2014...

Taught at university

Moved to a new country

Explored new places

Set up a new house

Set up a new business

Made some great friends

Rediscovered some old ones

Studied social media

Learned how to paint

Learned accounting

Wrote and shared poetry

Cooked food I love

Ate stuff people wouldn't

Started Skyping regularly

Met a cousin after 6 years

Listened to stories about courage

Read many many books

Started singing again

Started writing songs again

Took loads of selfies

Overcame tough challenges

Swam in the Pacific

Fed a kangaroo

Drank a lot of wine

Travelled like crazy

Fell in love, again.

It has been a year of learning, friendships, strengths, abysmal lows and great highs, exploration and rediscovery.

Rickshawala: Wax crayon on paper

On a cold Kolkata morning, I took a cycle rickshaw. This is what my view was from the passenger seat: The driver's torso wrapped in a gamchchha (a loosely woven cloth that functions as a towel, a lungi and a turban).

Kolkata (Mercury)

I asked my grandfather to come up with a word to describe Kolkata and he said, "Paradox." I then asked a Bengali friend and he came up with "Mercury." That, inspires this poem:

Kolkata (Mercury)

A Sunday evening

in The City of Joy,

a man peddles

his many wares.

Boxes and bottles,

jars and pouches,

potions and tablets,

leaves and branches.

A wrinkled hand

with a painted nail

holds out a vial,

"Guess what I have."

I look closely:

A shiny liquid,

a dense liquid

"It's mercury!"

He smiles at me,

clutches the vial.

I follow his gaze,

a faraway gaze.

Buses, trams,

tempers, crowds,

dumps, fumes,

kites and crows.

Sweat and blood,

heat and vapour,

a million dreams,

crushed ambitions.

A city of paradoxes,

judged and measured,

of value and poison

like a vial of mercury.

- Eisha

Estuarine: Wax Crayons on Paper

Somewhere in the Namib Desert: Felt pens on paper

A mind too busy

Words and voices,

memories and noises,

a mind too busy,

a soul uneasy.

I rest my head,

toss and turn.

Sleep's a witch,

doesn't return.

I turn on the lamp,

watch its glow:

First a mild orange

then bright yellow.

Moonscape: Pencil and felt pens on paper

Somewhere...: Felt pens on paper

Mountainside: Acrylic on paper

The Lone Tree: Acrylic and oil pastel on paper

I tried acrylic for the first time and loved the results. My art teacher Gabriella Veidt-Weidmer then showed me how to mix wax pastel with diluted acrylic paint on paper. I loved the effect and tried on my own with oil pastels: