Illustration Friday - Water

'Aqua' - art by Chandana Banerjee, on ruled journal paper

This is Maya and her moment at the ‘fish zoo’. She has never been to one before and is amazed by the different kinds of fish that swim by. She wishes for a small aquarium, where she can keep her own goldfish at home. Maybe, she can name each of them. Zara. Gold. Orange.  Or, maybe someday she can meet a mermaid. With a little magic and the mermaid by her side, she can dive into the depths of the sea, riding on sea horses, swimming with hoards of colourful fish. Or, maybe, she can befriend the water fairy that she’s sure lives in the brook near her home. How she’d love to live on the river bank in a little cottage made of river-smoothened pebbles, sand and ferns. 

Beauty in Brown

photo credit: http://rachelvanoven.com/blog/

I took sabbatical from my blog. To find my voice…my blogging voice. I didn’t want to write until I had something to share. Well, I don’t mean that I didn’t have anything to say all this while, but here at Cookie Jar, I wanted things to be different. The posts I write must strike a deep chord within me. The opinions, thoughts and things that I type out for Cookie Jar must inspire me. 

There are enough times when we talk for the sake of social chit-chat and I find that that drains me out. So, at Cookie Jar we’ll talk because an idea is interesting, inspiring, simple, happy, energizing. Amen J

Having said that let me share what I’ve been thinking. I’m in the midst of Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I like her prose, the way she weaves out her descriptions and unfurls her story. The other thing I like about her prose is the way she chooses luscious words to celebrate the colour of the skin. ‘The lush colour of rain-drenched earth’, ‘mahogany’, ‘ebony’ – how beautifully she revels in the elegance of dark skin. In a world, where light is favoured over dark, white over shades of brown, it’s a delight to find prose, people and photographs that celebrate dusky skin tones.

Photo credit: http://darkskinnedblackbeauty.tumblr.com via Pinterest

Photo credit: http://ani-n-i.tumblr.com via Pinterest

I’m an Indian and live in a country where every citizen is some shade of brown. But unfortunately, it’s the ones with the lightest of skin tones, who are considered good looking. As if, being fair is a virtue. When we can celebrate burnished browns, we’re too busy paying homage to fairness creams and the imaginary power of light-coloured skin.

Photo credit: http://zodwakumalo.wordpress.com 

 Photo credit: http://divalocity.tumblr.com

From chocolate to cappuccino, warm cocoa to caramel, rain-drenched earth to mocha, there are so many shades of delicious brown around us (what we know as 'Black' is actually a shade of rich brown). In no way are these any inferior to light brown, pink or white. There is richness in the whole set of browns, each shade burnished and beautiful. The question is when will we as people of this country, as citizens of the world accept that skin colour is as individualistic as our DNA and finger print? That skin tones are a result of how much melanin we’re born with? That God created a whole gamut of skin tones like we created a whole set of different colours to paint with? That each person is different and special in their own way? That beauty is as much about dark brown as about light brown and white?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/psoup216/4746740495/in/faves-aarika/

Puppy Love

I’m in love….in love with a 5-week-old St. Bernard puppy. I went over to a friend’s house to see their latest addition and fell head over heels in love with the bundle of fur and innocence. Chubby and quiet, he was everything that a puppy is about…warmth, comfort, snuggles, naps.

Now to see me talk like this – I’ve never really been an out and out dog lover, the kind that get so comfortable with any dog. Because my hubby loves dogs and because I loved the book – ‘shadow the sheep dog’, we got a golden retriever puppy 2 years back. In the beginning, I was terrified of her sharp puppy teeth and piercing yelps, and she was scared of this adult, who was scared of her. It was a funny relationship – we tiptoed around each other, literally.

But slowly and steadily, we began to bond. It was a lot like an arranged marriage, where you learn to love the person slowly, one puppy step at a time. Today of course, Muffin (my golden girl) and I are buddies. Muffin initiated me to the world of puppies, and probably that’s why I was so comfortable with the bundle of joy I saw yesterday.

Do you plan to get a puppy? Or have you already got one? Do write in with your stories.

Photo credit: Dvijatman Kennel

Is entrepreneurship for you?

Photo credit: Work From Home Jobs

I was talking to a few friends yesterday. They are young mums armed with lofty degrees and substantial work experience. They’re smart, sincere and yearning to carve a niche out for themselves. A niche and career that they can balance while bringing up their kids and moving from one place to another (like me, they’re military wives). Since we often spend our lifetime in the boondocks and back-of-beyond places across the country, keeping ourselves on the career track can become challenging. Frequent postings, places that offer meagre work opportunities and the famous military social life, leaves us with fewer choices when it comes to work.

Having discovered the beauty of entrepreneurship (I run two businesses – Pink Elephant Writing Studio & Luscious Health), I mentioned the possibility of starting their own companies to my friends. Working from Home and starting small businesses is becoming the thing to do now. With several qualified mums out there, wanting to balance family and work, Mompreneurship is the way to go.

If, like my friends and me, you’re craving to chart your own career path, then here’s some inspiration to begin with:

Here’s  Bizzieliving, a fantastic blog to garner inspiration. It has some great interviews of women with small businesses.

Meet Rachel Anne Miller, a young designer, illustrator and mum, who runs her own creative studio.

Kate Rosenthal started the Stubby PencilStudio, where she creates and retails eco-friendly art material and stationary.

Dancing Elephant Studio was started by artist Jenny Kostecki Shaw. She works and lives with her young family in the mountains of Mexico.

Work At Home Woman - a treasury of info to get started!

p.s. While working from home is great, it isn't as easy as depicted in the photograph above ;)

A Homemade Life

There’s one particular blog that I often bumble over to, when I’m in the mood for a slower, more hands-on life. ‘Hands-on life’? Now, isn’t life hands on, you may ask. Well, in today’s day and age, where grocery is ordered online and veggies come from cans and packets, clothes from a catalogue or store and a meal often from a takeaway or a cook, life is more about delegation than DIY.

When life is whizzing us by, jet-set on deadlines, stress and general busyness, don’t you ever wish for a calmer spot, a more warm, home-grown life and an inner contentment that no corporate career can offer? Well, I certainly do. It was this decision to slow down and soak in everything that life has to offer that’s got me going DIY and hands-on in various aspects of my life.

My meals come from my soup pot and wok, where I cook them with chutzpah and love. My clothes from the village weavers; veggies from the local haat (Indian village market) and our vegetable garden; healing from holistic ways; employment from entrepreneurship; and, entertainment from simple sources.

The endeavour is to live a green, homemade life, wherever and whenever possible. So, coming back to the blog I love bumbling over to – it’s called SouleMama and is all about her family’s life, as they go about spinning and living a warm, happy homemade life.

I find a lot of inspiration in how Amanda and her family live, and I hope you will too.

Photo credit: SouleMama - Amanda Blake Soule

Cookie Jar in the news!

The POOL interview with me :)

Woohoo....It's such a lot of fun to be on the other side of the interviewing table :) ! POOL - a national design magazine, interviewed me about this blog - Cookie Jar, my thoughts on writing, dreams and plans. It was such a pleasant change to be giving the interview, rather than taking one.

Thanks Maitreyi & POOL Team for the opportunity! And Thanks to all of my readers, for the support and for being there :)

Luscious!

Photo credit: Jean Georges

Hey! I've been away for a long...even after all those promises. Time's been flying. Between the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Luscious Health and all the excitement of setting up a new business, there's hardly been much left to do anything else.

Ah! and then there's the thing about Very Very effective time management. I get by pretty well with my current time management skills, but am so interested in becoming a Guru at this :). Who wouldn't?

By the way, before we go over to another stream of conversation, let's catch up with Luscious Health. What's that, you may ask?

Luscious Health is my brand new Health & Nutrition Coaching company!!!!! Yayyyy....a baby business steadily making its way out of the bassinet.

Please check out the this jewel of a wellness studio, right here: http://www.luscious-health.com/

AND here's my joyful Giveaway....a FREE WELLNESS SESSION. It's an hour-long session with the focus on YOU, your health goals and your wellness mission.

So, if getting healthy, happy and fit has been on your mind this year, get in touch with me to turn your goals into a reality. 

My email: luscioushealthcoaching@gmail.com

See you there soon!

p.s. Oh...and this Free Session Offer is valid till Feb 16, 2012!!!