The title of the post refers to Gummadikaya we had found on a trip to the Guntur vegetable market; heaps of them. The pumpkins I was familiar with till this time were generally dark green or orange-ish if super ripe.

The rest of the spreads from this ‘18 sketchbook display the sheer joy of experiencing a proper brush pen which I had gifted myself, some more late night or mid-class meditative sketching sessions, thumbnailing for an Inktober narrative ( I’ll upload soon as a complete pdf/epub ) and whatever else is there.

Way past it’s former glory days, the concrete barracks of the steel-city are no longer at a hundred percent occupancy. Many of the quarters, mostly first floor ones have been long vacated. These empty kitchens with broken windows thus often become perfect nesting spaces for the pigeons.

The pigeons therefore thrive, fly around less and sit around more mirroring the lifestyle of other residents. The result of this, has been a bunch of healthy pigeons. The other day, when I was returning from the saloon (what we call a barber-shop), there were a bunch of them sitting on the street doing who knows what? Perhaps a game of cards. As I cycled past them, they tried to fly away, and I say T R I E D because one was right in front of me and it was the laziest attempts at flying I’ve ever witnessed. 

So, thanks to the pijon who inspired me to animate after months of writing code and I hope you never see this because I prefer my head/shoulders/mouth clean.

Normally I’d absolutely veer away from any kind of eavesdropping but in the tightly packed company-quarters where I am currently working from, to not eavesdrop, one has to wear earphones all the time. 

The backyards of these Soviet fashioned residential areas have overgrown their initial utilitarian planning, skinny hedges or wire meshes demarcating boundaries. Many houses including mine have small gardens although in the case of my neighbors, who seem to have the green-thumb-gene running in their family, the garden has graduated to a mini-farm. They also have a three year-old boy who after his online classes, comes out to bask in the winter sun. 

One such day, I didn’t have my earphones on and heard something that he said while taking a stock of the plants. “ We should plant some trees that give us chips as well. Then we could have vegetables  aaand chips too!”

Shortly after this he must have run inside and pitched this idea to his superiors. I don’t blame him; convincing investors for your ambitious start-up is a tough job indeed.