Week 16/2024

The ups and downs of last week kept me from writing these notes so far, but better something than nothing.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

It was a rough week emotionally. I was hurt by a friend’s actions, and my attempt to communicate that to them failed spectacularly.

2.

In better news, I learned that Primarium won a couple of prizes at the Indigo Design Awards: one for digital design for social change, and another for the design of its website.

3.

I bought new ink pads, and spent Sunday afternoon making a couple of modular Devanagari prints using LEGO.

Amber and I’ve been able to make something of a regular swimming schedule. That night after our swim, we realised that a local pizza place had set up a temporary oven just a few paces away. They were making fresh, if somewhat boring, pizzas. Still wet, we ate hot pizzas by the poolside.

4.

It has been steady work on the Matra Type front. I finished drawing the first drafts for a lettering commission. For another one, I’ve been involved in a protracted conversation to get the paperwork in place. There is a yet-to-be-announced workshop and display I have to put together for mid-May, and I got started on its skeleton so I can prepare material and ship things off to the venue well in advance.

Week 15/2024

I find it tough to get back the week notes train on time once it is delayed, so I am only sitting down to write these two days past when I should have.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Along with Amber, I spent most of the week of the 10th in Bangalore. I was there to teach two workshops: one at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, where incidentally, Prateek studied; and another public one about pixel type at the Underline Center. With the first one, I tried to share my own experiences and methodologies behind documenting and studying street lettering in India and making zines with the students.

It was a bit of a task to carry books and other material all the way from Delhi for these, but I think it was ultimately worth it. One of the participants of the pixel type workshop messaged me later to say that it was like living through one of my newsletter issues as a live experience, and that really made my day. Of course, this particular workshop would have been impossible without all the support that Noopur provided in the run-up and on the day, as well as Rasagy, who played both host and helper. It is truly amazing what you can do if you have supportive folks to bolster you.

2.

Despite being on a pretty hectic schedule, I managed to squeeze in some time to meet folks in Bangalore — coffee with Pranav one evening and Radhika another afternoon, dinner with Pratul and Aarika, and meeting Namrata, who was sweet enough to drop by towards the end the pixel type workshop to say hello.

Amber and I ate at some of our old favourites in Indiranagar like Chinita and Paris Panini. We also tried the Goan fare at Klaa Kitchen, where we grabbed not one but two meals.

On Sunday, our last day in Bangalore, we spent a quiet morning at the relatively new Museum of Art & Photography. I was interested in catching their latest exhibit on postcards from the 20th century. It was small and intimate, and while I would have loved to learn more about the design and production of the postcards, I quite enjoyed it. The highlight of the visit was being able to experience Jim Lambie’s installation Zobop.

3.

The last couple of external presentations at our weekly TypeTogether meetings have been pretty great. We had Petra Dočekalová talk about a script typeface development project, and Abeera Kamran about Urdu typesetting and Noori Nastaliq. I find it tough sometimes to soak into the talks we’ve been having because they are sandwiched between work, but these two really stood out.

4.

Once back, I’ve really had to hit the ground running with work. My days have been filled with a lot of bézier-wrangling. I had a bit of my cervical rib related arm pain resurface, and I’ve been feeling anxious that the two might be connected. Anyway, swimming helped, and I am hoping that it was a one time thing.

Week 14/2024

I’m writing this delayed edition of week notes from Bangalore, where I am visiting to teach a couple of workshops.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I shipped the last order of the India Street Lettering zines placed from my shop. They are now officially sold out, save for the copies at The Bookshop Inc. in Delhi, and the ones that will soon become available at Champaca Bookstore in Bangalore. In more troubling news, I seem to have misplaced the set of three zines I had saved for myself. They should be somewhere in the house, but Amber and I just can’t find them. As a result, we spent a very stressful Saturday morning.

2.

All tickets for Pixel/Play are sold out. It has been a ride preparing for the workshop over a week in advance and carrying most of the material and books with me to Bangalore. I love being between cities, but the logistics are such a nightmare.

3.

I had the kick-off meeting for a new lettering commission, and the fourth development update meeting for a different typeface development project. On Monday, I found out that the third project I had pitched for last month has also come through after several rounds of scope changes and budget negotiations. It is going to be a busy summer.

4.

I arrived in Bangalore on Tuesday, and my luggage didn’t immediately arrive on the baggage claim carousel. The suitcase had an AirTag in it, which showed that it was very close to the carousel, even though we couldn’t see it. It took almost an hour to get the airport officials to turn the belt on again, and as it turned out, the bag was somewhere on the belt, invisible both at baggage claim and downstairs where the bags are loaded. Someone had switched the belt off before the last bag even made its way upstairs. I was so thankful for the AirTag without which I am not sure how we would have found the bag so quickly.

Week 13/2024

I am writing this week’s notes begrudgingly, but that is bound to happen sometimes. It is the cost of keeping up with a habit, I suppose. It has been a sluggish week. Even though I’ve been on my toes for most of it, it doesn’t feel like much has happened at all.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Last Friday, we announced the workshop I’ll be running at the Underline Center on April 13. The workshop is called Pixel/Play and will focus on appreciating pixel type in our environments, making them using analog materials and discussing what makes well-designed letterforms work. It is a riff on the workshop I facilitated at UXNow in January. The format is now a bit shorter, and I believe there is better focus and prompts. I’ve added a couple of more books to the collection I shared in Delhi, as well as some photographs and typeface samples. I spent lots of time in the week either preparing for the workshop, or preparing material to advertise it on social media. Noopur and I were quite anxious about selling tickets for the workshop, but I am glad we’re already 90% full, with only a couple of seats left to claim.

2.

There were a couple of plans this week to work alongside friends, but they both fell through, so I’ve been feeling a bit low.

3.

I am back at a writing assignment that has been simmering on for months. I hate how a break in work has severed my connection with the subject matter somewhat. I am feeling, for the lack of a better word, uninspired. So I’ve been doing what I do in these situations, writing whatever comes in my head anyway, knowing that a full page is better than a blank one, and that ideas are bound to come together if they are sketched out first.

4.

I submitted by final assignment for Provoking Type on Tuesday morning, and attended the last session of the course today. I’m still reflecting on what the programme offered me and what I could give back in return, but one of the more practical things that I know now is that I am too old to commit to learning weekly in the middle of the night. My sleep and food schedule is more precious than I give it credit for, and I need that to work for my health.

5.

Our local pool opened for the summer on Tuesday, and Amber and I managed to sneak in a swim first thing in the morning.

Week 12/2024

It was a hectic week, against all plans to the contrary. But I have a fresh haircut, and there are spring flowers dotting the house, so there are reasons to feel optimistic.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Saturday was intense. We left home at half past seven in the morning to make our way to Mehrauli to attend a heritage walk facilitated by Sohail Hashmi. And then came back to host a lunch for six. Amber cooked an excellent keema pulao. Lunch turned into dinner, and our guests only left a little before 10:00 pm. An excellent, excellent day, but gosh, were we tired by the end of it.

The lunch was in honour of Holi, and of Mayank and Tanya, who are visiting from Shey. We hadn’t seen them since they were last in the plains around this time in 2023. Harshay and Purneetha joined us four, and we had a quorum.

Last week, we had trekked to a part of the city I had never visited before in search of a halwai that we order sweets from. Amber swears by their mithai, and we went looking for them to try their gujiya and get some snacks for Saturday. It only took three hours, but we found their cloud kitchen (the pandemic has shut their proper sweet shops down) and brought mathris and gujiyas and kachoris, which were, ultimately, a hit. The Leh contingent was particularly into them since they miss this food back home.

The theme of playing host continued through the week as Mayank and Tanya came back to stay overnight on Sunday, and then on Holi evening, we invited my parents over for some homemade pizza.

2.

The last couple of weeks have been an exercise in managing my anxiety since I’ve had a lot of online meetings on the cards, especially with folks I don’t really know.

On Wednesday, I had a sweet chat with Pranavi, who had reached out to me a couple of weeks ago. It is nice to have another type designer in the city, and we spent a leisurely hour talking about how one might go about building a career.

Also on the calendar that day was a call with Bharath to discuss his fascinating finds of graphics related to the Indian railways. He had such gorgeous material to share with me, and pointed me to a lot of reading resources to build context around what I was seeing. It is a busy few weeks ahead of me, but I hope to dive into the material as soon as possible, and hopefully, Bharath and I will be able to work on them together.

Noopur and I spoke to the folks from the Underline Center to finalise the spot as the venue for my workshop in April. Things for that are slowly falling into place, and I hope to make the announcement for it in the next couple of days.

3.

Prateek and I took time out to discuss some development work and changes to India Street Lettering. The website has been dealing with low speeds and some spam, and needs a bit of TLC. While I was not in a position to do said cherishing, I did upload about two dozen new photographs from Panjim and Mapusa to the archive.

4.

I spent several soul-shattering hours catching up on all things tax-related.

5.

It was a bad week migraine-wise. I battled one on Saturday afternoon when the house was full of guests, and sat at the precipice of another one most of Monday and Tuesday. I was too worn out, as a result, to be up at 3:30 am to attend this week’s Provoking Type lecture. There’s only one week of the course left now, and in the next few days, I must finish up my final project.

6.

Despite everything that has been going on, I was able to prioritise a bit of play. I made a prototype for a new zine format I am experimenting with, that I hope to use for teaching. After a few failed starts, I managed to make some typographic cyanotypes. And I got started on a new LEGO letterpress print in Devanagari.

Week 11/2024

The seasons are rapidly changing and the city is awash in semul flowers (red silk-cotton or Bombax ceiba). I ate my first mango of the year, perhaps too early. And thanks to our brand new Aeropress, which joins its compatriots — the recently acquired moka-pot, the seasoned cold brew pot, and the almost-decade old Chemex — in our kitchen, I drank the most excellent cup of coffee this evening. Life is, as they say, alright.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Two of the prospective client calls that I was excited about last week have resulted in solid projects. One is a lettering assignment, and the other a workshop. The conversation continues for the third one, and so I remain hopeful.

I’m also talking with Noopur to organise a workshop in Bangalore next month. If all goes well, that should get figured out by end of the week, and I’ll be traveling soon for this and a couple of days of teaching at NIFT Bangalore.

2.

My lecture at Practica finally happened last Thursday. Teaching online is tough. You never know how the students are taking it all in. I believe I was able to share some useful methodologies and perspectives with them, and I’m grateful to the folks who spoke up after the lecture to share how my feeling of cultural otherness resonated with them, and asked questions about my research methods when studying local design histories where pickings are slim.

It is a peculiar feeling being both student and instructor at the same time. Not two days before this talk, I was attending a lecture by Silas Munro that covered similar subjects.

3.

On Friday we celebrated Harshay’s birthday with lunch at Poochki Table and a visit to the Raghu Rai exhibition that is on show at the KNMA. None of us had been to Poochki Table since our last visit a few weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic shut everything down in 2020. It was for a celebration then too, and I like how we have made warm memories in this place. It was sunny but not terribly warm, and we were able to dine al fresco in their patio. The food is still as nice I remembered it, and they’ve added freshly made potato wafers to their menu, which were excellent. To top it off, Purneetha brought a really nice cake from Chez Adoline.

The Raghu Rai exhibition was tepid: the photographs were great, but the curation left a lot to be desired. One bit that stuck with me was a quote by Rai about how poignant photographs emerge when you invest in a place that you’re interested in through studied discipline. It made me think of patch birding, and increasingly I feel like I want to do most things in life with that philosophy.

4.

We finally had a proper weekend after ages, and ended up spending almost none of it on rest. With a spur-of-the-moment decision, we went back to our weekly routine of going out to buy groceries in person, rather than ordering them from the store. And since we were in the neighbourhood, we sneaked in lunch at Nature’s Soul Kitchen. Amber and I both ate our favourites, and talked about how much we would miss this place and its food if we were to be away from Delhi.

On Sunday, Purneetha spent the day at our place. We made cyanotypes, chatted non-stop and went for a long walk. It felt like a mini-vacation.

Week 10/2024

This past week was a pleasant change of pace, what with travel taking up most of it. I’ve also been a bit better at soothing myself about potential changes that might dominate our lives in the coming months. I can’t say that I’ve made friends with the uncertainty, but it is no longer keeping me up at night. On the other hand, I’ve been thinking a lot about small adjustments I need to make in my life so it becomes less rushed and more fulfilling. So all in all, it has been a pretty reflective few days.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I spent most of the week in Udaipur, where I was visiting my friend Ambika and participating in activities at LAB59, an artist-led practice, research and community space that she is running alongside Nanditi and Agat. My trip coincided with Anushka’s time as a resident at the lab, and so they kickstarted things with an informal convening called cmmn.rm (common room) where Anushka, Agat and I shared a little bit about our respective practices.

My planned activity at LAB59 was an exploratory type walk around the old parts of Udaipur. While I helped a motley group see the details of the letterforms we saw there, Amber recorded them as photographs and Nanditi documented the sounds from the same locations. After that, Ambika, Nanditi and I brainstormed how we might put our collective skills together to create an experience that captured what we saw and heard during the talk. We came up with and discarded a few ideas before zeroing in on what we’re working on now. There wasn’t enough time to complete our project during my stay but we built a small prototype, and I hope that the finished work will take shape soon.

2.

The trip gave Amber and I a chance to sample plenty of local food: we ate a thali at Traditional Khana, where the highlight was chakki ki subzi; sampled kachoris, poha and jalebis from Jogmaya along with special mirchi wade from a shop a little outside the city; tried papad and methi ki subzi at Dhabology; and had a breakfast thali at Tapri Niwas with the thinnest, crispiest jalebis one could imagine.

We also spent an afternoon with everyone from LAB59 at Jajam. I am not much of a co-working space kind of person, but the setting was quite beautiful, and with friends around, it was fun to spend time working from there.

3.

An account of this trip would be incomplete without mentioning Yugen, Ambika and Agat’s six-year old. I had last met him properly before the pandemic, when he was still a toddler. And unsurprisingly, he is completely different now — so full of energy and always ready with clever remarks. There aren’t many children in my life, so it always feels like a revelation spending time with one.

We also hung out with Purneetha’s brother and sister-in-law. Most of the delicious food we ate came down to their recommendations. They were very kind not only with that, but also with taking us to some of these places, and generally making us feel very much at home in Udaipur.

4.

Once back, I had a meeting with TypeTogether colleagues who are all working on a multi-script typeface project. It was fascinating to see everyone’s approach and methodology, where they intersected, and how they diverged. My part in this project is an ambitious one given our timelines, and I am expecting to get a lot of the foundation for it laid in the next week or so.

5.

I’ve had a couple of enquiries for new projects on the Matra Type front, and had two excellent meetings on Tuesday. I also sent off another proposal to a prospective client today. I have my fingers and toes crossed that all these projects come through — each has something challenging and fun to bring to the table.

6.

I was bummed this morning to miss part of Silas Munro’s lecture during my Provoking Type class. The clocks turned in the US, and I didn’t have a calendar invite that reflected that. Running online events is hard, even more so with a global audience, but I would have liked if the organisers had been more thorough.

I turned in my reflections on last week’s reading: Grace Lee Boggs’ These are the Times that Grow our Souls. While I was disappointed that the very first assignment in the course centered the American experience, the essay gave me a lot to think about, in particular, the disillusionment that many of us feel with the dire state of democratic apparatus on the one hand and the inefficacy of our protests on the other. I am really looking forward to doing this week’s homework — an exercise in collective poetic research — which was prompted by Munro.

Week 9/2024

Sometimes it feels like that the only thing that is helping me keep time these days is writing notes every week, because I feel like the days are just slipping by. I’ve been terrible at doing my part of the household responsibilities lately — cooking feels like an unbearable drag even though I hate not being able to eat the food I like, my home studio is a mess and I’ve been avoiding it and working in the living room instead, and my winter clothes are still hanging around even though the weather to wear them is long gone. I battled a bad migraine attack on Monday, and spent the next few days hoping that it doesn’t return, especially with an online class super early in the morning.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Amber and I spent Wednesday afternoon at Harshay’s to have lunch with him and Purneetha. It was nice to have a quiet day with them, talking about what life might bring us in the coming months. Harshay helped me print a couple of my photographs, and I was very excited to see them come to life.

2.

We’ve been taking every opportunity we can find to go on long walks in the neighbourhood park, or just around, if we don’t make it there. The weather is just perfect for it, and where we live, that is a rare thing. On our last walk in the park, we saw a bird with a bluish colour that we couldn’t identify. I am beginning to think it may have been a female Oriental Magpie Robin that looked that way because of the light, but the mystery, I suppose, will remain unsolved.

3.

After updating my iPad last week, I set up Adobe Illustrator on it for a work project. Despite its clunkiness, I feel like it was just the tool that I was looking for, not just for that particular project, but otherwise as well. Being able to draw using the Apple Pencil and then exporting those drawings as vectors feels like a gamechanger. I’ve already used it to make a small piece of lettering to announce something fun I’ll be doing with my friends over at Ajaibghar.

4.

I had my talk at BLAG Meet on Saturday. Even though I felt I was bit rushed with my delivery and could have included some more slides with photographs, I think it went well overall. Several people sent me kind messages after the talk, so I must have done something right.

The event was late in the evening, so we were also able to squeeze in an afternoon of errands with my parents. I had hoped to find a couple of small items for my wardrobe, but nothing I wanted to see and try on was in stock.

5.

On Sunday, I met Thejaswi. He was my colleague at Champaca Books, but I worked from Delhi and then there was the pandemic, so we never met while I worked at the bookstore. Despite that, he has always been very kind to me. It was wonderful to finally meet him IRL. I brought him one of the prints I had made at Harshay’s as a small thank you, and knowing my love of letters, he brought me a copy of Gail Anderson and Steven Heller’s American Typeplay. There aren’t a lot of people in my life who gift me books — that’s usually my role in theirs — so it was particularly nice to receive a book from Thejaswi. And speaking of gifted books, Prateek sent me a lovely Punjabi book called Radio. I’m going to have to brush up my Punjabi to read it though.

The weather was rather beautiful, so afterwards I headed to lunch at Triveni Terrace Café. I hadn’t been there in many moons, and the homely food was a welcome change from how we have been eating lately.

6.

Super early in the morning today, I attended my first class of the Provoking Type course. It seems like we’re a nice bunch, though it is so hard to get to know people over Zoom, and Schessa was a kind facilitator. One of the ideas that has stayed with me from class is that if we all have the same positionality, we will produce similar solutions. It segued beautifully with today’s focus on creative ancestors, and who we choose to carry forward with us. I think the question brought up a lot of vulnerability. It is a tough ask that makes you wonder how aligned your intended influences are with the actual work you produce. It also makes you reckon with influences that aren’t wholly, or at all, positive, or that you have transformed into something valuable through the process of unlearning.

On a lighter note, some of us got into a side conversation about pigeons during class, and I have come away with what looks like an excellent and very fun book recommendation — A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching.

P. S. In hindsight, my notes from last week were so brief. I wrote them in a rush and totally failed to record that I had an excellent conversation with Aadarsh. We had never really talked at length before, but that seemed to fade away once we began discussing cricket, and the vulnerabilities and pitfalls we face living in the big, bad world of type design.

Week 8/2024

Last week marked nine years of Amber and me being married. We had already been living together a few years prior to that, so we’ve been building a home and life together for well over a decade. I feel that we have really begun to hit our stride in the last couple of years, learning how to support each other better, and dealing with the ups and downs of life with more resilience. Given how different our personalities are, we definitely have a long way to go still. But it is a satisfying thing, watching yourself and someone you love grow — with you and around you.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I joined Amber in Hyderabad for a little weekend getaway. He was already in the city for a speaking engagement and I jumped at the chance of visiting Hyderabad, where I lived briefly when I was a toddler and hadn’t been to ever since. In hindsight, I was probably too tired to travel, and we ended up having a relatively quiet trip, at least by our standards.

We walked around the city a little bit and saw some beautiful standalone movie theatres. On Saturday morning, we made our way to Charminar — it was disappointing to see the state of the place. On top of that, there were so many touts trying to sell you a tour around the older parts of the city that it was difficult to enjoy the architecture or the setting in peace. I did spot a pair of spotted doves right outside Charminar and got to see them up close.

On Sharada’s recommendation, we ate biryani at Sarvi, and I was overjoyed at eating something flavourful but not overly spicy. The food at Telugu Medium Kitchen was pretty amazing too. The restaurant is in a beautiful building with shallow domes and exquisite brickwork. We tried the crab fry and keema biryani, and enjoyed the latter so much that we got the leftovers packed to bring them back to Delhi.

There were two bookstores on our itinerary — Luna Books, which is a rather large operation housed in an old bungalow, and the small children’s bookstore at Saptaparni. Both were lovely, and just the right type of outing given how one was feeling. We had meant to join a heritage walk around the British Residency on our final morning, but decided at the last moment, that it would be better to put our feet up rather than risk a health relapse.

2.

I started laying out pages and drawing titles for the next batch of India Street Lettering zines. I’d like to make some progress on these in the next 3–4 weeks, and see if I can publish them as the summer approaches.

3.

I’ve been preparing in earnest for my talk at BLAG Meet: Inside Issue 04 this Saturday. It has been eye-opening to look at the collection at India Street Lettering from the perspective of hand-painted signs only, which are my focus for this talk. I love coming at what I have documented over the years with different lenses and at different times.

4.

This morning I heard from Type Electives that my application for the Provoking Type course has been accepted. I’m excited about being in a learning environment again, and this programme is, I feel, will be a good kickstart for me to begin making more sense of my independent practice. The downside: I’ll be attending sessions at 4:30 am weekly for five weeks.

Week 7/2024

Life has been chugging along, and I’m slowly getting psyched for bits of travel that are lined up for the next few weeks. As always, the changing weather has caught me by surprise, and I find myself confused about how to dress for it. I started drawing my daily outfits again after a months-long break. This always helps me think more clearly about my personal style, and comparing the drawings from this winter to those from a couple of years ago show a startling change in the silhouettes I am drawn to.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Last weekend was the Great Backyard Bird Count, and it was amazing to be out in nature on three out of four days — two evenings in the local park and a morning at Sunder Nursery — to do a spot of birdwatching. I saw the grey hornbill after ages, and it was only my second time spotting the Egyptian vulture on Saturday — so overall, very fun.

grey hornbill at sunder nursery, photographed over two years ago

2.

The trip to Sunder Nursery was for a proper picnic before it gets too warm. Amber and I invited my parents to come along. We ate some treats from the weekly market at the park, played cards, and drew each other’s portraits without looking at the paper. Afterwards, we went to The Bookshop Inc, our third trip in as many weeks. Call it third time lucky, but I finally picked up a couple of books. I also took some time to add the books we have purchased in the last fortnight to our database on Libib. On Tuesday, I started reading Epicurus’s Being Happy.

3.

I had another presentation for the design project I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. I got some solid, actionable feedback and I’ve already started working on changes. It has taken some time to get there, but I feel like I have some measure of flow when it comes to the project.

4.

Last Wednesday, which Purneetha christened Palentine’s Day, Amber and I hung out with her and Harshay — eating dose, drinking coffee and doing errands together.

5.

This week, my little talk at BLAG Meet: Inside Issue 04 was announced. The event, happening on March 2, is a day long marathon of conversation with people and about projects that are featured in the latest issue of Better Letters Magazine. I’ll be talking about India Street Lettering, and how I came around to making zines (and even a short film) out of the signs I’ve been documenting for over a decade.