And finally a new video of Vibhu

Recent family photos

The Italian connection

(Image from carsandbikes.com )

Looking back at my childhood I find a surprising number of Italian icons, even if I didn't think of it like that back then:
- Vespa scooters (now making a comeback on Indian roads)
- Lambretta scooters. Interesting history here, with the Government of India buying the Italian company (or the Indian subsidiary). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambretta
- Fiat cars
- Bambino Vermicelli (used to make 'semia upma' in our community in Vizag. I am curious if semia upma existed independently in India or whether it happened just because of vermicelli (which, as an irrelevant aside, us kids mispronounced as 'vermicellini'). There is a story here, how did this particular variety of pasta make inroads into India way back when, when India was completely insular to foreign cuisine? The Wikipedia page seems to suggest that the Indian vermicelli existed independently. 'Bambino' is Italian for 'baby' and little did I know that I was speaking Italian when I was a little kid and referring to this particular food item)
- Bisleri soda. Interesting Bisleri, an Italian company was aquired by Ramesh Chauhan of Parle foods in 1967 to fill out the Parle product line with a soda. I don't know if Bisleri operated in Italy after that, but its a household word in India. Parle also launched Limca under the Bisleri brand, and for a while, until I did some reading for this blog, I thought Limca was also an Italian brand. It sounded Italian but apparently it was coined from 'Limbu ka'. This and other interesting trivia from this article : http://www.dnaindia.com/money/1173659/report-coca-cola-is-neglecting-beautiful-limca 

Are there any more prominent Italian brands that entered India successfully in the 80s or prior ?

Some idle historian should look into this and try to understand how this disproportionately large number of Italian brands and products became successful in India. Is there an Indian-Italian cultural affinity ?




This 1976 Lambretta was on sale on OLX.in (http://nashik.olx.in/sell-lambretta-li-1976-iid-80765154) 

bambinofood.com is the 'Bambino Vermicelli' company in India.

Mondrian for children

I sit with Vibhat now and then and do some painting. Once we copied a couple of paintings of Mondrian, the Dutch painter. I like Mondrian paintings and it occurred to me that the simplicity of the figures lend themselves well to painting by children. At the same time, there is power in the paintings, that is why he was respected. Mondrian paintings have stark simplicity and the colours stand out dramatically. After we finished our paintings (him the top one, me the bottom one) this impression of the strength of the paintings was reinforced for me. So perhaps copying Mondrian would be good for introducing children to painting ? The paintings are simple to do and if we as adults find his paintings get to the essence of colour, its quite likely they will have the same effect on children.

Interestingly, Mondrian designs have been also used in dresses and in shoes (see below).

Here is the original of the second painting above:

Much on Modrian can (obviously) be found on the web: The Wikipedia entry on him would be a good starting point, as always. And  this google search link will give a quick look at a lot of his paintings.

A Mondrian dress, by Yves St Laurent. (Image used, without permission, from metmuseum.org )

I have been getting interested in painting, while sitting with Vibhat. Here is a tree I did, copied from a painting on the web: