The power of color and interiors

After knowing that I was moving into a new house and trying to turn it into a home, I did plenty of research on color schemes and what sort of mood I wanted to project on the house. With a very limited budget and resources, and after having spent the last few years in Mumbai living in uninspiring apartments with either not-so-pleasant wallpaper, or dark muddy granite floors and even the bright green disturbing wall here and there, it became clear what the focus should be on. A beautiful and balanced color scheme to brighten up the mood, as well as to act as a breath of invigorating freshness in our lives. We finally zeroed down on blue + yellow walls as a color combination, while keeping doors and in-built furniture white to amplify the sense of space of the house, and to make a firm departure from years of living with boring old heavy brown furniture. The theme sort of went into a Caribbean retreat direction, and to go with that I've installed an indoor hammock on the living room.  To celebrate this process, I'm attaching some of my reference pics for the interior design/decor inspiration.

The Irony

The irony stares at me

Nonchalantly.

As the inevitable happens

So it might as well be

Except for reality.

Why the confusion.

The illusion

The lust.

To live. To rise above

The irony stares at me

Constantly reminding

Me of myself

And my inadequacy.

The irony laughs at me

For the joke is not  you

But the whole of humanity.

On each and every

Personality.

I try standing,

Embracing the fear

I try living

Through the tears.

The irony stings

Like a honey bee

Sweet yet bitter

Piercing through

Dream? Or was it reality?

Contributed and written by Amartya Sinha

Food Presentation & Photography

Some of the most striking-looking meals ever created

Pictorial Irony

Food Indulgence

As strange as it seems, I grew up and sustained myself through most of my life on restaurants and  eating out. Cooking was never much of a tradition in our family; my mom hardly did so and my father was always busy working so as a result, we ended up eating most of our meals outside of the house. I remember being a kid, and proudly having set up a "monthly account" at the restaurant below my school (where I used to have lunch most days of the week either alone, with fellow classmates, or very occasionally with my parents)..This usually meant I had a free hand in most of my food choices and quantities. No wonder I was a fat kid ;) I was a total coke addict (not the white magic powder, but the equally intoxicating drink), and an ice-cream a day was the general rule!

Nowadays, I have just started attempting to cook without any prior experience (and with plenty of help from google and youtube). While I do appreciate the process, nothing really delights me more than going to a restaurant of any kind and enjoying a meal (no matter how cheap or expensive). Entering a new place, taking in the decor and atmosphere, discovering new cuisines and dishes, browsing through menus and their choices...oh well, not having to sweat and stress in the kitchen in order to eat. To purely enjoy the eating experience...These are all thrill factors.

In honor of this love, I'm posting below a few photographs of meals I've eaten and clicked over the years!

Once again, a Sublime Collection ;)