Week 42/2024

I am counting down the days for my little break after Diwali.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I’ve started planning what the next year will look work-wise. I already have an idea of what I’ll be working on at TypeTogether, at least for the first two-thirds of the year, and I am filling the gaps for Matra Type. There is one large personal work project that is getting cued up, and I need to carefully see how much client work I can even take up. Last Monday, I had an exciting first conversation about the prospect of taking my work with India Street Lettering to a new city and community.

2.

My Mom was supposed to have a minor medical procedure on Thursday afternoon that was cancelled at the last moment, and will now have to be rescheduled for mid-November.

3.

On Saturday, Amber and I went for a small exhibition of BV Doshi’s drawings at Vadehra Art Gallery. Amber thought it might be a display of his architectural drawings and was probably a little bit disappointed. His college friend, Rishabh, joined us there and we went out for coffee afterwards. We hadn’t seen Rishabh in years, barring a chance meeting last January, so it was nice to catch up after a long time.

4.

I gave a short online talk for The Goa Project Sessions on Sunday evening. It was a nice engaged audience, and an hour and a half of chatting about Indic type went by in a breeze.

Week 41/2024

Three weeks is two weeks too many to skip these weekly notes. So here goes a mix of what’s been up lately.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Amber and I got some routine medical tests done last month, and followed that up with doctor visits, and tweaking our diet and exercise regimen. We’ve started going for walks at night before we turn in, and I am still adjusting to this change in routine. Anticipating the deterioration in AQI in the coming months, we also tried the local gym one night, and assuming it is not too crowded during our regular hours, the treadmill should be a reasonable, if less fun, alternative.

2.

It was my Mom’s birthday in late September. She was excited to try Korean buns, and so that’s what we ate for breakfast that day by way of a small celebration. My parents also celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary a few days later.

While not for either occasions, Amber and I cooked an impromptu dinner with my parents one weekend. It had been a long time since we did anything like it, and it was quite fun.

3.

My iMac is still busted, and I switched work spaces with Amber for a few days to use his external monitor. That made kerning much easier than doing it on my laptop.

3.

Amber had a day and a half of travel before we both made our way to Bangalore for a jam-packed week. I facilitated a type walk and gave a lightning talk at DesignUp. Even though it was a small group of walkers, we spent a lovely morning looking at signs around M.G. Road. I was debuting a new talk at the conference so I was thrilled to get a lot of positive feedback, especially since I showed a tonne of my own work. The talk was to a group of close to 900 folks and from the biggest stage I have ever spoken from. All-in-all, quite exciting!

As always, Bangalore meant a lot of socialising. I grabbed lunch with Pranav one afternoon, and afterwards, Amber and I crashed his writing club meeting to say hello to Ankur, with whom we ended up having dinner. On the day of my talk, I went to my cousin Aditi’s for dinner, which was lovely. The next day, we slept well into the afternoon, and visited Amber’s college friends and their new baby in the evening. On our last full day in Bangalore, we pulled out all the stops — briefly attended a meet-up with Gurman, went to Champaca, ate lunch with Garima and Rasagy, and then coffee and dinner with Rahul and Radhika. Before heading back to Delhi on Sunday, we met Saumyaa and Mahesh, who we had missed spending time with all of this year. Phew!

I also got some bad news while in Bangalore that I am still trying to cope with.

4.

I have a few public speaking engagements lined up for the next month, hopefully the last of the year.

5.

It has been all guns blazing on the work front. I delivered on a milestone for a typeface commission, tried hard to meet some deadlines at TypeTogether, and have been consistently working on wrapping up a project that started at the beginning of 2024. In the coming week, I also need to follow up on some enquiries.

6.

Prateek and I managed to have our accountability call early this time, because of all the travel he and I are doing. I am very happy that we’ve found a rhythm with them. Not only is it nice to share what I am upto with him and get his honest comments on my work load, it is a nice excuse to have a long chat every month, whether or not we’ve been able to make time to chat otherwise.

Week 38/2024

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

The weather was lovely a few days this past week, and all I really wanted to do was play hooky, but it was not meant to be. I also tore myself away from working from the living room, which has a large door looking out, meaning you can enjoy the weather better to sit at my desk and give my back the support it needs while I work. In other news, my iMac refuses to switch on and there don’t seem to be enough technicians around at the shop where I bought it from for someone to come and fix it 😒

2.

Test cricket is back — India is playing Bangladesh for two matches. It is hard to explain but that’s just what I needed to anchor my days around. On Ambika’s recommendation, I also started watching Fisk this week.

3.

On Saturday, Amber and I had a little outing with my parents. We went to Pulp Society to catch the exhibition where my zines are displayed. It was really nice to be at the exhibition on a quiet day. We last went during the opening, which was the opposite experience. All four of us could take the time to see the books and zines that intrigued us. Mumma liked the Blue Jackal books, Papa the artworks by Prakash Ranjit. We came back with with a small haul, and wrapped up the afternoon with drinks at a neighbourhood café.

Speaking of zines, both batches of India Street Lettering zines are sold out on my shop, but now available online on Champaca and Blaft. There was also a nice mention of the zines in a news piece covering the Pulp Society exhibition this week. It was completely unexpected and made my day. I’m relieved that the hullaballoo that comes with publishing new zines is calming down. Without that, I can’t shift my attention to new things.

4.

My participation at DesignUp has been announced — I’m facilitating a type walk, and giving a new talk about lettering for multiscript logotypes. This week I worked on the framework for the talk, and I am quite happy with the ideas I have put together for it.

Week 37/2024

The weeks have bled into each other and I have missed some updates here, and so this note covers the last fortnight or so.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I’ve been keeping Anne Lamott’s mantra bird by bird close to my heart as I try to make my way through an oppressive to-do list at work that doesn’t show any signs of becoming smaller even as I check things off it.

2.

Amber and I visited some excellent exhibitions over the past two weekends — Delhi Crafts Council’s showcase of heirloom sarees, a retrospective of pictorialist photographer O. P. Sharma’s life and work, a show of serigraphs by M. F. Husain, and Meri Notebook, an exhibition of paintings by Anju Grover. The exhibition visits were paired with meals at Café Lota and Triveni Terrace Café. Our mission at Café Lota was to have Onam sadhya, and it was one of the best I’ve ever had.

3.

After over a month of not managing to meet up, we hung out with Purneetha not once but twice — a pizza night at home, and a coffee run between her clinic and hospital shifts.

4.

Pleasant monsoon weather seems to have arrived late this year, but we’re trying to make the most of it by spending as many evenings as possible outdoors.

Week 35/2024

Well, better late than never.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I wrapped up a lettering commission that had been in the works since March. It was supposed to be a rush job because the client was in a hurry, but ended up taking months due to their long feedback cycles. I am very glad that it is over now, and it has cleared up precious mind space for me.

Cataplisms was announced this week, and I am really pleased that folks have enjoyed the identity design work I did for the project. I also added an entry for it to my website.

A typeface script extension job that had been in talks for a couple of years finally got green-lit, and work on that has started tout de suite. I am in the final days/weeks of completing a typeface script extension project (different writing system) at TypeTogether, and another original design in Latin for a local client. It has been an interesting contrast, working on different projects at different stages and supporting different scripts 🙈

I also wrote the first draft of a book review, and had a short meeting with the editor of an essay I am supposed to write later in the year.

2.

My new dental crown has been fitted, and so far so good.

3.

After making plans to see not one but two exhibitions and also visiting Sunder Nursery, Amber and I ended up spending the weekend at home. It was much-needed. We also went back to the local park and swimming pool after weeks, and really, I had missed the outdoors so much.

Week 34/2024

It was a non-stop action sort of week, and I’m pretty proud to have carved out some time for rest and leisure.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

My dental troubles continued. The re-installed crown simply wasn’t sturdy enough, and as a result I cut down on what I was eating drastically; to the point that I actually lost weight in just a few days and my brain didn’t have enough fuel to do everything I had on my plate. The situation became untenable on Thursday evening when the crown began to stick out a couple of millimetres. The next morning, it was removed and a dental pin was inserted to fortify the tooth. A new crown is now being made and will hopefully be installed soon.

2.

I was so stressed and out of sorts that I couldn’t sleep past two in the morning on Tuesday/Wednesday. It was a terrible time for this to happen because I had an IRL meeting with a client the next morning, but such is life.

3.

A lettering commission that had been in limbo for the past two months suddenly got a jolt of life because the person looking after the project at the client’s end has resigned and his last day with them is coming up. I had to shift gears to focus some time towards this work in an already busy week.

4.

My cousin Aditi was in town and staying with my parents over the weekend. I spent a couple of lazy evenings with her, which was very nice.

5.

With the newsletter and other social media announcements out, there was a flurry of zine orders, and the work that comes with packing and mailing them.

6.

On the weekend, Amber and I caught a quiet meal at Café Lota and visited an excellent exhibition about India’s cinematic heritage at the India Habitat Centre. The focus on the exhibition was largely Bollywood with some Bengali film history thrown in. There was so much interesting typographic material to see, and I came back feeling energised.

Week 33/2024

I’m struggling to find my routine after the summer break, but life, it keeps on going.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I sent out an issue of my newsletter last week announcing a new batch of zines. I had been working on these zines for months, and I am very happy to finally have them out in the world. Already I have dropped off copies at The Bookshop Inc. and sent them off to the Champaca Bookstore in Goa. Champaca’s Bangalore shop is next, along with shipping a handful of zines to one of my favourite indie publishers, who have shown an interest in stocking them on their website. Some individual orders have come in too, and I packed them all on the weekend.

2.

On Thursday, Amber and I spent the day with Prateek and Rhea, chatting and playing card games. It is the kind of slow, agenda-less time I wish we had more of, but living in different cities, I’m grateful that we had some last week.

3.

Amber was visiting family at the end of the week, and so I spent a few days alone at home. It was a bit of a non-weekend weekend as I caught up with work in the hopes of dissipating some of my related stress. I was visited by a migraine and a tooth ache, so my days weren’t as relaxed as I would have liked, but I baked cornbread muffins and ate ice cream from Big Chill, so it wasn’t all bad.

4.

Through the summer, I worked with the incredibly nice folks at Dark ‘n’ Light, and that project is about to be announced soon.

Week 32/2024

The last few days of my summer break are up, and I’m back to work.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

The crown on my chipped tooth came off only a couple of months after the procedure. It appears that the tooth has broken further, and there doesn’t seem to be any discernible reasonable why. The crown has been re-attached, but the doctor told me the whole thing is very weak now. I was terrified and frustrated, and this incident coloured my entire week. On Monday morning, I went back to the dentist in a calmer frame of mind to understand what the next steps might look like, and I am feeling a little more at peace now.

2.

I spent a couple of days preparing my next newsletter issue, which will go out early in a couple of days. You can sign up for that here.

3.

I have rediscovered my love of baking after spending time with Tanya last week, and made chocolate yogurt snack cakes after returning from Ladakh, and blueberry muffins after work today. Amber and I were racking our brains over when we used our muffin tin last — it has at least been four years! I’m very happy to put it through the paces once again.

4.

Despite two weeks of break, I do not feel very rejuvenated, or inspired to go back to work. With that being what it is, I tried to make a strong start to the week, getting calls and meetings out of the way in the morning, and immersing myself in a big chunk of TypeTogether work right off the bat.

5.

Prateek and Rhea are in town for a short visit, and I am really looking forward to spending time with them.

Week 31/2024

This edition of weeknotes is late because I came back just yesterday from a long-awaited vacation.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I celebrated my birthday last week with a quiet lunch with Amber. Much of the socialising around that already happened on the weekend, and my little treat for the day was chhena toast from Khoya.

2.

The next day we took a flight to Leh to visit Tanya and Mayank who live in a nearby village in Ladakh. Amber and I have wanted to make this trip for years, and this summer we finally did it. Of course the landscapes in the region are stunning, but I was equally thrilled to go see the beautiful life our friends have built in an unforgiving and tough (by my city living standards) environment. Sarthak and Noémie were also visiting, and we got to see them a little bit too.

Thankfully, we acclimatised to the altitude well, and so after a day of rest, we were able to take drives and walks around the area. We found ourselves in Ladakh during an uncharacteristic wet spell. On our second day, Mayank drove us to Sakti as rain fell in heaps and we chased dark clouds. We capped off the day at a café with sandwiches made with local Ladakhi bread, khambir. The next morning, we had an early start to go to Shey Holy Pond and Shey-Thiksey marshes for some birdwatching. It was Tanya and Mayank’s first time birding and we kept it very relaxed. We saw roughly twenty species, including Citrine and White Wagtails, Wood Sandpipers, Oriental Turtle Doves and Eurasian Hoopoes, and so many Eurasian Magpies that I might now be bored of a bird that I’d found fascinating once. We spotted lone members of a few species: Carrion Crow, Pond Heron and Little Egret. It was also my first time seeing the Common Rosefinch and the Mountain Chiffchaff.

We spent the rest of the day resting. Mayank whipped up a most heartwarming chicken stew for lunch and Tanya made hot chapatis. For dinner, we made pizzas from scratch. There was a newish oven to break in, and all of us had a lot to learn about high-altitude baking. We rounded off a quiet Saturday at home with a walk in the back lanes of Shey, and food at Chimath Tibetan Kitchen in Leh. Their fried chutagi and dry thenthuk were excellent. On Sunday, we took a picnic to Matho, and walked up to the glacier-fed stream in the upper village. Our last day was spent in Leh — eating, shopping and photographing some street lettering in the market. And just like that, it was time to fly back to Delhi.

I’m still very excited that I saw both the Milky Way and the Indus in Ladakh. And so, so grateful to have spent some unhurried time with our friends.

Week 30/2024

It was the week before I take some time off work, and gosh, am I happy that it is over.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Much of my work time went into drawing an endless stream of Devanagari conjuncts, writing features for them and testing them out for a type design project at TypeTogether. The monotony of this exercise is strangely hypnotic and therapeutic. Otherwise, I spent a whole day working through my creative block to send design directions to a client. I got a positive response on that work, so phew! The remaining time was dedicated to creating more delivery files for a lettering project, which is all but wrapped up. I am relieved that when I get back from my vacation, there will be one less thing on my plate. I will miss working with this team of folks though, all-women and so funny, kind and generous.

2.

Mid-week, the new batch of India Street Lettering zines came freshly-baked from the printers. Immediately, I sent some copies to Pulp Society, where they are on display until September 15 as part of the gallery’s exhibition, Paper and Play. The exhibition opening was on Friday evening, and I flagged off my downtime with a visit. Amber and I celebrated this little win with dinner at Oh Calcutta!, where we haven’t been in ages. The restaurant had a hilsa festival going on, and so I got the chance to taste this fish for the first time.

3.

My little home studio has been neglected for weeks — mail piling up, books sitting on my desk, art supplies all over the space. With help from Amber, I gave the space a bit of love on the weekend. We also spent some time adding our latest book haul to the catalogue on Libib. Our library is inching close to being 1100-books strong, and that is without counting my collection of Pelicans, Jñyānabhāratī Bāla Pocket Books, etc.

4.

I had early birthday celebration plans with my family on Saturday evening and with Purneetha and Harshay on Sunday afternoon. Amber and I added a trip to the NGMA to the mix to attend a walk about the life and works of Amrita Sher-Gil.

5.

Earlier in the week, I got to spend a little bit of time with my cousin and Uncle, who were visiting my parents. Amber and I also snuck in a lunch with my Mom, while my Dad was traveling to a conference in Bangalore. At the conference, along with Prateek and his long-time colleague and friend, Rachna, he picked up an award for their work.

6.

I read about actress Shannen Doherty’s passing, and that prompted me to start rewatching the original Charmed. The show came out when I was just entering my teens, and as one of few series with all women leads, I devoured it. The rewatch has been much more sobering. The portrayal of the three Halliwell sisters is so typically framed by the male gaze, and I shudder to think how the show may have shaped my own body image.