 |
| Art by ashok |
May 24, 2012
May 20, 2012
May 17, 2012
May 14, 2012
Locked Horns...
 |
| art by ashok |
May 11, 2012
May 9, 2012
a milestone!
a milestone crossed today! 10 years of married life...Congrats to my wife!
Nothing more exciting than getting a greeting card from my daughter...Showing her mom & dad with wings and watched by her favorite Dorimon :)
May 4, 2012
May 2, 2012
May 1, 2012
Straight from the Heart - Arti Honrao
Last month I received a pleasant surprise-a gift from Arti Honrao. As a longtime blog friend and fan of her writings, I was entitled for a
free copy of her second book – “Is this Love & Autumn-the last leaf”.
(Thanks Arti but I am still waiting for a signed copy of your first
book! :) )
Arti Honrao is a poet and a writer and her works are a treatise
of human emotions. She has the gift to pen different layers of human feelings
into her words with ease. Arti is a queen of poignant poetry and a hopeless
romantic and that is very much evident in her recent book with two short
stories.
The first story (Is this love) in the book deals with the
love triangle- a very common theme in Indian cinema... But what is uncommon here is
the way Arti has handled the subtlety of the emotions involved in a graceful
and in a somewhat “cute” manner. The second story (Autumn-The last leaf) is again
a play of human emotions but then the twists and turns in the plot grips the
reader till the last page. Arti’s strength is her mastery in entangling the
complex emotions of life and putting them into simple next door characters of
her stories.
Well done Arti. GBU!
For a copy of the book pls check pothi.com
Apr 25, 2012
The Golden days of Books for Children...
Every time I venture to buy a picture story book
for my daughter I only end up disappointed big time. Children’s books
now-a-days are so drab and plain boring. Our generation (from the 70s)
was immensely lucky that we grew up in the era were the books came from
the erstwhile Soviet Union. Almost every other children’s book was the
English translation of the folklore, fairy tales and ditties of Russia. I
still remember them for their fantastic illustrations and distinctive
styles. Master illustrators like Yuri Vasnetsov and Boris Kalaushin cast
a spell on me that last till this day. They simply colored my childhood
with endless fantasy and fun. I owe a lot to these gifted illustrators
for shaping my artistic instincts as a kid.
But
unfortunately the inflow of Russian books ceased abruptly after the
80s. Now we see only lackluster books that do not appeal to the kids and on top of it expensive. The
illustrations mostly lack in substance, scale and context. Iam shocked
to see today kids books with pages and pages of texts with no or just a
few appalling illustrations.
I
decided to dig through the web in search of the Russian books of the
good old days. To my disappointment, I realized that many Russian
publication houses had closed shop with the end of the Soviet era. I
could collect a few illustrations here and there that took me on a
nostalgic trip.
 |
| Few of my favorites... |
 |
| Few unforgettable characters:The wily fox, the bad wolf, the Nanny goat, the clever hedgehog, the proud pussy |
 |
| Tales of the Amber sea- a collection of Russian fairy tales - a very distinctive illustration style ! |
 |
| Kids & Cubs by O.Perovskaya- adventurous tale of kids who pet different animals |
 |
| L.Yakhnin's Cardboard ClockSquare |
 |
| E.Rachev's illustration's for 'Cockerel' |
 |
| Yuri Vasnetsov's illustrations for Dancing Perch |
 |
| Few books that took me back in time... |
 |
| E.Serova's Hedgehog gloves with the classic illustrations of Boris Kalaushin |
 |
| Picture Stories by Nikolai Ernestovich Radlov - My most favorite of the lot! Every page told a funny story...What can I do to get this book?! |
 |
| The 1937 original cover page by Radlov on top..The new cover page (as published recently by New Century Book house) at the bottom - shocking! See for yourself the degeneration of illustrations in today's kids books! |
In my search, I discovered a fellow enthusiast Swetlana, who has featured many vintage books in her site - Library things. I was excited like a kid to see some of them that took me down the memory lane. How I wish to go back to the 70s and take my daughter too with me.
Laura's Animalarium is a treasure house for Illustration and art lovers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)