My first art teacher.

When she was just 2, I would turn the  plain calendar backs and  the white cardboard shirt supports ( that came with   new shirts) into canvas for her. I would write the alphabets in double strokes and hang an apple at the end of the stroke and a ball for B etc...The space between the double strokes would then be colored by the 2 year old with crayons. I would hold her hand and help her to color within the space and the objects.. Together we would go to Comfort ( our library) and get  Magicpot( a kids activity book from Manorama group) in the evenings. We would connect  the dots to from luttappi( a magic pot cartoon),  I never believed in conventional teaching and so tried various methods and activities to keep her hooked. An activity she enjoyed doing and longed for more. Even at the age of 2, she had such good control over hand movements.

Time flies and she is a testimony to that....

17 years later........roles were reversed:) ...

2 weeks back,

She held my hand and taught me to draw and paint on a canvas ..........my daughter....... my first art teacher.

So much to see, so much to do....... #Dreamtrails.

I enjoy reading about our culture, I am passionate about our art, craft and textiles, I am a foodie, I admire wildlife( flora and fauna),  nature inspires me, I worship and consider it a great teacher.

Culture, art, craft, textiles, food, nature….what can connect all these areas.?

Me thinks, if there is anything that can connect all these areas it is Travel and I heart travelling.

Travel to me is not going to places where tourist brochure promotes. It is not just to knock of the routine but to me it is going out of my comfort zone, to expose myself to new people, places, traditions, learn, experience the food traditions, different cultures, get adventurous and appreciate things.  So, travelling to places where art/craft are hand made, warp and weft are hand woven , culture is practiced, local food is cooked and nature is at its home is one of my dream.

There are so many places that I like to leave my foot prints in India from Leh, Ladakh in the North to Kanyakumari in the south and Rann of kutch in Gujarat to Tawang in North east.

These are some or a few listings from my #Dreamtrails.

•  Travel from Manali to Leh by road to soak the beauty of the Tibetian-Buddhist locale and enjoy the vistas thrown by the journey.. 
• Experience the feast of heavens @ Devbhoomi, the himachal and enjoy Mandi,Devprayag,Mcleodganj Spiti, chail and Khajjiar and ofcourse the famous Kulu, manali by land route. 
• Explore Punjab by tasting its fantastic cuisine and watching the change of guard at Wagah and get blessed at Golden Temple.visit to Ropar, Pathankot, Batinda etc... 
• @Uttaranchal, visit the yoga capital of the world Rishikesh and get into stillness, meditate by the ganges, capture the surreal beauty of Ganga aarti , Haridwar and visit the surrounding Dehradun, Auli, chakradhar, mussorie etc and indulge in the exotic local cuisine and a visit to the exquisite textile cluster of Benaras. 
• @ West Bengal – a visit first to the famous Santi niketan and then to the  sundarbans,Doars, Bishnupur, Murshidabad,Barrackpore, taste the rasmalai, sandesh, the famous rosagolla @ its own home and the famous  street side puchkas. 
• @ Rajasthan- Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner, Ajmer , a visit the textile clusters of Sanganer, Bagru and Ajrakh and hoard home each of the ethnic craft like blue pottery as a souvenir. 
• @Gujarat- A visit to Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad, Porbandar, Somnath,Dwaraka, Rann of kutch and Bhuj, hoard home Bhuj crafts, watch the art of making bandani,bandhej, bokani , experience a slice of gujrati life living in lippan art homes, and head home with Gujrati farsan 
• @ Mahrashtra….travel down the konkan coast and soak in the beauty of the western ghats after winding down through amboli ghat into Karnataka. 
• @Karnataka – Visit to the beautiful malgudi homestay at Agumbe, awe at Gersoppa falls, experience the Sanskrit village of maddur, silk weaving of KSIC at T.Narsipura, Mysore, capture the beauty of sakleshpur, Kabini, Nagarhole, walk with awe around the ruins of Hampi, Badami, pattedakal 
• @Tamilnadu- Explore the chettinad area, kannadukuthan palace, Aayiram jannal veedu, making of athangudi hand made tiles. Marvel at the architecture of the famous Meenakshi amman temple at Madurai, Chidambaram, Rameswaram, travel the pamban bridge,  Dhanushkodi, kodiakkarai,  visit the weaving cluster of Kanchipuram. watch the craft of making Thanjavur plates, sit down on the thinnai of a home for olai chuvadi (palm leaf reading) at Vaideeswaran koil, enjoy the gurukul at Kalakshetra, tip down to Kaniyakumari the southernmost point and then visit the nearby sucheendram, awe at The padmanabha palace, Thriparappu water falls, vattakottai fort and Udayagiri. 

So much to see, so much to do, so much to learn......


I know I missed mentioning many Indian states like MP( orchha and chitrakoot specially), Andhra ( Bhadrachalam, konaseema) Maharashtra (Mahabaleshwar, ratnagiri, Nasik vineyard tourism,the famous ellora, ajanta etc), kerala, Telangana, orissa, Bihar, Jharkand, NE states, Goa, The indian islands  and their uniqueness….This is just a random list, will do a detailed post maybe when I realize my dreams...... with a first hand account…till then will live my dreams through such posts. 

A glimpse of my dream below....all images courtesy: google 

                                       Leh, Ladakh

Khajjiar...India's switzerland in HP

                             
                                  Ganga aarti at Haridwar

                                                           Hriday Kunj, Sabarmati, gujarat

                                 the telia rumal weaving in Andhra ( an almost extinct handloom which has now been revived)...a very complex procedure of weaving where the pre dyed yarn is dipped in oil and hence the name 'telia rumal'.

                                         Onake Abbi falls, Agumbe in Karnataka

  hand crafted Athangudi tiles of chettinad (tamilnadu)

                              

                      the pomp and pageantry of Thrissur pooram in Kerala

 “I am blogging about my dreams and passions for the Club Mahindra #DreamTrails activity at Blogadda You can get a Club Mahindra Membership to own your holidays!”