The making of my doodle

1. Start with a simple pencil sketch to make sure everything is in place.

2. Fill up the doodle using a black sharpie alternating between thin and thick tip pens.

3. Allow your imagination to go wild, after awhile i didn't even follow my pencil markings.

4. Take your time to erase out all pencil markings and add details to your doodle.

 5. Give a gentle wash with any colors you fancy, to give the doodle your base.

 6. Go crazy with colors, acrylic or water colors work best.

7. Go back in and outline your doodles again. And finish!

Cherry Blossoms and Icy Mountains

I simply love this painting because of the "pink" trees and the icy white mountains. Not one of my best, but it makes me happy every time I see it because let's face it - PINK makes everything look better ;D.

Pasta in tomato sauce with shrooms n spinach

Ingredients needed -

 mushrooms (1 packet), tomato puree (1 packet or 8 tomatoes pureed at home), spinach (1 bundle), 1 red onion, 1 green bell pepper, 3 green chillies (optional), oregano, red chilly flakes, 4 cloves garlic, pasta 1 packet, 2 big cubes of Amul cheese (optional), salt and oil

Method -

1. Boil the pasta as per instructions and drain them.

2. Meanwhile, chop the veggies and 'shrooms, and clean and drain the spinach

3. Add olive oil to a pan and add the diced onion and green chillies, after it becomes glossy add the mushrooms and saute. Wait for the mushrooms to become brown and add the garlic and after a minute add the bell peppers and spinach and cover the pan.

4. After the bell pepper is slightly tender and the spinach has completely wilted, add in the tomato puree, give it a stir and cover with the lid again. Set in medium flame and wait for the mixture to come to a boil.

5. Now add your salt, oregano, red chilly flakes and some more oil if needed and cut the cheese into smaller cubes and add in the pasta and give it a good stir.

6. Finally add the pasta, check for seasoning, give it a good stir and serve.

The Moment of Truth

In 2000, Jeremy Gills, was on a vacation in Africa right after he finished his Doctor’s degree. He had saved up for this trip for the last few years.

He was trekking through the woodlands when he realized that there was a deep grunting coming close by. Upon exploring a little, he saw that there was a young male lion, staring at him. The lion might have been young; however he was powerful enough to rip a human apart or at least do some heavy damage with ease. With no weapon except his pocket knife, Jeremy was nervous as hell. After a minute he realized the lion was in pain and equally nervous. Slowly he approached the lion and the lion lifted his paw to show Jeremy something. As Jeremy got down on one knee he saw that there was a huge and sharp nail embedded in its paw. Working quickly and as gently as possible, Jeremy removed the nail from the paw with the help of a small pocket knife, wiped the wound clean and wrapped it with a clean cloth. Slowly the lion moved away from Jeremy but he was gazing at Jeremy for many anxious minutes. Jeremy didn’t know what to do, to bolt or to stay put and wait for the lion to move away. Eventually the lion walked away and disappeared into the bushes. Breathing a sigh of relief and happy with satisfaction, Jeremy walked away but never forgot the lion or the connection they had shared for a few minutes that day.

Ten years later Jeremy was now a married man with a one year old daughter and son. He had come with his family to the Saint Louis Zoo where he lived and practiced medicine. He was the Chief Doctor of a respected clinic in Saint Louis. He saw a pride of lions that were sitting and basking in the sun. A huge and powerful lion, obviously the leader of the pack, suddenly approached Jeremy and walked over to where he was standing. His huge mane gently blowing in the breeze and his deep panting was all Jeremy could focus on, they were both oblivious to the rest of the world. The large male lion stared at him and licked its paw, lifting it up and putting it down several times as if to show Jeremy something.

As the lion and Jeremy stared at each other, Jeremy remembered the encounter five years ago. He summoned his courage and climbed over the fence to the other side. He could vaguely hear his wife and the other visitors in the zoo screaming at him and asking him to stop. For a minute there was an intense awareness between the lion and Jeremy. Then the lion came running towards him as the crowd stood in awe, and went for the jugular, ripping his neck apart in one powerful move, killing Jeremy in an instant.

I think this was a different lion.

Think

She put the phone down, almost as if she were in slow motion. It had happened…. nothing had ever prepared her for this. She knew something was wrong, her instincts had warned her several times that there was something not just fishy, something outrageously wrong. And here it all was, out in the open for her and everyone else to see and sense. A million thoughts of nothingness were going through her mind right now. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t stand, she couldn’t stand it, and she couldn’t live with it. She started to think.. and NO! She wouldn’t think about anything now, the time wasn’t right yet! But when should she think about… everything?

It was at that minute that she realized that it had to end. It had ended from him, now it was her decision to make. She made her way slowly to the kitchen and saw what she was looking for; it was glittering like solid silver in the sunlight – the new knife her brother had bought for her birthday last month. The minute she saw it she knew, this was the right thing to do and this was the only thing to do. She took it and entered her bathroom. Dimming the light, she stripped and filled the bath tub with water. It was the right way to die, exactly the way she had imagined it in her head a hundred times. The tub filled with water, she had made sure it was freezing and she waited for the only thing she would wait for ever again… for the bath tub to fill. Closing the tap, she got into the freezing water and shivered, but there was no time to think about anything else. Taking a deep breath she placed the knife on her wrist, the feeling wasn’t scary, in fact it was oddly comforting. She slit her wrist with one fast and deep action, and watched the blood pour out, a little at first and then gushing out the nest second. The pain was unbearable and she dropped the bloody knife and saw her blood mix with the water making the water a bright red. She leaned back to finally allow herself to think about everything that she had been withholding from herself.

A tear fell down when she realized how much she had lost and loved. She had loved him and everything about him. He was the only man who had made her think that life was impossible outside him. Her husband was dead and he had died at the hands of the enemy at war. She had been away from him for almost five years, barely heard from him and his camp. He had been beaten to death by the enemy or so she was told. She hadn’t waited for them to finish the story, the news of his death was enough, the rest didn’t really matter. She had dreaded picking up the call every time it rang, but she knew it had to happen and if it didn’t happen it was too good to be true. The pain dimmed as she slowly fainted into oblivion she realized that she had never kept up a single promise to herself, but she would see this through. She would die… because there was no life… not like this.. not this way.. not without him..