Tag: Illustrations

Happiness in the ordinary.

Posted on by Ajmal

We are living in a time where all the talk is about happiness. Governments put up initiatives to enhance the happiness of citizens, employers trying to introduce policies to enhance the happiness of its employees. Everyone as a person is also trying to explore avenues and alleys to discover happiness and fulfillment. Netta lately shared with me a wonderful post from the Instagram profile of Freddy Birdy and we read it together lying down on the couch. It was so enchanting and beautifully written so that I decided to have it shared here as I didn’t find it anywhere else online and also serving it my usual art sauce of illustrations crafted by The Border of a Mind Studios. Hope this is worth your time and thanks to the original author for this wonderful piece.

The pursuit of happiness.
All our lives we spend wondering WHAT it is that will make us happy.
Wondering if we ARE actually happy.
Wondering if we WILL ever be happy.
Wondering if we will find everything we ever dreamed of.
But happiness.
We know in our minds what we THINK will make us happy.
The perfect job.
More money in the bank.
The ultimate partner.
Children who get straight ‘A’s.
A dream home overlooking the city.
A beach house parked next to the sea.
Love.
Platinum credit cards.
Always turning left once you enter an aircraft.
Never looking at the right-hand side of a menu.

Fame.
Followers.
Likes.
Attention.
Success.

A Lamborghini (Countach).
Unlimited Exotic travel.
Great Metabolism.
A fat paycheque.
A slimmer you.
Space on a magazine cover.
Permanent residence in someone’s heart.
Something.

We travel to new cities.
We attend all the parties.
We climb up another rung of the ladder.
We do things we KNOW will make us happy.

And we wonder why despite living our dreams,
happiness still isn’t our reality.
When will we realize that happiness
is in the ordinary, the mundane and the lacklustre?

Happiness is how you make somebody FEEL.

It is in ordinary everyday things.
not in life goals.

Happiness is the opposite of a plan.
Happiness is NOW, this minute, this microsecond.

Happiness is never taking anything or anyone for granted.
It is the scent of freshly brewed coffee on the WAY to work.

It is not a new car, a new iPhone,
a new watch or a new PERSON.

Happiness is the absence of grief.
Happiness is writing a thank you note to a friend.
Happiness is listening.
It is taking your dog for a walk.
And making dinner for your child.
And singing in the shower.

Happiness is one more pat of butter sliding down a hot, naked toast.
Happiness is a porch light on and waiting.
Happiness is the promise of a doorbell.

It is in the secret of eyes meeting for the very first time.
It is in fingers touching accidentally in paper popcorn holders at the movies.

Happiness is not in counting currency notes.
But your blessings.

Happiness is not what others think of you.
Happiness is what YOU think of yourself.
Happiness is the smell of a new book.
Or the smell your lover’s clothing hanging on a bathroom hook

Happiness is not your child’s report card.
Happiness is your child’s happiness.

Happiness is not a 21-course menu degustation.
Happiness is a 5 Star bar discovered in a lunch box.
And greasy omelette pays with friends at 2 am

Happiness is laughing at the same joke
again and again and still again in your head.


Happiness is staring at a familiar WhatsApp message and smiling to yourself.

Happiness is a large plate of Maggi.
Served with FOUR forks.

Happiness is your first mango of the season.
Or the last installment of a loan.

Happiness is not a ten thousand rupee perfume on a duty-free counter.
Happiness is the scent of your lover’s NECK.
Or familiar arms holding you close in newer ways.

Happiness is watching a loved one snore softly in deep sleep.
Happiness is also forgetting. Forgiving. And letting go.

Happiness is training your mind to unthink
Lastly, happiness is not about counting
stars, staring together at a new moon, riding unicorns,

chasing rainbows or dancing barefoot in the twilight.

Your happiness always lies within you.

Garden

Posted on by Ajmal

” Every garden scheme should have a backbone, a central idea beautifully phrased. Every wall, path, stone, and flower should have its relationship to the central idea. ”
– Edwin Lutyens


Indoor garden at Genie’s Cove.
The central idea here is obscure minimalism.

Outlast

Posted on by Ajmal

“The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts life. Life is like a cash register, in that every account, every thought, every deed, like every sale, is registered and recorded. Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by day dragging, in all the thousand small uncaring ways. We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it.” – Fulton J. Sheen

Illustration by The Border of a Mind Studios.

Virtual Reality(VR) Spiel

Posted on by Ajmal

I got my first hands-on experience with a professional VR system last August. The set I tried was an HTC vive. I had assembled a classic Google Cardboard system couple of years back to get a tiny glimpse of how an entry-level VR system works, although not the best in quality owing to its cardboard body and lower quality lenses.

The headset makes use of  “room-scale” tracking technology, which allows the user to move in 3D space and enables interaction with the environment through the use motion-tracked handheld controllers  Gyrosensors, accelerometers, and laser position sensors are generally used to track the position of the head. A plethora of additional accessories are normally accompanied with a VR unit for expanded experiences depending on the function of the accessory.  Special thanks to dear friend AR for his kindness in showing me these stuff knowing my sort of invasive curiosity in these things. In the short time frame to try it, I could test Google Earth VR and also the inevitable test app of any VR experience you name – Roller Coaster. Google Earth’s VR basically allows you to casually stroll through any international destination you could think of. They’ve facilitated enhanced content for locations of international interest and adds to the fluidity and overall richness of glancing at them and being ‘present’ in that space. Roller coaster VR version of vive was the most immersive among the similar ones I have experienced so far. On a broader note, the shift of experiences to this “out of home” sequences stands in pretty stark contrast to the quintessential social media narrative of documenting experiences and sharing it on a social platform. In VR, since the entire experience is on a virtual space, I normally reckon it as a benefit due to the exclusivity of the experience, though people might differ in opinion on that aspect depending on the way they organically intuit.

Nate Goldman puts it well on the Great Escape :

“...in this era of social media escapism, even those aren’t enough. We take out our phones and escape further into the screen, placing greater importance on the documenting of an experience rather than the experience itself. Virtual reality stands out as one of the few new experiences that preclude that option of escape — and instead demand our presence. We may not be in the physical world, but we are completely immersed in a new one: no splitting our attention or pressure to prove we were there. It’s just you, whoever you’re with, and the game. And in this day and age, that in itself feels like a new idea.“

‘Golden Pothos’ – Propagation Craft

Posted on by Ajmal

I am really fond of money plants and try to grow them in literally every container I get my hands on to an extent that Netta on getting an empty bottle from any corner of the home or from groceries, she would routinely ask me ” Here’s a bottle, wanna grow in ’em? “. If you have been reading here for long, you might recollect this earlier post wherein I had shared an illustration. Money plants have a multitude of names. You might have heard names like golden pothos, Ceylon creeper, hunter’s robe, ivy arum, money plant, silver vine, Solomon Islands ivy, and taro vine. All basically refer to the same thing.  For this post, I shall call it a money plant. It’s very easy to propagate a money plant if we know a simple technique. Initially, when I started with money plants, I used to cut them randomly at different points and they used to wane off and don’t develop roots. I would like to share an easy-peasy tip on propagating money plants effectively. I’m posting this after trying and testing with different sets of plants and it works really well. In fact,  It’s a very simple procedure. You take out a considerably large branch of an existing well-grown money plant and cut at either side of the stem at the root of each individual branch.  Take a look at the illustration below:

Cut a set of around 5-6 leave like this to grow a complete bushy set.

Carefully hold them and insert them into a clear glass bottle with clean water and leave for 4-5 weeks. You’ll find roots gradually developing and it can be either left off in water itself or can be transferred into a mud pot. You can place it just about anywhere.

Receptive Canvas.

Posted on by Ajmal

“Social counterpoints can be a shrieking reality. But life may nevertheless become a colorful canvas with an array of opportunities, allowing us to escape from the suffocation of our enclosure if we hold ourselves receptive to the healing power of the daily little marvels and stay aware of the vivifying unexpectedness of the ‘moment’.

– Erik Pevernagie

Tastes of home

Posted on by Ajmal

I had written previously about a beautiful ad titled “bucket”.

As modern life becomes so convenient and advanced in China, local specialties treasured by China’s rural communities are often under-appreciated and even sometimes considered a hassle by the younger generation who have migrated to bigger cities. Hoping to inspire this generation to rediscover and celebrate their parent’s love; “The Bucket” shows that underneath these local specialists lies the unique love from their parents, which serves to connect them to their families while away from home.

source

I highly encourage you to take a look at this video if you haven’t yet as it’s so heartwarming. I’m attempting to conceive a humble photo narrative version of the same concept. Hope you enjoy skimming thru and leave with watered tongues! ; – )

Elephant shoes

Posted on by Ajmal

“Don’t ask why the elephants wear such large shoes,
And why the kangaroos are reborn kidnappers,
And why the sailing birds are all Romantics.”
― Robert Bly, Talking into the Ear of a Donkey: Poems