Fun with the shapely egg

Eggs are such an important part of our eating regime. We eat it all the time and almost in all fashion. But have you ever stopped and tried to look at the shape of an egg or hear the “crack…crack…crack” noise it makes upon breaking the shell. The cracking noise is so surreal that it seems hard to reproduce through external means. The egg shape itself is amusing - round, oval and rounded pointers on either side. Sometimes it looks like a cylinder too, whose faces converge at points on either side. On one sunny afternoon, I happened to observe these eggs, while preparing them for breakfast. My observation made me fell in love with these egg shapes and I began thinking, “how would these eggs look like if they also had arms, legs, eyes, noise, lips and other such features”. It is possible to have these wacky imaginations only if the person is doing pure daydreaming. The burning smell of my bread kept on toaster, jolted me from the dream.

The day passed by, but the egg figures that I had imagined remained in my mind.

I couldn’t resist myself from grabbing pen, paper and coloured pencils to start sketching these eggs figures that were popping into my mind. This was sheer nonsensical exercise but then I let my mind guide me while I drew.

This exercise was also a great way to test supporting arguments relating to, “Why we must doodle often”. Some of these are as follows:

• Doodling is a great visual tool/aide that helps in engaging mind and retaining facts/information more.
• Picture an object and draw it! Then let the mind guide you through this act. This is especially effective when one is stuck.

I drew the egg figures (my eggs heads…as I like to refer to them). Somehow I could capture the oval shapes in the blank sheet and the results where shapes that looked closer to mushrooms or strawberries.Nevertheless, I drew them. I then started experimenting with the physical characteristics like (eye ball shapes/ hand and leg shape & postures/ the lips, its size and shape, nose lengths and shapes as well as hair styling) to dress these super cute figures.

It is amazing to see how a slight alteration to shape/size/length of physical characteristics (that defines shapes) can lead to an enormous change to the overall structure and look of a shape, objects, figures etc.

The super cute figures resembled the adorable character “Humpty-Dumpty”. Remembering the character transported me to my nursery days, and couldn’t stop myself from humming this popular rhyme.

The egg/non-egg looking figures were ready and I thought what next. Unlike me, who generally plans and visualise the picture in mind, this time I was clueless. Doodling does helps you think through and creates some connections in mind, thereby allowing you to draw further. The mind helped me connect the idea of tomatoes and herbs with eggs. This made sense and I drew them as well. Here is that piece of artwork.

One thing that I did learn from this wacky exercise is that, “more one doodles, the more the mind becomes clearer with the thought process”.

Would you like to validate the power of doodling on your own? Then try to do this simple exercise and share the outcomes with me.

Pick an object of your choice and don’t think further. Draw the object, pause for few seconds and then continue again with the images that are coming to your mind. 

Khushboo

Stuffs that are worth talking about

Getting started with Doodling

It was almost a month back when I did try to build up a case w.r.t the impact of doodling on learning and how all of us can indeed doodle. To reiterate again, three-fourths of our brain is wired for visual thinking and learning (i.e. parts of our brain processes information through visual clues and imageries). This means that we all have the ability to doodle.

Last time, I tried arguing why doodling must be supported instead of being discouraged, as was the case till now. The doodling bug continued to stay with me and I ended up gathering more information on doodling. This time the subject of research was around yet another significant question…

“How to get started with doodling?”

Several articles popped up my way. Some talked about the resources like (pen/paper/marker/highlighters/ pencils/ colour pencils etc.) as essential tools for doodling. Some talked about revisiting childhood days for source of inspiration whereas some talked about drawing anything and everything that they usually see. Couple of them especially emphasised upon, “letting the mind guide one through the process of doodling”. But nobody really offered a clear guidance on, “how to begin doodling”. It seemed that most of the people have assumed that doodling is a natural phenomenon and therefore no formal training or guidance is needed. Perhaps, these people have assumed that more you doodle, the better you will get or they perceive doodles as pure art.

Surprisingly, none of the articles talked about techniques of Doodling.

Doodle is just not about art but it is really a visual way to communicate ideas, thoughts and stories.

I then rephrased my key words and began researching again. My results took me to an interesting website called, “Roh design” (http://rohdesign.com). Roh Design is a website started by a designer named, “Mike Rohde”. Mike has this penchant for sketch notes- a really interesting visual way to capture a story. They are made live, as the story is told. An image can capture a huge amount of information. It is much easier to re-tell the story using sketch notes than it would be using written notes, as the images aide in remembering what has been said. More clues for the brain means better recollection!

Having validated the power of sketch notes, Mike Rhode authored the book titled, “the sketch note handbook”, a step-by-step guide to enable regular people benefit from this effective note taking technique. It is in this book, he talks about 5 essential elements as pre-requisites for effective sketch notes. Read about the 5 essential elements by visiting the embedded link (http://rohdesign.com/book).

I took those basic 5 essential elements to test out Mike’s Rhode hypothesis. I juggled with the elements and combined some together to create everyday objects. The hypothesis holds true.

Obviously, you will have to tweak the shapes to create desirable objects.

So, I had some essential elements at disposable but then I pondered upon, “Do I need to add something more”. This brought me to the idea that I might need different styles of line, dots and most importantly connectors (i.e. arrows, pointers) to organise my thoughts, ideas into a binding story.

To Mike Rhodes fabulous 5 list, I added some more basic shapes, few lines and connectors. Not to say the least, I did try to sketch note to organise the thoughts.

With these additions, I intend to take my doodling adventure few steps further.

I want to test out these in particular:

• Is it possible to draw all sorts of things like, “human forms, plants, leaves, flowers, animals, objects, transports, skyscrapers, alphabets, numbers amongst others using these tools? If yes, how?
• Can these elements (identified in the question above), be then used to develop a narrative doodling? How?

Till the time, I try answering these questions, I want you to think and answer these for yourself.

What do you generally doodle about? And how do you doodle? Or what techniques do you employ to make shapes/pictures/images/objects/ patterns etc.?

Khushboo

Stuffs that are worth talking about

Samaritans have congregated at one place

I believe this writing piece was meant to happen, sooner or later. All it needed was some inspiration and genuine faith in what I was about to communicate. So, what was that source of inspiration that pushed me into writing this piece?

The inspirational source is an account of a blogger, who resides in Helsinki (the Finnish capital city). The account starts on a grim note where the author seems to curse the city for making her look somber. Apparently, the author learned from fellow outsiders (like her) that she must not show any trace of emotion on her face or else city residents will consider her as insane.

She feels less welcomed in this otherwise very meticulous city. She is perplexed by the frosty behaviour of the people of this land. She intends to seek some answers that might help her understand the city better and reduce the agony that she is undergoing at the moment.

Reading through the first couple of paragraphs itself, I am able to relate to the feelings that this author is experiencing. When you are in a new city where you know just handful of people, your views of the city is limited by what that group tells you. It is best to explore the city on own by connecting with local communities, going to meet-ups and doing observations on and off. The author here also tried to connect with an outsider-local with the hope to get a glimpse into life of an outsider into this city. The outsider local talks about how an act of humility can make difficult people a little less difficult to deal and live with. Read the article and think whether humility has the power to bring about a gradual change.

https://medium.com/@shivonnedub/jesus-christ-in-helsinki-67e8f71c29de

After going through the article completely, I paused and began to reflect about the people I am surrounded by presently. 

Couple of months back, I came into a new country, “Switzerland”. Before coming to Switzerland, I was also warned sufficiently by people alike, “that don’t indulge in talks as residents don’t like talking so much”… essentially they are quite people and so its better to be reserved. Ensure not to make eye contacts and pass facial gestures to city people, they might take it as an offence. With these preconceived thoughts, I descended into this country.

As, I walked down my neighbourhood streets, I heard people greeting me. Though I couldn’t understand the word but the tone, manner and facial gestures said it all. In-fact they were greeting me… They were saying "Gruezi" (a Swiss German way of saying hello to people). Unlike now, earlier I shook my head in response. Initially, I thought that perhaps humble neighbours who want me to instantly feel at home surrounds me. But soon, I realised that it is an etiquette practiced effortlessly almost across Switzerland.

Greeting is perhaps simplest act of gesture that we can perform hassle free, but rarely people indulge in this priceless act. It’s a quick start to interrupt silence (especially when parties are starring at one another with the hope to communicate). Obviously in my case, simple exchange of customary hello had no attached outcomes as such other than making me feel at home away from home.

The Swiss humility doesn’t end at the greeting exchanges but goes beyond…

Language is not an impediment in Switzerland as Swiss generally speak good English. But sometimes, it’s not the language that acts as hindrance but it is newness of the place itself. Not being able to locate a place/building/area is a common problem that many people experience when they land into a new country. After a good thorough research and with the help of Google map, I sat into one of the buses bound to the desired place. My destination was nowhere closer to bus station; it was further deeper. The Google map didn’t provide sufficient information as to where that place exactly could be. With some clues and help from the Google map, I asked one of the strangers on the bus stop whether he was aware of any place like that. The stranger, looked at my Google Map and then said, “let me walk you there”. I insisted that if he could explain the place, I would be able to locate on my own. Honestly, on road, you don’t want to look/appear vulnerable. The stranger then said, “I am waiting for the bus to come that takes a route similar to yours. There is another bus stop near to the place you are looking for. So, I can come along with you and catch a bus from that bus stop. It’s no problem”. I was completely blown away by this humble stranger. His words (though not physically implied) made me feel safe. On the way, I chit chatted with this stranger and asked what he does for living. We also shared laughter when I did tell him that, it’s hard to get an appointment from a Carpenter. Yes, he was a part time carpenter and an electrician too.

The hardest part of living in Switzerland is the cost factor. But no body seems to complain so much. A probable answer could be its people that are respectful and warm.  Not sure if this is going to last forever but currently it looks like Samaritans have descended (all at once) at one place…

Khushboo