Bases for a Sketch

India Art Journal Aug 3,4,5,6 by Meera Rao

"Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story"  - said  Naguib Mahfouz about his writing. That is not too far from what I do as I look for ideas now to sketch the daily vignette :) 

 

The satellite dishes on the roof of a neighbourhood building tells the story of India leaping into the advanced age of technology even while struggling at street level with the day to day to life which sometimes looks like  has not changed in ages. I find  quite a few cows still share living space with their human family; there is still very personal service in the market by the small Mom and Pop shops as seen with the guy selling fish, and unfortunately quite a few youth are working for a living rather than studying/attending school despite the govenment passing laws for universal literacy for its citizens. The boy ironing clothes was using a old fashioned coal iron and a small cart for his ironing space and moves from neighbourhood to neighbourhood on a rotating basis on different days of the week to bring laundry services to the door.  

 

I wrestle with what to sketch, what do I want to show the world  of the my birth country. But it is always easy to see the beauty in most everything whether its the mess of satellite dishes on top of a building or simple living of the majority of its citizens. And I just sketch.