Resolution 2011: Week 44
Resolution 2011: One painting, one photograph, one cuisine and a self portrait every week in 2011. I am sure the front page of my website will keep reminding me about my resolution.
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Adieu 2010 :( and Velcommen til 2011 :)
As the year 2010 approaches its end it is time to look back and ponder over what I gained and lost throughout the year. In my case things boil down to work, painting, photography, cooking and traveling. I thank the Almighty for blessing me with a very productive year overall. I take them one by one.
Work: I worked on some very interesting projects which challenged me to push the limits of my technical capabilities and brought me in touch with some of the best people in the field of CFD, FEM, aviation and meteorology. All the projects were very practical and it was satisfying to see that my work could directly affect the decision makers. All the deadlines were met on time and the feedbacks from the clients were very positive. Owing to the confidential nature of the work it is not possible to elaborate on it too much 
Painting: The year also saw a serious revival of the painter inside me. Although I was a bit rusty to start it all over again I finally picked up in July and at the time of writing this post I have already painted 80 A-3 sized paintings. I painted a wide variety of subjects: landscapes, seascapes, portraits, abstracts in all the four major painting mediums: watercolor, oil, acrylic and dry pastel. I am thankful to all my friends, in particular, Saurabh, Sandeep, Deba, Sandy, Nandita, Zishaan, Farah, Navtika, Kedar, Olga, Basu, Ong, Sudhanshu, Mohit, Teja, Rane, Nitesh for appreciating my works publicly and criticizing them privately Especially in the beginning, when i was short of confidence, it really helped. After almost 14 years since I painted my first painting, I seem to enjoy it even more. Five six years of work in computational fluid dynamics has led to a better understanding of the diffusion and advection processes which are key to successful watercolor paintings and the same can be extended to other mediums too. For me painting is similar to laminar flow (flow of paint) in an uneven terrain (rough texture of the paper) I hope to write a low-reynolds number flow solver solely with the aim of simulating the time evolution of my paintings one day 
Travel and Photography: I club them together as I always prefer to travel while photographing. In terms of travel this year was nothing extraordinary mostly because of the fact that I had exhausted all my paid vacation in India last year. Nevertheless, I could still manage a week long drive across the Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway with Phillippe and Alessia, two great friends of mine. I enjoyed their company a lot and am looking forward to making a trip to Dolomites with them one day. The weather in Lofoten was not too good for ordinary photography but was ideal to explore the full capabilities of high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) technique which is a most recent love of my life.
Cooking: Copious availability of high quality sea food, recent addiction to sandwiches, very few friends and poor quality of vegetables took a heavy toll on my cooking skills. Thankfully the time saved here was used for other productive activities.
In 2011 I intend to continue doing the good work. A photograph, a painting and a recipe every week seems very much reasonable. A trip to Greece or Morocco. Does it not sound amazing 
2010 was more an year of revival. The basic foundation has been laid. 2011 will be an year of strive for perfection. As always I will rely on the love and affection of my family and friends and the blessings of my creator. Let us see what surprises the next year holds for me.
Finally I take this opportunity to share three of my most favorite songs from 2010. Enjoy them. A.R.Rahman rocks major time. His humility, honesty and strive for perfection are clearly reflected in his work.
Kilimanjaro
Naina Mile
Behne de
Hope you all had an equally colorful 2010 as mine and wish you all an excellent 2011 ahead.
Sunset in Dry Pastel
Materials used: Soft Dry Pastels (Faber Castle and Sennelier)
Fixative: Perfix Colourless Fixative (Daler Rowney)
Surface: 70gm/m2, 29.7X42cm, Thin brown paper
Surface color: Grey
Sketching medium: 9B graphite pencil
Snow and Trees in Acrylic
Location: Leysin
Materials used: Acrylic Paint, Retarder,
Surface: Canvas Acid free primed
Surface color: White
Eight reasons for me to love Acrylic medium
1. It can be used either as watercolor to produce delicate wash or like normal oil paints.
2. The paint dries quickly making it possible to apply layer after layer in the same session.
3. The painting doesn’t turn dull with time.
4. One can either get a matt or a glazing finish in his painting.
5. Retarders can be used to prevent the paint from drying too quickly.
6. Heavy impasto works can be created using texture paste.
7. Since the paints act as adhesives also one can mix sand to create special effects.
Shortfall:
1. It spoils expensive brushes and palettes 
An afternoon in Munkholmen
Location: Munkholmen
Materials used: Soft Dry Pastels (Faber Castle and Sennelier)
Fixative: Perfix Colourless Fixative (Daler Rowney)
Surface: 160gm/m2, 29.7X42cm, Acid free (Tiziano)
Surface color: Grey
Sketching medium: 9B graphite pencil
The Introspection Point
It has been almost eight months since i finished my doctoral studies and moved to Norway. I am working on projects which I really adore and have people around me who are some of the best in their respective fields and extremely pleasant to me. Work is challenging and I am really passionate about it. All these make me enthusiastic about going to my office every morning. However, it was not manifesting fully in my happiness and pleasant mood. There was something lacking. It was somewhere here but was very difficult to discover. Was it a sudden release of pressure from the slogging towards the end of my PhD that had created a vacuum which was sucking me inside ? Or was it a sudden loss of proximity to my friends who were so much a part of my small happy world in an alien land ? I was trying to find answers to many questions like these. Whenever I was stressed, sad or depressed during my PhD days I used to sit on a special place which I referred to as my “Introspection point”. Once the reasons for the troubles were discovered the corresponding remedies were mostly trivial. With the same hope I was trying to find a similar point in Trondheim and last week I found not only the point but also the root cause of those troubles and a single remedy for all.
Tired of walking I was sat down on a rock close to the Trondheim fjord. At least in appearance it is similar to the wooden bench close to Lake Leman which I tried to break for four years. I was busy throwing small stones one by one into the sea until I was interrupted by a gentleman “you should stop now or else the whole fjord will be full of stones.” He had caught a fish and was going to roast it for himself and his 5 years old son. I was invited to join the party. Reluctantly, I joined them. His son was trying to draw something perhaps a cat and was angry with his dad because he couldn’t help him draw better. There were paper balls spread all around him testifying his failed attempts but a “never give-up” attitude. I helped him sketch whatever he wanted to and within minutes became his best friend. Someone who spent his sleepless nights for him was insignificant then. He had learnt a new art and was trying to master it and was very happy. In the next few minutes even I was completely ignored. In just over an hour I saw relationships building and breaking but the kid was happy throughout because he was doing what he really loved.
I probably had got answers to my questions. I needed something that I loved unconditionally and with whom my association was solely dependent on me. What could it be ? My family and a few friends who stood by my side through all odds were definitely the obvious ones but I wanted something close physically. It didn’t take me long to realize that it had to be my first love. It was so close to me all these months (in fact years) and I completely ignored it. I immediately said bye to my new friends and rushed back home. Another fight with darkness in my underground cave and I finally came out victorious with all my painting equipments albeit in heart breaking conditions. They were covered with dust and dried colors. The color tubes were flattened at weird places. Brushes had lost its shapes but not the reproducibility. They had stood the test of harsh times. I felt like crying. Painting was something I really loved and when the kids of my age were playing, enjoying and partying I was trying to paint something alone in complete isolation. A decade of struggle for a stability in my career had taken me too far away from my love. I cleaned the brushes and sorted out the materials that could be used. In the next few hours I was back to my childhood: playing with colors. The sharpness, skills and confidence has deteriorated considerably but the passion is still there. The brushes no more listen to my commands. Perhaps they are disappointed with me but I am sure I will win them back with time, care and attention they have been devoid of for years. Since I also found my Introspection point in Trondheim, I decided to make it the topic of my revival. I hope to upload paintings as frequently as new photo albums. All these years I have been receiving loads of emails and good wishes. Although I do not reply to all the emails and messages I do read them so keep them coming. I badly need them specially in the revival period.