one more sketch for an upcoming commission

'Maa Saraswati' (Goddess of knowledge)

20cm x 25cm

Pencil on paper

preparing

Sketch for the first in a commissioned series.

Ganesh-ji

30cm x 50cm

Our home featured

Hello beautiful people!

How was your weekend?

We had a lovely time with friends feasting on

delectable Bengali delicacies!

Weekend was also spent in taking snaps around our home.

Hop over to Aditi's inspiring design and decor blog

Once Upon A Tea Time..............Design Stories

to take the home tour over a cup of ginger-chai!

Thank you Aditi for the feature

Ganeshji at home

Over the last few years, we have brought home 'Ganesh-ji's....

This is from one of our early morning visits to Sidhhivinayak temple

in Mumbai, the beauty of the murti (idol) at the temple is captivating.

This next one here is a tiny silver Ganesha

that was a gift from the lady at Chamba Lama,

the most famous curio shop in Kolkata.

Not just us three sisters, even dad received a tiny Ganesh-ji

after one of our generous shopping sprees at the store!

It has a beautiful Bhutanese mantra intricately carved all around.

Some of my jewellery and artifacts from the shop in the backdrop :)

I have been visiting this store from my college days..

spent hours (and most of my pocket money at that time) at the store,

which boasts of an awesome selection of

silver jewellery and Tibetan curio.

Even now when I go back to Kolkata,

a visit to Chamba Lama is indispensable.

This little Ganesha is made of sandalwood and gifted to us by Mr. Suryani when

we visited his store/factory in Mysore to purchase

a Ganesh-murti (photo later in this post) with my first salary:)

This is Ganesh-ji carved in stone, from Orissa craftsmen,

collected at a handicraft fair in Mumbai.

Arnab and I had gone with my mom. I loved their detail and form

so much... I had to take home one; it was only after

I had picked Him up that Maa looked and said,

'You picked a Ganesha with his trunk bent towards the right!'.

We are not superstitious but she could not help remark that

apparently it is supposed to be lucky and is very difficult to find

(most Ganesh idols have their trunks bend towards the left,

Siddhivinayak is another exception).

This is the Ganesh-murti we brought from the

Suryani brothers' factory in Mysore in 2004.

And here is the latest addition to our family of Ganeshas,

I painted him on a little block of wood.

Size: 14.5 cm x 24 cm (rounded corners)

Medium: Acrylic paint and acrylic ink

The vahana (mount) of Lord Ganesha is referred to as 'Mooshika'.

In the Hindu pantheon, each deity is seated on a mount(vahana)

which always has a symbolical meaning.

The mouse is apparently used as a symbol of greed and inquisitiveness.

Our mooshika here seems quite controlled and poised, thanks to Ganesh-ji!

The text reads ''श्री गणेशाय नमः '' (Shree Ganehsaya Namah)

(Meaning: 'Gan': people, 'Eshaya':loved by; He who is loved by everyone)

which is so true for Ganesha!

And the winner....s(!) are......

Wow that participation was amazing guys!

It was so moving to see the response...... I have picked not one but two winners!

So, the lucky winners are: Divya and Megha Chhatbar,

congratulations!!

~Send me your addresses ladies at happydithi@gmail.com ~

A big thanks to all of you for the lovely comments.

The festival of colours is now being celebrated all across India,

a very happy holi to everyone!

I have made a gallery of some of my favourite holi images from Flickr just for you,

do you have a favourite holi image to share?

I would love to see your picks, you can leave a link to your image after this post!

Holi hai, enjoy :)