Chocolate By The Bald Man !

After checking out some tattoos at the St Mark's Place, me and my friend, were walking back to the nearest subway. I was still contemplating the thought of getting some coffee, when we stopped right in front of a Star bucks.

I was not very sure if I wanted to get Star bucks again. Suddenly, like a bright light in darkness, something got , right at the corner of 9th street and 2nd ave, Chocolate By The Bald Man. Thats the thing about New York City, you never know what is around the corner. Even when I workout at the gym 4 days a week, I am known for my love for sweets and chocolates.

Chocolate by the Bald Man, Max Brenner, is not just an ordinary dessert place, it is 'the' store for all chocolate lovers. It has all the desserts, drinks and food made from chocolate. It is said to have started a new 'chocolate culture'.

I personally enjoyed the place. Although, the air at this place seems to be full of chocolate and I felt I would gain some pounds just by breathing there. The 'Mini Mess' that we ordered, was a chocolate brownie, with vanilla ice-cream, banana pieces, whipped cream with sprinkles on it. Yummy!! It was no close to a 'mini mess', it was huge for one person.

The place seems to be very creative with regards to how much creative one can get with chocolate. This certainly became one of my favorite places. And the variety of dishes you can get with dark, milk or white chocolates is amazing.

So, if you are a chocolate lover, and happens to be in New York and haven't been to this place yet, you know what you are missing?

Check it out! Adios!

The Sleepless Nights..

I was never a morning person. I like sleeping till late and wake up just in time to get ready to get to work. I have seen people who wake up really early and take time in getting ready. My parents for instance, really believe in early to bed and early to rise formula.

I have always been the one staying up late and waking up late. When I was in school, my sister used to wake up early morning to prepare for exams. When it was her time to wake up, it used to be my time to go to bed. As the years passed by, I started to realize, that I was always a night person. Even when I attended classes for college, I could stay up late to catch up on stuff.

When I started working, the 9 to 5 jobs could not keep me away from staying up late. And then there was time, when I worked for 18 hours a day and practically stayed up all night to work. This went on for a few months and my body got used to sleeping less.

Now, I am at a point where I don't get sleep until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. I stay up late, reading something or the other or just cartooning. The later I sleep, the difficult it becomes to wake up early. I could afford to do this during weekends, but on weekdays, it sounds like sin. My friends officially declared me to be an insomniac. I have decided, to get into a normal sleeping schedule, so that my body gets into a routine of sleeping early and getting up early.

But, for now, its 1:00 AM and I am no where near getting any sleep. I have tried to read a book, shut off my computer, switch off the lights. It just does not seem to work.

This got me into thinking, what is the cause of my sleepless nights? Is it stress, over thinking, or just too much coffee?

Sat Sri Akal!

The birth of a "gag strip"!

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, and I had just finished reading some stuff online, and was sitting idle, thinking of what to do next. I picked up a pencil and grabbed the paper and drew a few smiling faces. That reminded me, that I had not done sketching for a few years. I am no big artist, just a novice with no training, a self proclaimed admirer of art.

This is when I started sketching again. I bought pencils, ink pens and a sketch book, to start what I did not know would be a birth of a new idea - a comic /gag strip. I kept on sketching odd faces, just to get a "hang" of it. And obviously kept on postponing the release of the new gag strip. Some of it I have mentioned in my previous post. Honestly, I was not sure if I was comfortable enough to release it for the world to see. The idea was ready, the concept was decided, the only part left to be completed was, the character. Then, I woke up one morning and decided, this is it, on the 10th day of April of the year 2008, my first gag strip will be ready to divulge.

And I spent most of my free time, and not so free time, towards finalizing the character, his looks, hair, clothes, accessories, name and ethnic background.

Its strange, how one thing leads to another, and a new idea is born. Sure enough, the gag strip was live, on April 10th, 2008, 12:00 AM EST.

I plan to update it, at least twice every week, with new gags and stories. Hoping that people who read it, enjoy it. Please feel free to drop me a line about what you think about it - www.ppshots.com

Adios!

Life's Mission Statement : What's yours?

When I was a kid, I really didn't know what I wanted to be. I went to school, just as other children did. However uninterested I was in studies, I finished them, as any normal child. I wanted to be so many things.

I remember, I wanted to be a painter, a cartoonist, a dancer, a journalist, a pharmacist and even a lawyer, obviously not at the same time. What an irony? I didn't become any of this. I didn't design, decide what I wanted to be, and things just shaped up themselves for me.

I graduated from Delhi University in a Bachelors of Commerce. Soon after joining, I realized, I didn't want to do it, nevertheless, I finished it. Doing a double graduation helped a lot. I finished my Bachelors in Information Technology along side. I still didn't know if I wanted to be in IT. I was bad with logics, and the thought of becoming a programmer really bothered me. I think the left side of my brain (read previous post) was under developed and I was not able to do simple programming, that my peers in college easily did. I was still drawn to the creative side of me. I took up multimedia instead of computing.

For the first time, I think, I realized, that was what I wanted. I never gave up sketching, painting, until the last year of graduation. I don't even recall how I finished my MCA (Master's in Computer Applications). Life was crazy between studies and work. Studying part-time is a blessing. You can earn and learn at the same time. I do recall that with the job as a web designer I couldn't do sketching and painting any more. With all the topsy-turvy curves of life, my passion for this form of art got lost somewhere.


Now, after 5 years, I have picked up the pencils again, to sketch and to draw. Every evening, when I come back home, from work or from the gym, I try to make atleast few lifeless characters, hoping that with time, my pencils will bring them to life..

This does not define my life's mission statement, however, I believe, its just in me, my integral part.

Adieu!