Illustr8_by_Sujitha

08/08/2023

21/07/2023

Watercolour floral to continue .....

03/07/2023

Few shades of flora........
cards cards

23/05/2023

(Part II)
Monkey business in Shimla

While I was apprehensive of the idea of my cousin's tossing stones and shooing them (none of that worked though), we were wringing our hands in despair, sending up telepathic messages to hanumanji, we noticed a street groundnut vendor amble up from his stall with a small packet of nuts and then went close to culprit 1 and tossed up the packet  and showed no hurry to get another pack for the 2nd. Monkey 1 promptly put shoe 1 down and I quickly took custody of it. The vendor who appeared to grow in stature to me grabbed another packet  , handed it to me as if ive been blessed to do this brave act .My happiness knew no bounds as i recovered my second pair. Me and my cousin applauded and thanked him profusely and he proceeded to quickly give us a bill for 2 groundnut packets at a rather exorbitant rate. But, we were just so relieved to get our hands back on our shoes that we just paid it quietly and kept the shoes hidden carefully and joined the rest of the team who were deeply immersed in the Aarti and completely unaware of what transpired outside.  

It's only when i narrated the incident to my generally cynical husband that he guffawed and told me how we fell for the prank. The same man-simiar racket exists in Bali and other tourist spots too. But, in that moment at that temple, we left with how our prayers to hanuman worked and how he appeared to us in the form of the moongfali walah and proceeded to rescue us damsels in distress. 

Like i said, this trip was certainly not short on exciting stuff. These paintings are just a humble effort to reminisce the beautiful Shimla and its winding steep slopes and steps on the famous Mall road. Hope you like it as much as i loved painting it.
(For future reference, Posting a snap of the innocent looking culprits )

23/05/2023

Let me apologise for my long absence from my page with a small story that partly holds the reason why I'd been away.
(Part 1)
Monkey business in Simla.

I am generally an extra cautious, paranoid traveler. Always alert for hidden dangers that have yet to reveal themselves.

And yet, I fell to what I learnt later was lesson 1 of touris.

And yet, I fell to what I learnt later was lesson 1 of tourist trap 101. And that too, to a couple of our own ancestors. 

I recently took a girls only, cousins trip to Chandigarh and Simla. Being based in Singapore, a 2 night break in Simla meant that I would spend more time getting to Simla and back than in Simla itself. But I reminded myself that sometimes the journey is the destination and set forth. The excitement and the funny experiences made this trip a memorable one. But, let me have  you now, focus only on this one incident.  

After walking the mall road area in the night, we had decided to visit the famous Jakhu temple (hanuman mandir) in the morning. I was clutching my bag close to me as our driver had warned us about errant monkeys. And there were plenty of monkeys around. Well then this whole episode happened , it feels like slow motion when i think of it now, but at that moment it was a series of events that happened at the same time in a matter of 10minutes.

I realized soon that I was worried about losing the wrong personal item to the primates. They went for my shoes. No, No. Luckily I was not wearing them! I had taken them off, my beloved black and pink Skechers. And as I just looked back to barely notice  two monkeys, holding one shoe each  proceeding quietly towards the trees diagonally opposite the temple compound and settled down to watch the fun. It took me couple of seconds to realise (to my horror) that both of them  chose my shoes amongst the six good pairs of shoes neatly lined next to the steps. Me and my one of sisters were in a state of panic and tried to gesture and plead and pray to the monkeys to return the only pair of shoes I had taken on this trip.
(To be continued....)

23/03/2023

Here it is......

01/02/2023

Can you guess the place/city that I'm sketching here? Having spent a major chunk of my life here this city has been very close to my heart.
Sharing a quick glance of the sketch in progress before I finish and get it ready.

19 Likes, 8 Comments - Illustr8 by Sujitha () on Instagram: "Can you guess the place/city that I'm sketching here? Having spent a major chunk of my life here this city has been very close to my heart. Sharing a quick glance of the sketch in progress before I finish and get it rea...

17/11/2022

With or without watercolour.....which one do you prefer?