Trip to Kishangarh - An artists abode....

Prelude

After canceling the trip for more than three times, finally, the artist agreed to meet us. Initially, I wasn’t able to understand his reluctance but when I spoke to the people at the firm they said this is the normal temperament of an artist. They think people/corporates (that’s us) don’t understand the art and only aim to financially gain from the artwork. At Fanusta, we are trying to change this. We have trips planned with multiple artists across India where we intend to cover various perspectives from an Artists standpoint; starting with the Artist himself, his art, issues with his work life, his aim in life and stuff like that. This meeting with the “State Hast Shilp Award” winner, Mr. Birdi Saini who is a pioneer of the “Kishangarh Shaily” had been to Delhi recently for a felicitation and is a busy man. When he is not painting or guiding his team he is busy promoting his art at various forums.

The Trip

Though winters hadn’t started but it started to fell nippy early in the morning when we started from Jaipur from where Fanusta is based out of. So Fanusta is a combination of two words “Fan” and “Usta” and means Master of Arts, not just in the name, the firm also has implemented this philosophy across their products and appreciation of artists. With over 50 artists currently associated with Fanusta, this speaks volumes about how much the firm believes in supporting and creating a better marketplace for the handicraft products.

After waiting for the Photographer who also shares the same temperament of an artist if nothing less, my product development manager, PR team, the photographer and I decided to cover the distance of 100 odd kms planning our day. We not only had to interview Mr. Birdi but also understand the history of art, the products and gain insights into his life. This would help us in planning our association with him and also give us a better idea of avenues where we could use his art in creating something new. For me this was completely new, though I had seen the products but never had visited a workshop and met an artist before. This was going to be an eye-opener to me for sure, I finally was able to see how these wonderful pieces of art were made and the history behind this art.

The Revelation

On reaching the workshop we noticed a couple of people on the terrace enjoying their post-lunch siesta and the warm weather. 

The moment they saw our car they started pointing out the parking lot and we knew we were in the right place, who in their right mind would mind getting attention especially after seeing a cameraman amidst us. Mr. Birdi noticing all the commotion came out and greeted in the typical Rajasthani style – “Padharo Sa” which means “Welcome Dear Sir”. He didn’t waste any time and took us straight to his workshop but we being curious creatures couldn’t avoid noticing his wall which had pictures of all his felicitations.

The workshop had loads of “Work In Progress” stuff which his team was currently working on, but with all the craftsman on the terrace we had some free time to explore around and interview him.

Speaking to him I realized that though he is an artist, deep down all he craved was for recognition and financial stability to enable him to pursue his art for years to come. At this moment all my prejudices against artists vanished and I was left with the humility and the art.

When it came to finalizing the new range of products the discussion went into details of colors and since everything is made by hand, not all products are the same. This supposedly was a problem coz the colors made from natural sources didn’t have the same consistency as of machine made. Some people appreciate the unique pieces whereas some customers were not very happy with the difference in what they wanted and what turned up.

On the way back home I was thinking about how homes nowadays have the same pieces of furniture and interior decors, I was wondering how and what can be done to make consumers aware of the hardship these craftspeople face and how to bring them to realize that different is not bad, it’s just unique and people should start learning to appreciate it.

Until the next “TRIP”, Ciao…. 

Trip to Bali - Planning

So it’s been quite a lot of time since I have been touring, touring as on a bike, the last time I did was during Laos and my brief stay in India around May and the GAP was killing me, killing me like MAD. I tried to check out the options in Singapore and they are DAMN expensive, so I started to look out for options in the nearby Malaysia, and though it is expensive there as well but a trip in Malaysia is well worth the moolah.

My personal favorite ‘Must Visit Country’ in South East Asia - 2

Continuing my post on the Must Visit Country/Place in SEA ...

For my last post on this go to Part 1

Passion

Does the word ring any bells??

M sure everyone has heard of this from somewhere or the other; in some sessions, advices or wherever.

What we are told is that we should “Follow our passions” Blah Blah... But NO one, mind you no one tells you how to realize what one’s passion is and unless one does it how can he/she follow the passion.

My personal favorite ‘Must Visit Country’ in South East Asia - 1

Let me do a country vise list and will start with the places I have been to then will continue with the places I intend to go sometime soon.

Laos

When I came to know that I am supposed to go to Laos for an official trip, more than the fact that I would have to slog my ass off, I was excited that I will get 2 weekends to myself which meant I could cover Laos on 1 weekend and Cambodia on the other.

What I like in a girl and the biggest dislike factor

Well yesh so as this is my personal favorite list so no blah and boo allowed in the first place: P

I would like to say that I have been in good company of quite good number of female friends so have seen them from close quarters and hence have developed a certain list of likes and dislikes in a female and don’t know whether knowingly or unknowingly but have managed to have majorly all the ‘likes’ around me.

So here let me list some of them.

ALERT about Hopeless Romantic

Hopeless Romantic is moved to a new home ...
Check him out at Hopeless Romantic
and this blog will be limited to ME :P
See u at both the places..

Keep Reading

Letter from Singapore

*ALERT* ----This is not the continuation of “The Diary of a Hopeless Romantic”-----*ALERT*

The premise of this blog is the reason I started blogging in the first place. To write about me, since it’s been around 50 days that I have come to Singapore, I had to write one to understand this trip coz when I try to introspect, it all goes in the air and there are no solids thoughts L , that’s the advantage of blogging.. U think, gather, understand, write and analyze. So hoping this blog post helps me in doing what I want to J

Eventful Day at Pune

Today was the most eventful day at Pune. After like 3+ years of staying in this wonderful city it was today that i got to experience the public transport and ALL of it in one day ..

ST Bus, Auto, Company Bus, Tum Tum aarghhh .. PAINFUL ..

Wen will it get off the sling and roll on my bike again ..
Waiting...

Prelude to the FUN Trip

This is my first blog this year and it is a pretty long one at that, hope I will blog more frequently.

If one has been a reader of my blogs then they must be aware of the adventurous, extravagant experience named as “FUN TRIP”. The First Fun Trip (link) was a great start in many ways it made us decide that be it whatever, we need to meet once a year and chill and the best part, the decision to meet at least once a year didn’t go down like the new year resolution which gets wasted in the first week itself for me L . Newaz so the FUN TRIP continues as and and and this was the “FUN TRIP 4”: P ye ye ye ..

Is Google good enough

They say u can search for anything using google ..

Is it true ?? Maybe but how do i believe when i am not able to find .. find people ...people who were a part of me, part of my growing up and continue to be a part of my life ...

BTW just realized that this is my second post in the whole of the year just 2 posts ...

What is it dat is eating away most of the time .. Blame Facebook for that ..

And also google for afore mentioned reasons ...

My Ride vd BRZ – Back from the Sojourn

On April 17, 2008 7:12 PM, when I took the initiative of formulating the group and after the first meeting at Apache, I had never expected the group to survive for this long. But the group has come a long long way since that day …Thx a lot to everyone connected to the group and special the old timers for sticking around. When I decided to write this blog, I actually intended to do a log on the ride to Narayanpur on 9th Oct, but then decided to do it later. The ride to Narayanpur was on a request of a friend but then the ride to Kas Lake next day was what I was really looking forward to but due to unavoidable circumstances I had to back off. Sorry Ayush for that

bad boyeessss of infy [:P]

Well long long back i mentioned abt how the idea of BRZ came and this log ll tell abt the first meeting... here it goes ..

So after consolidating the list we finally managed to get a confirmed count of 12 bikes ... Yup for me it has always been the number of bikes than the number of people

I remember there was one uncle who had come just to check on us with all kind of ques in his mind
• Who the f**k are these guys ?
• Whether this group will ever work ?
• Let me see what these guys are made up of and all

And I was mostly into evaluating every one who was present there..

We thought abt places we can ride to, experiences and also the name of the Group....

NG was supposed to come up with the logo at that time and it took more than a year to finally come out with a logo ...

Newaz here is the log written by Soumen after the G2G

Finally biker’s gang in INFY is formed…pics of our first meet…

Yep…we met here… 13 was the turnout…not bad!!!

Kurbaan SUCKS

Kurbaan Sucked BIGTIME.
I was expecting a movie which could make me glued to my seat and wait for the next frame, a racy thriller, a movie I could relish after the end of a hectic day, a movie worth my money. But mark my words, "kurbaan SUCKS", people who read reviews and comments before deciding to watch a movie, do not watch it for whatever reasons, neither is kareena looking hot nor is saif looking dashing .. They both in fact look out of age. And the worst part of the movie was it that it lacked energy. There was none in any of the characters...

HAppY Diwali

Hi Readers,

Though there are very less ..

But all those who do follow .. A Very Happy Diwali .. m sure all who are in INDIA had fun .

Well though Diwali is a national festival at singapore .. but we had classes all dat till 6 so we couldnt plan much .. After the classes, we got the puja ka saaman , did pooja . lighted diya's and then headed for dinner .. (will upload d pics soon )

We had plans of going for bowling after dinner but we all were so exhausted after the long week dat we came back to the rooms and dozed off . Though some of us played cards, poker and ll but dn i retired to my bed ..

Today i got up at ard lunch time .. had lunch .. called family and dn again got to work when a very dear friend, arpita pinged me and we started chatting , we were discussing the diwali celebrations and dn we started discussing about cancer females, i dont know abt all these signs and all but when she started telling me about them .. i was able to join the dots and once i read her blog, my understanding of cancerian women got better .. Now i think i know how to deal better vd them ..

All i need now is a cancerian female ..

Will some one help me finding one so dat i can amaze her vd ll my knowledge ..

Readers help me find one ..

PS: Thx arpita for helping me in understanding D CANCERIAN female better ..

Dilip Bam

Every Thought Word Deed and Act,
Of Every Creature,
At Every Moment,
is Direkted towards SURViVAL,
for
The Next Natural Reproduktiv Attempt
So as to spread your genes
As Far and as Wide as possible,
and to ensure
That they SURViVE and THRiVE,
As FAR into the FORESEE-ABLE Future
as Possible.

Twitter

Since the time i have started TWITTER' íng , the interest in blogging has reduced.

twitter is small and u can express ur state of mind instantly ..
But for the sake of my followers, i ll start to blog again ..
the blog about the dry day at dubai ll come soon ..
Till then ...

keep twittering..
Vikas on Twitter - http://twitter.com/vikasbahar

Dry day @ DUBAI

CAN U IMAGINE ??
Details in next blog

BladeRunnerZZZ

14 months old
60 Bikes
20 Trips
Longest trip of 1500 Kms-----

BladeRunnerZZZ

Long Long ago there was a time when I had to request people to join me for rides, especially on Fridays nights as they are the most difficult to spend if you are doing nothing interesting. Most of my requests would lead me to the nearest CCD, where after chatting away till midnight I used to retire back to my room and dream of what I could have done if I went riding. Frustrated with this I decided to go on rides alone---

Mind you, riding alone has its own advantages/disadvantages. Riders must be aware of them and the rest of the guys can try to experience it –But for that U NEED TO START RIDING.

Ok, so already frustrated with it, one fine day when the junta on BB leisure at Infosys started inquiring about any such biking/riding group people started commenting on it and every one expected the Hulla Bulla to go down by EOD, but plans were made in some evil minds somehere.... Instantly a mail was drafted, xl’s made and invitations were sent out to the interested people about the first meeting at Apache :P

Apache, the meeting point chosen for obvious reasons :P, witnessed a turnout of 13 people – Is that Unlucky?? Well not for us, most of the best trips have had a count of 13 bikes/riders :) And so we met, we listened, we planned and BladeRunnerZZZ was born . And since then the tiny group has grown to a 60 bike strong community, with rides as brief as 110kms to the longest till date, 1500kms (Pune -Goa- Pune)

From exploring the Kullu - Manali of Maharashtra (Malshej Ghat) the lovely and inviting roads of Lavasa Ghats, to the Tourist Hotspot of India (GOA)

We have done them all. Now when I look back and see how I have fared, I find it quite satisfying. For earlier I used to bug people, telling them “Let’s go somewhere” and now by Thursday’s I used to start getting calls with people asking me “Now where ?? “ ……

Now that i am not at Pune, but still the group has continued with the momentum and has been growing, for the online forum has been created, female riders are being inducted in the group..


Though i will be away from BRZ for almost a year, i am sure the community will continue to grow in size and experience...

As the saying goes "Happiness is: Finding you have another gear left"

So Keep Riding ....

my lappy got screwed up

Dont be surprised, it s been just a month and my lappy is giving me all sorts of problems.
First the data was lost, then the OS had to be reinstalled and now the hard disk has crashed ..
What more i dont have a lappy to work on my day to day assignments :(
Managed a lappy from the IT's stand by though ...
From the studies front, well m screwed up on that front as well, no marks in the quizzes .
WTF is wrong .. well i need to buck up and start working ..but from when is still to be decided :P
Newaz loggin off now ...