Every story and corresponding art, had us looking for more
Appu and Toto
Curated by Jane Borges, Heena Khandelwal, Nidhi Lodaya and Yusra Husain
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Just when you thought you’d seen enough pages on Instagram about couples, we’ve dug up one more for you. We fell in love with Appu and Toto for not just sharing cute couple moments and challenges that will be relatable to most people, but also because their digital illustrations supporting the anecdotes kept us smiling all through. Run by a digital creator couple who chooses to stay anonymous, the page, for us, puts fun in the mundane through unique doodle digital art. Their witty take on a couple’s trip versus an all-boys trip, to being there for each other when all friends have different plans for the weekend, made scrolling through fun. Every story and corresponding art, had us looking for more.
@appuandtoto/Instagram
Stop and ponder
A post from Meera Ganapathi’s Instagram page
Have you considered taking a good pause recently? If not for the physical one, you can head to writer and children’s book author Meera Ganapathi’s Instagram page where we, at least, stopped for a mental one. We took in her easy, yet meaningful words, that romanticise the humdrum of daily life and almost fell in love with the monotony of it all. One of our favourites is A Good Pause, which discusses the joy of stopping to listen to four year olds talk about the contents of their pockets.
@onemeerkat/Instagram
The artiste couple
Who doesn’t love portraits? If you want a dash of pop-up art to it, check out the Instagram account, @thatcouplewhodraws. It is run by Goa-based couple Amrit Kapoor and Richa Gupta. While Kapoor makes the black-and-white portraits, Richa adds colourful, usually geometrical, patterns to the background. This makes the portrait pop, as if it were three-dimensional. So far, the duo has sketched solo portraits as well as those of couples of all ages. We really liked their playful drawings of a sibling duo, and think these will work well as birthday presents. In a long distance relationship, and want to show your love in a non-creepy way? Worry not, they ship worldwide. Starting at Rs 15,000, the price varies as per the number of subjects and the medium of background.
@thatcouplewhodraws/Instagram
Hemp with SPF
Cote D’Azur
The Indo-French label River has come up with hemp-infused sunscreens under their sub-label, River Remedy. Slo-Summer comes in four variants: Torini (smells like butter cookies), Lake Como (lavender), San Sebastian (cucumber) and Cote D’Azur (pineapple). We slapped on the SPF 50 Cote D’Azur which is oil-based. The pineapple aroma is quite overpowering, but that could work well for those leaning towards fruity fragrances. Unlike cream-based sunscreens, this did make our skin look visibly oily, but was easy to apply with the spray bottle. The 100ml bottles have quirky, attractive packaging and are priced at Rs 885 each, which we thought was slightly on the higher side.
rivercandles.com
Gobhai makes it whole
The genius of Mehlli Gobhai is in the simple details that come together to create something grand. The late painter-illustrator, who passed away in 2018, left behind a vast oeuvre—children’s books filled with wonderment and joy. Two new posthumously released titles, The Body Book and The Tree Book (Talking Club, Speaking Tiger, Rs 499), are a priceless gift for your little one (it’s for kids aged two years and above). In the latter, he tells us the story of a tree, first by introducing us to the many elements that make it whole—a varied palette of leaves, a densely alive branch, a thick trunk, pretty flowers, tall grass, delicious fruits, a happy bird and its nest, tiny butterflies, a naughty squirrel and a slithering snail. What happens when you bring these tiny little parts together to create a complete picture? There is an unspoken delight in watching the magnificent image unfold. In The Body Book, he introduces us to the different parts of the body. The toes, the fingers, elbow, the neck, the lips, the eyes and hair (lots of it)—you catch a boy swimming in the end, using every part of him. Yes, the body can do so many things and the tree can make room for so many different lives—imagine Gobhai telling this to a child, one picture at a time.
Available at all bookstores
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