On My Canvas

Sunlit and Slow Living in Coorg’s Stuart Hill and Madikeri Town – In Photos

Priyanka Gupta — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 09:52:28 +0000

I’ve written so much about our month on Stuart Hill in Madikeri town of Karnataka (in the linked memoir) that I’ve reserved this piece for photographs of the hill and Madikeri town. Blasts from the past: travel guide to Coorg and finding isolated Madikeri guest houses Our unhurried life on Stuart Hill near Raja’s Seat ...

Climbing Trees and Plucking Apples in Himachal Pradesh—With Local Families

Priyanka Gupta — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 13:59:53 +0000

Our four-month Himachal road trip was more than halfway through in the middle of July 2021. After living in small Shimla villages (such as Mehli, Fagu, and Mashobra), we had driven to Mandi district. There we explored Chindi village and surrounding hills, visited the historic Pangna, and hiked the daunting Shikari Devi and Kamru Nag ...

3 Things About Relationships I’m Learning the Hard Way

Priyanka Gupta — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 15:12:32 +0000

Three Discoveries That Help Maintain a Happy Relationship: Better Late Than Never Without us properly and patiently framing what is it we want to say, our partner has no clue about what’s going on in our head That Sunday afternoon I had made a pot full of spinach soup. My idea was to sit in ...

What Makes you Fly? – Klaus Nomi Singing My Heart Opens to Your Voice

Priyanka Gupta — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 06:33:32 +0000

We are truly alone in the experience of being the human being we are. “Can anyone truly understand the existence of another person’s internal world?” Correctly asks the author Olivia Laing in her book “the Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone”. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about loneliness. Perhaps because ...

Nothing To Do But So Much To Do: On Stuart Hill in Madikeri Coorg

Priyanka Gupta — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 13:34:57 +0000

Living, Writing, and Slow Traveling on Stuart Hill in Madikeri Coorg, Karnataka February 2021 We have been here in Stuart Hill in Madikeri town for almost two weeks. The popular Coorg viewpoint Raja’s seat is near Stuart Hill. I’m seated in the garden of our homestay to write. I don’t know the origin of the ...

Vincent van Gogh on Delving Deeply, Focusing on One Thing, Courage to Fail, and the Art of Doing

Priyanka Gupta — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 11:39:48 +0000

The celebrated painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) regularly wrote to his brother Theo, his ardent supporter and friend. Out of the hundreds of letters the Van Gogh brothers exchanged, the Vincent van Gogh organization has put about hundred online. All those letters are poetic, sincere, and full of intelligent advice on pursuing one’s profession. But ...

Finding Beach Houses or Airbnbs in Pondicherry? Read This First.

Priyanka Gupta — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 07:48:32 +0000

A Narrative of Our Horrible Home Experience in Pondicherry and Two Hosts to be Beware of. When my partner and I travel to a new place, we are always excited, but also skeptical. Finding guesthouses in India (or anywhere) isn’t the easiest thing to do. Especially when you travel year-long, stay in a house from ...

Awareness, Confidence, and Non-Reaction Could be the Key to 2022

Priyanka Gupta — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 07:33:13 +0000

Reflecting on 2021 and Heading into 2022 with Mindfulness, Confidence, and Non-Reaction to External The Year 2021 I cannot believe 2021 is over. We were recently cheering the end of 2020: the year that marked sickness, unprecedented loss, heart-choking grief, unemployment, loneliness, and lives put on hold. I feel we had just closed our eyes, ...

What is Good Writing – With Ideas on How to be Good at Writing

Priyanka Gupta — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 15:58:35 +0000

What Makes Writing Good and Some Principles of Effective Writing What is Good Writing? We write the best when we write to understand our ideas and opinions, not to publish. Much of our beloved writer Woolf’s work (her diaries, Street Haunting, a Room of One’s Own) reads like her efforts towards self-understanding. Good writing shows ...

How to Sort Through the Mundane For Creative Living

Priyanka Gupta — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 04:56:04 +0000

Creative Living Beyond the Constant Humdrum of the Daily Daily Distractions in Creative Living The Muse Why Do We Create and How to Persuade the Muse Perseverance First We Start By Being Unsatisfied Then We Fight the Distractions We Meditate We Focus on The Littlest of Details and Let Results Take Care of Themselves It ...

33 Things I Would Tell My Younger Self

Priyanka Gupta — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 15:48:36 +0000

A Letter to My Younger Self I know you like them words. But an introduction doesn’t work everywhere so let me get to the point. You will leave all this one day to write. But there is no way you can tell now so just go through this and don’t worry too much. You will ...

An Old Himalayan Woman’s Routine Showed Me How Hard Is Village Life in India – Lessons On Resilience and Repetition

Priyanka Gupta — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 14:11:20 +0000

Village Life of India : An Old Himalayan Woman’s Life at a Glance. Notes From Gagal Village, Mashobra, Shimla I woke up at 5. The host’s kitchen hut was filled with yellow light from the bulb. Smoke rose out of the hut’s chimney. Our homestay’s mother, whom we called aunty, was already up. Aunty must’ve ...