Day Four - 11 Dec 2017

This is a sketch of Sivalayam Temple where I got my bindi at Nelapadupalem.


Our host is Mr Rama Rao Dhanekula at Nelapadupalem. He did not respond to my What'sApp message so our driver asked along the way when we reached the village. It turned out that he was at the construction site just adjacent to the small village where there was some kind of ceremony or walk-about with so many cars, local officials, people, camera men and media on site. We met the Minister inside his car just when he was about to leave the site. There was car leading us to the house of our host and we had a very entertaining session with him and his guests. One gentleman led us to the temple and we started sketching after visiting the priest at the temple. It was such a special and wonderful cultural experience for us to go through the simple prayer session and got the bindi on my forehead. Bindi is said to retain energy and strengthen concentration and it also represents the third eye.

Day Three

Srujan Chowdary, the younger host brought us to Srk Grand for lunch. We had the best biryani rice of different flavours in town. Very fragrant and delicious. We asked for a landmark to sketch and he brought us to the nearby village temple called Tallayapalem Temple or Sri Saiva Kshetramu Temple. It had a multi-level tower entrance and it was the most famous Lord Shiva Temple in Tallayapalem, Thulluru Mandal Guntur District in Andhra Pradesh.

I had never seen so many lingams in my whole life and you could find different shiva lingams made in mercury, spatica, stone and crystal etc. Even the temple walls were adorned with lingam graphics everywhere. Lingam is an abstract or iconic representation of the Hindu deity, Shiva, used for worship in temples or shrines. In traditional Indian society, the lingam is seen as a symbol of the energy and potential of Shiva himself.

Day Three - 10 Dec 2017

Day Three in the morning we were given a village to visit and sketch. Being a team leader of the group of 3 sketchers, all ladies, I sent a What'sApp message to the host the day before and I did not expect he replied almost immediately and said "OK". He then asked for our driver's contact number and that was really a big surprise for us. The village had the longest name called Uddandarayunipalem. Palem meant village in their Telugu dialect. The one replied to my message was a young man Srujan Chowdary and he brought us to another host's home. Mr Chalapathi Raobu owned a modest house with a very big store room packed with sacks of rice and other crops presumably harvested from his farm land. He put in 72 acres of his farmlands for land pulling exercise to build the future Amaravati city and I later learnt that he was thus far the biggest landowner. Mr Raobu was a 60-year-old learnt man graduated from London as an engineer. He might be joining other landowners to visit Singapore when I invited him to do so. He said he could not visit Singapore earlier due to the death of his mother a few months ago.

In this sketch, the statue, the water tower and the house tell the story of this seemingly richer village. India has a history of constructing memorials and statues, as ways of recognizing and preserving political memories. These are reminders of important historical events or people, and are built to keep the past alive. This statue is next to the water tower which is another typical structure in a village. Spiral staircases are very common but this one has a few flights of straight stairs. The water towers were usually old and rusty and we witnessed in the villages new water stations were erected usually at the entrance of the villages with CM's photos plastered on it.

The Statue is Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (28 May 1923 – 18 January 1996), popularly known as NTR. He was an Indian actor, producer, director, editor and politician. NTR founded the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1982 and served three terms as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh between 1983 and 1995. He was known as an advocate of Andhra Pradesh's distinct cultural identity, distinguishing it from the previous Madras State with which it was often associated. At the national level, he was instrumental in the formation of the National Front, a coalition of non-Congress parties which governed India from 1989 until 1990. The current party leader is Nara Chandrababu Naidu (born 20 April 1951) who is also the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and son-in-law of NTR.

Uddandarayunipalem has a population of 14,000 people and it is considered one of the bigger villages in Amaravati, the new and modern capital of Andhra Pradesh. The houses here are modern and colourful and the roads are very clean. People are well groomed and it appears to be a richer village.

Day Two - Ghandi Hills

On 8 Dec, 2017 which was day one of our trip to India, we arrived at Hyderabad from Singapore Changi Airport via Silkair and checked into a hotel called "Hotel Hyderabad Grand" to catch a quick nap for about 4 hours and next we were on domestic flight Spicejet from Hyderabad to Vijayawada on Day two. I was told we should check into Novotel Hyderabad Airport but it was fully booked on that night.

On 9 Dec, 2017 in Vijayawada, after having lunch at the Fortune Murali Park Hotel, we visited two sites - the 'Seed Road' which is under construction for Amaravati new city and the foundation stone unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Oct 2015. Next, we visited Ghandi Hills when the sky was still bright and we had like an hour to sketch from dusk to night, the view at Ghandi Hills was spectacular.

That evening, we were all tired of the air travel, transfer, road trips, sketching on top of Ghandi Hills and dinner at a place called BBQ Nation across the hotel, we went straight back to the hotel room and slept through the night.

Day Two - 9 Dec 2017

Day Two at Hyderabad. The flight from Hyderabad to Vijayawada was only an hour but we needed to wake up very early in the next morning. I knew it was a small plane for domestic flight so when I saw the SpiceJet Q400 with only 78 seats or 4 seats in a row, I was not surprised. I wanted to sketch the propeller blades but I did not have the concertina sketchbook with me. luckily I still had my pocket Moleskine in my handbag so I could do a sketch from my window seat while waiting for the plane to take off. I did another sketch of the cabin while in the air.

Sharing at Silverfox Studio

Photos taken by Achilles Estremos, another sketcher of team 2 for "We Draw Amaravati Together" project from 8 to 15 Dec 2017 on the day sharing of our sketches to his office colleagues. Susan Heng, one of the bosses of the interior firm was my student from Interior Architecture and Design programme at School of Design, Temasek Polytechnic probably from 1991 to 1993. Her partner was Patrick Waring seen here on the right in the photos. Kaili Huang from Amaravati Project Office of Ministry of Trade and Industry and Francis Theo, team leader of this trip were helping me to hold my Seawhite Concertina Sketchbook.

India sketchbook

I finally added the stickers, boarding passes, hotel information to the concertina sketchbook for future reference.

It was truly an incredible India trip from 8 to 15 Dec, 2017. The two cities Vijayawada and Amaravati were just amazing. People were so friendly and the sight, sound of the places were so incredibly rich and colourful. We were warned of the non-stop honking sound on the road but I found it acceptable and an eye opener especially we visited India with our open minds.

We Sketch Amaravati Together

I did a video on my recent sketches on India. I was with my sketcher friends from 08 - 15 Dec 2017 to Vijayawada and Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh on a project called "We Sketch Amaravati Together".

Andhra Pradesh is one of the 29 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of the country. The state is the seventh-largest state in India covering an area of 162970 sq km. As per 2011 Census of India, the state is tenth-largest by population with 49,386,799 inhabitants. Amaravati has 29 villages and it will be the brand new capital city for Andhra Pradesh under the vision of N Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, also the President of Telugu Desam Party and Member of Legislative Assembly, Kuppam.

Amaravati, is envisioned to be a city of world-class standards with a vision of increasing Andhra Pradesh’s prominence in the world. For a start, Construction of the seed capital development area — covering 16.7 sq km and comprising the AP Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, High Court, Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, quarters for the ministers and officials, and the township for government officials had already started.

Our sketching trip is fully sponsored by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore and our mission is to sketch the existing 29 villages in Amaravati to help capture the current heritage and culture before the new city is built.

An obligatory sketch in the air

Day one sketching in the cabin appeared to be an obligatory sketch for the sketchers on board. Alice Lim was sleeping in a very challenging position but she told me later that it was very comfortable.

Singapore Airport

On 8 Dec 2017, I did a sketch at Changi Airport Terminal 2 when we checked in very early to get our dinner at around 6:00pm. Our SilkAir flight to Hyderabad was 8:00pm. I was having Japanese noodle while my husband had his local food from Old Chang Kee. I also had a signature Old Change Kee curry puff as I would most likely be missing local food for the whole of next week in India. From our table we could see Gate E and F, a big yellow sign "F30" was painted on the floor with airplanes of Singapore Airline and SilkAir moving in and out from this area. SilkAir is Singapore Airlines' regional arm and I love the logos of these two air crafts. I do hope they are doing well to fly the Singapore flag high in the aviation world for our future generations of Singaporeans.

Day One - 8 Dec 2017

Day one is 8 Dec 2017 when we flew from Singapore Changi Airport Terminal to Hyderabad at 8pm via Silkair. Our flight was delayed by an hour due to delay in two connecting flights from Chicago and Auckland. We only arrived at Rajiv Gandhi Hyderabad International Airport at around 11:30pm local time after 4 hrs and 40 mins flight. There is a time difference of 2.5 hours between Singapore and India.

We checked into Hotel Hyderabad Grand near the airport and met at the hotel lobby at 5:15am to get back to the airport for our on-hour SpiceJet domestic flight to Vijaywada Airport scheduled at 7:10am. So Day two on 9 Dec 2017 we arrived at Vijayawada at 8:05am and checked into the hotel for our breakfast at about 10am. We met again at 12noon for lunch at the hotel after checking in to our room and unpacking for the mext activity in the afternoon at 2pm.

Incredible India

We were sketching the villages of Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh in India from 8 to 15 Dec 2017. Here are the sketches of the trip that include loose sketches, a Seawhite Concertina Sketchbook and a Moleskine pocket sketchbook. I will do more posts for the individual sketches later.

Logo

The logo was designed by James Lim, the sketcher who went as team one from 18 to 24 Nov 2017. It was used on the T-shirts.

local food before leaving for India

I will be leaving for India for a sketching trip this evening, so before I tuck into curry and spices, let's have a bowl of my favourite meepok and kopi-O at my favourite place, Lau Lim mee pok at Simpang Bedok.

found our favourite food stall

We used to go to the zi char stall (cooked food) at the old location at Telok Kurau but they moved a few years back. I chanced upon the new location driving along Changi Road so we decided to go there for dinner last Sunday. It was super crowded and we waited for an hour for our food to arrive. It was worth the wait but I might try to go during weekdays. After the meal, we had ice-cream just across the road called "Leng Leng" as in "cold cold" in Chinese with all the local flavours such as gula melaka, black sesame plus others. The posters on the wall were super hilarious when the texts were in Singlish.

I ran out of ink but my son continued to sketch and it was a pleasure to watch. Here are the photos taken of him sketching.

Petain Road

Result of November Sketchwalk. There are three parts of Petain Road in this long sketch namely the shophouse, the park and the playground.

Petain Road was named by municipal government of Singapore in 1928 after Field Marshall Henri Philippe Petain, one of France’s greatest military heroes from the First World War. However, the name drew controversy when the French military force grew from bad to worst as Petain became the Prime Minister of France in 1940. There were suggestions to change the name of the road when it became a notorious red light district in Little India in the old days. Today, this row of beautiful shophouses are the homes of rich and famous with elaborate majolica floral ceramic tiles covering the walls and flowers, cranes and phoenix adorning the pillars and walls. Directly across Petain Road is a big park with lush green and a colourful playground.

Size : 700mmx300mm
Paper : Saunders Waterford

it is staring at me

This motorcycle was staring at me to sketch it. I think it belongs to a student on campus.

Parenting with iPad

I am alright with tissue box on the dinning table at coffee shop but not the iPad. Why are the young parents letting their kids glue to the cartoons on the iPad at the dinning table? The parents should try to engage the children with meaningful conversations or activities from a very young age at the dinning table.

November Sketchwalk at Little India

We're going to Little India this weekend, at the Kitchener Road vicinity. Kitchener Road stretches from Jalan Besar and cuts through the heart of Little India.

START
9:30 am
City Square Mall
— main entrance where the Christmas decor is going up

Closest MRT station:
Farrer Park on the North East Line
Exit H or I

END
Somme Road Playground
— stone's throw from City Square Mall
https://goo.gl/maps/wV2eFEX1o8N2

We'll meet at 12:15pm to share our works from the session.

Tampines One Toast Box

I needed a local coffee after my lunch at Tampines One, Toast Box was just there but very crowded during lunch hour. There was a constant line at the counter and I was so lucky to find a very tight seat just next to the column at the back that I could see the entire cafe. An ideal angle to watch people and sketch. Two old uncles were chatting over coffee, office workers having lunch, executives looking at their phones all the time, mothers talking about their children and senior couples helping each other with their food and I was sitting there sketching, such is life!

My father loves Steak

We brought our 85-year-old father to this one michelin star restaurant for his favourite steak on Saturday. I did a sketch before he arrived and my fountain pens had no ink. So this was done in ball pen.

My brother said "we will be there 10 to 15 mins" and we both forgot our father now walks in a much slower pace. He may walk slowly but his mind is still active and he knows he is a blessed man in the world.

He thoroughly enjoyed his two glasses of beer and a 200-g steak, still with all (except one) of his real teeth intact.

Bumpy Ride

My mother-in-law passed-on on Tuesday, 7 Nov 2017, 11:10am at The Changi Hospital. I was just returning to work on the same week under a re-employment contract after my official retirement the week before. Tough week as I continued to teach 5 classes on Wednesday and Thursday in addition to attending to the wake and funeral preparations. My elder son also rushed back from Hong Kong. On Sunday, I sat at the back seat of my car for the very first time as I was always on the front seats. I was able to sketch amidst the bumpy ride on our way to collect the bones and ashes of my mother-in-law at Mandai Columbarium.

Both my parent-in-laws born and die in the same year, 1930 - 2017, aged 87 with 6 great grand children. Blessings!