Rajani with her dog Kim.

Kim was our first pet.A dachshund.He was mainly my daughter Rajani's own dog.He was about 4 months old when Rajani went to get him and I still remember her riding home with the pup on the back seat of the car .It was sitting next to her with his eyes fixed on her face.He grew up to be a high spirited dog. Here you can see Rajani taking Kim for a walk.

Monsoons in Trivandrum

We in Trivandrum are in the midst of monsoons.A delightful time of the year. I still remember my school days in Kuthuparamba--the village I was born in and studied for about three years .Many a times we would not have classes due to heavy rains-so heavy that you cannot see more than a few steps in front as you walk and umbrellas were quite useless.It would be dark and as children we would imagine the end of the world in floods.:-).Those were the days without electricity(our village was not yet electrified)and our source of entertainment during those days when we were confined inside the house was our grandmother .We would sit around her and listen to tales from "Bagavatham".The substitute of our modernday "superman":-). If the day began on a 'blue'note--without rains and clouds,we were packed off to school.As the day progressed the sky would start to look greyer and greyer and by midafternoon it would be dark and there would be signs of thunder and lightnings and finally what we were waiting for would happen -the headmaster would decide that it is safer to let off the students early and we would all rush out to go home which was 20 mins walk from school ,jumping into the puddles and hoping that the sky would open up even before we reach home.Oftentimes it would and I and my cousins would have a lovely time getting completly wet folding up our umbrellas or holding them upside down and collecting rainwater in them. Here is a painting of a woman walking in the rain in Trivandrum.

Lady with the cat.

This is the 'lady with the cat'.Done in mixed media,painted on canvas.size-60/49 cm. This is a house wife relaxing in the afternoon after all the work is done and it is quite all round.

On a write up about 'Women Strokes'

'Usha Ramachandran derived inspiration from newspaper items, photographs, visuals on television et al. Her paintings touched a spectrum of areas - the destruction of Lebanon , tsunami, autumn leaves and nostalgic memories. But one of her arresting paintings was `The satisfied house wife with a cat.' "There is a general misconception that non-working women are frustrated and discontented. Homemaking is such a challenging task and perhaps the most fulfilling one for a woman," says Usha The exhibition by 6 women artists was very well received.Lots of visitors,including- surprise -surprise Michael Palin !!! That was a good,happy experience.Met many painting enthusiasts and artists.Learnt a lot ,this being my first experience.Sreebala and Ranjini came to see and Bala was very supportive(It was a great experience to see so many --young ,old and middle-aged individuals who were Bala's fans :-).Jimmy rang up saying he would do what he could to help.One feels enthused when one comes across such support. By the way ,did I say "perhaps most fulfilling one for women"? Certainly not.I believe that depends on the woman.Home maker can cetainly be very happy with what she is doing ,as I was,and it is as good as you have a mind to make it.It could be a challenge (esp if one is not a good manager?)or smooth if one is lucky enough to have other members of the family who knows who is 'managing'. Ok, that is it.I had amostly lovely time ,when I look back.I feel I have not done a bad job too.Had hoobies like painting ,reading ,stiching ,gardening,window shopping to take my mind off and relax .I am thankful. Hope I can give more to art now.

Boy and his" friend goat"

 I painted this picture from a photograph of my son's taken when he was not yet two years.We were then living at the old bunglow of Palghat RDO-decades old ,built by the British. It had a big kitchen garden and a goat belonging to some body used to visit regularly to eat freely of the juicy grass and the gourds that grew in it.Rajeev found this creature amazing .I added the goat to the picture from memory.

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