The India edit
You'll know when you've read it
Pink that is silvered
Palaces mirrored
Marbled Mahal
Held me in thrall
Taj and Rajputana
Red sandstone kitabkhana
Teaching sunrise and sunset
(More to come but not yet)
Watching my belly
As we land in Delhi...
...Iconic India: yes, part of the deal was that we take the kids to the Taj Mahal. 3 adults, 3 kids (we went with my dear friend and her daughter). It IS the world's most beautiful and perfect building....
…but let's start at the beginning and let the creeping chaos slowly edge its way in. By the end of this India edit you should feel lost and found, warm and anxious and yearning to go yourself. I might be able to help, I am planning something for the future... for now enjoy your sunshine battery. First thing you notice in India is the pink sun which is like a ping pong ball bouncing in the sky...
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…I taught miniature painting on the study trip organised by the lovely Art of Islamic Pattern, my friends Adam Williamson and Richard Henry. I helped the inimitable Ajay Sharma in Jaipur, taught in a red sandstone palace in Alwar and yes, I carried my ugly bumbag everywhere because it's just so useful (also can store small burnishers).
Kashi enjoyed floating in the pool. And making his faces and dozing. I enjoyed the view and the sunrise which comes up so fast, and the sunsets which go off like a light switch and the frangipanis in the morning. Look at all those frangipani trees (also one of Andy Stahl's favourite flowers)....
...There are more beautiful arches throughout. Vinay Vilas in Alwar, then the Amber Fort, Jaipur. We were blessed by kind priests. Adam took this shot of me thinking. Other than that moment I feel I was constantly moving, but not fast... one morning we woke up to hundreds of dead flies on our balcony...
... Two posers, a langur monkey - my favourite; the other kind were quite screechy and maddening, also maddeningly cute: I broke up a monkey domestic feud but Patrik admonished me, saying that I should never poke my nose into other people's marriages or affairs - and this man who was just standing there, dressed up, dying to be photographed.
Kids painted lots too. Indians are very chic. Nobody wears T-shirts and shorts. It's okay for kids but I am copying their sartorial habits as soon as I can. Love the stripes (I think this is Antara Biswas) and here's the kind mountain priest. (Not all were kind - the one at the bottom of the mountain demanded money.)
Beautiful waterfall, and Adam on the edge. A red dragonfly. Our room had a swing!!!...
...How now, brown cow? Cows - and nature generally - infiltrate the city, or town, or village, in the most natural way. They simply co-exist. We saw every part of the animal kingdom: mammals (camels, deer, horses), birds (too many to name! and the dawn chorus is something unreal. The haunting sound of wild peacocks and then domesticated parrots, all of it in harmony, an emu, the possibility of wild ostriches), fish (a wild thrashing eel I saw in a very very green pond), reptiles (a snake, lizards, geckos), amphibians (the possibility of crocodiles), insects (so many! We made a bug hospital with the kids and launched 2 flying insects back to life: we rescued them from the swimming pool, let them dry off in the sun and watched them fly away and cheered). This has all got to be painted!
A stepwell, a sunrise and a tattoo. My brave boy is getting a henna tattoo of a snake on his arm (his idea: mostly henna tattoos were done on the hand), like the hard and tough little boss baby that he is.....
...And the mirrors! The Shish Mahal or Sheesh Mahal Palace of Mirrors: this is in Jaipur, but there are more to come. I want to make one that also has curtains. 1001 Nights come to life. These were glorious. I wish I had taken more photos of how they caught the light. I have absorbed the memories; they'll be captured in the Book of Mirrors, the next in the Book series, with an India twist (I hadn't expected to see halls of mirrors on this trip. I thought I'd save that for next time but they are in all the palaces)....
Book the Book of Mirrors
...Dear Ajay, the sweetest miniature painting teacher, in his Jaipur studio. I was so overjoyed to see him. Beautiful Surabhi, who helped organise Adam's trip. Darling Kashi, holding the Taj Mahal. Deeg arches and a curiously melancholy empty swimming pool for zenana ladies.
Delicious pani puri! I did in fact take food pics but am restraining myself, apart from this: if you haven't tried pani puri you simply must. It is so fun. You punch the crunchy oval container in the middle and add your own fresh veg filling and then add a soft sauce and more crunch on top. Make your own canapés. The best street food. "You shouldn't have salad/ice/things you can't peel/tap water/things washed in tap water in India". Yes, yes. I made the exception for pani puri. I was fine, it was from a hotel. [Also, as an aside, we only generally had "Level 1 diarrhoea" as my friend referred to it, which on balance is to be expected and totally fine. We had also each brought an entire pharmacy of medications with us, many of which we didn't touch.]
Dear sari ladies, you were in the way of the majestic Mahal when I was taking photos. But I was secretly also hoping you'd be there so I could see the effect of your bright colours against the alternately cool and warm white marble, depending on the light. I am likely also in your photos. So we are in each other's way. This seemed generally to be the way in India, a country of a billion people but where we went, nobody rushed; people were in each other's faces yet everything moved. Not maddeningly slowly but just slowly enough to be frustrated. Never stagnant. Always more surprisingly organised than you think.
They have an arch-logic that dawns on you. The side-to-side head wobble that nobody truly knows the meaning of. I asked some Indian friends. Is is a yes - yes, I heard you? Or yes, I understand you? Or yes, I agree? Or yes-no? Or nnn...yes? Or da-nyet as Russians say? Or yes, maybe? Andy Stahl told me to check if people meant a yes of acknowledgement or agreement. I wonder what he would have made of this. In India everything is possible. I touched the Taj. It felt good. [Even though the craftsmen's hands were severed so they could never build anything as beautiful again.] Love and horror. Zigzags and muqarnas. Pristine carving after 400 years and a sneaky labyrinth.
We visited a stone inlay workshop of the descendants who built the Taj Mahal and carved and inlaid it. The kids had a go. We saw more spectacular sunsets and even a plane hangar. On Indigo airlines this is the safety card - a man wearing a turban and curled-up toe slippers, which I just loved. In India, everything is possible...
...Another world where anything is possible: the beginning of creation. Get a print of my miniature A Recreation of the Court of Gayumars here. Discount code is GAYUMARS10 since you're getting this email. Go to: https://www.vaishaliprazmari.com/product-page/a-recreation-of-the-court-of-gayumars and add it at checkout...
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...December classes start next week! To account for the holidays. I'm looking forward to the Book of Mirrors - we'll mix in the Sheesh Mahal Mirror Palaces from India in this and do some foil embossing, too! You'll need ordinary kitchen foil for now and if you own my Ether brush it should do the trick. Foil embossing was used in the toy theatre tinselling tradition, and the Christmas/holiday/end of year time is a great time to do this! We also have Candy Gardens to paint as a Levni-special celebration, Painted Margins (last in the series), drugs (and remember, coffee is also a drug) and the very special Mirrors.
And look - we found the famous Rajput moustache echoed on... Pringles! They have clearly copied the Rajput originals, which are much better. Moustaches were a source of pride and rightly so, we saw some magnificent ones. If I were a man I would definitely have one. It's also Movember. Long live the moustache.
If you're in London in December, come to our studio and make books with us in-person or paint! All here: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online...
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...You can get the Ether brush from The Perfect Brush.All my brushes here: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shop And if you want to paint your own Carpet Page, here's the link to my Make a Carpet Page e-course. Once downloaded, it's yours to keep forever, or purchase some easy-watching, relaxing painting films. You can get your own ALADDIN toy theatre here, and tinsel it using the foil embossing technique from the Mirrors class.
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...The kids made their own dome from sweets and toothpicks. I was hoping for a geodesic style dome but we got a Dr Seuss style one. No matter - it's lovely and stood up. More chevrons and zigzag space fillers. Maybe there is a meaning to this pattern (Water? Movement? Life?) or maybe it really is a space filler. Painted palaces and kids' paintings of domes they've designed. Kashi got really into it and announced that he'd given his (turquoise) Taj Mahal ears. But of course! And later on he cut out one that had legs...
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...More mirrors: a mirrored dressing room with mirrored walls, ceiling and even floor. Sunshine through stained glass.
The Rajput sun and moustache.
A gecko who wouldn't be my friend. A colourful column.
Another Sheesh Mahal. I'm tentatively planning to take a small handpicked bunch of people to paint in these painted palaces belonging to a Maharajah (not this year).
More later... this is just a trailer. There are many, many more paintings.
Kashi scratching his head and wondering at all the paintings. He can be my assistant - he is a natural painter. (And bookmaker! And toy theatre maker!) He still likes pink. Here he is looking serious in the pink scarf he forced me to buy him. A black bee with iridescent wings. A happily laughing bachelor lion. K standing on an idol - he was told to by the guide, as he was too small to reach. In India, everything is possible. The Kama Sutra in a cupboard. 3 breakfast time options. In India, everything is possible... including breakfast guest traffic...
...We even saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower, en route to Ajmer and Mayo College. Udaipur's unreal lake palaces and Nahalgarh's lonely one too. Pushkar by night. Our guide said: "Kashi is the oldest city in the world. But Pushkar is even older". This is Indian logic for you. Because everything is possible, remember. This is the country that came up with the Kathasaritsagara, the precursor to the 1001 Nights. I can understand why India is some people's favourite country. It might be mine. Also one temple had to have a sign out because it was a festival but they had nothing to say so they were... lacking.
I had 3 bucket-list photos: 1. A tassled truck. 2. A lone woman dressed in a pink sari on a motorbike (they are usually riding with men. But see later, I got this!) 3. A peacock in the wild. I saw my show in Delhi. So many colourful works and I can't wait to get painting...
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...And now for a camel fair! Camel hair and camel fair. Camel footprint. Snake charmer and sleeping boy sunset. Fabulous saddles. My friend hankered after the pom-pom decorations; we'll go next time. The boys did some shopping. Kashi held his little Lego bag on his arm.
Home to a Moot Court - this is at UCL! I gave a talk there for UCL BASc Arts and Sciences about my practice. And I had to get Dishoom chai as I had chai withdrawal symptoms coming back from India. Straight into Christmas and Fortnum and Mason's. They gave the kids a mini trolley with a flag, useful in the crowds. They ALSO gave us all several free chocolates, which is unheard of in London shops! Very generous.
...India was sensuous and sensory. The colours are brighter and it felt silly to wear black and white, so luckily I had also brought some colour with me (made by Indian designers). Everything felt more real and touchable, meaning that you were allowed to touch it somehow. It had a feeling of ancient unhurriedness and even the frustrations are part of its charm. We were very privileged coming from the West and Europe. We were aware of that. We were treated like royal guests. I felt like a guest but also strangely at home. But then again I have also felt at home in Turkey and Thailand and France. We loved it so much we wanted to live there for a while, perhaps a couple of months. For a country of its size it gets along. It felt a bit like chai: caffeinated and awakening, yet also milky and calming at the same time.
I didn't understand it and still loved every single second. I feel like the kids learned a school year's worth of learning in the 16 days we were there. I think they absorbed it rather than being taught it. I know there are lots of problems with India. And then again, where aren't there problems? "What is here, you will find elsewhere. But what is not here, is nowhere." - Mahabharata.
India has a toilet problem. India is on the moon (hooray! I am genuinely awed.) India has a rape problem. India is a country where mothers are extremely respected (even if in theory - although I felt respected at all times. Men talked to ME, not Patrik. They shook my hand or greeted me genuinely. I honestly felt very seen. Thank you!) There were 2 occasions when people (men) were rude: one roadside waiter who demanded tips and a (young) security officer at Delhi airport who told me to 'do it fast', and threw away my First Aid scissors. And my very very small free rounded scissors I got in some Christmas crackers that were less than 1 inch. And the kids' scissors also got chucked.
India: I'm coming back but I'll need the scissors! These are absolutely essential for the little projects Kashi sets himself. They also needed to see every single electronic charger, cable and plug separately. There is a reason why we had to be at the airport 3 hours before. We were moving, always. Slowly, but still going somewhere or doing something, not resting. On India time. Which is 5 and a HALF hours ahead. Says it all. Second star on the right and straight on till morning. Which, if you're in London, will take you right there!
Indianly yours,
Vaishali Prazmari
P.S. In this cafe you are allowed one dream only. Below, the... perfect shot? Kids LOVED this!
