Make Mine Decalf

India Sketch Journal 2013 July 29 by Meera Rao 

I always debate whether to add to the stereotype vision of India about 'cows on the street' every time I decide to sketch a cattle or two (actually five out of 78 sketches this year and five out of 124 in last year's journal!). Unlike in western countries the roads are happily shared by different kinds of vehicles, pedestrians, and various animals. This is especially true in the old part of Maisuru where many households still have cows - except they let those cows loose to graze around the neighborhood. Mostly the cows are very calm and mind their own business but every now and then when the streets get busy and there is not much room to share, I get very nervous - be it an autoriksha, bus or a cow coming the opposite way but on the same side of the road as me !!!

India Sketch Journal 2013 July 30 by Meera Rao 

This beautifully battered brass coffee filter pot in a coffee shop at one of the modern malls was almost as tall as me. Coffee powder is packed into the top half of the pot with a filter in the middle. When boiling water is poured over it, thick coffee 'decoction' slowly drips to the bottom part. Add  a couple of tablespoons of this decoction to boiling hot milk, mix in sugar, pour with pizzazz into tiny stainless steel tumblers making sure there is lot of foam on top and you have delicious 'mysore coffee' to savor. Check here for a sketch of steaming cup of Indian filter coffee from my Art House Library Sketchbook Project and here from my India Sketch journal 2013 to know more about coffee history and culture of southern India. 

Here is a look at the page from my sketch book journal:

India Sketch Journal 2013 Page 27 by Meera Rao 

Have a Sip But avoid a bite!

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2013 India sketch journal June13  by Meera Rao

I love going to the little coffee shops that only sell freshly ground coffee powder made to order! These shops are really small, with bright red 'coffee grinder', sacks, tins and bags of coffee beans. I learnt very quickly that I need to know if I preferred 80:20, 70:30, or pure coffee and coarse or fine ground.  The numbers refer to the ratio of coffee to chicory in the mix. The chicory fine-tunes the bitterness in the coffee.  Check out the Indian filter coffee details here and also on my sketchbook page from "A day in the life" 

2013 India Sketch Journal June 14 by Meera Rao

It is Monsoon season in India now and mosquito repellents are a must to have around. This year I see a lot of plug ins with liquid repellents in little containers being used by all. For the past several  years the gold standard was the 'odomus' tube  -which last year I sketched one right after smearing some on me before bedtime :)  

2013 India sketch Journal June 13-14  Page 3 

These two were sketched horizontally but photographed vertically and no amount of rotating is good enough for the blogger to load the photograph with the right alignment! I don't know if its the old pc, chrome, or something else that is stubborn about turning it horizontally! Any suggestions to fix it? I guess I will just post it and hope to remember to correct it when I get back to my own computer in september!

Magic of Coffee

A Day in the Life - First Sip colorpencils 

South Indian Kaapi is very special and a matter of pride in that region. I had never known coffee was not native to India until I came across its origins in the menu-card in  an Ethiopian Restaurant in New York many years ago. Imagine my surprise-especially since my grandparents are from Coorg, the coffee capital of India :) I spent many a vacation with them and trips are all full of memories of fragrant white coffee flowers and red berries under a canopy of rubber trees. I often wondered about the coffee's debut in India since then but never pursued it.

Today  I finally went sniffing the coffee trail. I came upon the story of Baba Budan, a Sufi Muslim from India who brought back seven seeds as a souvenir from his trip to Mecca in  1720 and planted them outside his cave in the hills now known as Baba Budan Giri.  The coffee plants and the drink took a foothold in the area. The Coffee plantations soon became an industry under the British. 

I brought with me from India the traditional coffee filter to make the 'kaapi' and for many many years now my day has started with the ritual of drinking coffee in the special stainless steel 'lote'.  My hubby grinds the coffee beans fresh every time just before making the 'decoction' and that adds to the flavor :)  For the curious, check here for  recipe and ritual of south Indian kaapi.