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A new colouring book lets you paint your way through India
An adult colouring book by IIT Bombay alumni will make you want to travel
An adult colouring book by IIT Bombay alumni will make you want to travel
Kohima. Check. Goa. Check. Jaipur. Check. If you’ve always wanted to travel across India, but lacked the motivation, here’s some inspiration.
Across India in 40 Doodles is a colouring book for grown-ups, featuring illustrations of tourist spots in 40 Indian cities.
The book is hand-drawn by illustrator Jeenal Patel (26), a graduate in animation from MIT Institute of Design, Pune. And it is conceptualised by Humming Whale, a product design firm founded by IIT Bombay alumni — Mirik Gogri and Ayush Jain.
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The book travels through popular cities like Agra and Srinagar, as well as offbeat ones like Bhuj, Puri, and Port Blair. There are also designs of truck art and inspirational quote pages. The illustrations cover monuments, food, landscapes, and popular personalities.
To select the motifs, the team pored through travel blogs. They also got in touch with locals to add to their collection of images and places. “The locals helped in identifying food and hang-out spots, along with popular phrases from the city. Once our first draft was ready, we showed it to some inhabitants of the city to ensure we did not miss out on popular places or cultural elements,” says Patel.
There is a local touch to the illustrations: The word ‘Mumbai’, for instance, is written on a train; while the letter ‘I’ in Delhi is depicted as the Qutub Minar; the letter ‘O’ in Kochi is a coconut (a staple in the region); and Itanagar is written in a brick-like font (as a reference to its famous Ita Fort).
While colouring books have become a rage, especially for their therapeutic value, the most common ones are nature-driven. How does this book compare? “Around India… revolves around the theme of Indian cities and travel, which is new. The book can be a collectible. For some, it might even serve as a travel wish list,” Jain hopes.
The ultimate aim of the book is to get people interested in travelling across India. “We want people to rediscover the beauty and diversity of our country. While all of us have places like Europe, Thailand, and USA on our wish lists, we do not explore India enough,” says Gogri.
Around India in 40 doodles is priced at Rs 599. Available at Crossword stores and on Amazon.in
