Thursday, January 7, 2016

Cool Blue

Cooling Off  Ink and Watercolor sketch 2015 5.5x8" by Meera Rao

Your acts of kindness 
are iridescent wings of
divine love  
which linger and continue 
to uplift others 
long after sharing.
~Rumi~

It was one of those very hot summer days.  I was hurrying home to escape the heat from an errand that had taken longer than anticipated. On one of the side streets outside a marble warehouse, I was most impressed by what I saw: someone thoughtful had filled  a big old blue bathtub with water for anyone who wanted to cool off by splashing water on feet or face ! 

Chilling the pulse points by running cold water over the wrist for a minute or so, splashing water on the temples or face are age old ways of combating the tropical heat. The amazing thing is that bath tubs are extremely rare in India but somehow one was out there propped up on old tires, filled with water !  Many men stopped by, scooped out water on their face and feet to cool off before continuing on their way.  Since then I have noticed the bathtub leaning against the wall dry and empty on other days when the temperatures were bearable.  

Sketching it later was very gratifying and even now the memory of the blue bath tub brings a smile to my face. 

India Art Journal 2015- Strathmore Visual Journal, watercolor 140 lbs, 5.5x8"   

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi meera.

I googled for great Indian sketching blogs and found you there.

I was hoping to get in touch with you. You can read more here in this blog post:

https://medium.com/@mayankchandra/dear-users-edd1d7f1423#.z4iz9xaqv

padmaja said...

Meera, this looks lovely, great thoughtful idea, but not too sure if people would use it in the right way here.

thiliMy said...

So refreshing! Nice sketch!

Meera Rao said...

@Mayank, Thanks! I will look into it!

Meera Rao said...

Padmaja, Thank you :) Seems like people were grateful and using them as intended -at least while i was observing !

Meera Rao said...

@ThiliMy, Thank you :)

Sadami said...

Dear Meera, Some young men from India said to me beaten by heat in Sydney, "This is NOT hot. You don't know heat." Cheers, Sadami

Meera Rao said...

Sadami, He he :) but certain parts of India can and do get very cold too!!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...