Thanks to the author Parul A. Mittal (website) for sending a copy of the book (via Goodreads). I’d like to share an honest review of the book. Here’s the back blurb:

And this pretty much summarizes the entire story, which is said from Suhaani’s point of view. Usually I get into the narrator’s shoes and become the ‘I’ of a first-person-narrative, but here I became more of a listener, listening to Suhaani say her story. She reveals her innermost thoughts, feelings and experiences (uncensored—I got turned on at several places!), and it was great to see a girl’s thought-processes (I was left confused in many instances).

The story addresses the age old Arranged vs Love question in the context of the current ‘facebook- generation’, and does so quite successfully. The simplicity of language, play with words—metaphors & anglicized pronunciations (— slightly excessive?) and jokes of the Farmville-addict mother, with the occasional Harry-Potter references, make the book really interesting. But I have to say it’s very predictable, particularly after reading the back-blurb. I knew the ending in advance; I just wanted to know he how part.

I really enjoyed reading the book, and am inclined to pick up the author’s first book, Heartbreaks and Dreams!- The Girls @ IIT. So if you like sexy chick lit fiction, or if you want more perspective on the Arranged vs Love issue, AND if you’re eighteen-plus (like Ms. Mittal warns her children, in Acknowledgements), go grab this book.

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I'd written an article on XBRL. It got published in the December issue of the SIRC Trichur Newsletter. There are a few spelling and formatting errors in the published version, and I couldn't send in a photo (it was a last minute affair); excepting these glitches, it should be a good read if you're interested in the topic.

Here’s a PDF of the originally typed article :

Really, What's XBRL?  (2.6mb)

 And here’s a PDF of the SIRC Trichur Newsletter, December issue :

SIRC Newsletter, Dec 2012  (7.2mb)

 Since XBRL is based on XML and hence is similar to HTML, and since I believe it will become the norm for preparation and presentation for financial statements— in the near future, I’m getting more interested in this, and you can expect to see some more on this here in, um…, the near future!

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Some artwork created for SICASA programs:

This is a brochure design for Inter-school debate competition. Sadly it was never used! :(

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Honestly, my interest in cars and car design began only recently. Here are some quick 5 minute sketches of concept cars with no reference whatsoever.

May be some day I'll see one of my designs(not these, ofcourse) on the road.

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This is a rather hard-to-get comic strip. The original one was drawn on paper months back, with no planning whatsoever, just drawing on and on what comes in mind, panel by panel. 

If you don't get it the first time, don't sweat-- in fact nobody else I've shown it to could understand it in first read. Take your time!

(click on the comic strip to enlarge)

It's drawn using the new wacom tablet, in Photoshop, and the lettering was done in Illustrator.

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Here are 2 photographs from a recent tour to Goa. The first is a 'solitary rock' seen from a beach, and the second of a roasted-corn seller.

And I've got myself a wacom bamboo one tablet for digital sketching/painting. Here are 2 quick sketches, strictly for demo purposes:

I find that the more I have 'professional tools and equipment', the less I do some actual work. Have to solve this problem.

And, please excuse the 'dry, emotion-less' entry. I'm just up from a loooong sleep.

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I made a presentation at the "State Level Conference for CA Students" hosted by Trichur branch of SICASA and SIRC and organized by the Board of Studies, on "Recent Reforms by SEBI".

Here is the PDF of the same :

pictorial_version.pdf Download this file

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If you're like me, you spend countless hours every day waiting in a queue, staring at stuff outside from a bus, running in the treadmill and so on. While I agree these activities are useful in consequence, wouldn't it be nice if you could engage in some productive activity at the same time? I'm talking about reading some book, or rather hearing one. I'll tell you exactly how you can get an edge over your peers via listening to books while apparently engaged in some mundane business.

Requisites: All you need at your disposal is a mobile phone(which I presume you already have, scroll down if you don't). If it can read play music and read .txt files, you're all set(can't read .txt files? Scroll down).

Steps

1. First off, head to librivox. You can download recorded versions of your favorite book from the catalogue( If your favorite book is no longer under copyright, i.e, published before 1923). Download all its chapters. Most classics are available, so you got choice!
2. Your next stop is Project Gutenberg, where you can download .txt, html, pdf versions of the same book(Link to it can be found in your book's Librivox download page). For now, download the .txt file to your harddisk.
3. Transfer these files to your phone and you're done(it's desirable to transfer only few ongoing chapters, lest you'll consume space on your phone).
4. Plug in your headset and start listening. In case you find any part of it difficult or insist on reading a portion yourself, you can always check the .txt version!

Do not have a mobile phone?
It's ok if you can get hold of an mp3 player too, the only disadvantage being the inability to refer to the text. The idea is to pretend you're listening to music!

Can't read .txt files on your phone?
At least if there's java on your phone, you can download midlets/ midlet-creators that will allow you to open .txt files. Here are a few I think might help : ReadManiac, Bookshelf, Mobipocket.

Concluding remarks
There's nothing like reading a real book, so this is not a substitute for actual reading. This is in fact just another way to make productive use of your otherwise futile time. Enjoy!

Note: This entry is a brutal copy-paste from my old blog : Random Bashes. 

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First a moment of silence, for this is the first time I'm posting a purely 'accounting'- related entry on this blog called 'Art vs Accounting'.

(From the cover image of the publication)

Gasp!

So if you're an article and are struggling with final-accounts preparation under the Revised Schedule VI, well-- struggle no more.

The Ernst&Young site offers a free download of "Good Company (India) Limited -- An illustrative set of Indian GAAP financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2012".

Download it from HERE

It is a comprehensive guide to preparing final accounts under the Revised Schedule VI, presented by way of fictitous items & figures of a fictitious company called Good Company(India) Limited.

Many thanks to Ernst&Young for such a valuable publication!

If you like this post and wish to get free updates from this blog, like the facebook page, subscribe to its RSS feed.

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Some of my entries for a 99designs contest. Someone else won, but I'm gonna participate in more.

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Here are quick brochure designs I had to whip out for SICASA.
(Note: Actual dates and other details have been amended.)

For the inter-branch Chess Tournament:

For the association newsletter:

Just wanted to let you know I'm alive!

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Wasted a whole canvas board by attempting an unplanned, stupid painting and ruining it. I learnt my lesson-- before you do anything really big, prepare.

With the little paint left in the tubes, I decided to have a go at knife painting-- using chinese plastic painting knives I'd acquired for as cheap as Rs.40 few months back. The result is a largely abstract painting, and I call it
Sunset, acrylic on canvas. 

More knife paintings shall be painted and uploaded, period.

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Daily Drawings (www.dailydrawings.tk) is a whole new blog, where I intend to post my ‘artwork’ on a daily basis.

Before you even think about lifting your brows (“why another damn blog?”), let me justify its existence:

• Firstly, it is a daily challenge I give myself—to draw regularly and upload at least one of them on the blog – an attempt to fight the fabulous Artist’s Block. So it is to bear only pictures (and their captions), unlike this one where I post my experience etc.
• The ‘artwork’ can be anything from silly doodles to more sophisticated drawings.
• The frequency of posting will be high (daily), and for that reason I don’t expect individual commentary.

These should be sufficient grounds to set it apart from this main blog.

You should visit it often and promote artwork you think are interesting (by sharing them on facebook & twitter), besides subscribing to its e-mail and RSS feeds.

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Exploring new mediums is exciting always. Accordingly, I bought a pack of oils containing 12 tubes, a bottle each of linseed oil (medium) and turpentine (thinner), and a sheet of oil paper.
And got painting.

Believe it or not, these unfinished paintings are still wet after days of having done the first layer:

For non-artists, and artists who don’t understand—from left: a rag of cloth, tea cup, box of charcoal-sticks, can for holding water, bottles of linseed and turpentine.

This was actually my very first attempt at oils. Used an old photograph as reference. Really don’t feel like completing it.

Some Notes

• Patience is a virtue. A layer of oil can take days or even weeks to dry. Need to control the urge to paint wet on wet (unless that is the intended effect, which in most cases is not). Mustn’t poke fingers to check whether still wet!
• I drew the basic underdrawing/outline in charcoal, and expected it to ‘disappear’ like it does in acrylics. I was wrong. Charcoal, even fixed with a spray fixative, spreads and darkens the area. Next time I have to use a lighter shade of oil itself (or watercolor?) for the underdrawing.
• Turpentine has a pungent, irritating smell. It is inflammable. But it is indispensible for cleaning brushes and thinning paint (allowing for faster drying).
• I really wish there was a medium in-between oil and acrylics— something that dries faster than in few days, something that remains open/wet for some time for manipulation.

And now, here’s something that happened few days back, when I went to have the license plate of my new bike painted. There were 3 people working at the shop, and all turned out to be artists (!) who painted license-plates for a living. One of them had done artwork for use in the award-winning movie Perumthachan. Another’s were on display in a corner of the shop:

I was touched by their stories—about how much they wanted to paint full-time, but their circumstances wouldn’t let. They offered some advice, even some contacts. One of them promised a painting session when he’s free to draw and paint, after his second daughter’s marriage, that is. It was, like I said, a touching experience.

And finally, about the Artist’s Block phenomena I told you last time—it’s just a lame excuse for lack of talent and creativity. Need to stop complaining and start working.

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Artists’ block (if there is such a thing) is killing me. Lately, I’ve stopped doing even the occasional doodle, let alone finished works. While I’m working on it, I don’t want the blog to remain idle. Which is why I’m leaving you with some stuff from the past—I don’t know what else to call them collectively.

First-- an article I wrote in 9th STD, published by The Hindu (Young World) on 23rd June, 2006. I used to be (and still am) a big Enid Blyton fan, that’s what this article is about (“Unending Blytonmania!”):

Here's an online reply to this article which I found years later!

On this next piece of paper is the oldest drawing alive that I’ve done (when I was 3, thanks to my dad for preserving it). It’s supposed to be a lion:

Next, a greeting card I made when I was 4/5, on the occasion of Onam. Seems I’d written the names of characters on it, in case no one recognized:

And finally, a page torn out of my Class IX Physics notebook. I fill the back pages of nearly all my notebooks with doodles, but this one was seen by my Principal madam (yeah, she taught us Physics back then), and corrected, with a comment:

Wish me luck fighting Artist’s Block!

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Yesterday, I visited an exhibition of paintings (at the Lalitakala Academy Art Gallery, Thrissur) by artist Manu Chakravarthy (based in Tumkur, Karnataka). He has had a lot many shows in the past, both solo and group. All of the exhibited paintings were 1’x1’ portraits, acrylic on canvas. He spent a few minutes quickly sketching me(#1), after which, I sketched him back(#2):

#1:

#2:

When asked about his way of working, the artist explained that he first photographs the subject, and then does the painting at his studio. Most of a painting is done at one sitting. He prefers the pebeo brand of acrylics, and doesn’t use any medium or retarder. In the end, a matt fixative is sprayed on top.

This more realistic show, at least for me, was a pleasant change from the ones featuring ‘modern’, ‘abstract’ pieces that not many can relate to.

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Forgot to mention that I just got through the IPCC Group 2 examination, leaving me with some free time over the next year to draw and paint. It didn't seem foolish to invest in a portable easel-- a camlin sketching easel(0513102) to be exact, made of elmwood and varnished. It's relatively light and portable, and well suited to do plein air paintings.

All that an easel can do is hold the painting still, at the desired height and angle, plus a painting displayed on the easel has a special charm. Getting a painting done still requires some work and commitment.

I had started the above painting few weeks back and got less interested. Now that it's on an easel, I might get, um.. more interested and work on it.

Thanks for listening to all the bragging! :-)

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The popular Sudha range of charcoal sticks come in tiny boxes, 3 sticks in each, each box costing about Rs.15. I had bought my first one last year and gotten hooked. Here are some practice sketches, done last November(shortly before CA intermediate, group 2 exams!).

#1:

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For the first time (excepting once, very long ago), someone else has drawn my portrait, and it happened when I went for an art show at the Lalita Kala Academy, Thrissur on 15th.

I saw someone representing the museum sitting and sketching rapidly with a CD/OHP permanent marker on A4 paper, apparently from imagination. After a brief chat, I came to know that his name was Joy P M, he had done BFA, and has had his own exhibition in the past. Answering my question (as to why he was sketching in an unrealistic style), he said that one evolves his own, personal style after becoming proficient in drawing from life, memory and imagination. Still in doubt, I asked him to sketch me to prove his point. He immediately grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and began sketching. A small crowd formed around us, and I stayed very still (perhaps understanding how difficult it is to sketch a moving subject). Within 4 minutes, he completed, signed and handed over the sketch, and I was amazed at the economy in lines, and selectivity in drawing details.

After that, of course, more people wanted their portraits to be sketched, and he got really busy.

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