Sketching At Eight

When did you start sketching and painting? May be when you were around three or four! Yes, but when did you have a website of your sketches? And when did your sketches start trending on social media? Perhaps, for most of us, never.

Here is the story of an eight-year-old whose sketches will floor you! Just hang on. Let us first talk to Naman who lives in USA.

Hi Naman, how did you start sketching and painting?

Because I was always bored, I started sketching. I did do painting for a bit with Udemy. And then I started to not like it and then I started sketching instead.

Which was your first sketch or drawing?

 Oh, I remember. My first drawing was a person with no hands and no feet and it looked really weird.

What do you like to sketch more? Scenery, animals, flowers, faces, cartoon characters or other objects?

I mean I like to sketch people more than landscapes. I like to sketch objects more than flowers or animals. But my fav sketching thing would probably be people. 

Can you share a few of your sketches?

Yes, I can. Here are a few of my sketches.

How do you feel when you finish a sketch or drawing?

Proud! I feel happy. Sad, because it was fun sketching it and now it's over. Frustrated when it looks bad. Sometimes, I feel it needs a little more editing or erasing. I look at my sketches from far away.

Which is your favourite sketch?

The Messi one! I worked on it for like five days, I had to go back and edit it like multiple times. It's my favourite because Messi is my favourite soccer player. It looked the way I wanted it to look. Some of my strokes which I didn't like, actually made the sketch look even better.

How much time did you take to complete the Messi sketch?

I took about five days and worked for about an hour or two each day.

Apart from painting and sketching, you must also be playing some games like soccer, taekwondo etc. What do you like the most?

Apart from sketching you mean, I like TKD (taekwondo) the most because it strengthens my body and my brain. It teaches me things like self control and integrity. It tells me not to give up even if things are very hard and also because Bhaiya (elder brother in Hindi) does it too. So, I can have fun with him.

Which is your most recent sketch?

My most recent sketch was a practice of a haunted house that is made in a 2 point perspective view. I made it at Ichen Art Academy. Not at home. 

At home, my most recent sketch is a Lego Ninjago series. I made some Lego Ninjas.

For Naman anytime is art time! 

Thank you Naman and all the best for your future sketches. Do share your sketches once in a while.

That was a guest story from Naman, the eight-year-old artist.  Naman has his own website, which can be accessed here. Do follow and like his creations. It will encourage the child prodigy. Naman also happens to be our grandson.

Postscript 14th Nov 23: Naman created a card for Armed Forces Veterans and sent it to his grandpa i.e. Ghumakkad. It was an instant hit with so many Veterans in India. See his imaginative design below:

Other Guest Stories

Ghumakkad encourages guest stories on our blog. Some of our previous guest stories are listed below. Just click to browse.

Who says children don't read books?  We generally blame the internet and digital devices for distracting the children from reading books. But this story of three siblings (11,13 and 15) shows that children continue to love books! (2023)

Coyote Gulch- Hiking In A Stream written by then 10-year-old Nikhil, our grandson (2018)

Ironman In The Family - a first hand account of Ironman 70.3 completed by our son Ankush. Read when he says "And my legs died"! How did he revive? (2022)

Fallen But Not Forgotten - Remembering our War heroes by Trixie Asirvatham from Bengaluru. Read about the Armistice Day and its history through a poignant picture story. (2017)

Women Hiking In Water by Akanksha, our daughter. Daring story of a hike in waste deep water by four young mothers all by themselves! (2019)

A Squirrel Comes Home by Rohini Tiwari a Nature lover from Coimbatore. Fascinating account of rescuing a baby squirrel and how it adopts the rescuer's home! (2020)

Winning The Hearts Of People by Abhishek Singh. Interesting story of how Indian Army helps the villagers in far flung borders of Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India. (2018)

Male Showstopper by Koushik Gopinath a wildlife photographer. Get close to the Tigers of Ranthambore with Koushik's lens. Superb photography. (2018)

Maya The Tigress of Tadoba - From Ranthambore Ankush takes you to Tadoba, Maharashtra where Maya the tigress rears her cubs. Feel the glory of the jungle.

Why Kodaikanal? by Ansh (then 14) and Nikhil (then 11) our grandsons. They describe the attractions of Kodaikanal through their pictures and story.

Ladakh: Shades of Heaven on Earth - breathtaking pictures by Abha and Akanksha who visited Ladakh with their families in Aug 2022.

After seeing all these guest stories, hope you are charged up to share your story. Your story can be on any subject as you saw above- from wildlife to travel to pets to hiking to sketching and so on! Do reach out to us on hbindia@gmail.com . We learn from each other as our logo below shows.

Thanks for browsing.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta and Akanksha Bhargava/ Secunderabad and California/ 15th Oct 2023

#Gueststory #sketching #painting #eightyearoldartist #creativity #imagination #takewondo #grandchildren #children #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #2pointperspective #namanbhargava

Upside Down- Learning from a Caterpillar

 A tiny insect with multiple legs. Shining body with contrasting legs. Can climb or cling to slender leaves. Sometimes, it keeps going even while upside down! Yes, we are talking about a Caterpillar as shown in the picture below. Give it a caption and win KBG-75, the 75th edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad, online captions contest.

Here are two more pictures without the contest logo for better visualisation of your caption.

Now go ahead and give a caption for the above picture featuring a Lily Caterpillar fast!

How to Submit a Caption

For the first-timers on KBG, you can respond using any of the six channels below:

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. Send email to hbindia@gmail.com    
3. Respond on the FB post
4. Comment on Instagram @ghumakkadhb 
5. Comment on Twitter @HarshBh21184761
6. Send a WA message. If you want your WA number to be added to Ghumakkad's list, send an email.

So folks, get going and give your caption pronto! If you feel like, you may submit more than one caption.

Previous Contest

KBG-74, the 74rd edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad Caption Contest had featured a picture of two dried up lemons from our tree. See the picture below.

However, the close up of lemons confused all the contestants with melons. Whether lemons or melons, the captions were very creative. It was a case of differing perspective and perception. We then created our picture story titled 'Perception Vs Perspective' which included all the captions submitted by the contestants of KBG-74. Two of the winning captions of KBG-74 are reproduced below:

Hope we have succeeded in diverting your mind away from a world struggling to bounce back after devastating impact of Covid on global economy. Ghumakkad aims to spread joy and cheer all around like our logo shown below. Thank you Ramya Sriram for such a creative logo.

Now, be your creative best and shoot your response. Most catchy captions will be the Winners of KBG-75! All the best.

Thank you all the readers for your continued support.

Stay connected, stay safe.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 10th June 2022

#caterpillar #upsidedown #keepmovinginlife #changeyourperspective #lilycaterpillar #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kbg75 #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #takeabreak #captions #powerofobservation #creativecaptions #learningtogether

Perception Vs Perspective KBG-74

Can perception be affected by perspective?

And vice versa, can a new perspective change our perception?

We look at both these questions through a picture which was featured as KBG-74 and titled A Spherical Delight.

But firstly, let us understand both the words as defined in the Oxford dictionary.

Perception: 'The ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses' or the second meaning 'the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.' In simple words, perception leads to a mental image of a thing or someone.

Perspective: 'A particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view'. It also has a second meaning- 'the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other.' In simple words, perspective is the way we regard something or our point of view.

Now coming back to the Contest picture which received enthusiastic response from the readers. All the readers assumed the two objects to be melons because of the enlarged picture as shown.

Whereas the two objects were actually dried up lemons plucked from our yard. See the two pictures below. Of course, both lemon and melon are spherical in shape and have the same alphabets!

Now, what would you attribute this error to? Perception or perspective? Perhaps it is both. Perspective error because the picture showed only a part of the lemons giving an inaccurate impression of its size; and perception error because our mental image of a lemon is greenish-yellowish skin but certainly not dried pigmented skin as shown in the picture. Do you see the interdependence of perception and perspective here?

Before we selected the picture of the dried lemons, we had not thought of this story. Our own perception got changed when we looked at the perspective of the readers. We came across a nice visual comparing perception and perspective. Credit goes to pediaa.com for the picture reproduced below.

Hope we have answered both the questions. Yes, perception can be affected by perspective and vice versa a new perspective can change our perception. Both aspects are important for individual and organisational performance, relationships, understanding, conflict management etc. Apologies if Ghumakkad sounded like a teacher. In real life he is both as depicted in his logos below.

It is fun learning together!

The Contest

KBG-74, the 74th edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad Caption Contest received more than 45 captions listed below.

No.	Name	Caption for KBG-74 Contest
1	Ajai Bhumri	खरबूजा खरबूजे को देखकर रंग बदलें, दूसरों का रंग बदलना हो तो पहले अपना बदलें ।
2	Amandeep Kaur	Garmi ke do anmol ratan!
3	Bharat Ladha	खरबूजे को देख कर खरबूजा रंग बदलता है।
4	BR Natarajan	You do not need lush lemon when you have musk melon.
5	C Raghuram	Rough outside, sweet and soft inside. Mimic the melon.
6	Deepak Jena	The smiles of summer
7	Deepak Jena	Can't wait to grab
8	Geeta Bhargava	Duniya goal, hum bhi goal
9	GR Sreenivasan	Keep calm and carry a watermelon
10	J Ramamoorty	Mouth watering spheres.
11	Jaishankar	Life may give you melons but you can always find the musk in them.
12	LS Bhargava	King of summer fruits
13	LS Bhargava	An Energy food for Summer
14	Manju Khaitan	Most optimum shape for a tree to reproduce.
15	Neelima Paroolkar	We 2 are One.
16	Peter de Padua	Two Melons a week,no illness will seek!
17	Poonam Bhargava	Who minds the summer heat, When this melon is such a treat!
18	Pradeep Siwach	Summer rasagola
19	PRR Rao	Elon Musk or Musk Melon? What's in a name? Bite and you'll know!
20	Radhika Sareen	Twins!
21	Radhika Sareen	Ready for delivery
22	Radhika Sareen	हम बने इक दूजे के लिये
23	Radhika Sareen	तू चीज़ बड़ी है musk melon…
24	Rajendra Singh	Anar ready to ripen or musk melon!
25	Rashmi Bhargava	Thanda thanda cool cool!
26	RB Dhavare	So close but no hatred!
27	Ritu Bhargava	This spherical delight musk melon. is must in summers.
28	Ritu Bhargava	Hard outside,soft and juicy inside is mast melon.
29	Ruma Purkayastha	Melon-colic in summer ? Never never !!
30	Savita Bhargava	The Twins
31	Savita Bhargava	खरबूजा खरबूजे को देख कर रगं बदलता है।
32	Shereen Sultana	If life gives you melons, juice it up!
33	Sujata Das	You are one in 'melon' to beat the heat.
34	Susmita Ganguly	Perfect Parenting Mantra - Soft and Cool Within.
35	Unknown	Must Melons !
36	Unknown-2	हर अंडे में से नहीं निकलता चूज़ा भाई को देख रंग बदले ख़रबूज़ा
37	Unknown-3	Summer delight
38	Vanita Vandan Singh	Summer Summer on the Sky, Give me a light sweet refreshing Treat!
39	Veeky Baths	Awesome Twosome!
40	Vinay Prasad	Musk melon, must melon!
41	Vinod Dhanuka	Kharbuje Ko Dekhkar Khabooja Rang badalata hai
42	VV Ramani	Flavour of summer
43	Yogesh	Garmi mein rang Kharbuze ke sang, Khaye jao Aur cycle chalaye jao
44	Supradeep Sen	Delightful musk melons!
45	Praveen Rengaraj	Tastes better than it looks!
46	Prashant Jadenavar	Freckles outside, delicious inside. Ignoring for looks isn't the best option.

The Winners

Our Jury comprising of Prabhjoth and Neeta have selected the following four captions as KBG-74 Winners. We thank the Jury and congratulate the winners.

Ruma Purkayastha is an educator  and wellbeing coach who learns something from her grand children everyday! She majored in psychology and was Principal of a leading school in New Delhi. Her caption 'Melon-colic in summer ? Never never!' was unique and conveyed the cooling and soothing effect of melons in summer. Ruma has won the KBG Contests previously also.

'Life may give you melons but you can always find the musk in them', was Jaishankar's caption which hooked the Jury. It conveys a deeper sense of musk melon and life. A former Colonel, he has won the KBG contests several times. A blogger and an adventurer, Jai loves nature and wildlife.

Sujata Das PhD, is an alumnus of BITS Pilani, Stanford and Waterloo Universities  who runs her own business in Canada. In her spare time, she loves to teach different age groups of people. Sujata loves winter sports, travelling and creative writing. Her caption "You are one in 'melon' to beat the heat!" appealed to the Jury. She is a past winner of the KBG Contest.

Ramdas Dhavare is an alumnus of NIT Surathkal and IIT Madras. He is a Science enthusiast, with interest in Philosophy and teachings of the Ramakrishna Mission. After a short stint with Indian Navy, Ramdas went on to teach engineering for 30 years. He now enjoys being with his grand daughter in Pune. His caption 'So close but no hatred!' reflects his philosophical thinking of the two melons close to each other. He is a regular participant of KBG Contests but the first time winner now!

Thank you all the readers for your continued support. The 75th edition of KBG Contest is coming up next!

Stay connected to trigger your creative thinking.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 3rd June 2022

Postscript:

Vinod Agarwal writes: "What a simple picture to tell how easily we are fooled. Imagine how we are fooled by our leaders, political or otherwise, without us realizing it using the same techniques of making things look bigger then they are and making them look like that they have the same texture. Great insight."

#perception #perspective #gardeningisfun #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kbg74 #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #takeabreak #captions #powerofobservation #craetivecaptions #sphericaldelight #homegardening #lemons #melons