Season of Love: Free Printable Valentine Card

I know it's quite cheesy to say this, but am going to risk it - Love is in the Air! It is February after all.

While I believe that we don't need a special day to tell people that we love them, I still like to indulge mildly in this month of pink and crimson. Yes, St. Valentine's Day is a one of those hyper-commercialized days even in India. But, if we don't give in to the hoopla, isn't any excuse great to have special time together? To simply expresses how grateful you are that you found this person. To tell them you are the luckiest person alive to be with them. To just put all your feelings down on paper. And to do it in a fun and special way.

Each day of the year, we express our love through actions - by showing care, by tuning in to the other person's needs and even by just lending a helping hand. On hallmark days, a simple gesture to express your love tells your partner that you have taken the time to think about them. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be surprised with a love note yourself?

Ever since I can remember, I have never really obsessed about Valentine's Day. That specific date. Back in college, we used to have a 'Rose Day' sometime in February. A day celebrating secret crushes and love (because you could send anonymous rose cards). When I started working, my agency used the same idea, but we didn't make a day of it. A half hour after lunch was spent listening to poetic messages (most were anonymous, again) and swapping chocolates. All through my teen years, it was mandatory for girlfriends and boyfriends to give each other cards. So the point am trying to make, is that for me, the celebration of love is closely linked to messages on paper. An email will just not cut it.

All of this was running through my mind last week, and I wanted to create something that would let us say 'I Love You' without being predictable. I saw the abundance of flowers, cute animals, hearts and chocolates swirling around as tokens of love,  but my mind kept searching for more. Like most ideas that pop into my head, the one for this card popped in when I was engrossed in a totally unrelated activity. I was pickling! So bizarre. Red chilies being pickled led to me the image you see above. I refined my initial thoughts to craft a couple of messages that I think will work.

The picture above and a message variant is now available as an art print and on other merchandise like iPhone covers, totes and throw pillows in my Society6 Shop. And just for you, I have created a FREE printable card to tell your loved one that they are indeed the spice of your life!

To download your free printable click on this link: Only You Valentine Card

Can you think of a message that will go with this image? If there is something else that you'd like to say to your sweetheart, drop me a line in the comments section below and I'd be happy to work on a custom card for you!

Hope you have a lovely season of LoVe!

Being Brave: I will NOT be Helpless

To truly understand what this post is, you need to first watch the video at No Country For Women (http://nocountryforwomen.com/)

As I watched this video, I had several reactions - anger, frustration, repulsion, gut wrenching pain and a complete sense of helplessness. I found myself asking, what should we do? How can we change this? Will this ever change?


I was tempted to give into the powerless feeling that was sweeping over me. It is the bane of my generation, this feeling that we can't do much to change anything. We carve our lives with ambition, hard work and success, insulating ourselves from things that we have no power over. Most days the insulation works, keeping us away from the realities that surround us. On some days like this one, something manages to slice through that insulation and hit us at our soft spot.


But the answers I was seeking, were yet to come to me. Conversations with friends and sharing the link on Facebook wasn't going to cut it this time around. This wasn't one of those Social Media activations that make a dent in the shape of the problem. Something had to be done in real life, in our everyday, in our homes, offices and on the streets.


Then my friend Mou shared this video about the History of Wooing Women made by cdza and also this article written by Sarah Hepola. The comments section is particularly illuminating. All this was symptomatic of where our very 'global' culture has moved.


Today I read my friend Sonal's post about this. And she has given me the answer. The first thing to do is to stop being helpless. There is no way we can allow ourselves to shrug our shoulders, draw the dupattas/jackets/stoles closer and promise ourselves that we wouldn't be in such situations. Because every woman I know has been in this situation where men have behaved in a way that disrespected womankind.


I have been there too, and am guilty of doing nothing more but looking away in disgust. And thinking later, if only I had said something. But pacifying my conscience by thinking that there was no way they would have heard you anyway. Sometimes I've been so angry, that I haven't been able to say or do anything.


Only once have I physically reacted by slapping the first face I saw when a mob tried to grope me on a local train. I was 19 and my mom was travelling with me. The courage of the young and the fact that my mom can smack the daylights out of anyone probably made me actually take action. We travelled the rest of our journey with a imaginary body bubble that no one dared to cross.


From personal experience, I have seen that there are two things that hold us back - Fear and a feeling of Helplessness. Which is why, we must be brave, there is no other way. By pledging that I will Not be Helpless, I am making a choice, to think, speak up and do something. 


If you're a woman, I urge you to do the same, irrespective of where you live. Take control and do something, anything. Don't risk your lives, but don't be passive. Sonal's action points are a good place to start. Write about it, talk about it and, most importantly, when faced with a situation that calls for you to be brave, be.


If you're a man who believes that women have be disrespected long enough, help spread the message too.


Feel free to use the graphic above, if you'd like to use it somewhere to spread the message. No attribution needed.


P.S.: You may wonder, what a post like this is doing on a blog about travel, design and spreading cheer. But this blog is all about sharing with you everything that inspires me. All creative pieces shared above urged me to voice my thoughts to you. And I also believe that life just shouldn't be compartmentalized like that!

Infectious Creativity: A-Z of Unusual Words

I stumbled upon The Project Twins thanks to a couple of friends on Facebook. James and Michael Fitzgerald, the artists who run The Project Twins - a graphic design and illustration studio in Ireland - have a wicked imagination. Their A-Z of Unusual Words project is described thus: Bold graphics and visual wit are used to interpret and represent a collection of strange, unusual and lost words.

The one on top is a illustration of Acersecomic - a person whose hair has never been cut. The one below is my favourite, Tarantism - a disorder characterised by an uncontrollable urge to dance. I definitely connect with that one!

You'd love their entire collection of illustrations on this one - fun, quirky, solemn, dark - the whole gamut. Go check this out and also the other projects this talented duo has been creating here.

And on that note, have a groovy weekend!

Quote Crush of the Week

This quirky quote has been hand painted by the very talented Katie Gavenda as a give-away on her delightful blog Blueberry English. You can find more work by her on at her Etsy shop here.