Minimalism : An attempt

Aloha folks!

The past two weeks have simply flown by and they have been exhausting! It's that time of the year again - the ever dreaded end of semester. I feel like I am in an episode of The Walking Dead, surrounded by sleep-deprived students desperately attempting to hand in their work in time. When we aren't laughing hysterically in a manner that might concern our parents, all we dream of are pillows. In all this hysteria, the thing that has helped me keep calm and composed (partially), is my amateur attempts at minimalist photography.

The concept of minimalism is to try and strip down everything to its most basic form, to make a composition that cannot be simplified anymore. This composition may be a photograph, a painting, an architectural structure, an outfit and even food. My earliest exposure to minimalism was through the study of minimalism in architecture. The works of architects like Tadao Ando and Luis Barragan just blew my mind! Ever since then, I have been exploring the works of artists who believe in this philosophy.

It might seem like an easy enough concept to grasp, but even a quick scan on the internet will show you that it's much more than blank walls and bare canvases. It's about simplicity, humility, spirituality, materials, order, repetition, the play of light and shadow. It's about the core essence of a composition, that one thing without which your creation ceases to exist. To find beauty in simplicity is much harder than one would anticipate, and it isn't something we do everyday. Minimalism can also be adopted in one's lifestyle, which I experienced briefly on a 2 week trip to Auroville in South India. That's an entirely separate post altogether!

Therefore, I decided to embark on this journey of finding beauty in the small things, in the everyday objects we probably wouldn't even give a second glance. So far, it has made me slow down, absorb and observe the little things going on around me and in general made me feel a lot calmer.

I adore Instagram and it is by far my favourite social networking app, and I have come across a lot of very inspiring and creative individuals through it. Some of my favourite minimalist photography accounts are:

Matt Crump

Connor Dwyer

Cimkedi

I think their photographs are stunning, and they each have their own very distinctive style. I am no expert when it comes to photography, but I genuinely admire their work, and want to work on my own photography skills. So I leave you now with a few attempts of my own! 

 I had a lot fun experimenting with this style and will probably attempt to get better! If you'd be interested to see more, head on over to my Instagram account @minnabee93, where I've shared more of what I've been upto the past few days. 

What have you guys been doing this week?

Have a great weekend! 

Music ǁ Keeping you alive while you work playlist

Hi guys! So this is a quick post I thought I'd share while taking a break from work.

Most often I find that I work better with some sort of music playing softly in the background while I work. Instead of being distracting, it helps me focus better than if I were in a silent room. I get waaaaay too distracted by all my muddled up thoughts if the room is silent. At the moment, the above songs serve me well, being soothing without ruining my concentration, and I don't get bored.

What are your techniques for better productivity?

What I learnt from one month of Zumba

Hi guys! 

Firstly I'd like to wish any Indian readers out there a very Happy Holi! 

Holi, also known as the Festival of Colours celebrates the arrival of spring, good harvests and the symbolic victory of good over evil. A quick Google search will be able to acquaint you with the entire history if you would like to read more :) It is quite a colourful affair, as the name suggests and usually involves throwing fistfuls of coloured powder and water balloons at unsuspecting strangers. Ok, maybe not strangers. Unsuspecting siblings and mums and dads and friends is a-okay. Don't throw red and green powder into strangers eyes, just don't.

Anyway, the only relation between Holi and the topic of today's blog post i.e. Zumba is that both involve considerable amounts of running and jumping and exercise in general without one realising it. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Zumba, it is essentially a form of mostly cardio exercise that incorporates dance and aerobics moves into a routine of about an hour. I think it originated in Latin America if I'm not mistaken.

So recently my uni decided to hold Zumba classes at our campus, and after much deliberation ( five minutes ), I signed up for them. For reasons unknown, ( waddup Killers reference! ) they were discontinued after a month, but here are the reasons I joined and was quite glad I did!

Exercise, obviously. I had been on a bit of a health spree in the holidays and thought it was the perfect continuation of my exercise routine into my college schedule.

Now, I said earlier that I signed up for the class instantly. What followed was a few days of gnawing at my nails wondering if I had made a huge mistake. This might seem like strange behaviour, but trust me when I say I'm quite the uncoordinated human being. I DO NOT dance in public, unless the intention is to be an awkward mess. Hence I was terrified at the thought of attempting to sway my hips from side to side, leave alone move more than two parts of my body simultaneously, in front of strangers. Or worse, in front of people I knew.

I knew it shouldn't be such a huge ordeal and that I should learn to take myself less seriously and this was one of my prime reasons for joining. If one of my resolutions this year was to get out of my comfort zone, I had to do it the right way. Not merely get out of the comfort zone that is my bed.

So I went for the first class with a bunch of my friends, open to anything that was to take place. If I liked it, great! If I didn't I could think of it as the first and last dance class I would ever take, and have a funny story to share in ten years after overcoming initial mortification.

Fortunately, it was the former. The class was great! I realised I wasn't the only awkward one and for most of the class everyone was just so busy in trying to keep up with the instructor you really did not have any time to look at who was tripping over their own feet and who was making professional ballerinas jealous. Before we knew it, the hour was up and everybody looked like they had had a great time! I knew I had.

And so the classes continued and it became easier to get into the routine every class. I got a wee bit fitter. And then mystical forces intervened and the classes got suspended abruptly.

What I was most happy about though was that I don't think I'll hesitate too much to join another class in the future now. It really wasn't that bad, voluntarily putting yourself in the position of public humiliation. Quite fun to be honest, after the first few moments of awkwardness. Unfortunately, my exercise routine has undergone a drastic decline since then. I think it's time to bring out the old 7-minute workout app again.

Have you guys ever tried Zumba? What is the fitness mantra that you swear by? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

Un-seasonal showers ( of the rain kind )

Mini illustration

I am writing this while wrapped up like a new-born baby in my Finding Nemo duvet, which I needed to pull out since my otherwise not so thick blanket did not suffice. Why did I have to do this in March, you may ask? Isn't March supposed to herald the arrival of mangoes, the sun and all things tropical, here in India? 

The answer to that, ladies and gentlemen, is unseasonal rain. It seems like the weather gods wanted to celebrate the last day of February with quite a gusto. Perhaps it's their favourite month? Or their least favourite, and this is their way of compensating for forgetting to add two (or three ) days to its length. If I were February, I'd need cheering up too. But then again I am quite the mopey person and maybe February has a more optmistic outlook to life.

Or you could take the scientific route and conclude that the heat wave we have been experiencing for the past week has led to a lot of water evaporation and culminated in said rains. I don't think I need to explain the water cycle here, but plain logic points to this being the most probable answer. 

Dang. I think I enjoyed picturing an old man who in my head resembles Ariel's ( from The Little Mermaid ) father handing over a neatly wrapped present to a baby February to stop him from bawling.

Oh my god. I just thought of another possibility. Maybe the rains are baby February sobbing because he DID NOT receive a neatly wrapped present!

I can think of plenty more but I think I should stop this pointless rant now, for fear of driving away the few readers that I do have. All I can say is, whatever the reason, the cooling rain definitely improved my weekend! Sitting by the window with a cup of hot tea, wrapped up in a  blanket cocoon is what I was born for. 

I also happened to catch up on a lot of blog binge-reading and have discovered a gazillion amazing blogs! I am eager to share them with you and will probably soon do a post regarding that.

I hope the unseasonal rain hasn't destroyed the mango crop for the year. I can't do without my daily mango fix in the summer :(

How has your weekend been? Has the weather been causing the apocalypse where you're from? Let me know in the comments!

Bonus question: What do you think was the real reason for the spring showers?

Have a great week!