Sculpt : The Conclusion

It started out as a simple conversation about sculpture and bringing it back as something that we do at Sandarbh. From that has emerged a Ganesha sculpture that now adorns the entrance to the workshop. The process as a whole was interesting - from prototypes made in soap to Ganpati himself emerging in the stone (You can read more about this journey here) I got the chance to have a word with Nikhil about his personal experience through the sculpting. Read on to know more...

" The starting of the process was the toughest part I feel. When I saw a picture of the stone that I would be carving, I didn't realise the scale of it. big or heavy it would be. It was really hard to get the stone in the jeep and bring it back to the workshop. Things started to get easier after that. This was the first time that I was using the angle grinder and it made carving a lot easier. My initial thought was that the whole process would be pretty fast, much faster than it actually ended up being. Pappu was very helpful throughout the whole experience. He was patient with me even as I found my groove of carving in stone. There was a point when I was facing issues with the proportions and I felt rather discouraged. Sai intervened and suggested that I reduce the sizes of the legs. As I worked with his advice, my confidence returned and I wanted to finish the sculpture, giving it my all. Once or twice the people walking by the workshop also stopped and complimented the work in progress. It felt really good. I'm very happy with the final product!"

-Mannat

A Glitch in Communication

In today’s day and age mobile phones and communication go hand in hand, and sometimes as one and the same. Coincidentally, last week this source of communication was down for both Sulu and Nayana. While one lost her phone, the other’s stopped working. It was in this week that we all realized how critical our phones are for communicating with each other- whether it is emails, phone calls or WhatsApp messages. Critical information is often no more than a call away and we constantly share drawings, details and cut-lists over WhatsApp. Communication is a major part of our work ideology at Sandarbh and not being able to effectively communicate with either of them actually ended up being more frustrating than any of us possibly imagined and we couldn’t wait for them to be back on their phones!

-Mannat 

Alec the Snake

When it comes to all things creepy and crawlie, I have a tendency to spot them no matter where they are hiding. I especially have a keen eye for lizards and seem to be the only one who notices the baby ones crawling around the office. And lizards really do freak me out. Every time I see one, my face pales as though I've been confronted by a ghost. But imagine a snake in the office - that seemed to freak everyone out!
Much like the Basilisk in Harry Potter, our dear little friend (who Harshitha decided should be called Alec) came in through one of the pipes and found a place for itself in the commode. Sai was the first to see it and took a while to actually tell anyone else. When he told Leena she went to check on it and tried to flush it down. One of her friends is a Snake Rescuer by profession and initially was quite confident that it couldn't be a snake. When Leena sent her a picture, her response was a true shocker - Yes, it was a snake and not just any snake, it was a Cobra!
Alec was quite scared though and had coiled itself so tightly that even a professional couldn't get it to budge. Now dealing with a frightened and aggressive snake is never a good idea and the decided course of action was to leave it alone. Only when it was calm enough could it move out of the commode.
For the most part we left Alec in peace, but every now and then someone would want to go take a sneak peek. As scared as I was, I hadn't seen the snake through all this. Sometime in the afternoon, I finally mustered up the courage to take a look and timidly followed behind Harshitha as she led the way. When she lifted the lid, we realised that the snake was no longer there. It was both a relief and an issue - the snake was no longer in the commode but now we didn't know where it had gone.
Alec definitely had us on our toes for the rest of the day!

-Mannat 

Birthday Bliss : Part 2

Yesterday was a great day and the night was even more exciting. We were at full strength with everyone from office showing up. I was rather apprehensive at first because I wanted everyone to have a nice time but it ended up being great fun. We ate, drank, danced and had a blast. At one point Sashank even tried to convince the DJ to play a Punjabi song specially for me.

This blog is a shout out to everyone at Sandarbh for making my birthday so special. Thanks guys!

-Mannat

Happy Happy Mannat-Day!

It’s been a busy day at work. I know Mannat must have brought in her birthday in eshtyle last night but the work day was hectic. 

But we did celebrate! Finally had the yummy chole she froze and got for all of us from home and so lunch was goooood! 

And now the real celebrations begin. We’re at the Bar Stock Exchange celebrating this awesome girl who brings such good energy and cheer to the studio! 

Mannat Suri, a very Happy Happy Birthday from all of us at Sandarbh! 

May you not have to go back to college and stay with us forever!! 😜 

Lots of love and stay as awesome!! 

Birthday Bliss

 I love birthdays, especially more so when it's my own. However, this was my first birthday away from home, the first time I didn't celebrate with family. Luckily my sister is studying here in Bangalore and she took me out for dinner last night. The yummy food was followed up by scrumptious cupcakes (a smart replacement for a regular cake!) With so much good food in me, I was barely able to stay up for the midnight wishes. The night passed and next morning I was at work. I was greeted with hugs and wishes and felt super special. Even my friends from back home (who couldn't make it to Bangalore for my birthday even though they really wanted to) made sure to make my day special by sending a lovely cake for me. If that was not enough lunch was planned to be the channa that I had brought from home. Generally some of us go out for lunch while others order in or bring food from home. Today we all are together, enjoying the channa and other food we had ordered with it. It was a great day with all of us looking for the to the celebrations in the evening. Stay tuned to know more about that...

-Mannat 

Workshop Experiences with Tanvi – Part 2

While Day 1 was all about Tanvi finding her groove at the workshop, Day 2 was much more to her. Keep reading and you’ll know what I mean…

“ Day 1 was a bit slow and challenging as we had to do all the markings of the steps on the granite but the next day I felt a lot more confident. It was a bit of an ‘I got this’ mindset that I started off the next day with. Since the profile of each step was slightly different it was’t really a module and so it took us some time to get all the steps cut. The third day was a bit of a challenge again – this time with the marble cutting. The edges were quite broken and the cutlist had to be adjusted more so than the granite also. Furthermore, the marble was rather brittle. Even with a good blade the edges kept chipping and we kind of struggled with it. Eventually we managed to get the pieces we needed and all in all it was quite a success. The pieces are all ready now and I can’t wait to see what they would look like once they’re fixed on site.”

-Mannat