get the right shade 

Before which I got the light blue background

Semi finished

And then the ultimate obsession

My first travel blog

It's been a while, like really long I must admit. But there was a better temptation then just writing a blog I must admit. Yes. I was busy shopping for my wedding. Like I was really busy. My friends have suggested that I should get a rented space inside Shoppers Stop or my fiance Gautam should take up a job there. That's the kind of frequenting I have been doing at malls and shopping paradises. 

Nevertheless, this post isn't about design. But this is my first jump into a travel blog. Yes, as I write this post, I am about to commence a 55 kms trek. And that too have to complete the circuit in a span of 3 & 1/2 days. Am already nervous and legs are feeling heavy. If I had to cover 500 kms of a shopping mall in 3 & 1/2 days would have done it without blinking an eyelid but this is real stuff. 

My tour plan. As I write this I am on day 4 of the trip.

So with my effervescent cousin Pinal, I decided to bunch of 14 people for a trek to Kinnaur-Spiti and areas around it on August 1, 2013. Just by the name these places sounded exotic. Mind you, after landing in Srinagar, the moment I hit the road towards our various destinations, life was in a different world then. Here is a small collection of picture from the first three days of the trip and you will realise what I am talking. 

View from my room in Fagu

Road to Fagu, through clouds literally

A clear view of River Satluj on our way to Sarhaan

View from my room in Sarhaan

Our hotel garden in Sarhaan. We climbed about 200 metres from there as practice drill before taking the real trek

And in these 200 metres only I was done. Like I was down at 25% capacity. But just the location and its beauty gives you the strength to move forward and in that hope I will do the trek and will add some more pictures of the uphill movement in Mulling and Phustiang Balda, our trek destinations.

Till then see yaa later folks!!!

April Fool in Mid July or call it Sau Sonaar Ki, Ek Lohaar Ki

This one is up and above all the rest of my achievements in life. I FOOLED GAUTAM. Yes,  for the first time ever, I pulled a fast one on my fiancé and how. Like 9.5 times out of 10, he would, using his poker-faced expressions, he would make a fool out of me. But this one time, he was completely foxed. In the language he loves and understands the most, he was clean bowled by a googly. 

During the last weekend, I was in Surat for some wedding shopping and of course for being the privileged visitor to my doctor. And in between all that, I managed to spend sometime with my effervescent as ever cousin Pinal. The two of us are like a house on fire and yes we were together this time for a purpose, planning for our trek to Kinnaur Spiti in August first week.

In between all that, we managed to go to various places and  a coffee shop was obvious. And Gautam would believe that me and Pinal would do anything under the sun to keep ourselves entertained, shopping of course is a no-brainer. So, this one time, while in a coffee shop, I sent this picture (below) to Gautam and asked him if he liked this. 

The googly

He was stunned and excited at the same time. He just loved the concept of a photo coffee. And felt so embarrassed that a small city like Surat had this novel concept and his Maximum City Mumbai didn't have anything close to this. He took the bait and hook, line and sinker. He was now looking forward to come to Surat at the earliest.

He was to travel to Surat anyway to catch up with my folks and of course help me bring back the heavy luggage that I had to bring to Mumbai. But the torrential rains in Mumbai and parts of Gujarat on Friday (July 12, 2013) stalled his trip as the trains were cancelled and roads weren't the best option. 

The trip got cancelled and he was upset, seriously. He updated his Facebook Page with this post also. 

Gautam K.Sheth

Friday near Bombay Vile Parle via Mobile

One of those rare days when I have hated the rains. Will now miss my date with Locho, Coco, photo printed coffee, saasu maa's lasunn chutney. Ohh and also Gopi. All trains to Surat have been cancelled due to musalaadhaar paaus 

Now he was seriously looking forward to this photo coffee and I didn't know how serious he was. He showed his colleagues and a couple of them sent him their pictures for ordering a photo coffee, click and send the pictures to them. Another friend of his Ankur also bought this idea and showed it to his friends too.

But just half an hour back today, he messaged me to know the details of the coffee shop and other things to post it on his blog, is when I told him that this was my googly. And yes, he was as stunned as he was when he had first seen this. Gautam, you have heard of this naa, "Saau sonaar ki, ek lohaar ki"

In my blood is colour and design

I may sound like some lunatic or a madcap here, but then all artists are some what eccentric at some level. Isn't it? After overcoming the pain of my Humpty Dumpty fall, I underwent a tooth extraction. That precisely was the reason I was travelling to my home town Surat. 

So it's the wisdom tooth which was bothering me for some time now. I know it sounds weird to have wisdom tooth at this age, but I didn't decide to get married to Gautam till common sense didn't prevailed in me. And yes, Gautam gave credit to this tooth for my decision to marry him.

Anyway, so I underwent the painful procedure of getting the tooth sliced first and then extracted. I believe I have lost bucket full of blood after this. Gautam says it is not a big loss, as the blood lost was his, which I have been sucking for last seven years now. To avoid the pain, I was asked to pop some pills. Some which I didn't like, one which I loved. 

Now trust me this isn't about the flavour of the pills. So what makes me say some I didn't like, one I liked. Yes, the creative juices inside me analysed the design, colour and fonts used on the pills too. And believe me you, I endured the pain but only had one I liked (picture below). 

Amazing colour with classy fonts used

Now this pill or capsule to be precise may look like many others you, me or people around may have consumed. But the colour is just so attractive. I don't know if anyone actually bothers checking out the colours of their pills, but I do. And have been doing for as long as I realised I wanted to be a creative person.

For the record, the above pictured medicine contains the active ingredient Amoxicillin, which is an antibiotic and it's used to treat various types of infections. But does it matter to me? Not really. I liked the colour, design and fonts on it. And trust me, I have almost overcome the pain, no more blood leaking from my tooth extracted area.

All other pills are hidden inside my cupboard. Only Mox 500 is in my system, in my blood for its colour and design. 

My Humpty Dumpty Moment

Humpty Dumpty

"Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the kings horses and all the king's men,
could not put Humpty Dumpty together again."

This nursery rhyme immediately gives all of us a recollection of that round and cute poetry character and of course those carefree days of our lives. These four lines are visually also very strong, in the sense, one can easily imagine what exactly happened to Humpty Dumpty. Yes, it is the beauty of writing.

But I had one such moment which reminded me and my fiancé of our childhood this Sunday. On my way to take a train to Surat from Andheri station, I slipped a good three stair cases while walking down the entrance of Andheri station. Their were hardly eight or nine stair cases to climb down and I went down on three of them on my bum and back with my MacBook Pro in tow.

And yes, it hurt me, and how. A not so badly bruised elbow, a heavy strain on my back, eventual swelling on my wrists and acute shoulder pain. But the initial reaction of my fiancé kept the pain at bay till I reached Surat. As soon as I fell down, for a moment I felt he would take out his iPhone and click my picture, but he was decent enough to offer me a hand to get up. 

Realising I was about to weep, he immediately cracked the Humpty Dumpty joke on me. And rechristened me as his Humpty Dumpty, changed my name on his mobile phones and kept singing Humpty Dumpty rhyme till I boarded my train. I was in pain, and wanted to cry. But he didn't let me for one bit. 

Even after the fall, we climbed up the bridge, changed platforms, walked down till my compartment, with my eyes welling up and Gautam singing Humpty Dumpty. I told him not to tease me, but inside I knew if he would not do that, I will break down. He knew the moment I fell that there was no point of cajoling me and giving false promises that the pain will subside, so he continued his stupid Humpty Dumpty...

Only when I completed my four hour journey in the train and 15 minutes in an Auto I realised that I was in bad pain. My parents immediately swung in action and applied ointment and ice package on affected areas. But somewhere I was humming Humpty Dumpty in my head. I realised this was the Humpty Dumpty moment of my life. 

Some things you learn in your childhood don't leave you. I think Humpty Dumpty is that thing in my life now, and I am sure my fiancé won't let it go away from me.   

Finally, life's coming a full circle

Nothing gives more pleasure to a creative person than his/ her work in a good shape, and of course appreciated. The ultimate result is a combination of right skills, religious practice and of course right equipments to support. Rotis I would bake more often than not took shapes of maps of various continents and countries, as I had mentioned in my previous post 'Wish MacBook could make Rotis'. 

But as of today, I feel I don't need MacBooks for perfect round Rotis. I changed my belan (rolling pin) and the result was, dhantananan an almost perfect round Roti. Yes, I did it just a couple of hours back while making lunch for my brother in law. And my fiancé, my biggest critic, approved of the shape and said he is proud of me. Well, does he have a choice. 

Round Roti, finally. ;)

So when he saw this picture, first thing he told me is if I used the scissor lying around the flat plate. But then it was just a coincidence. How can someone cut a Roti in shape with a scissor? It may be no big deal for many of you to get a Roti in the right shape. And some day when I read this post, may be five years later, I too would feel why I made it such a big deal. 

But as I said, nothing gives a creative person more pleasure than his work in right shape and appreciated. Little joys of life I would say.!!!

My love for bags, bling and art

Photo courtesy: Unitedworld Institute of Design

The moment I saw this my heart stopped and I could not stop sending this image to my fiancé. I could imagine the expression on his face, a resigned look hoping I don't find this bag in some shop some day to buy it for sure.

But the best part of this work is that it's a combination of three things I can't live without; bags, bling and art. And if this combines into one, how can I not drool over it. The bag or a piece of art whatever you want to call is nothing less than stunning.

It was Unitedworld Institute of Design's Facebook page where I found this and immediately fell in love. But outside for my obsession for the three things I mentioned, this really looks very beautiful to say the least. It needs a lot of creative juices, patience and perseverance to all flow together for a product like this to come out. 

And mind you, every creative person's ultimate goal is to have a product which ultimately is drool worthy and this one does make one feel so. Not sure how many men would like this particular bag, but would be surprised if any of my girl friends or blog readers would agree any less with me on this. 

And by the way, my fiancé has no where to go if this comes up for sale. He better buy me this. Gautam are you reading this?