In the moment postcards for postcrossing. We (Chini and me) cut up images randomly and pasted them on ugly postcards to make these new postcards. I'm quite thrilled with these because when I stuck them together I didn't see a connection, its only later that I figured that any image simply because its adjacent to another image will add to the story or contrast and therefore add to the story. So here is the postcards with Chini series.

+ Postcross +

This is what the next postcrosser will get from me.
I'm not very happy with how this looks but
I'm doing collages without thinking now to try new stuff.

Grow a Shangai

Today's morning page. I think this will look good on a wall.

I bought a book to cut up words for collages. This is what it says.

Kindly Read

Harrison Bergeron

by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)

Originally Posted by Rudder Mass

My worry

bigger than me.

XT experiment # 258

Step 1. Take some powdered salt in a bowl with water and turmeric.
Step 2. Keep the proportion of salf and water 1 : 1.5
Step 3. Now put this smaller bowl in a bigger bowl filled with water out in the sun.
Don't drown the smaller bowl in the bigger bowl. This step is actually quite pointless just that it looks good and feel like you are involved in a complex chemical process.
Step 4. Watch it everyday.

A few days later you will see neat crystals like crystals of sugar formed in the smaller bowl, the bigger bowl will just be dry. For best results do this is a vessel you plan to dispose.
I did this experiment in 2 earthen bowls. Turmeric was added only to give colour and protect from fungii.

I wish I could click a picture and show you the neat crystals. I'm totally fascinated. Its like making crystals for your house. All on your own.

Taking cue from A black and white Steamroller in Calcutta
I present to you
(on a sucky day)
my very own quiz.
Please feel free to take it even if you don't think you know me.
I'm sure you underestimating your powers.
I'm pretty porous.

The Big Bad Quiz of Ugly monsters

April 13th, Friday.

This is why i am not getting a haircut. Click on the image to enlarge. Xia Aifeng, 36, combs her hair in China. She has grown her hair to the length of 7.94 feet. Xia has never cut her hair since she was 20 and she spends 90 minutes to wash her hair once a week. (Once a week! In China you can probably do that, not at my address in Grimewich) I have been growing my hair since August 2005. I plan to trim the edges though, but at home. Anybody interested in voluntaring?

Call now ! Offer valid only while stocks last. (yes, I'm also balding with worry and lack of love.)


Also, the useless fact of the day : Who decided to call the fear of Friday the 13th Paraskevidekatriaphobia! Just tell me who!

If I were a painter.

I made this while listening to Norah Jones' Painter Song. But I heard the words a little wrong. My head changed reverie to run away. Wonder why?

The words are:

If I were a painter
I would paint my reverie
If that's the only way for you to be with me

We'd be there together
Just like we used to be
Underneath the swirling skies for all to see

And I'm dreaming of a place
Where I could see your face
And I think my brush would take me there
But only...

If I were a painter
And could paint a memory
I'd climb inside the swirling skies to be with you
I'd climb inside the skies to be with you

A face from the magazine I cut up earlier this morning.
If you know who she is and what she does please tell me.
In return I shall make a drawing of you.
I could google, but thats too easy.

this is what happens when you have bugs in the software

PS: I think I need a bumbi

junk food for the soul

Todays morning collage. Anything makes a story doesn't it? Didn't notice the words till I put it here.
To gain access -Look- hunk - stylish- lust - of course must love-you, you , you - Age : 25 Birthday: 20th September - hot - am that i not a - with just the - one big open person - everything of it, I'm all - pleasures banish your blues today.

Algiers makes it to the Indian newspaper right when I was listening to the song~
Coincidence? I think not. Today marks the beginning of a special celestial alignment.

Chamki exits stage right singing~
See the market place
In old Algiers
Send me photographs and souvenirs
Just remember
When a dream appears
You belong to me

Blaah conversation with the Steamroller

Chamki : morons and hormones
there must be a link somewhere
why they look they look so similar

Steamroller: uhuh

guys of today

hahaa

i dunno

seriously

its pissing offf.very veryvery.

aaj kal ke ladke

Chamki : we were younger and more sure of what we wanted from our dealings with people, as in we were just jumping into things

now~ its this I-Dont-Know-what-we-are. We didn't know then either but that didn't stop us, eventually we figured it out.

Steamroller: which used to be a lot better

Chamki : Guys! We are not asking you these things just stick to the good things of now.

Steamroller: i know i know , youre telling me, and im nodding away

Steamroller: so is this how it is ? they have all the right in the world to shoot personal questions towards us

Steamroller: an dthe minute we ask them anything remotely close/personal , they flip ?

and then , its our fault?

and then , never mind?

chamki: and then we feel stupid about not shutting our traps or having a smart reply available

Steamroller: F*****

EXACTLY MY POINT

i feel like such a jackass

Steamroller: and then I tell meself, "shut up, how can you be so melodramatic? "

chamki: we are these drama queens who need to have a statuary warning before we say what we REALly want to say

like you know this is going to be silly but I was just thinking....

WHy!

why do we even care ! Why the ribbon and lace,
Get to the point and be strict with the guys you want around

Steamroller: why??

and why do we have to apologise?

all the time?

Steamroller: we dont have to

chamki: but we do!

obsessive compulsive disorder

A little while later

Steamroller : I'm becoming a manhater and no one cares.

Chamki: i think half the time guys approach women because well hormones, and admit it , any woman is pretty then sometimes there is some interesting conversation and they think, wow thats a nice side order with my coffee

Steamroller: hormones

which is why i doubt men

now and then

I'm stealing time to make one drawing for today and rushing back to study. There is so much I wanted to say that I thought on my way home in the train.
Quickly I'll list it. Nandan has successfully convinced me that I'm not funny and that nothing I ever write, say or think is funny. I'm thinking about this day and night, I notice it every time I say something and I can't sleep. I'm NOT FUNNY! Oh! The pain in my heart!
Something I came up with at bath time in front of the mirror : "What begins with uncertainty, certainly ends" said Chamki when asked what she learnt from her past relationship (In some celebrity magazine years later) :P Another thing at bath time was: Isn't it sexy to wear your jewellery to bath? Earrings, bangles, anklets, nose ring and toe ring. Its like bathing in a pond, all princess style. I think its a MUST-DO. There should be a mirror in your bathroom. Yes there must be.
There was something more, but I can't remember so ...

Never again shall I do this.

Don't ask me why I decided to draw Uddhav Thackeray. This morning I thought I would sketch the first face I saw in the newspaper. Unfortunately it was....

Sanjh

This is how Nidhu will look when she is 60. I tried to make draw her but the lines under her eyes make her old na?

Oprah Episode # 4569809 How Orkut changed my life

I didn't know Orkut defined your existence online.
I didn't know Orkut could change your life.
I didn't know Orkut could change the world and bring more peace, love and happiness in our lives.
On the 7th of April 2007, I changed my status to Married.
I wish sometimes I was married, you know the constant presence, someone around to beat you up and all that. So I decided if I wanted things to be my way I need to make the effort. I read it somewhere, that you should write or draw your dreams, so they stick in your mind and remind you to get to them. Well, there wasn't much thinking involved here, I thought
Chamki, female, married sounded cool. (Its because I don't see it happening for a very long time)
And so by the grace of the Lord, it was done.

April 9th, have 2 emails.

Email 1:
U don't know me or anything... I had gotten bowled over by ur profile long time back.. the eating joints et al. Nothing creepy or pervy, just used to make me feel nice n retro!

Anyhoo.. Congrads on getting hitched. Hope the zeal still remains the same

Cheers
M

Email 2:
PLs concentrate on your hubby, I hope you and he have a good life ahead. I was just a visitor, its ok.
luv,
k

I brings me great joy to declare that there is hope, there is love in the world! We still wish each other good things ahead, in life and all that! We are capable of feeling retro by seeing someone happy. We care about the married and the happy over and above our misery. We are sensitive enough to get bowled over by a long list of cheap roadside stalls and their menu cards. Thank you God for this wonderful day...
(Chamki exit stage left floating in marital bliss.)

So this is me all serious and grumpy looking up in the mirror to draw myself.

hee heee heee

And the Chamki special students award goes to Loony and Random Doodler. The Shakespeare contest prize goes to Random Doodler, Loony just comes for free~ I think I'm getting better with noses and I like how Nandini's aka Loony's eyes look, actually just the eye balls, weird and white. See somewhere along the drawing I forgot who I was drawing, so the smiles are funny. But I like! And I'm proud and I'm happier on a useless sunday. I think I'm going to do a paint version of this.

Sunday sketching. Sundays are way too boring for anything good to come up. Its jazz Sunday today. Not just another holiday, but a Billie Holiday with Ella Fits and all and Louis I'm strong.

Photos

Prints from a roll I clicked in September with a not so good camera are here. (I'm not sure if this should be hyphenated. Please guide, I'm horrible at this stuff.) You can see the stuff at the Kalimpong Diaries.

Hazarron kwahishen aisi,
ki har kwahish pe dam nikale,
bahut nikale mere armaan,
phir bhi kam nikale.

This photo is taken exposing the same bit of film twice.

Aaj kal ke ladke...

Next in line to be painted.

The Purple Portrait Series starring Vats

Xanadu Times presents The Purple Portrait Series starring *The Steamroller* in full Technicolour for the first time in the history of paintkind. Applause.

Drawn while looking at
a high contrast photoshopped image of the Steamroller.
Very difficult.
She is very pretty.
Do not misunderstand.

Guess who?

I know his hair looks like a nose but try. (You already have one clue, its a he)

Useless task for today

Step 1. Go to this link on bored.com
Step 2. Write your future self a life-altering email.
Step 3. Decide the time and date you want to receive it. (up to a 100 years in the future)
Step 4. Forget about it.

Yes! This is what I did today. I wrote an email to the ME of the future. I shall receive the mail on 9th of September 2009. Then you can go to this link to see my email including all other losers like me who have spent time in such a constructive activity on the Internet. You can choose to keep your email private as well.

PS: I hope they wont spam me.

#400 James Healy Special

At the special occasion of the 400th post of Xanadu Times, we have the greatest living Irish poet Mr. James Healy~

Some more attempts at drawing faces

This picture hangs in my room. It doesn't actually look like this.

Made while watching Ekta Kapoor master peices.

On my mind today

The coloured version.

'M' and Nepal Mornings.

I love Tracy Chapman~
and this is always the first song on the list.
Alphabetical destiny.

I've made some drawings of photographs with my friends and put them up on our shared blog- The Kalimpong diaries. You can see them but please say nice things or they'll beat me up.
Warning : They don't actually look their sketches. They are very pretty people.

Old page from Nepal journal. This is pretty Asmi, M's cousin who is still young and naughty. I don't think she can be any other way. Blowing a kiss to you today Asmi,

chamki

Pages from the journal

I have been looking at things and trying to draw them again.
Its been fun. Sometimes good. Mostly bad.
I can't wait to start doing exercises from the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

But isn't sketching somebody's face without them knowing about it like clicking their picture slyly with your camera phone?
Shhhh.... don't let them know, they will ban sketches.

We are at war!
Mother India has illegally disposed off 20 pinwheels belonging to the glitter army of our country.
This has caused an acute degree of discontent among the citizens of Glitterland and Blingville. "Xanadu is in danger! We shall not let more injustice happen" cried a protestor at one of the many rallies at Passage 2.5.
Madame Chamki has declared war. The North Window Frontier has been lined by pinwheels of the brightest and most toxic shades of pink. These spin at regular intervals causing Mother India's eyes much torture.
We are left with only 4 pinwheels. Our country is poor. We need help! Any aid welcome!

Snap! In more than one sense

Altered photocopy of an image. I took it out of the Me magazine.
The magazine took it from Getty Images. So we don't really know who clicked it.

postcard

reads feeling sleepy

To airportwoman

The man I found in today's Nav Bharat Times.
He is a Satsanga guy.
I didn't think I would find such a man living today, I thought such
people exist only in charts we used to make school projects.
You know the Good Habits- Bad Habits type.
The green and orange numbers are Bus tickets
(This I have listed for the benefit of my Irish readers.)
I-N-D-I-A = Nandan's gift rubber stamps.
I haven't worked enough on this one.
I've been lazy and blocked.

tic tic

a postcard made by altering a page from a magazine.

Another list of questions

If there is one truth I can be absolutely certain of,
Then it is that I am alone.

You've thought about it, haven't you?
Think again. Let the thought be a little longer this time.
At every moment, all I am sure of is my existence, my head, my feeling.
Solipsism.
It has been talked about. Nothing new you think.
Then why do we project, express, talk?

Why do I not understand and accept the fact that I am alone?
Why is it not enough to hear it, see it written and know it?
Why does one say it endlessly yet look for an answer?
To hear No, you are not alone?
Why do I want to believe that you exist even when you are never around.

Issued in Public Interest by XT

Do Not Watch 300.
I saw 150.
Such a waste of time.
150?
Well, I walked out in the interval.
The only good thing is men with six packs
and the pretty-pretty colours and people and kids.
But this gets boring from the second scene onwards.
Then nothing moves you. (what do you mean then? nothing moves.)
The prettier the imagery
more the distance
from your heart and head to the screen.
You are more aware of the heads in front of you,
what the person next to you is eating and what the
women at the back are talking about.
The soundtrack was bad.
The film had no purpose.
No soul. No story.
Agreed I couldn't bear it and walked out. Thats bad.
I should have slept in the theatre and at least enjoyed the AC
since I paid for it.
The words they say are fake.
The whole thing is not an experience.
Its not believable, its not even clever.
Its just one photoshopped pseudo-painting after another.
bOrInG~

Public display of the affection

click to enlarge. More comes later.

Its my Mommy's heppy budday

Now, my mommy and me are not the best friends kind of mother and daughter.

But I try. So today I thought of giving her the coolest and sweetest gift I could get within my budget.excuse the poor quality of the pictures. I used my third grade web cam.

Useless peice of information for the day.

Did you know the phrase 15 mins of fame was said by Warhol.
Well, not literally 15 minutes of fame but that

In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.
and there is a measuring unit called The Warhol , kilowarhol and megawarhol?

Thank yous to
Wikipedia.

Today.

Today's morning page.

postcard

Whats your seduction style?

Hmm... How bored and lonely am I?
optimistic! I can't believe it.
Its a lie, its a joke. Mommy! They are making fun of me!

Carter Road

Today's morning page.

Every morning I do a little something to get started. Today's looks like I'm asking for more sleep. It's true. I am.

I love vintage

made this on 21st feb