The Loudest Firecracker

My illustrations for The Loudest Firecracker by Arun Krishnan have been published by Tranquebar Press (January 2009). This will be the fourth book to be published with my illustrations.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Dabbawalla. 2004. Pen and Ink.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Disco Ganapathi. Pen and Ink. 2004.
Aditi Raychoudhury. Twilight Zone. Pen and Ink. 2004.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Man-Lion. Pen and Ink. 2004.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Ebb and Flow. Pen and Ink. 2004.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Death By Fire. Pen and Ink. 2004.

Synopsis:
It’s India versus Pakistan and as the excitement soars in the final over of a memorable cricket match, ten-year-old Siddharth sets off a firecracker. The blast that follows will change his life.Siddharth discovers that growing up isn’t easy: he has to handle a tragic death, his best friend is gravitating to a rightwing political party, and his film-maker father has troubles of his own as he shifts away from the commercial but lucrative world of Hindi movies. And Poona is nothing at all like Bombay.

Will tennis matches help, or can his mother’s beautifully retold myths do the trick? Will instant noodles come to Siddharth’s rescue, or will it be his old elocution standby, The Charge of the Light Brigade? In this touching, poignant and often hilarious debut novel, Arun Krishnan has created a world we all recognize, one that will appeal equally to young adults and a more mature audience.

From the Author:

“Please disregard the message on Amazon that says Ships within 1-2 months. It ships instantly, like any other order. I am working with Amazon to get this message removed.

The novel is excellent reading for friends and family, so don’t feel scared to order more than one copy. (I think the Surgeon General recommends 4).

If those friends and family, turn against you, you can use specific portions in Chapter 4 and 9 that can be read out aloud as a form of retribution (recommended by the Government as an effective alternative to waterboarding).”

Study for “Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh (with Candles)”

Detail: Study For “Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh (with Candles)”. 2008. Chalk Pastels and Charcoal on Newsprint. 18″ x 24″.

Study for “Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh (with Candles)”. 2008. Chalk Pastels and Charcoal on Newsprint. 18″ x 24″.

Total Time: 2 hrs

Study for Primitive: Dance, Mon Petit Singe, Dance

Aditi Raychoudhury. Head Study For Primitive Series: “Dance, Mon Petit Singe, Dance”. 2008. Charcoal on Tracing Paper. 14″ X 20″.

Total Time: 2 hrs

Forbidden Portent: Studies

It was not the best day. She had been stripped of her womanhood. Shrivelled up inside this unfamiliar androgyny, she felt too debased to dare this world of wondrous, demeaning, and fragile promises. Debarred from tasting such tantalizing portents, she fumbled for a pencil, and touched color to paper for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Forbidden Portent (Study 3), 2006. 14" x 17", Chalk Pastels on Vellum.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Forbidden Portent (Study 2), 2006. 14" x 17", Chalk Pastels on Charcoal Paper.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Forbidden Portent (Study 1), 2006. 14" x 17", Charcoal on Charcoal Paper.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Forbidden Portent (Working Sketch), 2006. 8 1/2" x 11", Colored Pencils on Xerox Paper.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Forbidden Portent (First Sketch), 2006. 8 1/2" x 11", Colored Pencils on Xerox Paper.

Malaria Dreams

Aditi Raychoudhury. Malaria Dreams. Pen and Ink. Penguin. 1996.

I don’t have the record of the illustrations inside the book, which are of a mosquito, patiently chewing away at a Corinthian column, till there is nothing left but rubble.

—-

About the Book:

‘Building a house for someone is like getting to know the person himself.’ In the course of his career, well-known architect Gautam Bhatia has designed innumerable dream houses for a cross-section of people. Some of these people had the most incredible suggestions and demands, and the writer uses these as a springboard to create a set of quasi-fictional stories involving bizarre people with equally bizarre plans and theories. We meet an eccentric Parsi millionaire who wants to run a ferry service between Bombay and the Maldives; a guru, snug in his hi-tech ashram, who prescribes Body Shop moisturizers for better health; an obsessive collector who wants a secret basement in his house for his library of first editions and manuscripts; and an NRI who wishes to shape his nostalgia into a hundred-thousand-dollar ‘caando’. At once thoughtful and funny, this collection of stories will only cement Gautam Bhatia’s reputation as one of India’s most imaginative and witty writers.

Title: Malaria Dreams And Other Visions Of Architecture
Author: Gautam Bhatia
ISBN: 014026213X
ISBN-13: 9780140262131

Binding: Paperback
Publishing Date: 1996
Publisher: Penguin
Number of Pages: 280

Watch What You Eat

This was my cover plate for Punchtantra describing the absurdities of the human condition, which is the essence of the Panchatantra.

The tree represents knowledge, the parrots – multiple generations – pass on their wisdom, through the spoken word, as was traditionally done in India for centuries. The mommy elephant – patient and wise – ignores her babies’complaints, as one is teased by his older sibling and the monkey, so that they can figure out a way to handle life.

The frogs, are so deeply immersed in gossip , that they are oblivious to the snake lurking in the grass, hungry for his supper.

The squirrel (the artist) is just hanging in there on mommy elephant’s trunk for the ride of her life – through the vulnerable jungle of humanity.

Moral: Focus on your supper, lest you want to become another’s.

Aditi Raychoudhury. Tree of Life. Pen and Ink. 1996.

About the Book:

A wacky take-off on Vishnu Sharma’s PanchatantraInspired by James Finn Garner’s Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, best-selling author Gautam Bhatia takes the men, women and animals of the Panchatantra and relocates them in contemporary India with its newly acquired nations of political correctness. So we have the fiercely vocal lesbian feminist, Yajnadatta, who leaves her husband for a woman; the expatriate dog Chitranga who flees racial persecution in the West; and a mongoose with an Oedipus complex, armed with a .45 Colt. As these characters engage with the burning issues of the day—unemployment, oppression, environmental pollution, sexual incompatibility—they lay bare the hilarious absurdities of our muddled world.

Product Details:

Title: Punchtantra
Author: Gautam Bhatia
ISBN: 0140271163
ISBN-13: 9780140271164
Binding: Paperback
Publishing Date: 1998
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Number of Pages: 232