q & a with Madhumita Gopalan

Her photographs are like dreams. Ethereal and enchanting. Enigmatic and interesting. Take a look yourself to see how Madhumita works magic with her camera.

q. Please tell us about yourself – where are you based, your growing up years, education, professional background, talents, interests.

a. I grew up in Hyderabad, soaking up the city's unique culture and heritage. My parents are originally from Tamil Nadu, and settled in Hyderabad when I was a few months old. I have post-graduate degrees in Physics and Computational Techniques, and work on algorithms and mathematical modelling. I also love music - I was trained in classical music as a kid, and I love gardening. But Photography, is my biggest passion. I met my husband through our shared interest in photography, and we’ve been married for a year.

q. What is your blog about?

a. My blog Aadab Hyderabad is all about capturing everything I love about Hyderabad. I do a bit of research to find more things that I can love about Hyderabad, and go hunting for little known remnants of its past that still exist.

q. Would you like to tell us about your photography - how you got started and your growth as a photographer?

a. I developed an interest in photography quite late - just about 3 years ago. But it had to happen sooner or later, considering that my dad loves photography and so did his dad. So it probably was in the genes! We spent a bit of time in Calcutta, and playing assistant to my dad as he shot pictures of life there must have played it's part in unconsciously inspiring me. I started playing around with a small point-and-shoot camera, and when I realized how much I enjoyed it, I decided it was time for a DSLR. My husband has played a huge role in my journey since then - sometimes a mentor, sometimes a partner in crime :)

q. What kind of projects and compositions do enjoy working on?

a. While I enjoy all kinds of photography and do portraits/event photography assignments, street and travel photography excite me the most. I enjoy outdoor photography in natural light, and love capturing everything on the streets including the people, the buildings, the art and the toil - everything that goes into making "the way of life". Aadab Hyderabad, in which I photodocument Hyderabad is very close to my heart, and I hope to continue to do it for years.

q & a with Kavita Arvind

Little brown girls with big bright eyes and pigtails, goggle-eyed plump birds, blue skies, candyfloss trees and verdant green fields…Kavita Arvind’s paintings are refreshingly cute and Indian. Take one look at the vibrant pictures and her Chidiya Udd website, and you’ll want to know the stories behind the art. 

q. Please tell us about yourself – where your live, your family, and professional and art background.

a. I now live in Helsinki with my 1.5 year old daughter and my husband. Home awaits us in Bangalore and hopefully we will be back by March next year after braving our very first freezing Nordic winter here!

I graduated from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad with Film and Video Communication as my specialisation. Most of my work in film centred around documentaries with women as the main focal element.

And then I went on to work with Television doing graphics and promos, got tired of all the glycerine and soapsuds and quit to go back to my alma mater, this time to teach design. After 4 years in the classroom, I felt I needed to get back to the industry and see if I had gotten rusty. I worked as a senior graphic designer for an E-Learning company. Did the whole mad hours and squinted at the computer screen for long hours.

We moved to Bangalore and a friend looked at my sketch books and asked me to paint something for him. That’s how Chidiya Udd came about.

I have been painting and drawing ever since I can remember. And the five years at NID helped me get a better grip on the pencil! At NID we start our drawing course by learning how to sharpen a pencil with a cutter blade and spent weeks just drawing lines and circles before we get anywhere close to a human figure!

I have gotten back to my paints and brushes after a rather long detour... but everyday that I paint my soul feels a little bit warmer...

q. We love your wonderful and quirky art. Would you like to tell us about your inspiration and the stories behind the cute characters in your paintings?

a. There are so many colours and smells and textures and stories running in my head! I like to paint stories from old, musty memories, from nature, I am crazy about trees and leaves. I also like to paint little things that I see everyday... two little girls holding hands and walking down a shiny street, a sulking schoolboy I spied around the corner. And stuff from dreams, from places that may not exist but where you’d rather be... lots of blue skies and miles of green.

The girl child has been something that I hold very dear in my heart, and nothing makes me madder than crimes against women and children. Meera is a little girl I would love to envelop in a big hug and nurture with all my heart. She is much more than a 6 year old with 2 pigtails and earnest eyes... she is every little girl I see who is trying to find her footing in a world that is chaotic, challenging and exhilarating!

q. Have you always enjoyed creating art? What kind of things do you remember drawing as a child?

a. I remember an old balding teacher who drew a picture and then made us copy it several times exactly the way he drew it!! Almost killed the joy of creating there!

But I survived the ‘teaching’ and I think I drew everything!

q. Before you started Chidiya Udd and took up painting fulltime, what was life as a 9 to 9 design professional? And, what do you enjoy about working for yourself?

a. Working for myself has been tougher in some ways. One needs to be so much more disciplined, all the more so when work is from a comfy studio at home and the couch beckons seductively!

The biggest kick is I can paint what I love with no one looking over my shoulder and saying I should do something different... and to find that my art does evoke a response and people even love it!!

q. What are your weekdays and weekends are like?

a. I have a 1.5 year old baby girl who is frisky and will not sit in one place for more than 5 minutes. I am a slave... sigh.

q. What do you enjoy most as a creative person?

a. To be able to share what I think and feel with daubs of paint with so many people who stop to look and listen.

q. What do you like doing apart from drawing and painting?

a. I love cooking and baking. I also read extensively, watch every film I possibly can. I am a cleanliness freak and spend some agonising minutes every hour setting everything at right angles (all this is made rather futile with the toddler tyrant). I also like watching people and can sit still for several hours doing just that!

Images: Kavita Arvind

Elephant Eulogies

Elephant dung…

What would you do with a glob of this? Wrinkle up your nose and run the other way for sure.

But Mahima of Haathi Chaap won’t. She’ll collect these from the elephant stables at Jaipur and process the poo and then turn the fibre-rich globs into thick paper. Clean, non-stinky and absolutely hygienic, and of course eco-friendly, the paper is then used to create an amazing array of products. From clocks to coasters, notebooks to knick-knacks, Haathi Chaap has a quagmire of products for quirky customers. Check these out.

Bag it!

Roller coaster

Journal journeys

Images: Haathi Chaap

Eye Candy - Liselotte Weller's happy pictures

A few years ago, I chanced upon Liselotte’s website and fell in love with her bright and happy illustrations right away. They are so quirky and full of beans that you’ll wish you could dive right into the pictures and live out your life in full colour and cute stories.

Liselotte Weller has been designing since 1984, and for over 10 years, been working as a Sign Language Interpreter during the day. “In the evenings I have been working with the love and passion of my life - the interpretation of words and emotions with colors and shapes.”


Married with two children, she lives in Aalborg, Denmark, and loves to bake, cook and fly kites in her free time. 


Nourishment

SOHO

Fuzzy, woollie

 Summer

Fresh

Images: Liselotte Weller

Eye Candy - The Red River's new collection

There is so much prettiness all around. And, there are so many people, who are living their dream, creating these pretty things and helping others. Kakoli Das of The Red River is one such person. Ebullient and enthusiastic with oodles of chutzpah, this young entrepreneur with her feisty team runs a company that works with the weavers of Assam, creating an exclusive range of home furnishings and organic jewellery. She retails online as well as from a store in Bangalore. 

People…you gotta see their latest collection. Aptly named Alice in Wonderland, the hand woven and embroidered cushion covers are an absolute treat for the eyes. In candy pink and sunny yellow, with motifs of Lil girl frocks, these gorgeous babies are ready to go home.

"Alice in Wonderland, our latest offering, is Red River's reflection of her longing for the springtime of life... O how she wishes to dress up again like an angel, stroll through the greens picking violets and innocently drown in her wonderland!!"

Violet

Sun fields

Strawberry crush

Mustard

Images: The Red River/Namrata Baruah

q & a with Kalyani Ganapathy

Bangalore-based Kalyani Ganapathy’s niche venture, Kye (which means ‘hand’ in Kannada), is about dollops of handmade happiness and homemade goodness. She paints, embroiders and screen prints her whimsical ideas on bags, purses, and cushion covers. Started in September 2008, the business, which specialises in handmade fabric products, gives her the much-needed break from the “giant screen” where she freelances as a graphic designer.

q. Please tell us about your background and childhood years.

a. All my school years were spent in the Nilgiris. I spent most of my school years at The Lawrence School Lovedale. I then moved to Bangalore to study advertising and graphic design.

q. What were your initial years in the workforce like? Where did you work?

a. While still at college I interned at an ad agency and soon found myself detesting the job. After college I worked at a design studio, my initial few months were spent just learning on the job. The best part of it was that almost every thing I worked was a challenge of a different kind.

I worked with various graphic design studios before freelancing and teaching.

q. Please tell about the ideas, work and creativity that goes into thinking up new stuff and creating them from scratch.

a. I find myself constantly thinking, be it when I am walking my dog, reading, or even shopping. I seek inspiration from things around me. I like to paint in the form of stories. What may seem like one story to me may not seem like that to anyone else. I believe that art is subjective and is best left open to interpretation.

 The tougher challenge is making these ideas workable to paint and stitch on fabric. I think it is attention to detail and the hours of laborious work in the pursuit of perfection that make ‘kye’s’ products unique.

q. What are you working on these days?

a. My focus at the moment is ‘custom made’ furnishing and accessories. Apart from this, I am thinking about larger collections for retail.

q. Would you like to share an important lesson that you’ve learnt as an entrepreneur?

a. My biggest learning is to keep persevering and never let the downside of business get to you.

q. What do you enjoy most about running a creative business and what are the things that give you a tough time?

a. I enjoy waking up to a new challenge everyday. I enjoy the fact that the work does not get repetitive. And most importantly I get to meet and interact with so many interesting people whom I never would have met sitting in an office.

q. Would you like to say something to all those vibrant, creative people out there, who would like to become self-employed but somehow cannot quit their jobs or take that plunge?

a. The creative life looks very glamorous from the outside, no one realises the kind of effort that goes into a simple job. My advice to all the creative people out there is to stand your ground, dream big and believe. There is nothing more satisfying than going to a job you love.

q. Any message you’d like to include here?

a. It may seem a little preachy but I think it needs to be said:

Support your local artisan, be it your local potter or the girl next door who makes hand crafted products. It would be very sad to see such a large part of our heritage wiped out by mechanisation.

Thanks a tonne for your time!

Images: Kye

Dreams in my pocket - Jessica Constable

I can't get enough of good blogs and strong coffee. A few months ago, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, while rifling through blogs, I came across Jessica Constable's inspirational blog Make Under My Life. As I read, I came to know that Jessica is an entrepreneur, who runs her own jewelery brand called Jess LC. She's just the kind of woman I love to read about...yes, you got it. I love reading about women who have the courage to chart out their own career path and choose to start businesses instead of work the 9-to-9 shift.

So people...let's catch up with Jessica Constable over coffee.

I am…. 
I’m a jewellery designer in Chicago, Illinois. 

My business name, Jess LC, comes from my name and initials. But I have to admit, in 1999 the company was originally named Starlette Jewelry. As a 15-year-old living in Rochester, Michigan, I taught myself to make “totally rad” star ankle bracelets at a local pool. While making these beaded ankle bracelets, four women bought them from me on the spot. These unintentional sales changed my professional life forever. Inspired to earn my “fun money” selling jewelry rather than baby-sitting, I soon learned new jewelry techniques and sold my designs to teachers, students, and stores across Michigan. When I graduated high-school, my jewelry was sold in 12 boutiques.


In 2003, I began college at the University of Michigan and studied Business Administration at the Ross School of Business. While struggling through operations management and corporate finance classes, I continued selling jewelry and re-named the business Jess LC. My junior year, I interned in New York City at Macy’s Merchandising Group within Product Development. Though the experience was great, I found myself wanting to make changes to the designs, pricing, hang-tags, even the LOGO. Needless to say, as an intern these changes were beyond my control. So I resolved to take a CEO position after graduation… at Jess LC. When I graduated I was also named “Entrepreneur of the Year.” Which sounds impressive, until you find out that I was the only student with a business, and therefore the only nominee. Ahem.


After graduation in August of 2007, I moved to Chicago and started Jess LC full-time. Setting up shop in a small studio apartment as a one-woman show was challenging (read: really hard). But I had faith and persisted. By the end of 2008 Jess LC was sold in over 100 stores nationwide. At that point I also had a lovely team of interns, part-time help, and awesome sales reps.


I write… 
I write about designing a life with intention. It is my purpose in life to help people reflect on what they are meant to do with their lives and then help, encourage, and inspire them to then "design their life" around those intentions. The blog topics I cover which relate to this effort include lifestyle, home decor, thinking with intention, and designing a business with intention. 

My bread-butter-n-jam… 
My life is designed around doing what I love- as I've pursued my purpose through the blog the jewelry business has blossomed into a fun, exciting, and challenging endeavor. I am constantly getting inspired to design jewelry based on inspiration from my passion: interior design. I love translating the trends I see in home design into jewelry. It's also amazing to reach out and interact with customers via Jess LC and readers via MML (the blog). More and more often, those customers are now readers and vice versa. Being able to be known for not only jewelry design, but also as someone who helps people pursue their purpose is fantastically rewarding.

What inspires and invigorates me… 
Reading blogs and books about business, life purpose, and interior design get me fired up to do what I do everyday. 

I enjoy… 
I enjoy iced tea, beautiful throw pillows, Westie puppies, traveling, watching HGTV, journal writing, and graphic design.

Instant perk-me-ups… 
Prayer, running, coffee with friends, phone calls while running errands, walking along the beach, doing my nails. 

What counts…
Learning to separate my ego from my spirit, family and friends, and fearlessly pursuing my purpose. 

The important lessons of my life… 
I've learned that the more you actually go after what you are meant to do, the more opportunities arise to help you get there. It's really about taking those baby steps to make it happen and to stick with the path you've chosen. I've also learned that there are two voices inside my mind: my ego and my spirit. My ego wants to control the future, fears the unknown, and generally gets me caught up in unnecessary worry and pride. My spirit on the other hand is a calm, cool well of knowledge that is always at ease and trusts in the future being bright regardless of whether I know where the path is heading at this point in time. The more I've been able to recognize these two perspectives in my life, the better I've been able to let go of a lot of unnecessary drama, pain, and fear.

Let me share… 
I have two mantras which have helped me change my life: The first is, "You get in life what you have the courage to work towards." The second is a quote by Michelangelo who said that he could carve such beautiful statues from pieces of stone because he saw the potential within the rock and simply removed the layers that were hiding that potential. I believe our lives are like those pieces of stone: the more we remove, the more we uncover our purpose and potential. 

I'd also say that the most transformational book which has helped guide the course of my life is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.