Normally taking the Shiv Ganga Express to Varanasi from Delhi, I opted for the Swatantrata S Express last time in order to have a couple more hours of daylight on the train. It paid off. What follows is one morning shooting out the window from the 2nd Tier AC section of the Swantantrata Express. So kick back, get a cup of chai, and enjoy the journey.
Have been mesmerised by vintage illustrations for quite some time (Peter Irwin, Frank McIntosh, and old school travel posters), I began to yearn for more. Illustrations I reviewed in past ran around a similar theme: hand drawn illustrations, heavy in their use of colours, subjects which are either events or places or stereotypes.
And then I began thinking, how would the new-age illustrations be. With all the computing power and tools at disposal, how would today’s artists approach a subject? The answer lies in vector images by a fellow desi.
Having worked at Pixar, Sanjay brings new perspective to illustrations on the table. His illustrations are somewhat inspired by Japanese school of animation. Saying his creations are out-of-the-box, gorgeous and stunning would be an understatement. I am sure you have seen his works in the past. He was on board (literally) for many Pixar movies like Ratatouille. His subjects in recent books and exhibitioins, just like his drawings, are unique – Hindu Deities. And definitely not the kind we see on Indian roads.
Do visit his website: www.gheehappy.com (you know like be happy, but with desi ghee)
He has many books under his sleeves, buy one today. It’s a treasure and is cheaper in India: flipkart.
Read more about Sanjay here
Need I say anymore? The book is a wonderful composition of all
many famous Hindu Gods and Goddess (after all Hindu’s have 36000000 gods). A primer on Hinduism, it’s a good read to start on Hindu mythology.
Garud
Bhairav
Lakshmi:
Kali
Agni
Vishnu
Buddh
Shiv
Hanuman in Lanka
Ravan’s fury
Jai Shree Ram
Ram and Sita
Sita and deer (shurpnakha)
HanuMan
Ram and vanar sena attacking lanka
Bholenaath
Durga
Ganesha
or… another way to value Facebook…
after all Microsoft was the first one to pay $ 400 million to sabeer bhatia for… well… every one knows that… it’s but natural to ask what Mr Bhatia did with his 400 millions, and the answer lies in some failed internet start-ups. but that’s not what am interested in. Have you ever though how many users did Mr Bhatia’s mail service have?
Before you guess, let me remind you that this is 1997 we are talking about. An era when Intel was inside, pentium was the king, dial-up was a privilege, might Google was not yet registered as a company, Wachowski brothers were still writing the script and an era when Dolly was cloned. But then, it was the most famous email provider of its time. Allow me to break the suspense – 8.5 million users. Now that sounds low, doesn’t it. We all know that Apple sold more iPhones than that. But then, as i said, this was 1997. There were hardly 70 million people who could own a PC and top that – browse the net. And then obviously not all of them were “active” users. So, the numbers are$400 million for 8.5 million users. or roughly say $47.5 per user.
Now that we have established what Mr. Gates paid for every mail user, lets extend the logic to facebook. And while we are at it, lets assume (conservatively) that it’s as difficult, or easy if I may, to make money from facebook as from mails. Zuckerburg says that his site had 845 million active users in Dec 2011 (mine had… well never mind). No mind you, this is active user base, and not the whole lot who has a facebook account. Just to make clear how big the general user base could be, compare it to the gym -folks who pay for one and the “active” members among them who religiously pay a visit to the gym. However, i do not have numbers for the total user base. So lets keep it simple and go ahead with 800 million active users (my fortune cookie read today – “keep it simple”).Let u multiply the $47.5 per user to this number to get a value of $40,135 million. keeping it short – $40 billion. That sounds way low than what we saw on facebook’s timeline. But here’s the catch, this is what microsoft would have paid in 1997. That was 3 recessions ago. Since , world GDP has doubled to almost $60 trillions and so has MSFT’s stock price. So if we double our valuation number we get $40×2= $80 billions.
“$ 80 BILLIONS”. This wasn’t much of rocket science, right…. for god save us if rockets were made with this science. Now if you believe this number is small then let me remind you that there weren’t many big web-mail providers in 1997 (just 2 for that matter) while we today have many “social network” players. And if you believe that this number is too big, then let me remind you that this was a “conservative” back of the envelope calculation.
But the question remains, what do we do with this number. How does this benefit us?? The answer, for the lack of $$$ in our accounts, is pretty simple. There is no value addition accrued to us. But then so is the case for facebook, the website. So all you can do is share this post by clicking the like button down here. (or paste the link in facebook, its just 2 extra steps – thanks for that)
One central theme which has emerged recently is rising inequality across the world. The haves and getting richer and have-nots not as much. The result is rising inequality. This has been happening for a while but it took this crisis to point to this disturbing trend. And of course the crisis has made things even worse with most people getting effected at middle and lower income quintiles.
Another western artist heavily influenced by the east – “far east”. He started with London, but ended up designing adverts for Japan. Later in life he changed his name and shifted to US and painted natives. Choice of colors somewhat reflects that of artists from his time like Frank Mcintosh.
Pieter Irwin Brown (1903 – )
Pieter Irwin Brown, born 1903 in Rotterdam,Holland. Pieter Irwin Brown grew up in Holland. He then travelled widely in Europe and Africa working as an artist. When he moved to London, he worked for Leigh Breton Studio and set up a design business with partner Rickman Ralph. He designed posters for the London Midland & Scottish Railway, Great Western Railway and London County Council Tramways. In the 1930s he travelled to Indonesia,Japan and China, where he produced Japanese style woodblock prints. Designed posters for the Underground Group 1928-1930. He moved to America in 1940 and worked under the name Pieter van Oort. In 1946 he settled in New York.
Read more about Brown here and here
As i was going through my previous posts on vintage airline and temple posters, I cam across this one artist who has worked extensively on Asian themes. Frank Mcintosh -an american illustrator. He is known for Art Deco style. Presenting some of his work here. Do buy his stuff if you like.
Frank Mcintosh, Illustrator, America (1901 – )
Frank McIntosh is perhaps most well known for the advertising art he produced for the Matson Line‘s cruises to Hawaii, but prior to that he designed many striking and colorful covers for Asia magazine which show the influence of the prevailing Art Deco style. A 1939 luggage sticker and ticket envelope designed for the Matson Line were followed by six menu covers which were widely collected and used for interior design at the time, and continue to be so. McIntosh was born in 1901 in Portland Oregon where he grew up before moving to San Francisco to study art, developing a special interest in stage design. He studied in New York with theatrical and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes for a year, but then turned to illustration with a long run of designs for Asia magazine, followed by his work for Matson lines. After the war the work of Eugene Savage was used on the Matson line menus. McIntosh was a collector of Asian art; in the early 1960s he had a gallery in Los Angeles dealing in Oriental paintings and accessories.
Sources:
Brown, DeSoto. “Beautiful, Romantic Hawaii: How the Fantasy Image Came to Be” in The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Volume 20 (1994).
Mahoney, Bertha E. et al. Illustrators of Children’s Books 1744-1945. Boston: The Horn Book, 1970.
Read more about Mcintosh here. Buy his work here or elsewhere on the net.
Most of his work has been featured in Asia Magazine.
Ever wondered why colleges ask for your parent’s name, your history, what co-curricular activities you participated in… Or which religion you belong to??
Its selective screening. But unlike the way its done today, it was adopted to screen “OUT” high IQ jews from Harvard….
interesting article:
Two of the most controversial entities in India have decided to part ways. Or atleast one of them is thinking so. “why” is anyone’s guess.
Sahara Exits Cricket: Posturing Or Court Order? | Capital Mind.
Or rather… decided to avoid duplication…
one address: DEMONSTRATE.wordpress.com
closing down blog.maheep.in and maheepmandloi.blogspot.com
