Main mast dikhri na?

I got a call from Rutika a few weeks ago asking if I could custom paint a small box for her sister. Now with school exams, shifting schools, the new school schedule, various formalities, the coming holidays AND other pending commissions, I was not really sure if I could. Though truth be told I had not yet got a sense of the box from the mail she had sent with information on her sister.

We talked again and I told her to tell me more and then some more… After reading her last mail – I knew what I would paint. The box was already done in my head. After that it was just a matter of painting it for real. As always every little detail means something to the lady in question. Rutika plans to fill it with goodies and give to her sister as an advance gift on her upcoming wedding in May. Congratulations Aarti, I hope you like it. 🙂

The top has a portrait of Aarti thinking about things that make her happy/smile. She is shown in a ornate story book mirror with her words as the tag line on the ribbon banner.

The front panel shows her love for Boggle with words that she uses in her every day speech. The globe signifies her love for travel and her desire to visit historical places around the world.

The back panel shows her love of deserts and her need to eat every two hours, where the food must be brought to her room. The thought bubble tells you of what else is one of her favorite deserts as well as her oft spoken sentence.

One side depicts her love for dance and the group dance competition she won in school for the song ‘Ishq Tera Tadpave‘. The other side is a reference to her favorite book series as a child – Enid Blyton and ‘The Faraway Tree‘ …