Paint my soul

M. F. Husain once said, “Hold the sky in your hands when I paint, coz I do not know the limits of my canvas.” Painting is a love affair. If you do it, you do it whole heartedly. Painting is one of the forms of expression of soul amongst many others. Art, as I see it, is the expression of my soul. If I can express it correctly, I am a good artist. Expression could take any platform; dance, music, words or anything else. It is important that you express, as an artist.

I recently took up painting and graffiti again. I used to do it some time ago and then I got busy with other stuff. I started it again. To help me experiment with it and to help me improve my skills in the area I compiled a list of different styles of painting and sketching. This helps me practice, to experiment, to be able to know my stuff. Eventually, you do not need any styles. You develop one of your own. This will take time and effort and most importantly heart. Artists are not heartless persons, remember. They are sensitive to nature.

1. Paint a non living subject.
2. Paint a living subject (portrait/landscape).
3. Free style painting (Picasso).
4. Throwing paint on the canvas directly, without using brush (Pollock).
5. Paint with hands. Once you learn to paint with hands and fingers, trust me, brushes won’t be necessary.
6. Sketch from memory. Paint it.
7. Paint directly from memory.
8. Paint from a picture.
9. Sketch from a photograph, paint it.
10. Explore different materials. Some of them could be: pastels, charcoal, color pencils, water soluble colors pencils, fountain pen, poster colors, water colors, oil colors, leaves, flowers, fruits, vegetables, aerosol sprays etc.
11. Sketch a moving object. Paint it. Remember, animation is concentration.
12. Paint hands and feet. Hands and feet are one of the most difficult subjects to paint.
13. Paint robes. Robes have enough curves, folds for you to practice.
14. Paint with only one color. Use the background as the second color.
15. Paint on glass.
16. Sketch cartoons/caricature.
17. Paint on wall (Graffiti).
18. Depict a story/poem in the painting.
19. Paint self portrait using a mirror.
20. Paint self portrait using a photograph.
21. Paint self portrait at different ages. Grid or accordion style could be used.
22. Paint portraits of loved ones.
23. Spray painting. Aerosol spray paints could be used.
24. Paint your room with your stuff in it. (One of the famous Van Gogh painting).
25. Experiment with light and shadow principle.
26. Observe deeply. Photograph often. Learn by doing. Remember, painting is to paint and not some thing to read about.
27. Body painting.
28. Paint nudes. Try to get the curvatures and veins structure right.
29. Paint greeting cards, book covers etc.

Professional Mail Writing

All outgoing mails can be broadly categorized in the following two categories:

1. Send Information: This type of mails should follow the below structure:
   1. Proper subject line (Subject line should be self explanatory and concise. It should explain the purpose of the mail in few words)
   2. Greeting (Greeting should be formal for professional mails. Direct names could be used suffixed with a comma or a colon or Hi, Hello, Dear greetings could be used suffixed with the receiver’s name)
   3. Present the information

                                                              i.      Mail body – If the information is too little to be sent as an attachment, it should be included in the mail body. Attachments should be avoided as much as possible.

                                                             ii.      Attachment – If more than one document related to the same subject is to be sent, it should be zipped with an appropriate naming convention and to be sent as one attachment

1.  
   1. Mention the source of information (If the source is not mentioned in the document to be sent)
   2. Ask for acknowledgement (Request the receiver to acknowledge you once the information is received and is relevant to him / her)
   3. Volunteer to call if any queries (Mention your contact number and email id in the mail. It is mostly included in your signature for professional mails, if that is not the case, send it mandatorily)

 

1. Ask for Information: This type of mails should follow the below structure:
   1. Proper subject line (Subject line should be self explanatory and concise. It should explain the purpose of the mail in few words)
   2. Greeting (Greeting should be formal for professional mails. Direct names could be used suffixed with a comma or a colon or Hi, Hello, Dear greetings could be used suffixed with the receiver’s name)
   3. Request for Information

                                                              i.      Request – This might mean using “Please” and “Thanks”, both the words at least once in the mail. Request should not sound like a command.

                                                             ii.      Information – Information should be requested in a clear and detailed manner.

1.  
   1. Mention why you need it?
   2. Mention by when you need it? (Specify the timelines / deadlines with date, day and time)
   3. Volunteer to call if any queries (Mention your contact number and email id in the mail. It is mostly included in your signature for professional mails, if that is not the case, send it mandatorily)
   4. Acknowledgement / Thanking mail (If the information is received in due timelines, send a thanking mail to the respective sender)
   5. Follow ups / Reminders (If the information if not received in due timeline, send a reminder mail for the same with discussed / appropriate time intervals until the information is received or the mail cycle is closed)

Other points which should be kept in mind are given below:

1. MECE – Mutually Exclusive Completely Exhaustive (The mail body should avoid redundancy / duplicity of information. It should be accurate, precise and self explanatory. Avoid use of abbreviations or jargons)
2. Concise, Accurate and Relevant
   1. Accurate in terms of the following:

                                                              i.      Grammar

                                                             ii.      Content

                                                           iii.      Logical

1.  
   1. Relevant means addressed to correct people at correct time
2. To / CC (Carbon copy)/ BCC (Business carbon copy)
   1. To – The address line here should include the list of people for whom the mail is addressed and greeted to.
   2. CC – The address line here should include the list of people who are to be kept informed of the communication happening but not addressed in the mail.
   3. BCC – The address line here should include the list of people who are to be kept informed of the communication happening and to hide their identification from the list of people in “To” and “CC” fields
3. Use Outlook features extensively. Important ones are given below:
   1. Meeting scheduling
   2. Importance marking on outgoing mails (High / Low)
   3. Follow up – flagging (Use colored flags to mark the mails you have received to remind you about them at a later date or time)
   4. Reminders / Appointments scheduling – These are reminders to
   5. Shared Calendars
   6. Creating rules for different contacts – Rules redirect the mails received in the inbox to the designated folders automatically

Confusion!

Hey, what is this? Is this a joke, or truth, or a dream. I am still unable to decide.

What went by, what is going on; nothing was without reasons, absolutely not without reasons. Some times, comments, some other times, lots of compliments.

Where does it reside, where? Here, or everywhere. It is involved everywhere, in each action, each work, without manually involving anything, without touching anything. Just chases, no rights. All powers are lost, no returns. Things went one by one, nothing came back. I couldn’t stop them. They did not come back, never will they come and I am sure about this. Though, I am trying. I still owe some liabilities, period is life and interest is my assets. The period is whole life, nothing less than that. Nothing less than blood, all time and everything.

I cannot forcibly snatch things back. Subject is love and object is undefined; Yet no definition for the object part. Possibly like a mirror, which reflects, whatever comes In front. It is like a secondary flame, not a primary flame like Sun. Primary flame generates light and secondary has to borrow from primary sources. Like a temporary thunder, which lightens everything, but for a second.

You were right, I was wrong. Subject is wrong, object was right. Mirrors are always right, candles are wrong. You are correct. Wherever object moves, subject walks together. I don’t know what I am writing, but I am trying to put my thoughts on paper. Before coming to paper, all thoughts are furbished, reviewed, and corrected many times. If you start expressing your feelings directly without any processing, you will see results something like the one above. Let me know what you could understand by these paragraphs as your comments. It will help us improve our thought process and perception of objects.

There is no time??

Mostly we hear people complaining about time. There is no time. They say, “We din’t get a chance, otherwise we could have achieved something in life”. To keep complaining of time and repeating the common phrase ‘No, time’ is nothing else but misleading your self. This is similar to running with the illusion of water in hot deserts, which is deceiving.

In order to be successful in life, not only efforts and virility is required but also time. Teenagers should use their time to the maximum extent, since it is the beginning of their life. This brightens their future. In an average person’s daily routine, once you separate the hours for eating, sleeping, means of living and regular schedules, we have minimum four hours left. Out of these four important hours going waste everyday, even if one starts investing one hour for some definite goal, it will lead to big results.

Full forty pages of a book can be read in four hours; 1200 pages in a month and 15000 pages in a year. If this process goes on for 10 years, one can read 1.5 lack pages. If all these pages relate to one particular subject, one can become an expert in that area.

Henry White learned Greek language utilising the time when he used to walk down to his office from home. After he became a military doctor, most of his time went riding the horse. He did not even let that time go waste and learned Italian and few other languages during riding. He has said “You get another second only after the current one completes. We should utilise this departing second to the fullest extent.”

Vinoba Bhave started utilising one hour everyday in learning foreign languages. It took no time for him to become an expert of 38 new languages. Edward Butler created 60 big novels despite of his hectic schedule in political and parliamentary activities. The famous poet Longfello utilised the time taken to boil the water for a cup of tea everyday and translated legendary epic “Inferlo” in few days.

The famous mathematician of Unites States, Charles Fast used to practice maths one hour everyday. His practice sessions continued throughout life. This continuity and perseverance made him a remarkable figure in the field of Maths.

Famous poet Mozart created the known epic “Recume’ on his deathbed. Napoleon defeated Australia because the soldiers of the rival took 5 extra minutes for preparation. However, the same Napoleon was tied and had lost his victory since his Military Head took few more minutes to come. Napoleon had also lost the famous war of ‘Waterloo’ for the same reason.

Franklin said, “One today is equivalent to two tomorrows. So, don’t keep waiting for tomorrow. One, who does not understand the importance of time, is born to survive at low levels of life.”

‘Tomorrow’ is a symbol of laziness and failure. So use all the time available TODAY. Never delay anything for tomorrow for tomorrow never comes. All you have left is here and now. ‘HERE’ is the only place left and ‘NOW’ is the only time!!

Life is Maths and Science!!

Have you guys ever realised why we studied all those subjects in the school. Remember we used to curse people who made studies and also cursed who used to make us study. But every subject we have sooner or later has a real meaning and purpose behind it. Our life can be more or less fully described by all the subjects. Life is all maths and science as the title says. Read on. You might dig out new facts. Let me start telling you about how our subjects connect to the original world we see around us.

Let us start by Chemistry, one of the most boring subject, isn’t it (for who hate chemistry like me). Chemistry forms the base of the world. Everything you see around, living or non-living is made up of elements. The things which are minute enough not visible to human eye are also made up of elements. All are made of chemicals. Everything you feel and see can be given a formula in chemistry. So chemistry is all around. It forms the base of everything.  

Then let’s take Maths. Don’t you think if there are so many things existing in this world – living and non-living, would require some rules to be laid down for their relations to each other. That is what exactly Maths is about. Maths describes all the rules (called formulas in Maths) and regulations for all the worldly entities existing. It describes lots of formulas which help us to make calculations when we work with these entities. So chemistry forms the base and maths lays down rules and regulations to work with them. Even more: Arithmetic is about real numbers. It uses real numbers in its calculations about the rules and regulations. And to make it more general, Algebra was created. Algebra talks about variables which can take any number value anytime to let rules and regulations to become general in order to be applicable to all the entities. Geometry is a step ahead. It goes a step further and creates diagrams for those rules and regulations. I.e. Diagrammatic representation of formulas. A quick review: Arithmetic uses real numbers, algebra talks general numbers (variables) and geometry uses diagrams and pictures to explain those formulas. Lets carry on with other ones now. 

Biology – Ever felt nauseate to see those frogs and lizards? Biology however covers very important portion of the world. If we divide all the entities existing in this world into Living ones and Non-living ones, then biology is the study of all the living ones. Livings ones means entities which respire, which grow like Humans, Animals, Plants,  Birds etc. Non-living ones would mean the opposite, which neither respire nor grow. Examples include clothes, roads, buildings, plates, cups, and you can name the rest. So studying about Living Organisms is Biology. Easy now, isn’t it? If we go a bit further, then Zoology is studying about all animals and Botany is studying about all plants and trees.  

Similarly, understanding Physics would be easy now. Any guesses?Physics is studying Non-living things and their relations to each other which requires a bit of help from Maths. So Biology is studying about living things and Physics is about Non living things and their relations.  

History is all about Time. What happened when. Above mentioned entities described with their behaviour in different times. Anything happened to any worldly entity is jotted down in history along with time. Time is very important for history or let’s say History is a function of time. History’s job is to give you a list of activities and behaviours any entity went through with its time and date. One of the most boring subjects seems simple now!! 

Geography talks about where. It is about what is placed where. Showing you all sorts of maps and directions for all the entities as and when you need them is geography’s job. To help you accomplish your tasks easily when you want to relate to any of the entity, geography serves its purpose.  

How does it seem. Easy hmmm. I wish you can now relate your actual life to those complicated subjects. Every one of them serves a purpose. So subjects seem so much easy and interesting to learn, if you know the meaning. Now once you know this, don’t you think, It would have become quite fun for us to learn them when we struggled to put them into our heads if someone had told about this before. So lets convey this message to its real target audience i.e. Students. Students deal with subjects day and night. If they understand the meaning behind studying any one of them, their life would be much more simple and fun!