How difficult is it to let good win over evil?

Festival of Lights, Image from Google

With the celebration of Diwali just round the corner this is a question that has been in my mind all day today...How difficult is it really to let Good win over Evil....more importantly what is good and what is evil?... 

For an instant let us stop thinking about World Peace or Greener Earth...instead let us ponder on our regular day to day activities....our thoughts and feelings....our decisions and reasonings....Do we let 'Good' prevail over 'Evil' day in and day out? Do we have the inner courage to do what is right and avoid what isn't? And when we ask this question to ourselves let us concentrate only on little things...because from little things big things  grow...

I believe that if each of us elects to do what is right in tiniest of spells it all cumulates to one grand win...the win of the 'Good'. I would love to share  with you one little thing that I did today that was a mini victory of good over evil...one thing that I conscientiously chose to do...one insy-winsy laurel...

I decided to strengthen my will power and beat temptation...And I qualify this as a victory of good over evil because it is temptation that leads me to sometimes compensate my general intention to be 'good'! And by saying that I am definitely not referring to robbing banks or killing people...I am referring to much littler, simpler things...Things like choosing to finish cleaning the kitchen right after a meal and not being complacent, like doing the laundry on the designated day and not letting it pile up, like choosing a fruit as dessert and not I and J's Halloween loot, like not buying that beautiful candle even if I don't need it....I have finally led myself to understand that it takes just little push from within..a little strength to do what should be done...I am sure that sometimes there will still be unclean kitchen counters, piled up laundry, a few high calorie desserts or even some impulsive purchases but today I am happy that I have made a start...a start to throw temptation a little further away...a start to be a little more happy about myself....a start to get rid of the evil...

PS: I am presently working on this set of paintings that has a underlying theme of the Festival of Lights - Diwali. Take a sneek peek below! (please forgive the poor quality of the photograph...I was in a hurry and therefore could not do better...)

Like light in the dark

Magic of daydreaming...



Painting by Dita

 I was flipping through a travel magazine at the dentists waiting room some weeks back and I saw this beautiful resort at a tropical paradise...It was magical...beautiful blue seas, sparkling beaches, cosy rooms with adjoining verandahs...and one plant that seemed to be growing everywhere was the commonly known Birds of Paradise.

I had this frame in mind from then and was waiting eagerly for an opportunity to paint it. When M wanted to take the kids for a play in the park on Sunday I knew it was my chance... :) and what you see on the right is my abstract version of Birds of Paradise... but it has a story of it's own!

All the while that morning, I kept thinking of the pictures I saw in that magazine...the beautiful beaches, the warm waters, the peaceful spas, the tranqil pools...And, the magic of the bright red and yellow paints, the paint brushes and my solitude seemed to transport me to the tell-tale world of ethereal beauty...a space where everything is sublime...there is no worry...no constraint...just pure joy...joy of satisfaction, joy of contentment, joy of being myself...

...and then cheerfull voices of I & J declared my landing back to the real world...they were back from their stint in the park...I smiled to myself and packed up to get lunch ready...real world is just as good...only with a 5yr old and a 3.5 yr old around it is far from peaceful!!!

At that stage I had just completed the flowers and the foliage and had planned the background to be blue...like the sky...But when I got back to finishing the painting later in the afternoon...I decided to honour my little tryst with day dreaming...And to capture the mystery of the space I had been to earlier in the day I changed the backgroung to black....the mysterious, enigmatic elusive black!



Just to give you an idea about how this piece of mine could look at your home (or mine)......



Glee...

           After all the anxiety, tension and nervousness...I am finally content and happy...actually really elated and humbled at the same time...The Exhibition and Fundraiser was excellent! I have sold a few paintings and quite a few greeting cards and have raised a reasonable amount of money for the cause....but more than anything else... I have done what I have dreamt of doing for a long long time...something that is very close to my heart...and that gives me a feeling of euphoria... I really held infinity in the palm of my hand for a second and made a promise to myself...a promise that this is just the beginning....the beginning of me defining my life and making a difference to others...one step at a time!

 

Image by Reshmi Mazumdar



I have also learnt a few life lessons while organising this event...some good, others not that great...and I not going to bore you with the details but will definitely share something with you...I knew that Ma, Baba, M, I, J, Bonuram... love me a lot and will always be there to support me but now I know something more...something much much more...there are a whole lot of people...some of whom I have been close with...some with whom I have lost touch and others who I barely know...also think of me and brace my endeavours...3 cheers to all of you who made this day possible and a special thanks to R for being there to share the joys! I just thought of spreading the cheer further by sharing this bright painting of mine.



Image by Dita



Hemming and Hawing between Indigo and Orange

This week for me is going to be very much like the painting below and I will tell you today what makes me think so...



Painting by Dita



M is away for the whole week on a business trip and I have I&J only to myself...I am not overly good at whining but I literally have the home, work, drop-offs, pick-ups, cooking, cleaning all to myself...and I really wouldn’t mind all of that if I had M beside me...but alas he isn’t!...and to add to all of that, every time I tune into the online radio...all that the whole world is listening to seems to be Romantic Songs!

Starting from very sombre dark blue (Indigo) the colours of the painting slowly blend into brighter shades of magenta, red, orange and even yellow...very much like what I am feeling now and what I think I will be feeling when the end of this week approaches... It’s as if my normal cheerful self is being unobtrusive, meek and modest anxious to break free to the sunlit patches of happiness but hemming and hawing with the prospect...like being apprehensive yet composed at the same time...

I wonder if Ma felt the same when Baba had to go on his week-long sometimes month-long work tours. Did she also have to deal with this forlorn uneasiness but still stay happy for us? When the much awaited phone call from Baba came every evening (there were no mobile phones then) ... did her feelings burst into orange and red?



Painting by Jean Baptiste Santerre (1650 – 1717, French)



Or for that matter, how did Thamma (grand-mother) deal with the pain of separation when Dada had to go to the States for several months in the 1950’s....she had no access to phones or emails and all she had to rely on was hand-written letters, the receipt of which was at the mercy of the turbulent times...I close my eyes and think....maybe after a hard day’s work...when everybody else was in bed, she would light up a candle and read those letters from Dada, shrouding herself in the aura of bright reds and oranges...coming out of her sombre, soft pedalled self and dreaming of  breaking free into the world of emphatic happiness...

 I am thankful to the modern world for SMS’, emails, face-times, webchats and all the other means of communication that makes separation so much more bearable...although the romance of hand-written letters is lost, I still feel the tinge of Orange, Pink or Red within me when I get an email or when I spend the train journey to office SMS-ing M.

How do you feel when you or your loved one has to be away on business? How do you deal with it? Do your feelings also vary between deep dark Indigo to bright Magenta and Orange?

Is RED the colour of your love?

Red to me is the colour of love...of passion...of happiness. It is the colour of quivering lips and beating hearts. It is the colour of fresh juicy strawberries, the colour of roses, the colour of red wine...The colour that automatically sets the mood of romance...and the colour that breathes joy and celebration.



Images from Google, Collage by Dita

  If I were to tell you about one moment (among numerous others eversince) when I really 'felt' the colour red...it would definitely be when I closed my eyes to say my weddings wows. I was this young blushing bride full of dreams of her future life with her knight in shining armour...and when I closed my eyes for the final step of the wedding where M applied the 'sindur' on my forehead for the first time ever, all I could feel was a mix of emotions, I felt the love, the passion, the promise, the uncertainty, the hope, the desire....i felt RED....I dont know whether it was the colour of the sindur, or my wedding saree or the blood that rushed to my cheek and made me blush....but i definitely felt RED....it was magical...the feeling of one dream coming true and building many others at the same time...the feeling of desire and contentment at the same time!

Images from Google, Collage by Dita

 I painted the one below to celebrate the colour RED...it also raises the question of Red's relation with Black in my mind and I will speak about that another time...Till then keep reading and do let me know what you feel about RED...

Painting by Dita

Absorb a moment of happiness with ORANGE!



Photo and Painting by Dita



 A friend came back from a trip to Door Country with such beautiful pictures of ‘Fall’...a time when all the leaves turn into flowers... And then in one of the pictures, like magic, the colour on the leaves seemed to have escaped to colour the sky behind them....the Sun was setting in the horizon shrouding the trees with eternal mystery...and the darkness was slowly engulfing the branches one steady step at a time...that’s what I tried to capture in this painting of mine...

What colour do you see when you close your eyes to absorb a moment of happiness? I see Orange! The cheerful, stimulating and charming ORANGE! The colour that has this undefined warmth without being aggressive...the colour that is exciting and engaging...the colour that stimulates the fire within you and encourages you to reach the heights without pushing you over the edge! Orange to me relates to the warm fuzzy feeling within me...whether it is what I feel when I&J give me their tightest hug ever or when M makes me a cup of tea on a lazy Sunday morning or when Ma sends me a message saying “Proud of you Buru”!

Even nature associates the colour Orange with wholesomeness and desirability. Different nourishing and delicious foods are orange, like squashes, pumpkin, carrots, sweet potatoes and citrus fruits.  In fact, in the English language, the word ‘orange’ dates to the introduction of the fruit which gave the colour its name. Before then, the colour had been known as ‘geoluhread’, or yellow-red!

Photo Courtsey: dimensionsinfo.com

Orange or more specifically Deep Saffron is the most used colour in Hinduism historically and culturally. It is the most commonly worn colour for religious ceremonies and has been so for more than 2000 yrs. The colour signifies courage, sacrifice and the spirit of renunciation and was therefore my obvious choice for the background of the painting below. I will talk all about this favourite patchwork painting of mine in another post because like all other paintings of mine, this one also has a story which is very close to my heart!


Painting and Photo by Dita



Snow White...

Apologies for moving away from my Rainbow Collection for a bit today but I desperately want to speak to you about WHITE. Ishaan turned 5 last Friday and we went to the mountains to celebrate this milestone! It was a lot of fun there for us and the kids with good friends, good food and a lot of snow!

Ishaan and his Toboggan! Pic by Manas Ray

The pristine fresh WHITE everywhere was like magic. The bright sun against the white blanket of snow and the twinkling eyes of I and J was like a trilogy made in heaven! The sparkling little crystals almost literally reflected the happy and joyfull heart of my innocent little five year old... and I could not help but go back down memory lane to that winter in Chicago now almost 6 yrs back when I first knew that I was going to be a mom! I could almost touch the growing wave of emotion within and shed just a few tears of joy when I was brought back to reality...a pair of little ice-cold hands were pulling and poking me, trying to get my attention...Jiya wanted some help with the toboggan! A little push and there I was dreaming again...This time of the family holiday that I spent with Bonuram about 15 years back at Tshangu Lake in Sikkim, India. That was the first time we had ever experienced snow in real life! I could hear us giggling and shouting and throwing snow balls at each other untill M actually threw a snow ball at me....I quickly retaliated the move and moved on...What was the snow doing to me? It was like my own personal time-machine bringing back memories so full of life of fun-times that I have had...it was playing magic...it was taking advantage of my vulnerable set of emotions and making me nostalgic and happy at the same time...

Tshangu Lake Pic Coutrsey:

thinkingparticle.com

White to me has almost the same meaning as it has to the world. It is pure, pristine, clean and ...neutral....and I have recently discovered that white funnily enough, also acts like a time-machine! Well I am not sure whether it was the colour white or the snow but it has definitely given me a very good idea for my next collection. I will try to keep the idea to myself for now but will share with you this picture...keep guessing!

Pic Courtesy: Google

Blue...

On our several drives up the Great Ocean Road, I often tried to capture the brilliance of the blue seas through my lenses....but every time I laid down on my stomach on the edge of a jutting cliff to click away, I always ended up with bits of wild foliage sticking into the frame. This painting is a celebration of the mirth of those dancing leaves and branches which were often times just weeds in the crazy sea wind...

Photo By: Dita

Blue was a latecomer among colours used in art and decoration. Warm earthy colours like reds, browns, and ochres are found even in Paleolithic cave paintings but not blue. Even when man started to dye fabrics, blue was the last colour to be introduced. This is probably due to the difficulty of making good blue dyes and pigments. The earliest known blue dyes were made from plants like woad in Europe and indigo in Asia and Africa. Blue pigments on the other hand were made from expensive minerals like lapis lazuli or azurite. It therefore slowly became a luxury colour and was used sparingly until synthetic ways of creating the colour was introduced. Oriental vases, with their beautiful blue scroll work, are by far my most favourite bit of tangible history that features the colour blue.

Photo Courtesy: Chinese-treasures.net

Artists recognised the emotional power of blue and often made it the central element of paintings.  Washed out shades of it, is often used to create a melancholic mood along with green with no warm tones at all. I wonder if this has any link to the etymology of the phrase ‘Monday Morning Blues’!

I however, do not believe in washed out shades, neither do I dwell in melancholy! Blue to me is the brilliance of the sea in the sun, the depth of the sky on a perfect day...it is the sense of ‘ahhh’ that I feel when I look out of the window of my car in a road trip and I remember, when we were little and Ma Baba used to take us to the city in the local train...I used to sit by the window, gaze out into the open sky and get lost in my world of imagination...it was this blue! ...the brilliant blue that still gives me a sense of comfort and makes it easy for me to quickly forget the mundane day to day and get lost in my world....the world that is always bright, happy and NOW brimming with memories...



Photo Courtesy: Aurobindo Banerjee



Yellow...the sunny colour?

I often make mini sketches on anything that I can lay my hands on. Be it on the back of my Metro Ticket or on a notebook while attending boring meetings or simply on my hand while watching a not so interesting movie! On one glorious bright day while I was waiting for the kids to finish off their last few minutes at the park I sketched away on the back on my grocery bill. I was not feeling that bright and glorious though, because of few things that were worrying me.  Then suddenly I got impatient, as if I could not wait a second until I got it out of me. I drove the kids back home and ended up painting this! ...Later that day I assessed my problems, drafted a plan to logically tackle them and took the first step towards resolution...



YELLOW Photo by: Dita



Yellow to me is the bright side of the truth of life...it is the sense of awareness of me and my surroundings...it is a relief from the dark...an easy target to set and focus on. Although traditionally the colour yellow has never been used in a positive sense, my mind somehow denies the idea of it being symbolically associated to cowardice, aging, caution, criminal activities and even pornography! To me it is what I feel when I have set myself a clear goal and am looking forward to reaching it. It is the state where suddenly everything falls into space and I know exactly what I am after.  It is the morning after a long night. It is that part of the journey which almost ensures a happy destination. No wonder I love the fact that smileys are yellow! :)

Did you know that even yellow coloured foods are very good for you? It almost has an effect similar to what the sun has on earth! With an abundance of vitamin C yellow coloured super foods help your heart, vision, digestion and immune system. Which yellow food is your favourite?

Photo Courtsey: Google